by C. M. Owens
She laughs lightly, probably because of how quickly I told her I’d be staying in my room.
“You know it’s not a problem. And your father knows you’re coming? Not that it matters, but he often visits around this time of year. That could be… interesting. And then of course there’s the fact you’re a secret.”
Shit. “I’ll call him. As for the secret, it’s about to be out to them. Let’s hope they keep it.”
I hang up with her just as Jax nears me, his eyes studying me like I’m some exotic creature he’s just seen for the first time.
“When did you plan on telling me you have so many secrets?”
I smirk as I dial Dad’s number. “They’re not secrets if you tell them. Besides, this isn’t the biggest secret of the night. Just wait until we get to the house.”
He tilts his head in confusion, and I actually feel a glimmer of excitement. This night has been completely chaotic, scary as hell, and mind-boggling, but Jax was going to scale the side of a fiery house for me. Well, for Bora. I can cut him some slack. He’s a little deeper than the skin, which is a far cry from where I thought he was before he went to bed.
“Bora?” Dad asks in a rasp, hoarse voice, proving I just woke him. “What’s wrong?”
I turn away from Jax, and try not to give too much away. “It’s me, Dad. Sorry to bug you. I sort of need the Hawaii house for a few weeks.”
“Bo? Shit. I forgot you were using Bora’s phone. Mick called me and filled me in on your sister’s shit. What’s going on? Did her boyfriend kick you out of Mick’s house, because I can call your Uncle Mick, and he’ll toss that stupid—”
“Dad, stop. The house burned down, and we all made it out safely. But now we’re a little stranded.”
He gasps, and I hear his breathing become erratic with panic. I just told him we were safe. No need for panic.
“Is Helen okay?”
“Of course she is,” I say, frowning. “Do you think I’d be this calm and collected if she wasn’t?”
He mutters a curse and I hear something shatter to the floor. “Damn bottles,” he swears. “Sorry, Bo. I’m a little jarred right now. Of course I don’t think you’d be okay if Helen was hurt. And the Hawaii house is as much yours as it is mine. You don’t need permission to use it. Especially during an emergency like this. Take Helen with you. Let her rest up and recover from the scare she probably received. Does Mick know?”
“Yes. And he’s on his way here to check on her himself.”
Jax’s eyes catch mine, his head tilting in confusion. I’m sure nothing is making any sense to him right now.
The fire department has arrived, and Helen is talking to them, along with Jax’s father.
“That man won’t ever admit he loves her. Maybe this will remind him how mortal he is and how short life is.”
“Maybe,” I say with a grin, wondering if Helen is living in as much denial as Uncle Mick.
“Did you call Jonah?”
“I did. He and someone else will be here soon to pick us up. I also messaged Emily. She’s supposed to be sending some clothes for everyone. The island warehouse isn’t too far from here.”
“Dressing them in Pretty Posh, eh? That’s my girl. Show those snobs who’s boss.”
I laugh while shaking my head, and Jax eyes me with more curiosity. I’m sure he’s dying for me to get off the phone so he can play twenty questions.
“How’d you know?”
“That they’re snobs who think my girl is broke and digging for gold? Because I’m fucking psychic like that. And… Mick sent me a text. Said Helen overheard them. Bora lives cheap. That doesn’t mean she needs a rich man to support her. Fools. And you shouldn’t be there dealing with her mess. She’s a grown woman, Bo. She’s twenty-four and perfectly capable of breaking up with men by now.”
I’m so glad my phone is too low for Jax to overhear this conversation. I shouldn’t have let this conversation veer the way it has.
“Well, I should go,” I mumble, not wanting to discuss this right now.
“Fine. I assume he’s standing nearby.”
“Yep.”
He mutters something about kicking Bora’s ass later, and I grin. He always makes idle threats, but he’s wrapped around her finger. She’s a lot like him, and deep down he knows it.
