My hands started trembling, and the itch that I’d been ignoring for too long had my thighs tingling and begging for pain. I let the photo slip from my fingers and looked up at Ocean. He was stone cold and frozen in time, and that’s when I realized that he was still battling his own demons. How could I have been so selfish as to think he could fix me when we were both broken? He finally snapped out of it and shifted in his seat, locking the car doors on me.
“Liv, baby, what do you need me to do?”
I looked at him wanting to scream at him to let me out, but I wouldn’t allow myself to cave. If Ocean had faith in me, then I had to at least try. I shifted in my seat and sat on top of my hands afraid of losing it and hitting him out of frustration. “Liv, come on, tell me, what do you need me to do.”
Cut me! Just fucking cut me! I shook my head trying to fight off the dizzy spell and blurry vision caused by my anxiety. “Radio… turn on the radio… loud, and the ac. I need it to be cold.” He didn’t question me or make any weird faces.
Instead, he turned on his satellite radio, selected a couple of stations, and shuffled them. He turned up the volume and adjusted the bass so that the sound system had me bumping against my seat. He turned down the ac, and put it full blast turning all the vents to face me. He reached over me clicking on my seatbelt and reclined my seat back as far as it would go.
I curled up facing him, and he slipped his hand between my thighs resting it there. I closed my eyes and let the pounding sounds of Eminem numb my brain as Ocean reversed and pulled out of the hotel parking lot.
Ocean
The rest of the morning went by mostly in silence. I asked Liv if she wanted me to read the letters in the envelope once we got to the hospital. She agreed, and I read the letters aloud to her. I was grateful that the letters didn’t necessarily bring her bad news, but she was real uneasy about the letter about her dad. He sent her a new list of contacts for him, mostly emergency contacts, which had me a little shaken up myself. One letter was from her mother’s insurance policy letting her know she had a two hundred thousand dollar check coming her way, which her dad was setting it up to be deposited into the local account that I figured he opened for her. She wasn’t happy, surprised, mad, or anything. Liv was a mask of voided emotions.
I didn’t try to cheer her up or make small talk, because I knew what she wanted. She needed to cut in order to numb the reality that was causing her the most pain. I decided the faster we got through the mornings to-do list, the sooner I could get her home and love on her until the pain was gone. Once she was okay enough to deal with the public, we entered the hospital and went straight to Aunt Layla’s office.
She wasn’t surprised to us, and it definitely helped the situation. I figured Law opened his big mouth and gave her a heads up that we were coming. The visit was pretty short and simple. Aunt Layla went over the options Liv had explaining the risks, pros, cons, and all the jazz. I would have left Liv to do her girl stuff in private but when I tried to let go of her hand, she dug her nails into my hand, and I got the message.
Liv turned her nose up to the pills, and I was thankful, because any sort of pills lying around me wasn’t a good idea. I turned my nose up to the IUD, because the thought of that little plastic device looking thingy in my baby’s vagina pissed me off. Liv settled for the injection, and it was only because it involved a needle. I didn’t object, because out of all the choices she had, that seemed best, and she only had to do it every three months. Of course, Aunt Layla gave us, well me, the keep your dick in your pants lecture, and I wanted to laugh so badly, but getting slapped upside the head by my aunt always resulted in a headache. I was convinced she had mastered some kind of technique to give me the damn headache, so I behaved and kept my sarcastic mouth shut.
When we left the hospital, Liv was still quiet. As soon as she got in the car, she turned up the music and blew the cold ac again. I still had about two hours to kill before stopping by Law’s place, so I decided to take the opportunity to do some clothes shopping. I didn’t come down from Virginia with much, and I wanted to keep Liv busy.
“Hey, Liv?”
“Yes,” she said shifting in her reclined seat to look up at me.
“You mind if we go shopping? I need clothes and was hoping to pick up some stuff for Aunt Layla.” She smiled and reached for my hand that rested on the inner console and intertwined her fingers with mine. I gave her tiny fingers a light squeeze.
“As long as you’re here, Ocean, I’ll go wherever you want.” I pulled her hand up and bent my head down to kiss each of her fingers before resting our hands back on the console.
The mall was pretty dead for a Saturday at noon, but I wasn’t complaining. I stopped by my shops and picked up jeans, shirts, socks, boxer briefs, and eight new pair of sneakers. Liv was about to kill me when I went overboard on the sneakers, but I had money to burn, so I didn’t care. Once I was done with my shopping, I dragged her into Victoria Secret and picked out some fun toys for me mostly. I took her to a couple more stores and nagged at her until she would let me buy things for her she wouldn’t normally wear. Two grand later and a million bags, we left the mall and headed out toward Law.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lawrence
I looked around the room of the office I’d just created for Sunshine in our new home, and I prayed to god that she would love it. Not like it, but love it. The things money can buy. I was grateful that Stella, my mom’s own personal office space designer for the hospital, was still in business. She showed me several pieces of furniture, but I fell in love with the glass top L shaped desk with the matching computer credenza. It was sleek and posh, and I saw Sunshine when I looked at the set put together. All the office equipment was delivered over night, so I had it installed for her, as well.
