Sweet Surrendering (43 page)

“You’re gorgeous and you know it, Sloane. You don’t need me to tell you that.” Sloane wasn’t vain. She was just confident and she was gorgeous. Anyone who said different was jealous or lying or both.

She came and stood in front of the mirror with me.

“I love you,” I said. “And thank you for being the best friend I could ever ask for.” She put her arm around me and gave me a hug.

“I love you too, bitch.” She stuck her tongue out at me in the mirror and I did the same.

Once we were back into our other clothes, I told her about Lucah’s plan.

“So it’s up to you, whatever you want to do.” I knew she could afford the apartment and had been talking about maybe getting one for a while now, but we liked living with each other so much that neither of us wanted to make a move.

“If I move down the hall, do I get to keep my key and come in whenever I want?” she said with an expression that I really didn’t like.

“Within reason, Sloane. I don’t want to be in the middle of having hot sex and look up and see you standing there. We’re close, but we’re not that close.” Sloane made a face.

“I love you, but that is not something I would want to witness, thank you very much. I was just thinking of sneaking in early in the morning and gluing all your furniture to the ceiling, or hiding your shoes, but you took it totally dirty, you perv.” Oh, like she hadn’t thought about that.

“Shut up,” I said, and we shared a cab back to our apartment. Lucah was at his place, packing his stuff back up to start bringing it over to my place. It felt weird to be fitting him in, but it also felt right.

Oh Jesus, where was I going to put my shoes?

Lucah came over with a few boxes and had dinner with Sloane and me so we could talk about the apartment situation.

“On the one hand, I’d get to start over with a brand-y new place. On the other, I’d have to move all my shit. So. Do you mind if I stay here? I’m kind of attached to this kitchen.”

“The kitchens are identical,” I pointed out.

“I know, but every stove is different. I like this stove. We know each other and we get along.” She went over and stroked the stove and then kissed one of the knobs.

“She really likes the stove,” I said to Lucah and he just shook his head at her.

“Well, you can keep the stove. So I guess that means we’re moving, huh, Sunshine?”

“Guess so,” I said. That was going to be a bitch, but hopefully Sloane would help us? Yeah, probably not.

“Maybe I can commandeer my brother to come and help us.” I swore Sloane’s ears perked up at the mention of the brother.

“Is he a ginger as well?” She tried to sound uninterested, but definitely failed.

“Yes, he is. Sort of. It’s more brown with red highlights. And yes, he is single and no, he is completely off limits. My brother is a time bomb and you don’t want to be around when he goes off. Trust me.” Lucah was smart, but he didn’t know Sloane. The fastest way to get Sloane to do something was to tell her not to do it. If he had just kept his mouth shut about Ryder, Sloane probably would have lost interest, but now . . .

Sloane’s eyes sparkled at me, and I gave her a warning glare. She just skipped back to the table with a satisfied look on her face. I texted Lucah.

You have no idea what you’ve done.

His phone buzzed and he read the text and then typed a response.

She doesn’t want him. Trust me.

“You’d better not be sexting with me right here,” Sloane said and we put our phones away.

“You’re insane,” I said to Lucah, because he still wasn’t getting it. He just smirked back at me. This was going to be a disaster.

“So, I have a question,” I said that Sunday at dinner with my parents. I felt bad for asking Dad when he was so tired. I’d never seen him look so worn out. He wasn’t as young as he used to be and I wondered if the drama had taken more of a toll on him than he would admit.

“What’s that, Rory?” Mom said.

“Well, I need a favor. I want to bring four dates to the Ball.” I didn’t look up from my plate to see their reaction.

“Four dates?” Mom was the one to drop her fork this time. I glanced up and pretended like it was no big deal. “Who on earth are you bringing?”

“Sloane, Chloe, Marisol and Lucah,” I mumbled, especially on the last name.

“You want to invite all your friends?” Mom acted like this was a ridiculous request. “This isn’t an eighth grade sleepover. This is your work event.”

I glanced at Dad and he looked like he was thinking.

“I know it’s a work event. So do they. I just thought it would be nice to invite them. They’ve always wanted to come and I want to invite them.” It wasn’t the best reason, but I didn’t have a whole lot of ammunition to fight this battle.

Mom opened her mouth to protest, but Dad put his hand up.

“She can invite them if she wants.” He smiled at me and I smiled back. “If my daughter wants to bring her friends to her work party, then my daughter can bring her friends.” I wasn’t going to point out that it was actually my three friends and my boyfriend. I hadn’t told them that Lucah and I were seeing each other, but they were smart people.

“Well, then if she’s going to invite who she wants, then I think she should invite Fin. She doesn’t have to go with him as a boyfriend, but I think he should come.” Mom just wouldn’t give up.

“Fine,” I said. That would work out perfect. He could accompany Marisol.

