Glancing at Ace, I see him reassess the situation on the fly. “Nah, it’s not a strip club, it’s that store… what was it again?”
“The bookstore?” I mutter, thinking of Kim’s part-time gig, but I can’t help but feel there’s more to this.
“Yes, the bookstore. Hope that thick skull of yours can actually learn something.”
Why do I get the feeling that Ace just covered for Kim? But why would he? He doesn’t like her. I shrug it off, elbowing Ace.
“What baby? She does look well…enough. Isn’t it familiar?” Ace says, pulling me into him, the heat of his body soothing me.
I realize then what he’s trying to say to Kim.
Noah’s not doing any better than Kim is right now. If anything, it feels like their misery has the same color of devastation.
Restless, reckless, and miserable.
When Kim sucks in a deep breath, I almost feel sorry for her.
“Thanks for the compliment, your highness, I’ll keep it close to heart, you know, since it comes from you.”
“You’re not exactly welcome. And my boy, Noah?”
“What about him?” she says, her voice hoarse. “I’m glad he’s doing well.”
Yeah, she didn’t get what Ace just tried to tell her.
I open my mouth to explain but Ace shoots me a look. I snap my jaw shut. I can only go so far, seeing as I’m already on the illusion and deceit train by organizing a Christmas thing without revealing the guest list.
“So, you’re coming to the Christmas thing then?” Ace questions, his gaze now on Ivy.
“What Christmas thing?” Ivy questions, now drinking a gallon of water.
“You haven’t told them?” Ace says, his eyes clearly laughing at me. “Not so easy huh?”
“I was just getting to that before you rudely interrupted me.”
“By all means,” the asshole says, looking at me with a smirk on his handsome face. “Tell them now.”
“Oooh, you have some news for us for Christmas?” Ivy breathes, excitement lighting up her eyes. The girl is a sucker for surprises and romance. I guess she’ll say yes. “What’s the news? What’s the news?” She all but claps her hands.
“Yeah, what’s this news you have to tell us?” Kim drawls, her good mood now nowhere in sight. Forever gone because of Ace and his big mouth. “I was wondering what the purpose of this call was, waking us up like this. What’s this Christmas surprise thing then?”
“Oh wait!” Ivy exclaims. “Maybe it’s finally happened, Kimmy!”
Huh?
“Really?” Kim frowns, staring at me. “You think so?”
“I mean look at her! She’s practically glowing!”
“She’s always glowing these days.”
“No, look closer,” Ivy exclaims, her face getting closer on the screen. “The physical evidence is totally there.”
“What physical evidence?” I frown. “What are you two talking about?”
They ignore me.
“Hmm, yes I see what you mean,” Kim says.
“Both of you stop it,” Ace says with a chuckle, obviously in the know with whatever the two are talking about. “Not yet.”
What on earth are they talking about?
“What do you mean?” I question, looking between Ivy, Kim, and Ace, but they just laugh.
“Nothing of major concern baby, your friends are crazy. I’m pretty sure they won’t come for your Christmas thing,” Ace drawls with a smirk.
“No,” I cry. “You’re wrong.”
“Oh, I like it when the King is wrong!” Kim sneers.
“So, you’ll come?”
“For what? You haven’t explained!” Ivy says.
Gosh, here goes nothing.
“I’ve decided to go on a holiday getaway, with you guys!”
“You mean like a girls’ trip?” Ivy questions.
“Yes!” I exclaim, crossing my fingers behind my back. Ace chuckles. “Just like a girls’ trip.”
“Uh, where?” Kim says, looking skeptical as hell. I need to sell this like my life depends on it.
“Colorado Mountains! It’ll be just for four days! We can rest up! Go skiing! Enjoy the snow!”
“Really? There’s snow here too, bitch, what’s really going on?” Kim mutters.
