After The Break

by Andrea Joan

  “Not just a club,” Amber cuts in with a giddy purr that has me rolling my eyes. “It’s the club in LA. Can’t even get in unless you’re one of the chosen to have the password.”

  “Password? To get into a club? Fucking seriously?”

  “Yes, Liam, seriously.” I don’t know why that comment grates on me. Maybe it’s because to him it may seem stupid, but this is my life. The side I want him to see and appreciate. Part of me knows I’m being overly sensitive, but I can’t help that it bothers me.

  Before I have a chance to give him more details his cell phone rings. I already know it has to be a member of his family as he goes to answer it. They are the only ones that ever call him. When he mouths mom to me I nod my head and he disappears into the house.

  “So,” Cassiel says, sidling up to me. “Vacancy?”

  “What about it? Don’t tell me you have an issue with that, you practically live there. I’m pretty sure they named a drink after you.”

  “I have no problem going to Vacancy. You know I’m always up for a good time. I just know it’s not good when you finally get up for that time.”

  I throw back some of my drink, letting the cool sweet lemon flavor quench my thirst while barely registering the slight burn of vodka that comes with it.

  “And you’re drinking again,” Cass says, interrupting my enjoyment of the drink. I ignore him because I do not, under any circumstances, want to follow where this conversation is headed right now.

  “So what if I’m drinking? It’s not like I’m an alcoholic, Cassiel.” I start to walk away but he wraps his arm around my arm and pulls me back.

  “I know that,” he speaks low enough so that only I can hear him. But it does not escape my attention that Noah and Winter are trying their best not to watch this exchange, both failing miserably.

  “And you know very well that is not what I’m getting at. Don’t treat me like I’m a stranger or some random bodyguard fling that doesn’t know any better,” he warns in that deep, husky growl that used to turn me on but recently, and by recently, I mean this very second, is pissing me off.

  “Liam is not a fling,” I hiss.

  “Yeah whatever, Speedy. The—”

  “And stop calling me Speedy! You know how much I hate when you call me that and you continue to do it! Knock it the hell off!” I warn, shrugging out of his grip.

  “No, I won’t knock it the hell off. You know why I continue to call you that? Because I know you fucking hate it. I know what the nickname does to you. What it means to you. And if that’s the only way I can knock some fucking reality into the land of denial you’re living in right now, then I will call you Speedy until your ears bleed.”

  “You’re being an ass on purpose to trigger me? How sweet of you Cass,” I roll my eyes. “And I am not living in denial.”

  “Yes, you fucking are. And yea I’m being a dick because you won’t pay attention otherwise. The past confirms that don’t ya think Skylar?”

  “I just got done filming a movie, Cass. Three months and I did just fine.”

  “Dammit, Skylar, have you not seen anyone? Done any of the research? You can be fine for fifty-one weeks out of the fucking year. But that last week, that’s the one that will get you, and you should know that. I can tell within the first ten minutes of being here how different you are.”

  “Shut up.”

  “How edgy and excitable and fidgety you are.”

  “Knock it off, Cass. I mean it.”

  “Hell, you rarely drink, and my guess is you’ve had more than one of these,” he sticks his finger in my glass and pulls it out of my hand, throwing the rest back in one large gulp before slamming it onto the table next to him.

  “Have you even told him yet?”

  “Look at me, Cass. I’m fine, okay? Did you ever think that I’m just happy? Am I not allowed to be happy or go to a club without you second-guessing me? You’re not my parent or my keeper, just like I’m not yours. You don’t hear me interrogating you over Paige, do you?”

  “Nice attempt at a subject change.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Just promise me that this is handled otherwise the same rules apply as before. I still have those pictures—”

  I quickly slap my palm over his mouth. “Cassiel Logue, shut up.” I thought that demand came out quietly but I can feel all eyes on me now. Sure enough, when I glance around, everyone is gawking at us. I dare to take a quick look behind me, making sure Liam is still inside the house before I properly tear into Cass. He’s still on the phone, pacing back and forth with a small smile on his face.

  Perfect. The coast is clear. “Don’t you dare threaten me with those photos again. You played that card once, and I won’t let you do it again. You’re supposed to be my friend.”

