Suspended: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance
Page 21
“Whaaaaat?” Kamala says, pulling out a long black string, frowning and giggling at the same time.
I look in the glove compartment and find the same kind of black string, with a little circle of fabric attached. “What in the— Oh my god.” I burst out laughing, then Kamala does too, because while we were searching, Serge has put on an eye patch and he looks ridiculous.
“You’re silly, Daddy,” Kamala giggles, tying the eyepatch around her head. I see Serge freeze for just a moment — that’s the first time she’s called him that as far as I know. Maybe she was saving it for the adoption to go through. Then he grins at me, his eyes sparkling. I squeeze his hand and smile back.
She’s not the only one that’ll be calling him Daddy soon. Just this morning I took a test that came back with a double line. I told Serge right away, of course, but we’re not telling Kamala yet. We didn’t want to take away from her big day. But I already know how she’s going to react, because she’s already been asking if she’s going to have siblings in her new family. All her other families had siblings. But for now, we’ve avoided those talks by pointing out how cool it’ll be to be the only kid for a little while.
“Where are you taking us, Captain?” I ask.
“He’s not a Captain, he’s a General!” Kamala giggles.
“Yarr, but today, I be a Captain,” Serge says. “A pirate Captain.”
“Should you really be driving with that eyepatch on?” I ask.
“Buzzkill,” he says, flipping it up with a sideways grin.
“But really, where are we going?” I ask.
“Remember when we saw that place online that’s a restaurant inside a big pirate ship? And they do like a dinner theater thing?”
“Pirate’s Dinner Adventure?”
“PIRATES?” Kamala shrieks. She’s been going through a phase. We took her to Disneyland a couple of months ago after we got married and she met Jack Sparrow and fell in love. I’m pretty sure it’s her first crush, and since my first crush was Kurt Cobain I know a thing or two about liking wild older men.
“Did you really?” I ask, kind of surprised he even remembered it. It came up in an article I was looking at of kid-friendly places to go. Most people when they’re parents have years to kind of learn that stuff organically, but we needed a crash course and all the help we could get.
He grins. “Made the reservation two months ago.”
“And you kept it a secret all this time?”
“You really didn’t notice? I kept dropping hints.”
“You were talking about preventing scurvy a lot, but I thought you’d watched another weird Netflix documentary.”
He laughs. “Yo ho, yo ho—”
“A pirate’s life for ME!” Kamala joins.
We sing pretty much the whole drive, turning normal songs into pirate songs however we can just to make Kamala laugh. At the place, they take our picture and give us a souvenir and we watch a fantastic show, eating a scrumptious meal. Kamala feels super grown up with her Shirley Temple and when the pirates need a volunteer, they don’t waste any time singling her out of the crowd.
I shoot Serge a questioning look and he shrugs innocently.
“God, I love you,” I groan. “You’re going to be such an amazing Dad.”
“You know she’s already asking if we’re going to adopt more kids,” he says, chuckling under his breath. The pirate on stage hands Kamala a prop sword and is giving her a dueling lesson. She’s loving every minute of it, looking at us and grinning as she swipes the sword.
“Well?” I ask, nudging him. “What do you say, General? Think we should have a whole platoon?”
He grins. “I’m pretty sure if I had my way we’d end up with about a dozen kids, so you might not want to leave it up to me.”
My eyes go wide, but I think about the life already growing inside of me and it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. “Let’s see how we do with the two… but I’m not opposed.”
His arm drapes over my shoulders and he kisses the side of my head. “I was thinking we could stop by the center after this.”
“Joey wouldn’t forgive you if you didn’t.”
He laughs. “You’re probably right.”
We cheer Kamala on as she fends off a horde of enemy soldiers and then hoists the Jolly Roger on their ship. She tries to negotiate with the poor actor about whether or not she can keep the sword but Serge finally convinces her to give it back.
“I’m pretty sure I saw one just like it in the gift shop,” I whisper.
She sleeps half the drive back home, but when we’re getting close to our exit she wakes up, yawning and rubbing at her eyes.
