The old guy laughed. “You should listen to your friend.”
I chuckled, stepping up to him, his face so close it was all I saw as I peered down at him. “I listen to no one, and it wouldn’t be the first time an engaged woman has leaped onto my dick. Ask Bry. She’ll tell you herself how beautiful it is.” Tommy pulled me back, away from the bar, and I laughed, stopping in my tracks. “Bro? What are you doing?”
“Me?” he squawked, pointing to his chest. “More like, what are you doing?”
Peering around him, I could see Bryleigh standing on the edge of the sea bed, looking out to the ocean. I tapped Tommy on the shoulder and handed him my drink. “Be right back.”
“Ryker,” he moaned in defeat, but I didn’t stop. I kept my walk towards the only girl I’d ever come close to being in love with.
“Bry,” I said, and her body stilled, the drink stopping just short of her mouth. The cool air brushed through her hair and she turned around, locking eyes with mine.
“Hi,” she retorted, with a curt smile.
“How’ve you been?” I asked, shoving my hands into my pockets and stepping up next to her, staring over the waves crashing under the beacon of the full moon.
“Ohhh, you know,” she answered, running her hands up and down her arms. “Just working and all that. How about you?”
I ran my hands through my hair and exhaled. “Just being a rock star and all that.”
She turned toward me, her face centimeters away from mine and her eyes boring into me. The same green eyes that would twinkle with mischief all those years ago. When I looked into them now, they seemed almost… subdued.
“Ryker, you can’t just say things like that to Todd.”
“Why?” I asked, with a smirk. Her eyes dropped as she sat on the sand. I followed suit, bringing my knees up to my chest and resting my elbows on them.
“Because, Ryker. You just can’t.” The corners of her eyes squinted as she exhaled. “Anyway, how has everyone been? Phoebe seems nice.”
My eyebrows rose and I scoffed. “Phoebe is about as nice as a loyal pit-bull. She’s nice, but she will still tear the balls off anyone that messes with anyone she cares about.”
She giggled, and for a brief second, I saw a glimpse of the Bryleigh I knew. “So what’re you doing now anyway? What’s it been? Eight years?”
“Yup, eight years. I’m a surgical nurse in Hollywood Hills. Actually sort of surprised we never bumped into each other.”
I laughed, running my hand over my chin. “Yeah, that’s surprising, and what about husband-to-be in there? How’d you manage to meet not one, but two dickwads in your lifetime?”
She turned her face to mine, one perfectly arched eyebrow cocked and a smirk lingering softly on her perfect lips. Fuck, she was beautiful. Even more so than she used to be, because now she was all woman. “Did you just admit that you were a dickwad?”
My face fell. “I’m sorry, Bry. I’m fucking sorry for what I did to you.”
Her shoulders relaxed and a small smile pulled on her mouth, all while her eyes remained locked on mine. “It’s okay, Ryker. I made peace with you a long time ago.” She looked over her shoulder briefly. “I better go,” she sighed, before rising up and dusting the sand off her nude little dress. My hand shot up to hers, a spark igniting between our fingers and a hiss leaving my mouth.
She pulled away quickly, stepping back. “Don’t Ryker. Just, don’t touch me, okay?”
What the fuck?
“Bryleigh!” I called out to her, as she kicked her shoes off and ran back up to the party. How the fuck did we go from civil to intense? Nothing had changed in that department. How is it, after all these years, I can still stand to sit down and have a conversation with her, and she not annoy the shit out of me?
I ran back to the bar where Todd was standing, his frown apparent and his drinks disappearing quickly down his throat.
“Bryleigh!” he growled, as I slipped my shoes back on. I knew that growl, and I knew he was going to want an extensive explanation on why I spoke to Ryker. Todd had three rules when he agreed we could attend Ryder’s wedding.
1) I was not to look at Ryker
2) I was not to acknowledge Ryker in any way
and 3) I was most certainly not to speak to Ryker.
I messed up and I knew it.
“I’m sorry, Todd. He followed me down and there was nothing—”
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me up against his body forcefully. His breath fell over my bare neck and my body repulsed.
