Crossing my arms, I looked at her while I tapped my chin. Maybe I was goading the dragon, but I had to get her to agree, and if I let her down now she’d walk away and I’d have to come up with another plan. “Mmmm, nope. Tell me that you’ll listen to my question.”
“No!”
“Then I’ll get Brad to reel you up and then drop you down again until you say you’ll hear me out.” The guys behind me burst out laughing. I looked up and was relieved that there wasn’t anyone waiting as I saw Brad give me the thumbs up. I had some time.
“You dare!” She hissed. “You dare!”
Shrugging, I made a point of taking a few slow steps backward, looking up at Brad, and then making a spinning motion with my finger. He had no clue what the hell I was doing, but it got Ebru’s attention.
“No, no, please for the love of shit. I’ll listen, I’ll listen.”
“Are you sure? I mean, we can either leave you hanging until all of the blood rushes to your head, or as I say, Brad can do it all over again.” I felt kind of bad blackmailing her, but this was the most important moment of my life.
“I’m listening. Please, just get it over and done with!”
Walking slowly back to her, I made sure that there were only a couple of inches between our faces and stooped down a bit until we were eye to eye. “Ebru Dhyana Wells, will you marry me?”
I lifted the open box up between us so that she could see the diamond ring that I’d been carrying around for the last two months.
She froze and stared at the diamond that was glinting in the sun. In fact, she stared and stayed quiet for so long that her face had started to go a deep red, and I was starting to worry that she would pass out from blood loss. Or blood to the brain, whatever it was called.
“Well?” I was nervous. I’d been rehearsing the begging speech in my head in case she said no. It just wasn’t an option to not walk away from here with the ring on her finger. “Do I need to get Brad to wake you up a bit with some bouncy bouncy?” That snapped her out of her stupor and she burst into tears and nodded her head. At least I think it was a nod, it was hard to tell. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes,” she squeaked, and I put the ring on her finger and stood up to kiss her. Unfortunately, Spiderman lied - it’s almost impossible to kiss someone properly upside down. It just didn’t work, so I had to stand back until after they’d lowered her and helped us out of our harnesses before scooping her up for a kiss.
I heard a round of applause behind us and remembered that I’d chosen the facility that was actually over Queenstown itself, so there were a lot of spectators. “She said yes!” I yelled, and threw my fist up in the air.
Pulling Ebru back to me, I grinned down at her. “You’re a dead man,” she ground out through her smile. Ah, that’s what she said now, but that was without a doubt the most romantic moment in the history of man. She loved every second of it.
“I can’t wait to watch the videos that they took of our jumps,” I threw my arm over her shoulders and started steering her towards the office. “This is definitely one to show the kids and grandkids. We’ll just say that the sound broke on yours.”
Staring at her ring as we walked, she didn’t look up at me once as she said, “I’m terrified of heights. Always have been. When Louise said that she wanted to go bungee jumping, I was literally sick at the thought, so we agreed that I’d wait at the bottom for her. And you made me jump.”
That was when I realized how much shit I was in.
Ebru
I couldn’t stop staring at the ring that was now sitting on my finger. I hated yellow gold and refused to wear anything that was made with it, so Cole had bought me a platinum ring with a diamond on the top and a band of diamonds on either side of it. If I’d been asked to choose my own ring, this was exactly what I’d have chosen. Now that my heart had been relocated to its proper place in my chest, after ricocheting between my brain and ass, I almost felt bad for what I was going to do to get my revenge on him.
He was sitting on the bed watching the footage of our jumps on his laptop laughing, so I’d taken the opportunity to go into the bathroom and put on some special lingerie that I’d picked up. I’d also put the special surprise that I’d had for months in case he ever did something shitty on too. Did he deserve it seeing as he’d proposed? Maybe not, but at the same time I was terrified of heights, I couldn’t stress that to the world enough. Most people can stand on a chair or step ladder to change a light bulb, I’d freeze if I did that and panic about getting back down again. We all have our fears and heights was mine. So, yes, he deserved this.