“Are we going home?” she asks.
“Is there somewhere else you’d rather go?” I ask.
“Maybe to go see some friends or something?” adds Serge.
She narrows her eyes, suspicious of us and too smart to be fooled. “Are we going to the center?”
“Busted,” Serge laughs. He doesn’t work there full time anymore, and neither of us really spends as many hours there as we’d like, but we still try to drop in a couple of times a week, teach a class, hang out, bring pizzas, whatever we can. It’s our family, after all.
“You know, there’s a couple of kids there that could use good families,” Kamala says, a smile in her voice.
“What did I tell you?” Serge says, an exasperated look sent my way.
I just laugh. “But I thought you were looking forward to being the only kid in the house. More ice cream for you, remember?”
“Yeah… But maybe later… I don’t mind sharing.”
“We’ll definitely consider it,” Serge promises, but I know we’ve already decided and Kamala’s probably going to end up with more siblings than she knows what to do with. And it’s going to be crazy and wild and unbelievably chaotic, but in a good way. Not in the way my life used to be crazy and wild and chaotic. Not anymore. Not since I found Serge, and sobriety, and Kamala. Even my relationship with my mom is miles better and Serge’s mom already loves doting on Kamala. Poor kid’s gonna end up with grandma overload if we’re not careful.
It’s crazy how quickly your whole life can turn around. I thought that getting assigned community service at this center was the end of the world. I thought Serge was a complete asshole, and I thought I hated kids.
Guess I was just wrong about everything.
Well, not everything. Serge is still a bit of an ass sometimes, but he’s mine… and I’m never giving him up.
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Copyright © 2017 Jess Bentley
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Prologue
Part One
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Part Two
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Part Three
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Pierce
Arie
Part Four
Arie
Epilogue
Forbidden Prince
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Rory vs. Rockstar
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Jess Bentley
Prologue
Pierce
New York City, 2014
The water sluices over my skin, hot and steaming. Like it’s purifying me. Taking me away from what happened at the party.
Fists flying, bone crunching against cartilage. My brother’s face, bleeding. Not by my hand — or I don’t think so, anyway. I can’t remember. It all fades when I think about it too hard. I didn’t even want to be there, in the fluorescent lit hotel ballroom, even though it was a party for my college graduation. For my new job at Cochran Securities. None of it seemed like an accomplishment, especially not the job. I’m Pierce Cochran after all, and it’s not exactly surprising that my father hired me at his firm the second I got out of school.
Everyone I loved was there. My mom, my dad. My younger brother, Logan, who got out on leave for this very occasion. And Arie. Beautiful Arie. Teasing lips and sweet, wide eyes. She was the only one I wanted to see.
The blood runs through my fingers.
When I walked in the room, I wished I was anywhere else. I set my own ass up for all this bullshit. The fight, the harsh words. The embarrassment. If I had to guess, this is why I’m currently standing in the shower of my hotel room, washing blood from my fists.
My hands ache. My shoulder muscles are in knots.
I close my eyes and lean my head against the shower wall. It’s cool against my throbbing head. I try to piece together the events of the night. But it’s all smoke and haze, slipping through my fingers like the red blood and water of the shower.
There was whiskey, then more whiskey, and gin with Dad. The final encore was a trio of vodka tonics. That really fucking finished me off. The alcohol took things from reasonable to unreasonable. And Arie. I kept staring at her. Watching her. Going over the supple lines of her body in my mind. I went to her and tilted her head towards mine, telling her that tonight was the night. It needed to be the night. But we fought, like we always do about this one damn thing. She’s been saving herself for marriage, and I’ve been patiently waiting for almost ten years for her to give it up. I think I stalked off to play pool with Logan when she told me ‘no,’ yet again.
Pool with Logan. Lining up my shot and trying to get just the right spin, then whiffing royally thanks to my drunken vision. Logan snickers, then takes aim, sinking three balls with a satisfied grin. He’s kicking my ass, and I hate losing to anyone, let alone my little brother.
