by Kylie Kent
“You should take the day off. You were drugged last night, remember?” he almost grunts out.
“I’m fine, I’m not taking the day off.” We’re turning onto my street when I realise I never gave him my address. “Umm, how did you know where I lived?”
Zac looks over at me, supplying me with that GQ smile of his and says, “I saw your address on your licence last night.” As we turn into my street, he looks at the block of townhouses. “Which one is yours?”
I point out my townhouse. “That one, but you can just stop here and I’ll jump out, thanks for the ride, and everything else.”
Zac looks at me and shakes his head before pulling into a carpark and turning the car off, he gets out of the car and is around at my door before I can even comprehend what’s happening. Zac opens my door, holding his hand out to help me out of the car.
I take his hand and the moment I do I feel it again, that zap of electricity. Once I’m out of the car and have collected myself again, I remove my hand.
“Thank you,” I whisper as I walk toward my door. It’s not until I get to the top step that I notice that Zac followed me to the door. Turning around, I squint at him. “Umm, what are you doing?”
He takes a moment looking me over before answering. “First, I’m walking you to your door. Second, I’m waiting for you to shower and get ready for work so I can drop you off at the hospital.”
I’m not really sure what is happening. Did I wake up in an alternative universe today? I pinch my arm. Ok, so I’m not dreaming, but I sure do look a little unstable to Mr GQ in front of me.
“Why would you want to drive me to work?” I question, it’s been my experience that people don’t do anything expecting nothing in return.
“You’re running late, you said you were planning on catching a train. Trains are not safe, and you would still be late. I can get you there in half the time, but you might want to get moving on that shower if you want to make it to work on time.”
He’s right, I know he’s right, doesn’t mean I have to be happy that he’s right. Grumbling I turn and open the door adding, “I’m only letting you give me a lift in the Batmobile because I really, really don’t want to be late. You can wait on the couch.”
He smirks and laughs as he follows me inside.
I point to the sofa. “You can wait here, I’m just going to run upstairs and shower real quick.”
Zac follows my gaze to look up at the narrow staircase before looking back to me. “Sure thing.” He heads towards the sofa.
That’s when I hear it, I thought just maybe something might go my way today and Sarah would be out already. She always leaves early on Saturdays, claiming she wants to make the most of the weekends by starting them early.
Sarah comes bounding down the stairs in a pair of cut-off shorts and bikini top, looking every bit the drop-dead gorgeous creature she is. She stops dead in her tracks when she sees me and Zac standing in our living room.
Sarah turns towards me and raises her eyebrows as she states, “that is not Ethan.” Turning her head giving Zac the once over. “Yep, definitely not Ethan, it is absolutely an improvement though.”
I don’t know why, I can’t explain the feeling exactly, but something happens deep inside me when I see the way she’s looking at Zac. Like he was a porterhouse steak she couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into. I didn’t like it, not one bit.
She must have noticed something flicker across my face because she comes up to me. “Are you ok? You don’t look so hot.” Concern is written on her face. “Did he do something to you? Because even serial killers can be beautiful, Lyssa.” She turns towards Zac like she wants to bury him alive, Sarah is nothing if not the most loyal friend.
Unsure how to handle the situation, I turn to Zac, expecting him to be looking his fill at my beautiful friend like every other man does in her presence. I’m stunned to silence when I see he isn’t looking at her at all, his eyes are fixed onto me. He looks pissed off again, jaw clenched tight.
Ignoring his pissed off look, I turn back to Sarah. “This is Zac, he helped me out last night, drove me home this morning, and has kindly offered to wait for me to shower and then drive me to work. Sorry, don’t have time to chit chat, I’m late.”
I’m just about to the first step when Sarah stops me. “Lyssa stop right there!” She’s using her don’t fuck with me voice. I look over at Zac who is now giving Sarah a death glare, I really don’t have time to figure this guy out right now, or ever. “Why and how exactly did Zac have to help you last night?” her voice rising in pitch as she shrieks while using air quotes when she says his name.
