This Time Around (24 page)

I hate that I have upset her but she needs to let me explain. She should have fucking waited and confronted me. I overtake a car that is going super fucking slow, don’t they know that I am driving here? Fuck, it seems every fucker is out to stop me from getting to Bambi. I pull into the street where Rachel lives and I see my girl's car parked in her drive and my heart skips a beat. There go the fucking chick feelings again.

Surely this shit doesn't happen with men.

I stop outside her house and shut the engine off and climb out. Knox is opening his door and I turn to help him down. He looks worried, even though I am pretty sure he has no clue what is happening.

My heart speeds up but time seems to slow down as I walk towards the house with Knox in tow. I lick my dry lips and lift my hand to knock the door. We wait for an answer and I think I am having a heart attack, my heart is pounding, my breathing is coming out short and fast, and my hands are sweating pints. My heart stops when Rachel opens the door, the smile on her face drops when she sees that it is me at the door.

“Really,” she says, her voice laced with disdain. Her hands on her hips. Yeah, I would say she is super fucking pissed.

“I need to see her Rach,” I plead. I whip my sweaty hands down my jeans. “I need to explain. It isn’t what she thinks.” Fucking hell, I sound like a fucking bloke who was just caught shagging some who isn’t is wife.

“Seriously, that is what you are going with?” Bambi comes up behind her friend, looking the angriest I have seen her. Fuck, she is sexy as fuck when she is pissed. My dick swells in my jeans but I damp down the thoughts. Not the time or place for this, as her eyes are red and puffy. “How the hell did you know where I was?” Rachel steps aside so Bambi can face me head on. I look over her shoulder to see a very worried looking Connie, hiding by the doorframe. Bambi spins around and sees her daughter. CJ jumps at the look on her mum’s face.

“I didn’t know that you were mad at him,” she says, tears filling her eyes.

“It is okay, sweetheart, no-one is mad at you,” I say.

Rachel moves over to her and hugs her. Whispering in her ear, she smiles sadly and walks back into the kitchen. Turning back to me, Bambi cocks an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation I assume.

“Can Knox go and join the girls, please?” She nods. Knox doesn’t wait for us, he scarpers off and joins CJ and Rachel in the kitchen. “Here or living room?” I ask.

“Living room.” Bambi doesn’t wait for me she walks away and I follow. I shut the door behind me and walk into the living room. Bambi sits in the single chair and I sit on the coffee table facing her. I look at her beautiful face, but she is looking anywhere but me. Okay, here goes nothing.

“That woman you saw was Shelly; Knox’s mother. She turned up out of the blue today, asking to see Knox. She told me that she messed up but she was young, yada, yada, yada. What-the-fuck-ever. I was young but I stepped up.” She looks at me and I offer her a small reassuring smile. “Baby, what you saw was my very little effort to comfort her because she started blubbering like a bloody baby. I touched her arms and she wrapped herself around me. She must have had girlfriend radar or something, because she must have known at that perfect fucking moment that you would walk around the corner and see us. I swear to you, babe, there was nothing in that hug. If you had waited I would have explained. Why didn’t you confront me at the time?”

“Confront you? Fuck me running, Liam, I had just walked into your garden and seen my boyfriend wrapped up in some freaking tart. How the fuck did you want me to confront you, Liam? I felt humiliated. I felt beyond hurt that you would cheat on me.” I stand up and stare down at her, my anger evident on my face, because she shrinks back into the chair.

“I didn’t fucking cheat on you. Fuck me. She hugged me and if you had stayed long enough you would have seen me push, her away. But no, you take off and blame me for shit I didn’t do. I thought you of all people would be smart enough to stick around and see what exactly happened. Fight for me. For us. I guess I was wrong.” My words taste like shit in my mouth, but fuck, she pissed me off. My blood is rushing through my veins and it is all I can hear, my anger is getting out of control. No-one has made me feel this angry since I found about Shelly leaving Knox. I turn away from Bambi and place my hands on my hips, trying to rein in my anger. I close my eyes and tilt my head upwards.