“Call me later. Let me know if you need anything. And don’t you dare let those people be rude to you in your home.”
“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” I say dryly, dreading the reaction they’ll have when they realize they’re in Vince Jaggons’s home.
“Alright. Love you, babygirl. Talk to you later.”
“Night, Daddy.”
I hang up, and just as I feared, Jax hits me with an onslaught of rapid-fire questions.
“So it’s your dad’s house, not yours? And what does he do? Why didn’t you tell me you have money? Or is it a small place or something? Bora, I’m so confused right now. And why does it seem like you know Helen?”
“First of all... Bo. Call me Bo, or I won’t answer. Secondly, my dad refuses to title anything as his. He feels like his possessions belong to me as much as they do him. Just as I feel what I have is just as much his. It’s how I was raised, and it made me closer to both of my parents, considering Mom is the same way. And as for the rest, well, you’ll see when you get there. And when did I say I didn’t have money?”
He raises a brow, but decides not to comment the way I’m sure he wants to. “You know this suspense is killing me. I feel as though you’re toying with me on some level.”
“Maybe I am,” I say mildly, winking at him as he stands there with question marks figuratively floating all around him.
For one brief second, I feel powerful. Two hours from now, I’ll regret exposing my secret to a man I barely know while I’m pretending to be my sister after I couldn’t break up with him for her.
What am I thinking?
This is going to be a disaster.
Chapter 11
JAX
“Why did she ride with the housekeeper?” my mother asks, still leery of Bo’s surprise house as we follow behind the first car.
Two freaking vehicles showed up. One was a car and one was a SUV… which is what we’re in. Bo has that sort of power?
Immediately she told me she’d ride with Helen, and kissed my cheek before getting in the car.
I feel like a dumbass for having no clue who she is, and I brought her on a family vacation. So of course they’re asking me a ton of questions, and I have zero answers.
“I don’t know,” I answer absently, steepling my hands in front of my chin as the driver takes another turn.
When we pass a “Private Beach” sign, only more questions attack my already overwhelmed mind.
“Private beach?” Viv hisses. “Where are we going? Are we going to get arrested? Is she like that weird chick you dated last year who was squatting in empty houses and trying to convince you she knew all those people? You were almost arrested for that!”
Dad grunts, Mom gasps, and I groan. Bora is definitely the type to break into a house. I think. Hell, I don’t fucking know anymore.
“You couldn’t fit our living room inside her entire apartment, yet she has access to a private beach home?” Mom adds, still stuck on Bo’s finances. “This has to be illegal. We should call someone and—”
“Relax, Julia,” Dad interrupts. “We’ll investigate when we get there. Stop assuming the girl is a criminal.”
He shoots a look over his shoulder to me in the back seat, possibly questioning just how well I know my date for the vacation. I might should have listened to my mother about those background checks on girls after all.
We pull up to a brightly lit, fucking huge house. Holy shitballs on firecrackers.
It makes the house we just left look like a shoebox by comparison.
“No way is this legit,” my sister says in a quiet breath.
Several people walk out onto the porch as we approach,
and Viv mutters, “We’re going to jail,” just loud enough to be heard. They all look like they’re wide awake as they approach us quickly, and I almost raise my hands in the air, fully prepared to be arrested.
However, they walk up to us with broad smiles under the heavily lit area. The paved driveway is nothing more than an extension of the road… As though the road was built just for this peninsula home.
“Welcome,” a big man says in a tone that resembles thunder. “I was told you lost your luggage, but we’re here to escort you to your rooms.”
“Five people?” Viv hisses.
Five people just happen to be on hand in the wee hours of the morning… Who the fucking hell is Bo Brendon?
Mom eyes me in disbelief, but she follows one man, while another escorts Viv. There are as many of them as there are of us. Well, almost. Not counting Helen, who is getting an escort from another man. They chat like they’re old friends as they duck inside, and Bo walks up with a poor attempt at a coy grin that is verging on smug.
