Beauty from Pain (23 page)

Chills come over me as I begin to sing. I lean
toward the mic. “‘Well, the men come in these places … And the men
are all the same … You don’t look at their faces … And you don’t
ask their names.’”

I close my eyes as I sing because I don’t want
to see the crowd. I want to think of the private dance I did for
Lachlan. “‘I’m your private dancer … A dancer for money … I’ll do
what you want me to do … I’m your private dancer … A dancer for
money … And any old music will do.’”

I forget I’m in front of a crowd and become
lost in the lyrics. “‘Let me loosen up your collar … Tell me … Do
you want to see me do the shimmy again?’”

When I’m finished singing, I return from the
place I’ve been. I come off stage and they announce that the
countdown is only three minutes away.

Geez, I hope Ben doesn’t try to lay one on me.
What would I do about that?

I prop my chin in my hand and wish
for the millionth time I were with Lachlan when my
phone
vibrates on the
table and lights up with a new text message. I smile when I see
it’s from Lachlan. He’s probably wishing me a Happy New
Year.

*Yes. I’d like 2 CU do the shimmy
again.*

He’s here.
My head pops up and I begin my search in the sea of
faces.
When I don’t find him in the crowd,
I text him. I’m afraid I won’t find him in time for the
countdown.

*Where RU?*

A moment later I feel his hands around my
waist and his mouth against my ear. “Right here.”

I spin around and look at him in disbelief. “I
thought you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow?”

“
I busted my ass to get everything
done and left Lovedale this afternoon so we could be together for
the countdown. I didn’t want anyone else kissing you at
midnight.”

I know how that translates. He doesn’t want
Ben to kiss me, but what Lachlan doesn’t realize is that there
would’ve been no New Year’s kiss for me if it didn’t come from
him.

“
Five. Four. Three. Two.
One!”

He takes my face in his hands and kisses me
hard as “Auld Lang Syne” plays loudly. When he lets me go, he pulls
back so he can see my eyes.

“
Come home with me.”

26

Jack McLachlan

We drive to the apartment and I sit in the car
while Laurelyn goes inside to pack a bag. While I’m waiting for her
to return, a cab stops at the curb and Ben gets out. He stumbles as
he makes his way to the building. He appears drunk. I want to go up
to the apartment as I watch him, but I don’t because Laurelyn
should be on her way down any second. And I’m sure I won’t get
along with drunk Ben any better than I do with sober
Ben.

She doesn’t come down but I wait a little
longer and then something doesn’t feel right. To hell with this. I
want to know what’s taking her so long, so I get out and stalk
toward the building. I press the buzzer and get no answer, so I
press it again and then hear Laurelyn’s voice.

“
I’m almost finished. Be right
down.” I hear Ben shout something in the background, but I can’t
make out what it is.

“
Buzz me in, Laurelyn.
Now.”

I hear the latch on the door release and I
don’t wait for the elevator. I take the stairs two at a time until
I reach the third-floor apartment. I pound on the door and as soon
as Laurelyn opens it, I can see she’s been crying. I glance at him
and then back to her. “What did he do to you?”

“
Nothing.” She won’t look at me
and it’s because something happened. And it’s something that’s
going to piss me off.

“
Tell me what the hell he did to
you, Laurelyn!”

She picks up her bag. “Can we just go,
please?”

I don’t feel like going. He did something to
her and I’m going to find out what. I step inside the apartment
toward Ben. “What the hell did you do?”

Laurelyn steps in front of me, between Ben and
me. She can see where this is going. She puts her hands on my chest
and shakes her head while she pleads, “Please don’t, Lachlan. He’s
my best friend’s brother. I don’t want this to become a problem
between me and Addison.”

I reach for her bag on the floor
as I glare at Ben.
I’m going to find out
what you did.

We leave the apartment and I say nothing until
we’re in my car and I can’t stand it any longer. I have to know.
“Tell me, Laurelyn.”

Her head is lowered and she’s staring at her
hands in her lap. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“
I’m not moving this car until you
tell me what he did.”

It’s dark, but the spill from the streetlights
shines on her face and I see that she’s crying. “I really just want
to get out of here.”

She’s not going to tell me anything while
we’re here. She knows I’ll go up there and beat the shit out of him
if he hurt her. I start the car and pull away. When we’re on the
highway, I reach for her hand and bring it to my lips.

She sighs deeply. “He came into my room and
saw me packing. He knew I was going to stay with you, so he asked
me not to leave. When I told him I was going with you, he grabbed
me and started kissing me. I pushed him away and he told me I was
nothing more than a whore to you.”

There’s only one word to describe the feeling
raging inside me: fury.

I’m glad she didn’t tell me while we were
there because I would have flown into a blind rage. I wasn’t
entirely sure I wasn’t going to turn around and go back to kick his
ass. “You’re not staying with him anymore.”

“
Lachlan, don’t be ridiculous. I
have to.”

“
No, you don’t. I’ll get you your
own apartment.”

She’s shaking her head. “No, Lachlan. I can’t
let you do that.”

“
Then the only other option is for
you to stay with me at the vineyard because you’re not going back
to stay with him.” I’m watching the road, but that doesn’t keep me
from feeling her watch me in the dark. “Packing every few days is
getting old anyway, right? And you never have all the things you
need.”

“
Won’t you have to go out of town
sometimes? Where will I stay when you’re gone?”

“
You can stay at the vineyard
without me. Mrs. Porcelli would probably like the company and
Daniel can drive you if you need to go anywhere. I don’t know.
Maybe you’ll come with me on some of my trips.”

Is she considering it? “Baby, I don’t want you
there with him anymore,” I add.