She had two touch screen desktops with the keyboards, a Windows 7 tablet, and a new Mac laptop. I even made sure she had her iPod dock installed because I knew how much she loves music and how it soothed her when she needed it. Stella was a queen when it came to interior design, and I let her do the whole damn condo. How she pulled it off over night, I still couldn’t figure out, but it was done and ready for Sunshine. All that was left to do was have our personal items delivered, and we were home sweet home. My phone chirped, and I pulled it out of my back pocket.
Law ~ hey we’re pulling in now. Liv’s not doin 2 gud. take it easy k
Me ~ yeah man no prob c u
My heart sunk when I read the text. The poor girl couldn’t catch a break. I pushed the thoughts aside as I heard the knock at the front door. I took a quick peek around to make sure everything was in place and rushed to open the door. Ocean wasn’t playing when he said Sunshine wasn’t doing too good. She looked like she just woke up from the dead. Her face was pale, and her eyes were glossy like she’d been smoking on something.
“Sunshine!” I reached out and she jumped into my arms hugging me as if she hadn’t seen me in fucking years.
“Hey, Sunshine, you okay?” She looked up at me and nodded. I looked at Ocean who had a shit load of bags in his hands, and under his arms. I pulled her close, “you want me to kick his ass to make you feel better?” She giggled a little and released me.
“Behave, Law. Ocean didn’t do anything. Can we come in?”
“Oh, yeah, my bad. Sunshine, come on in to your new and humble abode.”
Seeing her face light up as she looked around was so worth going overboard. Sunshine was a simple girl impressed by the simple things in life, and it amazed me how excited she could get over things I’ve seen a million times. I helped Ocean with the bags of Abercrombie, Hollister, Aeropostale, Footlocker, Victoria Secret, and the list went fucking on.
“Damn, you buy out the entire mall, man?” Ocean frowned at me, and I ignored him. Once all the bags were in, I grabbed Sunshine and gave her a grand tour. I decided to show her the office first, because the bedrooms were fucking awesome.
Before opening the door to her office, I turned to look a
t her. “Sunshine, please don’t make a big deal about it, but I had a special space created just for you, and all I want to hear from you is whether you like it or not. Any other comment will go in one ear and fall right back out. It won’t even make it to my other ear, you got it?” Finally, she laughed.
“Law, I’m sure it’s amazing, now open the door. I want to see.”
“As you wish, my lady.” I opened the door pushing it all the way open and stepped aside so she could enter first. Ocean came up behind me and whistled his approval.
Sunshine walked in and did an entire three sixty while standing in the middle of the room. When she turned around to face me, she had tears dancing on her lower eyelashes. She walked over to the wall where I had pictures in cute palm sized frames that spelled out in her name. Each picture was either of me, Ocean, or of us together when we used to compete. She looked at each one smiling, and I could see that whatever was haunting her was slowly chipping away.
“I love it, Law,” she whispered to herself. She made her way to the desks where she poked and explored at all the different compartments and gadgets. Scattered around the room’s décor, I asked Stella to implement a martial arts feel to the space, and that she did. There were cool looking figurines and pictures strategically placed around the office.
“Law, you shou…”
“In one ear and not quite making out the other, Sunshine. Do you like it?”
She looked at me and frowned placing her hands on her hips. “Like it! I love it, Law! Thank you. This space is for all of us, right? I can’t use all this office equipment, and there’s more than enough space for all of us.”
“No, Sunshine. This is your space. You’ll have plenty of projects and responsibilities in a days’ time or so. We really need to get planning for the studio. There’s a lot of work to do, Sunshine. I want you to have the best.” She ran at me from behind the desk as I turned my back to her, and she jumped up wrapping herself around me piggyback style. We all laughed, including Ocean who was way too cool about his princess all over me, but hey, again… no complaints from me.
“All right, Sunshine, let’s check out the rest of your new home.”
Livie
As Law carried me around the condo on piggyback, I couldn’t help but let his intense energy wash over me. Law was like my personal prescription of happy pills. He put on a terrible British accent and put on a realtor performance. The place was beautiful, and I could only imagine the pretty price we’d have to pay for such lavish living. The tiles were beautiful porcelain with warm brown tones that matched the kitchens color scheme and marbled counter tops. The appliances were top of the line, all stainless steel and the damn refrigerator had a TV in it. When you entered the condo, you walked into a nice sized room that had a loveseat, coffee table, a coat closet, and an amazing view since we were on the second floor. When you walked into the room, there were two open doorways, one leading to the kitchen, and the other leading to the main living room area.
I loved how the rooms fed off the main living room with long hallways. The main living room was like a huge round circle with hallways branching off it, and then toward the back of the unit, there was a huge laundry room with a side-by-side washer and dryer. The room had racks for hanging clothes and shoes, and all the laundry supplies you could think of. The condo would have been a three bedroom if Law hadn’t set up the amazing office space for me. I think he showed me his room first, because he wanted to delay my panic attack as much as possible. I knew I had already made the decision to move in the guys, but to actually be living with and sharing a room with Ocean… well that could be disastrous.
