by S. Ann Cole
Andrew was charged with first-degree kidnapping and false imprisonment, his men with aiding and abetting. They also contacted the department in San Francisco, had two-faced Mike picked up from the hotel. He, too, would receive aiding and abetting charges. I was, however, advised to take out a restraining order, as it is likely Andrew will get out on bail with a few phone calls. Next, I am to get a lawyer and gear up for trials.
Wasting no more time, we then boarded the jet back to San Francisco, where the men filled me in on Qwesie’s mind-blowing connection to Andrew—or Drew James, which I’m told is his real name—while Noah babied me, sulked, growled at no one in particular, and then babied me some more.
Hearing Qwesie’s side filled in the blanks on what Andrew told me about his mother in the car. They also explained the pilot’s interference. Once he got the call from Qwesie and found out I was abducted, he got a car and tailed us so it would be easier for them to get to me once they landed. At the last minute, he went against Noah’s orders and called the cops and interfered. I’m not sure what Noah and Muscles had planned for Andrew, but I’m glad the pilot called the cops. The cleaner this ends, the better.
By the time we landed in SF and got back to the hotel, I was so numb, so out of it, that I climbed right into bed, as is, and fell instantly asleep. I can’t remember feeling Noah getting in with me. Was probably too numb.
He didn’t talk much after we boarded the jet last night. Just watched me mostly, stayed close, hugged me and kissed my temple at five-minute intervals. Qwesie and Muscles did all the talking, the filling in. And I never asked what was on his mind, or how he felt. My head not being in the right place.
Now, though, I wish I’d rolled over and found him right here, never minding that it’s almost three in the afternoon.
A familiar voice has me tearing my arm from over my eyes and frowning up at the ceiling. Is that Gloriel?
When did she get here?
With this ‘motivating’ reason to get out of bed, I plod to the bathroom to clean the stink from my mouth and the oil from my skin, wincing each time I try to raise my hand, my bruised ribs complaining each time I bend.
I pad from the room in a white undershirt and underpants, both belonging to Noah.
Out in the living area of my suite lounges Muscles, Kiera, Qwesie, and Gloriel.
“Glori—” I don’t get to finish as Kiera surges up and barrels into me, almost knocking me flat on the ground, my ribs grumbling at the disturbance.
“I knew it!” she cried into my hair. “I knew you’d never just up and leave me again. And that asshat jerkwad man of yours made me believe he wasn’t going after you. They had to drug me to shut me up.”
My eyebrows kiss the ceiling as I unravel from her hug and push back a little to see her face. “They drugged you?”
“I didn’t drug her,” Muscles immediately defends. “I just slipped a Xanax in her juice to calm her down.”
Peering around Kiera to glare at him, I ask, “And how is that not drugging?”
His lips form a smirk as he slips his hands in his pockets. “Because Xanax was not the only thing I slipped her to keep quiet.”
My eyes moves back to Kiera.
She rolls hers.
Grinning, I ask her, “Then what are you complaining about, mi amiga?”
“I wasn’t complaining!” she refutes. “I was just…telling you what happened?”
“Yeah, but you left out the best part.” My gaze cuts to Muscles, and I wink. “You ever wanna calm me down, Black Goliath, I’ll have absolutely no objection to your method. Minus the Xanax, of course. Just the raw part.”
Muscles dips his head and shakes it, but I see the flash of teeth.
Qwesie, who’s sitting on the floor with his back at the sofa, biting into a cheeseburger, chuckles. “Nice to have you, and your mouth, back, Lotty.”
I raise a brow at him. “Would you have rather me back without it?”
“Oh no, no, no, luv,” he answers quickly, setting his burger down on the tray beside him. “I can think of a thousand ways I could do well with your mouth in my life.” He pats his lap. “Come over here and sit on daddy’s lap. Let me tell you all the ways…”
“Lord help us, but can’t you people have a conversation without turning everything into a sexual innuendo?” Gloriel snaps at us. “What are you, sophomores?”
“Actually,” Kiera replies, hand waving to indicate her and me, “we are. I don’t know what their excuses are, though.”
