Affinity: A Salvation Society Novel

by Harlow Layne

  God, my husband had been a manwhore. I hated hearing about or seeing the women he’d been with. Would there ever be a day when I wouldn’t be smacked in the face with someone he’d stuck his dick into?

  “Did you sleep with her?” My question came out with all the emotion I was feeling. I was sad, angry, and jealous over a man I’d only known for four days.

  After pulling his shirt over his head, he took me in from head to toe. “What changed?” His brows pulled together. “Are you pissed because I might have slept with Rick’s daughter?”

  Turning to gather my laptop and purse, I answered. “I can’t control how I feel. Trust me. I do not like feeling like this.” I pulled in a deep breath and closed my eyes to center myself as I let it out. “It’s unfair that we don’t remember when we had sex, but I guess that’s a common occurrence with you now, isn’t it?”

  Strong hands came to rest on my tense shoulders. Jenner spoke with his mouth next to my ear, and with each word, I could hear how much he regretted his past. “I won’t lie to you. There were many nights I got blackout drunk, and I can’t tell you if I slept with someone or not. Rick’s daughter is one of those women I have no recollection of. I hate to keep disappointing you, Abbi, but please don’t hold my past against me. Let’s pretend nothing happened before we woke up in Vegas together. Can you do that?” His arms slid from my shoulders, down my arms, and wrapped around my waist. He pulled me close, hugging me from behind.

  “I want to. I really do because I hate the thought of you with other women,” I answered truthfully.

  “And I hate the thought of you with other men. It’s a good thing you only have the one, but I can assure you that if I’m ever in the same room with him or you talk about him, I will be jealous and want to smash his face in.”

  I liked the idea of Jenner being the one jealous for once, and if by some crazy reason Greg was ever in our vicinity, I wouldn’t hold him back from kicking Greg’s ass.

  Nuzzling into the side of my neck, he spoke against my rapidly heating skin. “Would you like to go to dinner with me?”

  My hands rested over his just above the waistband of my shorts. “Like on a date?”

  “Yeah, I thought it would be nice for us to get out and do what normal couples do. Have dinner and get to know each other, and anything else you want to do. What do you say?”

  Turning in his arms to face him, I didn’t try to hide my happiness about going on a date with him. Pressing up, I kissed the corner of his mouth. I didn’t dare give him a full-on kiss. I was sure if I did, we wouldn’t have left the trailer until every inch of it had been christened. “I’d love to have dinner with you. Do you mind if I freshen up in the bathroom before we go? I know I look a wreck.”

  “You look beautiful to me, but I’ll wait if you want to fix yourself up a little.”

  I skipped down the length of the trailer with my purse in tow, and a smile stretched across my face. It was strange how one minute I could be fuming jealous, and the next, I was on cloud nine with this man.

  I knew then that life with Reeves Jenner would never be boring, and he’d always keep me on my toes.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jenner

  The last time I was on a date felt like . . . never. Poppy hadn’t liked to go out to dinner, but she liked to hit the clubs and parties on my arm. At first, I didn’t realize it, and by the time I did, I was in too deep. I was young and dumb and totally let her take advantage of me.

  Now, here I was, married because of another bad mistake, but thinking it might have been the best mistake I’d ever made. Abbi didn’t want the attention of the paparazzi, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out a place that was both private and would show her I wanted us to work.

  I wasn’t sure if such a place existed, but I was going to try and take her to the perfect place. One thing I knew was that we needed to head out of town and away from the vast majority of the cameras that followed me around daily.

  “Where are we going?” Abbi asked from the passenger seat. Her voice was laced with uncertainty.

  I peeked at her from the corner of my eye. “Out of town. I thought it would be nice if there wasn’t a swarm of paps trailing behind, and around Malibu, there are quite a few amazing seafood restaurants. You do like seafood, don’t you?”

  “Seafood?” Her voice sounded funny, making me look over at her. Her eyes were wide with her hand covering her mouth in a look that could only be described as horror, but that couldn’t be right.

