“What the hell is her problem?” I demanded, watching her go.
Beck looked away and ignored my question. Kylie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Nothing,” she said.
“Anyway,” Beck said, trying to get past the awkward moment quickly. “We’re going to the pool after lunch. You want to join?”
“Yeah, of course,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic while wondering just what exactly had gotten into Jules. She’d seemed encouraging in my crusade against Mac when we played tennis. Times had changed apparently.
But whatever. I didn’t especially like Jules nor did I care what she thought of me. It was Beck and Kylie (and Sarah to some extent) whose opinions mattered to me. They’d be happy to know that I was done with Mac.
I was mulling over what might have happened last night as I walked back to my room to get changed for the pool. Right before I got to the door of our shared suite, Mac stepped out of his doorway and surprised me.
“Jeez,” I gasped, jumping back. “What the hell! Why are you always lurking?” I demanded.
He ignored the question. “Are you okay?” he asked. He looked annoyed too, less by me and more by the fact that he was asking.
“Am I okay physically?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m not beat to death with a baseball bat. Otherwise though?”
He sighed and actually had the decency to look at the floor. “Look, again I’m sorry. Obviously I didn’t mean for any of that to happen last night. It got way out of control.”
“Oh really? You think? Come on, what did you expect was going to happen?” I asked. “They told you. They warned you not to leave!”
His frown deepened and he took a step back, examining me coolly. “Well technically they warned us not to leave. What did you think was going to happen?” he asked back. “You went along with it. I didn’t force you to come.”
“You baited me into it knowing I’d follow you!” I hissed.
“And it was wrong and I’m sorry,” he repeated firmly. “I shouldn’t have put you in danger like that.”
I crossed my arms, trying not to look too closely at his gorgeous features or remember that skip he’d put in my heart last night. I wouldn’t fall for it. Not again.
“Well, thanks for the apology, but forgive me if I’m not jumping at the bit for a part two. Congratulations. You won. Consider yourself free from my involvement. If you do anything to mess up this wedding, it’s on you. I’ve done all I can.”
I turned away, stalking toward my room.
“Wait a minute,” he called after me. I stopped with my hand on the door. I rested my forehead against it for a moment, then turned around.
“What?”
He looked troubled, tense. Something was on his tongue that he wanted to say. But right when I thought he was going to release it, he shook his head. The moment passed. “Never mind.”
“Good,” I said, turning the handle and escaping the temptation of his piercing stare.
15
Mac
Something was wrong with me and I didn’t know how to fix it.
After Alice rebuffed me in the hallway, I’d wandered around the resort, avoiding the other Knights and keeping an eye out for Margot. She probably wasn’t thrilled that I’d left her hanging last night. I didn’t feel too bad; she’d survive. She was probably already off stalking Henry or Mason.
My feet eventually found the same tiki bar that I’d met Margot in on my first day at the resort. I’d been on my way to bang Mariana in the bathroom. I chuckled again at the memory of Alice opening the door. Her face when she’d taken me in, naked and erect. That brief moment I’d hoped that this gorgeous auburn-haired girl might join in.
Sadly life was not a cheesy porno. And Alice was far from the type of girl who’d star in one anyway. Which was a far cry from most of the girls I dated.
Ha. Dated. Is that how I thought of it? I thought over the string of girls I picked out and wore like ornaments to plus-one events. Blondes, brunettes, redheads; tall, short, medium; big tits and small ass, big ass and small tits — I didn’t discriminate.
Nor, apparently, did I seem to care about anything beyond the package. Try as I might, I couldn’t remember a single thing about any of them. Okay, I remembered some of the shit they could do in bed, but personality? Goals? History? A blank slate, every one of them.
And while I was tempted to assume they just didn’t have any — to write them off as dumb vapid bimbos — it was a lot more likely they were just playing the role we both expected. I hadn’t wanted a girl with goals. I’d wanted a nice rack that I wouldn’t remember in a week.
And why was that?
I ordered a scotch and soda and sipped it, not really caring much for the taste. It was just something to do. I wasn’t the most introspective of guys. What I was was a problem solver. That was how I built my business. That was how I lived my life. And what I had in Alice was a problem that needed a solution.
That is, if I was to kill this aching, troubled feeling in my gut.
Alice was fire — alive and flickering with a deadly tongue that could warm just as easily as strip flesh from bone. She was ice — as beautiful as a towering glacier with the deadly force of an avalanche. She was stubborn and frustrating and bold and exciting and I wanted her out of my brain as quickly as possible.
I was happy alone. I had my friends.
But for how much longer?
A while, I insisted to myself. And I would always have some of them, at least. I couldn’t picture Henry or Twain ever getting married.
Maybe.
Because didn’t I also think that Sammy and the boys back in Ireland would be my family for life? And look how that’d turned out. They’d left me. Alone. And so eventually would the Knights.
“Looking awfully furrowed over there.” I recognized the deep drawl without looking up.
“Shouldn’t you be at a pool or something?” I asked Mason as he slid onto the barstool next to me. He indicated to the bartender that he’d like one of mine.
“I’m not the biggest fan of the sun,” Mason said dryly.