“Hey, honey?” I leaned against the door frame and waited for him to look up at me. All night he’d been nervously checking his drinks and food in case I chose that for revenge, and by the time we’d gotten back to the hotel room, I could tell he thought that I’d forgiven him. Stupid ass!
“Huh?” His eyes were firmly on the screen of the laptop. Normally it was his iPad and whatever book he was reading that had his attention before bed; well, and me too. That’s how I knew that this plan would work so well.
“Cole,” I made sure to lower my voice, hoping that I sounded seductive and not like Marge Simpson. Apparently, I got it right because he turned in my direction and his eyes went huge as he took in the lingerie that I’d bought from Scarlett. I’d grabbed it when I went upstairs to change before we left Piersville, and had kept it hidden in my bag the whole time. It was a skimpy, form-fitting and very short nightie which had lace over my breasts and along the bottom. Under it was a small matching thong.
“Oh shit!” Bingo!
Moving over to him, he put the laptop on the table never taking his eyes off of me. It was a struggle to keep the evil grin at my genius under wraps, but I did it. Crawling up the bed towards him, I straddled his lap and made myself comfortable, pressed up against him as close as I could get.
“Fuck, Eb, you look…where did you hide this thing?” He ran his hands up and down my sides. The silk moving up and down my skin really felt good.
“I was saving it for something special, and I figured that this,” I pointed at both of us, “was that something special.”
As I leaned in to kiss him, he whispered, “I fucking can’t wait to have you as my wife. Knowing that you’re mine for the rest of our lives.” Well shit. I won’t feel guilty, I will not feel guilty!
I kissed him softly and licked across the seam of his mouth, before gently sucking on his lower lip. His restraint broke when I did that, and he hugged me to him as he thrust his tongue into my mouth. Groaning when I sucked on his tongue, he moved us so that we were lying on the bed, with him on top of me.
As he started to kiss down my neck, I gently pulled my nails down his back, knowing that it was his weakness. “Fuuuuck,” he groaned, as he got to my breast, before sucking the nipple through the lace. The roughness against the silk of his tongue had me almost forgetting why I was doing this as I thrust my hips up against him. When he moved over to the other nipple and did the same thing, I couldn’t help the loud groan that came out.
“I fucking love you,” he mumbled as he kissed down the silk nightie. “Love, love, love, love,” he punctuated each one with a kiss to the silk. When he got to the bottom, he used his big hands to push the bottom of my nightie up until it was just under my breasts, missing the surprise. “These are very cheeky little panties,” he whispered, running his finger just under the edge of them. “We’ll go and get every color when we get home.”
Then he changed course and started to kiss back up the way, most likely thinking that he was teasing me, but now I was focused on what was about to happen. As he got to my belly button, he noticed that I’d finally put a bar back through the piercing. I tended not to wear one because it had gotten caught one time when we lifted a patient, and since then I only wore one when I remembered and wasn’t working. I’d had it for so long that the piercing stayed open anyway.
“What have we got here?” He spun the charm hanging fr
om it around so he could see it. “What the he…” he never finished it as he screamed and jumped away from me. In his panic, he hadn’t realized how close to the edge we were, and the thud as he hit the ground echoed around the room. Personally, I had to agree that the charm of the clown from the movie It was scary as hell, but he’d deserved it.
Leaning over the edge of the bed, I saw Cole holding the side of his head and groaning. “I think I have a brain injury.”
Rolling my eyes, I got up and pulled his hand away. When I saw the blood, I’ll admit to feeling a little bit guilty. When I saw the actual cut, I felt a lot guilty. Sighing, I stood up and went and got a towel to hold on it.
“You’re likely gonna need that glued.” Scowling at me, he sniffed and looked the other way. “Hey, look at it this way - you proposed with my biggest phobia, and I said yes with yours!” I gave him the sweetest smile that I could and hoped that he’d see the funny side of this at some point.