“Oh, it was nothing. I’ll fill you in later. In the meantime, make sure you lose Ethan’s details and block him on all of your social media.”
I turn to start back up the stairs when someone clears their throat. It’s a deep, husky noise, one that sends shivers down my spine; a throat noise that most certainly does not belong to Sarah.
“I wouldn’t say that getting roofied by your date and passing out in a packed nightclub is nothing Alyssa, your night could have gone a lot differently if I wasn’t there,” Zac so helpfully points out.
Sarah gasps, “you were roofied?” She doesn’t give me time to answer before she starts on her tirade. “By Ethan, the hot groomsman? What the fuck? I’m going to kill him, no, I’m going to torture him, I’ll start at his toes make my way up his legs, I’ll skip his manhood, make him think I’m sparing him and move to his fingers. It can’t be too hard to rip fingernails off, right? Then I think I’ll chop the fuckers off. Just when he thinks I’m done, that’s when I’ll strike him where it really hurts. Tie a string around his balls tight then tie the other end to the door and slam it, you know like kids do for teeth. I’ll keep slamming that door until his balls rip off.”
Sarah paces as she continues mumbling to herself, I’m stunned in silence. I mean, I knew she was loyal as shit. What shocks me the most, was how much I liked the picture she just painted in my head. I don’t recall a time I’ve ever been this pissed off with someone, and that’s saying something because I’ve been in some shitty situations over the years.
When I come to this realisation, I tell her, “I’ll help, and when were done, I’ll help bury the body, we’ll burn it in the grave before we shovel all the dirt back in too.” Sarah smiles and nods like it’s a forgone plan.
Zac looks back and forward between us both, fixing his gaze on me with a slight smirk he says, “no need to get all Jekyll and Hyde sunshine, I’ve already taken care of the fucker, he won’t be bothering you again.” He looks at his watch before looking back up. “Not that I’m not enjoying this episode of Murder She Wrote, but you might want to get a move on with that shower if you want to make it to work on time. My car’s fast, but it’s no time machine sweetheart.”
That has me screeching my way upstairs and into the shower. I have the quickest shower in the history of showers, find a pair of scrubs, pile my hair up into a messy top bun. Just before I’m about to turn to head downstairs, I stop and add a layer of nude lip gloss to my lips.
Chapter Four
Zac
I look over to Alyssa sitting in the seat next to me. It feels right to have her there. She’s only wearing scrubs, but I swear when she came down the stairs after rushing through a shower, I had to tell myself not to be the creeper and to stop visibly drooling. She is gorgeous, up close I can see that her blue eyes sometimes flicker with shades of green. Her blonde hair is all piled up on top of her head with loose strands already breaking free around her face.
“I just have a quick stop to make, be one minute, stay here. I’m locking the doors to prevent people getting in, not you getting out,” I say as I pull into a carpark right out front of the café I called while she was in the shower. She looks at me like I need a shrink but smiles and agrees to stay put.
I’m in and out of the café within two minutes and back in the car. “I’m not sure how you take your coffee yet, I went for the s
afe bet and ordered you a flat white.” I hand her the coffee cup, which she takes hesitantly.
“Thank you. You really didn’t need to do this, but I appreciate it. I love flat whites, also vanilla lattes are a regular for me.”
I hand her the bag with the two muffins. “One’s blueberry the others choc chip, eat.”
She looks at me like I’ve lost my head now, her face scrunched up and brows furrowed. “What?” I ask.
“I can’t eat this in your car, I’ll make a mess. You’ll end up with crumbs all over the place, you will need to get a detail. I don’t know how much a car like this cost to get detailed, but I know I can’t afford that. So, thank you for the muffin, but I can’t possibly eat in the Batmobile.” She’s trying to hand the paper bag back to me, all I can think is, wow she is cute when she gets nervous and worked up.
