Redeemed: Book Two of the Love Seekers Series

by Maria Vickers

  His eyes still followed me, probably wondering if I would make a spectacle out of myself at the reception while the happy couple danced. Well, more like my brother carried his bride because her legs supposedly couldn’t support her. Whatever.

  “Aren’t they a lovely couple?” a short old woman asked.

  Lifting one of my brows, I tried not to scowl at the old broad, but I knew I failed when I watched her smile grow. It was a knowing smile, one that said she could see into my mind and read my thoughts. I remembered seeing her the night before and her excitement at seeing Bryan and Emma. “Yeah, so lovely.” Sarcasm flowed out of my mouth like a rushing river.

  She glanced fondly at the newlyweds as they were surrounded by people in a circle. The wedding had been completely lackluster in my opinion, and I didn’t understand why everyone raved about it. I would have planned something more exquisite. For the reception, we moved into the ballroom of the hotel about fifty yards from the wedding location, and the colors made me want to vomit. Who covered tables with aqua and used hurricane lamps as centerpieces? Chad’s business partner, Mark, had agreed to be the DJ and there were three attendants each.

  My brother picked Evan, Chad—although, I hear there was some past issues with Chad because of his feelings for Emma—and Luke, one of his friends who was married to another mutual friend, Mel. I had to admit, I was kind of surprised Chad was a groomsman. Evan was the best man. Emma had her best friend, some hick named Gia from Texas, Mel, and her sister, Ellie. They said it was simple and pretty. I called it cheap and tawdry.

  “I knew they would be a good match,” she exclaimed.

  Hearing her words pulled me from my thoughts. “Are you a member of the bride’s family?” I questioned cautiously, knowing there was no way in hell she was part of my family.

  “Oh no,” she giggled.

  Rolling my eyes slightly, I plastered a smile on my face. “I know you’re not with the groom.”

  “I am.”

  “You are what?” I swear this woman reminded me of that woman who swam in the noodles in Patch Adams. She looked just like her. Short with white curly hair and a smile that probably never left her face. I didn’t condone violence against the elderly, but I was already on edge and she pressed her luck.

  “I’m with the groom. Or I guess you could say, I’m with both of them.” She giggled happily, and I wanted to slap her all the more.

  “Excuse me?” Now she wanted to talk in circles? I either needed to be drunk to converse with her or have a gibber jabber translator.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess that sounded a little confusing. I met your brother on a plane, and after talking to him, I told him his wedding was on my bucket list. He probably thought I was crazy too.”

  I still didn’t understand this woman, but before I could demand answers, she continued.

  She started to drone on and on about meeting my brother on a plane and getting her invitation. I only half-listened until she tapped my arm. “Imagine my joy when I got the wedding invitation. I made my plane reservations that day. It was such a lovely wedding. Too many times, people go overboard. I like the simpler weddings. When my Bert and I got married, we had a nice reception, but it was a potluck at my parents’. All of the furniture had been moved so that we could dance. I liked this. When my niece got married last year…OY! Everything was over the top and it cost my brother a fortune. Expensive bouquets for the center pieces, fresh flowers everywhere, and two ballrooms reserved. One for the wedding and one for the reception. All of this at an exclusive, expensive hotel. Oh, and a horse and carriage to bring the bride around the block. Waste of money if you ask me.”

  I kept my words to myself, but I still thought them, ‘I didn’t ask you.’

  She kept going. Did she not have an off switch? “This one was simpler and perfect. Some may not agree and they would think that it was underdone and classless. Maybe it was small by some standards, but I get the impression that Emma and Bryan don’t need something over the top. That’s not who they are.”

  Had this woman read my mind? It was like she was talking right to me and my sacred opinions.

  “Don’t you think?”

  “Huh?” In my half-panicked state, I had missed something.

  “It’s okay dear. I was asking what you thought about the wedding.”

  Did she seriously ask me about what I thought of this disaster of a wedding? “I…I…the weather was nice.”

