“You ready?”
“No,” he said, honestly. “I’ll be back.” he told Phil and handed him his empty. Phil gave him a salute as if Gabe were going off to war.
We walked to the heliport and I hadn’t even thought about my short skirt flying up. It was lightweight, ivory cotton material with a fluttering hem, baby doll style. I sure as hell didn’t need to show any more body parts to the world—not just yet. The attendant helped us climb into the helicopter and strapped us in. I sat by the window and Gabe took the center seat. Two other couples joined us so there were six of us going up to see the city and the ocean by night. Gabe had his head leaned back against the headrest with his eyes closed. I smiled. He excelled at so many things, it must have taken some raw courage for him to do something outside of his comfort zone. I felt special that he’d do it with me. I whispered in his ear, “It’s okay. Just open one eye.” He opened one dark eye and looked at me and the smile that crept up on his face almost melted me right there in my seat.
About that time, the helicopter lifted off the ground and half the group squealed. The pilot spoke to us over the intercom, but I wasn’t paying attention. I had my eye on Gabe. We rose higher and higher and suddenly Gabe held my hand. I squeezed it back and looked out the window, amazed at the sight. “Don’t lean so far forward, Pepper.”
I chuckled, “I’m not going to fall out, Gabe. Don’t stress. Are you even looking?” I looked at him and he peeked over the side and nodded. We hovered over the city a few minutes and soon I felt his hand relax a little. Naturally, it was when we were over the ocean. It was pitch black, so there was no way to spot any animals, but the way the moon shone on the water was beautiful. I gathered my hair in a side ponytail to keep it out of my face. Gabe smiled at me, and I smiled back. His dark eyes were fixed on me, his lips parted slightly. Mmm, kiss me.
Suddenly, his hand cupped my face and he pressed his lips on mine. It was a sweet, warm, delicious kiss that sent heat surging through me. His hand curled around my head and he pulled me closer. His lips tasted like the beer he’d been drinking and I was sure mine did too, but they were so soft. I ran my fingers through his short hair and if we’d been alone on the helicopter, we probably would have never had stopped.
“Pepper,” he breathed, through our kiss.
“Yeah?” I bit gently on his lip.
“They’re watching us,” he whispered.
“Fuck ‘em. I don’t want this to stop.” I sucked on his bottom lip, forgetting that we were thousands of feet in the air with six other people. All I saw was Gabriel Gregory. I gasped when we finally broke apart and smiled at him as I leaned back on the seat. I was dizzy. I’m sure it was the combination of beer and the high altitude, but I wanted to believe it was him.
I sighed when the helicopter descended to the heliport and we stepped off the chopper to make way for the next group. Our trip was over way too soon.
Gabe tugged my hand and pulled me closer to him. His fingers found their way into my hair. “You smell amazing,” he whispered. “Thanks for asking me to come. I’ve never flown in a helicopter before.”
“Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it.” I couldn’t stop smiling and thinking. I wondered what that six pack would feel like under my fingertips. His cock. God, I bet he had an amazing cock. Lickable. Touchable. “And I’m glad I was your first.” I teased. It was his turn to laugh now. I knew that wasn’t true in any stretch of the imagination. “Sorry, but I have to find Mills and make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble. I’ll be back in a sec.”
“Sure.” Gabe found Phil again and the two picked up their conversation while I went in search of my sister, trying to fix my hair as I went. It was balled up in knots and I really hoped I looked better than I thought I did. Mills wasn’t on the dance floor or in any of the other party areas, so I went upstairs to the dressing rooms we’d also rented. There was the main dressing room where Mills had got ready for the party earlier. Brides loved this ridiculous dressing area since it was huge and very romantic. Aven and I thought it would be a great dressing room for the birthday girl, who wasn’t in there either. I turned to walk out and heard someone throwing up in the bathroom so I tapped on the door.
“Mills? Is that you? Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I heard a pathetic reply. “I’m just a little sick.” After a minute, she came to the door and looked like she’d been run over by a truck.
“I think I threw up on my shoe.” She looked so pitiful and her blonde hair was a mess. So much for the updo.
