Chapter Fourteen The Tell
Belle
I looked into his eyes and saw how upset this announcement made him. “We can’t steal their thunder, Liberty.”
“Steal…?” He shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“Your brother and my sister are getting married in two days. The fact that you and I got together now will be something that might take the limelight.”
“And why would it do that?” he asked as he braced his hands onto his hips. “We wouldn’t be the stars of this wedding, they would be. I don’t see the point in hiding us…or our relationship.”
I slowly looked him over as he stood in nothing but a towel. Why did he have to be so damned hot to look at? And be a jerk at the same time? Licking my lips, I lost my train of thought.
“Are you ogling me?” he asked with a grin.
I raised my gaze up to his face. “I guess I was.” I laughed. “I was just wondering why such a jerk had to be so hot.”
He laughed too. “You aren’t the first to wonder that.”
“Oh, I bet I’m not.” I chuckled. “But listen to me for a minute here, Liberty. I know you aren”t used to hiding anything from anyone. I happen to know this as you never hid the fact that you were a jerk when you met me.”
Raising his hands at me, he defended, “Hey, I rescued you, remember?” His grin just kept growing.
“Noooo,” I disagreed as I could see he was enjoying our banter now. “You simply happened to be there when Scarlet and I arrived.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, like it was an accident or something? Come on now!”
I smirked at him as I seemed to enjoy this conversation too. “You keep forgetting that I had it all handled myself. Deacon graciously let us leave. Then we drove right out of there, free as birds.”
Nodding at me Liberty, went on with his debate, “Yes and we know why Mr. Dastardly did that, now don’t we?”
Shrugging, I replied, “Still, that was not a rescue. He let us go and we bumped into you guys. Scarlet was driving me home in fact.” I smirked at him some more.
Liberty scoffed at my defending argument but he did give me a smile as he replied, “All I know is Justice and I hung out in that dank trunk for almost 2 hours, so that we could rescue you, ok? Then when we came home, you two were with us. So, I call that a rescue.”
I kept shaking my head. “Call it whatever you want, but you never busted us out of there. I suppose we will never agree on that, but please do what I’m asking, Liberty? I love Scarlet so much and I don”t want anything to steal the glow from her wedding, ok?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think it would. I mean I really think she’ll be happy about us. I am a really bad liar, Belle. So, I’m not sure if I was cornered that I could pull it off? But I do dread all the razzing I’m gonna get from my brothers.” He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, they are going to roast you for sure.” I giggled.
He nodded. “They all told me, even Red. That I had the hots for you.”
I gave him my best smile. “And so you did.”
“Have the hots for you?” He chuckled. “Fuck yeah!” Stepping closer, he playfully bopped my nose with his finger. “You became even hotter when you whispered my name as you came.”
My jaw dropped open in shock.
He stared at my stunned expression then tossed his head back and laughed.
I was still stunned as I smacked his bare chest. “That was…Wow!”
“Shameless, remember?’ he teased.
I slowly shook my head as I laughed. “Yeah, I remember.”
He came closer and plucked at my towel with his finger. “I’m loving this towel but I’m thinking of stealing it and taking you back to bed.”
My skin felt hot again. The man was so sexy and I knew if I let him touch me, we would end up in his bed again, so I backed up. “People are already gonna wonder where we are, Liberty.”
He sighed. “Ok, but you’d better not walk out of here in a towel if you don”t want to get discovered.” He gave me that smirk of his again.
I clutched at the towel. “Oh, yeah, you’re right.” I looked around. “Where are my clothes anyway?”
Liberty raised his hand to his chin and rubbed it with his fingers as he looked me over. “I like you better without them too, actually.”
I laughed. “Liberty! I need my—”
A knock came on the door.
I jumped.
Liberty laughed.
I tisked and placed my finger over his lips as I whispered, “I gotta hide.”
He poked his tongue out to lick my finger.
I yanked my hand back as if he’d burned me. It actually turned me on a little but I definitely was not going to tell him that. We had enough problems.
