Delight

by Lexi Buchanan

  “Calm down. I’m not sure where Hunter’s come from but he’s a friend and only looking out for me. I don’t know what’s really going on here or what he knows. You’ll have to ask him. He only knows that they both give me the creeps because he was here the last time they were. Don’t get bent outta shape over it.” I pull my hand from his and with a pat, I serve a couple more customers, but unfortunately, my peace doesn’t last too long.

  “Rosie?”

  Fuck!

  “Yeah, Simon.” He doesn’t say anything so I look up and meet his hard stare. He’s pissed about something. With a quick glance to the guy next to him, who has a smirk on his face, I realize all isn’t well between them, which fills my stomach with dread.

  “Two lattes in my office.”

  Bastard!

  “Simon,” Lucien interrupts, “I don’t think I’ve met your guest.” He holds his hand out to the guy and says, “I’m Lucien McKenzie.”

  The stranger hesitates before reaching out and clasping Lucien’s hand. They size each other up and I can’t read the hardened look on Lucien’s face, but he doesn’t look happy.

  “Joe Abatangelo.”

  Within seconds, Simon is ushering Joe toward his office.

  “Don’t forget the coffee,” he shouts over his shoulder.

  “I’ll take it,” Lucien finally looks at me. “I agree with Hunter. You need to stay away from them.” He rubs his neck. “Make the coffee please, Rosie.”

  Ugh! What is it with men and demanding and where the fuck has Ruben gotten to? Surely it shouldn’t take all this time to have a quick chat to find out what’s going on. I mean shit all he needs is to be here and he’d probably find out what was going on.

  With the coffee ready, I add a small plate of biscuits and indicate with my hands to Lucien that it’s ready to be taken in to them.

  I’m pissed that someone else is doing this, but I’m also relieved I don’t have to face them both. Why can’t everyone else see something is going on between the two of them? I know Hunter knows there is something, and, perhaps now Lucien does.

  “Where’d Lucien go?”

  “Taking coffee to Simon’s office. He insisted on meeting ‘Joe Abatangelo’ and suddenly decided to get on my case as well.”

  “You’re distracting me. Stop standing like that,” Hunter mumbles.

  I’m not standing like anything. My hands are on my hips as I frown at him. “You want to elaborate?”

  He smirks. “Standing like that makes your shirt gape where the two buttons are missing, which in turn is giving me and everyone else who is looking a glimpse of your smooth skin and sexy pink lacy bra.”

  Fuck. I quickly hold my shirt together with my hands and say, “Hold down the bar while I go change,” without giving him time to refuse.

  Dashing out from behind the bar, I manage to get into the staff locker room without being noticed. The room isn’t that big with lockers down one wall and a few benches. There are two individual shower rooms, which don’t get used that often apart from the female staff to change. The guys tend to wear their uniform to work, but I prefer to change here.

  About to step out of the shower room, I hear the main door bang open and some shuffling, which freezes me to the spot.

  “What the fuck Simon? You’re not going to back out now. No fuckin’ way.”

  “I didn’t say I was backing out, I said we need to maybe change the way this goes down. I don’t trust that guy Hunter. Ruben’s asked him to hang around the bar to keep an eye on the female staff, especially his girl, but I have this feeling that isn’t the only reason he’s here. And then Lucien was giving off bad vibes when he brought the coffee in.”

  My heart pounds hearing them both, but fuck, I’m stuck in here and can only pray they don’t discover where I am or Hunter doesn’t come looking for me. Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “You’re freaking when there isn’t any need and going to give yourself away. Anyone asks how we know each other say I’m trying to talk you into moving to New York to manage a club I’m opening. Our story needs to be straight. I’m going to go and you need to go back to your office and have a drink before you screw everything up.”

  Screw what up? Say more…

  Next I hear some shuffling and I’m sure they’re in the next shower room to me.

  “Mind you don’t break the fuckin’ tiles, and how the fuck doesn’t the stuff get wet in there?”

