La Cosa Nostra, This Thing of Ours (10 page)

"Do you want a drink, Petal?" Liam asks, wrapping his hand under my hair so he has a hold of the nape of my ne
ck, he brings me closer to him. He lightly bites my ear, before he whispers, "Or would you like to do something else." I turn my face to him, and he has a very serious look. He adjusts me on his lap and I feel why he is serious.  His cock is bulging against my ass. His hand starts up my thigh a little farther. I see that Simone is watching us, and it is making me very uncomfortable. She's not just watching, she bites her lower lip and looks like she is going to come join in.

I stand up fast
shocking everyone, especially Liam who leans forward to hide his excitement. 

"I need to use
the ladies rooms," I blurt out to explain my sudden need to get away from the groping that was turning me on a little too much.  It wasn't the fact that it was turning me on. I just don't want to be that way in a crowded club with strangers watching. 

"I'll go with you,"
Tara says getting up. Liam's face is wounded, but soon turns to anger.
No, it wasn't you, baby
. I feel like I need to explain, I can tell he thinks I was rejecting his affection. I wasn't. I'm about to lean down to whisper in his ear just what the problem was when Tara grabs my wrist and drags me away. 

"God, Tara
, just a second." I fight against her grip feeling the need to explain to Liam. He looked really hurt and pissed off.

"There's no line so let's go.
" Her grip tightens and in my high heels I don't have much leverage. I hurry in the bathroom feeling the need to get back to Liam, to let him know. I'm walking behind Tara back to our table when she stops dead in her tracks. 

"Geez
, Tara!" I yell when I almost face plant into her back. "What are you doing?" I come around her and see what stopped her. Liam is standing up now, except he has a girl in a tight red dress pinned up against the railing. He has his hands on her ass and his face buried in her hair. The girl's hands are on his shoulders and I can see she is kissing his neck. 

I'm frozen as I watch this.
I feel Tara staring at me waiting for my response. The first thing I do is walk up to them, lean up against the banner, and wait for Liam to notice me. It takes a second since he is buried in her neck. It's like a sucker punch in the gut. What I want to do is run back to the bathroom and vomit, but I hold steady. When he finally notices me, he has a satisfied look on his face. He's telling me that you reject me, that's okay because I have a ton of woman that will take your place. 

"Go to hell
, you fucking asshole!" I yell in his face, making the girl he's wrapped around take notice.  She looks drunk off her ass, her eyes half open.  She smiles a very content happy smile.

"Don't be so pleased, that hard on he is s
porting didn't come from you." I sneer at the girl. 

"Oh really
," she slurs, taking her hand she moves to cup his crotch, Liam turns his head away from me, as if he is ashamed. "Shows you how much you know, he's limp," she scoffs, like she is proud. 
This is sick, such a sick unhealthy game
. 

"Harper, I was doing you
a favor!" Liam yells at me as I start to walk away. I turn staring at him again.  He doesn't look so happy anymore. He walks away from the idiot drunk girl toward me. "I was saving you from having to come up with an excuse to get away from me," he says taking a step closer.

"Oh you have
it all figured out!" I shout. "Poor Liam thought he was being rejected, can't have that. No worries, I am fully aware that I am replaceable," I am yelling, getting madder and madder as he stares at me. "You want to do me a favor, never look in my direction again. Also, go fuck yourself, or that girl, or whoever..." I'm trembling now I'm so hurt, mad, sad. I rush down the stairs and out of the club searching for a cab.  Tears prick my eyes, I am fighting them so hard but they win. I stand on the curb waiting for a cab, men and women walking by, oblivious to me as I sob into my hand.

"What did you mean?"
Liam's soft voice is next to me his hand on my back.

"
What?" I stare at him dumbfounded, sniffing and wiping. I'm sure my mascara is running and I look like a total basket case. 

"You said
'Liam thought he was being rejected'. You weren't rejecting me?" It's like the dense fucker's light bulb just turned on. 

"I wasn't, but I am now. Leave me alone," y
elling now, I can't believe how stupid he can be. His fucking ego is like a fragile egg, the slightest movement will crack its thin shell. 

"Harper, plea
se tell me what just happened. It's like you couldn't get away from me fast enough."  He guides me away from the curb toward an alcove of the building away from prying eyes. 

"You are one gigantic asshole
," I sigh, exasperated from my long day, the mental shit with Jax and now this. "I got up because we had an audience. I was getting very turned on and so was your friend Simone. I was going to tell you that, but Tara dragged me to the bathroom and it took you all of five minutes to find a replacement." I'm leaning up against the building as Liam stares, horrified. He just realized how bad he fucked up and it is very obvious on his face. 

"Fuck, fuck, fuck
," he shouts, running his hands through his hair. "Oh my God, Harper, I'm so sorry." He's frantic, trying to touch my face, but I swat away his hands. 

"You did do me
a favor. You showed me this isn't going to work." My voice is weak, I'm just so tired. 

"NO!" He's shaking his head, refusi
ng to accept what I am saying. "I didn't do anything with her. I'm sorry, it was a misunderstanding." 

"So now every ti
me we have a ‘misunderstanding’," I use my fingers in quotations, for emphasis, "I get to be worried that you are out fucking another girl to inflate your large ego? What if we have an argument or something?  Are you going to have a threesome?"  I throw at him which makes him wince.

