Quids In: Covent Garden Series

by Mary B. Moore

  Her hands landed on my thigh as she leaned in further, the angles of our chairs at the table making her lean sideways. They were close to my crotch, so I had to shift slightly – I might not care what people thought about me kissing her, but I wasn’t about to give them a real show no matter how much it killed me. Plus, my suit trousers weren’t that thick, so if she’d gone further she’d have felt something I wasn’t sure she was ready to feel yet.

  It was on my next groan as she tilted her head slightly, giving me better access to her mouth that there was a clearing of throats at the table.

  “Steady on, mate,” Guy muttered. “We haven’t even ordered the food yet.”

  Reluctantly pulling away from her, I gave her one last peck on the lips and moved slightly back. There were only about two inches between us, and I hung on the balance, desperately wanting to kiss her again, as I waited for her to open her eyes.

  “I’ll have the burger,” Digby said loudly, pulling me back into reality. Twat!

  “Sausage and mash for me,” Guy muttered, looking over India’s shoulder at the menu even though he had one on the table in front of him.

  Clearing her throat and looking like she was about to laugh, India gave her order next. “The pan roasted chicken and chips looks good. I’ll have that.” Turning to look at Mina with sparkling eyes, she cleared her throat again and passed the menu across the table to her. “And for you? If you can actually talk after that.”

  Glancing at the menu, I went for the easiest option. “Steak, chips and peppercorn sauce.”

  She took a couple of minutes, and the menu was shaking in her hands, but Mina finally found the words and ordered what she wanted. “I’ll have the roasted chicken, too.”

  My mum raised a gentleman, so even though Mina and India got up to place our orders, I gently pushed her back down and went over to the bar to order the food.

  I hope they had a good dessert menu here; she was going to need to be sweet when I told her she couldn’t go home until I dealt with her Rory situation. The guy sounded determined, so I wouldn’t put it past him to wait for her to get home or for him to break into the flat. Unless he had a key? She hadn’t kissed like someone with experience, and I hoped for her sake, and mine, that she hadn’t shagged the git. The thought of someone else touching her made me shudder, but she’d have to live with the fact she’d slept with someone who’d then banged her minger of a sister. Which was worse? Hers for sure.

  Pasting a smile on my face, I went back to the table to wait for the food to arrive. The first thing I did when I sat down though was to pick up her hand and give it a gentle squeeze. I needed to go and see my parents, I had a feeling that things were going to be changing in my life quickly. I might have been planning this for months, but I’d thought that I could give her time to get used to us – now I wasn’t so sure I could.

  Tuning into the discussion going on around me, I calmed myself planning what was ahead. First things first, I needed to get rid of an arsehole.

  Chapter Four

  William

  “She took it well,” Digby chuckled as we pulled up in front of Mina’s flat in Notting Hill. She didn’t live too far from my sister, Ruby, so I knew the area well.

  Of course, he’d be laughing. When I’d told her that she couldn’t come home and that she either needed to stay at mine or at India’s I thought she was going to pass out. She’d jammed her spoon in her Eton Mess and had glared at me as she ate a spoonful that really had been too big for her mouth.

  After we’d finished up, I’d hailed a black cab for the two ladies, given her a kiss goodbye, and then we’d made our way here. I’d meant to make plans with them tomorrow, but I’d do that in the morning. I was looking forward to dealing with this arsehole too much to have regrets about that when I knew I could fix that issue easily, anyway.

  Getting out of the car, my eyes narrowed on the open front door to the flat block. Was that normal or had dick wipe done it? If it was normal, I’d be making sure it stopped immediately. There were only four flats in it, so it wouldn’t take long to make sure they were all up to speed.

  “Right, first things first.” I rubbed my hands together as we approached the door and walked into the hall toward the stairs to Mina’s floor.

  “Do you think the door’s like that all the time?” Digby whispered as we climbed the stairs.

