Providence Series Books 1-4

by Mary B. Moore

  “Everything okay?” she asked, gently rubbing up and down my back as I scooped her back into my arms and held her head against my chest.

  “Yeah, baby, just Brett being funny. He’s coming home in a couple of weeks from Houston and wants to meet with you about his house.” I still hadn’t told Maya about the family money, and I knew I really should, but I didn’t want to say, ‘Oh by the way, we own an oil reserve.’ I just needed to figure out the best way and time to tell her.

  “Cool! It’ll be great to meet him,” she said, looking unsure all of a sudden. “Do you, uh, do you want to stay?”

  She had stiffened up, like she was waiting for me to shoot her down, but the prospect of holding her in my arms all night at this moment sounded like heaven. Well, to my brain at least; my balls, on the other hand, were screaming at me.

  “You sure?” I asked, kissing the top of her head. “I’d love to just hold you, if that’s okay?” I added, trying to discreetly point out that I didn’t expect us to fuck like rabbits all night.

  She pulled back and looked up at me with sleepy eyes and a huge grin on her face and whispered, “I’d love that.” Fuck, my balls hated me, but she was worth it!

  Chapter Sixteen

  Maya

  I was enjoying the night out at Sheeve’s with the girls. Work had been tense today, and Isla had been quiet and spent a lot of time in meetings with Luke trying to find her. I’d worked on my existing mountain of projects, and the work was still piling up with new contracts.

  After work, I’d gone home and had something small to eat and then got in the shower, but every time I looked at my bed, I’d remembered Ren lying against me and holding me tight last night. I’d never had a guy just want to cuddle me, and hadn’t been sure how I’d handle it since I was an active sleeper, to put it mildly. But once Ren had cuddled up against my back and wrapped me up in his arms, I’d been out like a light and hadn’t woken up until my alarm went off; it was the best night’s sleep of my life. I didn’t know if Ren would agree with, though, because this morning he’d look ‘knackered,’ as my friends in London said.

  Yesterday, I’d gone back to Scarlett’s and bought a couple more sets of underwear from her. The one that I loved the most was a dark purple lace demi-corset with matching lace thong. It was soft, it was feminine, it was divine, and if what I had planned for tonight worked, then Ren would love it too. My issue had been what to wear over it, so after fifteen minutes of hunting, I’d decided on a coral-pink strapless dress and black four-inch-heeled sandals that had four buckles around my ankles. When I’d finished getting ready, I had stood in front of the mirror and twisted left and right to make sure you couldn’t see the new underwear. I was pleasantly surprised that even though I hadn’t lain out in the sun the weekend before, I had a golden glow, and it looked fantastic against the color of the dress.

  Luke had told me that his best friend’s brother, Ethan, owned Sheeve’s, so we had VIP passes, which was pretty awesome because when I looked the club up online, it was the best club in the county, and people came from all over to get to it.

  When the car arrived, Scarlett, Ava, and Isla were already inside, looking gorgeous. Scarlett had on a black bandage dress, Isla had on a dark pink version of Scarlett’s dress with little cap sleeves, and Ava was wearing a tight, short red dress. They all looked beautiful. We were immediately ushered up to the VIP area, where a bottle of champagne was waiting on the table for us. I’d just opened it when a hot guy with dark blond hair walked up to us. He must have been my age, if not slightly older, and he was wearing a dark gray suit with the collar of his shirt open. I was sure he had his pick of the chicks in the club every night.

  “Ah, fuck,” he grumbled when got to the table and ran his hands down his face.

  “Excuse me?”

  He took his time looking over the four of us and then turned to the man in the black suit beside him, who had his arms crossed and kept shaking his head. “Does he hate us that much? This…ah, fuck.” And then he walked away.

  So here we were five minutes later, trying to figure out what the hell his issue was. I was pretty sure he was the guy that Luke had told me to look out for, but I couldn’t understand what the problem was with us. The man in the black suit was standing close to our table and watching the room around us; it was heaving already, and it had only just turned ten.

  “Right, who’s dancing?” Scarlett said, jumping up and shimmying.