“You came to the wrong damn country then, mate,” I said, sipping my drink. Even though I was stewing in contemplation, it felt good to have Mason here. A physical reminder that I wasn’t alone quite yet.
“Thanks for getting Twain back in one piece,” he said.
I nodded, not adding any details.
“I’m not stupid enough to think that you just stumbled on him in a random bar,” Mason continued. “But don’t worry. I’m not going to pry the story out of you.”
I’d like to see you try, fecker.
He glanced at me and a lopsided smile pulled at his mouth. “I hope one day I do get to hear it though. From the look on Alice’s face this morning, it has to be a hell of a story.”
I snorted and couldn’t help but smile too. “What’s the statute of limitations on the events of this week?” I asked.
“At least past their first anniversary.”
“Then brother, get ready to go a lighter shade of gray a year from Saturday because this week has been a feckin’ disaster since day one.”
Mason didn’t respond at first. He wasn’t drinking his scotch and soda either, just holding it in his hand and watching the liquid move around the glass. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said finally.
I breathed a slight sigh of relief. No lecture. No disapproving words. Mason had found me for a reason, but apparently it wasn’t to get on me about my behavior.
“Okay,” I said. “What is it?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “What?”
“Why are you here?”
He shrugged. “Do I need a reason to sit with a friend? I saw you from the boardwalk and thought I’d join you.” He paused. “You look a little… drawn. Anything you want to talk out?”
“Alice is mad at me.” The words escaped me before I could halt them at my lips.
I shouldn’t care. I’d never cared before. But somehow the thought tha
t Alice was done with me made me angry and annoyed and upset. Was she just going to ignore me the rest of the weekend? Would I never get to see those brown eyes light up with laughter? Or see them flick to me, admiring my form when she thought I didn’t notice?
“Because of something that happened last night?” Mason asked.
“I plead the fifth,” I muttered.
“Fair.” He turned in his seat to examine me, head cocked. “Anything you can’t come back from?” he asked.
I considered it. “I don’t know.” I hesitated. “I put her in danger. But we made it out fine,” I added.
Mason turned away, a small smile on his face. To his credit, he didn’t bring up the fact that almost everyone had ‘told me so’. “But she’s fine. You’re fine. Twain is… himself. Apologize. Move past it.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of apologizing lately,” I muttered.
Again, it would have been easy to condescend. Mason just shrugged. “Part of life, brother.” He glanced at his drink and then slid it toward the barman with a couple bills. “Now, I think I’m ready to hit the water. Joining me?”
I shook my head. “Not right now.” I looked up from my drink. “Thanks, Mason.”
He clapped me on the shoulder as he headed out. “No problem at all.”
I sat and thought for a while. Apologies. They were starting to feel cheap, just words to cover my ass. No, if I wanted to make it up to Alice then I needed to do something. Something that would make her laugh. Better yet, something that would surprise her.
And then a plan started to form in my mind. And though my plans hadn’t been working out too well this trip, I had a good feeling about this one.
16
Alice
I’d really meant it when I said that I was washing my hands of Mac. But the reality of erasing him from my mind was surprisingly difficult.
The girls and I went back to the pool and spent most of the afternoon lazing around, making idle small talk and generally relaxing. With little distraction, my thoughts kept honing in on Mac.
I spent quite a bit of time replaying the events of the previous night, both the good and the bad. Though I still was unnerved by our brush with danger, other events began to force themselves into recollection. Riding on the back of the motorcycle down the narrow Tuzas streets. Dancing against Mac in the club, forced into close proximity by our surroundings. That moment, seconds before the hustlers descended on us, when his lips hovered over mine. Any longer and those full, perfect lips would have been pressed to mine. And then who knew what would have happened.
The thought made me hot, left me wanting at my core. But, I firmly told myself, in a way, the attack had saved me. The positive events of last night hadn’t changed Mac. He’d proven himself over and over as the type of guy I didn’t need breaking my heart again. Another guy I’d try to mentally mold to my needs and desires despite all evidence of the contrary.
I tried to push Mac from my mind and enjoy the day, the last one we’d spend relaxing. It was Thursday and tomorrow the guests would arrive for the wedding on Saturday. I’d be running around getting all the last details together, aided, unfortunately, by Mariana. I’d get a brief breather at the rehearsal dinner and the following bachelorette party, but then the intensity would kick up again early Saturday morning and persist until Beck and Sam retired late that evening from the reception.
I couldn’t wait to see my best friend get married. I also couldn’t wait for that plane ride back to the city. This week had been too confusing. Soon I’d be back in New York where things made sense.
And where you have nothing waiting for you.
Now that definitely wasn’t what I wanted to think about. To distract myself, I refocused on the conversation that Beck, Kylie, and Jules were having.
Jules had reappeared with Keegan about an hour after the rest of us got to the pool. She’d sat down with us and acted like her weird remarks at the lunch table had never happened. But I still sensed a tension between her and Kylie, and exasperation from Beck.
“I mean, just look at him,” Jules said from behind massive sunglasses. “You have to wonder what he’s like in bed.”
I followed their train of sight to Twain. He was sitting a ways off, having what looked to be a very intense conversation with Sarah.