“You knew the rules before we came, Bryleigh. Tell your father we’re going, and be a good little girl,” he said, unlatching his face from my neck and plastering a fake smile on his lips while nodding at the people who were walking past. I swallowed, taking hold of my clutch and looking toward my father and mother, who were sitting under the oak tree, smiling and laughing with Ryder and Phoebe. Straightening out my dress, we both started making our way toward them. When Ryder brought his eyes up to me and Todd, he smiled at me.
“Hey, you having fun?” he asked, his eyes boring into mine, the same way Ryker’s did. These boys played a major part in my teen years. We all spent countless nights together, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when his eyes studied my body language then moved to Todd’s, dropping to Todd’s grip on my elbow before a frown engulfed his face.
Shit.
I smiled, the glistening of my eyes beaming with forged happiness. “Yes, of course. Loads. But we have to leave, I’m so sorry.” My voice was a hoarse whisper toward the end.
Ryder’s eyes narrowed, and Phoebe noticed the change in expression on his face. “Well, I’ve invited your mom and dad to dinner tomorrow night. Just us and the boys, like old times. You’ll come?”
Todd’s grip tightened around my waist, and my eye twitched slightly.
I swallowed. “Yes, of course.” I look to my dad, and his eyes beamed at Todd and me with pride.
“I’m so glad bebe found someone who cares about her the same as she cares about them. And Todd here is my right-hand man in the senate standing. He’s going to do great things with me. Right, Todd?” My father’s eyes oozed with pride.
My father knew nothing.
“Yes, sir,” Todd replied with ease. He was a master liar and an even better manipulator. “I should get Bry home—”
“Bryleigh,” I corrected, the anger of his grip igniting a fire inside of me. The same fire that always happened when he did what he had done. Phoebe’s eyes bored into mine, stripping back my façade effortlessly. I smiled politely at her. She looked to Ryder and whispered something into his ear before he nodded, keeping his eyes locked onto the grass with his jaw flexing. I didn’t know much about Phoebe Rendon, but I had seen her and Ryder’s business all over the news. I knew she was some bad ass girl from a motorcycle club family, and I have seen a few of them around during the wedding. I’d have to fill Indie in on all the drama.
“Let’s go. Was nice to meet you both,” Todd said, with a hint of hostility in his tone. He gripped his hands around mine and urged me forward. Tommy was walking toward us with the same supermodel who was sitting on Ryker not long ago. I idly thought to myself about how these boys may not be eighteen anymore, but eight years hasn’t changed them much. They’re all just bigger, with more tattoos and, obviously, better looking. Not that they weren’t good-looking at school, but now they had grown to be these… men. Who I wasn’t interested in, but it was an interesting observation from knowing them when I was younger.
I carried on following behind Todd as we walked back through Ryder and Phoebe’s home. Once we reached the front doors, he pushed them open and we walked down the marble steps, where a valet was standing there in his suit. Todd handed him our card and his tip before the valet nodded and went to fetch our car.
“Todd, you can’t keep doing this,” I whispered, my eyes fixed on the back of his head. He turned around to face me, his features hard. I couldn’t believe I thought this man wa
s handsome. Now, when I look at him, his mere existence tested my gag reflex.
“Shut up. We will finish this discussion when we get back to the hotel.”
My blood red Audi R8 rounded the corner and I stepped toward the driver’s door where the young valet was getting out with an admirable gleam in his eye. I took the keys from him with a knowing smile.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He smiled proudly. “No problem. I want one of these one day.”
Todd stepped up and snatched the keys from my hand. “Keep dreaming. Get in the fucking car, Bryleigh. You’re not driving tonight.” My smile fell, and I looked toward the valet to find his young face falling somber.
I patted his arm and nodded toward the car. “I’m sorry about that.”
He shrugged. “I’m used to it,” he said, before walking back to his position in front of the massive colonial home.
I slid into the passenger seat, and before I had even closed my door, Todd had us skidding out of the driveway, the bright lights of the house gleaming in the distance.
“Todd, slow down,” I warned, clipping my seatbelt on.
