“Thanks, honey, I’d like that.”
“Your wish is my command, m’lady. I’ll even make you that tea when I get back, too.”
I walked toward the door, stopping when I remembered a small issue with my plan. “Hey, Maya?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you show me how to make tea first?”
I couldn’t understand why she was laughing so hard. It was a valid request, because how could I make her tea if I didn’t know how? It always looked so technical in the moves, with brewing and bag dunking—damn, that sounded dirty.
Remembering that she had a coffee machine in the kitchen, I altered course to check the brand. I’d just get her tea pods for it. And people said they worried about my sanity. Pshaw!
Chapter Twenty-Six
Maya
A va had texted telling me that we were all due a night out at Sheeve’s since last night had been cut short. I’d have much rather sat at home watching cable and eating junk food, which would have been a lot, given everything Cole had bought at the store. Reluctantly, I’d agreed to go out.
After a couple of bottles of the champagne that magically seemed to appear on the table, the conversation turned to men.
“What’s the V shape that guys have?” I asked, almost falling off my chair as I swung around to look at Tony. “Is it V for Vagina happy maker?” I snorted, and I had to catch the table so that I didn’t face plant on the floor. Damn, the stools were wobbly in here.
“No, it’s heaven’s arrow,” Tony replied with the goofiest grin on his face.
“No,” cried Isla, who was starting to sway a bit. “It means V for Vagina Vendetta,” she crowed, making us all laugh, catching the attention of the other patrons in the VIP lounge.
“Ah, fuck,” a deep voice said behind me, and I regretted turning so quickly when the room continued moving after I’d stopped. Seeing Ethan behind us, we all yelled his name as he stood glaring at us with his hands on his hips. “Do you have any idea the amount of shit you’re about to bring to my club? Couldn’t you at least have come here ugly?”
“Ethan, it’s cool, we’ve got Tony here,” Scarlett piped up, gesturing to Tony, who was sitting there with his mouth wide open as he took in the hotness that was Ethan. It was unfair how hot he was, and sadly he didn’t even come close to Ren.
Ava, who’d gone to the bathroom as we’d started talking about men’s V shapes, bounced up to the table. “I have the answer! V for vagina perch—no batteries required!”
Normally Ava was a bit more reserved, so we all sat staring at her for a couple of seconds before Ethan broke the silence. “Oh, fucking hell! You too? Mace is gonna murder me in my sleep.”
“He has no say in anything to do with me. Not that he’d give a shit anyway, so you can sleep soundly,” she informed him in a cool voice. What the hell had Mace done now?
Ethan blinked and then turned to me, looking me over. “You okay? You seem different.”
“Maybe because she’s sheeengle….no wait shiiiiggle,” Scarlett slurred.
“What?” Ethan frowned at me. I had no desire to join in the conversation, so I turned back around to the table and stared at my drink. “What happened?”
“Well,” Scarlett began, and she told Ethan the events of the past three days, not missing one single detail in her inebriated state, sadly.
“That dumb asshole,” Ethan said, walking away and over to the bar.
“Sorry, honey,” Scarlett said, looking at me and realizing that I had gone quiet and was no longer giggling and laughing.
Giving her a weak smile, I was about to give her the standard ‘it’s fine’ response, but Ava, who was the soberest out of us all, leaned across the table in Scarlett’s direction. “I was kicking you to get you to stop, but you just kept on going like the Energizer bunny with verbal diarrhea.”
“Actually, that was me you were kicking,” Tony said, following it with a hiccup and a tiny burp. Classy guy!
“Ohh, I’m sorry!”
Waving it off, Tony launched back into different names for the V on a man’s pelvis. I was still having a good night, but I wasn’t feeling as carefree anymore.
“These are for you, ladies and gentleman, courtesy of the boss,” the hot bartender said, setting a tray with more shots and a bottle of champagne on the table.
“Uh-oh,” Ava singsonged, looking wide-eyed behind us. Turning around, I saw Luke, Mace, Cole, and Ren walking towards us, reminding me of the last time we’d been here.
