It’s like he believes that he’s entitled to something. Like he thinks that he deserves a cut of my hard work. I walked away with nothing and started fresh. I left with a clean slate and I’ve worked my ass off to clear the debt he’s put under my name.
I’m a free woman and he will never hold me down again. I refuse to allow it.
But when he comes walking through my door as though he belongs, I’m pulled back in time. I become the girl who’s unsure of herself, who’s not sure what could happen, especially when he’s been drinking. He’s never hurt me before, but four years on, the love he had for me has faded and I’m just some bitch standing in the way of his next drink.
I was in shock when he reached out and grabbed my wrist. He knows more than anybody about my blood disorder and he always used to be so cautious about it. I guess it just shows how much people can change.
I take the few steps up my ladder so I can reach the roof and continue painting. My music plays in the background, but I’m just not feeling it today.
A knock sounds at the door and I find myself peeking through the bedroom window over to Luke’s place. All the lights are out so it couldn’t be him, and even if it were, he’d just walk right on through.
My eyebrows furrow as I step down from the ladder and place the paintbrush across the top of the paint bucket. I make my way out of the bedroom and up the hallway. I have no idea who could possibly be at the door. I haven’t ordered any dinner yet and I doubt Jeremy would return so soon.
I grab the door handle and hesitantly pull it open.
A grin rips across my face at what I see. It’s exactly what I need right now. Charli stands at the door with all the girls, each of them piled high with pizza boxes, bottles of wine, bags of chocolates, and ice cream.
“Surprise,” Charli says as she holds up the bottle of wine like a trophy.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask as I pull the door open wider and let them come in.
“Well,” Rylee says as she dumps the pizza boxes on the kitchen counter. “Cole said he was talking to Luke yesterday, who said that you were having a bit of a rough time. Though, he was a bit stingy on the details.”
Cami cuts her off and looks at me with an excited grin. “He also said you were painting, and just for the record, I love painting,” she says, clearly looking for an invitation to join in.
I look around at the group of girls that have quickly become amazing friends. They make themselves comfortable, pouring glasses of wine and breaking into the pizza boxes, and I feel like my heart has never been so full. “You guys,” I smile. “You’re all incredible.”
“Shut up and eat,” Izzy teases as Zara crosses the room to my speaker and turns up the volume. I can’t help but grin as I think about what Luke would think of the loud music. If he was home, he’d probably come tearing in here like a raging bull and demand we turn it down.
An hour later, every single slice of pizza is well and truly gone, while we’ve already made our way through four bottles of wine.
We all stand in the master bedroom with a paintbrush in one hand and our glass of wine in the other. The room is a mess of bodies and paint is going everywhere, but we just don’t care. I can fix any problems later, tonight is about having fun. And to tell the truth, from the amount of wine we’ve all thrown back, we’re doing a pretty good job.
The music blasts through the room and the girls dance around as they go back and forth from the wall to the paint bucket. The room is going to be done in no time, so I’m pleased I made the decision to buy all the paint this morning.
Imogen paints around the window when she ducks down and looks straight through it. “Hey, you can see straight through to Luke’s bedroom from here,” she announces to everyone.
“I know,” I grin as they all rush over to the window to see Luke’s room.
“Jesus,” Izzy sighs. “The things you must see from here.”
“I caught him getting dressed a few days ago,” I tell them with a chuckle. “He’s started changing in the bathroom now.”
Imogen, Izzy, and Charli burst out laughing as Cami dives straight back into the painting that’s she taking very seriously. “That would have been exciting,” Zara says. “That man is a beast.”
“That, he is,” I agree as I take another sip and get back to painting. “What’s his deal?” I ask. “He’s a bit…. I don’t know. Intense?”
“Yeah, Luke’s a soldier,” Rylee says as Charli ducks out of the room. “He’s gone through some pretty heavy stuff recently. He used to be pretty laid back, but he’s still hurting.”
“What do you mean?” I question as Charli returns with another bottle of wine and instantly starts refilling everyone’s glasses, right up to the brim. “Are you talking about all his scars?”
“Scars?” Cami gasps as she spins around to face me. “I didn’t know there were scars.”
“Yeah,” I say quietly, feeling as though maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. “I’m sorry,” I tell them. “That’s his business, I shouldn’t have blurted that out.”
“It’s ok,” Rylee says. “Luke hasn’t been very forthcoming lately. He’s keeping everything locked inside, maybe what he needs is for someone to force him to talk about it.”
“I agree,” Imogen says. “I don’t think he’s talked to anyone about it, not even Jace, but I have a feeling you’d be able to help him.”
“Me?” I shriek. I can hardly even get my own life together, let alone help someone else.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Imogen says. “There’s something about you that’s intriguing to Luke. The way he acts around you isn’t the Luke we all know. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you last weekend and the fact that he keeps messing with you speaks volumes.”
“Really?” I question.
“Oh yeah,” she says. “He’s into you.”
“Nah,” I say with a shake of my head. “I’d know if he were into me. He can barely stand me.”
