The Rental (25 page)

His face was still raw red, a pulsing vein on his forehead and down his neck. I reached out to him and placed my hands on his cheeks. I was flushed from cleaning, but he was scorching.

“Is everything okay now? Have they left?”

“No, everything is fucked, but I saw them drive off.”

“O-okay.”

We stared deep into each other’s eyes for a long time, maybe half a minute or maybe a few minutes. My hands itched to hold his pain at bay, but my limbs were frozen by the shock of what had just unfolded.

I spoke first and said, “Rick … what the hell is going on? It’s about as ugly as it can get. I’m right here, and I don’t want to be shut out.”

His eyes dropped to his hands, which he held out, palms up. The way his eyes ran over them and his lips screwed up, I could swear they were grubby. He picked me up by my waist in one hand, eyes never meeting mine, and brought me over to the kitchen bench top, using the other hand to swipe clear anything in the way before placing me down.

“You never told me you ran into Cara,” he said in a soft but broken voice.

“I was angry at her and wanted to forget it. She randomly turned up at my place and wanted me to forgive her.
Like that!
After months of crickets. What happened with Justin back there?”

“I was trying to work shit out. I fucked this up.” He buried his face in my neck and wrapped his arms around me again. “We should get out of here.”

“Wait, explain first.”

Rick pulled back and rested the heels of his hand on the surface on either side of me. “Last week after …” he trailed off and I understood the night he meant when we were at the skate park. “I met with the guy and told him the deal is off. I can’t pay any more than what I have and my brother needs to deal with the rest. He was against it and didn’t want the trouble, but this week, I eventually convinced him since the remaining debt is a much smaller amount. He still has a beef with Justin, so he said fine so long as if I stopped paying, he’d still get his twenty grand from Justin. I asked for a bit of time to sort it out. I’ve been trying to talk to Justin this week, too, get him to come around to the idea … he didn’t want to hear a word of me reconciling our issues and wasn’t interested in coming over.”

“Until this morning,” I finished. “Why didn’t you make Justin pay earlier? Why only now say enough is enough?”

“I found out Cara was pregnant before today,” he admitted and squeezed my hand. “Your mum spoke of when she came by your place and the whole thing seemed odd. I figured she wanted something or something was going on with her. Little bit of snooping and I put some things together.

“I wanted you to tell me about that night on your own terms, but you didn’t. And then I wasn’t sure how to bring it up. I hate hurting you, and you told me you didn’t want to hear anything about him, or talk about those things. So I didn’t, but it pissed me off so much he was enjoying himself, living freely. I took the debt to take the stress off, but he didn’t learn a damn thing.”

“I feel so stupid about not realising what was up with Cara, but babe, I’m not mad at you. You wanted to protect my feelings.” I bit my lip, then released it and added, “I’ve held secrets before to protect my loved ones.”

“I should have cut Justin off earlier. I held out hope, but he’s just as selfish as when he let me take the debt.”

Rick’s voice became strained, the texture of his words gravelly, and sterner. I had to remind myself not to hold my breath and to remain calm, at least for Rick’s sake.

“Justin was finally in contact with the guy this morning and heard about what I’d decided. Course, when he said he was free to come over this morning, he didn’t say a word of hearing from the guy, the little prick. We haven’t spoken properly in ages. If we had, and I knew he relapsed so badly, I wouldn’t have let him come over whacked like that.”

“What’s the bet,” I said, “that Justin heard about us and got Cara to snoop and give me a ridiculous sob story about forgiveness and shit, all to see if I’d spill the beans about us?”

“It’d make sense.” Rick scrubbed his head with his knuckles. “Justin is a dumb-assed yuppie when he’s sober but high, he’s reckless and heartless. I’ve got no idea what to fucking do now. I’m done paying his shit, but,” Rick raised one eyebrow, “I don’t think he feels the same as I do.”

“You can’t stay here,” I agreed.

Justin knew we were together now. I knew it’d make him mad, but now that Rick refused to pay any more of his debt, I could only imagine the exemplified rage. He stalked me for months after the break up and possibly again via Cara’s snooping. Was it all to see if he’d perfectly ruined Rick’s happiness?

