She groaned breaking my thoughts and turned her face in my direction and I saw the frown on her forehead. Looking at the clock, I saw she was due her painkillers, so I got them ready and picked up the bottle of water. Turning back to her, I saw that the frown was more pronounced; she was definitely in pain.
“Baby,” I whispered, gently shaking her. She opened her eyes and let out a moan. “It’s time for your painkillers, sweetheart.”
She blinked and I saw tears forming. The surgeon had warned me that she would be in a lot of pain when he’d released her because of the surgery and the fact that she was badly bruised from the fall. I kept her medications to the dosage and times that he’d advised, but sometimes it just became too much for her. Seeing her in this much pain killed me.
“Here you go, baby,” I sat her up slightly and passed her the pills and then held the bottle out to her. When she was done, I lay her back down and got the special cuff that they’d given us that had a coolant thing in it to reduce the swelling and pressure in her knee and put it on the area. She whimpered and I wondered if maybe I should call the doctor to make sure that she was okay.
“Brett,” she had the most beautiful French accent. It wasn’t a strong one, but it had an almost musical lilt to it. “It hurts.”
“I’m calling the doctor.”
I’d just turned to snag my phone when she grabbed my hand. “No, please,” she said before pulling me over to her. The last couple of days, we’d taken to lying with her head on my chest when she was in pain, so I lay down and let her get into position.
“I can call him if you like. I hate you being in pain.”
“It’s to be expected. The medication should start to work soon.” She went so quiet afterward that I thought she’d fallen back to sleep. “Thank you for being my hero,” she murmured dopily, and then I felt her body relax; the painkillers had worked. I hated having to give her the types of medications that she’d been prescribed, but right now they were what she needed.
Every woman that I’d been with had made demands from me for my time, money, gifts, extravagant shit, whatever; they all wanted something. I’d been waiting for Sabine to start demanding things, but all she ever wanted was for me to hold her like this when the pain was too much. Well, on top of her addiction to action movies; that had been a shock.
When I’d first brought her home, we’d been lying in bed, and she’d asked if I was up for watching something with her. I’d expected the standard chick flick and was stunned when she chose Olympus Has Fallen. After that, it had been action movie after action movie and when I’d told her she could choose another genre she’d explained that she saved romance for books because it hit her harder; action movies were her favorites. That night we’d fallen asleep together when I’d intended to move through to the spare room, and I hadn’t left that bed since. So far, we’d watched the entire Die Hard series, Lethal Weapon series, Star Wars and any other movie that had shooting and danger in it. I’d assumed that horror movies would be included, but she’d shot that down immediately; my girl hated those.
I knew that I’d been wrong judging her by the standards of the trash that had come before her, but what she didn’t know is that I’d never allowed a woman that wasn’t family in my home. This was my place to unwind and to relax in, and with all of the shit that had happened to my family and the Montgomerys recently, I’d needed the sanctuary.
Having her here, though, made the anxiety that I’d been feeling go away. I loved walking into the room and smelling her in my space. I loved opening my cupboard and seeing her stuff hanging in it. I loved looking after her and making her stuff to eat or just carrying her around. I swore I’d never do this, but I didn’t know if I could stop it. Or even if I wanted to.
Sabine
I woke up to Brett putting a cup of coffee beside the bed along with my pills. When I’d first met him, I’d already heard the rumors about him and how he went through women. I’d also heard about his business mind and how he was much respected in our industry, but I’d judged him based on the other rumors. How stupid did I feel?
When I’d moved out here, he had left me to find my own way, but had also made sure that I was settled and okay. Over the months, we had started spending more time together, and I felt terrible about my judgement when I found out how funny and nice he was. Not once had I picked up on the asshole side that I’d heard about. There had been a couple of occasions when I was in his office that a woman had tried to get in and had been turned away, and his phone often had messages from women on it, but he hadn’t left my side unless he had to go back to his family. The way he spoke about them was beautiful, and I envied the relationship that he had with them. I came from a wealthy family who expected my sisters and me to marry into wealth and my brothers to build my father’s business. When I’d taken the inheritance left to me by ma grand-mere and had attended university in Cambridge they had been disgusted with me. When I’d started working in the oil industry, though, they had turned their backs on me completely and refused to even let me speak to my baby sister. I missed Seline so much! We were the closest out of all of us, and I wished I could just speak to her for five minutes.
I was happy with my decision to move to Houston, and I loved working for the Townsend Oil Company and Brett, but there was one issue. The head of Personnel, Jerry, had been making me very uncomfortable. When we’d moved to the new offices after the fire, he had taken an office closer to mine, and now he came in whenever he could and would get very close to me. The day before my accident, he’d skimmed my breast and had smiled at me and always kept his face very close to me. Then there were the occasions where he would come into the copier room or supply closet and close the door and press himself against me. This industry was still a very male one, so I was scared to voice my worries. I’d also had to take a lot of time off because of my chest, and now my leg, so I didn’t want to push my luck. It made me dread going into work though because he was doing more and more and getting closer and closer. I knew that I had to tell Brett at some point, I just didn’t know how and if he would believe me.