  “I’m being your friend the only way I know how.”

  “No, you aren’t. A friend would be happy that I’m happy. A friend would relax and enjoy a freaking pool party at my house. And a friend would go to Vacancy with me and tell me all about his new girlfriend even if it is the tenth one this year.” I blow out an exasperated breath.

  A disarmingly shy smile works its way across Cassiel’s face, the dangerous one to women everywhere, the one that suddenly transforms him into a picture of innocence. The one that helped him earn the name The Angel of Rock. He’s not anything close to shy and innocent, but damn if that smile doesn’t make you forget he’s made of nothing but mysterious shadows and dangerous dark.

  “She’s actually only the sixth, thank you very much.” He bites his lower lip while looking over at Paige, waving his pinky finger at her. Paige is seated at the bar, now talking with Erik and Noah, but the second Cass bestows that small bit of attention, her entire face lights up, the blush on her cheeks evident that she’s completely soaking it up.

  “Well, whatever, she seems sweet,” I tell him, my shoulders sagging in relief. I hadn’t even realized how tense I was until now.

  “She is. That’s how I like them. The sweeter they are, the more fun they are to ruin.”

  “You’re a real asshole, you know that?” I shove a hand into his shoulder. He purposefully stumbles backward until he falls into the pool. I didn’t even push him that hard. Drama queen.

  Laughter erupts from everyone as Cass stands up in the pool, spitting water out of his mouth.

  “That was fantastic,” Noah says with a shit-eating grin plastered to his face, his phone pointed toward Cass. “I got it all on video and I’m uploading it to Instagram as we speak.”

  “And I will so be reposting that to Skylar’s Instagram.” Winter pulls out her phone and starts typing away.

  “Why bother? Noah’s already posting it, he’ll just tag me in it.”

  “Because, Skylar.” Oh great, she’s using her mom tone. “Rose says you need to be posting to your Instagram and Twitter at least four times a week.”

  Ah yes. Rose, my super-agent. Who I actually rather like, and not just because Carl loathes her and was completely against me hiring her in the first place. That was one of the biggest selling points for me.

  “Yeah, but you know how much I despise that social media bullshit.” Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, I hate them all. Posting anything on them is pretty much like playing Russian roulette with my confidence. People will either hate to love me or love to hate me or just hate to hate me.

  “I know, which is why I’m posting it for you.” When I roll my eyes at her, she shakes her head. “What? You have a problem making six figures for a stupid Instagram post? Such a hardship.”

  “You make money from an Instagram post?” A deep voice rumbles behind me and I about jump out of my skin, almost falling into the pool. Luckily Liam’s hand wraps around my arm, pulling me back just in time.

  “Whoa there, sweetheart. You’re always so jumpy.” He chuckles, kissing me on top of my head.

  “I’m not jumpy! You just make no noise when you approach. It’s like you’re training to be the next member of Seal Team Six or something.”

/>   “Baby, I opened and closed those doors,” he says, pointing behind him as if I don’t know where my own doors are. “Then I popped the cap off this beer. I’m not the one with the problem. It’s your cute jumpy ass that’s the problem.”

  Before I get a chance to defend myself, Cass chooses this moment to finally agree with my boyfriend. “Oh, I know. She’s more skittish than a seeing-impaired kitten,” he says, lifting himself out of the pool.

  “Tell me about it. Anytime I open a door to a room she’s in she jumps about ten feet and looks like she’s about to have a heart attack. You’d think I was a serial killer, or that she’s been attacked by a rogue door at some point in her life,” Liam finally engaging with Cass in a conversation would normally make me ecstatic, except it’s at my expense and they are both full of shit. The need to defend myself overwhelms my want to see their sudden camaraderie, but before I get a chance to say anything, Noah decides to pipe in.

  “You are super jumpy, Morningstar. Remember that time you shot out of your chair at the Golden Globes after Ronan Connolly set your drink down on the table and accidentally sent your elbow into his balls?” He laughs, everyone else joining in.

  “Well, who sneaks up on someone with a drink?!”

