Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1)

by Mary B. Moore

  With the way I'm feeling now, I'm thinking I need a plan to keep Maya tied to me forever so that I don't lose her, but I know that I need to take it slowly because she doesn’t trust my reputation. My past is a huge issue for her, and I don't want her using it as an excuse later on down the line. My Mom told us about soul mates, but given how disinterested I was in a relationship and how my brothers and I have grown up I figured we'd never get one, but fuck if I don't feel it now with Maya. I know she's fucking gorgeous, but I don't think its just that because I've had gorgeous women before and I've not been interested in keeping them, so there must be something more, something deeper and it scares me and tethers me at the same time.

  Last night when I was exploring her, all I could think was that I was in heaven, and I thanked all that was holy that she was giving me a chance that I know I don’t deserve. On Friday, I saw the look on her face and kept trying to apologize, but I knew it wasn't the time or place; the look on her face ate away at me all day, though. I thought we’d hit a good place yesterday and that we’d have a drink at the bar and chat, but someone had apparently been telling her lies, and I knew who it was - fucking Francheska.

  The only time that ache had gone away was when I had her in my arms and after she told me she'd give me a chance. If she knew she had no option and that she was stuck with me forever, though, I think she'd cut my balls off and run, so I needed a plan.

  I have never felt so much from kissing someone before; it was always something I could do without, so long as the chick was willing that was all there was to it. When I think about it like that, I feel like the biggest piece of shit ever. After our talk, we had explored a bit more, and I’d asked her to come with me to the lake today for a picnic to spend some time together and with some friends too. Thankfully she’d said yes so I needed to get my ass in gear to get shit together.

  Maya

  I have got to be out of my mind agreeing to give him a chance, but I just couldn't tell him no. I've been awake since 5.30am thinking over the whole thing, and when I think about not being with him, I feel like crying and throwing up - so I need to see this through and see if he's serious. I'm going to keep my head on straight though and not let my heart lead me like it had before, although not with Andy - he was a special moment that I wished I could forget and delete.

  Thankfully I had got waxed last week, otherwise, I'd be panicking about shaving everywhere and making sure I don't look like Chewbacca. I decided on a pair of cut off shorts and a racerback tank - thankfully I had a strapless bra the same color because my girls are just too big to go without one, and I’ve always thought visible bra straps were kinda tacky.

  Finishing off my morning routine, I went downstairs to tidy up my kitchen and drink my morning cups of coffee. I've never been a breakfast girl, but I can't go without at least 3 cups of coffee, so I finished off the pot and waited for Ren to arrive.

  Bang on time at 11 am he knocked on the door, and I tried my best to look like I was relaxed, but my hands were shaking as I opened the door. "Hey baby,” he wrapped his arms around me as soon as the door opened. He stood holding me for about 10 seconds before pressing his head into my neck and taking a deep breath.

  "You okay?" I asked because I couldn't understand how he was acting; he always seemed so confident.

  "Yeah, I just needed that,” he stood back to look at me. "You got something to swim in baby?"

  I’d totally forgotten about bringing something to swim in, and it must have shown on my face because he chuckled and shook his head slowly. "Okay, I'll get my swimming stuff. Do I need to bring anything else?”

  "Nah, I’ve got it covered - get your stuff baby. Is there anything that you'll need from down here?" He asked as he gently pushed me towards the stairs.

  "Um, no I don't think so unless you want to look and see if there's anything that we'll need? There's cold drinks in the fridge, chips in the cupboard, a cooler in the pantry and there's blankets that we could use in that box over there.”

  "I've got all of that ready; you just get your stuff.”

  I tried to remember what I was coming up here for, but this soft side of him had thrown me. Should I wear my new bikini, or would that be too much? I decided to have another look at it to see if it would be too slutty for the lake. I’ve always found that on beaches you can get away with a more risqué bikini because there are so many people there wearing different shapes and sizes of bikini’s, but at the local lake that same bikini might just be too much.

  "Definitely go with that one,” Ren croaked from the doorway, scaring the ever-loving shit out of me and making me squeal and jump.

  "Oh my God,” I panted, putting my hand on my chest realizing too late that I was holding the bikini bottoms in my hand. "Sorry, its just we've always lived within close distance to the beach or countries that get majorly hot, so I only have bikinis. We can always stop on the way, and I'll get an actual suit if that’s better?”

  "No way," he said shaking his head. “Put that one in a bag and let’s go."

  I did as I was told and then picked up a towel to take with me.

  "I've got towels baby, you don't need to bring one,” he said removing the towel from the bag.

