The two of them laugh as we start reminiscing about how everyone accused us of being a threesome. By the time dinner arrives, I feel Julian may actually be coming around. It still makes me sad that all this time, he’s felt that way about me and I didn’t know. Not that it would have changed anything. Even when I was with Julian, I had a hard time seeing myself with him.
We get through dinner, enjoying a delicious spread of surf and turf, without any more fighting or animosity. And after, Chad asks me if I would mind if he takes Julian out for a drink. All I can do is smile. He’s making a real effort with him.
I say goodbye to Julian and Chad at the door, but as I turn to walk away, Chad catches me by the arm, spinning me up against his chest. “I’ll be back in one hour,” he says to me privately. “I want you naked in my bed when I return.”
Heat spreads between my legs at his words. I look up at him and whisper a tease. “A bit bossy, aren’t we?”
He grabs me behind my neck, pulling me to him as he whispers back, “You’re the boss tonight. Anything you want—you get.” He kisses the tip of my nose before closing the door, leaving me a mushy pile of hormones. The next sixty minutes will seem like an eternity.
~ ~ ~
Sunday evening has come all too quickly. The thought of him leaving me after what we’ve shared this weekend has me straining to hold back tears as Cole drives us back to my house.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Chad says, squeezing my hand.
Of course I am. This is the moment I’ve dreaded since he picked me up Thursday night. What happens next? We didn’t talk about it at all this weekend. What if he doesn’t have any time for me? What if this is all I get for now? Can I live with that?
“Sorry,” I say. “I had such a great time this weekend. I guess I just don’t want it to end. Thank you for everything.”
He chuckles. “Mallory, you didn’t set foot outside the hotel room for three straight days, you call that fun?”
“The best,” I say, remembering all the different ways we showed our love for each other.
His face breaks into a triumphant smile. “Thank you,” he says. “It was the best weekend I’ve ever had, Mal.”
I nod, looking up at him as a tear trickles down my cheek. He wipes it with his thumb. “Hey, none of this. Don’t you know this is not the end? It’s only the beginning, Mallory. The first of so many more great times to come.”
I sniff back more tears as Cole pulls up to my house after a drive that didn’t last nearly long enough to say goodbye. Cole exits the car but doesn’t open my door. I look at Chad and he smiles, pulling a small package out of his carry-on bag.
“You got me a present?” I ask. “When did you have time to do that?”
He shrugs, nodding at the package. “Open it.”
I tear off the ribbon and open the package. Inside is a piece of paper. It’s an airline itinerary. Dated three weeks from now. From JFK to LAX. And it has my name on it. He’s bought me a ticket to L.A. for my spring break? I want to be happy, but I can’t. I’ve already got plans with three other teachers from school. We’re driving down to Myrtle Beach to stay in a rental house.
“Oh, Chad.” I look out the window trying not to cry.
“Don’t you want to know how I knew when your spring break was?” he asks.
“How?”
“I called Melissa last night when I was with Julian. I cleared it with her. She said she even knows another teacher who would be willing to take your place on the trip. It’ll be great, Mal. You can come see where I live. Hang out with my parents. Meet some of my friends.” Then his smile turns into a frown. “Oh, shit,” he says. “That is unless you’d rather go to the beach with your friends.” He takes the itinerary from me, folding it up and placing it back into the box. “I overstepped my bounds, didn’t I? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d drop everything to be with me. I’m being selfish. And right after I promised you I wouldn’t be a stupid bastard.”
I snatch the box out of his hands. “I would love to come visit you, Chad. And you aren’t selfish. You were actually very considerate to clear it with Melissa first.” I can’t help the smile that overtakes my face. “A whole week together?”
“Not just a week. Nine days,” he says. “You’re flying out right after school on Friday and I’m keeping you until the next Sunday night. It won’t be exactly like this weekend. I’ll have to work a little; we have pre-production meetings for the Defcon sequel. But the rest of the time, I promise I’m all yours.”
