This Time Around (Maybe) (23 page)

“If it makes you feel better, he has a man follow me to and from the club to make sure I get home safe,” she says, a smile playing on her lips.

“He does?” Reid asks, clearly shocked.

“Yes. I know we won’t ever be together, but we do care about each other.” She lays her head on one of her pillows. “I’m sorry you all got into a fight over it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Reid says. “As long as you’re not working there anymore, I’m happy.”

I stand. “I need to get home to my wife.” I kiss Sephie on the head. “I love you, my stubborn girl,” I whisper in her ear. “You coming with me, Reid, or you staying here for a while?” I ask him. We both rode our bikes here.

“I’ll stay for a bit,” he says. I wave bye and walk out, walking to get home to my woman.

We have unfinished business.

*****

When Reid calls me the next day with the news, I don’t even know what to think or how to feel. This man wasn’t a good person. In fact, prison was where he belonged, but now that he’s dead, I don’t feel any satisfaction. I guess dead or alive, there will always be a part of me that he’s destroyed.

“How did he die?”
Sephie asks boldly, a blank look on her face.

“Someone stabbed him,” I mutter, looking down at my hands.

“Am I a bad person because I don’t feel anything?” Sephie asks, looking out the window.

Taiya
puts her arm around her. “You don’t remember him, so no, it doesn’t make you a bad person.” Plus he was an asshole. Taiya is just too nice to bring that up right now. I wonder if Dad knew something was going to go down, that’s why he told us about Sephie. I don’t know if I’m trying to find good where there is none, but it’s the only reason I can think of. Either way, all is well in the world. Sephie is safe with us and my father is… well, gone. To hell I assume.

Taiya
watches me carefully, as if waiting for me to react. However, I don’t think I have anything in me, other than a pang in my stomach, and a whole bunch of ‘what ifs.’ If only he could have been the father we needed, but he wasn’t. And this is the end of that chapter. Reid and Summer come over, and we all hang out, order in Chinese and watch bad movies. We’re just around each other, no words needed. We aren’t exactly mourning, more like getting closure from a bad situation that has been a part of our lives since the day we were born. Since the day our mother was killed. I look around at the faces around me, and feel thankful. I look into Taiya’s eyes and know this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

I’m one lucky son of a bitch.

Epilogue

Ryan

Having
Xander and Seph in the same room is awkward as hell, well, at least for me. They keep eye fucking each other when the other isn’t looking, and sneaking in longing glances whenever they can. I try my best to ignore them, instead concentrating on the celebration around me. Today is the official opening day for Taiya’s dance studio. We decided to have a gathering here so everyone could check the place out. I started the party by getting into the middle of the dance floor and showing off my moves, which made Taiya burst out laughing. Don’t think I’ll be going professional any time soon, unless grinding my hips can get me qualified. It’s just like sex, so I know I’m good at that. I hired a new guy to work at the bar, for events like this where everyone needs to be here. With Sephie working there now as well, I don’t need to go in much, so I’m looking at other business opportunities to keep me busy. I’ve never been one to be idle. I need to be productive.

I see
Taiya walk over to me, wearing a yellow sundress. She looks edible.

“Everyone loves it,” she beams, pushing away an errant curl.

“It looks great. You did an amazing job. I’m proud of you,” I tell her, pulling her close to my side.

“Me? This was all y
ou,” she says, going on her tiptoes to give me a kiss on the cheek. I want to ravish her right here and now, but that kiss is going to have to do until we get home.

“This is your dream
, beautiful. Now you get to live it.”

When I see her eyes starting to pool with tears, I flinch. “Don’t cry.”

“They are happy tears,” she says, blinking furiously a few times. “And you’re my dream, Ryan. This is just a bonus.”

“You’re so fucking sweet
, Tay. Sweetest girl in the world. Happy tears or not, I still don’t like seeing you cry,” I tell her, playing with the thin strap of her dress. I kiss her on top of her head, and pull her to stand in front of me. I stare at the mirrored walls surrounding the entire wall, and instantly get ideas. All kinds of ideas.

“Ryan
, why do you have your sex face on?” Taiya suddenly asks, interrupting my dirty thoughts and making me laugh.

“Sex face?” I have to hear this explanation.

“Yeah, you know, your bedroom face. Like this…” she says, giving me a smouldering look.

My laughter can’t be contained. I can see the others staring at me like I’m crazy, so I just wave at them.
Reid stalks over and gives me a weird look.

“Are you on something?” he asks me with a serious face.

I lean against the wall to steady me. “No. I’m just… happy.”

Summer walks over and stands next to me. I wrap my arm around her. “Time for the after party?”

Summer looks at Taiya, “Can I take dance classes here?” she blurts out, looking excited.

“Of course you can,”
Taiya says. I see Reid eyeing the mirrors and start laughing again; his face takes on an intrigued look.

“I’m going to have to lock this place up
, aren’t I,” Taiya mutters, shaking her head at us. Tag, Dash, Xander, Isis, Seph and Jade walk over, all smiles. They congratulate Taiya once more, and then we head to my apartment for the after party.

Life couldn’t get more perfect.

*****

One week later

“You look so fucking beautiful,” I whisper, staring down at Taiya. She’s lying in the middle of the bed of our hotel room, dressed in her white gown, looking like a temptress slash virginal sacrifice. We just renewed our vows, and the day couldn’t have been any more perfect.

“Are you going to stare at me all night?” she asks, sounding breathless.

“Amongst other things, yes.”

