“Mm-hmm.” I smile and bite down on his lip.
“You’re fucking trouble, you know that. But you’re my trouble.”
He places me down to the floor, grasping onto my hand. “We are leaving. If I have to watch one more guy look at you in that dress, I’m going to go Rampage Jackson on them.”
I’m certain he’s just as scary, if not more than, Rampage Jackson. We’re almost out the door when I feel my phone vibrate again in my clutch.
“Shit, I need to get this.” Opening my clutch, I rush out the door to answer my phone without the loud music blaring in the background.
“Hello,” I answer, watching Ade saunter to me slowly.
“Kalie? It’s Sarah. Carter’s mom.”
“Oh. Hey, Sarah. Everything okay?”
“Carter’s been in a serious accident. He’s in the hospital right now.”
I throw my hand up to my mouth in shock, my stomach rolling over. “What! What happened?”
“I don’t know love. I can discuss the details with you when you get here.”
I nod my head and look to Ade as a single tear drops from my eye. Wiping it away quickly I tell her, “I’ll be there in a few hours.”
Hanging up my phone, Ade’s face slackened, his brow furrowed and he bit his lower lip in concern. “Who was that?”
“It was my best friend Carter’s mom. He’s been in a serious accident, and I have to leave. Now.”
“The wedding is on Sunday,” he murmurs.
“I know. I’ll be back. I just have to go and see what’s happening. I’ll come back tomorrow night.”
“I’m coming with you,” he says, pulling me to him.
“You don’t have to do that,” I reply, hugging his huge body.
“I want to, we can take my car. You can text Vicky when we’re on the road.”
I nod my head in understanding and look up to him. He brushes my hair out of my face and kisses me softly on the lips. My feelings for him are growing too fast for me to handle, and I really hope I don’t get hurt.
After going back to my hotel room and quickly changing, we get on the road, heading back to Hollywood. Feeling sick, I hope he’s okay. Ade’s hand grasps onto my thigh.
“It’s going to be okay, babe.”
Smiling at him and looking out the window, I watch the trees passing the window. “I hope so. Carter’s my best friend and I love him, but I know he can get rowdy.”
“Is he straight?” Ade asks, looking at me sideways.
“No Ade, he’s as gay as they come.”
He nods his head in understanding, turning his attention back to the road. “So you dance in Hollywood? Phoebe says you’re quite the girl here.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Yeah, I guess I am. I’m pretty good at what I do. I think that came from the endless ballet glasses my mom pushed me into from as soon as I could walk. I hated it, ballet sucked, but I was good…really good. One day, I was dancing along to Timberland ‘Bounce,’ you know, after watching Step Up 2, I wanted to learn the whole dance, and I did. However, my mom walked in on me in my dance studio that she’d had built into our home. She was disgusted with me and converted my dancing studio into another drinking slash living room for her and her friends as punishment.” I look to Ade and see him watching me every two seconds while keeping his eyes on the road.
“Your mom sounds like a bitch.”
I laugh. “She was. That was mainly because she was constantly trying to keep up with her pathetic Stepford wife friends, and the church. My parents were Mormon, they are not anymore. They’re entirely different people now. Not like that at all. I love to dance, it’s a passion of mine and I think something incredibly beautiful happens when your passion turns into your work. However, I also would love it to be just a hobby. I don’t want to be shaking my ass for these music videos for all my life.” I open the glove box and pull out a bag of pretzels that Ade put in there before we left.
“What is it that you want to do?” he asks softly.
“I’ve always wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer.”
He laughs and rubs a hand over his mouth before he stops abruptly when he sees my eyes drop. “Sorry baby, I wasn’t laughing because I don’t think you can do it. I was laughing because how ironic that would be if you were a lawyer, and being with me.”
I smile and crunch down on a pretzel. “Yeah I guess. It’s just a dream anyway.”
“Wake up baby,” I hear Ade’s voice through my sleep.
“Shit, did I fall asleep?” I stretch out my arms.
