Sweet Affection (Truth Book 3) (11 page)

So much for the help, bastard.
  

“What can I do for you, Shannon?” I’m pissed off she’s still got her hand on me so I shrug it off while I reach out to pick up my glass. Hopefully she’ll get that hint. I don’t want to be a dick but sooner or later she’s got to realise there’s no point in trying. There’ll never be anything between us again.

She looks a little hurt but then moves her hand to play seductively with her necklace. I know she’s trying to get me to look, because then I’ll see her chest as she leans forward, but I don’t. I keep my eyes on my beer.

“I thought you might like to come back to mine? I’ve got something for you.” She bites her lip and pushes her tits together.
Very subtle.

She’s persistent though, I’ll give her that.

Before Laurel I probably would have gone home with her. Now, I just want her to leave.

“Not going to happen, babe. Why don’t you go find some other guy to spread your legs for?” Her mouth drops wide open but her surprise turns to anger when she shoots out the chair. 

“You don’t have to be such an asshole about it!”

“I do. Because you don’t seem to understand. Not. Going. To. Happen.” I say it slowly and stare in her eyes, hoping she gets it this time.

My phone rings on the table startling us both, and when her lips curve viciously, I know exactly what she’s going to do. Like it’s happening in slow motion, we both reach across the table for my phone but she beats me to it.

“James’ phone.” I try to grab it from her but she turns away from me quickly. “He’s too busy in between my legs to get to the phone right now. Leave a message and as soon as I come, he’ll get back to you.”

She flings the phone at my chest, raising an eyebrow, then walks away with an exaggerated sway in her hips.

“Laurel? Babe?” Nothing comes back through the speaker but a worrying silence.

Shit, fuck, damn. I growl and slump back in the chair. “Thanks for the help, dickwad. That was Laurel.”

“What could I have done? Shannon wouldn’t listen to me.” He shrugs, and takes another drink.

I try her number again but it just rings out. Another try and it goes straight to voicemail. She’s turned her fucking phone off. I get that for another five minutes until I stop trying, and throw my phone back down on the table. I’m in so much trouble.

“She’s probably annoyed, but she won’t believe her. She knows how much you love her.” Blake tries to make me feel better but until I can explain, I’m not even going to be able to concentrate on anything. I’m gonna fucking kill Shannon when I next see her, the bitch. Why does it have to happen when Laurel’s over a hundred miles away? I can’t go three days with her being upset. Or pissed. Whichever it is. But how can I get her to talk to me if she’s not answering the phone? I scrub my hands over my face in frustration, and frown into my drink.

“I’ll tell Cass what happened, don’t worry. She’ll explain it to Laurel.” I exhale deeply, and nod with relief. That’ll help.

“I’ll do it now, before she gets a call from her. It’ll be better if we get our side across first. Chin up.”

He slaps me on the shoulder and ruffles my hair. “Catch ya later.” I nod again and mumble a ‘later’ to him as he walks away.

“What did Shannon want?” Ryan asks, sitting down in the chair that Blake just left. He’s eyeing me suspiciously, waiting for my answer. Another one who doesn’t believe me then. I guess that’s what I get for acting like a muppet for so long.

“To cause problems for me and Laurel, because I turned her down. Answered my phone and made out like we were fucking or some shit like that.”

“God, my sixteen year old sister is more mature than her.” He chuckles and pushes another beer towards me. “On the house, seems like you need it. Laurel’s not going to believe her anyway. She knows she likes to cause trouble.”

“Yeah right. That’s why she ignored my call then turned her phone off.” He frowns and gets out his own phone. He’s presses it to his ear, I imagine trying to call her and it rings. My heart pounds in my chest when she answers.

Is she crying?

Fuck me.

I motion for him to give me the phone but he winces and holds his finger up for me to wait. He starts trying to soothe her.

She
is
crying.

For fuck’s sake. So much for her not believing it.

I gesture again for him to give me the phone but he shakes his head mouthing
not yet
to me and I get out the chair with a jerk, slamming my hands on the table. I can’t just do nothing, but what the hell can I do?