I’m already moving across the room to encase Gloriel in a hug, holding her a little longer and a little tighter than I intend to. It feels so good. The hug I wish I could’ve given Mom before she left me. It’s never until you’ve almost lost everything, that you begin to appreciate all the little things. Like hugs and laughter. All the things I’ve been rejecting before, I want them now. Every bit. Every second, every minute, every hour of life, is precious. An unmerited gift. Never waste it. Never reject the kindness from others. Better to have genuine benevolence than pride. Pride gets you into trouble, kindness gets you out of it.
Gloriel is the one to break the embrace, but I’m not ready to lose her touch, so I just shift to the side, looping an arm around her waist, resting my head on her shoulder. “Noah didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“That’s because I didn’t tell him I was coming” she clarifies, not pulling away, understanding that I just need her in that moment. “I got here before you guys did, actually. I have some friends I checked in on.”
“Sarah?” I guess. Dad’s first wife.
She nods as confirmation and then tugs me back in front of her, holding my face. “Noah told me what happened. But don’t worry. I’ve already called my lawyer. He’ll help you. He’s going to make sure that filth gets at least a few years in jail. Let him know what abuse and imprisonment feels like. We’ll take care of you.”
I believe she will. “Thank you.”
Gloriel’s eyes widen a fraction, but then her shoulders visibly relax. I know why: It’s the first I’ve ever just accepted her help without putting up a fight first. And it’s obvious she was expecting one. Honest to God, though, I’m tired of fighting. If I’m going to fight, it will be over something that deserves me fighting. Not a proponent offering me help and support.
“Good.” She pats my cheek and hauls me in for another hug. “Now that it’s your twentieth birthday, there’s something I need to talk to you and my son about.”
Oh Jesus. Not this again. Did she fly all the way here to spy on us? To make sure Noah and me aren’t doing the hokey pokey?
Love her, but this is my cue to start backing up. “Where is he by the way?”
“Left about three hours ago to hit the gym,” Muscles supplies.
“Three hours?!” Qwesie exclaims. “What’s he trying to build? A second chest?”
“Keep stuffing your face with crap food like that,” I point at him, sneakily inching away from Gloriel, “and you’ll end up with a second gut.”
Skipping off to the bedroom, Kiera behind me, I change into leggings, tank top, and sneakers.
“You’re seriously going down to the gym without eating anything after sleeping through half the day?” she asks, brows up high. “You crazy woman, you’ll pass out.”
“He’ll catch me.”
Leaning back on the wall by the door, she watches me get dressed. “You’re taking what happened a lot better than he’s taking it.”
That’s because what happened last night was just a mild version of what’s happened to me throughout my time with Andrew. All I walked away with last night is a scarred arm and bruised ribs. On a normal day with Andrew, I walked away with a lot worse than that. I’m just glad it’s over. Or at least, almost over.
I’m curious. “How’s he taking it?
“Well, he’s been reticent. Moody, snappy, pensive. Unlike himself.”
“Those aren’t unusual reactions.” I shrug. “I’d be worried if he wasn’t. Shows he gives a d
amn.”
Kiera laughs. “I’m fairly certain he gives more than a damn. A few damns, at least. Maybe even a billion.”
Pausing, I inhale deeply, then lock eyes with her. “I know I’m young and the future is unpredictable and all that, but, I feel…I feel like it ends with him.”
“You know romance and talk of love makes my skin crawl…” My BFF’s face softens, eyes smiling. “But I believe so, too, bestie.”
The hotel gym is quiet at this time and much too chilly for a place of sweat. There are a handful of people getting their sweat on, but I clock Noah the second I push through the doors.
He’s going at max-speed on a treadmill, drops of sweat drizzling like rain, a troubled expression owning his face.
I navigate around the various machines to the line of treadmills. Floor-to-ceiling mirrors run along the wall, so he spots me halfway there.
Stepping onto the empty treadmill next to his, I throw my hand towel over the handle, program it to automatic for an hour, and begin running alongside him.