  “It’s sealed real good. And stop getting in my space before I drop it,” Simon grumbles.

  Oh God! What if they plan on coming in here next? I need to leave. But how?

  Taking my shoes off and without making a sound, I slowly open the door and peer out praying they’re still messing in the other shower. I can’t see anyone so with my heart in my throat I quickly make a dash for the door, but as I pull the door open wide enough to pass through it makes a creaking noise. Shit. I’m almost home free.

  I slip out and make a dash down the corridor hoping I have enough time to get clear, but as I punch through the door into the club, I look back just in time to meet Simon’s gaze.

  Chapter 29 ~ Ruben

  Crossing the road back to Kenza, the rain starts coming down and before I get to the other side, I’m drenched to the skin. Great. Just fuckin’ great. What a shitty end to a fuckin’ pointless coffee with Miranda. All she wanted to do was rekindle the night, or rather the hours, I’d spent with her—so not happening. The only reason I’d been with her in the first place was because from the back she reminded me of Rosie, and at the time Rosie was just a member of staff—so far out of my reach. But now Rosie’s my girl and I’m damn well going to do everything I can to ensure she stays my girl.

  With my girl on my mind, I dash down the street to the front of the club to get out of the rain. The entrance at the front very rarely gets used by the staff, or me, but I’m soaked to the friggin’ balls. I hope Rosie is around so she can warm me up.

  Smiling, I enter the club and shake like a friggin’ dog, which doesn’t go down well with some of the ladies sanding around taking shelter in their skimpy outfits.

  Grinning, I say, “Sorry ladies,” continuing into the club, I head towards the bar, where I don’t see any sign of Rosie. Where is she? It isn’t even midnight yet. Looking around the room, I spot Lucien propping up the bar at the end. So I make my way over to him. He does a double take when he spots me standing beside him.

  “What happened to you?” he slurs.

  “It’s raining. What the fuck do you think happened to me? And why are you getting drunk in my bar?” The minute the question leaves my mouth, I realize this is the first time that I can remember that Lucien has gotten drunk—at least on his way to drunk—since the accident. “Why are you even getting drunk?”

  “I’m not drunk, yet,” he replies, struggling to form his words and probably three seconds from his ass hitting the floor.

  “You’re drunk brother and if I have to guess I’d say it has something to do with the sexy friend of Lily’s.”

  With a sigh, I take him by the elbow, and shoving my problems to the back of my head for now, drag him to the back of the club intending to get him to my apartment, but we’re met by a disheveled Simon.

  “What’s wrong with Lucien?” he asks.

  “Too much whiskey. What’s going on?” Something is off. Simon never has a hair out of place and not only is his hair sticking up everywhere, but his clothes have marks on them and his shirt is hanging out from his slacks.

  “It’s cool. Just some trouble outback, but it’s sorted and they’ve run.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. I’m just going to get some paperwork done before the club closes.” He walks to his office and turns back to me, “And before I forget, Rosie has left. She’s okay, just asleep on her feet so Hunter took her home.” I watch him disappear behind his closed door wondering why Hunter took Rosie home. She was cool when I was leaving for the coffee. What’s happened between then and now?

 
“I think I’m drunk,” Lucien whispers, reminding me he’s beside me.

  My heart is telling me to go after Rosie, but my heads telling me to take care of my brother first. I know no matter what anyone tells me that Hunter has eyes for Rosie, but I’m going to trust her. There is also a slithering of guilt working its way inside me for keeping her awake on and off during the nights. I can’t get enough of her. But it’s odd that she’d head back to her place without saying something to me. We haven’t slept apart since we got together. Is something else going on? Ugh! I need to stop imagining problems when there probably isn’t anything to imagine.

  “I think I’m going to hurl,” Lucien blurts, bringing me back to the present.

  “Not out here you’re not.” I quickly punch in the security code and shove him through the door.