“Yeah, come on, we’re here.”
Unbuckling my belt, I open my door. Ade walks around to my side and grabs onto my hand while we walk into the hospital hand-in-hand. It feels natural, everything with him does. It feels as though we’ve been together for years. When we reach the reception area, I notice an elderly woman typing away at her keyboard behind her desk.
“I’m here to see Carter Benson,” I say, tapping the counter out of nerves.
“Are you family?” she asks.
“Yes. Yes, I’m family,” I say without hesitation.
“He’s in the ER, follow the red arrows.”
“Thanks.”
We begin following the red arrows until they lead us to a set of large doors. Pushing them open, we make my way in to where Sarah and Rob, Carter’s parents are sitting. I drop Ade’s hand and pull them both in for a hug.
“This is my boyfriend, Ade,” I introduce casually pointing to him standing beside me.
It’s not until I see the smile on his face that I realize what I’ve just referred to him as. I don’t know why the man is surprised, it’s not as if he gave me a choice in the matter.
“Nice to meet you, Ade,” both Sarah and Rob say in unison. They are amazing parents, never judging anyone. So meeting a man with an MC patch is no issue for them.
“What happened?” I ask them both while taking a seat.
“The police are saying that someone ran him off the road.”
I look to them both the color draining from my face in shock. “What do you mean ran him off the road?”
“There’s evidence at the crash site that shows there was another vehicle involved. The police are in the process of gathering CTV footage.”
“Oh my God,” I gasp staring wide-eyed. “Why would anyone want to hurt, Carter?” I shake my head.
Ade sits down next to me and pulls me under his arm, laying a kiss on my head. “It’s going to be okay, baby. I’ll handle it.”
A couple of hours later, two police officers walk in with a doctor. We all stand and make our way to them.
The officers look between Ade and me. “Are you okay with them hearing this?”
Sarah nods. “Kalie is family.”
“We have the footage we were looking for, and just as suspected someone ran him off the road,” one of the officers says to Sarah.
I look up to the police officers confusion written all over my face. “Intentionally? Carter has no enemies at all.”
He smiles. “It appears that he doesn’t right now, but—”
“No, he has no enemies. I live with him. Sure he has his cat fights, but no one that would want to harm him—”
The doctor interrupts. “He would like to see you all now, said something about a nookie?”
I laugh and hook my hand around Ade’s elbow. “You’re in for a treat.”
Walking down the corridor until I see his name on one of the tags, Sarah and Rob follow closely behind me. When I see the door, I push it open and notice Carter sitting up in his bed with a bandage wrapped firmly around his head.
“Oh my God!” I run to his bedside. Ade hangs back, closing the door behind all of us.
“Hey baby G, I’m fine. Mom! Vicky is going to kill me if Kalie doesn’t show for the wedding!” he scolds his mother.
Ade walks around the curtain and Carter gasps. “Sweet baby Jesus. I would stay celibate for two years for that too,” Carter says loudly, eyeing Ade from head to toe. Ade looks
to him eyes wide. I smack Carter on the shoulder, saving him before Ade decides to go all Jack the Ripper on his ass. Although, something tells me, that because he knows how much Carter means to me, he will tolerate him. I hope.
“Stop! Ade, this is Carter. Carter…Ade.”
I sit down on a seat at the end of the bed so his mom and dad can have a moment with him. Ade walks over to me, picks me up out of my seat, sits in it and then places me on his lap.
He kisses my neck and whispers, “Boyfriend, huh?”
“Well, after all that begging from you, I thought I better, at least, put a label on us.”
He smiles a broad smile, squeezing my inner thigh. “Touché babe.” The gesture setting all my hormones into overdrive. I look to him behind me and smile. Leaning in, he kisses my nose. I feel like locking him up for months just to have my wicked way with him.
Seriously, I think I need to do that. I make a mental note of that fact.
Basically, I just want to have sex with him nonstop while loving the shit out of him. Loving is in the eventual category, I think. Shit. When I snap out of our playfulness and look up to Carter, I can see him smiling at us.
