Always the One, page 27
part #1 of Always and Forever Series
“If I hadn’t known you almost my entire life, then once again, yes. But, Shayla, we’ve been a team for so long I couldn’t imagine a future where you and I aren’t together.” I’m seriously the luckiest woman in the world to be adored by a man so amazing. It feels like the sky is falling around me and the clouds are pooling at my feet. I lift upward and kiss his lips gently in reward for that extremely swoon worthy comment.
“Pops loves you a lot, Shay, he told me that his heart feels complete now that he sees me happy and in love. He said this has been his life’s mission, to watch me forgive my mom and open my heart to love.” His eyes are glazed with tears, his past is not his future, he gets that now. I’m his future, and I will spend every day loving him, never leaving him, I mean I haven’t yet, so why would I ever?
“My dad’s right, isn’t he? That crazy old man is right,” he says, shaking his head repeatedly, blown away by everything he just said. His father is his best friend; I’ve witnessed their relationship for years. No father and son could have a stronger bond if they tried. It’s strong and unique…it’s unbreakable.
“Yep, he is, and I will spend the rest of my life promising to show you both that I’m madly, deeply, completely, and hopelessly in love with you, Trey. No other man or force on this earth can take us away from each other.”
“Promise me you’ll always remember that?” he begs, his blue eyes holding me hostage until I answer. Our lips are an inch apart.
“I promise.”
“Damn it, baby!” he shouts.
“What?” I ask, laughing.
“Why do you make me this fucking happy? I love you,” he replies, causing us both to laugh together. The laughter starts to die down and he searches my eyes. Trey is back, we’re back. I have made up my mind about calling off the deal and I pray Lana will agree, and I think I know her enough to know she will. Between the lovemaking and all the sweet confessions, Trey was able to distract my mind from the new information about Evan. I almost start to think about it again, but my phone buzzes on the nightstand, breaking up that chance. I reach to check it. Seeing my dad’s name, I hurry and answer.
“Hey, Daddy.” I look up at Trey, his eyes are closed and there’s a hint of a smile on his face. His fingertips are grazing up and down my back, causing the hair on my neck to stand up—it’s soothing.
“This isn’t Dad, it’s King Kong.” I chuckle at my brother’s greeting.
“How are you on Dad’s cell?”
“Lana and I drove Trey up here. We’re all inside the house, starving. Am I on speaker?” I bite my lip in hesitation, knowing Kings is going to say some sort of over-the-top Kingstonism. Knowing he won’t let it be, I surrender without a fight. Pulling the phone away, I click the speaker icon.
“Now you are.”
“Hey, fuckhead, get your hands off my saint of a sister and come with us so we can eat. We’re hungry and you guys are keeping up the lunch line with all your immoral sex,” he jokes through the phone.
I blush, covering my face with my hand and digging it into Trey’s side. I know my dad’s in the room when I hear a slap followed by ‘really, son?’ Dang it, I was so caught up in Trey that I forgot we were at my dad’s place. I’m fine with him knowing I’m with Trey, but he doesn’t need to know we’re having sex.
“Hey, Kings, am I on speaker?” Trey asks him, amusement in his voice. My head flies up to look at Trey, my face pales; I can feel the blood draining from it.
Oh no.
“NO, WHY?” HE REPLIES.
No, don’t you do it, Trey.
“Don’t be jealous that my dick gets more than yours.”
“Trey Adams!” I punch him lightly in the side and follow with a slap to his chest. Did he really need to say that? I swear, why are all the men in my life total barbaric cavemen? Dropping the phone on his chest, I slide out of bed. I walk to the bathroom and start putting my clothes on. I’ll leave those two five year olds to their banter; I’ve had enough embarrassment for one night.
I’m completely dressed and fixing my hair and makeup when Trey finally joins me, he’s still naked. Totally confident and unashamed of his body, he has no reason to be, I guess. I smirk at him in the mirror and he returns it before leaning over the sink and splashing his face with water. We stay in comfortable silence while we get ready for dinner. Soon after we head to my car and take off toward the restaurant to meet the rest of our group.