Law chose the Lexington St Tropez Island bed set, and the only reason I knew that was because I remember seeing the set up in a magazine during my stay at the Sheraton. It was cozy and classy and it suited him well. When he finally showed me to my room that Ocean and I would be sharing, I was left speechless. Before me was a beautiful traditional whitewash Victorian king canopy bed set. Again, just like I saw in the magazines. Taking in the canopy and four bedposts had my muscles in spasms just thinking about the things Ocean would be compelled to do to me. I felt his eyes on my back and ignored him.
“So, Sunshine, I take it by your super woman grip on my neck you like your room?” I loosened up my grip on Law’s neck. He set me down gently on the porcelain tile, and I stepped away from them both to regain any sense of calm. I walked over to the dresser and traced my hands along the intricate designs, and along the smooth and rough textures that spread through the furniture’s surface. I turned to Law and Ocean with a flushed face.
“I love it, thank you both… but…”
“But nothing, Sunshine, this is your new home, and you are going to have the best I can provide for you as long as I’m around. So, do you like the place? Is it okay with you?” I frowned at him. Law was an emotionally unbound man, and he couldn’t help but feel and love passionately. I walked over to him and gave him a huge bear hug, wrapping my arms under his massive ones and squeezing tight.
“You ask the dumbest questions sometimes, Law. Of course, I love this place.”
I let go and turned to face Ocean who looked like he was plotting out a million ways to murder Law for having his hands on me. I rolled my eyes and smiled his way. I could feel the edginess of my need to cut start to be drowned out by the presence of these two amazing men in front of me.
Then the doorbell rang and I jumped. Both Ocean and Law laughed at me.
“Company already?” I asked Law.
“Nope, that would be lunch. I called Tijuana Flats and ordered us lunch. We have a lot of shit to sort out, and I figured sense we’re all here, we might as well get started.”
I high fived him. “You’re the boss. I’m ready.”
He turned to walk out of the room, and I went to follow, but was blocked by Ocean, and instead of looking up at him, I stared into his hard chest. He brought his hands down to my hips and grabbed them tight applying enough pressure to cause that pleasurable pain he made my body produce.
“You know, Liv, hearing you call another man boss kind of pisses me off.” His voice was low and deep sending chills down my spine. I looked up into his eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck. His eyes were golden brown pools of heat and they were looking right through me.
“You rather me call you my boss?” I mean, if he wanted to get technical, he really was my boss now that he was a business partner with Law.
His lips pulled to the side, and his eyebrows jumped up. “Baby, you can call me anything you want just as long as I’m the only one making you scream those names.” I grinned at him.
“Trust me. You have nothing to worry about in that department. You’ve ruined me, and I’m addicted to you.” I wasn’t saying it to please his ego, but to admit the truth to myself. He leaned down and put his lips on his special spot on my neck, and breathed me in.
“Let’s go before you end up swinging your tight ass body from that canopy.” I pulled away and laughed because he wasn’t kidding. I never took anything this man said lightly, because Ocean never did or said anything half ass. He either gave you everything or nothing at all, and I was glad I was getting his everything, because without it, I’d still be alone.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Livie
As we made our way to the kitchen, Law was dancing around setting up the countertops in a burrito fajita-style buffet. Everything you could think of was laid out on the counters. I was starting to realize that Law had a knack for being an overachiever, and he honestly could care less what anyone else thought. I knew he most likely had a very nice bank account from his fights when he was an active fighter, but man, the guy had expensive tastes for everything.
“Are we getting ready to feed a small village or something?” I asked Law, giggling to myself because he was dead serious and zoned out preparing the counter for us.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but your stomach was yelling at my back during your piggy back ride,”
he said laughing at me. I took a quick swing at him and connected with his shoulder. Ocean came up behind me swooping me up and sat me on the only empty space left on the counter. He turned to me and asked me what I wanted. I grinned, looking at the Mexican buffet in front of me.
“I want everything.” Both of my boys moved busily getting my plates ready for me first before they served themselves. I felt guilty for being such a brat and letting them cater to me like this, but one thing I knew about them is that they did whatever the hell they wanted to, and I was not going to stand in their way.
After twenty minutes of silence, Law took us all out of our food-induced trances. “So, I’ve been thinking, and we need to get started on our grand opening. I don’t want to open it to the public right away, because I want the studio to be exclusive to our clients. Sunshine, you have any ideas?” I nearly choked on my huge bite of burrito, and Ocean raised his eyebrows as he tried not to laugh at me. I chewed quickly and swallowed, taking a swig of my mineral water.
“Do you have a client list made up already? I mean, we could hold an exclusive opening at the studio and turn it into a formal event where we invite the fighters and their trainers.” The sparkle in Law’s eyes had me blushing.
“Actually, I do have a list of clients that I wanted to get in right away. I’ll forward you their profiles.”
“You built profiles on your possible clients already?” I was amazed on how focused and detailed Law could be.
“Yeah,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “I studied their fighting styles and other qualities and developed a rating system, and that’s how I pick the fighters I want to accept. Not all fighters are coachable… perfect example, lover boy other there.”
Oceans Collide Page 17