“About to strip off and service a client?”
“Basically, yes. You seem like any guy, it’s hard to remember that under your shirt that fit body would drive any woman wild.”
“Catherine, I’m just a guy who got caught up in an act to make some cash. The cash is in this house and now I’m ready for the next part of my life.”
“With Phillipa?” she wanted to prove she had been listening.
“Felicity – I doubt it. Man, I fell hard for her.”
Catherine started asking questions about Erebus and the house. The more she learned the less she saw him as a body and more as a person. An older brother.
“She was amazing,” two cups of coffee later and Erebus hadn’t finished talking about Felicity, “Did you know she showed me this house and after only knowing her for a couple of minutes, I wanted to live here with her, a couple of dogs and kids. Just like that, bam, I had my whole life mapped out with her.”
“And now,” she sipped the coffee, “Mmmmm, this is good. I need to learn how to use one of those things.”
“Now, I own the house and lost the girl. But I’m living here now and can give her some time and then hopefully she will listen, give me a second chance.”
Catherine thought, whatever hope she had for a relationship with Erebus ended and any idea of showing up to her parent’s party to surprise her father and Derek were also fading.
“Yes,” she said.
“Okay, I’ve got the answer, what was the question again?”
“Yes, I’d love to hang here, and help out. I don’t want to be angry at my father any more but if I go home right now, he’ll guess something is wrong and he will ask questions that I don’t know how to answer. I also don’t want to go to the party on Sunday – I don’t want him or Derek to ...” again with the tears. Since when had she become a crier?
“Oh Catherine,” safe in his arms as he promised her, “You’ve had it rough, but it will be alright.”
Erebus
Catherine, or Cat as she preferred to be called, was true to her word. The princess act from the restaurant was replaced with a hard worker. The door frames were coming up a treat and he left her to go back upstairs to check out the floor boards in the wet areas.
If he could do the work himself, it would save a small fortune.
“Damn, fuck, damn,” he cried out. Cat ran up stairs to the bathroom.
“What the …” she saw the blood gashing from his hand and grabbed one of the towels to wrap around it.
“It’s fine,” he grimaced through clenched teeth.
“No, it’s not. Where’s the first aid kit?”
“I don’t have one.”
“That’s not even funny – every guy who has tools should own a first aid kit.”
“I didn’t have time.”
“Seriously?” she couldn’t help but laugh. “Now, do you have time?”
Blood kept gushing from the wound but she didn’t think it needed a visit to hospital.
Without saying anything, she tightened the towel around his hand, grabbed his car keys and he heard the car pull out of the driveway.
He pressed down harder to slow the bleeding – what was the worse thing that could happen if Cat went into town.
Kitty/Cat
Cat struggled at first with the gears, but had them mastered by the time she found the main street. Predictably, a pharmacy stood prominently on a corner. She smiled, only in small towns could you still park right outside a store. Trying to remember her first aid training from down at the local surf club, Cat filled her basket with antiseptic, bandages and gauze, grabbing other stuff on her way to the counter.
She threw the supplies in the ute and then went into the bakery to quickly pick up some something for lunch. Depending on his injury, if she came back with pies and rolls then they could keep working and snack through the meal breaks – as long as Erebus had an unlimited supply of coffee.
“Excuse me, is that your ute?” A woman with long brown hair tied back approached Cat as struggled putting the bags in the back.
“No,” stupid nosey people, “It belongs to a friend.”
“Are you staying at the white house?”
“I guess so, I’m staying with a friend for a few days and his house is white.”
“Oh, a friend.” Cat watched the woman’s eyes narrow as she started to draw conclusions – oh no!
“Are you Felicity?”
“Yes, and you must be my replacement.” Her shoulders drooped as she started to walk away before Cat grabbed her arm.
“It’s not like that – he told me all about you and why you left. He loves you and misses you. We are only friends. I needed to get out of town for a few days to escape stuff going on at home.”
Felicity motioned towards the bandages on the seat. “What’s with those. Are you playing nurse for him tonight? Are you one of his playthings.” The face and voice full of distain.
“No! He was ripping up boards and opened up his hand on an old nail. I’m going back to clean him up and bandage it the best I can.”
“How nice for you, I’m sure he will think of 101 positions to thank you in.”
Cat took offence. Who the hell did she think she was, “You can think what you like, but if you really cared anything for him, or at least half as much as he cares about you, then you would open your bloody eyes and see him for the man he is rather than judge him like the stuck up bitch you are.”
Cat pushed Felicity out of the way and started the engine. Damn, she couldn’t leave things like this. She owed Erebus to at least try on his behalf. “Felicity,” she called until the woman turned around, “I’m sorry. You don’t know me, but remember that you know him. He’s at the house for a few days. He would love to see you.”
She drove off, annoyed with herself for blowing up at the Felicity – she would react the same if she saw another woman in her ex-boyfriend’s car.
At least she gave Felicity something to think about.