“Bo, would you like us to show him to the room, or would you like to take him yourself?” a woman asks her from the porch, letting her own smile grow as smug as Bo’s.
I feel like I’m on the outside of an inside joke.
Bo opens her mouth to speak, when a loud scream comes from inside the house. The hairs on my neck rise when I realize it’s my mother, and I break into a sprint as Bo chuckles.
What the fucking hell is she laughing about?
I stumble to a halt when I see my father carefully lowering my mother to a chair in the massive excuse for a living room, but he looks more amused than concerned.
My mother’s jaw is slack as she stares wildly at something.
“I think your mother just figured out whose house she’s in,” Helen whispers to me, smiling as Bo walks up with the same enigmatic grin.
My eyes follow my mother’s as I move into the house a little more, and my breath catches in my throat when I see a mural. A motherfucking mural of the vainest man on the planet.
Vince fucking Jaggons—lead singer for Clashers.
No way…
My eyes dart back to Bo’s, and the mirth dancing in her eyes gives me pause. She said her father’s name was Vince, but…
“Is this…?”
My voice trails off, but the question is apparent.
“Welcome to the home of my father. Most people just call him Vince, though. Be prepared for several other full wall-murals. He likes his face,” Bo says dryly, doing all she can to restrain the twitching lips on her face.
“Vince… He doesn’t have a kid,” my mother states, but I see pictures of Bo with Vince on almost every surface in the living room. No doubt the man is a father. And a proud one. It’s like a timeline from baby to adult… Bo’s life in color.
“For my safety and the chance to live a somewhat normal life, I was kept a secret. I even took my mother’s maiden name, and my father helped raise me privately. No media is allowed out here unless invited. Or any of his homes, for that matter. After a major lawsuit my father won against a few stalking paparazzi who crossed one of his private fences to try and get a few shots, no one has messed with him. The few pics people scored of me were passed off as him hanging with a friend’s kid. No one was ever the wiser, because… Well, my father is so public, so keeping a kid a secret should have been impossible, so no one ever truly suspected anything.”
My mother starts fanning herself, and she looks over at me with accusatory eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she hisses.
Fucking eh. What else don’t I know?
I’m almost scared to find out.
“We can talk about all this in the morning,” Helen says around a yawn.
Suddenly her attachment to Bo now makes sense. I feel as though I’ve been getting played like a worn out piano.
“I agree. I’m exhausted. There should be some clothes being delivered soon. Each guest room should have something in it for everyone to wear for the night,” Bo inserts, no longer seeming like the shy, timid thing I saw earlier today.
This is a different Bo. A take charge version of her that makes it seem like she’s used to control. From wild and shameless, to shy and timid, and now assertive and powerful. I’m getting whiplash.
I’m wide awake, but her tired eyes meet mine as she tilts her head. I’ve never really wanted to just hold Bora, but tonight… After everything that’s happened and now this… All I want to do is wrap my arms around her and thank her for being so fucking amazing.
Never thought I’d say that about her.
She walks to me, and my arms go around her, pulling her to me as my lips brush her forehead. Thank fuck I fell asleep in some shorts. It’d suck to be standing here in my boxers.
Bo laces her fingers with mine, and that shy, timid girl is suddenly back in place. I never thought she’d have layers, but she does, and I feel like an ass for never once noticing before now.
“You coming?” she asks in a shaky, somewhat uncertain breath.
I just nod, still trying to piece together all the crazy puzzle pieces of the night.
Silently, we make our way up an elegantly spiraled staircase, and my fingers stay clasped with hers all the way to the room. As soon as we’re inside, I marvel at how insanely different it is than her apartment.
Unlike the vibrant, wild colors of her apartment, the colors are muted in here—understated sexy, I guess. Silvers and pale blues mingle on the walls in wide strips, and everything else is crisp white. The bed has a freaking princess canopy—white—draping from the bed posts and wrapping around the bed, but she pulls the veil back and ties it so that it isn’t a hindrance.