“Let’s go to the dressing room and change your clothes. You have some other dresses in there—and shoes.”
“Okay,” she was wobbly on her feet, but she was determined to keep partying. I worried about leaving gorgeous Gabe downstairs like a lamb thrown in the middle of a pit of lioness debutantes, but oh well. He’d have to fend for himself for the time being. Sisters first.
I opened the door to the dressing room and helped my sister clean up her face and feet then I tossed the gross shoes to the side. I loved her, and I loved Loubouton, but I wasn’t about to clean those things. “I need my blue dress… never mind, I’ll get it.” I let out a long hard breath. Mills was more effort than I’d ever imagined. Do I act like this when I’m drunk?
I couldn’t leave those nasty shoes in the dressing room, so I picked them up by the straps and tossed them in the garbage can. I sighed again. “Goodbye, beautiful Louboutin shoes, but I’m not putting you in my car.”All of a sudden, I heard my sister scream. “Mom!” I ran to help her and wondered what the hell was happening.
“Mills! What is it?”
“Mom?” she said, and gasped in surprise as she pointed inside the boudoir closet.
“Church?” My friend and his most recent playmate turned to look at me and squinted at the open door. I flipped on the light and almost threw up at what I saw. “Mother!”
He looked at the women who sat in his lap, my mother, Evangeline. Her dress was pulled up around her waist, her panties on the floor and she was grinding on my boyfriend.
Church picked her up and practically tossed her to the side. “Pepper! What the fuck?” Evangeline let out a string of profanity and smacked at him with her hand. Once she was off of him, he slid his pants up and tried to button everything up quickly. Mills started crying and I hated for her to see something like this. I could handle my mother—I wasn’t too sure about Mills, though.
“You. Fucking. Pig.” I balled up my fists and wanted to beat the crap out of him. I didn’t know if I was sicker about my mother, or Church, or both. “What the hell is your fucking problem?”
“Mom! How could you? That’s Pepper’s boyfriend!” Mills cried out. I grabbed my sister’s hand and tried to pull her away from the horrifying scene.
“Come on, Mills. I’ll take you home.”
“Mills! Wait! I didn’t—” Mom shrieked after us.
“—yes you did!” I turned my back on her and dared her to come toward us. I knew all about her and her greedy lust. I’d seen her get it on with my first crush, Christopher Escobar—the guy who washed and detailed our cars. I hadn’t quite forgiven her for that, either.
We hurried down the stairs, Mills slipped a couple of times, but I caught her. I bee-lined straight for the front door. The valet attendant eye-balled us suspiciously as we got to his station but I was in no mood to play games. “Just give me my freakin’ keys,” I demanded and just as I opened the door, I realized it was too late. The driveway was full of paparazzi, who snapped pictures from every angle. I couldn’t have a drunken Mills on the front page, so we ran back into the building. Daddy would kill me if she was headline news—especially as drunk as she was.
Church came stumbling down the stairs barefoot, with his shirt half-buttoned. “Pepper! Wait!” The guests were already staring, and him yelling down the corridor didn’t help. “You know that bitch is crazy. I thought it was you! I was looking for you and there you were—I mean there she was!” Next thing I knew, his hand was
on my shoulder and he pulled on it, turning me around. “Are you listening to me?”
“Get.
Away.
From.
Me.”
I pushed him out of the way and circled the packed dance floor. I had to find Gabe. I needed help, and not from Church. My sister had finally stopped crying, and she was clearly drunk off her ass. Daddy had asked me to do one thing—take care of Mills—and I’d failed.
Finally, I saw Gabe. He was standing alone, leaning against the railing that overlooked the ocean.
“Gabe!” He turned and looked surprised when he saw me walking up to him with my drunk-ass sister. Aside from the one beer I’d had, I was sober. “Please, I need your help. I have to get her home and the fucking paparazzi are in the driveway. I’ve got to get her out of here.” I pleaded desperately.
“Sure, let me go get my car. Is there a back entrance to this place?”
Before I could answer him, Church had caught up with us. “What the fuck, Pep? I need to talk to you. How could you leave me like that?”
