Wanted (Addicted Trilogy Book 3)

by S. Nelson

  Maybe I should give the alcohol a rest.

  “What did you do to her?” he hissed, clutching my shirt in his fists. “She rushed out of here so fast, as if someone had done something to her,” he repeated slowly.

  I shoved him away from me, straightening myself before answering. “I didn’t do anything to her. Well…” I smirked, but apparently it was the wrong move.

  “So help me, God, Alek.” My dear friend was more worried about Sara than he was about me. I liked it. He knew how to keep me in check, and I appreciated him even more for it. “Don’t hurt her again.”

  “I’m not going to. I promise. Things happened between us,” I said, subconsciously rubbing my palm over the front of my pants, “and I think she’s coming around.” My eyes lit up for the first time in months, and nothing Kael could say would diminish it.

  Settling in at the bar, I ordered a club soda. I knew we still had hours to go before closing up and I needed to give our restaurant’s opening some much needed attention. Leaving everything to my friend and partner was a shitty move, but I was there and I was finally ready to deal with whatever he needed from me.

  I’d noticed Braden and the guy who was sitting next to Sara were still at their table. Thankfully, they didn’t stay too much longer, paying their bill and disappearing twenty minutes later. I knew Alexa had been the one to take Sara home because she was missing, plus those two were like sisters. Alexa would never let her leave alone.

  An hour before closing, an unwelcome sight walked through the door, throwing me into an instant fit of rage.

  Cameron.

  I’d been planning on paying him a visit but I never found the time, what with me being mostly drunk over the past few months.

  He never saw me approach, too busy chatting up the unsuspecting female bartender. I quickly snatched him by the neck and dragged him outside into the alleyway next to the building before he even knew what was happening. His reaction was slow, and once I turned him to face me, I realized it was because he was on something. He wasn’t drunk, and he was lucid, but there was a blankness to his stare which told me he’d taken some kind of drug earlier.

  “Well, well. If it isn’t my favorite cousin,” he sneered, pushing me back as his false sense of strength took hold. Cameron was no match for me when we were kids, and he still wasn’t as grown men. Because I wasn’t in the best of moods, I decided to toy with him a little, taking out any and all of my frustrations on him. He deserved every bit of what I was going to give him. He’d fucked with me, and with Sara, for the last time. Even if Sara hadn’t walked into my restaurant that evening, contemplating giving me another chance, I still would have delivered his punishment for his past behavior.

  I’d always brushed off my cousin’s antics in the past because I’d learned to tolerate him, thinking because he was family I had to. But the older we got, the more I realized I truly despised him. He didn’t possess one good quality—none I knew of, at least. Then again, I chose not to interact with him unless I absolutely had to.

  The only thing I knew about my dear cousin was that essentially he was alone, never having found anyone to connect with and share his shitty life with. He had money and the Devera looks, but he was an asshole.

  Selfish. It was one of the best words to describe him.

  I rolled up the cuffs of my sleeves, never saying a word as I tackled him to the ground. Surprise lit up his face as we rolled around together, my fists landing everywhere on his unsuspecting body.

  His grunts only fueled me more. “Don’t you ever go near Sara again,” I bellowed, my fist splitting the side of his lip. “Or I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?” I gripped him by the shirt, raised him up and landed another hit to his jaw, throwing his head to the side with the force of my blow.

  Something inside me snapped and I took it out on Cameron. Most of it he deserved, but some of it he took because I couldn’t control myself.

  My fist was pulled back, ready to unleash another wave of anger when all of a sudden, a quick surge of energy pulsed through him and he managed to throw me off him.

  Then he attacked.

  While his moves were all over the place, effectively from whatever he was on, he managed to catch me in the face. In the eye, to be exact. It hurt like a bitch, and I knew I was going to have one hell of a shiner for sure.

  But for every one of the hits he’d been able to land, I returned ten. He was going to look pretty battered and bruised when I was done with him.