“All mine?” I say, biting my lower lip. “I like the sound of that.”
He runs a finger across the lip I was biting. “Quit that or I’ll be riding to JFK with a painful hard-on.” He leans over to kiss me, but instead, I climb onto his lap, pressing my mouth to his as I grind against his growing erection.
“Good luck with that,” I say, giggling between kisses. Spring break is three weeks away. Three weeks of not being able to see him. Kiss him. Touch him. I need to remember what he tastes like. I need to remember everything about him. Two weeks without him was torture. Three will feel like forever.
“I am, you know,” he murmurs into my mouth.
“You are what?” I ask breathlessly.
“I’m yours, Mallory Kate,” he says, pulling back but keeping our lips only inches apart. He frames my face with his hands. “In a way, I always have been, I just didn’t know it. But now, after this weekend, I can’t imagine myself with anyone else. I’m yours—for as long as you’ll have me.”
Tears stream down my face as he holds my eyes with his. I’ve never seen more truth in them than I do right this second. “What if I say I want you forever?” I ask with a thick voice.
“I’d tell you I’m the luckiest son-of-a-bitch to ever walk the earth.” He pulls me to him, crashing our lips together one last time.
~ ~ ~
“How are you holding up?” Kyle asks after hugging me as we walk into Mitchell’s restaurant for dinner.
“I’m good,” I say. “You don’t have to babysit me, you know.”
He flashes me a look of annoyance. “I’m not babysitting you,” he says. “I’m catching up with an old friend.”
“Did he ask you to check up on me?”
“No,” he says, looking over to catch my questioning eyes. “Okay, yes, but I was going to call you anyway. I feel bad that we’ve lived so close and haven’t been in contact.”
“Me, too. I’ve missed you.” We get seated at our table and when the hostess leaves, I ask him, “Why did you ask how I’m holding up, Kyle?”
“Because if you’re even half as love-sick as my brother, you are miserable being so far away from him.”
I can’t help my smile. “He’s miserable?”
He laughs. “You don’t have to look so happy about it. But yes. He’s been away from you for two weeks and quite frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t hopped on a plane back here to kidnap you and take you with him.”
Part of me would love that. But the logical half of me knows I have responsibilities here. My job. My volunteer work. My dad. Not to mention Mel and Julian. “He’s been really busy,” I say.
With the national release of Defcon One last weekend, he’s been flying all over the country doing interviews. Between that and meeting with his manager, the studio, his lawyer, his publicist; not to mention preparations for the film he’s going to shoot this summer, he’s been booked solid. I’m surprised he finds time to call and text me every day. But he does, and it’s become the highlight of my existence. I’m pathetically love-sick. I’m counting down the hours until I get to see him on Friday.
Skylar Mitchell sees us and comes over to say hello. We’ve become good friends; she and her sisters have been very welcoming to me, making me a part of their close-knit family. I stand up to hug her around her baby bump. “How long is it now?” I ask.
“Eight more weeks.” She rubs her belly. “So, how’s our movie star doing? I saw him on the news last night,” she s
ays, sympathy washing across her face.
She must have seen the story about him and Courtney. Once again, the buzz is that the two of them are still together. There was even video of them being ushered through the Miami airport, Courtney tugging Chad by his hand. Of course, the cameras zoomed in on their hands, not bothering to show how he pulled away from her. And even though I know the story is made up, it still hurts to see him with her. They’re always being thrown together and there is no end in sight. After all, she’s his leading lady in the sequel to be filmed this summer. “He’s fine,” I say. “Don’t believe everything you see on TV, Skylar.”
“I know,” she says. “Still, I know it’s hard for you. When Griffin is away on photo shoots with glamorous models, it’s hard for me not to feel jealous. But it’s part of the job. That man loves you, Mallory. Everyone can see that.”
“Not everyone,” I say, looking down at the table. I know it’s stupid to wish our relationship was public knowledge. I realize as soon as that happens, everything could change.