  Luckily, he makes it to the bathroom in time to pray to the porcelain gods. Leaving him to it, I head into the kitchen and grab him a bottle of water from the fridge while I send Rosie a text to make sure she’s okay.

  “That for me?”

  Lucien takes the water from my hands and taking a long gulp, he drops down onto the sofa. Shaking my head, I root around in a cupboard for the bottle of Tylenol and shaking two out, pass them to a nearly passed out Lucien.

  My levelheaded brother being drunk is a surprise and makes me wonder what’s happened or been said between him and Sabrina. We all know he’s fighting an attraction toward her and vice-versa. What I can’t understand is why he isn’t doing anything about her. Well, I can understand from his screwed up way of thinking. She’s a beautiful young woman and half the time she looks lonely, which she tries to hide. This is something Mom’s noticed and the reason why she’s trying to mother her and includes her in anything we do as a family.

  Glancing at Lucien who’s decided to sleep on my sofa, I kick his feet, startling him. “What’s going on? And don’t give me shit.”

  “Can’t you leave a guy to drown in his sorrows?”

  “You’re not just a guy, you’re my brother so the answer is no I can’t.”

  Sitting down opposite him in my recliner, I hold his glare and keep my sigh of relief to myself when I see him give in.

  “She’s on a date.” He sits up and leans forward with his arms resting on his thighs, which gives me a minute to take in what he’s just said.

  This surprises me because I thought they were gradually getting to the point of something happening between them. Still I knew the possibility of someone else coming along for Sabrina would happen if my brother didn’t make a move.

  “She looked…hot…sexy…beautiful,” he whispers, covering his face with his hands. “I watched her meet him at the restaurant. He kissed her, and she let him.” He leans back into the cushions, resting his head on the back of the sofa with his eyes closed. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, and seeing her with someone else is killing me. I can’t have her so it isn’t fair to expect her to stay alone, but it’s eating away at me.”

  He keeps saying that, using it as an excuse. “Why can’t you have her?”

  His eyes snap open. “Look at me.” He holds his arms out to the side leaving himself open.

  “I am you bastard,” I reply feeling my anger start building. “Stop using your scars as an excuse. I’ve seen the way she looks at you when you aren’t looking and I’m telling you she doesn’t give a damn about them. She sees you. You thinking the way you do is starting to really piss me off. What are you frightened of? Tell me.” He’s frustrating the hell outta me.

  “I can’t give her what she needs. What any woman needs from a man,” he says so quietly it takes me a minute to realize what he’s said. But I’m confused.

  What the fuck is he talking about?

  “What. I don’t understand. Explain it to me?”

  “Fuck! You really are going to make me say it out loud.” He wipes his hand down his face in a weary gesture. “I can’t get erect.”

  I just stare at him. “What?”

  “Fuckin’ hell, Ruben. I can’t get a fuckin’ erection.” All the anger drops out of him as his words hit me.

  “Since when?”

  “The fire.”

  He’s left me stunned. I don’t think any of us had any idea this was the reason he’d stopped dating. We all just presumed his scars were the reason he was hiding. How wrong were we? I honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to say to him. I can’t imagine not having an orgasm again, and he’s gone years without one.

  “Well that shut you up,” he observers.

  “I don’t know what to say. I mean, are you sure?” I ask then start to laugh. “Sorry, of course you are.”

  “The doc said he’s eighty percent positive I’ll always be like this from now on. But…”

  “But what?” I ask when he cuts off mid-speech.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Like hell! “Spit it out Lucien.”

  Oh this is going to be good if he’s blushing. “Sometimes around Sabrina, I, well, you know.” He sighs.

  Chuckling, I ask, “Know what?” refusing to let him off the hook.

  “Jesus Christ…I get aroused. I feel something in my dead dick. Okay. Happy now?”

  Not wanting to get more into my brother’s problem, I decide to stop with the questions while holding back my laugh. Fuck knows what other things he’ll reveal. I shudder in thought and remember to check my phone in case Rosie has replied to my message. I could do with hearing her voice, but I’m not talking to her without privacy.