If whispers were wishes
Felicity
Felicity stood on the pavement for minutes after Erebus’ ute pulled away. She wanted desperately to believe the girl – on both counts. One, that Erebus wasn’t sleeping with her, and two that Erebus still loved her.
Loved her.
He said those words to her and she tried to blot them from her memory. Forced herself to put aside all thoughts and memories.
Now hearing a stranger say Erebus loved her. What did that mean? How could he love her when he hid a whole life from her.
She returned to her own car, sitting in the front seat with yet another love song blaring. Her current music of choice.
The admission she didn’t want to face became blindingly clear. He didn’t tell her because he didn’t want to lose her. When he did, she punished him for being honest, by pushing him from her life, ignoring his calls and texts. Proving he should have kept lying.
“Sonia, can I come over.” Only one friend knew most of the truth.
“Here,” Sonia handed her a cup of tea as they sat on the back patio. “It’s actually good to be the one hearing about your love life for once.”
“Why, because my love life has been so boring.”
“Try, non-existent!” Sonia laughed. “You were always the good girl and about the only one of us that didn’t have a wild time.”
“Hard to go wild when I had a fiancé,” she reminded Sonia. “Then dad got sick and needed me.”
“So, this Erebus.”
“Yeah.”
“What was he to you, really.”
How could she explain, even to her best friend?
He opened her eyes and her body to a new world. The way he touched her, every part of her wanted more. When she was with him, she felt as if she was the only woman in the world ever to feel that way about a man – the only woman ever to feel as if she could truly die if he didn’t enter her and take her in the most manly of ways.
“He was …” she tried to find the
words.
To hear he used sex for pleasure and profit not only shocked, but embarrassed her. How could a man like him, probably used to women experienced and worldly, ever be satisfied with her. He would be better suited to the young buxom blonde who was staying with him.
“Everything. He was everything.”
How did they know each other and why would he have told her things he hid from Felicity! Felicity blushed – what if they came as a package deal! Images of his hands taking control of those breasts and certainly the girl seemed to know how to work her body even when clothed in an old shirt.
Oh, no, she recognized the shirt. The blonde was wearing Erebus’ shirt and staying in Erebus’ house. How could she be so blind.
He moved on with a girl who wouldn’t be shocked at his lifestyle – more likely she would join in.
It wasn’t fair, she fell in love with the man behind the mask or whatever other strange sex games he liked to play.
She loved him and only walked away in shock. Whenever she thought back to the way she scratched his back in the throws of their passion, she realized she stayed away from Erebus because her sexuality scared her and she thought if she allowed him to remain in her life, he would take her places she would want to but feared to go.
“He was everything, but it’s over,” she sobbed until she could cry no more.
Erebus
One day turned into one week that quickly turned into two weeks. Cat contacted her parents and told them she was staying out of town with a friend. They didn’t believe their party princess was helping to renovate a house until she showed them video and her brother came up to check things out before heading off on another of his charity travels.
“What sort of name is Erebus?” her brother, Lucas, asked as he was packing up to leave.
“Mine.”
“Man of mystery. We didn’t know you existed until Cat turned up here.”
“She’s a friend.”
“Cat’s always had a strange taste in friends.”
“I’ve been called worse than strange.”
Cat interrupted the interrogation. It was hard to remember her as anyone other than the bubbly, confident girl who could handle a sander as expertly as she could hammer a nail. Without breaking a fingernail!
“Kitty cat, I’ll miss you,” Erebus and Cat shared a wink at her family nick name.
“One day you’ll realize I’ve outgrown the Kitty.”
“You’ll always be my kid sis. I know that this whole mum and dad thing is messed up and you got caught in the middle of it.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Erebus stepped in, “There’s an invisible list of things we don’t talk about on the fridge. That’s on the top.”
He was quite prepared to stare the brother down if it meant protecting Cat. “She’s safe here with me.”
The brother offered his hand, “Don’t you hurt her.”
“I think I’ve already proven I’d risk a lot to protect her.”
“That’s what she told me, but she was scarce on the details.”
“Need to know basis, and the lady doesn’t want you to know.”
Never to be friends, but at least the brother knew Cat was safe and her parents stopped pressuring her to go home.
With three of them working, the walls were now stripped of the awful wallpaper and patched, ready for painting. The doorframes were returned to their natural cedar and begging to be stained.
Any time he needed supplies, Cat offered to drive into town so he could keep working. In truth, he avoided any opportunity to run into Felicity or her friends. Cat told him about her own run in at the pharmacy. If he saw Felicity - how could he explain they were close friends – more like brother and sister. Especially if Felicity asked how they met. He didn’t want to lie, but the truth would hurt her everyone.
Better for everyone if he focused on the house and kept his distance.
“You owe me a night out!” Cat cajoled. “I’ve been a very good girl, and I deserve to let my hair down and have one night of fun.”
“You know I can’t, I’ll take you out for the biggest steak you can eat when we get back to the city.”
