Chapter 17 #2
“I mean, I haven’t. No. I thought you asked if I knew how he was.”
Dilynne snaps her fingers and points at me. “Oh my God. You’ve slept with him, haven’t you?”
“What?” I ask with a nervous laugh.
Laney practically squeals. “I knew it!”
Elodie snaps her fingers. “Damn it, Vienna. I bet that you were able to keep it together, but you gave in.” She shakes her head but then leans forward and winks at me. “But it was worth it, right?”
My mouth drops open as I stare at these three women, realizing that I was just coerced to tell the truth and I’m not even sure how it happened. “How—how can you tell?”
Laney waves her finger up and down my body. “Because I’ve had that look, the look of being freshly fucked.” Her nose scrunches up. “And now I just realized I’m referring to my brother being good at sex.”
Elodie nods. “Yup. I’ve seen that look in the mirror too. You’ve been dickmatized, Vienna.”
Clearing my throat, I reply, “I’m not…dickmatized. It just sort of happened.”
Dilynne rests her hand on my shoulder. “His dick can’t just magically enter your vagina without consent and you spreading your legs, honey.
But look…we listen and we don’t judge here.
Honestly, I’ll always advocate for a woman having great sex.
The world would be a better place if every lady was getting banged into her mattress on the regular.
And I’m glad that grumpy Rhonan is getting some because he was starting to give Elliot a run for his money in that department. ”
“Elliot seems to be doing a little bit better lately, though,” Elodie interjects.
Dilynne rolls her eyes. “He’s still a giant pain in the ass and always will be as far as I’m concerned.”
“I get the feeling that you and Elliot don’t like each other,” I cut in.
Dilynne gasps dramatically. “Why, whatever gave you that idea?”
Laney mutters, “Please don’t get her started, Vienna. We could be here all night.”
“Did you two date or something?” I ask.
Dilynne nearly bends in half as she laughs. “Oh, shit. That’s hilarious. The answer to that question is no, dearest Vienna. Elliot wouldn’t know what to do with all of this.” She waves her hand up and down her body.
“Let’s focus back on you and Rhonan banging each other,” Elodie says with wide eyes, clearly invested. “This is how you two must have felt when Henley and I were tiptoeing around each other, huh?” She casts her gaze to Dilynne and Laney.
Sighing, I bury my head in my hands. “Dear God.”
Laney wraps her arms around my shoulder. “Hey, in all seriousness, we’re just trying to help. You can talk to us, Vienna.”
When I lift my head and find all three of them staring at me, I sigh in defeat. It’s not like I have Lydia to talk to, and these three know Rhonan better than I do. Perhaps they can give me some insight.
“Fine. I’m—I’m sort of confused because we haven’t really even talked about what us sleeping together means, and both times we’ve had sex this past week, he’s had to leave really quickly… But the sex?” I sigh wistfully. “I didn’t know sex could be like that.”
The sex with Rhonan has been incredible—so much so that I barely recognize myself when he touches me.
The moment he opens his mouth and tells me what to do, I instantly obey.
He makes me comfortable asking for what I want, safe enough to let go and try something new—and I swear, I’ve never had more than one orgasm during sex before—if I even had one at all.
Dilynne snorts while crossing her arms over her chest. “Surely you’ve observed how closed off Rhonan Hart is.”
“Um, yeah…”
“So do I need to spell it out for you?”
“I think so…”
“He’s not going to just sleep with someone if it doesn’t mean something.”
Laney nods. “She’s right. My brother has always been a bit of a monogamist, and losing Sarah was very tough for him. According to Fletcher, he has only slept with two other women since she passed. He’s just not cut out for casual sex.”
“Should I be concerned that you know this much about your brother’s sexual history?”
Laney laughs, but Elodie and Dilynne shake their heads. “No. Trust me, Dilynne and I have been looking after him for years. And even Elodie knows in the short time she’s been around how my brother thinks. Every decision he makes is calculated. He’s never been the spontaneous type.”
And that’s the part that scares me—because there is very little about my life right now that is grounded.
