Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
WREN
"You're full of surprises," I said.
"I've been told I’m full of lots of things, but not surprises," Tiger remarked. "Usually shit." He slipped out of the driver’s seat of his car and walked around to help me out of mine.
I smiled my thanks and let him take my hand and lead me into the planetarium.
Built on the tallest of the hills to the west of Dusk Bay, I hadn't been here since I was a kid. It wasn't the kind of place I pictured Tiger Pennington going to, much less enjoying.
He shrugged. "Tigers have layers."
I laughed softly. "I'm beginning to see that."
We pushed in through the glass front doors with a nod from the security guard, who was clearly expecting us.
"I'm surprised there aren't more people here," As far as I could tell, the planetarium was empty apart from us.
"I'm not," Tiger said simply.
He led me through the main reception area, into a vast viewing space, long and wide, topped with a glass dome. Stars glittered, visible through the ceiling. Other rooms housed telescopes, but this was just looking straight up at the sky with the naked eye.
On the floor, lay a thick, square rug. On top of that were several cushions and a large basket.
"You arranged this," I said. "You bought out the whole place, so you could bring me here for a picnic."
In my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have thought he was a romantic.
"No one has ever done anything like this for me before.
" I brushed away a tear before it fell into my cheek.
I wasn't usually so emotional, but he’d taken the time to do something special for me.
For us. The gesture got me right in the feels.
He helped me down onto one of the cushions and sat on the one beside me. "They should have. You deserve to be treated like a princess."
He opened the basket and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. He filled them both and handed one to me.
"Would that make you a prince?" I took a sip. The full, rich flavour was delicious on my tongue, warm and sweet all the way down my throat. Almost as delicious as his cum.
The way he ‘punished’ me by getting me to suck him off… The thought made me hot all over again. If that was his idea of punishment, I was definitely going to be bad more often.
"Prince Tiger," he mused. "That has a ring to it. Not as good as Princess Wren." He set his wine aside and pulled out plates of food. "It's all within my dietary plan. You don't have to go off and tell Lex I'm eating shit I shouldn't."
"Are you suggesting I'd snitch?" I teased.
"No, but he'd ask." Tiger handed me a plate of lean chicken and vegetables which looked and smelled delicious. He pulled out a couple of rolls and added them to our plates. "It's his job to be a bossy prick. I brought cake for you to have after."
I snagged up a fork and stabbed it into a piece of chicken. "A picnic under the stars and cake. What more could a girl ask for?"
"You're my dessert," he added.
"This date just went up ten notches." I pushed the chicken into my mouth.
"Good. I intend to spoil you for all other guys. By the time I'm done, you might not want Lex after all." He gave me the slightest hint of an eyebrow wiggle before starting on his own food.
"Or you might inspire him to go one better," I said.
"Then I'll go one better than that." Tiger looked unruffled. "I don't mind working hard for what I want. If I have to work hard to impress you, that's what I'll fucking do.” After a moment he added, “Asshole better not take you to a Wolf Venom concert."
"I'm guessing that's a sore spot for you," I said, gentle but direct. "You don't get along with your brother?"
"Beauregard Pennington is a massive prick," Tiger said.
"Everything was always a competition with him.
As far as he and everyone else was concerned, he always won.
Both of us chose professions our parents hate, but they hate mine more than they hate his.
" He paused for breath. "If I was the musician and he was the hockey player, that would be flipped. Didn't fucking matter what I did."
I reached out a hand and placed it on his arm.
"That sounds rough. Competing with a brother can be a pain in the ass.
It's no fun when you're not related to them by blood either. I think my father prefers me, but Bray’s mother always preferred him.
I guess that's fair enough, but I always felt like I missed out on having a mother. "
"Yours not around?" Tiger asked.
I put my plate aside and leaned back to look up at the stars.
"She was around. At first. She got married again, had more babies.
She got busy. Eventually she stopped coming, and I stopped going to stay with her.
We talk to each other on the phone sometimes, but I don't really know her anymore, y’know?
If I saw her face to face, I wouldn't know what to say to her. "
"I'd tell mine to fuck off, so yeah, I get it," he said bitterly.
I looked over at him. "I'm sure they're proud of you. Sometimes people don't know how to express things like that."
"Not gonna lie, it's been a long time since I gave a shit whether they were proud or not.
I don't see them. Or my brother, for that matter.
He's probably forgotten I exist. I'd forget him but his band is on the fucking radio all the time. I don’t know how many times I've done a warm up to the sound of their bloody music. "
"They are a little bit popular," I said. They were one of the biggest bands in the world. It was understandable he wouldn't be able to get away from them. They were everywhere.