Smirking at me, he shook his head. “Go around the other side of the bed and lay on the floor.” He jiggled his brows and whispered, “Then when this asshole leaves, I will join you there.”
I smacked his bare chest and ran over to the bed. Rolling across it, I landed on the floor beside it. My towel slipped and I gasped and had to tug it back up over my breasts again.
Another knock came.
Liberty tisked under his breath and yelled, “Wait just a damn minute, will ya!” He stepped over and yanked the door open.
“What the hell took you so long, brother?” Fate asked.
“I was in the shower, dickhead. What’s your hurry anyways?”
“I didn’t see you or Belle at breakfast.”
My mouth popped open and I covered it with my hand. We missed Ma’s breakfast? I slowly shook my head. Ma Walker forgave fights and even a bit of unruliness to a degree but there were two things she never tolerated… 1.) Don’t be talking back to her. And 2.) Never be late to a meal.
“So you know what happened,” Fate explained. “She sent me out looking. Everyone here knows you are not to miss or be late unless you have a damn good reason.”
Liberty tisked. “Yeah, yeah. I know.”
“So?” Fate asked.
“So what?’ Liberty asked back.
“What”s your damn good reason?”
I bit at my lip as I waited for Liberty’s answer.
“I was sore and tired after that fight. So I overslept.”
Good one.
“So what about Belle?” Fate asked.
“What about her?” Liberty said.
Fate snorted. “Come on, Lib. You were both missing. So where is she?”
“Do I look like the lady’s keeper?”
“Oh, wow!” Fate exclaimed.
“What?” Liberty asked.
“You are lying!”
“Am not,” Liberty denied.
“Are too! In case you didn”t know already, I’m your freaking twin, Liberty. I discovered your tell when we were ten years old. Ever since then, I could catch you out anytime you tried to lie and it seems to me you stopped doing that a long time ago. So why are you lying now?”
I covered my head as I laid it down on the carpet. Crap!
“My tell?” Liberty asked him.
“Yeah, remember? Betsy Cummings had a crush on me and you told her that I peed the bed so she would stop following us home from the bus stop, you freaking asshole!”
I smothered a giggle.
“But I didn’t know you had done that, did I?” Fate went on. “So eventually, it got around school and everyone was laughing at me, but no one would tell me why. I asked you what you said and you lied, remember?”
“Yeah, I denied the whole thing.”
“That’s when I realized your tell,” Fate said. “I’d noticed it before but I finally figured it out.”
“Yes and to this day you won’t tell me what it is!” Liberty said.
“I figured it would be best not to,” Fate said smugly. “That way in case you tried to lie—”
“Yeah, yeah, you could catch me out.”
“So, why are you lying about Belle?” Fate asked him.
Silence.
Oh wow, I was curious about this tell thing too. Since I was now with Liberty, this information would be invaluable to the max. I would always know when or if he lied to me. I paused…What if he never did? He said he was in fact a bad lair earlier.
“Oh shit, you are sleeping with her?” Fate exclaimed in disbelief.
“Did I say that?” Liberty replied.
“Oh, wow! You did sleep with her. Was it…I mean, was she—”
“Stop!” Liberty told him.
“Man, it’s just us and I’m your brother, dude. I’m the one that pointed it out to you that you were falling for this girl, remember?”
I laid very still… falling for me? I looked up to see Liberty standing over me.
He reached down and plucked me up from the carpet.
I know my face was really pink by now as Liberty led me away from the bed.
“Oh…” Fate said as he stared at me.
“Yeah, oh.” Liberty shook his head. “I couldn’t let this go on any longer. Cuz man, I am so NOT telling you details like when we were sixteen.” He squeezed my hand. “Belle and I are together and I plan for it to stay that way. She doesn’t want others to know because of the wedding.”
“The wedding?” Fate looked confused.
“Yes,” I finally spoke up. “I want this time to be about them, not anyone else.”
“Oh, I get it.” Fate nodded his head at me. “You don’t wanna steal their thunder.”
I chuckled and looked over at Liberty. “See? He gets it.”