“What!” I snap at him with a grin.
“You gave him the nookie. See, I done told you.”
Rolling my eyes before setting my face back into a serious look. “Carter, do you remember much from that night?”
He looks uneasy, all playfulness gone. He sits up on his bed and looks at his mom and dad.
“Can you guys go home and get me some clothes, please? I have none here, and I’m not wearing these the whole time I’m in this hole.”
His parents look at him worriedly before he adds, “Its fine, Mom. I just want to catch up with Kalie.” They both nod, giving him a kiss on the cheek and then leaving.
Once they’ve left the room, I look to Carter. “So?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t remember much, but I do remember a van. It was white and had men in balaclavas inside it. When they were trying to push me off the road, I wouldn’t budge, until one of them wound their window down and flashed a gun at me. I freaked the fuck out and swerved off the road, hitting a tree.”
Looking to Ade who has his eyebrows drawn in together he says, “You didn’t see anyone else? Remember anything distinctive about the van?” Ade asks with his arm draped around me as he rubs circles on my arm causing goose bumps to rise on the skin.
Carter shakes his head. “I didn’t see anyone else. The only other thing I can think of regarding the van is that it had chrome mag wheels.”
Ade nods his head looks at me and smiles. “That’s enough information, I can get the rest.”
He taps my leg. “Hop up for a sec, baby.”
I jump up off his leg while he pulls out his phone. Looking to Carter I ask, “You’re okay, though? Aside from your head?”
Ade pulls me back down onto his lap forcefully while I’m talking, causing me to yelp in surprise.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, baby G.”
“Drago? Need you to run through some CCTV footage, I’ll be home tonight,” Ade says authoritatively over the phone. I glance at my watch and see it’s close to four o’clock in the morning. I look down at him from his lap, studying his eyes, and he smiles and winks at me before looking at Carter. “Where was the accident?” Ade asks Carter, who tells him the location, which Ade then relays to the man down the phone line before he ends the call.
He grabs onto my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I’ll have some more info tonight.”
I swallow down my worry and look back at Carter. “We better go, no doubt Vicky will be freaking out because I didn’t get time to tell her we were leaving.”
Carter nods his head. “Then yes, you better.”
“I just need to stop at home and pick up a few more things. Do you need anything else from home?” I ask Carter, but he shakes his head. “All right then,” I say walking up to him and giving him a quick kiss on the head. “Stay safe, please!”
He brushes my worry away. “I’m always safe.”
I pull open the passenger seat door and slide in. Ade puts his belt on and roars the car to life before putting it in reverse.
“Who’s Drago?” I ask out of curiosity.
“He’s our computer nerd. He’ll sort out anything we need to know about that van,” he replies, putting it into first gear and pulling out of the hospital.
“Are you hungry?” he asks looking over his arm.
“Starving.”
We pull up to an in-and-out burger place. Ade orders the whole burger joint, and I fold my arms in disbelief.
“I’m not going to eat that much.” He laughs before pulling out of the drive through.
“Take a left up here, it takes you onto the boardwalk,” I say grabbing the chips out of the bag. It’s a habit I have, it’s as though they call to me begging me to eat them. We pull up to the carpark and I turn in my seat, putting one chip after the other in my mouth.
“You wanna eat here or out there.” I point toward the beach.
He laughs, rubbing his fingers over his mouth. “Come on my little chip eater,” he says laughing and picking up the bag of fast food.
Sliding out of the car I follow him to the beach. It’s beautiful here, so serene and peaceful. He stops walking and nudges his head, so I pick up my pace and grab onto his hand. Once we’ve sat down, Ade lies on his back, propping himself up on one elbow. I pull my burger out and moan as I take the first bite from it. He laughs putting a chip into his mouth.
“That good, huh?” he asks, swiping the sauce from my lips with his thumb before sucking it off.
I nod. “Really, really, good. Good enough to not want to go for a run just for eating it.”