Immediately, I glanced at Gabe and his face revealed his emotions. I knew exactly what he was thinking—and I had to prove to him that he was totally wrong.
Chapter Ten — Gabe
I stood by the railing and wondered what had happened to Pepper. I heard her call my name and turned around to look. Her little sister was with her and she was totally wasted. I really didn’t want to get drawn into the Anderson’s drinking and drama. This was exactly the reason I didn’t normally hang out with girls like Pepper. Too much chaos—and then Jonathan Church showed up talking to Pepper like she’d just been with him. He was bad news. He was a little older than I was, but I remembered him from school. He was a druggie back then, and probably still was. The guy was pretty well-built, but I’m sure as drunk as he was, if I were to punch him in the mouth right now, he’d crumble to the floor. Too bad I wasn’t that guy—and I probably shouldn’t have kissed Pepper, but I couldn’t help myself. She was one hot chick, and here she was, begging for my help with her sister and a half-naked guy that she was apparently pissed at. That was my cue to go—before things got out of control.
“Gabe, please,” her blue eyes pleaded with me. “I have to get my sister home. Can you help us out or not?”
I put my arm around her shoulder. “Yeah, Pepper, I’ll help you out, but this guy is going to have to back off. Give me a second.”
“Get off my chick!” yelled Church with his shirt still open.
“Relax, man. She needs a ride home.”
“Then I’ll take her!” he slurred.
“You aren’t taking me anywhere, Church!” Pepper said. “You need to leave me alone!”
I let go of Pepper and shook my head. I should have stayed home, but for a minute, I thought she was a great girl. “I’ll bring the car around the back.” But I’m done with you after this. I left that part unsaid, but I sure as hell meant it. I grabbed my keys out of my pocket and walked toward the front door.
“Hey, asshole! I’m talking to you!”
I turned to look at Jonathan Church and my eyes fixed on a beautiful woman at the top of the stairs. I nodded my head and gestured to Pepper to look, too. I knew it was her mother, Evangeline. “Church. Man, you’re drunk. I’ll call you a cab. You can’t be driving like that.”
He sneered at me. “I’m Jonathan Church, and I don’t need a fucking cab.”
“All right then. You don’t need a cab, but maybe you should get dressed. There are a ton of minors here and I’d hate for you to do something stupid.” I turned to Pepper who was glaring at Evangeline. “I’ll meet you in the back, Pepper.”
Her eyes never left her mother and she replied, “Okay, I’ll be there in a sec.”
“Are you okay for a minute? I’ll have to get through the paparazzi.”
“Yeah, I’m just gonna help Mills to the back.” I glanced up at Evangeline again and she seemed to have a evil smirk on her face. A look I’d never seen from someone’s mother. I nodded an okay to Pepper and ducked out of the building. I really wanted to punch that dickwad in the face. Obviously, he’d been drinking and making out with someone, I’d hoped it wasn’t Pepper and the tension I felt between her and her mother was thick. I didn’t even want to know what all that was about.
She was right about the cameras. When I got outside, there were photographers everywhere. Luckily, I’d flown under the radar with these guys when I was growing up. I’d led a rich, but boring life in the shadows. I’d failed to entertain them so they’d left me alone, except for the occasional few who thought they could dig up something on me. Once they found out how boring I was, they never bothered with me again. Unfortunately for Pepper, she was young, beautiful and frequently in the public eye.
I managed to get to my car easily and drove down the road to the side street that would take me to the back of the building. For a moment, I paused. Should I just go home? Fuck this nonsense. Shit. I can’t do that. She’d be at Sea Lab bright and early Monday morning and I really didn’t want to go through the backlash.
I’d barely pulled up, when the two girls came stumbling out the back door. Mills was barely able to stand up, but at least Pepper was sober. Thankfully, Jonathan Church was nowhere to be found. It had been a long time since I’d gotten into an actual fist fight, but I was sure I could take him if needed.