“Uh.” Shit. Kim’s too naturally suspicious for her own good. Okay, time to get on the offense. “Bitch it’s a Christmas get together. I know you haven’t been loved like that, neither have I, so let’s go away and celebrate that shit. Damn.”
I can feel Ace’s entire body shaking with silent laughter. Ivy’s eyes are wide, but she has a smile on her face and Kim, she’s watching me closely.
“So, you’re doing this for love?”
“Yes, for love!”
“It sounds nice, babe but I can’t.”
It’s like someone just burst my balloon with a pin. “What?”
“Raea, I have my sisters. I can’t just up and leave them,” she says softly. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“But Kim, please.” I can’t hide the disappointment in my voice. Out of nowhere, tears start welling up in my eyes and of course, Ace feels the difference. “You can bring them with.”
“They hate flying and driving is out of the question,” Kim says, the regret clear in her stormy gray eyes.
“Aw, come on, Kim,” Ivy sighs. “Please.”
“I’m sorry babes, but I know you both can enjoy the getaway without me.”
Fuck. Why didn’t I think of her sweet little sisters? I won’t even ask about Kim’s mother. She’s something else. I don’t even trust her with Kim or her sisters, so I won’t bring that up.
“So, if your sisters are taken care of, you’ll come?” I question.
“If I had a way for that, Raea, nothing would keep me away,” she says with a wink. “I’m bummed but I’m pretty sure my sisters would want to be around family for Christmas and I’m their family.”
Ah, that’s true too.
“Wait a minute,” Ivy says from out of nowhere. “Didn’t you tell me that your sisters left you and went to a friend’s house for Christmas and New Year’s?”
Well, then.
“Kim?” I whisper.
“Ah shit, you never forget anything do you, Ivy?”
“Ah well.” She shrugs.
“Is that true?” I’m not mad that Kim kinda lied. I just want to know why she said that. “What’s going on, babe? You don’t want to hang out with me?”
“It’s not that, Raea,” she sighs. “I just have a lot that I need to do.”
Silence.
I take a closer look at her, my cousin, my best friend, the girl who had my back and also broke my heart but still here we are.
“You’re taking care of her, aren’t you?” I seethe, anger now zapping through my veins like acid. Kim looks away, giving me my answer. “Kim…”
“She’s my mother, Raea,” she whispers hoarsely.
“I know, babe.” I sigh. “How is she?”
She snorts. “Really?”
“Okay, that was a stupid question but babe, she isn’t your burden to bear. She’s an adult, a pretty crappy one at that.”
“Raea…”
“No, Kim, you’ve spent all your life taking care of her, who’s taking care of you? No way are you spending the holidays miserable with her!”
“Oh my God, stop crying,” she huffs, getting upset. “His royal assholeness is right. Your tears do some wicked shit to people. Make us feel all horrible and shit.”
I wasn’t aware that I was crying until they point it out.
“Facts, Raea, Raea,” Ivy chimes in.
“Yeah well, I hate it when you’re hard on yourself,” I sniffle. “Both of you.”
“Me?” Ivy reels back, shocked.
“Especially you. I know about your mother, Ivy,” I sniffle. “I know why you’re pushing yourself this hard with school and all.”
“Raea, respectfully, I doubt anything my brother told you i
s true,” she sighs. “You don’t know my life.”
I would back away, but I’m not that girl. If I was, I would’ve stopped pushing a while ago.
“That’s true,” I say, hoping my voice sounds as sincere as I’m feeling. “I don’t know you. Not as well as I’d like. Four days isn’t enough, but I want to start somewhere. Can we do that?”
Both of them are silent, musing over my words.
“You’re doing well, baby,” Ace whispers hoarsely in my ear, then he speaks up, making sure the girls hear him. “But if you continue getting upset over this, I’ll have to kidnap them both and that will piss me off.”
“Oh, boo-hoo, Alexander,” Kim says sarcastically. “Kidnapping is against the law.”
“But my dear, Kimberly, you and I both know I don’t give a damn about the law,” Ace purrs darkly. “You know that better than anyone.”