“Everyone who matters,” she says, before running off to deal with a kitchen crisis.
We order dinner, Kyle and I falling into comfortable conversation like no time has passed since we were kids. What is it about the Stone brothers that makes them able to charm their way into the hearts of all women?
“I really am sorry I never contacted you,” he says. “I guess I just didn’t know what to say to you back then after Chad just left you hanging. But there really wasn’t much to say. He was lost to drugs. He was in his own world and he wasn’t himself. We were all scared to death that we’d get a middle-of-the-night phone call saying he was dead. It was that bad, Mallory.”
I shudder thinking about what my life would be like without him. Tears flood my eyes at the thought of living in a world where Chad doesn’t exist.
“You really love him, don’t you?” he asks.
I nod, using my napkin to dab my eyes. “I think I always have.”
“He never shut up about you in the beginning, you know. When we first moved to L.A., you were all he talked about. Getting that job on Malibu 310 was the best and worst thing that ever happened to him. It all happened so fast and he didn’t know how to handle it. And when that Heather bitch got him hooked on drugs, he became someone else entirely.” He runs a hand through his hair in obvious frustration over the memory. Then he studies me. “Oh, shit. I never really put it together.”
“Put what together?” I ask.
“Heather Crawford. She looks a lot like you. Same color hair. She even has green eyes and freckles.” He shakes his head. “No wonder he latched onto her. I guess he was trying to hold onto to you through her or something.”
“She’s the one who got him doing drugs?” I hate her. I hate her more than I’ve ever hated anyone because she took him from me. From his family.
He nods. “That was when it all started. The gambling, the fighting, the . . . women.” He cringes when he says the last word.
I stare blankly at Kyle. Chad hasn’t yet let me into the entirety of his painful past. I only know bits and pieces and what I’ve seen in the news.
“He hasn’t told you everything, has he?” Kyle asks.
I shake my head. “But that’s okay. I’m not sure I want to know the details. He’s not that person anymore.”
“He’s not,” Kyle says. “But that doesn’t mean you won’t have to deal with a lot of crap, kiddo. The stuff he did in the past, it follows him around like stink on shit. Bookies still contact him, trying to lure him back in the game, even after all this time. He’s got some pending lawsuits stemming from fights he got into. Hell, do you know he even stole from our parents, before he was eighteen and got control of his Malibu money?”
I gasp. I knew he was messed up, but it was even worse than I thought. “Why wouldn’t he tell me that?”
“Probably because he thought you’d run,” he says. He reaches across the table and pats my hand. “Listen, Mallory, none of this should make you nervous. He’s very committed to you. But it is a lot to take in and it’s a lot you might have to deal with.”
“I’m glad I didn’t know everything,” I admit. “I think it would have scared me away a few weeks ago. But things are different now. And we’ve all done things we’re ashamed of. We shouldn’t be defined by them.”
“You’re just as awesome now as you were when we were kids, Mallory. My brother doesn’t deserve you,” he says.
“I feel like I’m the one who’s undeserving, Kyle. It’s hard for me to see him as that deviant bad boy celebrity now. He’s just regular old Chad to me. He’s the guy who came in to fix my dad’s leaky faucet when he brought me home one night a few weeks ago. A movie star, who could have easily called a high-priced plumber, crawled under our sink and got his hands dirty just because he wanted to feel normal. He’s the man who, when he took me out to dinner, ordered a pizza for the homeless guy out back, and then stuffed a roll of bills into the pizza box. He does so many selfless things, how can I not see him as anything but wonderful?”
Kyle smiles with pride as our dinner arrives; and we eat, talking about old times. Laughing about the trouble we’d find ourselves in.
“What about you?” I ask. “Is there someone special in your life?”
He shakes his head. “There’s no time. The last year of med school is crazy. I’m busy working in the hospital and when I’m not there, I’m studying pretty much all the time.”
“Why do you do it?” I ask. It’s the same question I asked his older brother. “I mean, Chad told me what he inherited from your grandparents. I assume you got the same. My dad has told me many times how grueling med school and residency can be. Why go through it all?”
