by G. Bailey
"This room is lovely and massive, surely one of you guys must want it," I say and Todd shakes his head.
"No, it's yours," he says. I spot a notepad on the bed and I walk over to pick it up as Todd walks out.
"Wait, this isn't mine," I say and pick up the worn notepad. Little splats of paint are on the cover and the corners look worn down like someone uses it a lot.
"That's mine, shit, I must have left it in here," Todd comes over and I give him the notepad.
"Why was it in here?" I ask.
"This used to be my room, it's the biggest." He says and does not look happy about telling me. I take a step back as his angry gaze hits mine.
"Why would you give your room to me?" I ask but he turns around and walks to the door. I expect him to answer but he doesn't, the door being shut behind him is his answer.
Why on earth would he give me his room?
Chapter Ten
Andre
“At least you found your one- night- stand that walked out on you,” Kaiden laughs as we sit around a table at the village café. The café is one of two in the village we have lived in for years. Todd’s sisters live around the village and that’s why we choose to stay here. We could have stayed in the city but we like our privacy.
“Shut it, man,” I say and lean back on my chair. The little old lady named Wendy, who owns the café, comes over with our coffees and puts them on the table. I have fixed a few bits for her over the years and I always bring her a cheesecake from her favorite place in the city when I go. I know her husband used to do it for her before he passed away five years ago.
“Any woman tied you handsome boys down yet?” she asks with a little smile. Wendy looks good for her age, no one would expect her to be eighty and still run a café that’s open every day. Wendy’s long gray hair up in a colorful bandana and she wears multicolored dresses every time I see her, like today.
“No, I’m saving myself for you Wendy, you know you have my heart,” Kaiden says with a cheeky grin that makes Wendy laugh.
“Ah, if only I was fifty years younger,” she says. The door makes a ringing noise as Todd and Dom walk in, they take the seats next to us after ordering drinks.
“So, Ellie?” Dom talks first and they all look at me.
“I will move out with her if this is going to cause trouble between us,” I say watching my friends closely. We have lived together for years but I won’t risk our friendship and I won’t let Ellie walk out of my life. I was serious when I said she wasn’t a fucking one-night- stand, the first time I kissed her I knew I wanted more than one night. I won’t say I haven’t had one- night- stands in the past but it was different with her. I only watched her for a minute as she swayed her hips on that dancefloor and I knew I wanted her. Ellie is elegant and beautiful.
“You and El are not going anywhere,” Todd says. I don’t think I am the only one that likes her. I narrow my eyes at him when he looks away with a tight jaw. I can’t remember the last time he gave anyone a nickname.
“The little missy might cause a few problems. There was a reason we don’t have women in the house, like Casey,” Kaiden says and I cringe a little at the mention of Casey.
She was the reason we don’t have women in the house. I glance at Dom as tightens his fist on the table. Casey was Dom’s wife and when she moved in, there was nothing but trouble.
“Ellie isn’t Casey,” I say and none of them respond.
“She might run when I bring her to the club later,” Kaiden says and I nod.
“Why don’t we just explain? She is pregnant and it might be a shock. I doubt it would be good for her or the baby to be stressed,” Dom says. I go to agree with him, when Kaiden interrupts.
“Ellie won’t get what we do unless she sees it and anyway, I have another reason for bringing her to the club,” Kaiden says.
“What reason?” I ask him.
“I did some research on our new baby momma and she used to work as an accountant. We need a new accountant and she is looking for a job. You know I’m shit at the accounts and I can’t keep doing it.” Kaiden says and I close my eyes. I don’t even want to know what illegal shit he did online to find out all this stuff about her.
“It would be a good way of keeping her and the baby close,” Dom says agreeing with the mad plan.
“I highly doubt she will want to work with us,” Todd says.
“I doubt she will want to live with us, when she finds out,” I say making them all go silent.
I’m just hoping she doesn’t run out the fucking door.
Chapter Eleven
Ellie
"Time to take you to see our work," Kaiden says as he walks into the kitchen where I am drinking a glass of water. It is ten p.m. but because of my nap earlier, I'm not tired. I haven’t seen any of the guys since Todd took me to my room. I unpacked my things, found some food in the fridge to eat and left a note to say I will replace it. I watched EastEnders because I love that show but still I didn’t see anyone. It was weird.
I messaged Liz pictures of my new room and she loved it. I still need to tell her about my other roommates. I know she will be as shocked as I am that all these insanely hot guys happen to just live together. I also had four missed calls from my ex-husband, I forgot to block his number but I have now. I have no idea why he would call me but Imagine it’s to gloat about getting away with his charges for burning my house down. I’m just waiting for the police to call now and tell me that they had to let him go because of lack of evidence. I’m sure his secretary will be an alibi for him.