  “Do you not like seafood?” I was going to be sorely disappointed if she didn’t. Seafood was one of my favorite foods.

  “Liking it isn’t a problem. It’s that I’ll die if I eat it.” She chewed on her bottom lip, but I swore I saw her fighting a smile.

  I wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. Either Abbi was a skilled liar, or she was allergic to seafood. After our talk, I didn’t think she’d lie to me, though.

  I could feel the tension in my brow as my forehead scrunched up. “You’re allergic to seafood?”

  Before she could answer what could only be classified as a giggle slipped free from her mouth, and Abbi doubled over in laughter a second later with her chest to her legs.

  “Oh my God, the look on your face when you thought I . . . couldn’t . . . ” After that, I couldn’t understand a single word she tried to utter as she cracked up. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and slipping off her chin and running down her leg, she was laughing so hard.

  Damn, Abbi was good. She really had me going there for a minute.

  To the left, I noticed a beachside restaurant, Shrimp by the Sea, with very little traffic. It probably helped that it was now three in the afternoon, and they were in between lunch and dinner service. Pulling in, I parked the car before I turned to look at the woman beside me.

  “You might want to wipe those tears from your face because we’re here, and I don’t want everyone thinking it was me who made you cry.”

  If word got out that Abbi was seen crying and that I was fired on that day, God only knew what the world would think. It wouldn’t be good for sure. I dreaded calling Catherine once I got home to break the news to her.

  Abbi sat up, stiff as a rod, pulling the sun visor down to take herself in. She swiped underneath her eyes and brushed away the wetness on her cheeks for only a second.

  “At least my eyes aren’t all red and puffy, but I have to say it was all worth it because the look on your face when you thought you’d have to find a new place for us to eat was priceless.” Flipping the visor back up, she secured her ponytail and smiled over at me. “Ready,” she sing-songed.

  If Abbi would have been any other woman in LA, she would have redone her makeup and applied a slick layer of lipstick on her plush pink lips. But not my Abbi. She was beautiful with or without, and I loved the fact she didn’t feel the need to conform to society.

  When her hand went to the door handle, I placed my hand on her other arm. “Wait. Let me go around and get the door for you.”

  Before she could answer or protest, I was out of my SUV and opening her door with my hand held out to help guide her out of the car.

  With her hand in mine, Abbi smiled up at me. “I like the gentlemen side of you.”

  “Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll get to see another side of me.” I winked at her. Intertwining our fingers, I escorted us into a quaint little restaurant with the entire backside opened to the ocean and beach. The tables were whitewashed with dark green plastic chairs around them.

  A tall, blonde hostess met us with a Botoxed fake smile. “How can I help you?”

  “We’d like a table for two outside by the water. If you can make it as private as possible, that would be great.”

  Without blinking an eye, she escorted us to an empty patio and let us have our choice of table. One thing I liked about Malibu was no one here cared if you were famous or had money because everyone who lived in the area was all of those things. They were used to it and never trea
ted anyone differently.

  The moment our hostess walked away, Abbi leaned forward, her gaze darting around the area before she whispered, “Have you ever been here before?”

  I looked around, wondering why she’d ask. The place seemed normal enough, with the exception of there being very few customers. “No, and why are you whispering?”

  “I don’t know,” she continued to speak softly. “It’s the vibe I’m getting.” Her hand shot up with one finger pointed up. “And before you say anything, I don’t believe in all that hooey, but I won’t deny my feelings either.”

  “Hooey? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that word uttered before.” I tried fighting back a laugh but lost the battle when Abbi’s eyes narrowed more and more with each twitch of my lips.

  “Let it all out, funny guy.” I knew she wasn’t mad, though, going by the slight upturn of her mouth. I liked it when things were easy between us, and maybe they would be now that I didn’t have Alpha Blue hanging over my head and constantly putting me in a bad mood.

  “I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “I know what you meant, but I couldn’t help myself.”