“What’s got you so worried,” Brett had come back into the room and sat down on the bed beside me.
“Nothing,” I tried to give him a light hearted smile, but he was very astute and the look on his face said he didn’t believe me.
“You know you can tell me anything, don’t you?”
I really needed to go to the toilet, so I nodded and started to move carefully to the edge of the bed. The surgeon had said that a physical therapist would visit soon to tell me what exercises I could do and how much weight I could put on my leg, and I couldn’t wait to have some independence back. Right now, I couldn’t weight bear and the crutches hurt my arms so Brett had taken to carrying me around. For this, though, I would suffer the crutches.
“Where are you off to?”
“The little girl’s room,” I grinned at him. He’d laughed when I first called it that so it had become our private joke.
Laughing at me, he picked me up and started in the direction of the en suite. “Brett, please. I can go on my own. It’s not necessary!”
Ignoring me, he walked into the bathroom and placed me on the toilet. “Do you need any help?”
I think my horrified expression was enough of an answer for him. As he left, I thought about how he laughed at my formal English and the way that I pronounced certain words. He’d also told me that his sister-in-law had grown up in England, I hoped that I got the chance to meet her.
Finishing up, I flushed and was just standing to wash my hands when Brett came in and carried me to the basin. He really was so different to the rumors, and the guilt of judging him hit me all over again.
It would be a shame when I was healed and able to return to my own apartment. I loved our time together, and the way that he looked after me and looked at me made me feel like more than just an asset for the first time in my life. The husband that my parents had picked out for me, Henry, was a banker
and had licked his lips when he first saw me. He also had a bad reputation and was well known to have mistresses all over France. He disgusted me!
Brett carried me back out to the bed and made sure that my leg was supported by the pillows.
“I’m not holding you back from work, am I?” I asked as he lay down beside me. “I can manage if you need to go to the office.”
He just shook his head and picked up the remote. When he lifted his arm, I cuddled into him, and we started watching the movie that we’d discussed the night before. I knew that I had feelings for him and that he wouldn’t return them. If we were meant to be friends it would be hard, but I enjoyed being with him, so I would do it. As my grand-mere always said, c’est la vie; sometimes the decisions hurt, but they were for the best.
Chapter 21
Cole
T hree months later…
Ebru’s Mom was recovering slowly, and after everything that we’d been through I figured my girl needed a vacation. She had shown me Louise’s journal, and in it, there had been plans for them to tour around Australia and New Zealand once Eb had finished getting her qualifications. I’d been planning the trip for the last five weeks and tonight was the night that I was going to kidnap her and take her to the airport. Maya’s Dad had been awesome and helped me get all of the necessary paperwork sorted out, and Luke was lending me his company’s jet. We were stopping for two nights in Dubai too. I was going to spoil my baby rotten. I also had another surprise for her while we were away, I just hoped that she liked it.
Ebru
We were currently on a beautiful plane flying somewhere. Where? I wished I knew because I’d always hated surprises, but Cole looked so excited right now that I couldn’t bring myself to yell at him.
I’d gotten home and found a bunch of cases by the door. Initially, I’d had a moment of panic that he had become sick of me and was going to ask me to leave, but then he’d walked up to me and told me to get changed into the outfit that he’d left on the bed and to meet him where we were currently standing. We’d already had a refueling stop in Frankfurt, but he was very quiet about where we were headed to after we took off again.
This led us to now, and no matter what I said he wouldn’t tell me where we were going.
“We are beginning our descent into Dubai International Airport. Please fasten your seat belt’s and prepare for landing.” The Captains’ voice said over the intercom.
“Dubai?” I looked at Cole to see him grinning at me. This had been one of the places that I’d always wanted to see, and that Louise and I had planned to visit.
“Yup. It’s vacay time!”
Looking at him in shock still, I was trying to find the words to show how much this meant to me, but none seemed strong enough. He’d never know exactly how huge this was, and God I wished that Lou could have been here to experience it too.
Three weeks later….
We were back on an airplane, headed towards New Zealand after just under three weeks spent touring around Australia. We’d started in Sydney and had then headed to Canberra to see Maya’s family for a couple of days. Her parents were a blast, and her Dad had been looking up micro pigs and what he’d have to do quarantine wise when their posting to Australia was over. Cole had smugly told him about his new piglet, who was staying with Maya and Ren, and Lasco had upped his search for the perfect piglet.
After seeing them, we’d headed towards Queensland and the Gold Coast, which was just so beautiful that I hadn’t wanted to leave. This was another of mine and Louise’s plans and dreams for when I’d graduated, to tour around Oz. The fact that Cole had found this out and had made it happen just blew me away, and I knew that no matter what I did from now on, I would never be able to do anything that would match this for him.
This morning, we’d gone to the airport to catch the flight to our next destination. I had been thinking that maybe he was taking us to Bali like Luke and Isla, but when we’d been queuing for our flight, it had said Auckland.