The twitching of his lips told me he had, but the scowl that kept taking over warned me that he was going to milk this for all it was worth. He could try. I had fucking video footage to back me up.
Cole
We’d been back for a week, and everyone was going crazy with ideas for our wedding. Personally, I wanted to plan it with Eb, so I was ignoring their suggestions. Yesterday, Maya had come over with a folder filled with ideas, but I’d thumped the one that I’d put together on the table and just looked at her. She eventually got the hint, and I’d noticed today that there were fewer suggestions being thrown our way.
Maya and Ren had wanted a date night tonight, so we’d agreed to look after Crystal. The worst of the jet lag was gone, and my head was healing, so I was looking forward to spending some time with her. She was six months old now, and the wonder on her face when she saw a butterfly or even a piece of damn dust was just beautiful. The one thing that I wasn’t happy about was that, while we were away, Dash had fallen in love with Poppy, and Pippa had fallen in love with Winston. If their dirty animals touched my precious puppy and piglet, I would be locking them away.
I was currently sitting on the floor with Crystal as she bounced around, doing her infectious baby giggle as Beauty and the Beast played on the television. Ebru had to work late at the hospital and had only just got in, so she’d missed an hour of baby time. I wasn’t complaining, I’d had my little girl all to myself. The only way it could have been better was if Kali and Dewi had been here too. Most people avoided having all three of them at the same time as they were becoming more mobile and did stuff now instead of eating, sleeping and shitting, but I loved it.
“Hey, Eb?” I called out as Crystal burst out laughing for some reason and tried to stand on her legs. I’m pretty sure that we’ve all looked like she did at this moment at some point in life when we’d had too much to drink.
“Yuh,” she was engrossed in the cartoon playing. It doesn’t matter how old you are or even if you were a bodybuilder, everyone stops what they’re doing and sings along with Disney movies.
“I want five.”
She was quiet for a moment, and then asked, “Five?” As the little teapot danced and sang across the screen.
“Yeah, five kids.” Her head snapped in my direction, and she looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Including one set of twins.”
Pausing the movie, she turned her body around in the chair and watched me with Crystal who was still bouncing away. “You do realize how difficult it is to raise a child don’t you? And you want five?”
“Don’t forget the twins!”
“Oh trust me, there’s no forgetting that because it’s oh so easy. Cole, honey, I don’t know if you know, but raising a kid is hard. I don’t even know how Isla copes with a set of twins. And you want five kids?”
Personally, I didn’t see the issue. Shrugging, I bounced Crystal a bit more. “Well, we’ve already raised a dog and a piglet. Once you’ve done that, kids are easy.”
Shaking her head, she turned back around and left me to entertain the beautiful bundle that was giving my arms the best workout that they’d ever had. When she turned Beauty and Beast back on, I brought Crystal closer to me and whispered, “Well, she never said no so five it is.”
She brought her chubby fist up, grabbed a handful of hair and squealed. Uh huh, I feel the same way, baby girl. I feel the same way.
Chapter 22
Coleman
Written in collaboration with S Van Horne and her “More” Series.
I had just finished working out, when my phone rang beside me and Neil’s name flashed up on the screen. Wiping the sweat off of my face, I answered the call.
“Yo!”
“Yo? What the fuck? That’s not how you answer the phone professionally. What’s going on?”
Laughing down the phone, I could just picture the look of disgust at the ‘yo’ on his face. “Nothing much, just finished PT. What can I do you for man?”
Walking away from the mats, I threw the towel in the hamper in the corner of the room. If I didn’t do a workout daily, I got pissed because I didn’t have an outlet for the residual anger that always ran through me, so I made sure I got my two hours in.
“That present you gave us? Well, we got some information that you would want, if you got a second?”
He had my undivided attention now. We’d dropped the rat off to him that had let someone into Hurst Townsend’s house to cut the step that had injured Linda. Neil was the best at what he did, so it didn’t surprise me that the guy had broken.