Trey
I’M ENJOYING THIS NIGHT with my girl, surrounded by friends is a breath of fresh air, because with all this shit going on, Lord knows we need a time-out. Knowing every time I look over at her dad, that time-out won’t last long.
“You know, Daddy, Trey and I were just talking about that the other day.” I’m pulled from my personal thoughts when I hear my name coming from some sexy lips.
“I bet you were,” Tom answers sarcastically. I was about to ask them what they were talking about but the annoyance in her dad’s voice tells me I was right. Halftime is over, time for the final fight.
“Dad? What’s the matter?” Shayla asks, voicing the same damn question I have. Her hand is running up and down my thigh in a slow motion. I put my free hand over it to stop her fidgeting. Leaving my other arm that’s wrapped around her shoulder in place.
“I don’t really like that your boyfriend over there decided it was okay to have sex with my daughter under my roof,” he retorts, and I feel her body stiffen. Her hand that’s under mine tightens and squeezes my thigh. He really thinks we should bring this up at dinner? Couldn’t he wait until we were in the privacy of our home and not a public place?
“Dad—” Shay starts to speak, but I cut her off, deciding I’m the man in this situation and I’m the one who slept with his daughter under his roof, so I’m taking the heat for this. Besides, my girl isn’t going to take the fall for a private moment between us that should never be made out to be bad or dirty.
“Why is that a problem, Tom?” Her dad looks at me quizzically, as if he thought I would just sit back like some punk kid who fucked the girl and left her pregnant and alone. Shay is twenty-one years old; if she wants to have sex, she can have sex. Especially with me.
“Trey,” Shayla hisses, warning me to pipe down.
Not a fat fucking chance.
“No, baby. Our sex life isn’t his concern,” I say, putting my hand up between us, motioning her to stop and let me handle this. She takes a deep breath, looks down at her lap, and slinks back in the booth seat.
“Shay and I are adults, with grown ass feelings. I’m sorry that you took it to be disrespectful, but don’t make my woman feel ashamed or guilty about that sacred thing we share. And once again, no disrespect, but don’t tell me or even try to warn me to keep myself from being intimate with my girl. Because you will lose that battle, Tom. I love her and for some reason she loves me. She’s fucking stuck with me and part of that means I’m going to cherish her in all things, including sex. So buck up, Tom, she’s a kept woman.” I’m not going to lie, I’m fucking terrified, but I don’t dare show that to him, I can’t look weak, he will sense it and attack it.
I don’t break eye contact from him, and I can feel Shayla shaking, her dad’s approval of me means the world to her. She’s been a daddy’s girl since I’ve known her, and the last thing she wants or needs is him thinking any less of her or I for having sex. His face is stone-cold, and I can’t tell if he’s going to flip this table or ignore me and never bring this topic up again. Looking at Shay for a split-second, I see a little tear slide down her cheek.
“I second that shit,” Kings says from the other side of the table. Shit, I almost forgot he and Lana were here. Thanking God that he is, he can bring some comic relief, but the joke still doesn’t reach my girl. No smile, no giggle, just a sad frown and a lone tear. I make eye contact with her dad again; I’m not going to back down until he tells Shay what she needs to hear.
“Fuck,” he says, breaking eye contact first. Reaching across the table, he lifts Shay’s chin, giving me a second to look around the restaurant. I’m glad we haven’t caught anyone’s attention. It’s a sports bar, so between the noise from loud bar goers and the copious amounts of TVs that are on, you can’t hear much unless you are sitting at the same table.
“Any man that’s willing to put me in my place to stick up for you and take the fall may be pretty good for you in my book, princess. But, don’t think I’m okay with…you know, the sex thing, you’re my little girl and that you will always be,” he tells her, wiping away another tear. She smiles, making the hold on my heart release. I fucking hate it when she cries.
“Thank you, Dad! I’m sorry that you felt disrespected, we will be more respectful next time.”
Tom looks up and glances at me and then Kingston. “You better fucking love her, because if you even think of breaking her heart, Kingston and I will not hesitate to hurt you.”