He
r pouty lips tug up into a smile. “I’m waiting,” she says, lifting her arms above her head and thrusts her breast out. My mouth waters, wanting those sweet nipples in my mouth. I take my shirt off and throw it on the floor, followed by my pants and boxer shorts.

“I love you,” I tell her, kissing her with everything I have.

“Show me,” she replies, a challenge in her eyes.

I rip off her dress and do just that.

The End

Please turn the page for
more information about upcoming releases by Chantal Fernando and a preview of Destroyed by Pepper Winters.

Toxic Girl

Coming April 2014

Everyone has secrets.

Finally, I had a fresh start.

I knew no one.

I could be anyone, or so I thought.

I wanted to be invisible, to blend into the background.

But it turned out keeping my secret wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

Enter Grayson Mills.

When Grayson noticed me, so did everyone else.

He wanted me. Bad.

And what Grayson wanted, he usually got.

Time Will Tell

(Maybe, Book Three)

Coming 2014

Be spontaneous, they say.

That's how I ended up on the back of a stranger's bike.

A sexy, tall, tattooed stranger, but a stranger nonetheless.

How was I to know that a chance meeting with this man, Xander Kane, was going to change my life?

Destroyed by Pepper Winters

Preview

Coming February 2014

BLURB:

She’s a woman with a dirty secret.

I’m complicated. Not broken or ruined or running from a past I can’t face. Just complicated. For good reason.

I thought my life couldn’t get any more tangled in deceit and confusion. But I hadn’t met him. I hadn’t been sucked into his lies or taught to run from everything that he is. Instead, I let him ensnare me, seduce me, trap me with secrets—Hazel Hunter

He’s a man with a killer secret.

I’ve never pretended to be good or deserving. Despite the shadows I live in, I’m ultimately a slave to my secrets and that gives me a free pass to chase who I want, be who I want, act how I want.

I didn’t have time to lust after a woman I had no right to lust after. I told myself to shut up and stay hidden. But how could I deny her? How could I deny my one chance at redemption? But then she tried to run. I’d found a cure to my existence and damned if I would let her go—Roan Fox

And secrets silently destroy them.

First chapter subject to change, unedited, release date: 24
th
Feb.

Goodreads
:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20324107-destroyed?from_search=true

Prologue

Roan

I
didn’t believe her when she said she was complicated.

She didn’t believe me when I said I had secrets.

I didn’t understand the truth, even when she let me glimpse behind her mask.

She didn’t understand that I couldn’t live with the consequences.

I thought she was a saint.

She thought I was a sinner.

Too bad we didn’t try to find the truth.

We both paid the price.

We destroyed each other.

One

Hazel

I
f I knew now what I suspected then, I’d like to think I would’ve done things differently. I would’ve planned better, worked harder, stressed out on more important things. But I was young, naïve, and woefully unprepared for the big scary world of life.

N
ow, I looked back on the past with a strange fondness. While I lived it, it seemed hard, but now it seemed so incredibly easy. Now, the present seems completely impossible and the future dire and bleak.

That is...until I met him.

Then it got worse.

*****

“I don’t think this is a good idea, Clue.” The gothic mansion rose from the gravel and soil like a beacon of doom. Gargoyles decorated plinths and overhangs; huge pillars soared to at least six stories high. I didn’t know anything like this existed in Sydney, let alone in the rich and exclusive Eastern Suburbs.

Alarm bells hadn’t stopped clanging in my head ever since we stepped off the train and headed toward a residential suburb instead of the party district in town.

Losing ourselves in a rabbit warren of streets, my heart never settled sensing this might be one experience that might end up killing us.

“Stop being such a worrier. You said you’d come. I need my wing woman,” Clue said, her gentle voice turning slightly stern.

My mouth hung open, gawking at the intricate stonework, trying to see past the grandeur to reveal the tricks of such a place. It couldn’t be real? Could it?

It seemed misplaced—as if it’d been transplanted from a long past century.

Huge double doors before us opened with a creak. Thick wood with wrought iron accents in the shape of a fox on a wintry night, revealed a black-suited bouncer with oil-slicked hair. His body looked like a mountain while his face looked like a cross between a bulldog and a biker.

But it was his eyes that froze me to the spot. He captured both of us with just one look.

“You better have the password; otherwise you’ll wish you never set foot on this stoop.” His gaze swept to the concrete stoop beneath us. A motto had been engraved painstakingly with a chisel. It looked hand done and rudimentary but held a certain threat all the same.

Was that Russian? I couldn’t make out the verse, but I inched to the side in my stupid kitten heels to avoid standing in the groove of letters.

“We were invited by Corkscrew. He gave us a one night pass.” For the millionth time since I’d showered, donned this ridiculous gold and silver dress and coaxed by thick chocolate hair into some resemblence of curls and waves, I wanted to throttle Clue.

She was my dearest friend, closest confident, flatmate, babysitter, and non-blood sister, but I wanted to kill her in that moment.

Clue and I had history. We were linked by shared dreams and hopes. We wouldn’t let the other fail. And that was the only reason why I hadn’t knocked her out and dragged her unconscious body back home.

She knew all I wanted to do was return to our crappy two bedroom apartment. She also knew I’d suffered so much in the past few weeks that I’d hit rock bottom and I had no energy left to fight. She’d taken advantage of my weakened state and in true friend fashion was sick of me moping. She wanted me to get up, bandage the road-rash, and keep going. Problem was, this time, I had nothing left.