Turning back to the table, I picked up the bottle of champagne and started to take the lid off of it so that I had something to do with my hands. Luke leaned over my shoulder, giving me a kiss on the cheek, and then went to Isla to give her a kiss hello. Mace walked around to Ava, who didn’t even acknowledge him, as Ren pulled up a chair beside me. Cole sat down on the other side of me, giving me a wink, and then looked at the bottle in my hand with wide eyes.
“Maya, how drunk are you?” he asked, looking from the bottle to me and back again.
“Roasty toasty, my man,” I sniggered, working on the cork bit by bit so that I could ease it out of the bottle. As if it happened in slow motion, the cork went shooting out of the bottle and hit Cole in the center of his forehead, stunning him until it sank in and he turned to glare at me. I really needed to start giving this job to someone else.
“Really, Maya? That fucking hurt,” he whined, rubbing his forehead. I couldn’t help it; the laughter just burst out of me, and once I started, everyone else joined in. “Fuck you guys!” he grumbled as he got up and walked away.
As the laughter finally died down, an arm went around my waist.
“Can we talk, baby?”
Turning slowly, I nodded.
Taking a deep breath, he said, “I cannot apologize enough for what happened. I swear, I didn’t touch her.” He leaned over and grabbed my hand, refusing to let it go when I gave it a tug. “I swear on everything I hold dear I didn’t, and I didn’t kiss her, either. She put her mouth on mine; I wouldn’t do that to you. I do trust you, I’ve always trusted you, but…” He ran his hands through his hair, making me realize how much I’d missed doing that. “I saw the photo and the name and jumped to the wrong conclusions, and for that I’m so sorry, baby.
“Brett told me to take a couple of days to think shit over, but I should have spoken to you. Maya, I love you so goddamn much, more than I ever believed was possible, and that’s no lie. I fucked up, but not in the way that the psychotwunt made out, I swear. Give me a chance to make it up to you, please?”
I sat back and mulled over it all, trying to figure out if I believed him or not. It was all just so petty, and what with all of the accidents at work and the near accident in Florida, I had a full plate of drama and stress. Did I want to add to it? I'm not a pushover, far from it, but Tony and I had talked about what Cole had told us today and Tony had helped put it into perspective for me. Ren had never been in a relationship before, in fact he'd never come across someone he even wanted to be committed to at all. Did it excuse his behavior? No, but it explained his insecurities. I'd been in relationships, but I was jaded after Andy which on top of Ren's past made me insecure too. Tony was right, this could either make or break us and I needed to make a choice and stick with it.
“Okay!”
Ren stood up and leaned over me, kissing me on the forehead, then the tip of my nose, and then gently on my lips. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you too.”
It wasn’t the end of the shit storm, but at least it was the beginning of the end of it. I hope.
Ren
Five hours earlier…
When Cole came home, although I was relieved that he’d spoken to Maya, I was pissed off at what had happened while she’d been away.
“Why the fuck would someone try to run her over?” I ranted, pacing back and forth in front of him. I was staying at Tom’s while the crew finished off my place because they were using chemicals that caused migraines and there wa
s dust and shit everywhere. So, at that moment, I was pacing in front of his couch, which was this big black-and-red monstrosity, while Cole and Mace sat back watching me. “And she let you hold her?”
“It was a moment that I will always cherish,” Cole said in what I assumed was meant to be a British accent. “Her beautiful breasts crushed up against my chest, her bouncy ass pressed against my d—” He never got to finish, because I was in the air diving at him as he did a girly scream. I took us over the back of the couch, doing the thing a favor by breaking the back off of it, and put the soon-to-be dead ass cactus in a headlock that left him gasping for breath.
Mace remained sitting in the easy chair he’d commandeered when we’d arrived, watching us with a bored expression on his face.
“I…can’t…help that…I’m so s…” Cole croaked as I tightened up my arms around his neck. In a total bitch move, he rammed his fist into the center of my stomach, making me lose my grip and curl into a little ball while I tried to get air into my lungs.