I threw the car in park and got out to help the girls. “Come on, Mills. I’ve got you.” She murmured a thank you and looked up at me with bleary eyes. “Pepper, flip that seat up.” I eased the girl into the back seat of the car. She flopped on the seat and groaned then laid her head on the back of my seat.
“Oh, God,” she said, and I silently prayed that she wouldn’t throw up in my car, but I accepted it was a distinct possibility.
“Pepper, help me please,” she groaned.
Pepper slid into the seat next to me and angrily put on her seat belt. I couldn’t help but steal a look at her beautifully long, tanned legs.
She turned her head over her shoulder and said, “Mills, why would you do this?” I put the car in gear and we drove off. I avoided preaching to Pepper about her sister’s behavior since it probably wouldn’t go over too well to say, “She’s only following in your footsteps,” but that was exactly what I was thinking.
“Thanks for coming to our rescue, Gabe and I’m so sorry to involve you in this. I just didn’t know who else to call or what to do.”
I probably should’ve said something nice like, “It’s no problem,” or “I’m glad I could help,” but nope—instead, I asked, “Is he your boyfriend?”
Pepper stared at me like I was speaking another language. “I know you don’t really know me, but how dare you think I’d be kissing you one minute and doing something with him the next. That’s so typical. I can’t believe you.”
I was angry now, so I leaned away from her and focused on the road. I couldn’t afford to get a ticket with a drunk minor in my back seat. That wouldn’t look too good on my record—right next to the underage drinking ticket I got about ten years ago. “Forget it. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“That’s just great, Gabriel. Thanks for telling me what I already know.” Mills moaned from the back seat and banged on the console. “You need to pull over—she’s going to throw up.” I pulled over as quickly as I could. Mills moaned again and I put the car in park. Pepper jumped out, popped the seat up and helped Mills out of the car. I closed my eyes. I could feel a headache coming on while Mills puked by the side of the road. After a few minutes, the girls got back in and I handed Mills some napkins from my glove compartment. Before I could put the car in gear, another car pulled up behind us and at first, I thought it might be a police car, but it wasn’t. It was fucking Jonathan Church—asshole extraordinaire.
I got out of the car and stood by the door. “What do you want?”
“I want to talk to Pepper.” He’d buttoned up most of his shirt, but it was uneven—the idiot hadn’t even bothered t
o line up the buttons with the holes. I hadn’t noticed before, but he had pink lipstick smeared all over his face, looked like the same color Pepper wore.
“Get back in your car now!” I shouted, but instead of heeding my warning, he rushed towards me. He was drunk so it wasn’t hard to dodge him and I let him fall to the ground. He got straight up and swore at me while he swung his fists. I blocked him, then popped him on his jaw, sending him back in the dirt.
Pepper jumped out of the car “Stop! Please! Stop it, Church! I’ve got to get my sister home. She’s sick!”
I picked Church up off the ground and drug him to his car. “Get your ass in your car and go home.” I slung him over the hood of his car and walked back to mine. I was furious that this guy would even think about following us and sure enough, a bevy of photographers had followed him from the party and jumped out to snap photos of Church and the ass end of my car as I drove away. “Fuck!”
“Oh my God, Gabe. I’m so sorry. Now they’re behind us and you’re hand is bleeding!” Pepper dug in the glove compartment for some more napkins and patted the blood off of my hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Your house is on Ord Road, right?” I really wanted to get these girls home and out of my life. This was too much bullshit for me and I just wanted to get back into the comfort of my own home. No drunks, no drama and definitely no hot chicks with long legs that I wanted to feel wrapped around my waist. Mills grumbled from the back seat, I looked over at Pepper and then back at the road.
“Hang on, Mills. We can’t stop again right now. You’ll have to hold it.”
I slung the car down a side street and quickly lost the photographers after a few turns. In less than a minute, we pulled in the driveway of her house, closing the gate behind us.
“Mills, we’re here, baby. Wake up. Mills?” Pepper let out a long sigh. I had no idea how she lived this life. I was a grown man and I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle all the stress. Good thing we were at her house and I could get these girls out of my life. “Can you help me get her to bed? My Dad’s not home. I don’t see his car.”
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