Mended-Hearts

by Gordon, M. E.

  “I’ll get you anything you want.”

  He started naming all these expensive sounding foods, and I suddenly felt totally out of my element.

  “What about pizza?”

  Here he was, offering elegant foods, like roasted chicken with a red wine demi glaze, braized short ribs, and tuna tartare. And I just asked for pizza.

  “Pizza sounds great. I’ll call some in.” He sat up and kissed my temple before making his way to the kitchen.

  I turned to follow his beautiful physique. Maybe pizza was a bad idea. I should have said salad. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’m getting a gym membership.

  My attention was pulled back to the television as the entertainment part of the news came on. Wouldn’t you know it? There I was on the six o’clock news. At least the story was nice, talking about how Spencer and I met each other at Mood and how fate kept bringing us back together. Cue all the embarrassing pictures from the past five months.

  The story ended with the picture from this morning on the steps of my building. I couldn’t help the smile that crept over my face. We looked good together. I actually thought I was holding my own next to the Greek god.

  Spencer came back over to sit next to me, a menu in his hands. “You see, that’s why I get jealous,” he said, pointing to the television screen.

  There was a picture of me from last night standing in the dress he bought me.

  “You have no one to blame but yourself. You bought it for me.”

  “Touché, Miss Monroe.” He winked. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to see you in all those pictures they posted of you? I almost took you over my shoulder the night you came to Mood wearing that damn sheer blouse.”

  “Why didn’t you? That could have been exciting.”

  He turned to me brows creased.

  Oh, Simon. I had forgotten about that for a second.

  “When you were yelling at Terry to let you in the VIP, I was dying. Watching you stomp your feet, it was entertaining. You really are a hot little thing when you’re riled up. I was going to let you keep yelling at him, but I felt bad for the poor guy.”

  I snatched the menu from him, a little miffed that he let me verbally abuse someone for his amusement. “You were watching me that whole time? Where were you? I didn’t see you anywhere.”

  He winked again. “I’ll never tell.”

  I glanced back at the menu, laughing at the stupid expression on his face.

  Our pizza was delicious. I laid my head on his lap after eating. It felt good to have food in my belly, but now I was tired again. Spencer turned on some movie. I tried to watch but fell asleep instead.

  I shifted as Spencer tossed a cover over my body. He ran his fingers through my hair. The soft touch ignited my insides. I stared up at him, while he continued to play with my hair.

  “Elizabeth, will you stay with me tonight?”

  I wasn’t planning on leaving, so I nodded.

  Chapter 6

  Nickolas

  I woke up late Sunday morning. Still in disbelief, I knew Elizabeth and I had a few issues to work through. I knew she was entrapped in Spencer’s web, but I had faith that we would be able to work it out. The past month had been just as amazing as our first. It was a true do over, and I was falling more in love with her. I had even convinced Natasha to back off, put the focus on her brothers rather than her.

  If it weren’t for Natasha persuading me to go after Salvatore, I’d have been on a plane back to her, with my tail between my legs, begging my parents to take me back. One of my father’s clients got mixed up in some incriminating circumstances, and it just so happened that Natasha assigned me to it. Once my father found out I was the one ruining his client’s life, he told me I wasn’t his son anymore and that he didn’t want to be around the person I was turning in to. Right now, I don’t even want to be around me.

  I always made sure to keep a distance, to not make things personal. I treated everything simply as a job and kept my feelings out of the way. When I first saw Elizabeth, I had no idea how much she was going to change me. I thought I was going to have a chance at a regular relationship with a beautiful girl. I just didn’t expect Spencer Salvatore to want the same damn thing with her.

  Chapter 7

  Elizabeth

  The next day was just as wonderful as the day before. I spent the morning cuddled in bed with Spencer. I became acquainted with his shower and figured out why he smelled so damn good. We made breakfast together. Everything was perfect.

  Night was slowly approaching, and I knew I was going to have to ask him to take me home. I had my first day of my internship tomorrow, and I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot. This weekend with Spencer was more than I could have asked for. Minus the few fights in the beginning, it was ideal. I was getting us a drink when my phone started ringing from my bag.

  Spencer turned from the couch to look over at me, a puzzled look on his face. I was sure it was crossing his mind that it might be Simon calling.

  He tried to stay calm, keeping an unaffected face but he was Spencer and, try as he might, he obviously couldn’t hide the hint of jealousy. Hell, I was a little worried it might have been Simon too. What would I have even said to him?

  I pulled out the phone and looked to see who was calling. I was a little shocked to see who it was, and that tipped Spencer off to start questioning me.

  “Who is it?” he asked, standing up from the couch and making his way to me.

  I looked up from the phone and smiled. “It’s Charles. I wonder what he wants. He usually doesn’t call me.”

  “Well, answer it.” Spencer’s body language did a one-eighty the moment he found out it was my brother and not my ex-lover.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey there, baby girl, where the hell have you been?”

  In all my years, I would have never have thought Charles would be calling to find out where I was. “I’m with Spencer, why?”

  “Ooo. So, you think it’s cool to just disappear for two days and not let anyone know where you are? Gia, Teddy, and I have been going crazy, trying to find you. You couldn’t answer your phone all weekend?”