He and I had met when my father had just won the elections. He’d only been working for my dad for two weeks, and when I went in to take everyone coffee and donuts the morning of our win, Todd was sitting at the table watching me with his—what I thought—gentle eyes. I found him interesting, and he was interested in me. He took me out on a date to this beautiful restaurant, where we laughed and spent most of the night getting to know each other. I thought I had bonded with him on a level I hadn’t bonded with anyone since… Ryker. Obviously not as close, but I was under the impression that there was definitely something to be built there. I was wrong, because the only thing that could be built where Todd and I were concerned was a house of lies, a fence nailed with deceit, and the only mailbox that sat at the end of our driveway was licked in evil.
“Todd!” I repeated, my breathing coming in shallow. “Slow down.”
“Do you think it’s polite to humiliate me in front of strangers and your parents, Bryleigh? It’s not fucking polite! You will pay for this.”
“They will click on, Todd! Ryder has known me a very long time, and his wife Phoebe? She looked too smart for her own good. You need to watch how you are. You can’t keep doing this.”
“I will fucking do it for as long as I fucking want!” he roared, the car jolting forward faster as my head smashed into the headrest.
“Todd! Slow the fuck down!” My panicking worsened when I looked to the speedometer to see him doing well over one hundred. “You’re going to kill us,” I whimpered. “Todd!” The trees and lights from the highway were zooming past in blurred lines, and the concrete barrier that was lined down the highway only intensified my trepidation.
He turned off at our exit, not slowing down until we reached our hotel. When he rolled into the underground parking spot, I jumped out and slammed the door, glaring at him over the car. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again, Todd.”
“The fuck are you going to do about it? Huh?” He rounded the car to my side, and although we were out in the open, the underground parking space didn’t assure my life as far as I was concerned.
I swallowed and he laughed, gripping my hair in his fist, the stinging from the hairs being ripped from their sockets causing my eyes to slam shut.
He forced my face up to his, his mouth over my ear. “You will get the fuck inside, and you will wait for me on our bed and await your punishment, Bryleigh. You know what will happen if you don’t,” he whispered into my ear, and my heart slammed against my chest. “Do you understand?” he hissed again, and I nodded.
“Yes, yes, I understand.”
Letting go, he beeped the car alarm and began to walk toward the elevators. I followed, knowing full well what was about to come.
I stepped into the room we were staying in and dropped my clutch to the bed, with my phone in it. Todd walked into the room, loosening his tie. Todd, I once thought, was good-looking. He had buzz-cut blond hair, and blue eyes that could pass as being creepy, but for some reason, they hadn’t scared me off. I’d misjudged him terribly.
“Get naked.”
Over the past two years, I knew there was no use in arguing with him. I learned to just go with it and hope he stuck to his word. I brought my hand up to the zipper at the back of my dress and slid it down, the tight nude dress dropping to a pool at my feet. I kept my eyes fixed on the wall ahead of me, swallowing past the tears.
He came up behind me and swiped my inner thighs. My eyes closed and my stomach churned. Pushing my body, he laid me flat on my back while ripping his clothes off and then hovering over me. His eyes laughed at me, laughed at how I couldn’t do anything about it, and laughed that he was one hundred percent in control of me. “You’re going to wish you never did what you did tonight, Bryleigh,” he said, wrapping his fingers around my thighs and propping me up before slamming his cock deep inside me.
My face remained flaccid, not a flinch. I let it happen. I could only wish that one day a bus would hit him on his way to work. He pulled out roughly, the first tear slipping down the side of my cheek.
He dropped his mouth to my ear, and growled, “You like this, don’t you, you little slut? You secretly like it. Answer me.”
I didn’t. My mouth remained slammed shut, my teeth about to crack from the pressure I was putting on them, and my soul slowly transitioned to a darker shade, like it did every time he spread my legs open without permission.
His hand gripped around my upper thigh and squeezed. “Answer me, Bryleigh.” I continued to remain silent, so he squeezed harder. “Fucking answer me!” His fist flew back before it collided with my upper thigh around the same time that an explosion of pain violently pulverized my leg. A soft sob fell from my mouth, but I slammed it shut, not wanting to give him the satisfaction he needed, he wanted. “This slick pussy is mine, not Ryker’s. Mine!” he roared, before his hand flew up again, and I braced myself for another assault.