"I don't get why you won't just tell me what you guys do," I say and shake my head as I turn to look at him. Kaiden is dressed for a night out in black trousers and a black shirt. He kind of looks like a manager of some kind, perhaps they manage a company?
"Come on," Kaiden says and hands me my coat. I put the glass of water down and slip my coat on. I get my shoes on by the door and Kaiden puts on a tight leather jacket that makes his shoulders look even bigger. When Kaiden pulls his keys out of his jacket, I catch a glimpse of a silver chain around his neck.
"You are so going to run, my little missy," he says and chuckles. I really hope they don’t do anything illegal because I would run. Very fast in the other direction. Okay not that fast, my core strength is not that good. I shake my head and follow him out to his Jaguar. It's red and looks very bloody expensive. How the hell does he get this car down the small roads? Surely, he could have chosen something more practical for a small village.
"You must have a lot of money to have a car like this," I whistle as Kaiden holds the door open.
"Something like that," he grins and I don't reply as I get in the car. The leather seats are beyond comfy and I sink into them as Kaiden gets in his seat. After we are both buckled up, we set off.
Kaiden turns the radio on and the sound of country music fills my ears. That's so not what I expected him to be listening to. He makes me giggle when he starts singing to the music, he is terrible at singing but he seems to really enjoy it. After he nudges me a few times, I join in and soon we are both singing and laughing.
"You have a cool voice," he says twenty minutes later as he turns into York's main city. The streets are full of people in this area on a Friday night. There is a row of night clubs, strip bars and normal bars. I have been to a few of the normal bars but I avoid the others. I only know they have strip clubs because Liz has been to a few. She always tried to make me go, but it’s not my thing.
Kaiden turns the music off as he pulls up right into front of one of the clubs. The parking sign says staff only so I wonder if they run the bar. The sign outside just says Four in bright red glowing letters. The queue is huge and goes all the way down past other clubs. Kaiden comes around and opens my door. I grimace as I look down at my jeans and coat. I look nothing like the barely- covered women outside.
Kaiden surprises me by taking my hand in his and I don’t have time to think about nice his smooth hand feels as he leads us up to the t
wo massive bouncers outside. They both have no hair, are built like tanks and wear all black. I hide the urge to hang my head as they both look me over and frown at Kaiden.
"She is with me and always allowed in," Kaiden says and they both nod as they look me over. I watch in a little bit of a daze as one of the bouncers unclips the rope and the other one opens the door.
Kaiden walks slightly in front of me and I keep my eyes on his back as we walk down some stairs. When I get brave enough to look around, it's really not what I expected to see.
There's a massive black stage, around twenty tables surround it and a large bar on the one side. The room has dim lights that show off the red shiny floor and red walls, but the main lights are on the stage. The smell of alcohol is overwhelming in here.
Right in the middle of the stage are two poles and two guys I know are dancing around them.
Andre and Todd are slowly unbuttoning their shirts as they dance to the loud music. Women are sat around the tables screaming their names and asking for more clothes to be removed.
Andre’s eyes meet mine as he slowly lets his shirt fall to the floor and he winks at me.
Oh my god, I've just moved into a house full of strippers.
Hello and thank you for reading Strip for Me (Part One).
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Please continue reading for a small excerpt of Fractured Fate by Cece Rose…
The whole left side of my face is stinging, I look down and see drops of blood dripping down onto my clothes. Not that it matters, they’re already ruined. Just like everything else.
"Tell us what he's planning," the strange man's cold voice demands. I swallow and shake my head slowly, not feeling able to form words anymore. "You think this has been bad?" he asks. I keep my head turned down and try to ignore him, focusing instead on the dirty, grey floor beneath me. It’s not like I know the answers to his questions anyway. Not that they believe me. Hell, maybe they do, and this is just for kicks.
I flinch as a sharp silver blade brushes up gently across my throat. My eyes draw up to look at the man holding the knife against me. His dead-eyed stare back at me sends a shiver right down my spine.
“You will tell us what you know, one way or another,” he threatens. He pulls the knife away from my throat and I breathe a small sigh of relief, which is cut off suddenly by a hand smacking across my face. The right side this time. At least my bruises will match. The man shakes his hand out as he shoots me a cold glare. As if the pain he was experiencing in his hand, was my fault.
The door to the room creaks open and another man walks in, dressed completely in black, with a large bag slung over his shoulder. This one, I know. I wriggle my arms behind my back, as much as I can with their restricted movement, desperately trying to get loose. The man sees my struggles and a twisted smile takes over his face. He turns to the other man. “I believe a change in tactics is in order.” The first man grunts in reply, and walks over to the far-right side of the room and leans casually against the wall.