  Here's where one of my flaws comes out - I'm a towel snob. When I wash them, I put in five times the softener you're meant to, and then I dry them for twenty minutes extra just so that they're all poofy and soft. I can't live with hard towels that take your skin off, and I explained this to him, waiting for him to hand it all back to me and say ‘see ya’.

  Ren stood and looked at me for a second before picking up my towel and touching it with both hands. "I see what you mean. Shit, I've never thought of that before! I had ma doing my towels because they always felt like sandpaper when I did them but fuck me if yours don't feel like that cotton shit they use on babies." He went and got another towel out, exposing another flaw to him. I'm not only a towel snob, but I'm a towel junkie - every shade and size you can think of I've got, and not just one, but a full set. "Holy shit, how many towels does one person need?”

  "A couple,” I mumbled slamming the door shut, but I was too slow, and he caught it and opened it back up again. He started laughing hard behind me, so I made sure the door to my towel obsession was closed, walked out and shouted over my shoulder, "are you ready?”

  "Wow, wait til ma hear's this,” he laughed following me. "She has two closets filled with towels, but that's because there was seven of us living there. Over the years, she's never cut down on them because we're always forgetting and stealing hers, but that right there is impressive.”

  "I'm an interior designer Ren, of course, I have a lot of towels and bed linens. When you change them, you need them to match,” I grumbled.

  "How many 'bed linens' have you got?”

  “Enough," I said not meeting his eyes.

  "Is it as impressive a collection as your towels?" He was laughing again, so I just stayed silent and looked at the floor trying not to incriminate myself in any way. "Holy shit, I've gotta see that one day - are you going to do the same for us at my house?”

  My heart stopped - was he saying that I'm going to be living there? No, he couldn't be, it’s only been twelve hours?

  10

  ____

  Ren

  Shit, fuck, I didn't mean to say that. "I mean when you redecorate?" I replied quickly, catching my slip up as casually as I could.

  "Yeah, I'll get a couple of sets, but the rest I'm leaving to your mom,” she said smirking at me.

  She was standing by the door of my truck with the sun shining in her eyes making them sparkle; they were so unique and gorgeous just like the rest of her. Moving closer to her, I bent down to take her mouth just meaning to give her a quick kiss, but like last night, it got out of control and before I knew it I had her legs around my waist, and she was pressed up against the side of the car. My hands moved up her thighs until I got to the bottom of her shorts and then I slid my right hand up inside them and held her lef
t cheek; she was so smooth and soft all over and smelt like heaven - she was quickly becoming my addiction.

  I finished by giving her a slow kiss, lifted my head and waited for her to open her eyes. When she did I almost said fuck it and took her back inside her house, but I wanted to take her to our lake and show her around the ranch if we had time so I opened the door, put her on the seat and buckled her in before stealing a final kiss.

  On the way to the lake, we made small chit chat holding hands and fell into comfortable conversation like yesterday - asking questions and telling stories getting to know each other that little bit better. It felt like we were years ahead of that, but I wanted to know everything about her and it looked like she felt the same way. I still couldn't get over how many countries she'd lived in, but it started a plan in my head for her to show me the countries and her favorite places. Hell, I’d book it now if I could find someone to cover me at the garage and if I thought she wouldn’t freak out on me.

  "Here we are,” I said as I pulled into the car park for the lake.

  Cole was already there along with my best friend Mace and his sister’s best friend Ava. Those two were always together, but there was no sign of them being in a relationship even though it was obvious that they were in love. I was glad that Ava was here, though, I figured it’d be less intimidating for Maya having another girl around. It was important to me that she loved my family and that they loved her too. I knew ma and Cole already did, Cole especially…the little twat.

  Maya

  Oh my God, was he growling again? "Are you okay?”

  "Shit yeah, sorry I was just thinking about something,” he said rubbing his forehead and still looking like he wanted to kill someone.

  "Uh okay, shall we go and get set up?" Anything to distract him from whatever was making him look like he was about to kill someone. I opened the door of his truck and just as I jumped down, I was knocked off my feet by a blur and landed on my back.

  "Fucking hell, Dash! Cole, what the hell? He knocked Maya over,” Ren yelled pulling what appeared to be a Dalmatian, not a bear like I first thought, off me. "You know better than that, bad boy.” He was telling it off like it was a bad child.

  "Do you put him in the naughty corner too?” I wheezed from my position flat out on the floor.

  "Smart ass,” he said laughing and gently lifted me back to my feet before dusting off my back - apparently my ass got a majority of whatever muck there actually was given how long he spent rubbing it.