  We went at it for what felt like forever, but only five minutes had passed since I’d dragged him outside. Thankfully, no patrons were milling around outside the restaurant, so our scuffle was done in private. Or as private as a dark alleyway would allow.

  Cameron never said a word while we went at each other. I think he was still in shock I’d actually attacked him. Whatever the reason, his silence was the smartest decision he ever made, because his voice alone would only fuel his beating.

  Finally, after I’d expended all the energy I had in me, I staggered to my feet and stepped back. Glaring down at his battered body, I dragged him out of the alleyway and propped him against the far end of the building. It was late, but someone would surely find him. While he was out cold, he was nowhere near death’s door. Just a good ol’-fashioned beating was what he’d endured.

  Entering the restaurant through the back entrance was a smart decision. I didn’t want to listen to Kael lecture me. Plus, we still had customers, and how would it look if one of the owners appeared back inside looking the way I did?

  My hair was mussed.

  My shirt was splattered with blood.

  My knuckles were raw, and my eye was swelling.

  Disappearing into my office, I cleaned myself up quickly and changed my clothes. The only evidence I’d been in a fight was from my eye, but it wasn’t too bad yet.

  How it would look in twenty-four hours would be a different story.

  ~~~~

  I couldn’t wait any longer. After giving her the night to think things through, I walked toward her apartment. Waiting longer than I normally would have, I knocked on her door. Pacing back and forth, I prayed she didn’t send Alexa out to tell me she didn’t want to see me.

  We had an unbreakable connection, and I only hoped Sara realized what a rare thing it was. I knew I messed up. Big-time. But I vowed to make it up to her for the rest of my life, if she only gave me the chance to do so.

  I wasn’t sure what more I could say to convince her how sorry I was for everything I’d put her through. All I knew was I couldn’t wait one more second to see her, to breathe her in and hold her in my arms.

  I knocked on the door one more time, waiting for my future to greet me on the other side.

  ~28~

  Sara

  Soft rapping on the front door tore me from sleep. Looking over at my alarm clock, I saw it was eight in the morning. There was no doubt in my mind who it was. He’d technically given me the night to think things over, so I couldn’t be too upset with him.

  As I headed toward the front room, thoughts of the previous night bombarded me. To think, the only thing I was nervous about was being set up on a blind date. Never in a million years did I imagine Alek being one of the owners of Verdana, let alone seeing him there then ending up having sex with him in the bathroom. Granted, it was extraordinary, but still one of the biggest shockers of my life thus far.

  I took a quick breath as my fingers clutched the handle. Pulling the door open, I was hit with his presence, so powerful and a bit overwhelming. As I looked him over from head to toe, my eyes instantly flew to his face. More specifically to his eye.

  Reaching for his hand, I pulled him inside. “What the hell happened to your face?” I asked, rushing toward the freezer to grab an ice pack. Wrapping the compress in a towel, I walked back over to him and gently pressed it to his face. His hand covered mine as we both held it to his eye. The connection wasn’t lost on me, but I pushed it aside for the time being.

 
I stood in front of him, waiting for him to answer me, my curiosity killing me the longer he remained silent. Finally, he spoke up.

  “Cameron.” One word and I knew it was pretty bad. The only evidence Alek had was a black eye and a small cut in the corner of his mouth. I could only imagine what his cousin looked like.

  “Oh, my God, Alek. What happened?” I asked, ushering him toward the couch to take a seat.

  “I don’t really want to talk about it.” Wrong answer. The look on my face said as much. If there was any hope for us, I needed him to tell me everything, even when he didn’t want to. “Sorry,” he grumbled before he regaled me with the entire story.

  I couldn’t say I didn’t see it coming sooner or later. Relief washed over me I wasn’t there to witness it, though. Watching two grown men go toe-to-toe, especially when one of them was Alek, was too much for me to handle.

  Taking his hand away from his face, he placed the ice pack on the table beside the couch. Silence fell between us as we continued to stare at each other.

  “Sara,” he started. “I came here to end our separation. I made a huge mistake, and I fully intend on making things right between us again.” Scooting closer, he placed his warm palm on my thigh. “I promise I’ll never hurt you again.” He looked down at his lap. “Please, forgive me.”

  I hooked my finger under his chin and coaxed his head to look up. Normally, I was the one averting my eyes from him, not the other way around. Knowing his heart was breaking, the fear in his stare telling me he was afraid I wasn’t going to give us another chance was enough for me to move toward him and place my lips against his.

  My one small gesture was what he was yearning for. Expelling a quick rush of air, he stood from the couch, reached forward and tangled his hand with mine. Once I was standing in front of him, he pulled me into his embrace, burrowing his face into the crook of my neck. I heard him inhale and knew he was trying to breathe in as much of me as he could, afraid I would back away from him any minute.

