The One (The Halo Series Book 2)

by Kimberly Knight

  “What’s the plan?” I asked Brooke as she drove us to Halo.

  “The first time I did this, I pretended Easton wasn’t my boyfriend and made a hundred bucks.”

  “Didn’t Avery tell you not to do that again?” I laughed.

  “Well, we don’t have to do it for money. We can bet something else.” She chuckled.

  “Like?” I questioned, looking over at her.

  “Maybe we can bet that we can get the bartenders to kiss us. We know we’ll win.”

  “Are we going to tag team them?”

  “Let’s see what the scene is like when we get there.”

  “All right,” I shook my head in agreement. I liked the new Brooke. She was different since leaving Jared. She was fun and sassy and even though she had a traumatic experience, she was still happy. She was the strongest woman I knew.

  We walked into Halo, saying hello to Gary, the door bouncer, before we entered. The music was blaring and as expected, the boys were behind the bar—flirting.

  “How am I going to pull this off? Once Avery sees me, he’s going to say hello or something.”

  “Don’t let him see you until the time’s right.”

  “Whatever that means.” I chuckled.

  “That blonde he’s talking to really looks like she’s laying on her charm—thick. I bet you can think of something.”

  I stared at Avery and the fake blonde and watched. Avery was laughing, leaning towards her and listening to whatever she was saying as she flipped her hair. Then I saw my in. As Avery turned to do another order, the girl reached into her purse, pulled out a pen and paper and began to write something down.

  “I got it,” I said, walking towards the bar. “Just have my back, this may get ugly,” I shouted over my shoulder as Brooke walked behind me.

  “Nic, you’re pregnant and this is all for fun.”

  “I know.” I gave a wicked smile.

  I squeezed between the blonde and the chick next to her before Avery came back over. I looked down and she had written her phone number on the piece of paper.

  Perfect.

  “Is that for the bartender?” I asked, motioning to the small piece of paper with my head and then over to Avery.

  She looked up at me and then back to her piece of paper. “Yeah.” She smiled. “He’s so hot, huh?”

  “Yeah, he is.” I smiled back then over to Avery making sure he hadn’t seen me.

  “I’ve been coming in here for a few weeks flirting with him and I finally have the courage to give him my number.” Poor girl.

  “Interesting. I’ve been doing the same thing,” I said. Both Avery and Easton were on the other end of the bar still helping customers. Neither one had seen me or Brooke. I looked over my shoulder at Brooke then back to the fake blonde. “Want to see whose number he’ll take first?”

  “Like a bet?” Fake Blonde asked.

  “Yeah, like a bet.”

  She laughed. “What do you want to bet?”

  “I think the prize would be him, no?”

  “Touché. Okay, you’re on.” She grinned. Like she had a chance.

  The only way for this plan to work was if Avery didn’t spoil it by showing that he knew me. The spot on the other side of FB opened up and Brooke slid in, caging FB in between us. I leaned back, Brooke leaned back, and I winked.

  Damn, why didn’t we do this every weekend? This shit was fun!

  “So how does this work?” FB asked, her eyes glued to Avery’s ass as he poured a drink away from us.

  “I think we just let him come back over here and we flirt our asses off. Then we offer him our number like you were planning on doing.” I shrugged.

  “Okay.” She nodded.

  I still didn’t know what I was going to say as Avery turned around and started making his way back down the bar towards us. I became nervous as he got closer. I wasn’t nervous about him taking FB’s number, but that the plan was going to backfire.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Bring it.” She laughed.

  I laughed too. She had no idea who she was messing with.

  Avery stopped in front of us, looked me straight in the eye and my eyes got big in warning. He titled his head a little, silently asking me what was wrong. I nudged my head towards FB and waited.

  Dear God let my man be smart!

  “Ladies.” He nodded. “Can I get you another drink?” he asked FB.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. My man was smart!

  “Sure.”

  He looked back over at me and I smiled. “Hi, I’m Laila,” I said, sticking my hand out.