I feel hands slide around my waist from behind and a warm body press against my back. I fight every instinct in me to touch her, but I need to stop the raging anger in my blood. Bambi rests her head between my shoulder blades. I take in deep breaths, cooling myself down. I can’t lose my temper again. Not with Bambi or the kids around. Taking one more breath, I raise my hands and place them over hers on my stomach. She lets out a sigh and her body loses some of the tension she was holding in. I feel a kiss on my spine, even through the material I can feel the love coming from her. My anger vanishes from my body and it heats up, but in a totally different way.

“I’m so sorry. I messed up. I should have stayed and talked to you.”

“Yes, you should have.”

“Can we get passed this? Or have I messed up too bad?”

“I don’t know,” I say, smiling. I try to keep the humour out of my voice. I know I will forgive her. She is the love of my life. She is it for me. No other bird like her.

“Liam, I am so sorry. I will say it a hundred times if I have to. I will do anything. Please, forgive me. We need a fresh start.” That announcement gets the door to the dirty bedroom open.

“Anything?” I ask

“Anything, I promise.”

“Anything?” I ask again. She nods her head and smiles at me which I return. “Oh, baby. You are going to regret you said that,” I say, and wink at her.

“This is totally not what I meant, Liam,” I yell at him, as we park the car outside Castle Ink. I know I wanted to get a tattoo but I didn’t think it would be this bloody soon. Liam wants to have a few things added to his sleeves, plus have his nipples pierced. I have an inkling of what I want, but we shall see. I step out of the car and look at the building.

“Babe, you have had two weeks to get used to this idea.” He pokes his bottom lip out like a pouting toddler. “You did say ‘Anything’.” Bastard.

The boys have done good. The front has a large window but it is frosted a third of the way up, privacy I can imagine. There is a big Castle Ink logo in the middle of the window. I walk around the car and step up to Liam, who is looking sexy as hell today. But then again he always looks sexy to me.

He put on a dark grey vest and a pair of faded black jeans. He looks like he walked off a fashion runway. I gulp when Liam holds his hand out for me and offers me the perfect Bradley smile, a smile that he has taught Knox to use on me when he wants something. No-one and I mean no-one can say no to the Bradley smile. I take a deep breath and smile at him.

“Baby, you will be fine. Dex will take it easy on you, I swear. If they don’t, I will take them out back and give them a kicking,” he winks at me, and I laugh.

“My big hard man,”

“Fuck, yeah.” He leans in and kisses me gently. I love soft Liam. “Come on, the boys are waiting.” He leads me into the tattoo studio and I am surprised at how clean and how amazing everything looks. There is a small, black, shiny reception desk that holds the name Castle Ink in silver. The rest of the studio is black and white. Checkered floors, black leather couch. There are little black tattoo items on the walls for decoration, as well as photos of people’s tattoos. This place is amazing. I don’t know Dex and Jay well but hell, I am proud of them. Behind the reception desk is a beautiful young woman, I would guess her age at around the twenty-four. She has the most beautiful coloured hair. It is long and curled down her back, golden blonde flowing down into a rich dark brown. The ombre colouring looks amazing on her.

She has tattoos all up her left arm, it looks beautiful. And she has one on her other bicep but that seems to stop half way down her arm. She also has three bands wrapped around her forearm, but I see bits are missing, it must be a part of the design, plus she has her nose pierced. Her makeup is perfect.

“Hey, Addy. This is my girlfriend, Bambi. Baby, this is Addison Cole.” Liam's introductions bring me out of my fascination with this stunning girl in front of me. I look up and Addy is smiling at me. She reaches out her hand for me to shake, so I take it.

“Sorry I was staring, but you are bloody gorgeous.” I blush at my outburst, cracking first impression. “Sorry, I’m Penny, but this one calls me Bambi.” I nod towards Liam. She looks between us with a huge smile on her face, damn it is infectious.