  “We’ll deal with it after,” I advised, reaching the top and following the arrow on the sign to flat number two.

  The door was slightly open, so I pushed it and walked in briefly taking in the décor of my princess’s flat. Now wasn’t the time, but from the cursory glance that I gave it, it looked to be perfectly her - organised, neat and classy.

  Hearing a noise coming from the hallway, we walked toward a door that was wide open. I never expected what I came across – the doctor in question wanking into a pair of knickers with a pillow on his face, while he stroked a pink fluffy crocodile.

  “Aw, my eyes,” Guy groaned and there was the sound of movement behind me in the doorway.

  “Is he having a Tommy tank?” Digby gasped, bursting out laughing. We all used cockney rhyming slang periodically, some words just sounded better in it, and the slang for a wank was one of them.

  “Sick bastard,” Guy groaned.

  Turning in his direction, he was still rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, so I elbowed him and, once I had his attention, I nodded toward wanking Rory’s head. He shook his head in panic, not wanting to get anywhere near him, but at least he was getting the head at the top of his body and not in the middle. Pointing, I waited for him to get into position. Just as he moved, I had a better thought and grabbed his arm. It looked like he was going to be doing this for a while, so we had time.

  Moving out to the hallway of the building again, I pulled my mobile out and dialled 999 reporting a break into my girlfriend’s flat with the person still inside. It only took them two minutes to get there, and the next thing he was being hauled out with the cuffs on.

  “This is my woman’s flat,” he screamed, sounding slightly slurred. “I was waiting for her like she told me to.”

  I was about to set the police straight when the last voice I wanted to hear for once sounded from behind me.

  “The hell you were,” Wilhelmina snapped as she stood with her arms crossed. “I’m not with him, officers,” she told the police. “You were told to leave me alone, so what are you doing here?”

  Not giving the police the opportunity to reply, Guy shouted, “Well, he was…mmmfffmmm uhmm hmmm!” Digby’s hand over his gob stopped his helpfulness. Ideally, I wanted to be the one to tell her, but really it would be better coming from the police.

  A second set of police walked into the hallway and beckoned us all in. Once we were in place, they went about explaining it all to Mina who sat there going from shocked to furious.

  “He wanked with her knickers onto a pink crocodile?” India asked, looking as incredulous as we were when we saw it. “Do you even own a pink crocodile?” she questioned Mina. When she shook her head as Guy groaned and started rubbing his eyes again, she turned back to the police officers. “So, he brought a cuddly toy to stroke while he…” she broke off thinking of the word. “Well, stroked his willy with her knickers?” the police both sighed and nodded. I understood their reaction to this – that spunk surprise was now in an evidence bag and would have to be handled at the station. “What knickers did he use?”

  Mina’s head shot up at that question and her eyes narrowed. The policeman picked up an evidence bag which clearly showed the underwear. “These ones, miss.”

  Leaning forward slightly, both of them looked at them and then sat back. “That’s fine,” Mina waved her hand as India nodded. “They weren’t part of my Harry Potter collection.”

  The knowledge that she had a ‘collection’ of Harry Potter knickers made me slightly hard – it was just so cute that it was hot. Guy was focused on India with the same flare in his eyes that I figured I h
ad in my own. Her nodding and look of relief indicated that she had the same collection of wizardry underwear, and he was figuring the same thing I was about that knowledge.

  After we all gave our statements and showed them the text messages, they gave her a crime reference number and card and told her they’d be in touch with updates. I hadn’t had to encourage Mina to press charges against the wanker, she’d been adamant about doing just that from the beginning.

  “We need to burn your sheets,” India muttered as the police left.

  Going over to her kitchen, she picked up a pink pair of cleaning gloves and a bin bag and marched toward Mina’s bedroom with Guy right behind her.

  “I’ll, uh, just go and make sure that the police have taken the pervert away,” Digby blurted before running out of the door, leaving me and Mina alone.

