Redemption (5 page)

Chapter Five

Neveah

Lucy and I decided to stay at the gym until Dad closed. I hadn’t wanted to spend an awkward day with Cooper. Lucy beat me to the house and bounced like a rabbit on the front porch waiting for me. 

My laugh was short lived when I noticed Cooper’s truck in the driveway. I guess I’d hoped he’d go home tonight, but obviously that prayer had gone unanswered.

Cooper sat at our bar with his head in his hands when we walked in.

“How is he?” Dad asked from behind me.

Cooper lifted his head, and his gaze landed on mine. That gaze had once sent jolts of adrenaline through me. “He’s better. He’s eating, and I changed out all of his bandages. He’ll be able to walk normally in a couple of days.”

Dad nodded and walked over to the phone. “I’m ordering pizza. What kind do y’all want?”

Cooper waved him off. “I’ll eat anything.” His eyes cast back toward mine. “What about you,
Neveah
? Still like meat lovers?”

The way he said my name pissed me off. “Dad knows what I like,” I said, patting Lucy’s head.

“How is Phoenix,” he asked, leaning against the bar. His eyes were all over me, and I tried my best not to squirm underneath his gaze.

“I love it. The best place in the world.”
Liar.

Cooper narrowed his gaze and gave me a smartass smirk. “What about that fiancée?”

I gave Dad a dirty glance over my shoulder which he ignored.
Why would he tell my business to Cooper?
“I don’t have a fiancée anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

Yeah, you look really sorry
. I shrugged. “It’s fine.” Suddenly I didn’t feel like company. “I’m going to my room. Let me know when the pizza gets here.”

***

I ate in my room like a sulky teenage girl, because I was too embarrassed to face Cooper. The smartass smile on his face when I told him I didn’t have a fiancée anymore told me he knew
something
went wrong. And that’s what he told me would happen if I moved off by myself.

And
the number one assumption is cheating, and that was it. I was cheated on. I hoped Cooper was happy.
Dumb bastard.

My fingertips wrapped tightly around my windowsill. Cooper went to check on Declan an hour before and was already snoring from our spare bedroom across the hallway.

I knew it wasn’t a good idea to go look but some invisible force pushed me forward. Groaning, I shoved my window up, the humid breeze nearly sucked the breath from me.

Lucy sat at my side, but I didn’t want to risk her barking and waking up the house so I put my finger up. “Stay.”

She whined but didn’t move as I slid through the window to the muggy ground. The lights were off in the guest house, but I could see the nightstand lamp was dimly lit.

Adrenaline soared through me. I had no idea why I needed to take a look at him, but I did. The window blinds were pulled up a couple of inches, and it gave me enough space to see into the room.

The room was quiet but the hammering of my heart beat loudly in my eardrums. It took my eyes a minute to adjust but when they did I saw him. The way my heart jumped to my throat sent waves to no man’s land.
Good God
. He was lying on his back in the small twin size bed. His arms and legs hung loosely over the sides since the bed was way too small for him.

The lamp gave me enough light to see his glistening skin. He had to be hot because that damn guest house only had one small window unit. The ridges in his stomach tightened with every breath. The waves down below had suddenly turned into a raging fire. He was so real and raw that it made me ache to get closer. I needed to see him.

Biting my lip, I grabbed the windowsill when Lucy let out a loud bark from my bedroom window a few yards away. I froze and tossed her a
don’t you dare do it again
look.  When I glanced back inside, Declan stared at me from his bed.

The fire erupted inside of me. I was so embarrassed that he’d caught me looking but couldn’t make myself turn away from him, our eyes were focused on one another. A low steady hum of electricity burned bright in the pit of my stomach. He was beautiful. His square jaw was locked tight, and his hands clutched the sheets beneath him. Lucy barked again, and I jumped back and sprinted into a run toward the window.
God how stupid could I get?

I climbed back into the window, locked it and turned to glare at Lucy. She lowered her head and avoided eye contact.
Damn dog
. Aggravated, I slipped back into my bed and screwed my eyes shut, pretending none of it even happened.

***

“Do I have to?”

My dad glanced over the rim of his glass of orange juice. “Yes. I’m late to open the gym, and the guy needs to eat. Just bring it out to him, Neveah.”

Dammit it all to hell.
I bit the inside of my lip and pulled at my bright pink yoga pants. He’d seen me peeking in his window the night before, and I did
not
want to relive that embarrassment. I had hoped we could avoid each other until he was gone.

“Whatever,” I mumbled.

Dad sighed and ruffled his hair. “You’ve got to get used to him because I offered him a job at the gym when he gets better.”

“You what!” I yelled.

Dad frowned. “I thought you were all for helping this kid out? You’re the one that didn’t want to take him to the hospital because he asked you not to.”

Yes, I had.
That was before he’d caught me watching him like a creepy sixteen-year-old. “Okay, Dad. I’ll freaking do it.”

Dad gave me a bored look. “Are we going to do the whole teenage whiny bullshit again? I thought you’d grown out of that.”

I rolled my eyes, then eyed the bowl of soup for Declan. “Aren’t you late?”

He smiled. “I’ll see you later. Call your Aunt Shelly today.”

“I will.”

Dad kissed my forehead, grabbed his things and then hurried out the front door. The silence that fell over me was the loudest silence I’d ever heard. All I could think about was his food getting cold. I palmed my forehead and sighed.

Better get it over with.

Lucy and I walked the short distance to the guest house and stood at the door. The soup burned my hand but my feet were still stuck to the porch. I pressed my ear to the door, but I couldn’t hear anything.

Lucy whined while pawing the
welcome
mat. I hurried and knocked before she decided to start barking like the night before.
How embarrassing.