Liberty rolled his eyes. “I hate secrets and lies.”
“Too bad you weren’t like that when we were ten,” Fate said.
“Man, I have told you a dozen times that I was sorry for that.” Liberty shook his head. “It’s been like fifteen years for fuck’s sake. When are you gonna get over it?”
“Hey, I was fine until I ran into Betsy last year,” Fate grumbled. “She’s a Victoria”s Secret model now. I bumped into her at a party and I even thought I had a chance with her until I saw her laughing at me all over again. I suppose she just couldn’t forget what you told her and it sorta killed the vibe ya know? Her thinking about how I was a bedwetter.”
I laughed.
“Don’t encourage the spaz, ok?” Liberty shook his head at me.
Fate gave me a wink. “He needs someone to keep him humble. I’m sure you already figured that out the minute he opened his mouth.”
I nodded. “Yep, I knew immediately.”
We both laughed at Liberty”s expense of course.
Liberty grunted and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Ok, so I can help with the cover up,” Fate said as he ignored Liberty”s attitude.
“How?” I asked.
“Oh, this ought to be good,” Liberty quipped sarcastically. “Careful Belle, this guy is an even bigger smartass than I am.”
“No...No,” Fate replied as he shook his head. “I’m afraid that just isn”t impossible.”
I laughed again. These two were so funny together even more than Justice and Liberty were. It seemed like Fate had the ability to get on Liberty’s last nerve, just like Liberty did to Justice. I paused to wonder if any of them did that to Redemption, then I realized probably not, as he was like the president or whatever of the Requiem MC and a few years older than these two.
“So, I can run interference maybe?” Fate offered.
“Oh yeah, you are hella good at that, Fate.” Liberty smirked at him. “You are constantly interfering.”
“Ha-freakin-ha,” Fate scoffed. “No, like I’ll just hang out with the two of you. I mean I already was doing that.”
“Hang out?” Liberty questioned. “Haven’t you heard that three is a crowd?”
“Yes I have and it will be the three of us and not just the two of you.” Fate nodded.
I stared at Fate. “So what does that mean?”
“I will like stand in between you two. Make sure there’s no hanky panky, like hand holding, sneaking kisses, necking, you know.”
“Necking?” I stared at him and burst out laughing again.
“Wait, wait. You mean like a…what do they call them?” Liberty said.
“A chaperone,” I told him.
“Yeah, one of those.” Fate nodded.
“Hell, no,” Liberty complained.
“I think it might help.” I nodded.
“I don’t want a damned chaperone!” Liberty griped.
“Yeah, I bet.” Fate motioned at him. “Like you two wearing nothing but towels? That’s a red flag right there, ya know?”
Liberty glared at him.
I kept laughing.
“No, I’m serious,” Fate went on. “Like right now… how is she gonna get back to her room without anyone seeing her?”
I looked over to see my clothes on the bed and my bra. My cheeks flamed as I grabbed all of it up. “I will go and get dressed then we can all leave at the same time.”
“Yeah see, that’ll work.” Fate nodded. “If three of us leave, no one will think there’s any hanky panky going on.”
Liberty looked disgusted. “Hanky panky? Man, you watch too many Lifetime movies or something. What kind of man says ‘hanky panky’?”
I giggled at this.
Fate grinned at me as he shrugged, then he turned his head to look at Liberty. “And it is safe to say that you need to lose the towel-boy look, brother. It is a dead giveaway that you’ve been messin’ round.” He reached over and yanked Liberty’s towel from his hips.
“What the hell, asshole?” Liberty exclaimed.
“Well, that was a mistake,” Fate complained as he looked away. “I sure did not want to see your ass hanging out, baby brother!”
Well, I did because Liberty had a beautiful ass but this was too much for me right now, so I flipped around and hurried to the bathroom.
“You need to settle your ass down, Fate,” Liberty retorted. “And for the last damn time, I am not the baby brother. I was born first and you know it.”
As they continued their arguing, I laughed all the way into the bathroom and I shut the door.