  “I have to agree. When you get married on a beach you always run the risk of weather. Thankfully today turned out wonderful.” She patted my arm and said, “Don’t worry dear. Things will work out the way they’re supposed to. Look at Bryan and Emma, they made it.”

  She could not be serious. Unable to hold it in any longer, I started laughing and walked off to get a drink. The old bat was annoying and wrong, but I couldn’t blame her. She was probably suffering from dementia. No, they would not make it because sooner or later Emma would make a mistake, and I would be there to bust her.

  Chapter 3

  Chad

  M y head throbbed as if someone was inside my skull using it as a bass drum. I tried to shift. Pain. Excruciating pain. What happened? I remembered the wedding and the reception, and then I recalled seeing the happy couple off before heading to the bar and…I drank myself silly.

  Peeling open my eyelids, I squinted at the ceiling. My eyes were dry. A sure sign I had fallen asleep with my contacts in. I quickly blinked several times to stimulate the moisture. Slowly, things came into focus and I found myself in a strange room. Not too surprising since I had gotten wasted the night before. The walls were painted a neutral color with some generic paintings hanging on the walls. The bed was comfortable enough, but it wasn’t mine.

  And I wasn’t alone in bed. Someone was with me. Studying the arm thrown across my chest, the only thing I could make out was that it belonged to a woman. Momentarily, I tried to remember who the woman was, and it made the pain in my head worse. No thinking. It hurt too much to think.

  Plan B. I followed the arm to the woman and…backed away quickly, falling on my ass and hitting my head against the nightstand. No, it couldn’t be. I couldn’t have done what it looked like I’d done. Rayne. The arm belonged to Rayne. What the fuck happened during my stint at the bar?

  “Shhh. Too loud,” she moaned.

  I didn’t realize I had spoken out loud, but I had to have if she was chastising me in her sleep. What the fuck was going on? “Rayne!” I yelled and instantly regretted it. The pain from not only my hangover, but from hitting my head did not like raised voices. Dropping my head between my bent knees, I tried to make the throbbing go away, or at least diminish it down to a dull roar. FUCK! It hurt.

  “What? Leave me alone. I’m sleeping.” Her eyes never cracked open, and instead of waking up, she turned over to her other side and her breathing instantly evened out into sleep again.

  Taking a deep breath, I slowly got up, grabbed my clothes, got dressed, and left. Normally, I would stay and enjoy a morning romp, but not today. Not with her. It would be a cold day in hell before that ever happened…again.

  Chapter 4

  Rayne

  H earing the sound of the door open and slam shut, pulled me out of my coma. I thought I dreamt the sound of some gruff voice yelling at me, but maybe not? I didn’t know any longer. My head hurt. What the hell happened last night? I recalled with vague clarity that I spotted Chad in the bar getting trashed. I went over to join him and he either didn’t care who his drinking partner was, or he didn’t realize it was me. His face never frowned, never glared…he only smiled at me and told me all about how happy he was for Emma and Bryan. That conversation almost made me vomit on the mahogany bar.

  And then he confessed something else.

  “I’m going to teach her a lesson she will never forget. Rayne thinks she can come between Emma and Bryan, but she can’t,” he spewed.

  “And you’re going to be the one to bring me to my knees?” I asked indignan
tly.

  “Yep! Rayne will learn that she can’t hurt Emma without finding herself hurt as well. When I’m done with her, she is going to run off to her witch’s cave to lick her wounds. She might be beautiful, but her heart is as black as sin. Hell! She’ll probably end up alone. Wouldn’t that be funny? All these men throwing themselves at her, and in the end, she has no one. At least her brother found someone wonderful. I won’t let her come between that.” His words were slurred, but I understood everything he said.

  A cold chill ran up my spine. Alone? I would never be alone. I had men galore promising me the world. Chad only had women who wanted some action in the sack. If anyone was going to be alone, it would be him.