  “I love you,” he whispered in my ear. His body tensed as he waited for me to say something. Anything.

  Drawing away from him, I saw his face fall until he heard my words. “I love you, too, Alek. Sometimes more than I want to, but I do.”

  All fear and reservation floated away from him as he smiled wide and crushed me to him. Peppering kisses all over my face causing me to laugh. “I swear, baby, never again. Never again will I make you cry.” He kissed the sensitive spot under my ear. “Never again will I make you doubt my love for you.” Gently biting down on my lobe sent a pulse of pleasure straight through me. “Never again will I make you angry.”

  Still smothered in his embrace, I called him out on his lie. “Now, you know that one’s not true.” We both laughed at his choice of words.

  “Okay, how about this? Never again will I purposely make you angry.” I furrowed my brow. “Okay, I’ll try again. How about I’ll do my best to take your thoughts and feelings into consideration before I place any crazy demands on you?” I smiled. “Better?” he asked, still snuggling me into his body.

  “Better,” I replied.

  After hours of catching up, we talked late into the evening. He explained in better detail his reasoning for pushing me away, as well as his interaction with Cora and his fight with Cameron. He vowed to never lie to me again and to always come to me first with anything that was bothering him before he made any life-altering decisions.

  After listening to everything he had to say, I understood him a little more than I had before. Obviously, some of his decisions were wrong and I made sure to tell him so, to which he simply replied, “I know. I know.”

  There was a lot we still had to work out, but I finally agreed to give him his third and final chance.

  ~29~

  Sara

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  What is that noise? Is it raining?

  Still lost in a haze of bliss and sleep, my brain took extra time to catch on to what was going on around me.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  “Hmmmm…” I mumbled, gently stretching out my limbs. Lying on my stomach, I gathered the pillow in my hands as I pressed my face into the soft cloud of goose feather. It took me a little while to realize it wasn’t raining at all, that the tapping sound I thought I heard was coming from someone lightly smacking my ass. Over and over again.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  “What?” I whined, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead.” Tap. Tap. Tap.

  The only reason Alek would have to wake me from a sound sleep would be because he was hungry again. For me. Although the thought was tempting, I hadn’t been asleep for long, the night’s activities surely going into the late hour.

  Against my protests, he tried to rouse me again.

  “Hmmmmm. What are you doing?” I said in my sleepiest voice.

  “Come on, baby, you have to wake up now.” Alek’s voice was but a whisper, almost as if he was trying not to alarm me, but instead to wake me very slowly.

  I twisted my body toward him, still half-asleep. Stretching out, I draped my arm around him, pulling my body so close I was able to wrap my leg around his waist.

  He laughed as he kissed my temple.

  “Make love to me, Alek,” I murmured before clutching him even closer.

  “For as much as I would love to, sweetheart, you’re going to be late. You have to wake up. Now.” His warm breath tickled my ear, making me think naughty thoughts.

  Wait…what does he mean I’m going to be late?

  I tried to rub myself against him one more time, but surprisingly, he unhitched my leg from his waist and hopped out of bed.

  Hmph! Well, if he didn’t want to give me some lovin’, then I was going back to sleep. I rolled over on my side and closed my eyes, but not before catching a glimpse of the time glaring at me from my alarm clock. My eyes snapped open as I threw the covers off me. Hurrying toward the bathroom, I shouted over my shoulder, “Why didn’t you wake me up, Alek?” I never heard his answer as I slammed the door and turned on the water.

  Taking the fastest shower known to man, I ran back into my bedroom, threw on some clothes and gathered my hair into a messy bun. The whole while, Alek lazed across my bed, resting on his elbows as he watched me run around like a crazy person. His eyes never left me, the corners of his lips turned up as if he was privy to his own inside joke. “What’s so amusing? Do you like seeing me run around like a nut job?”

  “No, of course not. It’s just I’m the happiest man alive today.” There was such sincerity and love laced in his sentiment, it made me stop for a second and take it all in. I never thought I would ever see him again, yet there he was, back in my life. It was all a little surreal. We still had a long road ahead of us, but I was willing to try again.

  I sidled up next to him, rested my hands on his thighs and leaned in close to give him a kiss. “I’m going to be late for work.”

  He followed me outside where we said our goodbyes, making plans for dinner later that evening. A huge smile was plastered on my face as I headed to the shop. I knew I should enjoy every second of it because if life had taught me anything, it was that happiness was fleeting. There was always something unexpected lurking around the corner.