  “Hell yeah!” I got up to join her.

  The four of us went down the stairs to the main dance floor, with suit man following and talking into his mic. We danced for ages, laughing and joking around until One Republic’s “Love Runs Out” came on. Just as the first chorus came on, I saw Ava look over my shoulder, and her smile fell. Turning around, I came face to face with a black t-shirt-covered chest, and looking up I saw Ren looking pissed; I was so happy to see him that I rolled up on my toes and gave him a big kiss and grinned. That seemed to do the trick, because he leaned down, gave me a soft peck, and murmured, “What am I gonna do with you, baby? Look at you; every guy in the club has his eyes on y’all, and when you started grinding on Isla….” He trailed off, and his jaw started ticking, so I turned around and started to grind against him gently. Immediately, his hands went to my hips, and he started grinding with me; I knew this was meant to be a girls’ night, but I couldn’t say I was sorry to see him.

  As the song ended, I saw Luke had his arms around Isla and was doing the face-to-face version of what Ren and I had been doing, although Isla wasn’t looking very happy. Mace had Ava in the same position that Ren and I were in, and Ava had her arm up around the back of his neck. Surprisingly, the other person with them turned out to be my cousin Adam, who had been out of town all week, and who was making the grinding that we’d all been doing look chaste as he held Scarlett close and ground his pelvis against her backside. I wasn’t even aware that they knew each other.

  “I’m going upstairs,” I tried to shout to the girls over the music, and then pointed so that they knew where I was going. Over an hour of grinding in a hot, loud club was tough, and we were all desperate for a drink as we trooped back up to the VIP almost in a line of couples.

  There were some beers and more champagne sitting on our table, and the rude hot guy from before was standing beside them, scowling in our direction.

  “Thank fuck you got here,” he snapped, and I looked behind me at Luke because I didn’t have a clue what his problem was. “The next time, you do not send that to me”—he swept his hand in a circle in mine and the girls’ directions—“and tell me to watch over them. That’s just asking for trouble, asshole. I mean, Jesus fuckin’ Christ, look at them!”

  I have to say I started to worry that maybe the dress I was wearing was slutty, so I looked down, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Isla, Ava, and Scarlett do the same thing. When we all looked back up at him, he crossed his arms, looked at the ceiling, and muttered to himself before turning to us.

  “Name's Ethan ladies and I own this place. Y’all are the fuckin’ definition of hot sweethearts. You’ve given every guy in the building a hard-on, including Doug,” he said, and nodded at the suit guy.

  Ren, Adam, and Mace glowered at him as Luke took a step forward. I was kinda glad because what he’d said, well, that was just awkward. I didn’t want to know if Doug or any other man around us was hard.

  Deciding alcohol was the best way forward, I quickly walked up to the table and started tearing the foil off the bottle. I could hear Luke saying something and Ethan arguing back, but I didn’t care one bit.

  I got to the part where you take the metal doodad off and the cork is then free to pop, and, not wanting to hit one of the girls in the face, I turned slightly to the right. As soon as the last twist on the metal doodad was undone, the cork went flying out of it and scared the crap out of me. Unfortunately, it hit Ethan in the back of the head and stopped whatever rant he was on about, and then landed back at my feet, leaving me sitti
ng there with the evidence in my hands and now at my feet, too.

  “What the fuck?” he whined, rubbing his head and then smoothing his hair back down.

  I couldn’t help it; it was one of those things that you couldn’t plan, and it was just so damn funny that a giggle popped out. When the girls joined in, it made me laugh harder, and I realized then that I needed to pee, but unfortunately I was gasping for breath and couldn’t move or I’d wet myself. All I could do was cross my legs, clench, and hope that I didn’t. By the time we all stopped and were wiping my faces, I couldn’t hold it in anymore and spun in the direction that the sign said the toilets were, only to run into Ethan, who was standing with a beer in his hand now and his other hand in his pocket, and he was glaring at me. The bottle of champagne that I’d forgotten I was holding clipped the top of his beer, and it exploded out of the top all over his suit and shirt before he could pull it away from himself. I was pretty sure my bladder was about to release as everyone started laughing again. My laugh was one of those mixtures of embarrassment, terror, and just hilarity, which was testing the strength of my bladder, so I passed the bottle off to Ren, who’d moved to be beside me by this point, and ran to the ladies’ room.