“
Addison will be upset with me if
I move out.”

“
I think she’d be more upset if
something happened between you and her brother and it ruined your
friendship,” I counter. “Besides, she stays with Zac most nights,
doesn’t she?”

“
That’s true,” she
agrees.

“
Tell me you will.”

She hesitates before answering. “Okay, I
will.”

I bring her hand to my lips again and kiss it.
“We’ll go back for your things in a day or two after I cool down.
There’s no way I can be near that little fucker right now without
killing him.”

Okay. It’s a done deal; Laurelyn is moving in
with me for the next two and half months. This isn’t something I’ve
done before. Hell, I’d never allowed any of my companions to visit
one my houses or vineyards. I couldn’t chance the connection
afterwards, but it doesn’t matter if Laurelyn makes the connection.
She will be nine thousand miles away once we’re over so it doesn’t
matter.

She’s being unusually quiet and I’m worried
about the things spinning through her head. I hope she isn’t
putting any merit into Ben telling her I think of her as my
whore.

I give her hand a little squeeze where it
rests on my thigh. “Ben is wrong. You’re not a whore to
me.”

“
How am I not?
Didn’t I agree to a sexual relationship with a man I didn’t know in
exchange for
the time of my
life
? That’s as good as being paid for
sex.”

“
Laurelyn, we are two consenting
adults. We have great sex, but I don’t pay you for it. We have a
great time together because we’re friends. We enjoy spending time
together and it has absolutely nothing to do with sex. Got
it?”

“
Yeah.”

She doesn’t sound convinced but the doubt Ben
placed in her mind is fresh. She’ll need time to forget about his
cruel words. For now, I choose to say nothing else about it and
instead change the topic. “Yanks have New Year’s traditions,
right?”

“
Yes. There’s a southern tradition
of eating black-eyed peas and ham hocks on New Year’s Day. It’s
supposed to bring you luck throughout the year.”

“
Should I have Mrs. Porcelli cook
that for you today?”

She’s laughing now. “No, I don’t eat ham hock,
whatever that is, so that won’t be necessary.”

At some point in the drive, she becomes quiet
and I think she has Ben’s accusation on her mind again until I
realize her hand has relaxed. She’s fallen asleep. I pull into the
garage and park, but take a moment to watch her sleeping. As I
brush her hair from her face, she reminds me of a sleeping angel
and I can’t understand how that bastard could hurt her by saying
such horrible things.

I brush my fingers against her
cheek. “Laurelyn, we’re home.” She
stirs
a little and I think about how
that came out all wrong. “We’re at the vineyard.”

She doesn’t
wake
so I get out and go around to
her side of the car. I scoop her out to carry her to bed. I take a
few steps toward the door and she tries to focus on me with
exhausted eyes. “What are you doing?”

“
I’m carrying you to
bed.”

“
I haven’t been carried to bed
since I was three.”

“
Now you can say you haven’t been
carried to bed since you were twenty-two.”

I place her on what I have come to think of as
her side of the bed. She seems to have gone back to sleep already.
I note the cocktail dress she’s wearing and I’m certain she doesn’t
want to sleep in it, so I pull a T-shirt out of my drawers for
her.

I slip off one of her shoes and she inhales
heavily as I remove the second one. “Thank you,
Lachlan.”

I place her shoes on the floor next to the
footboard. “I don’t mind.”

Her eyes are closed as she says, “No, I don’t
mean for carrying me to bed. I mean for everything. You treat me
like I’m somebody instead of a nobody.”

She’s showing me a new side of herself. It’s
childlike and damaged. I know in my gut that this moment has
nothing to do with anything Ben said. She carries an old scar and
it causes her deep pain.

I brush my fingers down her cheek. “You’re
such a special person. You should always be treated like
somebody.”

She reaches for my hand and holds it against
her face, but doesn’t say anything. I want to tell her how her
heart belongs to someone she’s yet to meet and she’ll be loved and
adored by one bloody lucky man someday. She’ll have his babies just
like she told me she wanted to do and he’ll love her in a way like
she’s never known.

But I can’t tell her these things. And I don’t
know why.

27

Laurelyn Prescott

I open my eyes and I’m alone. Waking in
Lachlan’s bed without him has become a routine morning for me since
I haven’t been spending many nights at Ben’s. And then it hits me.
I remember what happened with my host and why I won’t be staying
with him anymore.

I dread telling Addison because I don’t know
what I’m going to say. I find my purse and overnight bag in the
chair in the corner of the room and I take my phone out to call
her. I might as well get it over with.

I see a missed text from Addison at three in
the morning.

*RU w/ L?*

There’s really no reason in worrying about
what to say. I’ll just tell her what happened and that I can’t stay
there anymore. It’s that simple.

She answers on the first ring. “Call back when
I’m not hungover and ready to hurl.”

She must have drunk a lot more after I left.
“Rough night?”

“
No. Rough morning. You don’t
sound too bad.”

“
I’m not.” I stopped drinking
after Lachlan came to the club.

“
You disappeared on us last night.
I guess you went home with lover boy.”

It’s just like her to not remember. “I told
you I was leaving with him. Your drunk ass just doesn’t remember
it.”

“
Oh.”

Here goes nothing. “I need to talk you about
something that happened last night.”

“
Is everything okay?”

It definitely isn’t okay. “No, it’s not. Are
you at Ben’s or Zac’s?”

“
Zac’s.”

Good. At least she finally had the guts to
stay all night. “Ben and I had an incident last night. He came into
our room while I was packing a bag to take to Lachlan’s. He asked
me to stay with him instead of leaving. I told him no and he tried
to kiss me. When I pushed him away, he called me a
whore.”