Laurel

I stare at my phone in shock then slowly slide down the wall in my hotel room. The tears are pooling in my eyes and my heart feels like it’s going to break any minute.

“What’s going on?” I whisper into the empty room. Fuck, he’s with her. I go away for a few days and he turns to her for sex?

That can’t be right.

But why would she say it? Well I know why, she’s probably just jealous.

But she had his phone. She’s with him.

My phone beeps and I get a text. I don’t know the number.

I’m fucking your boyfriend. And there are others too. You’re fooling yourself if you think he’ll ever be faithful.

My phone buzzes again and I glance down at the screen. I need time to think. I can’t talk to him about this yet so I dismiss the call and turn my phone off. Hot tears roll slowly down my face and as much as I want to be strong about this, it feels good to cry. To release it all. So I do. Just thinking about them together causes the bile to rise in my throat and I choke down a sob. I cover my mouth with my hand, and get a sick feeling in my stomach. It takes a few seconds to realise I need to run to the bathroom or else I’ll have some cleaning up to do. I wretch into the toilet until my stomach empties, then I sit on the cold tiles and slump back against the side of the bath. I look down at myself and want to laugh, but instead another sob comes out.

How did I get here?

I’m so pathetic.

I need to talk to someone. Cassie will help me. Or maybe Jen. Or both.

I dig my phone out my pocket and turn it back on. Just as I’m about to dial Cass’s number, I get an incoming call from Ryan.

The ache in my chest dampens some, and I answer it, trying my best to not sound like a frog.

“Hi.”

“Are you okay?” He says quickly, and his concerned voice makes my eyes water again.

“No, I’m not okay. I’m pissed.” Talking to someone else about this makes me angry. Who the hell does she think she is? I’ve never done anything to her. I sniff and take a deep breath in to try and calm myself.

“Are you there?” I ask, he’s unusually quiet.

“Yeah, sorry sweetheart. Someone was talking to me. I’m just moving somewhere less crowded.” Oh, he’s busy at work.

“Don’t worry about me Ryan. I’ll be fine. You should get back to the bar.” He sounds breathless.

“Is this about James? I’ve just seen him here.” He’s at the bar? Well his head definitely isn’t between her thighs if he’s out. Unless they’ve been fucking in the bathroom. Something I know for a fact he’s done before.
Oh, God.

“Did you speak to him?”

“Yeah, I saw Shannon walk up to Blake and James’s table and sit down. When I asked him what she was doing, he said she wanted to mess with you both because he turned her down. If it means anything to you, Laurel, I don’t think anything’s going on. He just asked me if he could speak to you.”

“Don’t let him. I can’t right now.” I don’t know what to say just yet. I still need to think.

“I won’t. But he looked like he was going to kill me when I said no.”

I sigh into the speaker and rub my free hand over my temple. “I’m going to go. Thanks for ringing me. I’ll see you this weekend for the party I guess.”

“Okay. Call me if you need
anything
.” I promise him I will then hang up feeling a little more confused than before. I yawn, then turn my phone off. I’ll sleep on it, and maybe speak to James in the morning. Getting into bed, I burrow down into the pillow and think about how amazing last weekend was. James’ sweet words, his face lit up laughing, his teasing, his eyes when they looked at me, the rose petals. I think back on our relationship and let it all wash over me, relaxing my mind. His whispered
you’re everything
is what I hear before I drift off to sleep.

Bang, bang.

What the heck’s that?
I move my head and realise I’m in bed.

Oh, I must have been dreaming. I turn over onto my other side and pull the covers tighter round me. It’s cold sleeping on my own. I don’t open my eyes. I’ll wake up too much if I do that.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Okay, not a dream. I open my eyes and snap upright in bed. I hold my breath, waiting for another noise.

Bang, bang, bang.

Shit, it’s the door. I jump out of bed, and in my haste to get there quickly to quieten whoever it is down, I bang my elbow on the side of wardrobe. Really hard.

“Fucking hell. Stupid furniture.” I mumble to myself, rubbing my funny bone as hard as I can.