  ~~~~

  I muddled through my normal routine at work, the only difference being I was smiling and laughing more, and apparently people took notice.

  “My, my, my. Aren’t we in a good mood today?” Megan commented. It’d been over three months since I’d hired her on a temporary basis. She was working out well, so I’d taken her on permanently as a part-time employee. Her personality really jived with not only mine and Matt’s, but the other part-timers, as well. She was a good fit.

  “What’s the occasion?” she asked, looking me over as if the answer was somewhere on my person.

  “Let’s just say my love life is back to where it should be.” I found I was almost giddy with excitement.

  “Ohhhh,
you met someone,” she cooed. Cradling her head in her hands, she leaned forward on the counter. “Tell me all about him. Where did you meet?” Before I could answer, she blurted out, “Wait, is it the guy your friend set you up with last night?” I forgot I even mentioned my plans to her.

  “No, not exactly. It’s an ex-boyfriend I’ve re-connected with recently.” Recently as in last night. “Everything happened so fast, but it’s official.” I was smiling so big I didn’t even notice her face at first.

  “Tell me it’s not the jerk who came in here the first day I started.” Her lip curled up in disgust at the mere thought of him, which instantly put me on the offensive. I think she realized what she’d said because she tried to smooth things over. Well…sort of. “Sorry, I don’t like him. He rubs me the wrong way, Sara.”

  “Well, Megan,” I started, reminding myself everyone was entitled to their own opinion, even if it was the opposite of every other red-blooded woman out there who ever came in contact with the man. “Yes, Alek and I are back together. I’m simply curious. Why don’t you like him? Was he rude to you or something?”

  “Not per se. I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about him, that’s all.”

  “Well, I can assure you he’s a good man. A bit intense sometimes, but a good man nonetheless.”

  “If you say so,” she mumbled, making her way toward the back of the shop. I wasn’t going to let anyone dampen my mood, especially someone who didn’t even know him.

  Reveling in my own glee for once proved to be an effective tool for making the workday fly by.

  ~30~

  Sara

  After dinner, I agreed to accompany Alek back to his house. I hadn’t been there since that night. Pushing all unpleasant thoughts from my mind, I forged ahead with the continuation of our lovely evening.

  “I meant to ask you this at dinner, but I forgot,” I purred as he kissed my neck. We were relaxing on his couch in the den when I decided to broach the subject of Megan.