Now that we’d gotten that straightened out, I had to tell them about my move.

“So I’m going to be moving into the apartment next door and Sloane is going to keep the other. She needs more space for work and um, I like more space as well.” Or uninterrupted sex. That was really what I wanted.

“I always told you that place was too small, but you wouldn’t listen. Why not just get a better apartment in a nicer building?” We’d had this conversation a million times already and I didn’t want to go into it again.

“Are you sure you want to do that, Rory? That’s a big step.” Dad wasn’t talking about moving into my own place. He knew the only reason I would do that was to move in with Lucah.

“I’m ready,” I said simply. I was practically living with him anyway. Besides, if disaster struck, I could just hop back in with Sloane. Not that I didn’t think it wasn’t going to work, but just in case.

“Then at least let me call some men to move all of your things. I don’t want you hurting yourself moving anything, even if it’s just down the hall,” Mom said. I kept my mouth shut even though I already had at least two guys to help me move. I glanced at Dad and I could tell he knew about that too. Smart man.

“I’m going to leave some of the stuff with Sloane. I can always buy new furniture.” Then Lucah and I could go shopping together, or he could bring in some of his own things. My apartment was definitely more feminine than masculine. Not that I was going to be letting him bring in a basketball hoop, or a beer cap collection, but we could man things up a bit.

“Well, just let me know if you want to go shopping, or if you need any help with anything,” Mom said and finally went to get out dessert. Phew. That went as well as I could have expected.

Lucah and I were moving in together, he was coming with me to the Ball and other than the shit show at work, and the fact that Lucah was unemployed, things were looking up. Plus, I had a fabulous gown in my possession. That would make the very worst day better.

“Moving sucks,” I said the next night as we started packing up my stuff to move it down the hall. Lucah and I had signed the lease that morning, after slipping the building owner a fifty to let us move in early.

Sloane was gleefully talking about what she was going to do with all the extra space and pretending to be helpful, but actually doing the opposite.

I’d texted Chloe and Marisol, but they were busy. Or they just didn’t love me that much. Or a little of both.

I joined Sloane and sat down on one of few packed boxes. I was sweating and we’d barely done anything. You never know how much stuff you have until you try to move it.

Sloane sighed and got up to get two bottles of beer from the fridge. I had no idea why we had beer because none of us drank it. I gave Sloane a look when she handed me one of the bottles.

“What? Beer felt like an appropriate moving drink. You know, the working man’s drink.” This was one of those times when I knew she had some reason for her crazy, but I couldn’t figure it out.

The key sounded in the door and Lucah walked back in, but he wasn’t alone.

“Rory, Sloane, this is my brother, Ryder. Ryder, Rory and Sloane.” Lucah was NOT happy about the introduction. I could see from the way he held his shoulders that he was stressing out.

I slowly looked at Ryder and immediately saw that he was Lucah’s brother. They had similar features, but Ryder was more . . . rugged. He also had a few scars here and there, the biggest one on the side of one of his cheeks. His hair was darker than Lucah’s and he was a lot bulkier, with tattoos roped around his arms. There was a look in his eyes and that look said a few things to me.

Trouble. Danger. Stay away.

“Hello, Rory. It’s so nice to meet you, I’ve heard
lots
of things about you.” Ah, so he also had his brother’s dirty sense of humor. He shook my hand and almost crushed my fingers with his calloused hand. Then he turned to Sloane and I waited for the fireworks.

“Hi, I’m Sloane.” She said it slow and low before she got up and walked forward. Ryder watched her the whole time and I wanted to scream at Lucah. Sloane was working it and he was taking her in.

“Sloane. Very nice to meet you. I can’t say that my brother has mentioned you. Or if he did I wasn’t paying attention. I am now.” She giggled and I knew that laugh. She only laughed like that around a cute boy. Oh, Sloane. Lucah had been right about this guy, he looked like he was only going to bring her heartache. Not that I could judge just from the five minutes I’d seen him in person, but Lucah had told me plenty of stories that backed up my initial impression.

Lucah started picking up boxes, stepping right between Sloane and Ryder. Good boy.

Then he shoved one at Ryder and told him to take it down the hall. Ryder gave Sloane a lingering look and she ducked her head and hid a smile. Seriously?

Lucah gave me a look and I gave him one right back. This was his fault. Making things forbidden made them more attractive.

I knew I was being a hypocrite for not wanting Sloane to be with Ryder when I’d had a forbidden relationship with Lucah and she’d been so supportive. But I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. I didn’t want her heart to get broken. I couldn’t take that.

“He’s fucking hot,” Sloane hissed at me while Lucah followed Ryder down the hall.

“Be careful,” I hissed back, but I could see by the look on her face that she was going to take my advice with a grain of salt.