  Fuck. No! Please no! It couldn’t have been…Chad. What happened? I remembered that conversation and then I started to drink heavily, matching Chad drink for drink. And then…why couldn’t I remember? Had I slept with Chad? My enemy? No. No, I couldn’t have.

  Panic gripped my heart and would not let go. I was naked, in bed, in a hotel room, and whomever my partner of the night was, had left. Evidence was stacking up against me.

  Moving the bedding to and fro, I didn’t see anything that would tell me one way or another. Leaning over the side of the bed, I counted two condoms—at least we had been safe about it…whomever my partner had been. I crawled to the other two sides and found one more used condom. Weren’t drunk men supposed to be less virile?

  I sat back and crossed my legs and grimaced. Those muscles had received a workout and I hadn’t noticed how much until now. It was like a switch had been flipped when I saw the evidence of our activities. Damn! I wasn’t even sure how this all happened. Well, sure we were drunk and in a hotel, but how had I hooked up with him of all people? I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it all, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

  Instead, I got up and took a shower, washing away Chad and my night with him. As he flowed down the drain, I thought about what to do next. If Chad was going to teach me a lesson, I would make sure I taught him one of my own. Maybe last night was a blessing in disguise.

  Chapter 5

  Chad

  T hankfully, I hadn’t seen Rayne or heard from her since the morning after the wedding. Two and a half weeks had passed since then, and I was still trying to figure out how to go about my plan. I should have been able to shake a night like that off, but for some reason, it bothered me. Not even my regular fuck buddies could erase the memory of waking up in the same bed with her.

  I needed to get my shit together. This was not me. I was not this wimpy guy who let women get to him, especially not a woman who would rather live life as a crotchety bitch, tearing others down and not caring who she hurt in the process.

  No one could ever call me a saint. I knew that. Believe me, my list of sins could probably circumnavigate the world more than once, but at least I could say that I never preyed on those who were weaker than me—unless we were in the gym and the person happened to be a client of mine. However, as a personal trainer, I was expected to inflict pain.

  Rayne on the other hand…I considered her pure evil. It wasn’t only how she treated Emma. I had known that woman since I met Bryan in college. Six years younger than her brother and still in middle school, she clung to him, and if it wasn’t him, it was his friends. Back then, Bryan believed his sister was young and innocent, but all I saw when I looked at her was a huntress in the making. At twelve she was jailbait, flirting with all the boys.

  I stayed away from her then, and I tried to do the same now. Since then, she had grown into a gorgeous woman with curves in all the right places. What she lacked in height, she made up for in everything else. Her blue eyes and raven hair were gifts from the demons. Okay, maybe that was a little strong, and maybe a little wrong, however, Rayne had a reputation for taking out anyone she perceived as competition or anyone she didn’t want associating in her circle. For example, Emma…and probably my sister.

  Megan had been diagnosed with MS about three years ago, but based on how Rayne felt about Emma, I was honestly afraid of what she would do to my sister. Irrational? Maybe. I didn’t care. I would protect my sister with my life.

  “Chad?” A voice pulled me from my thoughts, a hand on my shoulder shaking me.

  “Huh?” I asked, jolted and almost falling out of my seat. Glancing around, I found Mark on the verge of hysteria, trying to hold in his laughter. At night I did personal training, but during the day, I ran a graphic design business, and he was my business partner and best friend. Asshole. “What?”

  Unable to hold in his laughter any longer, he fell into his own chair, and almost brought down the walls with his loudness. Nothing was that funny.

  I did what any self-respecting friend would do. Grabbing a stress ball, I threw it at him, hitting him squarely in the head. “What the fuck do you want?” But the severity of my words were dampened by the slight grin on my face.

  “Man. I’ve called your name at least four times and you never answered. Then when I finally get your attention, you almost jump out of your skin. What’s wrong with you?” he asked, rubbing away his tears with both hands.

  “Nothing,” I stressed, pushing my hand through my hair. I saw the expression on his face change to one of disbelief as he silently dared me to keep lying to him, his grin mocking me.