"No, I am new at this
, Petal. Please, you have to give me another chance." He goes to grab my shoulders.
I know he is new at this, and I also know exactly what happened, but Jesus Christ, the more I get invested into this man the more I'm going to have to pick up the pieces of my broken heart
.

"Liam, don't touch me.
Those fucking hands were just on another girl's ass!" I screech at him, moving away. "I'm going home. I can't do this right now."  I walk toward one of the waiting cabs. 

"Harper, please," he begs
, following me. "Let me take you home, let's talk this out." He stands in front of the cab door not letting me open it.  "Please, Petal, I'm so sorry." He is not touching me, but I can tell it is taking every ounce of strength he has not to do so. 

"I know you are sorry, I
even know what you thought. I have the image of you touching that girl in my head and the last thing I want right now is you touching me." My stomach is turning and my head is dizzy. I want him to suffer a little. I want to give in too. I want him to hold me and kiss me in that expert way that says I'm the only girl in the world to him. Instead, I get to imagine him all over that drunken floozy. 

"Hey
, are you in or out?" The cabby yells out the window. 

"Move, Liam
," I demand, hesitantly he turns and opens the door of the cab for me. I slide in just about to tell the driver my address when Liam gets in next to me. 

"I'm not leaving until we are ok
ay again," he scoffs, not giving me an option because he shuts the door and tells the driver to drive. 

"I don't get you. O
ne minute, you are confident take charge. The next, you are insecure, needing anything to stroke your ego," I grate, wanting to yell but can't now in the tiny cab. 

"Ever since I met you I don't know who I am
, either. I want to take you, have you, and make you mine, but then I think that will drive you away so I hold back."

"Not sure when you'
ve held back." Remembering the locker room where he gave me the best orgasm of my life.

"Trust me
, Petal, I've been holding back," he half chuckles. "I don't know why I did what I did tonight. Kind of like you don't know why you did what you did last night with the British guy."

"I know why I did it, Liam.
I just can't believe I did do it," I correct him. "You also know why you did what you did. I get it, Liam, I do. You remember I told you last night that I wanted to go a week without seeing a girl plastered to you. It has barely been twenty-four hours, what does that say?" I just stare at him leaning up against the door of the cab. 

"That since you
've entered my life I've gone crazy." He half smiles, I can tell he is trying to lighten the mood. "Please just give me one more chance." He scoots toward me and I give him a warning look which makes him stop. "Please?" he begs as the cab stops outside of my apartment. 

"Fi
ne, I will call you tomorrow." I get out of the cab and slam the door before he even has a chance to say another word. 

Chapter 11

I don'
t sleep worth a shit that night. When I do finally fall asleep, it's not long before I'm awakened by my alarm. I hit the snooze, rolling over cuddling into my blanket. I still don't have my phone, and even though I am a little grateful for the peace and quiet, I still feel a little cut off from the world. 

I decide to go work out again to clear my head before going to the
library to meet with the group. I told Liam I would call him today, but I don't know what I am going to say. It really hurts what he did, it's still so fresh in my mind the way he was touching her. Then again, he wasn't hard when he was touching her. Even though watching her cup his crotch was like a knife to the gut, the fact that he was no longer hard did give me some satisfaction. 

When I open the door to my apartment there is an enve
lope sitting outside my door. In it are the keys to my car and an invoice marked paid with an itemized bill that is three pages long. What they didn't replace on my car would have been easier to write. 

I lock my door and in the parking lot
is my car. It looks brand new. In fact it has a new paint job. It's been reupholstered, and according to the invoice, has a whole new engine. The sneaky bastard bought me a new car without buying me a new car.
Fuck, how am I going to get around this?
I can't accept this, but how do I return my own car, demand they put the old parts back in?  

Walking in the gym
, it is busier than it has been the last couple of times I've been there. I have yet to see any other waitresses from The Guardian. I go in the locker room and stow my bag, jacket, and change my shoes. 

I swing open the door
and look down at my iPod as I turn the corner, running straight into a hard chest. The chest is so hard that I get a bloody nose instantly. I don't even have time to register what is happening, when Liam is holding my shoulders as my hands go up to my nose.

"Son of a bitch!
" It fucking hurts like I was punched. 

"Oh my
God, fuck I'm sorry, Petal." I look up at his eyes filled with concern as I feel the blood coming through my fingers. He guides me quickly back into the locker room, grabbing a towel, he moves my hands and starts to wipe the blood. He takes control by grabbing my waist and with the towel over my nose he tilts my head back.

"Just relax, I've got you
, Petal," he whispers in a soothing voice. I do, I relax into his arm as he holds me up with my head back. "I'm sorry. I figured you would be paying attention. I should know better by now that you don't." He laughs.  How many times now has this man scared me or caused me to do something terribly stupid? 

"Shut up
," I sniff, sounding like an idiot with my nose being plugged by the towel in his hand. 

"What was that?" He laughs at the sound of my voice. 

I sit up to see if I can still feel blood running. When I don't, I take the towel and go to the mirror over the sink. Wetting it, I wipe off all the blood. The towel is bright red. It seems as though it was bleeding very well because I feel light headed. I hold myself up with the sink feeling very weak.