by Amy Muscat
Table of Contents
Dedication
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 (Part 1)
Chapter 22 (Part 2)
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
TRUSTED BY YOU
Copyright © 2014 by Amy Muscat
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously,
and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form,
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.
Cover Design by MG Book Covers
Edited by Laura from Editing For You
Interior Formatting by Cassy Roop of Pink Ink Designs
Dedication
This goes out to you guys, my bloody-awesome readers!
Thank you so much for your support. X
Author’s Note
I just wanted to remind/let everyone know that Lottie is British so she says,
pronounces, and spells things differently than Americans.
So please keep that in mind when you’re reading her POV’s.
Thank you,
Amy x
“It was once said that love is giving somebody the ability to destroy you,
but trusting them not to.” ~ Unknown
THEY SAY THAT A picture is worth a thousand words… Well, I've just received two pictures, so does that mean two thousand words?
I don’t know, but I do know I can’t think of two thousand words to describe how I feel right now: two thousand expletives maybe, but not two thousand actual, structural words.
I can tell you how it feels like my heart is breaking right now. What I thought I felt a couple of days ago, the heartache and the pain, is nothing like I'm feeling right now. My legs shake, and I collapse on the sofa in my living room.
I look back down at my phone and see that dreaded first picture that no one person wants to receive. The screen blurs, and I watch as a fat teardrop falls onto the glass screen. And then another until my phone becomes soaked with my tears. A sob hitches in my throat, getting caught for a second before it flows out of my mouth like it’s a natural sound coming from my body, when in actual fact; it’s not. Laughter and sarcastic remarks are what I'm used to coming out from my mouth, but not this. Not these horrible sounds that my body seems to instinctively know.
I feel the pain start to radiate through me, my chest burns and my heart is collapsing in on itself. I can feel pins and needles start to tingle from my toes all the way up to the tips of my fingers, and I feel goosebumps form on my arms, indicating the coldness running through me.
If it weren’t for the pounding in my head, and the sound of my blood rushing in my ears, I would have said that my body had frozen. If one’s blood freezes, then it doesn’t circulate through the body and the heart fails… Well, that’s what it feels like anyway; my heart was failing.
I'd never known heartbreak before. I had seen it, numerous times through friends and family, on TV and in movies, but I had never felt it. And if this is what it feels like, I never want to be in love with someone… but it was too late. I already was, and he had broken me into pieces. Teeny-tiny pieces. I don’t think even the best surgeon in the fucking universe would be able to put me back together again- sort of like Humpty Dumpty.
And all of this is because of one man. One man that I loved- that I thought loved me!
It was fourteen words that broke me two days ago. Two pictures worth two thousand words, that completely shattered me not even two minutes ago, and it was six words that I spoke out loud right now that seemed to echo around my living room and steel my resolve to forgo men in the future…
“Fuck you, Blake Walker. Fuck you.”
“BLOODY HELL! Can you help me instead of just standing there and looking at my arse?” I said through clenched teeth, throwing daggers at Blake with my eyes.
The bastard smirked at me.
“I wasn’t staring at your ass… okay, I was, but I was admiring it that’s all. You have a nice ass.” He said the last part quietly.
I was standing there holding this heavy box, sweating it out, and there he stood, looking like a fucking Greek God.
We were helping Peyton move all her stuff from the flat we shared and into Keller’s house.
We’d been moving Peyton and Ivy’s stuff for about two hours now, and fuck me was I tired.
To be perfectly honest; I really didn’t want them to move out. I was going to miss them so much. That happens when you’ve lived with people for so long and are used to having them there.
But when I turn my head and look over at her, I see how happy she looks now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
She was standing there, putting all her perfumes and creams onto her dressing table, in her black leggings and her pregnant belly pushing against one of Keller’s shirts. Her red/ginger hair was bundled up in a messy bun like mine, and not a scrap of make-up on her glowing face. And she still managed to look gorgeous.
Just then, Keller walks into the room and over to Peyton, whispers something in her ear just as she spins around and his arms wrap around her waist. Her face glows and she looks happier than ever.
I loved that about Keller: he made her happy.
When he’d first come back onto the scene, I’d had my reservations– and rightly so, the fucker had broken my best friends heart. But then it became known that someone had messed with them, who we later found out was Keller’s step-mum. It all got worse when Andrew the psycho, one of her old customers from when she was a stripper, had abducted Peyton.
But Keller had wormed his way into my heart too, by being the overprotective, overbearing man he is. I now looked at him like he was my brother-in-law, ‘cause for all intents and purposes– Peyton was my sister and Ivy was my niece.
Blake’s voice makes me snap out of my thoughts. “Keller!”