Rick chose me over his brother, but more importantly, he chose his own life over his brother. He’d given up enough to save him, but Justin needed to do the rest.

I wished I knew then what I did now. I was a pawn in Justin’s petty games.

God, I hate myself.

“I’ll warn my roommate, but since Justin’s beef is with me, I don’t think he’ll be a problem. I’ll let him know my brother is reckless and is here for money or some shit.”

“Do you want to stay at mine?”

“Your mum might murder me in my sleep. I’m no safer there.” But he winked.

“Look, I’ll make sure she’s fine with it. You don’t have the money to waste, and here you are about to fund a vacation for yourself. I get where you’re coming from, but you can’t save everything.”

“
Don’t
say that,” he said, stepping back from me and into his crossed hands behind his head, elbows bent. He cursed under his breath as he walked in circles, breathing becoming louder and harder. “Sorry,” he said. He stopped, looking at me. “Just after Justin’s shit about being a hero.”

I stared at my hands, needing a focal point, and asked, “What was Justin talking about almost dying?” I sensed it was a different occasion to the night Rick told me about on the pier.

Rick sucked in a long hard breath, the air loud through his nostrils. “A month before we met, he had an incident and ended up in hospital. Dad was away for work, and it was just Mum and I. He almost overdosed at a party. Since then, I was keeping a close eye on him and he hated me for breathing down his neck but our parents had no trust in him, and I could keep a better eye on him than they could. Half the time, I think he rebelled just to make things difficult for me. I was trying to keep things under control … until I had no choice but to go dealing. He got more reckless then.”

I clenched my eyelids shut. “I first realised what he regularly got up to when you went away. And Cara. I joined in … I’m an idiot.”

“Vee,” he said and strode over, lifting my chin with his finger. “You’re smart and strong. You’re trying your best, but you’ve dealt with so much more shit than he has and you’re not feeling sorry for yourself.
I
believe in you. And I love you.”

“I promise,” I said.

Rick shook his head imperceptibly.

“To not use again. I do not want to end up like that. I promise.”

Justin today—all traces of the cheeky boy I knew gone—scared away all my worries about relapsing into my bad habits. I had a caring Mum and a loving man in my life—even if I had lost half of my own heart and had been trodden on by the two friends I adored. I’d only be amplifying—not numbing—my problems if I used any more.

Rick’s flat mouth curved up into a heart-melting smile, and he pressed his lips to my forehead, holding his hands at my waist. I leant into his lips, fluttering my eyes closed to feel the moment.

“Babe …” Rick trailed off and parted us with his hands. His expression hardened. “What were you even doing here?”

• • •

R
ICK AND
I left his house, warning his roommate and towing a bag of belongings to last several days. We weren’t sure where he’d be staying yet, but we’d figure it out.

He got into my driver’s seat and took us down to The Rental since I’d told him Amber called. She left a voicemail, which we listened to, and it told us to come down whenever we were able—yes,
we
. Rick checked his phone and had a call from her, too. The voicemail pretty much said the same thing.

She couldn’t do anything else to us, though … surely. We weren’t her employees anymore. And we’d done nothing illegal to warrant extra questioning.

“What do you reckon she’ll say? Or do?” I asked a tense Rick, who was clenching the steering wheel at ten and two.

“I know what I’d do.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And that is?”

“Lean you over my thighs and spank you. I might thoroughly enjoy that, actually.”

I burst into laughter, my emotions too spent to hold in any longer. My adrenaline had waned since the face-off. Now Rick no longer had his debt, and we had a plan for the future, so I allowed myself to relax and love my boyfriend and the fact he wanted to cheer me up.

“If nothing else works, I’ll sneak you in at night to sleep.”

He darted his eyes to me only long enough to say with a smirk, “And a shower?”

“Easy. You’ll only be able to shower when I do, or when Mum is at work, and then you’ll have to sleep when I do.”

“We’d be the two cleanest humans on earth.”

