Go Full Circle (A Go Novel Book 5)

by Scarlett Finn

  Leaping to her feet, Harlow sent her chair clattering over again. “Ryske,” she whispered just a fraction before the dining room door opened and there he was.

  His chest rose and fell fast. It wasn’t that he was out of breath, he was fired up.

  His vehement eyes landed on her. “Trinket,” he said.

  “Crash,” she breathed out the word and didn’t even care about the blur that meant her eyes were filling with tears.

  Harlow was half a second away from jumping onto the table and running straight over the top of the thing to throw herself at him. Ryske blinked at those around the table. Moving forward, he did an amazing job of keeping his composure.

  “Brysen,” he said, offering her father a handshake and moving around the table to kiss both Jean and Lena. “Marlowe.”

  The two of them shook hands for a brief second, but Ryske looked past Rupert at her and kept on coming, scooping his hands around her head to pull her closer. Searching her eyes, he seemed content just to look into her, but she wanted something more.

  “Kiss me, idiot,” Harlow said and he let the corner of his mouth rise before pulling her mouth up to his.

  It took all of her restraint not to leap up onto him and wrap herself around him. He was there. He’d come. She didn’t know how he knew to be there or what had made him return early. But she didn’t care. His tongue was tangling with hers and she coiled her arms around him, trying her best to make him take more.

  But he broke their kiss and pressed his forehead to hers, holding her head tight in both hands. “You’re free,” he murmured like he couldn’t quite believe it.

  “Still too expensive for you,” she said, stroking his shoulders and arms. “You came… You came for me.”

  Opening his eyes, he bent his knees to line up their gazes. “Always, Trink… Every time.”

  They were trapped between the table and the French windows. Harlow was tempted to open the door to drag him outside and have her way with him as she’d threatened to do in a restaurant once.

  “You came straight here?” Maze said.

  Harlow was busy trying to tempt Ryske’s tongue into her mouth, grazing her lips on his. Her love was holding back, though the smile on his face told her it wasn’t because he wanted to.

  “Over a hundred the whole way,” Dover said.

  The sound of her friend’s voice made her whip around. She was stunned to see Dover in the doorway with Noon and Anwen.

  “I think we should’ve extended the table,” Jean said, sort of overwhelmed by the sight of so many people in her dining room. Leaving her seat, her mother went to the empty head of the table. “Help me pull this out.”

  Rupert pulled out the top leaf of the table while Jean retrieved chairs from the closet. Ryske righted her chair and sat in it, pulling her onto his lap.

  “Ryske?” Lena said.

  “Yes, honey?” he asked, scooping up some of Harlow’s pasta to fill his mouth, making Harlow wonder about the last time he’d eaten.

  Dover, Anwen, and Noon were being set up at the end of the table by Jean who went to retrieve more food.

  Harlow took the fork from Ryske and began to stab some pasta while he and Maze did a fist bump thing. Seemed he’d just noticed how close his friend was.

  “You don’t really know forty strippers, do you?” Lena asked.

  “Male or female?” Ryske said before accepting the food Harlow fed to him.

  “Female.”

  “Sure… You’ll have to give them an hour to get here, they don’t all live around here.”

  Lena’s mouth fell open. “You don’t!”

  Ryske was still chewing, but was clearly unsure why this had come up.

  Harlow filled him in. “I said you’d take care of the strippers for the bachelor party.”

  “She said you’d have a ratio of two to one,” Lena said.

  He swallowed. “At least.”

  Feeding him some more food, Harlow made sure he was taken care of before removing his hand from her thigh to take off his bracelet. Once it was off, he took it from her and put it onto her wrist, returning it to where it belonged with a kiss.

  “Are you going to tell him?” Lena asked.

  Harlow reached into Ryske shirt to pull out the bullet on the leather around his neck. Though he glanced at what she was doing, he didn’t question it.

  “Tell him what?” Harlow asked, untying the knot in the leather with Ryske intent on what she was doing.

  “You know,” Lena said, eyeing her and then eyeing Maze.