Standing up, Cole looked at the damage to Tom’s couch and made a gasping sound as he tried to catch his breath. “Ohhhh, you in deep shit. Tom’s gonna kick your ass.”
The last noise I heard was Mace’s sigh as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. I would have done the same, but I was already airborne with my hands reaching for Cole’s throat again.
I had been worried all last night that Maya wouldn’t give me the time of day to explain myself when we arrived at the club. Mom had told me that I should tell her the truth and that I trusted her and would prove that she could trust me. I hadn’t been expecting the reaming that I’d gotten from Ethan after I’d spoken to her, but it made sense, as he knew more than anyone how much it hurt to lose the person who held your heart. Poor bastard!
We’d made sure that all of them had made it home safely, and I’d gotten to give a very drunk Maya a kiss goodnight. I hadn’t even reacted to Cole’s, “Pussy!” as I’d walked through the door of Tom’s house. It was fair to say I had regained my woosah.
Maya wanted to get Tony properly settled so the next morning I went over to my parents’ home for breakfast and walked in on what looked like a freaking family gathering. Brett was sitting at the table, along with my grandparents, my parents, and Captain Skinny Dick.
“So, Ren, my boy, I heard you done fucked up with the beautiful Maya,” Gramps sounded from his corner of the table as he stuffed a biscuit into his mouth. “In my day…” All our eyes glazed over, including Grams’s. Looking up at Cole, I had no doubt that he was probably thinking about his latest Harlequin romance, because he had this small smile on his face as he looked down at his crotch. The last time he’d done that, we’d figured perhaps he’d finally hit puberty, but this time, I knew what he was up to. Dropping my fork on the floor, I slipped under the table, grabbed the book from his hand, and got back out again before running away from him.
“‘Oh, Jason,’ she gasped as he lifted her skirts with his hands and…”
An hour later, drenched and muddy, Cole and I made our way back to our homes to have another shower—on top of the one Mom had given us with the hose as we were rolling around in the dirt trying to get each other into a headlock. She’d kept it on us even longer when she’d discovered that Cole had stolen her new book and had highlighted it before she could read it.
I’d jumped away from it and yelled for Dash to come and entertain his loving uncle. “Oh my God, he’s biting my nipple,” and “Why does he always go for the arm?” Cole whined. He finished begging Mom to aim the water all over him to wash away the shame as he curled up into a little ball and shook.
“Fucker!” Cole grumbled as he moved past. “I hadn’t even finished it. At least I’ve got it on my Kindle.”
Closing Tom’s front door behind me and leaving Dash outside to lie in the sunshine, I removed the device that I’d stolen ten minutes after I’d arrived this morning and put it in Dash’s bed. Heading to the shower, I pictured Cole crawling along the floor looking for his Kindle. Sometimes life was fucking awesome.
Maya
Tony and I spent the day catching up on laundry and chores and getting over the raging hangover that we both had. I didn’t even have the strength by lunchtime to pick up my laptop and look through the two designs that I’d planned to work on today.
“So, what did naughty hottie have to say?” I knew that Tony had been itching to ask all day about what Ren had said, so the fact he’d lasted until now was impressive.
Hearing Tony sigh from beside me, I turned to look at him. From the expression on his face, I just knew he wasn’t going to give in, so I repeated it all. I’d expected him to react and either say Ren was full of shit or to ask what I was going to do; instead, he started fanning himself. “Well, fuck me. Disney got it all wrong,” he said, and then walked away, leaving me confused as hell.
The next day at work was insane. I’d spent the rest of my Sunday talking to my parents and FaceTiming with the girls, with Tony joining in on the conversations. I hadn’t told them what had happened, so the conversation had mainly consisted of us all laughing at Tony’s antics.
At eleven, we left to check out the renovations on Ren’s property, and afterward we were going to visit another site that work was being carried out on. Because of all of the accidents that were happening on our sites at the moment, we were reminding our workers to exercise due diligence on health and safety.