With a groan, and what looked like a rearrange of his trousers, Keller turns and faces Blake with a pissed off expression and barks out a, “what?”
Blake takes in his face and the tightness there, and I watch as his eyes go down to Keller’s trousers and he bursts out laughing.
“Dude, you have a hard-on right now don’t you?” He said through his laughter.
I looked down and saw said hard-on. It was very impressive.
I looked back at Keller’s face and saw that he looked slightly embarrassed and I started laughing too, Peyton joined in with both Blake and me.
“Fuck you,” Keller said through clenched teeth. “Just shut up and let’s get back to work, shall we?”
“Eye-eye,” he said with a salute, before spinning back around and finally taking the box from my poor aching fingers.
“’Bout time, fuck me…”
“Would love to Angel,” Blake replied back wit
h a wink and suggestive smile.
Urgh
“Pig. Go fuck yourself,” I said back to him with a sneer.
“Oh, I will, later, and I’ll be thinking of you the whole time.” He said before turning around and taking the box out of the room and down the hallway to Ivy’s room.
Bloody infuriating man!
AT AROUND SIX O’CLOCK, we had finished moving and unpacking everything. There were only the little things for them to take care of.
“See you later! Hope you have a great night, guys,” I said to Peyton and Keller, giving them both a kiss on the cheek.
“Bye!” They echo together.
Walking down the pathway of their front garden to get to my car, I hear Blake call out my name.
“Lottie! Wait up,” I turn around and see him jogging down the path to me.
I stop and look up at him and wait to see what he wants, but then he just stands there and stares at me. I finally had to ask him what he wanted.
“Oh erm… I just wondered what you were doing tonight, and if you wanted to come out for a drink with me?” He asked, rubbing the back of his head with his hand.
“I’m busy tonight, sorry.” I wasn’t sorry, nor was I busy tonight, I just didn’t want to go out with him after the last time I was alone with him.
“No, you’re not. You’re just making that up. Come on, just come for a drink and a bite to eat with me, I think we deserve it after all the hard work we’ve done today. Come on.” His voice was slightly pleading.
Just as I was about to say no, he pouted. Like a full-blown pout, and fuck me did I want to kiss those sexy-arse lips of his.
“Come on, just as friends, I won’t even try anything... well maybe later, later.” He said with a saucy wink.
Groaning, because apparently my body couldn’t resist this sexy-arse man pouting, I say, “Fine, we’ll go out for a bite of grub and drink– but no funny business!” I tell him wagging my pointer finger in his face.
Then his lips spilt into the most gorgeous smile I’ve ever seen.
Fucker has dimples, too. Dimples, I thought, feeling my heart flutter.
Goddammit! I couldn’t resist him now!
“Great!” He sounded really excited about this, and I think he figured that out ’cause he clears his throat and says in a nonchalant voice, “great, erm… good. I’ll pick you up at eight?” He asks.
“Yeah, eights fine with me,” I say to him with a smile and with that, I walk away from him and jump in my car.
Turning on the ignition, I look over and see Blake standing there muttering to himself. He looked like he was berating himself. He startled when I beeped my horn and waved goodbye to him.
He waved back with a sheepish look on his face.
Laughing to myself, I drive off and into the streets of New York City excited for my non-date tonight.
I OPENED THE DOOR to my flat, the silence is ironically, deafening.
I walk through the hallway and when I get to the front room, I notice how bare it looks. I don’t like it.
There was none of Ivy’s toys lying around or her princess dolls or her blanket on the sofa. Nothing. I felt a pang of sadness go through me and rubbed a hand over my heart to stop the pain.
It didn’t work.
Fuck.
Sighing, I walk out of there and go to my bedroom so I could get my clothes ready for tonight.
The first thing that I see as I walk into my room is my built-in bookshelf. It was a wall-to-wall shelf that was filled to the brim with my books. I loved my shelf. It was the only thing in my bedroom that was organised.
Ignoring the urge to go over and grab the latest romance novel I was reading and curl up in bed, I walk over to my closet, slide open the door and start browsing through all my dresses.
After twenty minutes of looking, picking up, and putting most items back, I finally decide to settle on a dark blue lace dress. It is a skater style and I liked the way it swished and swayed when I moved. Grabbing a pair of navy blue peep-toe heels and my black clutch bag, I set them all on the bed, strip off and walk into my en-suite bathroom.
After turning the taps to the middle so my shower was warm, I start the process of washing my hair and body. After feeling the prickles on my legs, I decided that they needed shaving too, which lead me to shave everywhere else that needed it.
Finishing up, I turn the taps off, push my hands through my hair, wringing out the water, and reach for my towel and start to dry myself.
I had just finished my hair and make-up when I heard the doorbell go off.