  Stretching her arm out to my side of the table, she took my hand in hers. “It’s fine after the day you’ve had. I know you didn’t like the show, but it’s still got to sting that they wanted you gone because some of the cast and crew think you’re cursed.”

  “Hell, for all I know, I may be. Maybe I’m not supposed to be an actor. Everything was fine between Poppy and me until I was away on a shoot. Once I got back, everything went downhill from there. Maybe I’m not meant for this.”

  “Hey,” she smoothed her thumb over the top of my hand, “you love acting. I know you do, and I don’t want you to give up on something that you feel passionately about because you’ve had a shitty run. I have a feeling your life is going to turn around. You just have to give it time.”

  How could she have such faith in me when she barely knew me?

  “Thanks, I needed that.” I turned my hand over and interlaced our fingers together. “Surprisingly, it does hurt that they let me go. I know it doesn’t make sense when I wanted off the show and was hoping that bed would be my character's death bed. Not mine.”

  “It won’t be; just give yourself some time.” She smiled sweetly over at me, and I felt it deep within my chest. I was in trouble if one smile from her could elicit such a reaction.

  “Do you know what you want?” a raspy voice asked from beside us, causing both Abbi and me to jump. We’d been too immersed with each other to register him coming upon us. He placed our waters down and stared out at the water, not once making eye contact with us.

  “Can you give us a couple more minutes to look over the menu?” Abbi asked with a blinding smile that I wanted only for myself.

  “Sure,” he answered before walking off. He was the shortest, skinniest guy I’d ever seen with a voice so dark and gruff that if heard him on the phone, I’d have thought he was seven feet tall and broader than a barn.

  Slipping her hand from mine, Abbi picked up her menu. “We should probably decide what we want.”

  What I wanted at that moment was Abbi, but I didn’t think she was on the menu. Soon. Hopefully, very soon, before my dick got chafed from the overuse of my hand.

  Looking up from her menu, she found me staring at her. “Do you know what you want?”

  I shook the thoughts of wanting Abbi naked underneath from my head and looked down at my menu. “I’m not sure. How about you?”

  “I think I’m going to get the fried shrimp basket, but I also love crab legs, so I don’t know.” She bit the inside of her cheek as she scanned the menu.

  “Why don’t we get some legs to share? We’ll get a little of everything and see what’s good.”

  Her eyes lit up. “That sounds delightful. I’m starved since I only had a few bites of my lunch before it got rudely interrupted.”

  It seemed like a lifetime ago that Rikki had come up to our table and tried to cause trouble. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that she wanted to break up Abbi and me. Because why else would she have said the shit she did?

  “I’m sorry about Rikki, and I’m sorry for anyone else who tries to make you jealous in the future. I can promise you that they all meant nothing. As bad as it sounds, and I do know it sounds bad, they weren’t even a blip on my radar, only a convenience.”

  “That does sound bad.” She sat back in her chair with a frown marring her beautiful and once happy face. “More than bad. I can’t even think of the word to describe how it makes me feel inside.”

  Before I could try to atone for my words, our waiter sidled up to our table with a scowl on his face and his pen and pad ready to take our order. I had a feeling he didn’t love us being in his section when it was his downtime. “Have you had a chance to decide?”

  “Yes, we’ll have two pounds of the crab legs, two fried shrimp baskets, an order of crab cakes, the Ahi tuna plate with mushroom risotto, and a shrimp cocktail to start us off.”

  Abbi looked back and forth with wide eyes between the waiter and me. Had I not ordered us enough food?

  “Would you like anything else to drink?”

  “I’m fine,” I answered as Abbi asked for a sweet tea.

  “I’ll be right out with your tea and shrimp cocktail.” Clapping his book closed, he trudged off and disappeared inside.

  “Did I not order enough for us to share?” If not, we could always order more. Maybe there had been something else she wanted but hadn’t spoken up about.

  “We’re not feeding a party of six, Jenner. We’ll be eating leftovers for days at this rate.”