  Ren

  I’d been close to begging Maya not to go out tonight because I knew the type of guys that went to Sheeve’s and exactly what went on. After all, that was where I used to go, and I didn’t want anyone looking at her like that. She’d been looking forward to it, though, so it was impossible to stop her.

  The guys and I had been sitting at Jilly’s having a beer when Ethan had called Luke and said no fucking way was he looking after our girls tonight and that we were to come and get them—so we had. When we’d walked in and seen all of the guys in front of us staring in one direction, we just knew where they were. I’d been ready to punch a guy who was too close to her—and was staring at her tits—when Maya kissed me, gave me the happiest grin I’d ever seen on her face, and started grinding against me. I couldn’t take that away from her, so I joined in, but it was a relief when we came back up to the VIP section because I swear I was close to punching two of our ranch hands who were now blatantly staring at her.

  When Ethan had been venting about the girls to Luke and had gotten the cork to the back of his head, I honestly thought I’d seen the funniest thing ever, but nothing, absolutely nothing, would ever beat her clipping his beer bottle and him getting drenched. Ethan had always been the type of guy who kept his hair perfect and took great pride in his appearance, so a cork to the head and a beer bath was just too much. Thankfully, he had a bathroom and spare clothing in his office upstairs, so by the time Maya got back from the bathroom, he was gone. I could see his point; Luke had tasked him with looking after the girls, and the four of them together was a recipe for disaster. The worst bit was that they didn’t even know it. And then dancing together…it was a wonder there hadn’t been a riot.

  I settled Maya and me on the sofa that curved around the table and got us both a drink. I was going to be driving back, so I would nurse this one for as long as I could. Adam had been a surprise tonight; he was a secretive motherfucker, but he hadn’t been around a lot recently and only seemed to pop up over the weekends. Maya had been happy to see him and had stopped to give him a hug, and it had taken everything in me not to grab her away from him even though he was her family. This was another new feeling for me, because in the past I hadn’t given a shit what the chick I was with did.

  I felt Maya tense beside me and saw Luke and Isla in the corner of the lounge, arguing. Isla had her arms wrapped around her waist and was looking at the floor, and Luke was gesturing and then rubbing her arms.

  Maya had told me what had happened the day before, and when I’d thought about it, I’d remembered Isla being in our year and that she and Luke had been close ever since they were kids. Maya moved to get up from the chair, and when I looked over, I saw Isla pulling open the door to the lounge and running down the stairs. Luke looked at Maya and then shook his head as he went after Isla down the stairs.

  “She’ll be okay, baby,” I whispered, rubbing her arm. She put her hand on my thigh and just held on. Just that one action got to me, and I felt myself getting harder. This was a fuckin’ nightmare; I swear it was almost to the point that if she sneezed or coughed, it would be that sexy that I’d explode in my jeans, something I’d never even done as a teen.

  I looked over my girl again as she sat talking to Scarlett and Ava. She had on this short, tight pink dress, and you could see every curve, her tits, and even her fuckin’ belly ring. If I’d seen her before she left, I never would have let her out the house wearing that shit, but I’d been stuck at work doing an urgent job, and by the time I’d gotten my shit together and cleaned up, she was out.

  I saw Mace whispering something to Ava with his arm around the back of her neck on the sofa. Looking over at Maya’s cousin, I noticed that he was sitting in almost the same position as Mace with Scarlett, and that she didn’t seem to be overly sure about it. Just then, she leaned forward to fill up her glass, and Adam took the bottle out of her hand and filled her glass halfway while whispering something to her. Whatever he’d said was the wrong thing, because she looked like she was going to pour it over his head.

  Why had I never seen this shit before Maya? It was like a fucking sitcom. I looked at my watch and wanted to groan when it didn’t say 2 a.m.—home time. I just wanted to snuggle up in bed with my girl, even if she turned into an MMA fighter in her sleep—and now I was turning into Cole. That thought was so fucking depressing I drank down half of my beer in one gulp.