  He looked down at my hand, smirked, and shook it. “Laila. That’s a pretty name. Nice to meet you. Can I get you something to drink too?”

  “We’re not together,” FB said with a little too much bitchiness. “I’m Tisha.”

  “My mistake.” Avery grinned. “Nice to meet you, Tisha.” Avery shook her hand, but pulled back right away and I smiled.

  Avery started making Tisha’s drink, looking up at me a few times and grinning as he shook his head. After he was done pouring the green concoction, Avery gave Tisha her drink, took her money, and then came back to me. “Now, can I get you something to drink, cutie?” he asked, stepping in front of me.

  “Vodka cranberry.” Avery went to object, narrowing his eyes at me. “But I like a splash more cranberry.” I smiled.

  Just give me a glass of cranberry juice, Babe! Geez. Catch on already!

  I grabbed cash from my pocket and when Avery put the drink in front of me, I handed him the wad. “Keep it. It’s on the house.” He winked.

  “Seriously?” Tisha asked.

  I smirked at her and Avery started to walk away. I grabbed a hold of his wrist, not letting him leave. “Thank you for my drink,” I purred.

  “Why does she get a free drink?” Tisha asked, still pissed I was getting special treatment.

  He looked down at where my hand held his wrist, neither of us answering or looking at Tisha. “Careful now, my girlfriend doesn’t like other women touching me,” he said, raising his eyebrows when he looked back up to my eyes.

  “You have a girlfriend?” Tisha asked.

  “I do,” he said, not looking at her.

  “Your girlfriend has good taste,” I said, not removing my hand.

  “She does.” He smiled, removing my hand.

  I narrowed my eyes at him, he narrowed his right back. “Is she blonde like us?” I asked motioning between myself and FB and flipping my hair over my shoulder like I saw Tisha do only a few minutes before.

  “She is.” He nodded.

  “So you have good taste?” Tisha asked.

  Good taste? She was totally a fake blonde. I’d pegged her as a redhead the moment I got up close to her.

  “I’d say I do.” He nodded again.

  “So you have a type?” I asked.

  “I guess you can say that.” He laughed.

  “Do you have to go straight home to your girlfriend?” Tisha asked.

  Both Avery and I looked over at her. I waited for his answer. “I do every night.”

  “Can’t you tell her you had to work late?” Tisha asked.

  “Do you ever use that line?” I asked and waited for Avery to answer both questions.

  “I always go home to her right away. I spent too many nights without her being with me,” he said, looking at me.

  “So you live together?” I asked.

  He smiled. “Yeah, we do.”

  “What about before you lived together. Did you go straight home?” Tisha asked.

  “Of course. She’s the love of my life.”

  “Don’t you want to have some fun?” Tisha asked.

  I wanted to slap Tisha the more she asked these questions, but it also gave me insight on what he was doing while I was in Boston—if he was telling the truth. The way he had no hiccups in his answers, gave me assurance that he was telling the truth.

  “What do you have in mind?” he asked, looking a
t me.

  “Do you—”

  I cut her off. “I have one last question for you.” I reached for a bar napkin and used the pen that was sitting in a glass next to me that someone had used to sign their credit card bill. I wrote my fake name and my number on it. “Okay. Since we’re,” I motioned between me and Tisha, “clearly your type. Whose number do you want?”

  He paused, looking me dead in the eye and then laughed. “Oh, that’s a tough one.” He crossed his arms over his chest and studied us. “Hmm,” he sighed, tapping his finger over his mouth with his arms still crossed as if he was actually thinking.

  Tisha and I both stuck our numbers in the air in front of us, waiting for him to grab one.

  “I’m gonna go with…” He paused, still playing the game. “Laila,” he said, reaching out and taking my napkin.

  Tisha huffed next to me. “You’re a bitch.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked, my head whipping to the right where she stood.

  “You think you can just walk in here and take my man?”

  “Your man?” I snapped.

  “Ladies,” Avery said.