“Uh huh,” Imogen says, not believe a single word of my denial, though, I find myself oddly liking the idea of the beast next door being into me. He’s hot and mysterious, and I have no doubt, that a man like that would certainly know how to please a woman.
He’d drive me insane though and it’d be intense, but I can’t work out if it’d be a good intense or a bad one.
I think it over for a moment. He’s always right there. He kidnapped me when I had no electricity, he got rid of Jeremy, he forces me to eat proper meals, and he practically shoved a packet of peas down my pants when I hurt my ass. Yeah, it’d be a good intense.
“You know,” I tell them. “This massive snake came through the window and he came and got it out for me.”
The second the words come out, every single one of them burst into laughter. “Oh shit,” Cami laughs. “That’s hilarious.”
“What?” I grunt. “It was so not hilarious. That thing was massive. It could have eaten me in one bite.”
“No,” she laughs. “That’s Luke’s snake.”
“What?” I grunt again.
“He has a snake,” she tells me with a chuckle. “I think his name is Gerald or something like that.”
“No,” I say with a shake of my head. “That’s not possible. I’ve been in his place a few times. I think I’d notice if there was a four-meter python slithering around.”
“He does,” Rylee laughs. “Gerald is awesome, and for him to be in your place, Luke would have been messing with you.”
I think back to that day. “No,” I say. “Luke was terrified. He was tiptoeing and watching it like a hawk. He was scared of it. He even made me help him get it in the bag.”
“Oh geez,” Imogen laughs. “He got you good.”
“Are you kidding me?” I shriek in outrage. “He was messing with me?”
“Yeah,” they all say.
Fury takes over me. “That man is so infuriating,” I tell them.
They all grin as though they know some kind of secret, and
from the looks of it, they’re all suggesting it’s because he has some kind of thing for me, which is ridiculous. If he had a thing for me, he wouldn’t be going out of his way to make my life a living hell.
Rylee grins as she glances across to Luke’s room before looking back at me. “We should get him back,” she says.
With that, a grin rips across my face. I’ve never heard such a good idea.
Ten minutes later, we have a plan in place and we stick our heads out the front door. We look left and then we look right. “The coast is clear,” I whisper-yell to the girls behind me.
We dash out the door and run across to Luke’s place. Izzy instantly sticks a hairpin into the door and fiddles around with it before we hear the distinct sound of the door unlocking. “Where the hell did you learn how to do that?” Rylee questions.
Izzy gives Imogen a secretive look before grinning at Rylee. “Never you mind,” she tells her.
“Come on,” I say as I push the door open. “I need to see this snake for myself.”
I step into his home and Cami leads me into the living room. “Holy shit,” I gasp as I see the big bastard who was chilling out in my bedroom last week. “That dickhead,” I grunt. He really was messing with me.
That fact alone has me even more determined. “Alright ladies,” I say as they all hover around the living room. “You know what to do.” We put our hands in the middle and do one of those cheer things that sports teams like to do. We all call ‘break’ before scattering around his home.
I head straight for his bedroom and find his dresser. The plan is to inconvenience him as much as possible. My task; steal every right sock he owns.
I giggle to myself as I pull open the drawers and search for his underwear drawer. As usual, it’s right at the top and I see all his socks, neatly placed in a line. I go about unrolling them and taking one of each.
I shove them down my bra and dash into the bathroom where Cami is busy peeling the labels off his shampoo bottles and switching them. She giggles to herself and manages to do the whole thing without putting her glass of wine down.
I find a little pair of scissors and make a cut in the bottom of the toothpaste tube, so when he squeezes it, it will all come out the bottom.
I feel like a fucking genius as I snicker and go about his house. Rylee switches the salt for the sugar. Zara sticks clear tape across every open doorway, so he’ll walk straight into it. Charli switches all the plugs behind his TV, and we all work together in rearranging every item in his kitchen cupboards.
I look around the house, confident that we’ve managed to get every single room. I consider putting rice along the tops of the ceiling fans but decide that’s taking it a little too far.
Twenty minutes later, we dash out of his house, terrified that we’ll get caught.
We spend the rest of the night, demolishing off the rest of the wine and eating the ice cream from the tub. I can’t believe what a great night I’ve had. “You guys are the best,” I tell them.
“Same goes for you,” Charli says as she raises her drink to the sky before taking a drink, only she misses her mouth and the wine drenches her top.
The girls burst out laughing and before we know it, we head straight back into the bedroom and continue where we left off.
Chapter 11
Luke
A call comes through on my phone and I look down to find Cole’s name across the screen. My eyebrows furrow. He usually doesn’t make a habit of calling so late, so there must be a problem. “Hey,” I say as I hit answer and bring the phone to my ear. “What’s up?”
“Hey, man,” he says. “I just picked Rylee up from Lexi’s place,” he starts. “She kind of let slip that they broke into your place to get some kind of payback.”
With that, a grin rips across my face. “I know,” I chuckle. “I got an alert on my phone from the security company. I watched the whole thing.”
“No shit,” he laughs.