Two large doors are open and letting the wind come in from the balcony, while the tall ceiling hosts a ridiculously large, palm-leaf-inspired ceiling fan that is rotating rapidly, spinning a cool breeze down to us.
“The air probably wasn’t on up here. This place has several units, but the upstairs is shut off when we’re not here,” she babbles, shifting awkwardly as I continue to take in all our new surroundings.
“Looks like I’m about to get to know you a little better,” I murmur, letting my gaze drift over a white, velvety looking chaise lounge. Nothing screams Bora… But everything seems… Inviting? Relaxing?
Again, nothing like Bora.
“Will you say something?” she asks weakly, and a small grin lifts at the corners of my mouth.
“For once in my life, Bo, I have nothing to say. This night has been—”
“Crazy? Insane? Surreal? Yeah, I’m really tired. Can we just go to sleep and start fresh tomorrow?” she interjects.
I would also add confusing to that list.
“Sounds pretty perfect,” I tell her, feeling that missing exhaustion slowly sinking into me as a yawn passes my lips.
She grabs a pair of clothes from a drawer, and I shimmy out of my shorts to my boxers. I still smell like smoke, and so does she, but now I’m too tired to even think about showering.
Apparently she is too, because she emerges from the bathroom in a set of slinky, but adorable pajamas. Are those ladybugs on her pajamas?
I don’t fucking know her at all.
“How do you go from sex kitten to adorable in the span of a day?” I ask her around another hellacious yawn.
She freezes for a second, but then she climbs into bed, leaving enough distance between us to fit a linebacker in the middle. At least there isn’t a pillow barrier this time.
Cocking an eyebrow, I slide over and slip my arms around her.
I’m too tired for sex, but for some reason, I really want to hold her. Maybe it’s the adrenaline wearing off, or the fact she could have died… That would have been my fucking fault.
I invited her on this trip for the sake of pissing off my mother, because I’m apparently a juvenile rebel. I invited her even though I plan to ditch her the second we’re back home. I invited her even though I have zero interest of getting to know her better. Hell, ou
tside of the bedroom and apart from today… er, yesterday and today, I don’t even like her.
If she’d died tonight…
A shudder wracks my body, and Bo melts against me, slowly losing her rigid posture in my arms as she relaxes. I press a kiss to her shoulder, and she slips a leg between mine.
It’s like she can’t get close enough, and I’ll be damned if I almost don’t feel the same way.
True story? One thing I’ve always liked about Bora is the fact she doesn’t cuddle. Doesn’t even like to cuddle. Because neither do I, other than some post sex shit. Even that has to be brief, because I just feel smothered when someone is all wrapped around me.
First we cuddled on the couch on that damned roof, and it felt more natural than anything in the world. Now… Now my eyes are slowly drifting shut, and Bo couldn’t feel more right in my arms.
I’ll blame it on the disorienting day and fucking fire. Tomorrow… Tomorrow things will be normal.
Chapter 12
BO
Normally I wake up a little pissed off. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a morning person. After the mess yesterday/this morning was… you’d think I’d be a frazzled mess or royally pissed.
But I’m not.
Nope, I’m grinning like a fool, and I’m fairly sure I giggle when I wake up to a wet, hot kiss on the back of my neck. Then I feel something really large and hard poking me in the back, and my eyes widen in horror as I remember who is nestled in behind me.
My gaze darts to the clock as Jax’s hand slowly slides down my body, teasing me with his touch. One? In the afternoon?
A moan escapes me, and my eyes flutter closed again when his hand gropes a breast, and my back arches against him when he toys with my nipple. His lips… I love his lips. And I also love the way they’re kissing trails across the back of my neck.
“Fucking dying here, baby,” he hisses when that hard monster behind me digs into my ass a little through my pajamas.