  Lucien’s breathing has evened out and he looks to have gone back to sleep so I pick my phone from the table and read Rosie’s message telling me she’s fine and in bed about to go to sleep. She’ll see me in the morning when her batteries are fully charged.

  I’m not happy to be sleeping alone tonight, but I guess she thinks she’ll get a night’s sleep if she’s back at her place alone. Tomorrow I’m going to make sure she knows I’m capable of leaving her alone when she needs her rest. She’s my woman to take care of and I don’t like her thinking otherwise.

  Holding my phone, it starts to vibrate in my hand with an incoming call. For a split second my heart accelerates only to thud in disappointment when I see Ramon’s name flashing on the screen.

  “What do you want at this time?” I grumble into the phone and quickly move to the kitchen so I don’t wake Lucien up. Looking at him slumped over, a train could probably run through the house and he wouldn’t wake up.

  I pour myself a glass of water as Ramon asks, “Have you seen Lucien? I’m supposed to be his ride home?”

  “He’s passed out on my sofa. You head home and I’ll get him home tomorrow,” I say, rubbing my temples as a headache has started to gather.

  Shaking out two more Tylenol but for me this time, I knock them back with the cold water, and drain the glass not realizing how thirsty I am. It’s the damn latte they make across the street. I’m sure they add salt or something. I really need to stop going there.

  “Okay.” He hesitates as though he wants to say something else. “I think something went down tonight?”

  What the fuck!

  “Say that again?”

  “I said—”

  “Never mind,” I cut him off, “I heard you. But what do you think went down.”

  My head pounds as I back up into a chair and drop down onto it. I need sleep, and for this shit to stop at Kenza.

  “I overheard two guys talking when I was taking a leak and they’d just scored some ‘brown sugar.’ And you know what that is right?”

  “Are you shittin’ me? Of course I know what the fuck brown sugar is.” I try to calm my temper down some because getting pissed at Ramon isn’t going to help. “Did you hear them say where they got it from?”

  “Yeah. I did. In fact, you already know.”

  “Fuckin’ hell.” I slam my fist onto the table beside me. “Who the fuck is doing this?”

  “Someone who works at the club. I didn’t get a name…or
gender. They left. And that’s it. Look, I’ll be around first thing tomorrow with breakfast and we can hash out a plan then okay.”

  “I’ll see you then.” I hang up the call wanting to go downstairs and find the staff responsible for this.

  When I find out who is behind this I’m going to have the last fuckin’ laugh. Because they’ll be behind bars with an end to their fucked up operation at my club.

  Chapter 30 ~ Rosie

  I’m really not sure how Ruben is going to take the fact that I spent the night in Hunter’s hotel room with him. Nothing happened, and I didn’t expect anything to, but after he saw the look on my face when I re-entered the club, he made me tell him what had happened. As soon as I did he had me out of there, on his bike and in his hotel room before I could say anything else.

  He’s more like a big brother to me, more than anything and last night he held me while I slept. It should have felt awkward, but it had made me feel safe. He made me feel safe.

  Hunter at first suggested we go and report what I’ve seen to the police—a friend of his—but I wasn’t too keen because then they’d know I was the one responsible and I was frightened they’d come after me. So I told Hunter where I heard them messing in the locker room and although he thinks it will be sealed up by now because Simon knows I saw them or at least heard them, he’d still check it out and keep an eye on Simon now that he has more to go on. Hopefully they’ll be able to catch him red-handed now so that they won’t need me. I can hope anyway.

  Against my better judgment, and Hunters advice, I’m heading into Kenza this morning to talk to Ruben. I need to tell him what I saw last night and explain why I can’t be around the club anymore until the trouble is gone. I’m practically quivering in my boots at the thought of bumping into Simon again, but it’s where Ruben lives and he isn’t answering his phone so I don’t really have much choice. Although I do sigh in relief when I spot Hunter’s bike parked against the wall, outside the back doors of the club.