“Happy to meet you, Penny. You did good, Li. Really, fucking good. Okay, you guys are with both brothers today, but starting with Dex. So if you will just follow me and I will take you back to his room.” She steps out from behind her desk and walks towards the back rooms. She is wearing tight black skinny jeans, with perfectly placed rips in them, and a white v-neck t-shirt with the words ‘Not Today’ printed on the front. We follow Addy until she stops at an open door. I stand next to her and peer inside. Jay Castle is in there tattooing a girl's thigh. It is so pretty. Pink and grey flowers cover the outside of her thigh.

“Are you almost done?” Addy asks him. Without looking up, Jay answers her.

“Yep. Just need to… there done,” he says, leaning back and stretching his back. He smiles when he sees Liam and me standing with Addy. He puts the tattoo gun down and takes his gloves off, before replacing them with new ones.

“Hey you two. Nice to see you again, Miss Sexy Penny.” He winks at me. Haha funny, I think to myself.

“Mate,” Liam warns. Jay waves him off and starts rubbing cream over the girl's new tattoo. I cringe for the girl, who doesn’t move an inch.

“I bet she is in pain from him wiping the cream all over her thigh,” I say, to the room.

“Well she wasn’t in pain when she was wiping my cream off her chin last night,” A booming voice boasts behind us. I jump and Liam tightens his hands on my hips. I turn my head and see Dex standing behind us, leaning against the wall looking all sexy like. His tattoo sleeves on show for everyone to see. His tight black t-shirt pulling tight against his massive biceps.

Damn you arm porn.

Addy swings around to look at Dex and his face falters a little, but he quickly recovers. Was that regret that flashed across his face? I look between Dex and Addy and I can see the hurt and anger clear as day on her face.

She swings her head back to face Jay and says. “I am done for the day, Jay. I can’t… I. Not again.” She storms off towards the front of the studio, minutes later the front door slams shut.

“Nice one, fuckhead. Jesus, when the fuck are you going to man the fuck up?” Jay seethes at Dex. “You are done, sweetheart. You can put your bottom’s back on and sort the bill out with my dickhead brother over there.” Jay turns his back on us and pulls his phone out of the top drawer of the desk he has in his room.

“Will she be okay?” I ask Liam.

“Addy is one tough girl. I am sure she will be fine. She knows how to handle these two.” Liam winks at Dex, who scowls back. He pushes off the wall and walks towards the front desk but looks over his shoulder at us.

“Go to my room, I will be back soon. Liam nods and takes my hand. We walk to the next room and I sit on the tattoo chair made of red leather. Liam stands between my legs and takes my face in his hands. He leans in and takes my mouth in a heated kiss. My body melts into his and I get dragged into a desire filled fog. Believe me, Liam Bradley can drag me anywhere he wants to. He breaks the kiss and looks down at me; love and desire shining loud and proud in his eyes as he drinks me in.

I move my hands from his hips, and I slide them around to grip his arse. I pull him towards me, needing him closer. I rest my forehead on his stomach and breathe in his manly scent.

“I love you, Liam.”

“And I love you, too, babe.” He returns my declaration and kisses the top of my head.

“Okay, break it the fuck up. I don’t want to see all this mushy shit in my room,” Dex grumbles, as he enters his room.

“Fuck off, dude. You could have all this if you just get your head out of your arse, and see what is right in front of you,” Liam tells him, and none too politely if you ask me.

“Don’t,” Dex growls. Whoa, that was some sexy sounds coming from Dex, even if he was angry making them. Oh I bet he growls while having…

“Really?” Liam says, looking at me. Shit he knows what I was thinking. I look away and hide my blush at being caught. Bollocks.

“She is perfect for you. You just need to stop pushing her away.”

“Liam, I said fucking don’t. Now am I inking you today or are you going to go all pissy on me? If so then
you can fuck off out of my studio.” I am shocked by his angry tone towards Liam. Obviously Liam had hit a very sensitive nerve with Dex, and I have a feeling that sensitive nerve is called Addison Cole.

“Fine, I will button it. For now. My girl wants to go first.” Dex nods and turns his back to us and digs out our designs for today. He takes a deep breath, his shirt pulling tight against his back muscles.