We exchange looks in the mirror, but no words. It doesn’t matter. I just feel safe and content being near him. Like everything will be all right forever.
An hour later, sweating and feeling as if I’m about to faint from lack of sustenance, I step off the treadmill, grab the towel and wipe my sweat.
Noah continues beating at it, hard stare on me.
Throwing the towel around my neck, I walk over the water-cooler to hydrate myself. Once I feel a little less like I’m about to collapse, I trek back to treadmills. Stop at Noah’s. Prop my elbow on the handle, raising my head, my eyes, to look up at him. “Do you mind me asking what you’re running from, Mr. Van Der Wells?”
Turbulent green eyes scan my face for one heartbeat, two heartbeats, three, before he answers, hoarse and ragged, “You.”
“After going through all that trouble to find me last night,” I rejoin, tipping my head to the side. “Now you’re running from me? Hmm. Well, you’re not stupid at all.”
Right before my eyes, I see the distress seep from him, freeing him, and he stares at me even longer than three heartbeats. “You’re okay.”
It’s not a question. It appears the root of his anxiety was me.
“Of course, I’m okay,” I say with a forced eye roll, to put him at ease, to kill his worry about me. “Last night was ‘Three Hours in the Life of Andrew & Lotty - Lite.’ That’s the least of my nightmares with that dude. Plus, I kicked his ass, made him bleed, and couldn’t speak, so…Yeah, babe, I’m peachy.” I frown. “My only suggestion is that you start screening your security team. It’s crazy having your own securities colluding with your enemies.”
“I called in this morning,” he tells me. “Turns out Mike’s also related to your ex, on the mother’s side of the family. Feels his loyalty was to his blood.”
“Well, I hope his blood takes care of him,” I say bitterly. “Because his bodyguard career is o-v-e-r. Idiot.”
“You’re okay,” Noah observes once more.
“And you’re not.” I gesture up and down the length of his body, and then at the treadmill. “You’ve been in here how many hours? Four?”
“Four and a half.”
Letting out an annoyed breath, I tip up and stretch across the machine to stop it. At this, he shoots me an admonishing look, but I ignore it. “Look if you’re gonna run away from me, do it now or forever hold your peace. Otherwise, I need your undivided attention, some mollycoddling, some food, and some really, really hot sex. I get you need to sweat it out, but you can sweat it out giving me doggy style, boss man.”
One corner of his lip twitches as he steps down from the treadmill, gaze fixed on me. “You’re so okay.”
And then his arm snakes out and loops around my waist, reeling me in. The flush of his soaking wet body against mine, his damp hair flopping down on his forehead, the groove of teeth marks on his lower lip that tells he’d been biting down on it, the fire in his eyes…is everything. He’s everything.
“I’m sorry,” he breathes.
“For what?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t pay more attention to Mike. I’m sorry for letting you go with him instead of taking you myself. I’m sorry that your mother was a bitch. I’m sorry that, at nineteen, you had to bury her. I’m sorry you had to lose everything. I’m sorry you suffered an abusive relationship. I’m sorry for every fear, worry, and anxiety you’ve ever felt. I’m sorry I didn’t search harder for you three years ago. I sorry for not finding you sooner.” His eyes close for a moment. Reopen. “I’m sorry for not telling you the moment I knew.”
The moment he knew? Oh Lord, what now? “The moment you knew what?”
“That I’m in love with you.”
I blink at him. My mouth opens but only airs escapes. My heart does a triple somersault. “You…love me?”
Straight-faced, he answers, “No.”
“Wha—”
“I said I’m in love with you.”
Reckless Lotty faints, knowing her slut days are over, while Rational Lotty grins from ear-to-ear with red hearts for eyeballs. The two have been quiet for some time now. Leaving all the final decisions up to me.
“And the moment you knew was…?”
“When you received your engagement ring. The real truth is, I didn’t reply to your text message because I was mad at you for not telling me you were engaged. I realized the reason I was so pissed was because I wanted to be your first and your only proposal. Then I think, proposal? Marriage proposal? And that’s when I knew: I wanted to propose to you one day, because I want to marry you one day, because I’m in love with you.”