  Brooke stepped around Tisha and stood next to me. Tisha was yelling in my face, and I was two seconds away from slapping her. I’d always been a spitfire, but I couldn’t control my emotions now that I was pregnant.

  “I didn’t just walk in here and steal your man,” I hissed. “I won fair and square.”

  Okay, maybe that wasn’t true.

  I felt Avery grab my arm that was near the bar. I turned my head towards him. “Laila…” he warned.

  I didn’t respond. Instead, I turned my head back to the fake blonde, narrowing my eyes, challenging her. This bitch had some nerve.

  “You just got here and you think you can just waltz in here like you own the place?”

  “Yeah, I do,” I snapped.

  I saw her raise her hand and my body stiffened, expecting her slap. I was ready to dodge it, but it never came.

  “Were you just about to hit her?” Easton asked, holding her arm. My eyes darted to him as he looked down on Tisha. I wasn’t sure where he came from, but this situation had taken a wrong turn. This was all supposed to be fun and games.

  Tisha broke free from Easton’s grasp, not bothering to answer him. “I’m outta here.” She stormed off.

  “In my office, Nicole!” Avery yelled a few seconds later.

  I turned to my best friend. I couldn’t believe I was about to get in trouble. Brooke mouthed sorry to me before I followed Avery up the stairs to his office. He closed the door behind us and locked it.

  “What the fuck was that all about?”

  “Oh, come on. It was all for fun. How was I supposed to know that bitch was crazy?”

  “Nic, I told Brooke not to do this for a reason.”

  “I didn’t do it for money. You told her not to do it for money.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “What would have happened if she’d hit you?”

  “I would have hit her back.” I laughed like there was any other answer.

  “Come on, Baby. You’re pregnant and I can’t have you coming in here and starting fights with my customers.”

  “I didn’t start a fight. You were there for the whole thing.”

  “Fine. But you and Brooke need to stop these games.”

  “Fine.” I huffed. “I’m sorry it won’t happen again.” I turned my head, looking up at the ceiling. I didn’t like looking in his eyes when he was mad.

  “Good. Now kiss me already.”

  I looked back at him and he was smiling. I smiled back, stepping forward and wrapping my arms around his neck, kissing him as he asked.

  “Laila, huh?” He laughed.

  “Come on, Mike Tyson. You would’ve done the same thing.”

  “Damn straight.” He kissed me again.

  Watching Nicole try and trick a customer was funny as hell, until that crazy bitch turned…well, crazy. I couldn’t believe it, but luckily Easton was there to catch her claws since I had Nicole’s arm. If that bitch had laid a finger on Nicole, all hell would have broken loose. Everyone in the bar would have known who Nicole was to me and if they didn’t like it, they weren’t going to be welcomed back.

  I almost laughed when the crazy bitch said, “You just got here and you think you can just waltz in here like you own the place?” Little did she know that once I married Nicole, she would own part of the Halo. Nicole didn’t know it yet, but I was going to ask her to marry me—I just didn’t know when.

  Nicole slept in my office until it was time to go home. I told her to go home, that Brooke would take her, but she insisted she wanted to stay. I didn’t know why, but I made sure to disinfect the couch before she laid on it. No telling what Easton had done on that thing before he met Brooke—I didn’t even want to know.

  “Baby, come on, it’s time to go home,” I whispered and leaned down, kissing the side of Nicole’s head.

  She stirred and then sat up, stretching.

  “Come on.” I reached out, taking her hand with mine and lifted her to stand. “Have a nice nap?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a yawn.

  Brooke and Easton had already gone home for the night and as we left, I turned on the alarm and locked the door behind us. I held her hand as I led us to the empty parking lot. A single street light shining to illuminate a path to my truck.

  “I’m sorry about tonight,” she said.

  “I know,” I said. “That bitch was crazy.”

  “Women do crazy shit when they’re in love.” She laughed.

  “I don’t even know who that was. How can you say she was in love with me?”

  “I didn’t mean love in that way. She was obviously really infatuated with you.”