Well, then.
“Okay, before this takes a dark turn, I’m in for this girls’ getaway!”
“Girls’ getaway trip, huh?” Ace says with a smirk. This time I elbow him harder and he grunts.
“Kim, what about you?”
“I…”
“We’ll take care of everything, of course, all you have to do is show up.”
“I don’t like hand…”
“It’s not a hand-out!” I rush to say, biting my lip knowing how that shit offends her. “Consider it like uh, a gift from me.”
“Urgh, that makes me feel worse, I didn’t get you anything,” Kim says, looking seriously upset.
“You being there is enough for me, I don’t need anything. Besides, this is so last minute and we don’t really celebrate Christmas.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” Ace mutters.
“Yeah, but my sisters…”
“Will be fine, Kim!”
“Yeah, if it makes you feel better, Gran can check in on them when she’s not working, just text me the address,” Ivy says.
“Are you excited for real or you’re just high?” Kim narrows her eyes.
“Can it be both?” Ivy shrugs. “Anyway, who gives a damn? This is sorted! We’re going on vacation!”
Yeah, this is going to be so amazing!
“So long as King devil doesn’t fuck with me…”
“Oh, just you wait, Kimberly,” Ace mutters under his breath, a smirk on his face.
A chill races down my spine.
I’m still laughing when Star hangs up and pivots around to look at me, her eyes narrowed, arms crossed, looking sexy as hell.
“Care to explain yourself?” she demands, her lips puckered up. I just want to kiss them, then give that mouth something else to do other than the chewing out I’m about to get.
“There’s nothing to explain,” I say with a shrug.
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“So that warning or threat or whatever the hell it was is nothing?”
I can’t help but smile, thinking of the plan I have in action.
“Ace, what are you planning?” Star demands, watching me closely.
“Off the top of my head, I’m planning to fuck you seven ways to Sunday and miss this holiday shit you’re planning.”
The blush that flashes in her cheeks is so fucking worth messing with her.
“Oh my gosh, focus!”
“I’m so fucking focused on you baby, it’s not even funny.”
She pauses for a second. I can see the arousal in her dilating eyes. She’s been fucking turned on by the slightest things these days and I’m fucking here for it.
“Don’t sidetrack me by saying your sweet nothings.”
“It’s not nothing.”
“You know what I mean! What are you planning, Ace?”
I stay silent, trying not to laugh at the obvious distress on her face. I normally tell her everything but this, I can’t.
“Baby, you’re being suspicious for nothing.”
“Okay,” she says. I release a breath of relief that she’s letting it go when she turns to leave. But before I can actually do that, she spins around so fast on me, I’m shocked she moves that fast. “If this doesn’t go well, or if Kim decides not to come, I’ll hold it over your life like a guillotine slicing blade.”
I can’t help but smile. When she’s mad like this, it does something to me. My blood simmers, my heart races, and my dick, well, I’m pretty sure she knows as her nipples bead up tightly, demanding my touch and my mouth.
“I love it when you go all annihilate-his-ass mad,” I whisper gruffly, watching as arosual colors her cheeks. “So fucking sexy.”
“Ace…”
“I won’t do anything to sabotage Kimberly’s imposition on this forced retreat,” I mutter. In fact, I’m counting on her presence.
“Hmm,” she hums. “You look a bit too relaxed about this. A bit more accepting.”
“Is that a bad thing, Star?”
“Maybe,” she hums cheekily. “Maybe not.”
She steps closer to me, watching me. I know that look well. She’s horny and she wants me. I snake an arm around her waist. She trails her fingers down my spine, and then, she has my dick in her hands through my sweatpants.
Fuck. I harden in a second, making her smile like a vixen.
“What happened with the boys?”
The fuck?
“You have your hand on my dick and you want to talk about those assholes?”
She slips her hand in my sweatpants, knowing damn well that I’m always commando when I’m home with her.