Who could that be?
Please don’t be my parents, I thought. I really didn’t need them here when I was trying to get ready to go out.
My mum asks far too many questions and my dad gets too protective even though I was twenty-four-years-old.
When I look through the peephole, I see Blake’s face smiling back at me.
What the fuck was he doing here so early?
“Blake why are you here early? You’re meant to be picking me up at eight!” I shout through the door, clutching my towel that was wrapped around me.
“What? Lottie, it’s eight o’clock now!” He shouts back.
Fuck!!
Running down the hallway and into the kitchen, I saw that it was 8:02pm. Fuck, shit, fuck!
I wasn’t dressed yet!
Running back to the door, I told him I wasn’t ready yet.
“That’s fine, I’ll just wait inside!” He called back to me.
“No, you can’t.”
“Why?”
Because I’m naked, you sexy prick.
“Because!”
“Because what?” He sounded like he was getting frustrated now. “Lottie, just open the door!”
“Fine,” I huffed.
I hear him chuckle, but that soon stops when I swing the door open and he takes in my towel-clad body.
“Holy fuck!” His eyes were bugging out of his sockets and I would’ve found it funny if I weren’t standing in front of him basically naked.
Holding the towel closer to me, I flipped my hair back over my shoulder so it rested atop of my breasts.
“You’re naked under that?” He asks waving his hand in front of my body.
“Ten points for observation, Blake,” I say sarcastically.
He smirks back and steps through the door and into my personal space.
I feel my body tingle and become hot all over. My breathing accelerates, coming out in soft pants.
Fuck. Do not get turned on, Lottie.
“I–I’m just going to go get dressed, I’ll be ten minutes,” I told him, feeling my face heat up from my stammering. I never stammered. Ever.
“Okay, Angel, I’ll be waiting,” he says walking around me and into the living room.
I blow out the breath I didn’t know I was holding when he leaves.
Motherfucker was getting to me.
TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES later, I was dressed and ready to go.
I walked out of my room and into the living room, and see Blake sitting on the sofa, looking right at home with his feet on the coffee table, remote in hand, and watching American football on the TV.
“Comfortable?” I ask with a laugh.
His head snaps up and laughing too, he says yeah.
“Oh wow. You look smoking hot.” His eyes did a lazy trail over my body and his eyes stop at my boobs for a second longer than normal, before carrying on right down to the tips of my red-painted toes. “Fuck me.”
With the way I’m feeling right now, I might just fuck you, I think to myself.
“Thanks, sorry for taking so long– I tend to do that apparently,” I grimace. Peyton was always telling me that. Oh well, can’t change a lifetime habit. Well, not now anyway.
“No worries, let’s go Beauty,” he says standing up.
Beauty…
I loved that.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I murmur.
I grab my keys and lock up after closing the door be
hind us.
When we get outside, Blake walks us over to a black Maserati.
Fuck me…
I fucking loved this car!
“I love this car,” I echo my thoughts to Blake.
“Do you even know what car it is?” He asks me. Patronising bastard.
With my hand on my cocked hip I say, “Yes, I do, actually. It’s a Maserati Gran Turismo, 4.7-liter V-8, and can go from 0-60 in five seconds.” At his shocked expression I say, “Oh hunny, I know my cars, and I definitely know sexy cars.” I tell him with a smirk of my own.
In a shocked stupor, he walks over to the car and with a press of a button, the car’s lights flashed. Blake walks over and opens my door for me.
“Never would’ve taken you for a man who opens car doors for a woman?”
“Well, that’s because I usually don’t,” he says, shrugging.
Oh!
When I sit down in the car, I inhale and take in the new car smell. I loved that smell. Same as I liked the smell of blown out matchsticks.
I sink into the leather seat and feel so comfortable; I could happily sleep in here.
When Blake opens the door and sits down, he looks over to me and starts laughing. “You look like you’re going to have an orgasm,” he tells me through his chuckles.
When I replied, “maybe I will,” his laughter abruptly stops and his eyes heat up.
For the whole ten seconds our eyes were locked, it felt like we were the only two in the world.
And then I remembered he was a player and what he’d done the last time we had been alone together.
I shake my head to clear all of this bullshit I was thinking, and try to blink away the lust that’s clouding my mind.
“We should get going,” I say in a quiet voice.
Gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw, Blake says in a tight voice, “Yeah, let’s go.”
With that, he turns the car on and drives off like a bat out of hell.
WHEN THE CAR STOPS, I look out of the passenger window and see that we are at a bar– Bob’s Bar– to be exact.
It looked packed inside from where we parked. There were people standing outside smoking, talking and laughing with their friends. There was also a seating area that had about ten or so benches. They were full too.