  Maya

  As soon as Isla had left, I’d sent her a text to ask if she was alright and she’d replied saying she’d gotten home safe and sound and that she was sorry for leaving early. I was going to talk to Luke about it; he’d messed with the poor girl enough, and if he wasn’t careful he’d lose her entirely.

  It was only 12:40 a.m., but I was exhausted, so I snuggled into Ren and said, “Do you think it would be okay if we left?”

  He jumped up from the sofa like he’d been stung, grabbed my hand, and said bye to everyone, trying to drag me out the lounge. I wanted to make sure that Scarlett and Ava were okay, though, and to get assurances from my cousin and Mace that they would take them home, which I did.

  As Ren drove us back to mine, I was nervous and excited about what I had planned.

  “You okay, baby?” he asked, taking his eyes off the road briefly to look over at me and then reaching over to get my hand and holding it against his thigh.

  “Yeah, just tired, I guess.”

  I was trying to sound as blasé as possible so I didn’t give myself away, but my right leg wouldn’t stop bouncing.

  As we walked up to the door, my hand was shaking so badly that I could hardly get my key in the door. Another mental note to self: get one of those keypad locks things. Much easier.

  I felt like a lion plotting to pounce on Ren. Thankfully, he took the decision out of my hands, and as soon as the door closed, he gently tugged me to him and, holding my face in his hands, kissed me. I loved the fact Ren treated me like I was fragile and didn’t just maul me. Every little kiss, sip, and gentle flick of his tongue had the power of what I assumed five Viagras would.

  Rolling up onto my toes, I pressed harder against him and deepened the kiss. It was a game of cat and mouse between our tongues, but the reward for being caught was a lash of Ren’s tongue along mine. His hands had moved down to my ass, and suddenly they were on my thighs, and I was up in the air with my legs around his waist and moving toward wherever Ren had in mind. As my back hit the feathery softness of my comforter, I refused to release Ren from the strong hold my legs had on him—not that he was trying too hard to escape. I pulled his shirt out of his jeans and shoved my hands under it, desperate to feel his silky soft hardness again, but he surprised me by grabbing his shirt with one hand at the back and pulling it off over his head, leaving me with a close-up of his chest. Befor
e he could lie back down on me, I swooped forward and licked in amongst the grooves of his six-pack, or eight-pack—I’d count later. He groaned above me, grabbed my hair, and gently tugged my head back so that I was looking up at him.

  “Fuck, baby, what did I do right?” he asked, gently stroking my lip with his thumb. “Whatever it is, I’m gonna continue doing it so that you never leave me.” His eyes were watching his thumb, but they flicked up to look into mine, and he finished with, “Ever.”

  That was it for me, and I pulled him down and kissed him like my life depended on it. Before, the kisses had been hot, but these were on fire. My dress was pulled up to my belly button with my legs still around his waist, and Ren was grinding against me again. When I pulled away to catch my breath, he took the opportunity to kiss down my neck and across my chest. My dress was stretchy, so he just pulled it down and then froze.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He was just lying there staring, and it was starting to worry me. Was there something wrong with what I was wearing?

  “I have never seen anything so perfect and so beautiful in my life,” he rasped. “And you’re mine.”

  I couldn’t wait anymore, and I flipped him the same way I had last night. Sitting astride him, I sat up and pulled my dress over my head, making him groan loudly. He lifted his hands and then stopped and moved them back like he was afraid to touch me, so I gently took his hands and moved them forward until he had a cupped breast in each hand.

  I was slightly embarrassed about my because they were large and I’d started developing way before other girls in my grade at school, but Ren’s hands were the perfect size for them. He took over control of his hands and gently squeezed while taking in a loud breath.

  He looked up at my face and started undoing the front fastening hooks. I was going to have to thank Scarlett for that, too, because it had made it a dream to get on earlier, and it was making it a dream to take off now—or rather, for Ren to take off. When he got to the last hook, he undid it and then ever so slowly he pulled the sides apart and looked down.