  “Charles, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My phone hasn’t rung once.”

  “Really? Check your messages.”

  I pulled the phone away from my ear to check if there was any real truth to his accusations. My eyes widened as I saw the twenty new texts and twenty-six missed calls. “Charles, I’m sorry. I didn’t see or hear any of these messages.”

  “Yeah, that’s what we figured. Tell that ass Salvatore to answer his phone too.”

  I looked over at Spencer who had sat back down on the couch to watch TV.

  “Anyway, do you need a ride home? I’m close to Spencer’s, and I can give you a lift back to your place.

  I was so confused. “Yeah, that’s fine. You come get me.”

  “Okay, I will be there in about fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  “Thanks, Charles, bye.”

  Spencer turned back to me when the call ended. His face was pained, as if I had punched him in the stomach.

  “Charles said to answer your phone. They have been calling us all weekend, but I didn’t hear my phone go off, or yours.” I put my phone back in my bag, and noticed Spencer’s expression begin to change.

  “Why is he coming to get you? This is why--” His voice was low as he ran his fingers through his hair.

  I was learning that that was his tell. He did it every time he was mad or frustrated. “Did you know that they were calling me?” I asked.

  “I didn’t want you to leave. I wanted you to myself.”

  “Hold up. Did you turn my phone off so I wouldn’t hear it?”

  “I only wanted it to be us, no interruptions,” he said, as if that was a logical explanation.

  I slammed my hand so hard on the counter it stung. “Spencer! Did you turn my phone off?”

  It wasn’t how I pictured leaving him. In my mind, I pictured a longing
kiss at the door, a million little goodbyes, maybe even a little begging for me to stay. Here I was, dumb enough to think that we wouldn’t fight again. I was scolding him and couldn’t have cared less about kisses and hugs goodbyes at that point.

  “I may have turned the sound and vibration off, but I did it for us.”

  “Spencer, you can’t shut me off from the world because you want me all to you yourself. They were worried about me, about us.”

  “I thought you’d be happy to be left alone for once.”

  It was nice to be left alone, but not at the expense of my family thinking I had disappeared, or run away, or was lying in a ditch somewhere bleeding to death. That wasn’t it. There was more to this that he wasn’t saying. He liked my brothers and wouldn’t ignore their calls. This was all because of Simon.

  “I don’t believe you,” I said, crossing my arms as I moved to stand in front of him.

  “Believe it,” he said composedly from the couch.

  “Nope, now I definitely don’t believe you. You’re lying to me. You told me you weren’t going to lie and, here you are, lying straight to my face.”

  He stood up from the couch and stared down his slightly crooked nose at me.

  There was no way I was backing down from this.

  He let out a loud and frustrated sigh. “Fine, it wasn’t the only reason.”

  I cocked my head, still glaring at him. “Let’s hear it, Salvatore.”

  “Simon--okay? I didn’t want Simon calling you so I turned your phone off at the diner, when you went to the bathroom. Then I turned it back on while you were in the shower today. Sue me. I wasn’t willing to share this weekend.”

  I stared at him. He gazed off toward the TV. I figured he didn’t want to see how I would react. I didn’t know how to react. I should have been pissed. Unfortunately, my jumbled heart was singing a completely different tune. He wanted me all to himself, this gorgeous man wanted me--aww.

  “You weren’t kidding when you said you get jealous, were you?” I waited for him to say something back, but he didn’t. “Next time, you want me all to yourself, just ask me, so we can avoid all this ridiculous fighting.” I grabbed his jaw and turned his face to mine. “Mess with my phone again, Salvatore, and I won’t be so forgiving. You got me?”

  His lips curled up and his blue eyes seamed to sparkle at my warning.

  The doorbell rang as I held Spencer’s jaw tightly in my hand. That was not fifteen or twenty minutes. I suddenly regretted telling Charles to come pick me up.

  “That’s Charles. I’m going to run upstairs and grab my clothes. Is it okay...” I trailed off, feeling the clothes that hung on my body.

  “Take them, I have plenty more.”

  I smiled up at Spencer, kissing his lips quickly before turning to run upstairs. Unlike last time, those clothes were not hiding in the back of my closet. I planned on wearing them to sleep every night. The doorbell rang again, and then there was a knock at the door.

  “Spencer, don’t just stand there, let him in. It’s Charles, not the Unabomber.”

  I watched from halfway up the stairs to make sure he was going to let my brother in. As he walked over to the door, he smiled up at me before opening it. Damn, I loved that smirk of a smile of his.

  I ran around Spencer’s room, collecting my scattered clothes. My pants were by the door, my shirt was under a chair, one sock was on the dresser, the other was on the floor next to the dresser, and my bra was on Spencer’s night stand. My underwear--Shit, where is my underwear? I searched through the covers and pillows on the floor but didn’t see them. I could hear my brother and Spencer talking, and then I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I turned to see Spencer standing in the door way. He leaned on the doorjamb, grinning as he watched me run around his room.

  “Where did you put my underwear?” I asked, kneeling at the side of his bed after looking under it.

  He simply shrugged his shoulders and chuckled to himself.