  “I think she means that we slept together,” Maze said.

  “Oh,” Harlow said, putting the loose ends on the table and then untying her key from the loop on her necklace. “I’ve slept with him too.” Harlow nodded at Dover, and then at Anwen. “And her…” Turning to the other end of the table, she nodded at Penzance. “And him.” When she leaned back to look at Noon who was next to Rupert, she paused. “I don’t think I’ve slept with you… Oh, honey… I’ll sleep with you tonight.”

  “Uh, no you won’t,” Ryske said, which made her smile and turn to kiss him. “We have business to take care of tonight.”

  Like the fact that it had been almost two weeks since they’d had sex and far longer since they’d spent a night together. Licking his lip, she kissed him again, then nuzzled her mouth against him, before looking behind Rupert at Noon.

  “Some other time.”

  “You’ve… you’ve slept with all of them?” Lena couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her sister was so incredulous that Harlow was almost afraid to look at their mother. Her father was probably close to a coronary.

  “I slept with the doctor the night before I got here too,” Harlow said, removing the string from the key and threading it onto the leather to join the bullet. “But the only man I’ve had sex with is the one I’m sitting on.” Rupert cleared his throat, but didn’t take his attention from his plate. She shrugged. “Well, yeah… and… yeah.”

  Tying the ends of the leather again, she put it back over Ryske’s head.

  “Thanks,” he said. “You get me a present?”

  “We have a safe deposit box now.”

  His brows rose. “No kidding?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “We should talk about it later.”

  Rupert turned just as she was tucking the key and bullet back into Ryske’s shirt. “That’s the only key there is.”

  She patted it through Ryske’s shirt. “And now it’s safe.”

  Rupert didn’t seem convinced, but she ignored his incredulity. “It wasn’t safe where it was?”

  Touching the O-ring on her necklace, she let her fingertips drift to her cleavage. “No, that’s for something else.”

  Rupert looked at her necklace and maybe her cleavage too. “What’s it for?”

  She inhaled to respond. The moment her lips parted, Ryske hooked a finger into it and pulled her down to marry their mouths. Draping her arms around him, Harlow thought she might be happy to just sit making out with him forever. But when his hand began to slide up her thigh, toward the hem of her dress, she remembered that they were in front of her parents.

  Pulling her mouth from his kiss, she planted a hand on the table. “You know what? I think we need to go upstairs.”

  “Harlow!” Jean snapped and the color in her cheeks joined a glance around the table at their guests, most of whom she didn’t know. “Really? Control yourself.”

  “It’s my fault, Jean,” Ryske said, sliding his fingers deeper between her thighs. “She’s hot for me.”

  Harlow narrowed her eyes on him, but didn’t duck away fast enough when he darted in to steal another kiss.

  She pushed him to the back of the chair. “True or not,” she said and then gestured around the table. “I meant we have to go upstairs… There are things my group need to discuss.”

  The chair didn’t move when she tried to push back. Ryske took the hint and moved it for her, getting to his feet and taking her hand. His whistle
startled her parents, Lena, and Rupert, but the rest of the table stood up, Penzance included.

  The whistle was a call for attention and for action, and if Penzance knew it, Ryske must have been using it for a long time. Penzance went out first with Maze at his back, Harlow and Ryske followed. They traipsed up the stairs, away from the dining room with Noon, Anwen, and Dover behind them.

  “Nightingale,” Dover said, holding her as soon as her bedroom door was closed.

  Noon hugged her too. She and Anwen just looked at each other. There wasn’t anger or hatred there, not that Harlow could see, but there was certainly trepidation.

  “Go sit over in the window. Damn, it’s crowded in here,” Ryske said, Harlow started to move with Dover and Noon, but Ryske caught her wrist and pulled her back. “Not you.”

  Tipping her head up, Harlow let herself smile at him. Ryske pulled her over to the bed and shoved her down. While her feet were still dangling, she toed off her shoes then climbed on to sit against the headboard, facing the window where Dover and Noon were seating themselves.