  Picking her up and putting her on my lap, I gave her a hug and stroked her hair gently. “You okay, princess?” I whispered into her hair, giving her a quick peck.

  She had her head buried in my neck and nodded as she replied. “Yeah, just angry. Who would do that?”

  This was a good question, but we already knew the answer to it and I didn’t really want to say his name again, so I went down the path of reassurance instead.

  “He’s under arrest now,” I pulled back to look down into her beautiful light blue eyes. “And you can get a restraining order against him they said, so we’ll do that too.”

  “That goes without saying,” she growled. “I don’t want him anywhere near me.”

  Unable to not ask the next question, I took her face in my hands and held her in place gently. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to India’s house?”

  “That’s easy,” India interrupted, appearing out of the hallway with a big bin bag in her hands. “We wanted to watch Bridget Jones’s Baby and I can’t remember my Netflix password.” The next part she directed at Mina. “By the way, you might need to get a new mattress and duvet, and you definitely need new pillows,” she held the bag of bedding in front of her like it was about to explode.

  “I bought some last week in the Debenham’s sale,” Mina told her. “I was waiting until I changed the bed to unpack them. There’s a new all-seasons duvet in there too.”

  India just nodded and went to the front door to put the bag in the hallway. As she opened the door, Digby fell through it and landed on the bag causing it to pop and some of the violated bedding to fly out.

  “Please tell me that’s not the pillowcase,” he gasped in horror as he flung the item into the hallway from where it had landed on his leg. “I like these trousers, a lot.” Running to the kitchen, he pulled out a Dettol wipe and rubbed frantically at his leg with it. “The packet says the wipes get out 99.9% of bacteria. Does that include pervert?” he rambled as he scrubbed away.

  India had still been wearing the marigold gloves, so she tore another bag off the roll and gave it to Guy to hold as she put the bedding into it. He was torn between looking at her and watching Digby try to rub a hole in his suit trousers. Every time India bent back over, her top sagged open slightly though, so his eyes would flick back to her and then back over to the de-pervertisation of Digby’s leg. That was a good word – de-pervertisation: the act of removing pervert from one’s person.

  Turning back to Mina, I was relieved when I saw her smiling as she watched our friends and their antics. There was the worry that what Ratchet Rory had done would stick with her and affect her, but at this moment that wasn’t an issue.

  I still had something to clarify though.

  “So, you decided to come back to watch Bridget Jones’s Baby?” When she looked up at me and nodded, I pressed further. “Even though Ratchet Rory had said he was coming around here?”

  Shrugging, she picked at her blouse cuff. “I figured he was talking out of his arse. I mean, it’s a habit for him. You read those texts, so even you could see that, right?” I kept my face straight as I nodded. I wouldn’t give in to how cute she was. This was serious – she shouldn’t have had to face him right after what he’d done. Fuck, I don’t even know if his Hampton Wick had been back in his trousers or if his zipper was up when she got here. “Anyway,” she said, pulling me away from that mingin thought. “I also have an impressive selection of munchies, and you can’t watch a movie without munchies - it’s just bad form.”

  “You came back for a movie and munchies?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Because he’s normally full of shit,” she repeated.

  Sighing, I held her closer and leaned down to whisper into her ear. “In the future, if I ask you not to do something, could you please listen?” I pulled back to look into her eyes. “What if I hadn’t been here? You’d have seen that or been alone in the flat with him. We don’t know what he would have done if you’d been here. And I’m almost certain he was on something, so that could have made him even more unstable.”

  She was chewing on her lip by the time I finished, and I felt like the world’s biggest prick, but I had to let her know how serious it could have been. He wouldn’t be an issue now he’d been arrested, and a restraining order was going to be filed against him – at least, he shouldn’t be unless he really was a knob head. I was certain that the hospital he worked for wouldn’t look kindly on one of their doctor’s having a criminal record for everything that he’d done already and breaching a restraining order.

  “Okay,” she mumbled, fiddling with her sleeve again.