He shrugs. “I guess it comes down to wanting to help people,” he says. “I donate to several charities, and I always keep cash on me for when I see people in need, but sometimes giving money isn’t enough. These people need someone to care about them. To go that extra mile. Too many doctors these days are in it for the paycheck. They see indigent people as a nuisance. I see them as a quick turn of fate—something that could have happened to any of us given certain circumstances. Eventually, I want to run a clinic for those people. One that doesn’t just ‘treat ‘em and street ‘em.’ I mean, if I could just help one person’s life turn around for the better, it would all be worth it.”
“Wow,” I say.
Kyle narrows his eyes at me in question. “What?”
“You Stone boys sure know how to make a girl swoon, don’t you?”
“Swoon?” he asks, laughing.
“Yes. You are all inherently good people. Well, when you’re not doped up on drugs,” I say, wrinkling my nose.
“We have incredible parents,” he says.
“I know you do. I can’t wait to see them when I go to L.A.”
He signs the check and escorts me to the train station around the corner. Along the way, we pass a newsstand and my whole world changes in the blink of an eye. It changes because I see myself plastered across the cover of a tabloid magazine. I jump behind Kyle, using him as camouflage. “Kyle, oh my God, look.” I point to the magazine.
Kyle quickly snatches up every copy, throwing a wad of cash at the proprietor. Then instead of walking me to the train station as planned, he hails me a cab. “It was bound to happen sooner or later, Mallory.” He hands me one of the copies as he puts me in the back seat. Then he gives the driver some cash. “Call his publicist, she’ll tell you how to handle this. It’s not going to be as bad as you might think. Things like this blow over quickly.”
I nod, hoping he’s right. “Thanks for dinner, Kyle. Let’s do it again soon.” I try to keep the terror out of my voice.
“Next time we might even let Ethan come,” he says, winking at me.
As the cab takes me back to where I parked my car just outside the city, I study my picture on the front page. It’s a pretty clear picture of me. In a robe. Next to a half-naked Chad in the living room of his ho
tel suite. One of the room service team must have snapped the picture. My heart sinks. Everyone who knows me will recognize me. What will my colleagues think? My students? The article claims Thad Stone has stepped out on Courtney Benson, having an affair with a local New York City resident on the side. They claim this is typical for the star, leaving scorned women in his wake. The only solace—there is no mention of my name. They haven’t found that out at least. But I’m sure it won’t be long.
I pick up my phone to see a few missed texts from Chad and one from Kendra since I’d had my phone off during dinner.
Chad: Call me, Mal.
Chad: Someone took a picture of us in the hotel. You look hot, BTW. But it’s out there now. They haven’t identified you yet. Hopefully, they won’t before you come here. I don’t want you dealing with that shit without me.
Chad: Mallory, are you okay?
Kendra: Hi, Mallory. Give me a call re: the tabloid photo.
I roll to voicemail trying to get Chad so I call Kendra. “Hi, Kendra, it’s Mallory Schaffer.”
“Hi, Mallory, how are you?”
“Things could be better,” I say.
“So, you’ve seen it?”
“Yes.”
“And you are wondering what you should do about it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, they haven’t found out your name yet, but I imagine it won’t take them long. We don’t want to make a statement until that happens. So for now, my best advice is for you to do nothing.”
“What do you mean, make a statement?” I ask.
“Have you and Chad not talked about this?” she asks, sounding concerned.
“No, why?”
She sighs into the phone. “We’ve had a few meetings about this subject over the past two weeks, Mallory.”
“Meetings? About me?”
“About your relationship, more specifically. Chad’s manager and the studio don’t want a serious relationship being front page news. They think it will hurt box office sales of the new release. They want the illusion of the leading man and lady having a love affair. Especially as they prepare to film the sequel.”
The Stone Brothers: A Complete Romance Series (3-Book Box Set) Page 47