He continued, not stopping his rage until he was satisfied that I was punished enough. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it but I did wish I had Ryker’s protective arms around me. His memories, our memories, always pushed me through. Although they’d ended tragically, we had more good times than bad. I clung to those, gripped to them like a lifeline for my sanity. Sanity I felt I was slowly losing.
“Where’s Bry?” I asked, as I sat down beside Phoebe. Ryder, Victor, Sarah, Alyona, and Tommy were sitting there too.
“She’s gone, son. She and Todd took off,” Victor said, raising his glass to his lips. I looked to Ryder, who gave me a pointed glare. He needed to say something, obviously. “Sarah and I better shoot off. We’re staying at the Hilton where Bryliegh and Todd are. We’ll see you all tomorrow night?”
I nodded and pulled him in for a hug. “Thanks, yeah, will see you tomorrow.”
When they left, I dropped back down to my seat and looked at Ryder. “What?”
He shook his head, running his finger over his upper lip. “I don’t know. It might be nothing.”
“What is it?” I placed my beer onto the table.
Phoebe piped in. “I don’t think it’s nothing. I picked up on it too.”
“Well, this is great and all, but you can quit it with the cryptic shit and spit it out.” The music was dying out, and the paparazzi chopper hovering over us was beating through the air.
“That Todd guy, he isn’t a good guy, I think,” Phoebe said, raising her glass to her mouth. What the fuck did she mean? For Phoebe to pick up on something though, that said something, because Phoebe had experience in ‘not good’ men.
“I don’t know, bro. Something’s shady there. The way he handled Bry, and then when I looked at her, and I mean really looked at her, I saw it. I saw it in her eyes. She’s still as transparent as ever.”
I shot up from the table, my eyes narrowed on Ryder. “I’ll go and get her.”
Ryder laugh
ed. “No, man. You can’t. Just wait it out. They’re all here for a week. See how it plays out. I’m only telling you so we can all keep an eye on her. Watch her movements and study them, because something’s not right there.”
I sat back down and looked to Tommy and Alyona. “Oh? You’re all cozy over his dick now, are you?” I smirked at her with a cocked brow, shoving the Bryleigh situation under the rug for now.
She smiled a cocky smile at me. “Unless you want me back? Or…” she said, coming to sit on my lap and bending her face down to my ear. “I can take both?”
I snorted, shoving her off me and pushing her back toward Tommy. “Nah, not in the mood for easy pussy. She’s all yours, T.”
Her face scrunched. “You’re such a fucking asshole, Ryker!” she screeched, before she spun on her heels and stomped toward the bar.
I laughed, shaking my head at Tommy. “Where’s Lara?” Lara was who, I thought—well, we all thought—Tommy had settled with.
He shrugged, taking another drink of his drink. “She doesn’t want in this life. I get it.”
“Does she know what you did for her?” Just offed a man, nothing too major.
His face stilled as he looked toward Phoebe and Ryder. “No. Shut up, Ryker.”
I rolled my eyes. “You men are fucking useless. Me, on the other hand? I know what I want, and I’ll stop at nothing to get it.”
Tommy laughed, throwing his bottle cap toward me. “Well, that’s easy then, because you’ve never wanted anyone that bad. Except for Bry, and you don’t have a chance in hell with her again. Did you see her? Damn, if I thought she was fine back then, she’s fucking outstanding now.”
“Fuck off, Tommy,” I seethed at him.
He laughed again. “I rest my case.”
The early morning sun beamed through our lace hotel curtains and I squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to keep the light blocked out. I moved my arm to flip onto my other side, when my thighs throbbed, instantly waking me fully. Thoughts from last night came rushing back as a lump formed in my throat. My eyes peeled open, fixed on the ceiling, when a vibrating sound buzzed from the floor. Rolling my eyes, knowing who would be calling me, I pushed up slowly, swinging my legs over my bed while rubbing my temples. Looking over my shoulder, the imprint of where Todd was sleeping was there, but he wasn’t, and my body immediately relaxed. Slowly climbing off the bed, I reached for my clutch and unzipped it open, pulling out my phone and answering it just in time.