“Sunshine, you are eating the muffin, you will eat in this car. I don’t care if you get crumbs everywhere, that’s nothing a vacuum can’t fix. What I care about is the fact that you were planning on going to work for god knows how many hours without even eating breakfast. You know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?” She’s still holding the bag out to me, I ignore her and pull back out onto the road.
It takes a moment, and she’s quiet when she speaks again. “Thank you.” She’s not looking at me when she says it, head down and looking at the paper bag like she can will it away.
Eventually she opens the bag and takes a small chunk of the chocolate chip muffin, popping it into her mouth. Almost as soon as it hits her tongue, she lets out a pleasurable moan. I look over, her are eyes are closed and her heads leaning back; it’s a good look on her, a damn good look. I have to will myself to look back at the road and subtly adjust my jeans to allow for my growing cock.
Fuck me, I don’t know what it is about this girl, but she ticks every one of my ideal woman list items; a list I didn’t know I even had until I saw her. I don’t even care that I can see crumbs dropping in my car, I’ve never let anyone so much as have a coffee in this car before let alone eat a savoury. Bray would not let me hear the end of it if he found out I let a girl eat in this beast. But the thought of her not eating just pissed me off.
We’re almost at the hospital, I don’t want to drop her off and not know when I will see her again. My brain is scrambling for ideas on how I’m going to make that happen. I need to see her again. Attempting to not look like the arse I have probably been portraying, I try to make small talk; covertly trying to find out more about this woman who has consumed my mind from the moment she walked through the doors of my club last night.
“Do you work all weekend?” I try to sound casual, like it doesn’t matter to me either way, but it does. I don’t want her working tomorrow, if she works tomorrow that’s another day I’ll have to wait to see her.
She turns and looks at me, inspecting my profile, she must be happy with what she finds because there is a smile to her voice when she replies, “no. I work today and then have two days off, how about you, do you work all weekend?” She smiles as she asks me the question like she’s already predicted the answer.
“I work everyday, sunshine.” I send her a wink. She smiles big now, and I swear I would do anything to keep seeing that smile, it makes me feel something good. I can’t put a label on the feeling, but I just know it’s good. It’s not a feeling I’ve ever had before.
“Ok, well not all of us are … whatever it is you are.” She waves her hand up and down at me. “Some of us, namely me, have normal jobs, average jobs, stable jobs. Jobs that mean I know I will have enough money to eat every week. If I turn up to work on time and not get myself fired.”
The way she talks about knowing she will have enough money to eat every week bothers me. Was there a time she didn’t have enough food, money, or stability? The way she talks about her job is kind of sad, she doesn’t sound like she likes her job, but turns up every week for the paycheck. Which is fine, it’s what most of the population does to survive.
“Well, I for one think you have an outstanding job, what other job could you have where you get to wear those scrubs looking cute as hell all day anyway?”
She spins her head so quickly towards me, mouth hanging open, she hides her shock just as quickly as she showed it. “There is nothing cute about these scrubs, they’re blue … blue,” repeating the colour like I don’t know what the colour blue is.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re blue, green, or orange, they are cute on you.” I add emphasis to the you because I’ve been in hospitals, I know that not everyone can pull off a pair of scrubs. But Alyssa? Damn can she pull that shit off.
“Blue is not cute, blue is literally the colour for depression, blue is the colour people represent for being sad. Wearing blue scrubs is not cute.” She really doesn’t seem to like the colour blue.
“We can agree to disagree. Why did you choose nursing?” I surprise myself with the fact that I honestly want to know the answer.
“That’s a conversation for another time, we’re here, you can just stop anywhere near that door and I’ll jump out. Thank you so much for the ride, you don’t know how much I appreciate it, really, and the coffee and the muffin. Sorry for the mess, but I told you so.” Alyssa rushes out her thanks like it will get her out of the car quicker.