So far, on one of the sites, six of the metal scaffolding poles had been cut through so that it was just a matter of time until they buckled and whoever was on it plummeted to the ground. A couple of the machines power cables had also come back faulty, and at the most recent site, sixteen wooden beams had been cut so that the first time any weight was put on them they would have snapped.
Now when I visited a site, I was to make sure I had a hardhat on and to look at what we were using on the site, checking to make sure it wasn’t worn or damaged. The inspector leading the investigation said he felt that the damage was deliberate, and that had led to a huge discussion this morning about what enemies we had, all of which were being looked into by the police.
“Holy shit, My, this looks beautiful,” Tony whispered, turning in circles and looking at the area around us. They had put the finish on the wood and were done with the decorating and fixtures, so now it was just a matter of putting in the soft furnishings. As I led him into the new kitchen, Tony gasped and grabbed the wall beside him. “Have mercy! This is the kitchen from heaven; I don’t even cook, but I want this kitchen.”
As we came out of the kitchen, we heard footsteps walking across the hall above us. “Hello?” I shouted, listening as the footsteps got to the last set of stairs. I made my way towards it, assuming it was one of the workers, although they should have been at lunch.
Tony and I looked at each other in confusion as bare legs came into sight. Francheska appeared, looking like she’d been ridden dry and put away wet, wearing a black shirt like Ren had been wearing on Saturday night. She yawned and then smirked, sticking her chest out. “Excuse me, you’ll have to leave.”
I remembered that Ren was staying in one of the other houses because the materials we were using tended to give people migraines. He’d told me yesterday that he and Cole owed whoever’s house it was a new couch, as the other one had met an untimely death, whatever that meant. So why would he sleep here with her? It just didn’t add up.
“Did you hear me?” She put her hands on her hips, moving the shirt that had hardly covered much before up about three inches, flashing her naked hoohah at Tony and me.
“Oh, sweet baby Jesus and doggy style Mary, what the hell is that? Her sausage wallet looks more like one of those dogs with the saggy ears, My. Oh God, why am I still seeing it? Make it stop,” Tony whined in between gags and rubbing his eyes. I’ll admit I wasn’t an expert on the subject, but if that was what overuse did to you, then it would put you off sex for life.
The front door banged open, and Ren and Col
e walked in laughing and talking about something. “I gotta admit, she’s done a good job in here, man,” Cole said. “If this is what her work’s like, I can’t wait to see…oh my God, what the fuck is that?” he yelled from behind us.
“What the shit?” Ren walked up behind me. “Why are you wearing my shirt? And for fuck’s sake, pull it down, that shit is not okay!”
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Tony mumbled from beside me, and took off in the direction of the new downstairs toilet that I’d just finished showing him.
“Hey, baby,” the bitch with the Beagle-eared twat in front of me cooed. “I was so tired after last night that I’ve just gotten up.”
Ren flinched as if he’d been slapped. “What?”
Cole burst out laughing and bent over, holding his side.
“As if! If you were telling the truth, you’d know that Ren wasn’t even living in this house at the moment. He doesn’t even have a bed in his bedroom.” Cole paused, as always adding a bit more dramatic effect to the situation, like this needed any. “And guess what?” He was getting way too much of a kick out of this, but I was perversely enjoying the show. “You went home with Biggus Dickus last night, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Francheska was looking around her now and slowly stepping towards Ren, who was still standing looking at her in horror.
“I swear, Maya…”
“So, Francheska, seeing as you got dick from Dick last night, wanna tell us what the hell you’re doing in my brother’s home?” Most of the time, Cole had a goofy grin on his face or found humor in the most inappropriate moments, but right now he was far from his usual self.
“Save it.” Ren had finally unstuck from his stupor. “Get the fuck out of my home!”
At that moment, Tony walked back through, looking through his man bag to find something, and jumped as he heard Ren’s anger. “Oh, fuck this. If you ever want to say adios to Felicia, you need a gay guy!”
Providence Series Books 1-4 Page 21