A grin spreads across my face; I can’t help it. I feel young and stupid again, that this tall, striking, amazing male specimen is in love with a mess like me. “Hmm. I don’t think Gloriel is going to be as happy about this revelation as I am.”
He shrugs. “She’ll get over it. About the time you have my ring on your finger and my baby in your belly.”
My grin grows broader. “You want your baby in my belly?”
“I want a lifetime with you, Lotty.” His sincere tone matches his eyes, and I just want to crawl into him and make love to his soul.
On tippy toes I go, and, knowing what I want, he brings his lips down on my mine. His kiss is soft, apologetic, and full of so much love.
When we part, I tell him, “I’ll never do you like she did, babe. Never.”
He presses his thumb to my chin, smiles. “I believe you.”
TWENTY-NINE
NOAH MAKES USE of Mike’s now unoccupied room, seeing as the whole gang is hanging out in my suite.
We collected a key to his room, went up, showered, and then ordered room service because I was too starved to think of sex. Same for Noah who’d been at it in the gym for four-and-a-half hours. We ordered almost everything on the menu, and by the time we were done, we were so stuffed, sex seemed like a difficult mathematical equation, so we gave up and watched hotel cable until we passed out.
“Babe, get up.” It’s sundown when I feel Noah rocking me awake. “Mom called. Your brother and his mother are downstairs. Apparently, Mom made dinner plans.”
Rolling over, eyes refusing to open, body refusing to liven, I grumble, “What time is it?”
“After seven.”
“Would I be an asshole if I didn’t go?”
He chuckles. “Yes. You haven’t seen your brother in a while, have you?”
“Boo,” I gripe. “You told me you were in love with me, Mr. Van Der Wells. Which means, you’re supposed to enable me.”
I don’t get a response, his weight suddenly gone from the bed. Suspicious, I’m about to open my eyes when a yelp rips from my mouth at the sting of his palm to my bare ass.
Eyes wide open now, I roll over again, and find him looming over me with a raised brow. “How’s that for enabling you?”
I glare. “You. Will. Pay.”
He shrugs. “Eh.” Snatches up his key card and heads
for the door. “Looking forward to it, Little Lotty.”
Gloriel is wearing annoyance like a fancy scarf when we get back to the suite. She’s alone, pacing, checking her diamond bracelet watch. She glances up, sees us, and is down my throat before I can get a word out. “I told you I needed to talk to you two, and instead of going to get him, you join him, and then you both disappeared?”
“We didn’t disappear, Mom,” Noah tells her lightheartedly. “I texted you.”
She grouches, “The text didn’t say you would be gone all day.”
“We fell asleep,” I butt in, and immediately regret it. Better not to place any images in her head.
She scowls at me. I duck my head.
Noah struts, cool as cucumber, to the mini fridge, getting a bottled water. “What is this important thing you need to talk to us about?” As Gloriel opens her mouth, he hastily adds, “If it’s more disapproval of my relationship with Lotty, don’t waste your breath. I’m not giving her up. I love her. She loves me. Get used to the idea.”
“Love?” Her green eyes blow wide. “You know you love her after only a few weeks?”
“As well as I knew I loved pepperoni pizza after the first bite and wouldn’t ever give it up, six packs or not.”
Gloriel looks as if she’s about to explode, but then she closes her eyes, inhaling and exhaling for a few beats before reopening them. “Although this is not what I wanted to talk to you about, this particular discussion is not over, because hell no, I’m not getting ‘used to the idea.’ At the moment, we don’t have the time to discuss what I wanted to discuss because Graham and Sarah are in the restaurant downstairs waiting for us. I will run down and keep them company while you two change out of these hotel robes. Sarah will talk to you about it.”
“Talk to me about what?” I start to ask, but Gloriel is already brushing past us and out the door. I turn to Noah. “Do you have any idea what she’s talking about? And why did she arrange a dinner with Sarah without checking with me first?”