“I hope you would,” I say, taking a sip of my beer. For the first time tonight, he smiles at me.
“Okay, I don’t have to work tomorrow, Lana is driving, and we’ve been filled with fucking nonstop drama. So I’m going to get fucking wasted tonight. Who’s with me?” Kingston says, lifting his beer in the air. Everyone laughs and we lift our drinks in the air, he and I both downing our beers.
“LUCKY I DIDN’T DRINK too much to have a bad hangover,” I state, laying my back against the weight bench.
“Yeah, well, I did. So I’m not in the best state to lift, so I’ll spot your ass today.”
We drove back early this morning, once we were sober. Kings and I played hooky from the studio. I spent the day running errands and getting things done that I’ve let go the past couple of weeks.
Now Kings and I are at the gym, hitting weights, before I plan to surprise Shay with a romantic dinner. With all the recent dramatic dilemmas in our relationship, I want to have her to myself with no shit interrupting us.
“Where you taking my sister tonight? Better be a fucking steak dinner, she deserves it, damn it.” I about drop the bar on my head when he lashes out at me.
“Something like that, now pick the bar up, dick, you threw me off my game.”
“Oh, poor you. No really, where you going tonight, bro?” he asks, putting the bar in its place.
“I’m taking her down to the new steakhouse on sixth, they’re a bitch to get into but they had a canceled reservation so I took that shit.” I down half my water bottle, we’ve been here an hour already and I’m sweating like crazy.
“Dang, man, look at you being fancy and shit. So you’re surprising her?” I nod. “I’ll have to pick some flowers up or something for L then. She sees you being all romantic with Shay, it’ll make her all mushy and shit and she’ll be ‘awwing’ all over the place. So I’ll swoop in with flowers and maybe then she’ll fucking let me have her.”
“What, she’s still not willing to do the relationship thing?” I ask. Standing up, we make our way to the locker room.
“No, and even worse, dude, she hasn’t let me touch her since Park City. I’m fucking jerking it daily. I miss her,” he says, furrowing his brows and looking at his phone, a failed attempt to hide his frown. Kingston is all jokes and shit, but Lana’s the only one who’s been able to elicit any true deep emotions from the big goon. My heart hurts for him; I couldn’t imagine having Shay physically and her cutting me out emotionally, never fully giving herself to me. Talk about a knife to the fucking heart.
“Maybe just give her some time, some space. Play hard to get.” I pat his shoulder, watching the corners of his lips curve into an annoyed grin.
“I tried that, but, dude, I can’t. And as much as I want to, I’d rather only have a tiny part of her than nothing at all.” So damn true.
We pack up our bags and head to Kingston’s car. I don’t respond to that, I don’t feel I need to, that was some deep shit.
“I need to call L, have her get Shayla ready somehow without her knowing my plans.” We slide into Kings’s BMW and I dial Lana’s number. I put it on speaker and wait for her to answer.
“Hey, T!” Her voice comes through the phone, and I notice Kingston’s hand flex on the steering wheel and a smile splay across his face. Lovesick motherfucker.
“Hey, Lana, what’re you up to?” I ask as we roll up to the red light just before the freeway.
“Just sitting here watching a movie. You?” she asks suspiciously. I rarely call her so she knows I need something.
“Let me guess, Marilyn Monroe or something of that sort?”
“You caught me. What’s a single girl to do on a Friday night?” she huffs out on a long breath. Just her mention of being single pisses Kingston off. His knuckles turn white from the harsh grip on his steering wheel, peeling off and onto the freeway, hitting seventy in no time. I let it be and continue.
“You could take our boy Kings on a date.” I hope to amuse her but only get a sigh followed with a change of subject.
“Spill it. What do you want?”
“Can you tell a small lie for me?”
“I’ll bite. Who to?”
“I want to take Shayla out to dinner tonight, as a surprise. So can you just convince her you guys are gonna have some kind of girls’ night out thing and get her ready?” I ask, watching the passing city out the side window.
“What time? She isn’t home from work yet.”
