by L. A. Casey
I rolled my eyes. We weren’t a bloody comet that only passed by the Earth once in a millennium.
I wanted to get the picture done, but Marie wouldn’t move until Clare, my meddling mother, was next to her.
I put my arm sharply around Darcy’s waist and left it hover there, making sure to barely touch him.
I refused to look at him as the side of his warm, hard body moulded against mine and his intoxicating scent surrounded me.
Damn.
Why did he have to smell so good?
“We haven’t seen this type of picture in nearly a decade!” Marie suddenly stated, making Jess, who had come up beside her, laugh.
“You both look great together,” Jess commented just as my mother appeared.
My flesh and blood, a.k.a. my cow of a mother, squealed, “Oh, don’t they just.”
To which I growled, “Don’t.”
Jess smirked, my mother ignored me, and Marie pretended the camera suddenly wasn’t working just so Darcy and I would have to stand next to one another longer. She thought she was being clever, but she was just being obvious.
Well, to me she was, anyway.
Darcy suddenly grunted. “Come on, Ma, you turned it off. So just turn the fecking thing back on.”
I mentally snorted.
Okay, so he knew what she was up to as well.
“Don’t rush me. I birthed you so I can unbirth you just as quick!” Marie snapped at Darcy, making Jess laugh.
I glared at Jess, who only continued to beam in our direction. It was honestly starting to freak me out, so I switched my gaze to my mother, but when I saw water pool in her eyes I quickly made Marie my focal point.
Bloody women.
“Okay, both of you smile,” Marie said in a cheerful voice, then huffed, “and don’t force it, Neala!”
I inwardly rolled my eyes but did as asked and smiled wide – and because Darcy didn’t get told off I imagined he did the same. I flinched a little after the flash went off, but I quickly snapped out of it.
“Oh, my goodness!” Marie beamed. “It’s beautiful. I’m framing this!”
“Me too!” my mother gushed.
“Oh, my God,” I grumbled as I quickly dropped my arm away from Darcy and took a step to the left.
My freedom was short-lived, though. My mother shot forward and pushed me back against Darcy, which surprised me and caused me to stumble. I was even more surprised when large hands gripped my waist and kept me upright and on my feet. The feeling of his hands on me caused my pulse to spike and my heart to race.
“Careful,” Darcy murmured, his voice surprisingly soft, as he pulled away from me once again.
I brushed myself off with my hands and mumbled, “Thanks.”
I blinked when I realised those were the nicest things Darcy and I had willingly said to one another in years.
Wow.
My mother’s giggle got my attention.
“Sorry, baby, but I want pictures with both of you . . . with Sean.”
I glared at my mother. “You’re pushing it.”
She just smiled at me like she had no clue what I was talking about, but of course she did, because she knew everything. The witch knew Darcy and Sean were on my hit list and she wanted me in close proximity with both of them? She really was testing a girl’s restraint.
“Sean!” my mother shouted.
I don’t know how he heard her over the punters in the pub, but Sean popped up behind Jess and rubbed his neck as he said, “Yeah, Ma?”
My mother snapped her fingers at him. “Picture time with Neala and Darcy now.”
Sean hesitated as our eyes locked.
He swallowed and shook his head. The worry on his face made me happy. He was scared, and he should be.
“Sean, don’t make me ask again. Get in the picture with Neala and Darcy.”
Sean paled visibly as he stepped around a laughing Jess and walked in our direction.
“Please don’t hit me,” Sean muttered as he came up against my left side.
I gritted my teeth. “No promises.”
My mother was exasperated as she gave the lads orders on where to put their hands on my body. They were both told to place their hands on my back and lean into me, because I was considerably shorter than both of them. I blew out a breath when their hands pressed against me. Someone told us to smile.
Sean’s hand was in the middle of my back, and Darcy’s was on my lower back. I knew this because I was acutely aware of how close to my arse it was.
“Stunning!” Marie gushed.
Suddenly Justin’s voice sounded in my ear, and I could feel the lads start to pull away.
“Don’t forget me.”
Our mothers squealed with delight.
Justin placed his hands on Sean’s and Darcy’s shoulders and rested his chin on my head.
“Smile!” Marie shouted proudly.
We did as ordered, and when the flash went off I couldn’t help but groan.
“Was that the last one?” I asked.
I felt a hand nudge my back. “Don’t complain about getting in pictures with family, kid,” Justin said.
I didn’t want to seem disrespectful, so I kept my mouth shut.
“No, it’s not the last one,” Marie stated. “Now one with you all and Jess, since she is legally joining the family in a few short months.”
I smiled to myself. Sean and Jess were a brilliant couple, but had worked hard to get to where they were. When they met, they’d had a one-night stand and Jess had got pregnant with Charli right away. They had decided to stay together and make a go of a relationship for Charli’s sake, but they soon fell in love and seven years later they were still together and on their way to marriage.
“Where is Sarah?” Marie’s voice cut through my thoughts. “I want a group photo of all of you together.”
I growled at my mother as Jess pranced over to Sean’s side. My mother shouted Sarah’s name, and like Sean she appeared out of nowhere and stood behind me with Justin.