  Ryske got on the bed behind her and pulled her back to lean on him. Penzance and Maze took a bottom corner each. Anwen perched on the vanity stool and then there was silence.

  “Where should we begin?” Harlow asked, raising her chin to try getting a look at Ryske.

  33

  “We’re waiting for you, Trink,” Ryske said. “We want every detail.”

  Leaning back, she twisted further, sinking down against Ryske to gaze up at him. “Kiss me, Crash.”

  Tightening the circle of his arms around her, she loved how hard he crushed her against him. When he bowed, she expected a kiss, but he paused before his mouth made contact with hers.

  “Talk,” he said.

  Frustrated by his refusal, she shoved out of his arms and sat up. Straightening out her clothes and hair, she restrained her urge to curse.

  He reached for her, but she swatted his hand away. If he wanted to tease her, she could tease right back.

  “Can we trust everyone in the room?” she asked.

  If he said yes, she’d accept his faith. But she had to let him know that she was dubious.

  “I don’t know,” Ryske said, turning his glare to Penzance. “Who invited that fucker?”

  “I did,” Harlow said.

  “They always like this?” Penzance asked from the corner of his mouth.

  Maze shrugged. “They’re both sex deprived.”

  “Not for long,” Ryske said, taking her by surprise when he drove his hand between her thighs and yanked her leg toward him.

  Slapping a hand down over his, she pulled it out and locked her fingers between his. It seemed to be the best way to keep his hands from wandering.

  “I might be sex deprived,” Harlow said. “But I hear you’ve been getting yours on a regular basis.” Turning her attention away from Ryske, she took it to the woman on the vanity stool. “Isn’t that right, Anwen?”

  Tucking her hands under her thighs, Anwen didn’t like being the focus of everyone’s scrutiny.

  “Trink—”

  “No,” Harlow said. “I want to hear it from her. You lied about the man I love and then you lied to him… Tell me why I shouldn’t tear out your throat?”

  Her hand drifted from Ryske’s when she leaned away to open her nightstand drawer. Her pointed ring was in there and she had a feeling that she might need it.

  “Baby,” Ryske said, stroking her leg under her skirt when she settled with her legs bent toward him again.

  Harlow slid her ring on and rested her hand over Ryske’s, tapping the point of the accessory on his flat hand.

  “It was juvenile,” Anwen said. “I’m sorry, Harlow. I shouldn’t have said that I was sleeping with Ryske.”

  “She apologized, baby,” Ryske said, turning over his hand to open his fingers between hers though their hands remained flat. “Ophelia pushed her buttons… it’s like you said about—”

  “Stop,” Harlow said and looked at him. “You’re saying I can trust her? I really don’t want to listen to excuses and explanations. She’s competitive, I get it. Your cock’s not a toy to fight over.”

  Swagger made his lips rise. “You can say that ‘cause it’s yours to play with any time you want.”

  “I’m happy to sign over ownership if you want to keep defending her lies,” Harlow said, not seeing the funny side. “She knew Ophelia killed her brother. She knew about the Yarker affair. She said nothing.”

  “I wanted to have a plan… You always have a plan. You’re always so…together,” Anwen said. “I knew you didn’t kill Jarvis, but I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t grateful anymore. I didn’t want you to think I was angry at you for misleading me either. I understand why you stayed quiet.”

  “Kind of you.”

  “Yes, I knew about Yarker too. I thought having Ophelia’s trust would help us out in the long run. I just didn’t know what I was going to do with it yet.”

  Harlow held up her arm to show her bracelet. “And you needed this because…”

  Anwen sighed and seemed to shrink. “Like I said, it was juvenile. I wanted Ophelia to be jealous. I wanted to be better than her… I guess I’m no better than her.”

  “Okay,” Harlow said and shifted her focus. “Maze, you know what happened. Will you fill everyone in, please?”

  Sliding off the bed, she passed Anwen as she went around the end to get to the door.

  “Trinket,” Ryske called. “Trink, where are you going?”