  “She just wanted my body.” I smirked, stopping at the passenger side door of my truck.

  “Yeah, that definitely wouldn’t happen.” She laughed again.

  I pinned her against my truck, caging her between my arms. “I wouldn’t have let it happen. Even if you weren’t the other girl in the scenario.”

  “Good,” she said, biting her lower lip and looked down at my mouth.

  I looked down at her mouth. “Babe…” I groaned.

  “What?” she asked, lying through her teeth. She knew.

  “You know if you do that, we’re not going to make it home before I fuck you.”

  “I know,” she whispered.

  I looked around the bare parking lot. “You sure about this?”

  She nodded.

  She didn’t have to tell me twice. I unlocked my truck with the fob, opening the passenger side door and scooted the front seat forward enough for us to crawl in the extra cab. “I’ve been working all night and you owe me. You’re on top, Baby.”

  I stepped in the back, then turned and helped Nicole in. Once we were in, she closed the door behind her, leaving us in almost pitch darkness when the cab light turned off. I sat in the middle, unbuckled my belt and unbuttoned my jeans, sliding the zipper down. I pulled my pants and boxers down enough to free my dick and looked over at Nicole.

  She licked her lips and leaned forward, wrapping her tiny hand around my cock and pumped once. I groaned. Definitely a good idea she took a nap in my office.

  Thank you Brooke for driving!

  My eyes trained on her mouth as she leaned down and licked the tip. I hissed at the contact, spreading my legs farther apart to get more comfortable. My arms spread on the back of the bench seat as I watched her take my dick in her mouth, her hand wrapped around the base and working my shaft together. Her hand twisted. Her mouth sucked, and her warm saliva coated my cock enough to make everything glide in a fluid motion.

  She bobbed. She pumped. She twisted her hand. She sucked. She licked. She had me about to come in less than five minutes. Stopping her, I brought her mouth up to mine and kissed her while I helped her straddle my hips and used my hand to move her underwear to the side from under her skirt.

  She took my dick in he
r hand again, this time using it to guide it inside her. I groaned as her heat engulfed my cock, sliding down until I was buried deep inside her.

  “Fuck,” I groaned. “You feel so good.”

  Using her legs from her knees, she started to slide up and down my shaft. My hands wrapped around her ass, helping her move. She brought her mouth to mine, our tongues dueling with each other. Tasting, sucking, enjoying.

  She quickened her pace, slamming down each time so my dick was to the hilt, touching the end of her pussy. She moaned, our breathing heavy, fogging up the windows.

  “Oh, God,” she panted.

  “That’s it, Baby,” I said, still using my hands to help her go up and down. My hips had a mind of their own and started thrusting up, meeting her when she slid down. I could smell her arousal filling the entire cab of my truck and I wanted to bottle it up and use it as an air freshener. This was my girl. The one. My one.

  Our hips continued to meet each other and just as I was about to come, Nicole beat me. She moaned, her back arching, her head falling back and her pussy clenching my dick so tight that when I came a few seconds later it milked it to the very last drop.

  “Yeah, that crazy bitch wouldn’t have ever gotten that.” Nicole smiled against my neck. “Or I would have definitely punched her.”

  Sixteen weeks.

  Nicole was sixteen weeks pregnant with my baby.

  “Nervous again?” I asked, driving us to the doctor’s office.

  “Yeah,” she sighed, rubbing her little belly that barely had a bump.

  “What are they doing at this appointment?”

  She shrugged, looking over at me. “Same as last time I think.”

  “When will we get to see our baby?” I asked, smiling.

  “I think when I’m twenty weeks.” She beamed.

  I couldn’t wait.

  Grabbing Nicole’s hand, we walked inside the doctor’s office. Just like four weeks prior, we sat in the waiting room, waiting to be called. Rubbing Nicole’s knee to calm her, I leaned over and kissed her cheek and then went back to looking at all the toys. I couldn’t wait to play with toys with my kid. I played with Cheyenne all the time, but she was getting older. Once I had my own child, I would get to play with her every day.