“Okay, big smiles, everyone. This is one for me wall,” my mother said excitedly.
I couldn’t help but smile at my mother’s excitement.
Her ‘wall’ was the one along her hallway in her house. She had a pretty big house; the hallway was very long and pictures covered its entire wall. It looked beautiful, but only the nearest and dearest pictures went up onto the wall – and if you were in one that made the cut, you knew you were being honoured by my mother – and by Marie, because behind every decision my mother made was Marie, and vice versa.
After the final flash from the camera I stepped away from Dumb and Dumber and surged towards my mother. “Where is me da?” I asked.
She waved towards the back of the pub where the plasma screens were. “Back there – he’s watching some football manager’s documentary. I don’t know.”
Without a word to anyone I took off in search of my father, because he had something I needed, something I’d asked him to bring. Something that would partially get Darcy back for what he’d done to me over the past few days, and also something that would lead to my getting the doll back.
I found him right where my mother said he would be, watching a football documentary with his friends while drinking – it was a pub we were in, after all.
I moved over to my father and leaned down. “Did you bring it?” I asked.
Darcy’s father, Jimmy, smiled and shook his head as my father discreetly reached into his shirt pocket and took out a strip of tablets.
“No more than two. You’ll cripple the lad otherwise,” my father said without looking away from the plasma screen.
I smiled; he was all for me getting revenge on Darcy, but he didn’t want him severely hurt. My father loved Darcy; he thought of him as a son. But I was his baby girl, so when I’d rung him in tears (fake ones, by the way) and explained how Darcy and Sean had robbed me of Charli’s Christmas present, meant for his precious granddaughter, he was bothered and more than ready to
help me get revenge – and also get the doll back.
He came up with a deadly idea, and even though it was old-school, it was still gold. It wouldn’t harm Darcy, only his pride, and it would help me get the doll back. All I had to do was execute my plan perfectly.
Jimmy laughed out loud, which got my attention. “Feck him. He deserves whatever’s coming to him after the stunt he pulled. I’m with you on this one, Neala.”
I high-fived Jimmy, lovingly patted my father on the back, then turned and went searching for Darcy so I could put the laxative tablets to work. My plan was to give Darcy the shits for two reasons.
One, he deserved crippling stomach pain and ring burn for stealing the doll from me. Two, it would guarantee he had to go into the toilets and stay there for a long time.
Once Darcy was resigned to a painful night in the pub toilets, I would then happily head to his lodge farther up the mountains, break into said lodge – let’s see how he liked it – and get the doll back.
Everybody wins.
Well, everybody except Darcy.
Darcy didn’t get to win at all.
CHAPTER NINE
I scanned the pub for the tenth time in the thirty minutes since the forced picture-taking had ended. Actually, being next to Neala wasn’t too bad, because it meant I could keep my eye on her, but now that I couldn’t see her chocolate brown–haired head anywhere, it made me uneasy.
It was Neala’s turn to strike, and that meant I couldn’t drop my guard.
I was one hundred percent certain she knew I had taken the doll from her apartment. I just didn’t understand why she hadn’t outed me to everyone, or at the very least got me on my own to attack me over it. Christmas was in four days’ time, and I knew she needed that doll for Charli, so she couldn’t afford to wait around; she had to come at me sooner rather than later for it. The when was a question, but the how was an even bigger one that played on my mind.
I had no clue how she would seek revenge on me and try to get the doll back. It was chilling to think about, because Neala could be creative – very creative – with her methods of revenge. Each and every single one of her revenge plans over the years had left me wallowing in the shreds of my crumbled pride. I was well aware that she could bring a grown man to his knees . . . I was living proof of it. But as apprehensive as I was, I would be lying if I said the thrill of it didn’t excite me, because it did.
Neala was an adrenaline rush for me; she was something I craved and feared at the same time.
I’d never admit that out loud, though; it killed me just admitting it to myself. I shouldn’t want anything to do with her; she had left me high and dry when we were kids. When I’d needed her as we got older, she hadn’t had the time of day for me.
She’d cut me out of her life because I didn’t agree with her hitting a girl when we were ten. It was stupid, petty, and plain childish, but it had somehow developed into us being how we were now as adults.
I continued to scan the room for her, but instead of her pale face I saw other familiar ones. One particular face I spotted was one I’d come to know well over the past few years; it was Laura Stoke’s pretty one.
The same Laura Stoke that Neala despised.
She was tall, not as tall as my six foot three, but taller than most girls, at five foot eleven. She had freckled, pale white skin, long, thick strawberry blond hair that touched the small of her back, and an arse that made my cock stand at attention with one sway.
Laura was, to put it nicely, my fuck buddy. Like me, she wasn’t looking to settle down with a relationship; she was simply up for fun whenever I was up for it – pun intended.
I had had a long sample of Laura only a few days ago. I licked my lips, grinning at the memory.
“Laura,” I called out.
Her head turned in my direction, and a knowing smirk curved her red-painted lips. I allowed my eyes to slowly trail over her sizzling-hot body as she sashayed towards me through the small crowd, and as always, the thought of what I could do, and had done, to that body caused me to harden.