He’d come down to the pool shortly after Keegan and Jules, looking remarkably normal. He’d gotten his hair cut and was dressed in red swimsuit trunks and a white t-shirt. There was almost no trace of the crazy man who’d saved us in a stolen Jeep the night before, except for maybe a little around the eyes.
Despite longing looks from Kylie and Jules, Twain had immediately latched himself onto Sarah, asking her question after question about living on a farm and Kentucky and if she’d ever slaughtered a hog.
“You sound starstruck,” Beck noted.
“I don’t get starstruck,” Jules said with a flip of her hair. As a runway model dating a billionaire NBA player, I didn’t doubt her. “But,” she added, “Twain is different. He knows literally everyone who’s anyone. His parties are highly exclusive and apparently insane. And he’s dated more celebrities than Leonardo DiCaprio.”
“Really?” Beck asked, looking at Twain as if she didn’t quite believe it. “He’s just an author, isn’t he? I never read the books.”
Jules waved a hand. “Yeah, neither have I. He might have started out that way, but he’s a celebrity now.” She gave a sigh that bordered on wistful. “There’s just something about him… Doesn’t hurt that he’s worth a billion and that his cock is apparently enormous.”
We fell silent as Twain suddenly left Sarah to strip off his shirt, revealing a lean, shredded torso. He then immediately ran and backflipped into the pool.
“What I would do to that tight body…” Jules trailed off.
“Does Keegan know what you think about him?” Kylie teased.
Jules looked pointedly at Kylie. “I don’t really give a shit,” she said. Then, as if to prove her point, she stood up. “I’m going to join them in the pool.” She dropped her sheer black swimsuit cover and strutted over to the water.
Kylie looked at Beck. Beck shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said and quickly got up and followed Jules to join the guys.
“Okay, what the hell is going on?” I asked once she was a safe distance away.
Kylie rolled her eyes. “Oh just drama bullshit. It wasn’t even really about you.”
I sat up straighter. “Wait, it was about me?”
“Did you not hear what I just said?”
“But I was involved somehow?”
“It’s really nothing.”
“If it was nothing, then you’d tell me.”
“I don’t want to gossip.”
I slid my sunglasses down and fixed Kylie in a look that said, come on. I’d known her too long to believe that bullshit.
“Okay, fine,” Kylie said, throwing up her hands. “Jules was talking some shit about you last night. About you and Mac.”
“What kind of shit?”
“I think the words ‘desperate’ and ‘clingy’ were used.”
“What the—”
“Hey,” Kylie raised her hands, cutting me off. “Remember, it wasn’t really about you. I think she was just trying to make Beck happy. Apparently she doesn’t know Beck well enough to know that shit talking you wasn’t going to make her feel better. But hey, now she knows.”
I furrowed my brow. “What was wrong with Beck?”
Kylie shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s been off all week. Haven’t you noticed?”
I thought back over the past few days. Come to think of it, Beck had seemed a little off. Probably just pre-wedding jitters. She had a big day coming up.
“But wait,” I said, confused. “Why did Jules think that shit talking me would help?”
Kylie hesitated.
“Come on,” I pried.
“Beck was upset you didn’t come with us last night.”
&
nbsp; “How upset?”
“Pretty upset.”
I frowned and watched Beck in the pool. Sam had his arm around her as they splashed Keegan together. They looked happy, young and in love. I remembered how Beck had seemed reluctant for me to leave last night.
“I thought you said it wasn’t about me,” I said finally.
“Yeah, that’s just what Beck said. I think it is something more, but I know she wished you would have stayed with us. This week was supposed to be about having fun together.”
There was a note of something in Kylie’s voice. It might not have been judgment, but it wasn’t far off.
I frowned. “What?”
She raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Are you upset with me?”
Kylie shook her head. “No, of course not.” Her eyes trailed down. “But…” I groaned. “Come on,” she said. “Hear me out. It’s just you seem a little… preoccupied… with Mac. Okay, I know the stripper thing was bad, but he’s taking up so much of your week.”
I clenched my jaw, hating that I couldn’t tell her about Mariana and about Margot. Could I? No, the fewer people that knew about it the better. I didn’t want anything slipping out in a drunken conversation. But it hurt to think that Kylie and Beck thought I was peacing out on the wedding to stalk a hot guy around the resort. There was just so much more too it than that.
“Look, Kylie,” I said. “First off, I have been around. That first night out, all the water stuff we did yesterday, every meal, most of the pool trips.
“And secondly, you have to believe me when I say that I’d rather be spending it with you guys. But — and please don’t tell Beck this — it wasn’t just the stripper thing. There were other ‘incidents’ that nobody knows about. I know I look crazy, but I really did think that Mac was trying to disrupt the wedding.”
“Did?”
I considered my words. “I’m not so sure anymore. He can be… nice. But he’s also impulsive and bullish and he seems to be taking this entire week as a personal attack against his lifestyle or something. He’s really convinced that Sam is just going to ‘change his mind’ or ‘come to his senses’.”
The Groomsman: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Billionaires of Club Tempest) Page 15