“What, she should be home,” I tell her, a little confused. It’s rolling up on seven and the boutique closes at six. She shouldn’t be there this late.
“You’re right, wow the time got away with me. I can call her phone. She might be merchandising the store or going for a drive to help clear head. I don’t know, something like that.” Her words confuse me further.
“Why would she need to clear her head? Is everything okay?” I ask, looking over at Kingston, my mind not really functioning, I’m not sure what is going on.
“We told Evan today that we are no longer going through with the deal. Since she left the other day, like a bat out of hell, we didn’t sign the binding contract, so we backed out. By the way, thank you for telling Shay, we both don’t want to work for such a scumbag, I mean I don’t want dirty money on our boutique.” I thought I told her she didn’t have to do that, damn it. I didn’t want her to know for this purpose.
“Damn, so she’s pretty mad at me then?”
“No! She isn’t—I’m not either. Shit, we are thankful. I mean when she told me what he said I thought he was crazy, but then when we told him we weren’t doing the deal, he proved to be more psycho than we thought,” she says, chuckling, and I feel panic start to simmer in my stomach.
“What the fuck did he say?” She takes a deep breath and releases it, the loud noise coming through the speakers.
“Well, first he kind of just sat there, staring at his fist. He…I don’t know how to explain it, but had them entwined with each other and he started to clench them until they turned white. His eyes never left the table, it was fucking weird.” I want to tell her to skip through the details, but I don’t want to piss Kings off and I can’t really formulate a sentence.
“And?” I push her to continue.
“Then all the sudden he snapped. He started screaming and it wasn’t at us—which is weird since we are both in the deal—but he screamed at Shayla. Said all kinds of stuff about her being a tease and how he won’t let her reject him and she’ll regret it. It was some scary shit, Trey. She was shaken up all day. She said she was gonna tell you when she got home. So I wouldn’t be shocked if she just went for a drive or something.” The image of that piece of shit yelling at Shayla comes to my mind and then fear settles in, causing me to feel numb. Everything in me goes numb, my vision gets blurry and my hands start to shake.
I swear I can feel it in me, something isn’t fucking right. Shayla wouldn’t go for a drive without telling me unless she was mad at me. This morning we had a perfect start, we made love early with the rising sun and then I helped her get ready for work, spoiling her with my attention. There is no way she’s mad and no way would she go for a drive to clear her head, she would come talk to me. I would be the person she would use to clear her head.
I curse, ending the call, not even explaining; I am in full fledge protector mode. I look at Kings and see the same idea going through his brain. His eyes are dilated and wide.
“We need to get to her now, she should have been home already. Fuck!” I yell, banging my fist down on the console, causing the loudest sound to echo through the car. I lean back and my legs start twitching, I can’t sit still. I know my woman’s in trouble, I can feel it down in my bones, and I swear if he touches one hair on her head I will fucking crush him. I glance eagerly at the speedometer, seeing it accelerate, but it still isn’t fast enough. Every minute I’m not there with her is another minute he has her alone.
“I’m going to kill him if he is there—if he’s trying to hurt her—I’ll kill him.” I run my hands through my hair, leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees. Trying to focus on the little details of my black shorts, hoping it will fucking bring some relief. It doesn’t work. I lean back and bite at my lip nervously. Fucking get there already.
“I’m right there with you, Trey.”
Finally, after what felt like hours but was only seven minutes, we pull into the parking lot and Kings comes to a screeching halt by the back door, not even bothering to park correctly. Jumping out, I hear Shayla scream ‘stop’ and my heart rate spikes, my feet pounding against the ground fast and hard with each step. I still feel like I’m not moving fast enough.
Nothing could prepare me for what I see when I find them. Opening the door, I see Shay on the ground and Evan on top of her. His hands are around her throat, trying to stop her struggling. I pounce, attacking him with all my strength.
“You piece of shit!” I grab him by the back of his suit collar and wrench him off of her; he falls flat on his back with a loud thud. I don’t waste any time. I straddle his stomach and start delivering blow after blow to his face.