  “Skylar, he asked you if he could get you a drink while he was up, you said yes, and he came back five minutes later!”

  Liam is laughing his ass off and I’m torn between being irritated that they are all ganging up on me and ecstatic that at least everyone is getting along. Even Amber has yet to speak up and annoy me.

  “Let me get this straight. You nailed A-list movie star Ronan Connolly in the nuts?” Liam throws his arms around me, still laughing, only softer now, and whispers in my ear, “You are so fucking adorable I can hardly stand it sometimes.”

  “Yo, bodyguard!” Cass yells out, causing Liam to release me. “Your meat’s burning,” he says, pointing to the grill. I look over and, sure enough, smoke is spilling out of the grill.

  “Oh shit!” Liam runs over and throws open the lid, waving the plumes of smoke out of his face. “I think it’s all good. Thanks for the heads-up.”

  Cass salutes Liam and shoots me a wink before turning to Paige and nuzzling her neck, making her giggle. Right now I couldn’t be happier. I haven’t heard from Carl or gotten news about Jeff in weeks. With Liam in my bed, I’ve stopped having nightmares about my mom, and right now everyone that matters to me is getting along. Minus Amber, but at the very least she’s fallen asleep on her lounger so I don’t have to hear her speak.

  I feel on top of the world. Cass is so wrong. There is nothing going on with me. My life is fucking perfect right now, and I can’t wait to share it all with Liam.

  THIS IS THE FIFTH day I’ve woken up in this bed alone, and I’m really starting to fucking hate it. Not just because I’ve been waking up hard and ready to get my dick wet, but because I’ve actually found myself enjoying her body wrapped around mine. It hasn’t escaped my attention that Skylar has barely slept in the last five days, waking from nightmares she won’t tell me anything about because she claims she can’t remember them. She gets up early every morning, sneaking out of bed because she has so much “work” to do. The first three mornings this happened my ego actually took a major fucking hit. How could she not want to wake up next to me like I do her?

  Yet every time I go down those stairs to find and confront her about ditching me, she has the brightest fucking smile and the wildest energy I’ve ever seen her have, bouncing around, and always with a new project she is working on. Yesterday she was writing a script for an idea she had for a movie, which I had no idea she could do, and the day before that she had completely reorganized her closet.

  That one woke me up.

  But I won’t complain because Sky ended up riding me on top of a pile of clothes she had thrown off the hangers. She was wild and free, and it was fucking amazing. Sex with her during these days has been nothing short of phenomenal and constant. Her stamina has almost put mine to shame. On the fourth morning I started peeking through her drawers and purses thinking she had drugs stashed somewhere. Maybe some coke hidden away that she was snorting behind my back. I found nothing and also felt like fucking shit for doing it, but I’m at a total loss as to what to do here.

  While I can appreciate all the benefits of this side of Sky, I can’t help but feel this unease growing in my gut, and I’m done fucking ignoring it. It’s six in the morning for fuck’s sake and we didn’t even fall asleep until after two. So I toss the covers off and grab my track pants from the floor. I’m not going to bother with my morning run today because Sky and I need to sort this shit out.

  Imagine my surprise when I hit the bottom of the stairway and hear two voices rattling on. I recognize the second voice as Winter’s, and while she works for Sky and has been around these last few weeks, I can’t fathom why she is here this early.

  “Morning!” Sky runs over and throws herself around me so hard I actually fall back a little.

  “Morning, baby.” I kiss her on top of her head before moving to her lips, my previous issue with her almost forgotten and buried under her excitement. “Morning, Winter.” I nod in her direction, and the slight apologetic look on her face almost escapes my notice. Almost.

  Something is up here.

  “What’s going on?” I direct this to both of them because I’m honestly curious, and I don’t know which one of them will be honest and tell me.

  “What do you mean?” Sky asks, a mischievous look gracing her face.

  “I mean, what the fuck is going on? Why is Winter here at six in the morning? Why are you not in bed with me right now?”

  “Winter is here to help me.”

  “Help you with what?”

  “Skylar, do you really want to do this right now?”

  Okay, now I’m even more intrigued. Winter looks panicked and Skylar looks like a kid on Christmas, before said kid realized Santa was just a fake-ass creepy mascot.