I never gave much thought to how often I heard their songs, but now I did, I realised it was a lot. I sang along to most of them when they came on. Their songs were so catchy.
We looked up at the stars in silence for a while, admiring the way they twinkled. Each one a tiny diamond in the night sky.
"Did you organise the cloudless weather too?" I asked.
He snorted. "Yeah, I'm that fucking influential the weather behaves for me."
He glanced over and smiled. "Naw, just looked at the forecast and picked a night that looked like it would behave itself."
"What would you have done if it hadn't?" I asked. "Choked it?"
His smile broadened to a grin. "For you, I'd choke the shit out of the clouds."
I laughed. "If anyone could do it, it would be you."
"I'd rather choke you," he said. The darkening of his eyes, and the heat behind his words made my pulse race and my clit throb.
"If you choke me right, I'll see stars," I said. Ones in other universes.
"Princess, I would never choke you wrong," he said. He rolled over and pressed his mouth to mine.
"Of course you wouldn't," I replied.
He pulled back and looked at me with a serious expression on his face. "There's something I want to talk to you about before this goes any further."
"Should I be concerned?" I frowned.
Things were going well, weren't they? Shit, now I was worried he was going to tell me something bad. Like this was a test and somehow I failed. That wouldn't be fair, I didn't even have time to study.
Yeah, the very thought of exams filled me with anxiety. They always would. Thank fuck I didn't have to worry about them again. Not school ones anyway.
"That depends on you," he said. "I want to tell you something about myself and I don't know how you'll take it. People in the past have had a big problem with it. They can get fucked, but you're different. I need you to hear this and if you want to run away, I won't stop you."
Whatever it was, it must be a big deal for him to say something like that. He'd made it clear he wasn't letting me go without a fight. What could he say that would make any difference to that?
"Okay," I said slowly. "I'm listening. I can't imagine you saying anything too scary. I know you've killed people. I know you'll do it again if you catch up to Nicholas."
"When I catch up to Nicholas," Tiger corrected.
"When," I repeated.
I glanced around, half expecting to see the last of the Fiorellis jump out at us and kill us both. He didn't appear, no one did. Tiger and I were still alone.
"Do you like anchovies? Or something even nastier, like chicken hearts, or unborn pigeons?" I was babbling, but he had me nervous. I was ready to be all in, but now he was telling me there was something that might change my mind? I was trying not to freak out, to be honest.
"Fuck no, fuck no, and never tried it," he said. "Is that even a thing? If it is, I'm pretty sure it's also a fuck no."
He took a deep breath and plunged on. "I'm bi."
I blinked.
Waited for more.
"That's it?" I asked. I quickly added, "I mean, of course that's a big deal, but it doesn't change how I feel about you. Should it?"
"I don't think so," he said, his voice low with contemplation. "Like I said, it has in the past. I've had friends who freaked out when they found out. Thought I'd try to date them or some shit. As if I was into their ugly mugs."
"Your parents didn't approve?" I guessed.
He glanced down at the rug. "You could say that. It was the icing of disapproval on their judgey-as-fuck cake."
He shook his head. His eyes glazed as he thought back.
"I've never seen that look on my mother's face.
Like she didn't even know me. It was bad enough when I told her I wanted to play hockey.
They wanted me to be a doctor or something that would have made me miserable.
No idea why they thought I'd be any good at it.
I'd probably tell my patients to shut the fuck up and get better. As if that would work."
I smiled. "I think you would have been a better doctor than you think, but you're certainly an amazing hockey player. A happier one too."
"A-fucking-men to that," he agreed. "If I even got into med school, I would have done what my brother did and drop out."
"Your brother went to med school?" I asked.
Tiger snorted. "Fuck no. He went to the Sydney Conservatory of Music." He spoke in a fancy tone, but rolled his eyes. "Decided not to be a classical pianist. He dropped out and joined a rock band."
I couldn't help smiling. "I can't say I blame him. It looks to me like rock stars have a lot more fun."
"Not as much fun as hockey players," Tiger said with a hint of a smile. "Except that we work a lot harder."
I suspected they both worked as hard as each other, but decided it was better not to voice that opinion. Whatever problem Tiger had with his brother, that was something they needed to work out.
I snuggled up to him. "I don't care that you're bi. It doesn't change how I feel about you. If you feel the need to explore that side of yourself, you have my full support. As long as it's not behind my back."
"I would never cheat on you," he said. "I expect you to be there, taking part. Or…watching."
Yes please.
"Then that's what I'll do," I said. Now my head was full of thoughts of him and Lex together. Yeah, that image was hot enough to melt my panties off.
"If you're not careful, I could fall for you," Tiger whispered.
"I could say the same to you," I said.
I was already falling, hard and fast. With absolutely no safety net beneath my feet.