“Tell me.”
“What does the name Morrison mean to you? From what this fuck head told us, he’s an ex-employee, and he has a major grudge against the Townsends.”
“I’ll have to ask Brett about him, the name doesn’t sound familiar. What is he planning?” Putting my phone on speaker, I typed a message out to Brett asking him for the background on this Morrison guy.
“The only thing he could tell us is that this Morrison called him a couple of times offering him money due to the debts this dipshit racked up in gambling. His job was to open the door and let some guy into the house at a certain time and day. By doing that, he would be debt free.”
“Hey Coleman, there’s more. We need to find this Morrison guy. I guess he has a major issue with the Townsends. This piece of shit said that he couldn’t wait until the Townsends get what is coming to them. That it is about time they were brought down. It doesn’t look good man, and I’m worried things are going to get bad for you all,” Dante said down the phone.
“What if I send Sin to help find this Morrison?” Neil asked.
“Yeah, find the piece of shit and give him to the Feds. I want this done officially, and made public, so that whoever is heading this knows that we’re closing in on him,” I directed, smiling at the thought of the panic that the piece of shit doing this would feel seeing his guy on the news going into the FBI building.
“And what do you want me to do with this piece of fucking trash I have in my custody?”
I mulled this over. There were so many things that could be done to him, some of them painful, some of them legal. Reaching a decision, I replied, “Keep him. I’ll send someone to collect him and bring him back to Piersville. He’s the only one who can identify the fucker who cut the step, and I want that asshole!”
“Sin can bring the piece of shit to you since he is on his way to help find Morrison. Talk soon.”
Thanking him, I hung up and called Brett. I needed more information, and he needed to know that there was shit going on in his company. This information was useful to us, but I wanted the head honcho. He’d hurt people that I cared about, and he’d also shot Amy. His death was going to be a fucking painful one, and it’d be my hands that carried out that justice.
Chapter 23
?
I rang the number of one of the dirty fucks who was helping me with the Townsends again, but he wasn’t picking up. This worried me because it had now been twenty-four hours that I’d been callin
g him for looking for some information. Was I the only fucking competent one in the world?
Spinning in my chair, I turned to the television screen that I kept playing the news all day and caught the headline.
‘Ex-employee of Townsend O.C. arrested. The FBI have confirmed that a statement will be released shortly’.
In the background, I could see the son of a bitch that I’d been trying to reach being led into the FBI building, with his hands cuffed.
“Fuck!” I picked up the phone reserved for the soon to be dead son of a bitch and threw it in the fireplace. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Picking out a new phone, I rang the Piersville piece of shit.
“Sir.” His attempt at respect wound me up even more.
“Morrison is out. He was hit by the FBI today.” Leaning back in my chair, I took a deep breath hoping to calm the fuck down. “Thankfully, he had no details of who I was or jack shit to do with me.”
“This is good news.”
“The downside is that he was referred to me by Ferguson who works at Townsend O.C. He does know details about me, and Morrison has details on him. Do you get where I’m going with this?” The silence that met me had me reaching for my gun, ready to go and kill this fuck myself right now. “Do you see my fucking issue?” I yelled.
“You want him gone?”
“Yeah, I fucking want him gone. And make it look like it was his own idea!” Another idea occurred to me. I wanted to fuck with them like they were now fucking with me. “And one other thing, I want you to leave a gift for the Townsends. That problem that you were telling me about? Make it spectacular.” Slamming down the phone, I got up and started pacing. I needed to go out and find some entertainment to blow off some fucking steam.
Walking over to my desk, I locked the drawers and took the key away with me like I always did. You just can’t fucking trust anyone.
“Mr. Lewis”
I’d been sitting looking over the plans that I’d been making for my Red and me when that sick bastard rang and ruined it all, again. Throwing the phone onto the bed, I looked back at the table and at all of the photographs and the map that I’d been studying. I’d been filling the cabin with things for us, luxury things, so we’d start off the way I meant us to be forever.
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