  “Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Do what?” I ask.

  Winter looks at me as if she’s trying to silently convey a message, one I can’t decipher because, as it turns out, I still can’t fucking read minds. Before I get a chance to say another word, Sky is pulling me out the front door. By the time we hit the driveway, I only have one question:

  “What the fuck is that?” I ask, pointing to the sleek black car parked next to Winter’s. “You bought yourself a ’65 GT40?!” I slide my hand across the hood; my girls got good fucking taste.

  “No.”

  “What? Then what’s it doing here?”

  “I mean, yes, I bought the car, but not for me.” Sky reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a set of keys, then tosses them over to me. I easily catch them by the time she announces, “It’s yours.”

  “Excuse me?” I know I heard that wrong. As soon as that beaming smile starts to dim, I realize that my tone was harsher than I meant it to be. Or maybe it wasn’t. I mean, fuck, if she really bought me a car, that, in this condition, probably ran her about two-hundred grand, my tone is probably about to get a lot fucking harsher.

  “It’s yours! It’s your car. I got it for you today! Okay, not today. Yesterday, actually. I called a friend of mine that deals in vintage cars, but Win was able to pick it up from him this morning and bring it to me. I figured it would be perfect for you to drive me to Vacancy in.”

  My head is spinning. That’s the only way to describe it, because honestly I can’t latch on to one single emotion right now. I’m pissed, confused, insulted, irritated, and fucking worried about her. But when I look at her face, all I see is enthusiastic, gleeful blue eyes staring back at me. And for some reason, that makes the pissed off feeling beat out all the rest.

  I toss the keys right back to her. “This isn’t my fucking car. Take it back, return it, drive it yourself, I don’t really care. But this car is not mine.”

  I turn around, walking back into her house, passing a wary looking Winter
on the way. Even she gets it. How the hell can the girl I’ve been inside countless times, slept next to and divulged secrets to over the last few months not?

  “Liam!” Skylar’s confused voice carries from behind me.

  “What?” I bark at her, causing her to falter. I hate that I’ve caused her to suddenly hesitate, but at the same time I also don’t give a shit. I know she can handle my temper. Not to mention, Sky can give as good as she can take. If she couldn’t, we wouldn’t have lasted this long.

  “What? Seriously, Liam. How about what the hell is your problem?”

  “You bought me a fucking car, that’s what!”

  She throws her hands in the air. “And?! So what! I bought you a gift Liam, I didn’t rip off your balls. Calm down.”

  Normally her sass coupled with her tiny shorts and tight tank top would have my cock standing at attention. But right now, I’m too fucking pissed to notice.

  Until she pushes her chest out a little. I’m still a fucking man, and right now my mind is starting to imagine what it would be like to fuck my anger out on her.

  Where the hell were we again?

  Oh, right. “Don’t be a smartass! Why would you think I would ever need or want you to buy me a car, Skylar? I have a bike at home. At my home. If I need some form of transportation I will go and get it. Or I’ll buy my own fucking car if I need one here! Believe it or not, I can afford one, even without the money you pay me. I’m not some boy-toy that needs or wants to be kept!”

  “Okay,” Winter says from behind Skylar. “Maybe let’s take it down a notch or two. It’s a little early in the morning to start World War Three.”

  “I wasn’t implying you need to be kept! I just wanted to give you a present. Isn’t that what couples do? Give each other gifts and show their affection?” Sky snaps, completely ignoring Winter.

  “Yeah, that’s what couples do. They buy candy or flowers or a fucking shirt. They don’t buy two-hundred thousand dollar cars after a month of dating. Especially not when one part of the couple is in the other’s employment. Though in all seriousness, I have no clue what I’m being paid for anymore because you barely go out enough to need a damn bodyguard. I mean, seriously, what the fuck?!” I snap, instantly feeling like shit, especially when I see confusion and sadness wash over her beautiful face. I didn’t mean to demean what we have based on the length of our relationship because I’m pretty fucking close to being in love with her anyway, or to throw my job in her face, but I seriously can’t seem to shut the fuck up.