Hell, the only reason I ended up in Blossom Peak is because of a spontaneous decision I made to apply for this job.
And given that there are other details of my life that are still in pieces, I’m not even sure what a future could look like here without being completely honest with him, especially about Cole.
My eyes find Laney’s. “I feel strongly for him, but I’m scared.”
“Why?”
Dilynne reaches for the open bottle of wine, filling all of our glasses again as we make our way back to the living room, returning to our seats. “Lay it out, Vienna. Again, no judgment.”
Staring down into my wine glass as if it holds all of the answers, I take a minute to debate just how many details I should share.
“I—I just left a relationship shortly after Lydia died, and it wasn’t a great one,” I start.
Laney nods. “Okay…”
“My ex was…controlling, but charming. I fell for him hard and fast, and then it was too late when I realized who he really was. He was jealous, and it took me years to realize that wasn’t a good thing.
When I finally did, it’s like I was stuck.
He alienated me from my family and the few other friends that I had besides Lydia, but when things started to take a turn for the worse, I finally got the courage to leave. ”
“He didn’t hit you, did he?” Dilynne asks. “Because if he did, you give me his address right now. I’ll grab my tools, and he won’t know what’s coming.”
I shake my head rapidly. “No, he never hit me…grabbed me really hard a few times, but that was it.” Reaching up, I rub the skin on my upper arm from where I felt his touch the last time.
Elodie reaches for my hand this time from her spot on the couch. “Then I’m proud of you for doing that—leaving him. It takes a lot of guts.”
Her words instantly make tears fill my eyes—because those are the words I never got to hear from Lydia and feel like I need now more than ever.
Lydia died before I left Cole.
It was a week after she was gone that I finally found the courage to leave, and then it took me months to get my ducks in a row.
But she never got to cheer me on when I did.
And I have no one to blame for that but myself.
Laney says, “I’m so sorry you went through something like that, Vienna.
We all have past relationships that have affected us and shaped us in some way.
But I say this with the most sincerity I can muster…
” She takes a deep breath. “My brother would never treat you like that, and when he lost his wife, I saw a part of him shut off completely. Since you’ve been around, I’ve started to see glimpses of it again. ”
“And what part is that?” I ask on a shaky breath.
Laney smiles. “His ability to find joy. When he talks about you? There’s a twinkle in his eyes and I can see him fighting the curl of his smile.
He’s so determined to hang on to his struggle that he probably doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.
But I’ve noticed and so has Fletcher.” She reaches for her phone and opens the screen to check her messages.
“Speaking of my fiancé, he says that he just told Rhonan that we’re over here having girls’ night with you and he looks like there could be steam coming out of his ears. ”
Dilynne stares up at the ceiling. “Yup, I could definitely see that.”
“Well since we haven’t talked, it’s not like I could have told him that I planned on hanging out with Laney tonight,” I say.
“Exactly. Don’t worry, though, I know how to handle my brother.” Laney flips her hair over her shoulder. “He’s going to accuse me of meddling in his life, but honestly? He’d be lost without me.”
“And Joanne,” Elodie interjects.
Laney points at Elodie. “True. But here’s what we’re going to do, Vienna,” Laney continues. “You’re going to keep doing what you’re doing, and let me, Dilynne, and Elodie handle him.”
“Uh…what do you mean?”
The three of them share a look before Dilynne turns to me and smirks. “We’re going to light a fire under his ass so he’ll finally admit that he wants to be with you.”
“And how are you planning to do that exactly?”
Laney rubs her hands together. “The best way for a man to get over his own fear is to make him scared of something else.”
“I—I’m not sure that I like the sound of this.”
Dilynne chuckles. “Honey, just let us handle everything. We’re gonna make Rhonan Hart drop to his knees for you. And when he does, you can thank us later with a cheesecake from Bites & Bliss on our next girls’ night.”
Saliva instantly pools in my mouth. “Oh my God, that was the best cheesecake I’ve ever had in my life.”
“I know. But that’s just because you haven’t experienced a man begging for you yet,” Elodie says, waggling her eyebrows. “And Rhonan Hart doesn’t even know what’s about to hit him.”