He shakes his head and kisses my hand. “You’re pretty fucking special, you know that?”
I swallow the bite I’d taken and laugh. “Good special, I hope.”
His laughter dies out and he just smiles at me. “Real good, darling.”
“So,” I say, wiping my hands with the provided napkin. “You have no brothers or sisters?” I ask.
“Nah none. My parents were as fucked-up as they come. My dad more so than my mom,” he replies, looking out to the ocean.
“Your mom? She passed away when you were young?”
He doesn’t look to me, just keeps his eyes locked on the ocean. “Yeah, she killed herself when I was fifteen. Came home after a fight and found her sliced up on the kitchen floor. Lifeless.”
My eyes widen in shock. I’m speechless. No one should have to find their mother dead, let alone a fifteen-year-old boy discovering such a graphic scene.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter because I have no idea what else to say.
He pulls his eyes away from the ocean to look at me. “Don’t be sorry, I got over it pretty quickly.”
I raise my eyebrows out of shock at his choice of words. How would one get over that, let alone get over it so quickly? I don’t know what else to do, so I move into his arm and lay down with him. He looks down at me and smiles before pulling me under his arm and rolling on top of me.
“Ade…” I say in warning. He tilts his head to the side, smirks and places one of his legs inside mine.
“Kalie…” he mimics.
“Kalie-Rose, if you want to be formal.”
His eyes narrow and he sucks in a breath. “Kalie-Rose is your full name?”
I smile. “Kalie-Rose Reynolds is my full name. But yeah, Kalie-Rose is my full first name.”
His eyes search mine and he plants a soft kiss on my lips. “How did I get someone so fucking perfect?”
“Seriously, people will start staring soon,” I say, slowly turning bright red at his movements. His face holds that same smirk while he pulls on his other leg.
My eyes widen again. “You cannot—”
He grinds his hips into me in a circular motion. I moan out and bite my lower lip. He brings his head down to my neck and bites down.
“I’ll do what I
want, baby.” Running his tongue all the way over my neck and up to my ear. I’m lost in my own little world of Ade and Kalie when it all stops and he gets off me. I frown and prop myself up on my elbows.
“No fair!” I pout, and he laughs, gripping onto my hands and pulling me up.
“We need to get back to this wedding before shit blows up.” He pulls me in for a kiss. When he lets me go, I pick up our rubbish and follow him back to the car.
On our way to my apartment, we talk as though we’ve known each other for years. Everything is so easy with him. However, I can’t help but feel it’s a little too easy, like the calm before the storm. No one gets this much of a good thing without a little crazy. The car shuts off and I jump out.
“I’m pretty sure you’re too big to even fit in my apartment door, but let’s try.”
He laughs while slamming his door closed. “You want me to stop shredding?”
I grab onto his humongous arms, my little hands can’t even wrap around half of his bicep. I shake my head and turn red. “Nope, definitely a no to that one.”
We begin walking into my apartment. Dropping my keys onto the bench I walk up into my room. “I won’t be long, just need to get a few things.”
I start to gather up my shampoo and conditioner when I feel him walk into my room. He looks around and for the first time ever, I feel self-conscious about what my room looks like. It’s all very casual and plain. My wooden bed sits in the middle of the room with bedside drawers on either side. There’s a long boy chest opposite the bed that has a large flat screen television on it, because, well, I love Netflix in bed. He walks up to my bedside table and picks up a photo. It’s a picture of me, Carter and Dominic. Swallowing hard I look up to find him staring at me, silently questioning the photo.
“Friends Ade. He’s just a friend.”
He puts the picture back down and moves to me.
“Friends, hmm? Did he, or did he not, make a move on you?” he asks.
“He was confused,” I reply nervously, looking around the room.
Ade wraps his hands around my neck and pulls me into him. I feel the bulge in his pants pushing up against my stomach, and it turns me on. He brings his lips down to my ear, running over the edges carefully, making my eyes close and a moan slip out.