The man that has just walked in, slumps the large bag down on the ground in front of him and bends down to rifle through it. He pulls out a laptop case and a wireless webcam. He then grabs one of the chairs littered around the room, sets it directly across from me and then places the webcam on top, adjusting it, so I would be perfectly in its view. He moves and sits to my left, out of the camera's view on another of the chairs. He opens up the laptop and taps away on it, clearly setting something up.
I fidget nervously in my chair, worried what change in tactics they have in mind.
“What are you doing, man?” asks the one standing against the wall.
“Setting up a little webcam chat, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see her,” he answers, chuckling darkly. Realising their intent, I freeze. Not taking any notice of my panic, he continues, “Turns out the bitch was being truthful, other than the other night, she hasn’t seen him in months. She’s been avoiding him, from what we can tell.” He directs his gaze back at me, eyeing me with scrutiny. “Not that we know why,” he adds, an eyebrow raised as if in question. I stare back as blankly as possible. He sighs and returns to tapping away on the laptop.
The little red dot on the webcam in front of me turns green. I look down and keep my eyes on the floor, not wanting whoever is watching the feed to see my face. I can hear pings from the laptop, messages being exchanged back and forth for a few minutes. Then, there is silence for a moment, and then, finally, another ping.
“He’s watching now,” he calls over to the man leaning against the wall.
“You sure this is a good plan?”
“I’m sure now she doesn’t know anything, but she still works as leverage,” he answers. He taps another message on the keyboard, another ping comes back. “I’m going to turn the speaker on now, so he can hear her, be careful of what you say,” he warns. “We want to make him desperate, hearing her beg for his help should do the trick. Do you understand?”
“I got you,” he answers.
I shift in my seat uncomfortably, realising who is watching the screen. I could almost laugh. They are expecting him to care, they don’t have a clue.
“Speaker going on in 3…2…1.” I hear him tap a button on his keypad.
I press my lips tightly together. No matter what, I’m not begging for anyone’s help, certainly not his. I hear the man that was against the wall moving, I cast my eyes sideways towards him and see him making his way towards me. I clench my hands, knowing what’s coming before it hits me, quite literally. Another smack whacks across my face, harder this time. I can taste the coppery tang of blood on my tongue. I keep my lips pressed tightly shut, refusing to react.
He walks around me in a circle, stopping behind me, his hand grabs at my hair roughly and jerks my head back so I’m facing directly into the camera, I dart my eyes away, trying desperately to look anywhere else.
I feel his hot breath on my neck, and then his lips as they brush against my ear, I instinctively try to pull away, but he just jerks me back by his grip on my hair. He whispers softly into my ear, "Beg."
I shut my eyes tightly and try to block it out, his grip on my hair loosens. And then I feel the silver blade pressed against me again, this time at the top of my arm. He holds it there for a moment, giving me a chance to speak out, I refuse. He slices down my upper arm. I flinch and bite down hard on my bottom lip, drawing blood. I only barely resist the urge to cry out in pain as the burning sensation sets in. I can feel the blood seeping out of my arm. Not cut deep enough to do lasting damage, just enough to hurt and enough blood to make a show. I glance up at the camera. I wish I could see the watcher and see his reaction. The thought surprises me and I shake my head slightly, trying to clear my head of it. A hand smacks me across the head again.
"What're you shaking your head for?" he demands. I stay silent. He grips my hair again, turning me around to face him. "What. Are. You. Shaking. Your. Head. For." he demands again, accentuating every word.
“Fuck you.” The words slip out of my lips before I can stop them.
He growls and then roughly shoves the chair I’m tied to, to the floor. I brace myself the best I can, but the hit still sends pain throughout my bruised and cut body. His heavy boot kicks into my stomach hard, knocking the air out of me.
He moves and kicks agai
n, this time, at my head, causing me to feel dizzy. Faintly, I can hear a pinging sound repeatedly in the background. Another kick hits me in the head, harder this time, then another. The pinging sound is more frequent now, almost frantic. Another kick, I see a quick flash and then nothing, as I descend into unconsciousness.
Fractured Fate is the first part of a paranormal reverse-harem serial release.
You can find it on Amazon here:
Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon AU Amazon CA
Blurb: Selena's world is turned upside down when she meets a mysterious man in a London nightclub. He’s a man with secrets, a man with enemies.
As the tangled web of secrets and lies begins to unfold, Lena needs to make a choice, but what’s a girl to choose when she knows that what she wants is wrong?
And him? He knows what he wants, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to get her, right or wrong be damned.
But Lena fracturing fate itself, driving it from the original path, wasn't a part his plan.