  “Not funny. If you know where they are, you better give them up,” I demanded, looking through the sheets again.

  “Why are you leaving?”

  I stopped rustling the sheets. “Spencer, I have to go home.”

  “Why can’t you just stay here? You said you were going to stay with me.”

  “No I didn’t. That was last night, not tonight. Besides I have no clothes--”

  “I’ll buy you new clothes.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Right. I don’t think so, Christian Grey.”

  Spencer chuckled and adjusted his body against the door frame. “I’ve heard I’m compared to him. Should I just tie you up to the bed so you can’t leave?”

  He had been compared to the leading man, but Spencer was in a league all his own. Where Mr. Grey was slender and lean, Spencer was massive, broad, but, most importantly, Spencer was real and all mine.

  “Spencer, you can’t keep me locked up here. I start my internship tomorrow. I need to rest and get ready for it.”

  “You can’t do that here with me? You didn’t tell me you had an internship.”

  He was right. I hadn’t told him. Between all the sex, sleeping, and cuddling, we really didn’t do much talking. “I need this, Spencer. This internship is a dream come true for me. It’s what I have been working toward my whole college career. I’m counting on this.”

  “Where is it at?”

  How do you explain to someone so popular and business savvy and--for lack of better words--hip that you are interning at a library? Basically it was the total opposite of what he did for a living. Opposites attract, I guess?

  “I start interning at the Library of Congress tomorrow morning at eight. I’m hoping to turn my internship into a job. That’s why I need it so bad.” I couldn’t look at him. I was embarrassed enough telling Mr. Sexy Entrepreneur that I was in school to become a librarian. I shuffled through the sheets again so as not to look up at him.

  “Library...of Congress?” He said it slowly and thought about it a moment. “That sounds interesting.”

  I stopped moving the covers. I suddenly felt silly for thinking he would make fun of me. He wasn’t my brother or my sometimes-judging friends. He was...my boyfriend?

  Spencer seemed to care about me differently than anyone else at the moment. Even Simon joked around when I first told him, which was okay at the time, because--well, he had a way of saying anything and making it sound sexy or funny.

  Spencer, on the other hand, just looked over at me with nothing but admiration.

  “Beth! Let’s go! I’d like to get home sometime tonight,” Charles yelled up to me.

  Spencer looked behind him and down the stairs then back to me. “Give me the go ahead, and I will tell him to hit the road.”

  I laughed, shaking my head. “No, it’s okay. I’m sure there will be other times for you to kick him to the curb.”

  “Beth!”

  “Chill, Charles, I’m coming,” I yelled back as Spencer laughed at my frustration toward my brother. “Where is my underwear?”

  “You don’t have them on?”

  I cocked my head because he knew damn well I didn’t. “No--you know, I don’t. Hand them over, Salvatore. You already have a trophy pair.” Did I really just refer to my panties as a trophy? Now he’s laughing at me.

  “How do you know--”

  “My father’s office, my panties mysteriously went missing. Don’t get me wrong, that’s sexy as hell that you kept them, but I’d like to take this particular pair home to wash.”

  “I honestly don’t know where I threw them last night. I promise if I find them, I’ll wash them and give them back to you.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You better.”

  “Beth!”

  I stomped my foot angrily and walked past Spencer to head down the stairs, but was pulled back by the arm wrapped tightly around my stomach.

  “What time are you done your internship tomorrow? I want to pick you up,” Spencer breathed in my ear.

  I found
myself gripping the doorframe to keep from falling. “I’m not sure. Can I call you when I find out?” I said, turning in his arms.

  “That works,” he said.

  I reached up on my toes to kiss him. I was going to miss having him so close and at my beck and call. The past two nights and mornings waking up in his arms were better than I could have ever imagined.

  “Finally! Let’s go,” Charles gripped. “Do you have any idea how many people are camped outside?”

  “I can only imagine,” I said and sighed as Spencer and I walked over to the front door.

  I pulled back the small curtain on the side of the door, to see all the paparazzi standing on the sidewalk, and hugged Spencer tightly.

  Nestled against my neck, he spoke so low, only I could hear him. “You don’t have to leave. I can take you home later or early in the morning when no one will be out there.”

  I pulled away, seriously contemplating Spencer’s proposition. It took all I had to turn him down. “I’ll call you before I go to bed, okay?”

  “And first thing in the morning. If I can’t touch you, I want to be able to hear you.”

  There was no doubt I was going to make sure that that happened.

  Charles cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to sound rude--eh, maybe I do. You two might be taking this a little fast, considering.”

  Spencer and I both shot a warning look at Charles.

  He held his hands up in surrender. “It’s just a little weird,” he said, moving to the door to open it.

  Spencer turned from me in one fluid motion and slammed the open door shut. He was face to face with my brother. Charles seemed a little more than shocked to see his business partner be so aggressive toward him. Not me, this was simply aggressive Spencer. I’d encountered him a few times.

  Charles stood his ground as Spencer towered over him.

  “Listen, Chuck, I like you. You’re a good guy--a little cocky for my liking, but I’m falling for your sister and, for your own good, you need to stay out of our relationship.”