“Just tell me if you called them and if they’re coming, Ace,” she says breathlessly. She leans in, stroking my cock in a firm, hot grip. “It’s pretty simple.”
Uh! Fuck. This. Shit.
The power she has over me…
I try to school my face into an impassive mask.
“It went…”
“Don’t play me, Ace,” she warns, her voice hoarse and breathless. “We’re not kids anymore.”
No, we most definitely are not.
“They’ll be there.”
She lets me go as quickly as she had me. My jaw drops when she steps away, then plops down in front of all the shit she bought.
“Are you fucking serious right now?”
“What? We just fucked two hours ago,” she says saucily. “Besides, I need details.”
This is fucking new. She’s never curved me like this before.
“Astraea…”
“What happened?” Uh, do I tell her that I fucked up on her plan and I’m not even sorry for saying shit I wasn’t supposed to. “Tell me how your calls went. After all, you heard mine.”
I grow still, thinking back to the last torturous hour of my life.
“Say that shit again?” Emmett grumbles unhappily through the phone.
“Did I stutter?” I fire back, annoyed beyond belief. “Are you coming or not?”
“Oh, my bad, jerk, I’m having a hard time understanding that shit you just spewed,” he counters. “Also, the fact that you even notice a globally celebrated holiday like Christmas.”
“I don’t give a damn about Christmas.”
“I know that, so why are you calling?” Emmett questions. “Are you dying?”
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”
Silence.
“I’ll save you the inquiry,” he mutters. “Any moment now, a long stutter of the damaged thing in my chest and it’ll happen.”
Silence. What do I say to that? Since finding out about Emmett’s heart condition, I’ve just been lost, not knowing what to say or do. I want to know why he never told me.
“Why?”
If there’s anyone who knows me better than I know myself, besides George, it’s this secretive fool, so I know I don’t have to say what I mean for him to understand.
“What would you have done? Given me a new fucking heart?”
“Be there for you,” I say, getting angry. “That’s what I would’ve done, no questions fucking asked
, I would’ve been there for you.”
“That sounds nice, can’t believe I didn’t think of asking you before,” he says sarcastically.
“Fuck you! I want to know why?”
Silence. A whole two fucking minutes worth of twisted, loaded silence.
“She was gone, man,” he says, blowing a breath.
“She left me too.”
“You don’t get it, she was gone. We didn’t know why back then, but everyone was a mess, so what was I going to say, asshole?” he seethes. “Let’s play it out, huh? ‘Oh hey, I miss Astraea with a crippling ache in my soul just like you jerks, but see, I’m barely going through it, living in constant fear that the fucking thing in my chest that’s supposed to give me fucking life, might stop working before I see her again? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Fuck.
“Em…”
“I guess not,” he seethes. “Besides, I’m not the only asshole who kept secrets. What the fuck, man?”
My blood runs cold, forcing my body to tense up. “There was nothing to say about that shit.”
“What the fuck? You were just a child, there’s everything to say.”
No there wasn’t. Not when no one wanted to hear what I had to say, describing the horrors that went on in the shadows of the large mansion I grew up in. The abuse, the beatings, all that crap.
“Yeah well, now you know.”
“Touché, asshole.”
We fall silent. It’s not uncomfortable, but at the same time, it’s not smooth sailing clouds and shit. There’s so much unsaid between us, but being who we are, we just sit there in silence.
“This whole operation, it’s her idea,” I say after a while of drinking my scotch in silence. “She wants everyone there.”
“Everyone?” he mutters, knowing exactly what I mean.
“Yup.”
“Shit,” he breathes. “Wait, does that include…”
“No,” I grit out, before he can say his name.
“That’s messed up and you know it,” Emmett says, back to his cool indifferent tone. “He is our brother after all, her twin.”
“Exactly, which is why I don’t want to see him anywhere near her.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Try me.”
“King…”
Frosty Blues: A Westbrook Blues Novella Page 8