Then I look up and see Arie slowly slipping off her sweater, exposing her smooth, glowing shoulders, and the curve of her firm breasts under a thin blue sundress. She’s driving me crazy, making it impossible for me to focus on the damn game. She looks at me with a stare so dirty, I could have fucked her right then and there; I imagine filling her perfect little mouth with my thick cock.
And seconds before, she’s telling me we were waiting. Still waiting.
She does this to me, especially when she’s been drinking. She teases me, even though she has no intention of following through. She makes me want to just… throw her down on this pool table and fuck her in front of everyone. And yes, I know just how messed up that is.
Everything that happened after that is a blur of fists flying and breaking glass.
Two frat boys I don’t recognize saunter into the hotel bar where we are having my party. They’re definitely not with us; they look like they’re on vacation from Iowa, or another flyover state. They definitely aren’t from the city.
The heat of the water burns against my broken, bruised skin, but it eases some of the pain in my throbbing muscles. I watch as blood pools at my feet, and my mind starts to put the pieces of the puzzle back together.
Did I hit them first, or did they hit me?
The guys walk right up to Arie, and they start chatting her up. One pushes a lock of her curly black hair out of her face, while the other runs a finger down the bare skin of her arm. My vision starts to go cloudy with rage.
I set my cue down on the side of the table and take a step in their direction.
Logan puts a hand on my arm. He tells me to stop and take a breath, to think through what I’m about to do, but when I lock eyes with Arie, I know there is no going back. Then I see one of the frat guys reach down and grab her ass.
And I see red.
The last thing I remember before waking up on my hotel bed is the sound my fist made when it connected with the taller kid’s jaw.
Even without clear memories, my body bears its share of physical reminders of what happened. My abdomen and chest are covered in bruises, and I can feel more on my back from where I was probably sucker-punched in the kidneys. I begrudgingly turn off the water, and grab one of the plush hotel towels to dry my hair. When I brush the towel against my head, it hurts, and when I pull the towel away, it’s stained with blood. I reach up and find shards of glass in my hair, as if a beer bottle were broken over the top of my head.
I probably had that coming.
I walk out of the bathroom naked, with every intention of just collapsing back into bed and dealing with my pissed off family in the morning.
But then I freeze.
Arie is swathed across my bed, asleep, her little blue sundress creeping up her beautiful thighs. One glance at her like that and I’m already thinking about all the different ways I could fuck her. I don’t know if that was her intention, but now it’s all I can think about. A soft groan escapes my lips, and Arie opens her eyes, smiles mischievously, and stretches seductively.
“Hey, baby,” she whispers sleepily as she brushes her hair away from her face. I can’t stop staring at the way her filmy dress hugs her curves in all the right places, the way tendrils of her hair fall onto the slope of her shoulders, against the line of her neck. My defenses are collapsing.
“Shit, Arie,” I mutter. My teeth are clenched tight.
I don’t need this tonight. My body is aching, and I know I’ve made some stupid decisions my father will make me pay for tomorrow. But as I walk up to Arie, as I tower over her and see the way her small form is shadowed in my massive frame, I feel myself getting hard. My cock throbs. I reach out and touch the curve of her cheek, soft and warm. She leans into me.
“Pierce,” she says in a hushed voice. Her eyes sparkle, but we’re both on our way to sober right now. There’s something different about t
his time.
Goddamnit. I’m drawn into her cool blue gaze, and I have to struggle with my self-control not to just grab her, throw her down, and fuck her senseless. Arie raises an eyebrow in a clear effort to appear seductive, but she begins to blush, and she breaks eye contact with me out of nerves. Somehow, this is even hotter. Even the makeup she is wearing can’t hide her shyness, her doubt, the fact that she doesn’t know if she’s making the right decision.
It’s all turning me on so much, I think I’m going to lose my mind.
“What are you doing in here, Arie? This isn’t a good idea if we’re just going to end up in the same place we always do,” I growl. I know I’m being a bit of a dick, but this hasn’t exactly been my night and I’d rather just go to sleep if she’s going to leave anyway. But suddenly, she reaches up and grabs my hand.