It’s ten minutes to eleven, she’s not late, yet. I park the car and I’m around at her door before she can figure out how the door opens from the inside. I reach a hand in and pull her out, almost pulling her flush against me. Every bone in my body wants to pull her in and kiss her like my life depends on it. Shit, maybe my life does depend on it? No, I don’t want to scare her off, especially with what happened to her last night fresh in her head.
I show a lot of fucking restraint when I take a step back. “What time do you finish?”
She squints at me, I’m not sure if it’s the sun that’s shining in her eyes or she’s trying to figure out if she wants to tell me. “I finish at eleven tonight, I’m doing a twelve-hour shift today, why?”
She’s smart, seems to know I don’t ask questions for the fun of it. “I’ll pick you up from this same spot at eleven tonight.”
Before she has time to argue with me, I walk back around the car and jump in, leaving her standing there gaping at me as I pull away.
Walking into my penthouse the first thing I notice is Bray, Dean and Ella sitting in the living room; all at once they lift their heads looking at me expectantly.
“What the fuck are you all doing here?” I ask, annoyed that they're in my fucking house. All I want to do is strip off and get into bed and sleep. Well, there is one other thing I wouldn’t mind doing, and that’s jerking one out to the image of sweet beautiful Alyssa.
Alyssa, who has had my cock straining within the confines of my jeans ever since she moaned around that first bite of the muffin this morning. Ok, if I’m being honest, it’s been fucking hard since she walked through the doors of my club.
Bray seems to be the only brave one out of the group. Well, its bravery or stupidity, I haven’t decided yet which one. “Where the fuck have you been?” he shouts.
Raising my eyebrows at him I don’t bother answering his question, I repeat mine first. “What the fuck are you all doing here?”
This time, it’s Ella to pipe up, “last I checked I lived here, but I’ll leave you two with the grouch.”
I watch as she walks down the hall, not even a minute later hearing the tell-tale sound of the door being slammed and I cringe at the damage she’s doing to the doors. Ella has never been able to shut a door quietly.
Turning back towards Bray and Dean who are still lounging on my damn sofa, looking like they don’t have a care in the world. “She’s right, she lives here, you two fuckers however do not.” I reach into my pocket and pull out the keys for the McLaren, throwing them in Bray’s direction he catches them with ease. “Make yourself useful and take the McLaren to the detailers, I’m going to get a few hours sleep. I’ll see th
e both of you at the club around seven tonight.” I start towards my bedroom, thinking I can make a quick escape.
“Wait, you had it detailed two days ago, why do you need it cleaned again so soon?” Bray and his nosey bastard questions, I turn back around to see him waiting for an explanation with raised eyebrows.
“Because I ate a muffin in it this morning and made a fucking mess of it. Besides, it’s my fucking car, if I want to get the damn thing detailed every other day I bloody well will.” I can’t help the frustrated tone; after sitting up all night watching Alyssa as she slept on the couch in my office, I’m too damn tired to care.
“You don’t even like muffins.” Dean unhelpfully adds.
“Remind me again why you’re here?” I give him a death glare that would make most man shit themselves. Not him though, Dean has been one of my best mates since the beginning of high school, I may employ him as my head of security, but he’s more than that, he’s family.
“I’m here arsehole, because someone had to give Ella a ride home from the club last night when I realised you weren’t coming home. Bray wasn’t here either, so I stayed the night so she wouldn’t be left here by herself.” At my raised eyebrows he quickly adds, “on the couch, I slept on the fucking couch.” He points toward the pillow and blankets that are still spilled out on the couch.
“Thanks for that, but that doesn’t explain why you’re still here?” I run my hands through my hair, not even sure I care why they’re here. “That’s easy,” he says with a huge ass smile on his face, “Bray here rocked up this morning. When we noticed you didn’t come home last night and still weren’t home this morning, we got busy figuring out where someone would have buried your sorry ass so we could go dig it up and give you the burial we think you’d deserve. Seeing as though we couldn’t for the life of us think of any other reason you wouldn’t have come home or answered any of our thousand calls or texts.”