“Darcy Hart, fancy seeing you again . . . so soon,” Laura purred as she reached me.
She leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on my lips.
“You look edible,” I growled down at her, and swallowed when she snapped her teeth at me.
Laura took a step back and looked down at the hot-pink pencil dress she had on.
“What? In this old thing?”
I groaned as she slowly twirled, giving me a full view of just how tightly that old thing hugged her slender body in the sexiest of ways.
“Yeah,” I hissed as she turned and pressed herself fully against me.
Laura smiled at me seductively. “I’ve never turned you or your cock down before, Darcy . . . Quite frankly, because you give me amazing orgasms. But no orgasm, no matter how good, is worth the wrath of Neala Clarke.”
I sobered, and my dick softened at the mention of her name.
“What the hell has Neala got to do with us shagging?” I asked.
Laura smiled. “This is her brother’s engagement party, and I’ve been around you enough to know explosive shite happens when you’re both at the same function. I don’t want to jump to the top of her hit list by being on your arm tonight. She hates me; it wouldn’t take much for her to target me.”
I growled in annoyance. “Neala doesn’t get a say in who I fuck.”
“No,” Laura agreed, “but when she’s mad at you, she will get you back no matter who you’re fucking – and she is always mad at you. I don’t fancy her pulling some stunt while we get down and dirty in the bathroom. She’d be more than happy to make a show of me.”
This wasn’t happening.
“Don’t do this to me, Laura. I need you tonight,” I pleaded.
Yeah, I was pleading with a woman to have sex with me. So sue me. I wasn’t the first man to do it, and I wouldn’t be the last.
Laura smiled that sexy smile of hers and gave me one more chaste kiss before she whispered against my lips, “Until next time, Wicked Mouth.”
She turned and broke the pulsing heartbeat in my cock as she walked away. I looked at her arse and instantly narrowed my eyes at the torturous hump.
Did she really need to sway so much?
“Women,” I grunted, and looked away from Laura’s arse and up to the ceiling of the pub.
I took a few deep breaths.
I grunted again, this time in annoyance as I thought of her.
Neala Clarke.
The malicious little menace had managed to work her way into my sex life. She had just singlehandedly cock-blocked me . . . and she didn’t even fucking know about it.
“Bloody woman!” I snapped.
The noise of the punters in the pub filled my ears until a familiar voice got my attention.
“What’s the matter, little brother?”
I sighed as I looked to the concerned gaze of my older brother. “Laura just turned me down because of Neala.”
I spat out her name like it was poison in my mouth.
Justin’s eyebrows jumped. “Why?”
I shrugged. “Something about her being worried Neala would target her for being with me.”
Justin laughed, and it annoyed me.
This wasn’t funny.
“Care to explain why you’re being a dick and laughing at me?” I quizzed.
Justin chuckled. “Why does everyone make Neala out to be something she isn’t? She’s probably the sweetest girl I know, and just happens to have an attitude every now and then. Sounds like every woman I’ve ever met, if I’m honest.”
I gawked at my brother.
“Neala Clarke is the Devil in disguise, brother. You had better realise that. Sweet is the last word I would use to describe her . . . She is evil incarnate.”
Justin cracked up again, and like before, it pissed me off.
“Fuck you, man.”
Justin waved his hand at me. “I’m sorry,” he said as he tried to calm himse
lf down. He managed, but only after another minute. “I understand you both have history,” he went on, “but I love that she gets to you this much. You actually freak out about her.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “You find it funny that a woman pisses me off?”
“No, I find it funny that she gets under your skin and you like it and hate it at the same time.”
What the hell?
“I don’t like—”
“Don’t lie. Don’t say you don’t like Neala, because you do. You hate her because you want her so much. It’s obvious, to me anyway.”
“There is something wrong with you. I don’t want Neala in any way.”
Justin smirked but said nothing, and it bothered me.
“What?” I snapped.
He laughed. “Nothing, bro, nothing.”
I shook my head. “You’re a dick.”
Justin clasped his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I may be a dick, but I’m an honest one.”
With that said, he walked off and greeted some of the other locals. I stared after him, feeling utterly confused. This was the first time he’d ever mentioned that he thought I liked Neala, but he was very wrong.
I didn’t like her.
I hated her.
I just enjoyed messing with her from time to time.
Sure, I sometimes felt like I needed the Neala adrenaline rush to keep me sane, but that didn’t mean I liked her; it meant I liked her reaction to my bullshit. That’s all. I didn’t like her. Not one bit.
“You look absolutely horrified about something.”
I blinked my eyes, turned my head to the right, and saw Sean standing next to me.
“Justin thinks I like Neala,” I said, and shook my head.
Sean remained silent, so I turned to face him.
“Don’t tell me you think the same thing?” I asked, shocked.
Sean shrugged, but remained silent.
“For fuck’s sake. I don’t like her. I can’t stand the witch!”
Sean laughed, but continued to look at me as he held his tongue.
“Say something or I’m going to sock you one!” I warned.
He licked his lips and said, “Don’t hit me . . . but I agree with Justin.”
Oh, Christ.