by Reid, B. B.
Reasoning, I pulled out my phone again and dialed Vaughn. A moment later, I heard the music stop, interrupted by the faint trill of a phone ringing down below. I heard the bang of metal again, a beat of silence, and then…
The ringing stopped.
The silence was broken a moment later by the automated prompt telling me to leave a message, and then the music played once again but much louder this time.
Releasing the air I’d been holding, I tightened my grip around my phone as I stormed down the stairs and into an even smaller gallery. Having no clue where I was going, I hooked a hesitant left through sliding doors. My jaw dropped when I saw the length of the indoor pool. It had to be maybe seventy or eighty feet long, and though narrow compared to the length, it was still a whopping twenty feet wide. It resembled the lap pools athletes used and even had a small jacuzzi at the end. Maybe this was how Vaughn’s shoulders became so impressive. It seemed as if he literally had the world at his fingertips.
Remembering that I was on a mission and not a house tour, I crossed the enormous pool room to the other side and followed the sound of “Power Trip” by J. Cole featuring Miguel through an open door into yet another hallway.
At this point, I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to find my way back alone.
There was an elevator and another set of stairs leading down, but to where?
Maybe it’s an underground graveyard where his father hides dead bodies because he’s a serial killer.
I snorted at my ludicrous thoughts and stepped through the door across from the stairs. There, I found a room, the walls and floors made of cement and the low ceiling revealing wooden beams. Taking up the area was every single type of gym equipment known to man, and it was all state of the art. There was even a punching bag hanging from one of the wooden beans. I had no doubt Vaughn put it to good use.
Speaking of the devil…
A shirtless Vaughn was seated at one of the machines, his expression full of intent and his tanned skin glistening with sweat as he used the leather pad to curl his muscular legs.
I wasn’t sure how long I watched transfixed until I remembered the reason I was there. He’d hung on me, and then he sent me to voicemail when I called him back.
“Vaughn.” I waited for him to stop and turn, to face me despite his unwillingness to.
I got nothing, not even a twinge.
I could barely hear myself think and realized the music was too loud. Vaughn had turned the volume up as if he were trying to drown me out. Spotting his phone sitting near a set of Bluetooth speakers behind me, I crossed over to it with the intent of cutting the music. Remembering how he’d ignored me, my lips tightened as I set his phone on the cement floor instead. I made sure he was still unaware of my presence before lifting one of the weights on the rack next to me. Letting my anger roll through me, I released my fingers one by one until the weight slipped from my hand.
Oops.
The music cut immediately when the entire phone splintered into tiny pieces.
Vaughn was up in no time, and the moment he turned to find me standing there, his eyes widened. I took a step back when his shock cleared, and anger filled his eyes. He was across the room in five long strides and gripping my arms so tight I was sure he’d leave bruises. I didn’t care. This pain would never equate to the bruises he constantly left on my heart. Words uttered by my great aunt and long forgotten came to mind.
You think you’ve stolen his heart, but if all you feel is pain when you carry it around, then, honey, that’s not what you have in your pocket.
“What are you doing here?” Vaughn demanded, his words sounding like a growl. “Are you insane? If my father catches you here—for fuck’s sake. If he had been here…”
“So what?” I wiggled, trying to free myself from his hold. “I’m not afraid of your father.”
Vaughn’s fingers tightened around my arm, making me wince and keeping me still. “You should be.” He then let me go, but he didn’t allow me any space to breathe and being the silly thing that I am, I was having a hard time not becoming intoxicated by his scent. He was soaked in sweat, but he might as well have been wrapped in flowers the way my body was reacting to him. I couldn’t get enough.
Why was I mad at him again?
Oh…right.
“I’m not ashamed of who I am, Vaughn.” The vulnerability and fear in my tone couldn’t be helped when I spoke again. “Are you?”
Vaughn looked confused for a moment before remembering the lie he’d told me about his father being racist. “Never,” he said so fiercely that I believed him.
“Then what’s the problem? So I won’t get invited to any Rees family reunions. Fine by me.” I wouldn’t be the first girlfriend not accepted by their boyfriend’s family, and I wouldn’t be the last. Also, screw them for putting me in the position where I had to bargain for a boyfriend.
Vaughn’s lips twisted in amusement, and then he gave me a look that said to cut it out, but I wasn’t feeling very obedient at the moment. “It’s not that simple.” He blew out a breath and shoved his fingers through his hair because he could see in my eyes that I wasn’t backing down. I’d been rolling over for almost a year. I was so done with it that it wasn’t even funny.
“Yes, it is. Why do you care so much about what your father thinks? Is it because you’re afraid he’ll cut you off or something?”
He seemed insulted, but what else was I supposed to think? “Money is the last thing I care about,” he retorted before his lips curled in disgust.
“You drive a Lamborghini.”
“That was to fuck over my dad.”
His dismissive tone and the conversation I overheard between him, Ever, and their lackeys that first day of junior year, the day I met Four, made me believe him.