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “So, everything is hunky-dory in Chad World?” His question bordered on snide, and if he weren’t my best friend, I would have decked him.

  “Will you knock it off with that shit? It wasn’t funny in high school and it isn’t funny now.” Rolling my eyes, I tried to turn my back on him, but he wouldn’t let me. Of course not.

  I could barely remember a time when Mark wasn’t in my life in some way, shape, or form. He knew me better than anyone. However, that did not mean I wanted to confess to sleeping with the enemy.

  “Chad,” he drew out my name annoyingly.

  “How old are we?”

  “Thirty-one, but that isn’t the point.”

  “Oh, but I think it is. Let’s try not to sound like we’re five in front of clients.”

  “Last I checked, there weren’t any clients right now and we were alone.”

  “And your point?”

  “What’s going on with you? Last week you forgot that you had agreed to babysit for me, and two days ago, you almost missed a meeting with that local MS group. I think it was…uh…National Multiple Sclerosis Society. You were the one that volunteered to do some work for them free of charge. I mean, I know you hate Mondays, but you were the one that scheduled the meeting in the first place. Today, you’re spacing out. I mean, if you need to take a day and regroup, then tell me.”

  I hated listening to him, knowing he was right. Is this what old people meant when they talked about eating crow? Nodding, I swallowed hard. “I’ll be fine, but yeah, maybe we should call it a day. Go home and spend some time with your wife and baby. Is he walking yet?”

  “Last night, he finally took more than one step before he fell. Poor Calvin.”

  “The only reason I feel sorry for him is his name. How could you do that to my godson?”

  “I told you, it’s a family name on Ingrid’s side of the family.” Mark always got these dreamy and glazed over eyes whenever he said his wife’s name, and today was no exception.

  “So? It doesn’t mean you have to carry on the tradition.”

  “It’s not a bad name. A lot of people like older names.”

  “Not me. If I ever have a son, I’m going to name him something cool like Rocky or—”

  “Bullwinkle?” Mark interrupted, snorting with laughter.

  “Very funny. Not the fucking squirrel. The boxer.”

  “So, you would name your son after a fictional character?”

  “Why not?”

  “Yeah, I don’t see him getting teased at all.”

  I picked up a small figurine of Superman I had on my desk and chucked it at him.

 
“Will you stop throwing shit at me?”

  “If you leave, I won’t have to throw shit, now will I?” I retorted, trying to get him to leave me in solitude. He was right, things were going on in my head, but I needed to be alone to sort through them. Waking up beside Rayne that morning had messed with my mind and thrown me off kilter, and not in a good way. I couldn’t stand that bitch, and to know my dick had been buried inside her…I shuddered and felt an urge to vomit.

  “Hey! Are you okay? Chad? You don’t look so good.”

  “I’m fine. I just realized I forgot to call my sister,” I lied.

  I sighed heavily. He tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling as his lips moved. I got the distinct impression he sought guidance or divine intervention. I was actually very familiar with this pose. It usually happened at least two or three times a week and typically revolved around my love and sex life.

  At one point, he had been hopeful that Emma and I would hit it off, but we didn’t. Or I had, but it turned out the feelings were one sided since she had already lost her heart to Bryan. My heart clenched slightly, and I brushed away the residual feelings that still lingered. She and I weren’t meant to be and that was that. End of story.

  Now, if only my heart would take the hint. As it was, in order to get over her, I’d banged countless faceless girls. I couldn’t tell you how many. Hell, some even happened in the locker room at the gym. Not my shining moment, and during these last two weeks, my bad habit of fucking women had only gotten worse. I needed to erase Rayne from my dick and my memory.

  “Chad!” Mark yelled in frustration. I jumped when I realized his face was only two inches from mine.

  “Dude! I would rather not kiss you,” I joked as I pushed him away from me, nervous that he would be able to tell what was wrong with me. My palms started to sweat, my scalp tingled, and I felt hot all over. Sometimes, I hated that he knew me so well…or maybe I was just coming down with a case of the flu.