  Harlow didn’t answer him. Leaving the bedroom, she went down the stairs and through the kitchen to go into the back yard. She was pacing toward the back fence when Ryske caught up to her.

  Grabbing her arm, he pulled her around. “Come here,” he said, trying to haul her to him.

  She resisted. “No, Ryske. Just leave me.”

  Trying to twist her hand out of his grip only made him fight harder to keep hold of her. “Let me kiss you.”

  “No,” she said and kept pulling away. “No, Ryske. I don’t want it.”

  “You don’t want what?” he asked, throwing her hand from his grip. “Me? Is that it? Because of some bullshit story Anwen told Ophelia?”

  Leaping toward him, Harlow gave up on trying to keep it together. “I could be dead in twenty-four hours and this is what I’m spending my last night on earth doing. Do you think I want to be questioning her? I know you didn’t have sex with her. This isn’t about jealousy. I don’t trust her and with the way things have played out, I am terrified that any decision I make could lead to someone I love getting killed.”

  “No one is going to hurt you,” he said, exuding nothing but certainty. “But you want to talk about bad choices? Why in the hell didn’t you call me the minute you got out of there?”

  “I thought you were home! How was I supposed to know you weren’t?”

  “The minute you knew I wasn’t, you should’ve called!”

  “How was I supposed to call you and tell you this could be the end?”

  He faltered. “The end of what? We want it to be the end. The sooner we can get Ophelia out of our lives, the better.”

  “So much has happened to us, Ryske,” she said, softening her voice and moving closer to him. “I try to be strong. To be sure we’re going to come out on top.” She paused to swallow away some of her worry. “I want you to be proud of me.”

  His frown grew deeper. “I am. Shit, baby…” Sliding his hands over hers, he locked their digits together. “I am so proud of you… No matter what happens tomorrow, I will still love you. I’ll love you more then than I do now. I love you more every minute.” When he got no response, he laid his hands on her face, his palms on her cheeks, fingers pointing upward. “Baby, if you want to walk out of here right now, we’ll just go. You before them. Let’s just flip.”

  Raising her attention to his, she couldn’t believe the strength of her love. It filled her so full that it almost hurt. “I don’t want to let you down. I don�
��t want to lose you.”

  The trauma of losing him had never gone away. She could squash it down when they were happy, but with this kind of danger on their horizon, she felt that fear again.

  “You won’t,” he said, increasing his grip and bowing to brush his mouth over hers.

  Blinking, she felt the tear on her cheek, but didn’t let it distract her from what she wanted to confess. Adrenaline began to surge through her, making her pulse echo in her ears.

  “I don’t want to be in flux anymore,” Harlow breathed in a quiet voice.

  It took him a few seconds to process what she’d said. When he did, his lips curled slowly.

  “Trinket,” he said, pushing her hair back and letting his hands slide down under her ears to cup her head. “You want to know when we stopped being in flux?”

  Nodding, she didn’t know why he looked so amused. That didn’t prevent her from basking in his adoration. “When?”

  “The night I came back from the dead,” he said, skimming his thumb across her lips. “Standing outside on the corner when you let me kiss you… there’s been no flux since then.”

  They’d been flat broken up for some of the time between then and now. But he was telling her that from that moment he’d known there was no going back. It was another example of Ryske’s arrogance. He’d decided they were going to be together and hadn’t heard anything else since, no matter what she’d actually said.

  “You remember that kiss?” she asked, drawing a fingernail up his shirt over where his tattoo would be.

  “Damn right. Don’t you?”

  She smiled. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?” He scowled like he was offended, but she could tell he was playing. “Fuck. That was some of my best work.”

  “I think you need more practice.”

  “Do I?”

  Curling her hand in his shirt, she got a handful and started to pull him down. “Mm hmm,” she said, guiding his mouth to hers.

  Their friends would be able to see them through the upstairs window. Her family might be watching from the dining room downstairs. In spite of the possible spectators, Harlow wrapped her arms around him and let the world fade away. They couldn’t let their passion consume them, but they could devote their mouths to spoiling each other for a while.