“Come in.”

The door felt heavy against my palm, but I used everything I had and shoved it opened. Greedily, my eyes searched the room. I found him lying in his bed, the cover thrown on the floor, in nothing but a pair of my dad’s red
Underarmour
underwear which looked completely different on him than my dad.

Shit. Shit. Shit. He’s looking at me.

“Oh,” he said, like he was shocked to see me. But he didn’t grab for the covers, he stayed sprawled in front of me, his thick thighs wide and his chest sweaty from the heat. I was hardly winning the battle with my eyes to look at the bulge lying between those said thick thighs. “I thought you were Wes.”

My fingers tightened around the bowl, and my gaze traveled down the ridges of his taut stomach.

“Stop that,” he growled.

I jumped backwards and hit my head against the wooden door with a
thump
. “Stop what?”

The way his eyes swept me from head to toe had my body burning from the inside out. “Stop staring at me.”

Embarrassment flooded me. There he was with bandages wrapped around his bruised body, and I was ogling him like a piece of meat. And it was worth every second.
I regret nothing.
“I’m not.”

His dark brows shot up to his hairline. “Oh really? It looked like it to me.”

Lifting my chin, I gave him a smartass smile. “Well, I guess you need to go to the eye doctor. I was just bringing you your breakfast, because my dad asked me to.”

Those dark eyes watched me carefully until I squirmed in the doorway. “Well, are you going to bring it here, or do you want me to get up and get it?”

I gritted my teeth before taking a leisurely step inside. Lucy bounded forward and took liberty on herself to plant her front paws on the side of his bed.

Declan’s gaze cast down to Lucy. “Hi girl. You found me the other day, didn’t you?” he cooed, running his fingers against her head.

Something wicked swelled between my legs.
I need to get out of here.
But—once again—my feet took a permanent residence on the floor. Lucy’s tail wagged in a steady rhythm as he cooed and brushed his knuckles against her which only drew attention to how massive his forearm was.

God, I really need to get out of here—like yesterday.

Stepping forward, I offered him the bowl of soup. Dragging his eyes from Lucy to my own, he carefully eyed the bowl, and then let his gaze travel back up my breasts to my eyes. I’d only been that close to him when he was covered in mud and blood. With his face clean, I could see every flawlessly imperfect thing about him. The fresh scar on his lip only intensified how full they were. A five o’clock shadow was light on his strong jaw. His heavy eyebrows were perfect naturally, because I knew he wasn’t the kind to go get pampered.

And his fucking eyes. Things were stirring inside of me that I had never felt in my short twenty-one years on this planet. He reached forward, the tips of his fingers skimmed down the path of mine until he palmed the bowl and brought it down to his chest.

His brows furrowed in confusion. His hand jerked outward, his fingers encircled my wrist, and he flipped my palm upward. Shock raced through me, but I didn’t snatch away as he examined my reddened palm from the bowl. “It’s fucking hot. Why didn’t you put it down?”

Oh God
.
What was I supposed to say?
I’m so incredibly attracted to you that I couldn’t move too close to you.
“It’s not hot.”

God, how lame can I be?
I dropped my gaze to the wooden floor.

His fingers tightened around my wrist, he jerked me closer to him, and my body pulsed from the bluntness of it. “Stop lookin’ away from me, it’s annoying.”

I gasped and jerked away from him. “I’ll look wherever I want to look, thank you.”

His eyes cast down to his abs, and my sex clenched tighter. “Obviously.” He meet my gaze. “I saw you earlier,
and
last night.”

Damn it all to hell!
The heavy pressure in my ears doubled from embarrassment. “I wasn’t lookin’ at you last night. I was checking on you.”

The leg closest to me dropped to the floor with a loud plop. “I saw you checking—Angel.”

Shit. Fuck. Shit fuck!
“You’re mistaken but I’ll let it go.”

A wide grin blessed his face, and he could have been the fault Adam wavered with Eve. The seductive evil that was so beautiful that you didn’t care the consequence. “You like to be in control, don’t you?”

What?
I nearly gasped but bit my tongue hard to keep my mouth at bay. Heath had always complained that I had to be in control of every situation but in reality he was just weak. “No,” I snapped.

“You do,” he said back
.
“But that’s okay, because I’m the master of control, and it’s tough shit for whoever doesn’t like it.”

Something about the tone of his voice told me that he spoke the truth. And by the look of him he’d have another woman underneath him to fill that void
the disappoint
left behind, quickly.

“I’m not falling for your tricks,” I said. “I know you want me to fall for this bad boy bullshit but
asshole
really isn’t my style.”

Oh shit. If looks could kill
.

His jaw twitched, and he sat his soup to the side. “I’m not trying to seduce you, Angel. I’ve already got you which is bad for the both of us. I’m trying to make sure you don’t fall for my bullshit and into this fucking bed, because it doesn’t need to happen. It won’t happen.”

I stepped back like I’d been slapped. Not that I
cared
, but I was sure he’d liked what he’d seen when I walked in. “Fuck you. I wouldn’t fuck you if you were the last fuck on earth.”

The bed squeaked, his arm snaked around my waist and he drug me closer to him. Mouth parted, eyes on my lips, his minty breath heaved against me. “Take it back,” he whispered against my mouth.

Warmth settled between my legs, and I went liquid. If he hadn’t pulled me against his chest I would have been a puddle of goo on the floor. My fingers sprawled against his tanned skin, and my breast brushed against his own. “Let me go,” I whispered, aware of how his eyes hadn’t strayed from my opened mouth. 

Wetness puddled in my panties as he brushed the pad of his thumb against my lower lip. “I wish I didn’t have to.”