  “If it's good, why does it matter? And you won’t have to cook for a day or two.”

  “I enjoy cooking, but you’re right, it doesn’t matter if it's good. Plus, I haven’t had seafood in so long I can’t even remember when it was.”

  I loved how she seemed to always see the bright side of things.

  “When we’re done here, would you like to take a walk on the beach?”

  Abbi looked out at the beach with a soft smile. “That would be nice if I can walk after all the food you just ordered.”

  If she only knew how much food I could put away when I wasn’t watching what I was eating. Now that I didn’t have a job, I could splurge for a meal even though that’s what I’d been telling myself since the moment she placed the first meal she made down in front of me. I really was going to need to step up my workout regimen with Abbi in my life.

  With very few customers, it didn’t take long for us to get our food. The place may have been deserted, but the food was amazing. I had a feeling it was going to be a place we frequented often.

  Abbi moaned as she bit into one of her shrimp. With her hand covering her mouth, she spoke as she ate. “Oh my god, this is so good. I’m so glad you found this place. I definitely won’t mind having leftovers if I don’t eat it all.”

  With each moan from her pouty mouth, my dick became harder and harder to will down. He had a mind of his own by that point and wouldn’t let me talk him out of how bad of an idea it was to sport wood in public.

  From across the table, Abbi looked up at me innocently from underneath her long thick eyelashes and blushed. She didn’t have any of that shit on them either. She was all natural. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

  “Because you keep making the noises I’ve imagined in my head from when I finally get you underneath me. I’m hard as a rock over here.” I saw no point in keeping the truth from her–especially if I was still hard when I stood up from my chair.

  “I didn’t realize.” She bit her lip, and I almost came in my pants from the sight. “I’m sorry, I’ll try and stop.”

  “I didn’t ask you to stop. In fact, I’m enjoying it. Probably a little too much.”

  For the remainder of the meal, we took turns eating and watching the other. I never knew eating could be so erotic. The way she sucked on her fingers after she slid a bite of crab into her mout
h. Or how she licked her lips clean of any crumbs. I knew Abbi was playing it up after I mentioned it, but I didn’t give a damn. I was enjoying every second of her playfulness.

  “Do you see that house?” I pointed to one where the entire back was all glass.

  “Yeah, it’s gorgeous and has to have an amazing view.”

  “It does.” I stopped and looked at the house. The last two years of my life flashing before me. The changes in Poppy, coming home to find my place cleared out, the many nights I drank until I blacked out, my stint in rehab, up until I woke up to a shrieking Abbi in my Vegas hotel room. “Before I bought the house we live in now, I tried to buy it, but someone bought it out from under me. My realtor at the time didn’t know what she was doing. Hell, at this point, I don’t even think she was a real realtor, but posing as one to get in my pants.”

  Turning to me, Abbi looked at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. Reaching out, she gripped my hand in both of hers. “Your house now is just as gorgeous. In fact, I think I like it better. In the end, I think it was meant to be.”

  How did she speak the exact words that ran through my head? It felt like I had gone through all the bullshit to break through to the other side and have Abbi waiting for me.

  “The view is better here, but I do love my place. I needed something tranquil, and I couldn’t think of anything better than listening to the ocean waves crashing day and night. In the end, I’m happy with what I have.” And who I had. I gave her hand a squeeze.

  “Didn’t most of Malibu burn down last year?”

  Sadly, it was a common occurrence in California.

  “Yeah, it’s one of the prices you pay for living here.” It was a steep price, and after the fire, it felt like I was where I was meant to be. “Still, I love it here. Maybe one summer we can rent a house here.”

  “When you go big, you go big.” She laughed and started to tug me down the beach. “Wouldn’t a vacation to someplace with a beach be easier?”

  I had a feeling she wanted to say cheaper. Abbi had told me about how she’d grown up and had very little money after her parents died. Was it wrong that I wanted to pamper her and show her the world? It was even better because she didn’t expect it of me. She was happy working every day and living in our home, not on the beach.