  With the tip of a finger, I tilted her head back up toward me and gave her a quick lip touch to let her know it was all okay. I hadn’t realised how tense she was until I did that, and her body relaxed into the arm that I had around her. I really wanted to take it further, but Digby was still sterilising himself and Guy and India were now arguing about the same thing I’d just spoken to Mina about.

  “You can’t tell me what to do, you arse prick!” she snapped.

  “You think so? Well guess what, I can,” he shot back, leaning toward her.

  “Piss. Off!” she enunciated the words slowly as she stabbed him with a finger.

  Sighing, I gave Mina another quick kiss and then stood up. “Are you ladies going to be okay here?” I looked at both of them as I asked it. Neither of them showed that they had a problem with it, so I nodded at the lads and gave Mina a quick squeeze before I moved toward the door. “Lock up behind us,” I reminded them. “We’ll fit a new lock for you tomorrow and maybe a couple others,” I added the last bit as an afterthought as I looked at her front door. It had a bolt at the top, but that wouldn’t stop someone getting in when she was out. How many locks did it take to make a door impenetrable?

  “Good idea,” Digby nodded as he walked into the stairwell. “We can hit B&Q or that little DIY place on the way back here tomorrow. It’s just around the corner from here.”

  Saying goodnight to the ladies, I tore myself away from my princess and followed behind the boys as we went back out to the car. It was hard to leave her after this and after how much ground I’d gained with her today. I’d thought I would have to work for weeks, which had filled me with dread, but Randy Rory had worked in my favour. There was no way that I would ever terrorise or hurt Mina in any way – in fact, I hated her family for doing that as it was and now Rory was on my shit list too. Regardless of how much ground I’d gained, I was determined to continue to prove that to her and treat her like the princess she was.

  “Hey, how do you know this area so well?” Guy asked Digby as we got into the car. This was a good question. The three of us lived in Chelsea which wasn’t that far away from Notting Hill, but it wasn’t that close that you’d be familiar with specific areas.

  Fiddling under our stares, Digby started the engine and drove back toward our homes. “I’ve spent some time in Notting Hill, eh,” he shrugged.

  “Right, when are you breaking the good news to the parentals then, mate?” Guy asked me, changing the subject. I could have sworn that I heard Digby sigh beside me, but then again it could ha
ve been one of the night buses braking at the lights beside us.

  “As soon as I can,” I murmured, watching the traffic lights. If I could fit in a trip to my parent’s home in Kensington tomorrow, I would. I wanted some tips from mum on special things that I could do for Mina. I should probably also text my sister Ruby to see what advice she had too. She knew Wilhelmina, and they were around the same age, so she would be quite handy info wise.

  We discussed Rory as we drove, coming up with ideas on how to protect Mina. It made me feel better to have options just in case – there was nothing worse than being unprepared.

  Regardless, he wasn’t getting near her.

  Chapter Five

  William

  The next morning I was up early and pulled into a spot in front of the DIY shop near where Mina lived. Just as I walked in to get as much security as I could for her, I heard familiar voices coming from the counter and saw the lads standing waiting for me.

  “Figured you’d be out and about first thing,” Digby explained, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. Guy was sipping a coffee beside him and looked eager to get out of the shop as soon as we could.

  “Yeah, I could hardly sleep last night, so I decided to come and fix the issue.”

  “Do you think they’re okay?” Guy asked quietly. “You don’t think he went back last night, do you?”

  Looking at him closely, I saw that he looked like he really hadn’t slept either.

  I knew they would have called one of us if he had, but all night I’d been asking myself what if, and now someone else asking those what ifs made me rush through the purchases and walk quickly back to my car. As I unlocked it, I realised I’d been so caught up in my thoughts this morning I hadn’t even noticed that I’d parked right behind Guy’s car.

  The boys followed behind me as we drove the short distance to Mina’s flat and parked in the spaces in front of it.