“Not fair, Erebus – you kept me trapped here as your slave. I demand a cold beer – unless you’re ashamed of me.”
“I would love to take you out and there is no way I would be ashamed to be seen with you.”
She pouted, “Then prove it.”
“I’m not ready to face the town yet. You don’t understand, small towns people know or at least think they know everything. Someone will have seen us here and told someone else, and if we go out together then someone will tell Felicity.”
“They probably already have,” she reasoned. “If we go out as friends then all they can talk about is how we’re friends. If she asks about us no one will have seen us holding hands or kissing. The longer we stay hidden away, the worse it could be looking.”
“I want to see her.”
“I know,” she knew him so well, “If you won’t go into town with me, at least drop me off and I can flirt a little, get my mojo back and have some fun. I’ll call you when I’m ready to come home.”
He dropped her at the same pub Felicity took him to that first night. Every part of him wanted to go inside and cook a steak, recreate their first date. Or at least make sure Cat was alright. But, as she said – it had been a while since she had cut lose and he’d only cramp her style.
Still, he couldn’t face going straight home to the empty house. Food would be a pleasant distraction, so he dropped into the local pizza restaurant.
“A large, meat-lovers with extra cheese,” he ordered and sat down to wait.
Waiting gave him time to think. In the two weeks, even though Cat assured him she told Felicity he still loved her, there was no visit or response to his calls. Clearly, she wanted to pretend what they had either never happened or was over. Perhaps in her mind, he never existed. Unfortunately, he still dreamt of her and thought he could still smell her perfume in the house.
Working on the house gave him clarity, a purpose. In his spare time, he arranged a couple of laboring jobs in local towns. Not a lot of money, but enough to put food on the table and pay the electricity bills. Once the house was finished, he’d look around for something more permanent.
He knew what living with Cat appeared from the outside. From the beginning it was far too late for them. They were more like brother and sister and he would always look out for her, protect her even from herself. They even celebrated when Cat admitted whatever she once felt for him was gone. These two weeks had healed her in so many ways.
“Hi, how is the house going?” Felicity’s friend, the real estate agent sat down beside him. Lost in thought, he hadn’t even noticed she entered the restaurant. No opportunity to hide.
“Hey Sonia, it’s a lot more work than I expected, but nothing I can’t handle.”
“Good, I’m glad you are fixing it up. Will you stay in town after you are finished?”
Erebus laughed, “Direct to the point, aren’t you. Are you asking on behalf of another commission or on behalf of Felicity?”
Sonia’s face darkened, “Whatever you did to Felicity, I wish you would fix it.”
“Why, what’s wrong with her?”
“What would you care – I’ve never seen her fall for anyone before, one day she is happy and the next day she’s a mess.”
“How bad,” he had no right to ask, but still he couldn’t stop caring.
“Bad.”
“Sonia, please,” as his pizza order was called, Erebus needed to finish their conversation, “Let me buy you a drink, coffee, anything – I need to know how she is and if there is anything I can do to make things right with her.”
He waited while Sonia sized him up. She had been friends with Felicity almost all their lives. If Felicity shared anything about their break up it would be with Sonia. If anyone could shed light on how to win her back, again it would be
Sonia.
“What’s with the blonde you’re living with.” There it was, his living arrangement had been noticed and no one was buying the “just friends” excuse.
“A friend from the city,” he shrugged, “There was a rough night and she needed to get away from everyone and everything to get her head back together.”
“She’s very pretty.”
Erebus smiled and nodded, “That’s kind of what got her into the mess. She was exploring herself and things got out of hand. I bought her here to chill and she’s been helping out on the house – her brother came down last weekend to make sure things were on the up and up.”
“I heard,” Sonia shook her head, still unconvinced.
“Look, Sonia,” after living a lie for so long, now he couldn’t stop telling the truth, “If sending Catherine away would win me back Felicity, I wish I could say I would. The girl needed somewhere safe and despite knowing what it looks like, and even though you may think the worse of the situation and me, I wouldn’t be the type of man that Felicity should love if I can throw someone on the street.”
He made his pitch, and she heard him out. With his pizza in hand, there was no reason for him to hang around.
“So where’s the blonde bombshell tonight?” Sonia called out as he opened the door.
“I dropped her off at the pub, she wanted to get out and have some fun. I’ll pick her up later when she gives me a call.”
“What if she doesn’t come home tonight? Will you care?”
Erebus shook his head, “She’s a big girl and her head is in a much better place. If she doesn’t come home tonight, I hope she has fun.”
“Damn,” he slammed the ute door. Sonia didn’t try and stop him or want to know more about his relationship with Felicity. If she didn’t care, then obviously neither did Felicity.
The house felt empty without either Felicity or Cat inside. As beautiful as they had made it, the house needed to be filled with voices and laughter – and love.
Who is Erebus: Bad Boy meets Good Girl romance (Bad Boys & Good Men Book 4) Page 10