“He bought you that car so you’d work for him.” Vaughn frowned, and I could tell he was trying to figure out when I’d learned that little tidbit and how. “Four and I overheard Adam Turner ask if your father still wanted you to work for him,” I explained, referring to his old teammate. The next night at the back-to-school bash, Four had cracked another of Vaughn’s teammates over the head with a whiskey bottle for calling her mother a whore and holding an auction for Four’s…services. Four got sent to reform school after that. Of course, Ever, who hated her at the time, had been behind the whole thing, and when his “stepsister” returned from Europe, she came back with a vengeance.
Vaughn didn’t bother confirming nor denying it, so I said, “We’ve been doing whatever we’ve been doing for ten months. Your father must know about me by now. He must know that we’re…friends.” The word had never seemed so distasteful before now. What Vaughn and I had was more special than a friendship.
Shoulders slumping, Vaughn rested his forehead against mine even though he was nearly a foot taller. Because of our height difference, he often joked that he’d end up with a hump on his back if he weren’t careful. “Maybe. But he doesn’t know how much I—” He stopped, and it was all I could do not to scream and beg for him to finish that sentence.
“How much you want to fuck me?” My tone warned him to tread carefully.
Refusing to take the bait, he let me go and looked away. “That too,” he mumbled stubbornly.
This road we traveled felt like it had grown just a little bit longer, and I told myself it didn’t matter how long the journey took, not as long as Vaughn was with me. So why did it feel as if he were slowly letting go of my hand? Why did it feel as if I were the only one fighting for more? The answer seemed so obvious, and I could no longer deny it.
“Fine.”
He had every right to look wary when his gaze met mine a moment later. “Fine?”
Shrugging, I forced myself to appear indifferent when my heart was being ripped in two. “Exactly what I said.” His brows dipped even further, but I was already walking away. I felt his hand catch mine before I could get too far, and his gaze was pleading as he held mine. It only took an ounce of strength for him to pu
ll me into his arms.
“Promise me you won’t come back here, not alone and definitely not unannounced. It’s not safe.” Before I could reply, he kissed my lips, and I let him. Little did he know, it would be the last time.
“I won’t come back here,” I promised. When he went to kiss me again, I turned my head. “Ever.” I took advantage of his shock at the finality of my tone and freed myself before he could recover.
“What did you say?”
“You asked me not to give myself to you unless I could live without more, and I’ve just decided that I can’t.” I shook my head, willing my tears away. I’d shed enough for him, and he didn’t even know it. “Not when it’s you.”
I was two steps from being out the door. I was almost free. Realizing it, Vaughn rushed the distance I’d put between us and slammed the door shut. I’d just turned to go when he trapped me inside the gym with him. My lips parted from shock, and then I was frozen in place. Vaughn loomed over me with one hand, keeping the door closed. I’d never felt so small and helpless.
“You’re not leaving.”
“That’s funny,” I mocked, a sob stuck in my throat. The dam holding my tears back began splintering down the middle. “You couldn’t wait to get rid of me a second ago.” I tried to sidestep him, but he turned me to face him, his left hand joining his right until I was caged in. His green eyes glittered when our gazes met, and I willed myself not to fall into them. Not again. Never again.
“I’m not done with you.”
“But I’m done with you.” I rested my head against the door since it was the only space I could put between us. He seemed to read my mind when he stepped closer, taking back the distance I’d gained. I was burning up from the heat of his bare chest so close and wondered if his heart was beating as fast as mine.
Probably not.
It was becoming clear to me that Vaughn Rees had no heart.
He closed his eyes and didn’t open them even after he spoke. “Tyra.”
His tone when he uttered my name suggested he was the one losing his patience, and that he was the one who’d given everything and gotten nothing in return. I could have kneed him in the balls, but I didn’t. I couldn’t move once I heard the words that fell from his lips next.
“My father threatened to kill me if I didn’t give up football.” His whisper had stolen the air from my lungs, but he kept speaking as if what he said was perfectly normal. “I kept playing because it was my dream. It was the only thing I had to give my heart and soul to.” Finally, he opened his eyes, and what I found in their depths rendered me speechless. “Until you.” Without a shred of mercy, Vaughn wrapped his hand around my neck, and then he was pulling me away from the door I’d tried to escape through. “So what makes you think,” he continued slowly, “that I’d ever let you walk away from me?” His fingers tightened when I tried to pull away, much like the hold he had on my heart. “I won’t. Not now, not ever.”
Vaughn must have seen the defiance in my gaze because he loosened his hold enough for me to speak. It took me a second longer to manage it. During that short time, I swore I hated him. “It’s,” I struggled to speak between pants, “not up…to you.”
He looked amused at that. “You’re confused and tired,” he said, sounding like a condescending pig. “Go home and get some sleep.”
“Fuck you.”
Releasing me, he opened the gym door and waited for me to walk through. I did, even though my legs threatened to give. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said as if the last hundred and twenty seconds hadn’t happened.
“If you come near me, I swear to God—”
Grabbing me, he pressed a tender kiss to my lips that contradicted the force he’d used to bend me to his will. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he repeated. “Now get out.” And then he smiled gently before slamming the door in my face.