“Yeah, you should have seen it,” I tell him. “They switched the fucking sugar for the salt.”
He lets out an amused sigh. “Jesus, they didn’t make too much mess, did they?”
“Nah,” I tell him. “It’s all good. I’m going to need some new socks though.”
“I don’t think I want to know,” he says. “How’s your night been?”
“Quiet,” I tell him. I volunteered for the late shift at Rebels tonight knowing it’d be like this. I have a mountain of work to catch up on after being away for so long. The boys had all offered to do my share while I was gone, but I wasn’t having it. My decision to leave shouldn’t have impacted them and I made sure of that. I glance up at the clock. “I’ll be closing up soon.”
“Cool,” he says. “I’ll let you go then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Alright, man. See you then.”
With that, I end the call and slide my phone back into my pocket. I glance around the gym. The last person is just finishing up and I’ve caught up on a shitload of work, so I might call it quits a bit early. Besides, the second I saw those girls sneaking into my home and I watched as Lex stole half of my socks, I’ve been desperate to get home.
I want nothing more than to go over to her place and get my sweet revenge. I’ve been thinking about it all night, but the possibilities are endless. I’ve pulled so many pranks on Jace and the boys over the past few years that the ideas just keep flowing through my mind.
I haven’t had this kind of fun in a long time and I find the more I mess with her, the more it keeps my mind off Iraq.
As the guy in the gym waves goodbye and makes his way out the door, I get up and go about closing shit up. I head around the floor, making sure everything’s been put back in place and that it’s all clean. After all, it’s important to us that our club always remains presentable.
After locking up and setting the alarm, I get in my truck and head home. As I pull into my drive I can’t help but look across to Lexi’s place. Every single light is on in the house, the music is blasting, and the front door is wide open.
I shake my head as I hop out of the truck and head over there. This is my shot to get my revenge and it’s going to be sweet. I haven’t yet completely decided on what I’m going to do to her yet, but it’ll come to me when I see her. It always does.
I walk straight through the open doorway and search around for her. First things first, I grab her speaker and rip the cord out of the outlet before shoving the stupid thing deep in my pocket.
No cries of outrage follow and have me wondering why the hell not.
I walk down the hallway and follow the smell of paint fumes. I pass the bathroom and the guest bedroom and don’t see her. So, I go right to the end of the hallway to the master bedroom and peek my head through the door.
I groan as I get a look at her.
The woman is passed out on the ground, using her arm as a pillow. The paint fumes are strong and the windows are wide open. Pizza boxes are spread out and wine bottles are scattered everywhere.
It’s clear as day that she’s had some sort of party tonight, but does she have to be so irresponsible about it? She could have turned the music off, shut off the lights, and locked up her house before going to sleep.
With a sigh, I go around and do just that, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing she wasn’t safe. I mean, it’s a miracle nothing has happened to her over the past few years.
Once her place is deemed safe enough by my standards, I walk down to the master bedroom and scoop her off the floor. She moans and nuzzles her face into my chest and the strangest feeling comes over me, it’s almost as though… I like it.
That couldn’t be right. I’m not supposed to feel this way about this impossible woman. Yet here I am, spending every day with her on my mind, coming up with ridiculous excuses for why I need to come over here.
Fuck me. Caden was right. I’m into her.
Shit, this is not how I roll, especially now, after what happened in Iraq, I can’t be with someone
. That shit is only going to cause problems for me. If I let someone in, she’ll ask questions. She’ll make me talk. She’ll make me try to better myself and I can’t have that. I’m happy being a stubborn mother fucker who doesn’t face facts.
No. This isn’t right.
But as I walk into her guest bedroom, her arms come up and loop around my neck as she holds on, and it feels fucking good.
Damn it.
I pull back the blankets on the bed and put her down as though she’s the most precious thing. She instantly snuggles into the pillow and lets out a sigh. I find myself standing here for a moment too long, watching her as she sleeps.
It hits me that standing here is the move of a creep and I reluctantly pull myself away. In that moment of watching her, I could feel as much as I want. It’s my secret and nobody needs to know. The second she works it out. I’m done, but until then, I can admire her from a distance.
I head back over to my place and unlock the door. I step through before I’m reminded of what the girls had done. I let out a sigh as I can’t be fucked fixing it all right now. In fact, come tomorrow, that blonde goddess will be here doing it herself.
Chapter 12
Luke
I wake in the morning feeling like shit as the memories of those two weeks swarm through my mind. I let out a sigh. I hate it when that dream comes along. It hasn’t been happening as much lately, but when it does, it always hits me hard.
I get up out of bed and make my way into the bathroom, only I walk straight into a piece of tape that gets stuck to my fucking head. I rip it down before scrunching it up and heading into the bathroom. I grab my toothbrush and the tube of toothpaste and flick open the cap. As I squeeze a dollop onto the brush, a shitload of toothpaste comes squirting out the bottom.
“What the fuck?” I grunt as I study the tube. I find a tiny little cut in the bottom of the tube and groan to myself. That infuriating woman. I must have missed them heading in here.
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