  “Hey man,” Cole shouted walking toward us with what I was now realizing was his signature grin on his face. “Stop molesting the poor girl.”

  "I was dusting her off Cole. Fuckin Dash knocked her off her feet when she got out the truck,” he snapped.

  "Hey Cole,” I gave a small wave and tried not to laugh.

  "Hey gorgeous, you okay? Dash didn't hurt you did he? You still have some dirt on you by the way - here let me help,” Cole said reaching towards my ass. As always, before he could reach me a huge hand connected with his head stopping him. “Why do you always have to go for the head bro?” He whined rubbing at it and pouting. “I used to be smart enough for Harvard and now I’m lucky if they’d take me at UCLA!” I noticed he’d shouted the last bit towards the gorgeous Amazonian that he’d been talking to when we arrived who was now standing next to a seriously hot guy with tattoos. Oh my God, it was like looking at a work of art.

  “YEAH?” She yelled back at him. “That may be, but they’d sure as shit let you into Juilliard - to sweep the stages and clean the toilets." I decided there and then that she was frigging awesome, what a response. I was struggling to keep my eyes off the guy who was standing beside her, though. He must have been over six and a half feet with dark hair, muscles everywhere and although his eyes were on us, every time she shifted beside him he moved with her like they were in sync or he just didn’t want her away from him.

  “Stop staring at my best friend or I swear I’ll drown him,” Ren growled in my ear making me snap out of my perve moment. God Amy was gonna love it here!

  “Sorry, I was trying to figure out what his tattoos are?” I’m a genius! Speaking of which, I looked at Cole who was scowling at the beautiful girl - guess he couldn’t think of a response.

  “Ava,” Ren called. “Meet Maya."

  The beauty walked towards me with a graceful walk that was almost float. If I had her height I’d be all limbs and look like a baby giraffe learning to walk, but not Ava - she had this natural sensual grace when she walked, and it was helped by the fact she was curvy and filled the bikini she was wearing perfectly. The tattooed god or ‘TG’ as I would now forever refer to him as, in my head and to Amy because I’m not stupid, followed closely behind her with his eyes on her backside. It made sense that they were together, to be honest, they’d have the most beautiful Amazonian sized kids.

  “Hey sweetie, I’m Ava. I’m glad to finally meet the girl I’ve heard so much about,” she said, leaning in and giving me a quick hug.

  “You too Ava! It’s great to meet you,” I replied looking over her shoulder at Cole and Mace who had their eyes on her ass as she bent over to give me a hug making me giggle.

  “Right,” Cole thundered snapping out of his Ava-ass trance. “Let’s get shit set up. Ava thanks for the 20 seconds of heaven moment where you bent over - I’m going to add it to my memory of you undressing and revealing your bikini, you rubbing lotion into yourself” while he was saying this he was edging away from Mace like he was going to run into the water. “And then there’s the time…” Mace launched himself at Cole just as he ran to the lake and dove in leaving Mace standing on the bank clenching and unclenching his fists.

  As Cole surfaced, he shouted, “I’ve now got enough footage for eight minutes and sixteen-seconds of my Ava spank bank!”

  Mace, who had turned around and was taking his first step back to us, turned back and ran into the water after Cole, who gave an honest to God scream and started swimming away as fast as he could. Ava was shaking her head and laughing so I joined in unable to keep it inside anymore.

  Ren

  While I’d been unloading all the shit from my car and stopping Dash from trying to hump a trash can, Ava had shown Maya where to get changed, and I’d finally got the chance to appreciate her in that bikini just as Cole limped up with Mace behind him scowling. Cole was whining about needing his lungs pumped and showing off the cut that ‘needed stitches’ which was a scratch making me want to suffocate him - slowly.

  That's one thing about Cole - he’s a hypochondriac and a serious whiner. You get a cold- he has chronic flu, you get the flu-he gets Ebola, he bumps his leg - he needs a cast or crutches, he grazes himself-he needs stitches; he cuts himself-he needs an amputation and transfusion. It’s fucking exhausting and I dunno how my mom didn’t give him to a convent or something, and here he was trying his skills on Maya. Thankfully she just found him funny, which made him pout even more, and then continued talking to Ava and Mace.

  Mace wasn’t looking happy, so I made a mental note to talk to him later to find out what was going on. We’d been best friends since we were five and had gone through a shit load together, but where Ava was concerned Mace didn’t tell me anything, and I wondered if perhaps that was what the problem was?

  After a while, we all sat down talking and Maya was sitting between my legs and leaning against my chest as I rested my chin on her head and I loved the natural closeness and familiarity that we already had.