RINGING THE DOORBELL, I STOOD back and cursed myself for not stopping and picking up those flowers Tyra liked. Last night had gotten out of hand. I tossed and turned the entire night over the way I treated her. It was as if I had two personalities, and they were at war with one another. I knew she’d be pissed well before five minutes of ringing the bell passed and no one came to the door. I wasn’t sorry for staking my claim, but I regretted the seemingly insurmountable wall it put between us.
Giving up, I rounded the side of the house and peered into the small window built into the two-car garage. Her Honda wasn’t parked inside.
I was heading back down the driveway to my car parked on the street when I heard the front door open behind me. Spinning around, I barely held back a groan when I saw Selena standing there instead of Tyra. The only fucking thing she wore was a towel. Her wild hair, so much like Tyra’s, was dripping water along with the rest of her.
“Sorry!” Selena yelled when she spotted me. “As you can see, I was in the shower.” She smiled, but I couldn’t find it in me to return the favor. She’d left me standing out here for over five minutes—plenty of time for her to have put on clothes. I glanced up at the bathroom window overlooking the front lawn, my gut twisting and tightening. “Tyra went to the store for groceries, but she should be back any minute. You can come in and wait if you like.” Selena opened the door wider in invitation.
I stood there, contemplating whether it was wise, before deciding I was being paranoid. Even if by some chance Selena was up to no good, I had almost a hundred pounds on her. Sighing deeply, I climbed the stairs and crossed the porch. I had to angle my body so that I didn’t touch Selena as I stepped into my former coach’s house. When she closed the door, I nearly jumped out of my skin and heard Selena giggle as she followed me into the living room. I needed to get a fucking grip.
“Are you okay?” she asked as she sat next to me on the couch rather than heading upstairs to find some clothes. It wasn’t like the sight bothered me, and that was the number one problem. Having a half-naked girl sitting so close next to me wreaked havoc on my baser instincts. My hands were just itching to peel away that towel.
“Fine.”
“So did you and my sister have a fight? She seemed upset when she came home last night.”
“You could say that.”
“Well, what did you do?” Offering a sensual smile, she inched closer to me on the couch. “Or rather, what didn’t she do?”
Shooting to my feet, I started for the stairs. “I have to piss.”
It was the only explanation I gave before I hightailed it out of there. If I hadn’t, I might have slapped Selena for coming on to me. If she hadn’t been Tyra’s sister, I might have even bent her over the goddamn couch.
Slipping inside Tyra’s room, I took the time to lock the door—because I wasn’t a fool—before throwing myself on her bed. The ridiculous number of frilly pillows smothered me while the stuffed animals seemed to stare accusingly. Needing a distraction, I dug my brand-new phone out of my pocket. I thought about what I would say to get Tyra home as fast as possible before shooting off a text.
Be home in ten minutes or say goodbye to Mr. Bear.
Taking a picture of him kissing my junk, I sent it to her for good measure. Unlike a couple of hours ago, when I texted her, she responded immediately. So her phone does work.
PIP: Get out of my room and get out of my house.
Grinning, I stroked the soft fur on her favorite stuffed animal as I texted back. Last night, Tyra had claimed she was done with me, and I was determined to make her see how that could never be possible.
It’s your father’s house, and I think I’ll stay.
PIP: I’m on my way, and so are the cops.
I snorted. All those book smarts, and she was still so naïve. Even if she had been telling the truth, the police would take one look at me and apologize for the disturbance. My mother’s family owned this town, and though they wanted nothing to do with me because of my father, everyone knew the Blackwood blood ran through my veins. They wouldn’t allow the embarrassment of me getting arrested.
It had been years since I’d been in the same room with the Blackwoods. Whenever they saw me, they looked the other way.
Head throbbing, I tossed my phone aside, not bothering to respond, and closed my eyes. Five minutes later, I heard the front door slam below and footsteps pound up the stairs. The knob turned, and then Tyra released a frustrated growl when she realized her bedroom door was locked.
“Vaughn, open this door!” she yelled while banging on the wood.
“What’s the magic word?”
“Are you mental? I’m not begging you!”
I started to think I got off on her being pissed because I added, “Ask me nicely as a good girl would do.” I definitely preferred her anger over indifference any day. The latter meant she no longer cared, and I couldn’t have that. There were too many people in my life already who had it covered.
“Fine,” she huffed. “Stay in there and die of starvation. I truly don’t give a shit, Rees.”
“You’d never let that happen.” I wasn’t worried about her calling my bluff, either. I knew Tyra better than she knew herself. I was, however, bored with this game, so I stood from the crowded bed and crossed the small room. “Now tell me you’re mine and accept that I can never be yours.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” I heard her whisper through the door. When I finally turned the lock and ripped the door open, she wore an incredulous expression as she stared up at me.
“It means you’re my girlfriend, but I’m not your fucking boyfriend.”
Lips parted, she blinked at me as if I just grew two heads. Sometimes it felt like I had. “In what universe is that fair?”
“In the only one where we have a chance in hell of being together.” If the shoe were on the other foot, I’d take whatever I could get because I could never let her go. Obviously, she didn’t feel the same. For Tyra, it was all or nothing. What kind of shit was that?