Nothing funny about that.

I look through the peephole and don’t see anyone. Strange. If it was the hotel, they’d just ring the room phone if they needed me. I don’t risk opening the door. I’m here on my own and it could be some axe murderer, or rapist. They sounded pretty violent.

I open the complimentary bottle of water and pour it into a glass, then sit on the bed and turn my phone on, realising I’m going to need to set an alarm for tomorrow…today. When it loads, I see the missed call icon indicating a few, and twenty new texts. A couple are from Cassie and Jen both asking if I’m okay and telling me to call them. They must have found out somehow. And the others are from James. The first one was about five hours ago, just after I called him, pleading with me to call back and they go on like that until the very last one.

Open the damn door!

It was him?

He’s here.

I hug my phone to my chest and breathe deeply. God, I need to see him. I think it was just the shock earlier. Now I’ve had time to think about it, I know he wouldn’t do that to me. I briefly think back to Alex and how she was some-serious-screws-loose psycho. I just can’t believe women would be so bat-shit crazy over a guy.

My guy.

He is amazing, I’ll give them that. But did she think I’d break up with him and then she’d get her chance? I shake my head of all jealous thoughts, that’s never been me, and I can’t start thinking like that now. He’s always been loving, and sweet and-

Why the hell haven’t I opened the door yet?

I run over, turn the lock and pull it open so hard it bangs against the wall.

“You’re here.” I say, my voice full of aching relief and just a little bit of lust as my eyes find him sitting on the floor up against the wall in the hotel corridor. He looks tired, his hair’s slightly messy and his clothes a little out of place, but he still makes my blood pressure spike. He watches me carefully as he stands, as though trying to suss out how I’m feeling.

“I need to talk to you.” He swallows hard, and walks towards me slowly, concern written all over his face.

I back up into the room and he follows, shutting the door softly behind him.

“In a minute. There’s something I need to do first.”

I close the distance between us and place both my hands on his cheeks. I reach up on my tiptoes and press my lips firmly against his. It takes him a few seconds to wake up and respond, but as soon as he wraps his arms round my back and pulls me close to his chest, I tilt my head and allow his tongue to deepen the kiss. Eventually, we both pull away breathless and he rests his forehead against mine.

“You’re not mad?” He asks apprehensively and I want to smoothen out that frown on his forehead.

“I was.” I admit honestly. “I haven’t been feeling great recently. A little tired and emotional. I think it’s dealing with the new store on top of running Proposals back at home. We’ve been so busy lately. As soon as this store’s up and running, I’m going to step back for a little while. Jess is more than capable. So
this
on top of all that really upset me.” I shrug and pull myself out of his arms. “It was a shock to hear her voice when I was expecting you. To know she was there with you, and I wasn’t.”

“I wasn’t there
with
her. She was just there.”

I nod. “Yeah I get that, Ryan told me. It just hit a nerve. Kind of reminded me of the wicked witch.” That was our name for Alex because I couldn’t handle actually having her name on my lips after her betrayal.

He takes my hand in his and wraps them both round my back, pulling me towards him.

“I can only apologise. For her. For Shannon. For everything I’ve allowed you to be hurt by. But I promise you here and now, I would never intentionally hurt you, Laurel. And I will never,
ever
cheat on you. You’re worth so much more than that.” He runs his knuckles down my cheek and kisses me once on the lips.

“I can’t believe you’re actually here.” I grin against his lips then duck my head into his chest, snuggling my cheek against him.

“I just had to make sure you were okay. I could hear you crying on the phone to Ryan, and I wanted to be the one to comfort you. Even if it was me you were mad at.”

I get my phone and scroll to the message I received from the unknown number.

“Yeah, I got this. I’m guessing that’s Shannon’s number. It just shook me a little.” I hand my phone over to him and he compares the number to his contacts.

“That bitch.” He mumbles as he falls back onto the bed and runs his hand through his hair.

“Yep. Anyway, I’m really sick of thinking about her tonight. How long can you stay for?” I crawl on top of him, straddling his waist and running my hands over his chest.