• • •

W
E GREETED
A
MBER
and she made a call shortly afterward to Nix, asking her to come in. Nix? Rick and I exchanged a glance and then followed Amber into her office. She left us for a moment to take care of a few things.

When she returned, she chirped, “Well, well.”

Rick and I exchanged another look. What was up with this woman and where was the controlling, fierce boss who ran this place?

Resting her elbow on her desk, she waggled her finger between us. “Letting you go was the best and worst decision I ever made. I—well Nix and I—would like to discuss some developments with the both of you. She’ll be here shortly.” She rubbed her lips together, brushing some strands of hair in place. “Now … you two. I was hurt by your deception for my rules and did make the right decision to let you go then. However, not everyone was as happy.

“Jimmy wanted to book you in again.
Both
of you. I told him you both were no longer working here because of a relationship that began—a forbidden relationship. We had an interesting conversation. He wanted you both
because
he had a fantasy you were together in real life. I explained we were sorry, but it couldn’t go on, as it was against our regulations.”

Rick and I darted our eyes back and forth, both subtly hinting at Amber.

Why was she telling us all this? What did it even matter? Okay, so she wasn’t as mad anymore because Jimmy was impressed about our personal relationship—so?

Rick’s unsure, poised eyebrow seemed to say he was thinking the same thing as I was.

Just then, Amber paused as heels approached the door. She knew who it was before it opened and thus said, “Excellent timing.”

Nix stepped in and closed the door behind her. She was stunning even in casual wear; skin-tight jeans that hugged her waist, loose blouse tucked in, and black ankle wedge boots. Amber insisted she sit in her desk chair while she rose and stood along her office wall, and resumed.

Nix nodded, crossed her arms and sat back, eyeing us
hello
. She smirked as if she knew what must be unfolding. Something big had obviously been in the works this last week.

“As I was about to explain, Jimmy was disappointed because he loved the novel idea of renting a real life couple here at The Rental. And when Nix heard about what happened, she insisted that I listen to her idea.” Amber gestured with her hands for Nix to take over.

“Jimmy and I managed to gather quite an interested party waiting list for this idea, so much so it caught Amber’s attention, too.”

The two ladies looked at each other and grinned, and then Nix continued. “I introduced the idea of a couples rental. That you two would work as one unit, and only be available for bookings together. The clients told us they would pay a great deal for what they want.”

“And that is?” Rick asked.

“Well,” Amber said, “it’s a new structure. We would have no reason to use the old rules between client and rental for the two of you. There would be no limits to what the client expects of you sexually. They themselves have the old boundaries and restrictions, but if they expect you to have intercourse for them, they’re within their booking rules to do so. Now this is a huge call to ask of you, but I do want to stress I would be paying each of you triple of your normal rates for this occurrence regardless whether intercourse occurs or not. And for now, you’d be our only staff of this kind. We have an extremely interested and lengthy waiting list to begin these types of bookings. And Rick, you would still be able to work in your bodyguard role in conjunction to this, but Vee, you wouldn’t be able to take on any other work here than your role as one-half of this new rental duo.

“And finally, asking you to work in this capacity means we’d ask of you contractually and personally to be bound to the relationship exclusively, allowing no other sexual party involvement with either of you for the duration of your employment here.”

I let out a long breath. “I didn’t expect to hear that when I woke up.” I didn’t expect a lot of what happened today, but I learnt life wasn’t what I planned it to be.

Rick and I turned to each other. I needed the money, and so did he, even if not for the debt, then to finally build a life for himself. Didn’t mean I wanted to jump at the opportunity despite my personal intrigue. Mum hinted she might hate me if I ‘stepped foot in this place.’ And I had, and now I was considering working here once more. Would she stop speaking to me?

Rick and my threesome with Nix was thrilling, but to do this consistently, going all the way, bare to others, selling our most private moments to strangers …

… it was as frightening as it was erotic.

And because I saw the same attraction wash over Rick’s half-lidded eyes, I asked then and there to Amber and Nix, “May Rhett and I speak alone?”

They smiled—Nix actually licked her lips—and then left us some privacy. We found a spare office and closed ourselves in.