When I was seventeen, Lou and I had planned out our dream trip and had been determined that it would happen once I’d graduated from college. So far, Cole had fulfilled all of our dreams, and now he was doing more.
“So, you know where we are,” he said as we got into the vehicle that he’d rented. “But what you don’t know is where we’re going.”
Looking at him, I said the words that I’d only said once before, “I trust you.” And I meant them.
Slamming on the breaks, he turned and looked at me with a scowl on his face. “Don’t make me want to fuck you when I have to drive, Eb. It’s not fair! Have you ever tried to drive with a hard-on? What if I grab the wrong thing?” I burst out laughing at how indignant he was over his hard-on. “Uh huh, you laugh. When we stop, you’re fixing my problem.”
That stopped me laughing, not because it was a bad thing, but because now I was in the female version of the same predicament as he was. His snort proved he knew what he’d done. Asshat! I still loved his stupid, irritating ass, though.
Ebru
Two weeks later…
I was going to kill him, painfully…and slowly. I hated that asshole’s guts!
“Come on baby, you know you want to!” he said as he was strapped into the harness that would lead him to his death.
“I really don’t,” I shook my head and backed away from the evil man who was holding one of the harnesses out for me too.
“Come on, don’t be a chicken.” That’s it, he was going to plummet to his death anyway, so what would it hurt if I was the one who pushed him. “Ah, ah, ah…no, you’re not allowed to do that,” Cole wiggled his finger at me as I glared at him.
“I’m not doing it!”
“Yes, you are. Harness her up.”
I had no option but to go to the reaper who was hot, but pure Satan, and get strapped up.
“Okay, I’ll go first and then once I’m on the ground, you jump.”
It had all seemed so idyllic up until now. We’d visited so many beautiful places and had even gone up to the top of Mount Cook in a tiny airplane and had walked around. When he’d said that we were headed to Queenstown, I’d looked it up on my phone and had been excited when I’d seen the photographs. We’d arrived last night, and when he’d said he had plans, I’d expected more of what we’d done the whole time we’d been on vacation. But no - the asshole had to bring me fucking bungee jumping.
“Right baby, I’ll see you at the bottom.” He stood at the edge, about to meet his maker.
“Cole, I really don’t…”
“It’ll be like your dreams in the journal. Louise wanted to go to the top of Mount Cook, and you wanted to bungee jump,” he turned and faced me with a huge grin before falling off the edge backward.
Oh, fuck no! “THAT WAS LOUISE!” I screamed, because I was the one who wanted to go to Mount Cook.
Knowing that he’d done this for that reason, I couldn’t back out now. Oh, fuck my life! I was terrified of heights.
Cole
I was pretty certain I’d heard her scream when I went off the edge of the ledge. I’d chosen this bungee facility for a reason, and she was about to find that reason out. I’ll admit, the second that I started to fall, my heart went into my mouth as the ground rushed towards me. Four hundred feet had sounded so easy when I’d booked it, but when your head was speeding towards the ground, it really wasn’t.
I hit the end of the chord and bounced up and down for a couple of minutes before throwing my arms over my head and yelling. “That was fucking awesome!” The two guys who were there to unhook me burst out laughing. “Now, don’t forget the plan yeah?”
I looked up and saw Ebru holding onto the bungee guys leg as he stood there laughing. I was starting to doubt the plan that I’d made, but it had been her writing in the journal. I knew my girl’s handwriting anywhere, and she’d clearly said that she wanted to go bungee jumping while she was here.
Fuck, what was I gonna do if she backed out? I had this planned!
/>
The next second, she was over the edge, and we heard her screams quite clearly at the bottom. About half way down, she changed from a scream to some sort of cuss word extravaganza show. I’d never heard anything like it, and judging by the laughter from the two guys behind me, neither had they.
“Cockfuckshitfuckerbastardmotherfuckinghumpingpieceofshiiiiiiiiiit.” I’d say that she was about one hundred and seventy feet away from us, and we still heard it all perfectly.
As she hit the end of her chord, there was a ‘guh’ sound from her and the screaming and swearing stopped, until she bounced up the way again. “Make it stop. Mother fucking cock sucking shitting fuuuuuuuhuhuhuh,” the last bit came out as she bounced up and down slowly, coming to a stop upside down.
Walking up to her, I turned her around to face me. “Did you love it?”
“You’re a dead man. A fucking dead man!”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Okay baby, but you got to live your dream! It was worth it.”
“That was Louise’s dream you shit face. Not mine!” She yelled the last bit to my forehead as she glared at my chin.
“Ah, see, I could have sworn that it was yours,” this was problematic, but fuck it I was here now, so I was going to do it. “I have a question to ask.”
“I don’t ever want to see your shitty face again.”
“Now baby, it’s over now. And there will be some awesome photographs as well as videos to show everyone when we get home.” We’ll just put hers on mute.
She continued to glare at me as she hung upside down. “Let me down.”
Providence Series Books 1-4 Page 71
