Chapter 5
Five
Hannah
Startled awake by the sound of raised voices, my eyes flutter open, and I sit up, instantly regretting the sudden movement and massaging my temples. Damn, my head hurts. Uncovering my face, I look around. Where the hell—?
No!
There’s no way I’m in Sean’s bed right now.
The smell of his cologne blankets me, and I close my eyes, missing him so much.
You’d think after all this time, I’d be over him.
I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I want him back.
No, that would only open up the door to being hurt again and I don’t know if I could survive him breaking my heart a second time around.
Looking down, I pluck at his cotton T-shirt.
At least my sports bra and panties are still in place.
Thank God for that. I glance up and . . . eww.
His gray sheets rustle and slide off my body as I stand, feeling gross and nauseous after noticing three holes carved into the footboard.
Does that? Wait . . .
I inspect the grooves where the slat slides up and down to enclose someone’s wrists and neck, then my fingers trace and flick up the gold ring hook on the corner of his footboard. This bed wasn’t here the last time I was.
“I haven’t been with anyone since you,” I mock under my breath, snatching my purse, dress, and heels off the bench at the foot of his bed.
Lying pig.
I pad down the hall and hear Aiden and Sean arguing somewhere near by.
“Theft, assault, and kidnapping. Are you insane?”
“I didn’t steal . . . I borrowed,” Sean replies, his voice laced with boredom.
I set my belongings on the entry table, then head into the living room.
“I need someone to explain why I’m here,” I demand, gripping the hem of Sean’s shirt that hits my legs mid-thigh. The two grown ass men, arguing like little kids in the kitchen, both swivel their heads in my direction.
“Mornin’, darlin’. You were kidnapped . . . by him,” Aiden tosses his hand in Sean’s direction.
The notion is so insane that I would probably double over laughing if the jackhammer inside my head wasn’t going to town on my skull.
“I didn’t kidnap you,” Sean argues, pulling a pan off a hook and setting it down on the stove. “You were drunk and in a bad place, so I picked you up.”
“In a stolen—”
“Borrowed—”
“Stolen car, after he attacked—”
“It was hardly an attack. I clocked him one time.” Sean rolls his eyes.
“Don’t let him lie. He stole my car, attacked Nate, then kidnapped you.”
“By the way . . .” Sean grins, gripping Aiden’s shoulder with one hand and patting him on the chest with the other. “Aiden here just invited me to Moab.”
The hell? I don’t know what happened, but somehow, I woke up in an alternate universe because my best friend would never.
“I’m uninviting you,” I snap.
Not happening. He’s not coming with us.
I turn on my heels to leave, but Sean’s voice stops me. “Let me impress you, Rebel.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, remembering the words he spoke after we jumped off the Strat. Anger boils in my veins. He’s toyed with my emotions enough.
Whirling around, I storm toward him until we’re chest to chest. “You’d be lucky if I didn’t push you off the cliff, and the only thing you could do to impress me is survive the fall.”
Aiden laughs, and I cut him a look over my shoulder. Raising his hands in surrender, he turns to leave. “I’ll be waiting for you in my car . . . you know . . . the one that was stolen.”
“For the last time, I didn’t steal your car,” Sean argues, craning his neck to look at Aiden before casting his brown eyes back on me. “So, it’s settled then. I’m going to Moab.”
“You can go wherever the hell you want; I can’t stop you, but you’re not going there with me,” I say, too hungover for this argument.
I turn to leave, but he grabs my wrist and spins me back to face him.
The soft expression on his face and the pad of his thumb caressing the skin over my pulse point have those damn traitorous butterflies in my stomach taking flight.
Before he can say anything to make this harder on me, I jerk out of his hold, and this time, when I turn around, he doesn’t stop me, but he does follow me.
I grab my things, and as I open the door, he slams it shut, his tattooed arm resting beside my head.
I pull on the door again, but his hand remains in place. “Thank you for taking care of me last night, Sean, but respectfully, fuck off.”
“That’s not a very nice way to talk to your boyfriend,” he breathes into my hair.
What the hell is going on right now? He hasn’t said anything to me in months, outside of work, and now he’s calling himself . . . Ah. I know what this is about. He can’t stand the thought of anyone else having me, so he’s trying to stake his claim.
We’ve been here before.
I turn to face the bastard, and screw him for being so damn beautiful. His long, silky black hair falls around his face as he grabs me by the waist, pulls me closer to him, and presses his forehead against mine.
“Fuck, I’ve missed you,” he whispers.
My heart stutters to a near stop, and my chest rapidly rises and falls with each quick breath.
This is what I wanted for so long, but I don’t trust him, and I have way too much going on in my life to add more complications.
Done with his shit, my hands fly up to his chest, and I push him away, but he barely moves an inch.
“You’re not, nor have you ever been, my boyfriend. You were just a fuck. That’s it. This . . .” I gesture between us, throwing his words back in his face. “This is why I don’t do repeats.”
“Mmm. We’ll see.”
With a smirk, Sean opens the door, and I quickly spin around, duck under his arm, and bound down the steps, trying to put some distance between us.
He cuts in front of me to open the passenger door.
As I park my ass in the seat next to Aiden, Sean tucks his hair behind his ears, then grabs my seatbelt and leans over to buckle me in.
I bat his hand away. “Stop—”
His lips mold to mine, shutting me up and my eyes widen in shock. The seatbelt clicks, and as he leans back, his thumb dusts along my bottom lip. “I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.”
“Dick,” I mumble under my breath, and slam my door.
Aiden throws the car in reverse, then speeds off down the road.
His light brown hair, in need of a haircut, curls up along the sides of his backward ballcap.
The Versace sunglasses I bought him for his birthday hide his brown eyes, so I can’t really see his expression.
I do know he’s way too quiet. Aiden always has a lot to say, but he’s changed these past few months.
Let’s be real, these past few months have changed him.
When his lips pinch to the side, I know something is definitely wrong.
“Spill.”
“We can’t keep this secret much longer,” he says, shifting the gear into third.
“Aiden,” I warn.
“He undressed you last night.” He sighs, gripping the steering wheel a little harder than necessary. “And you showed up to a sex club, drunk and alone. I’m always down for a good time, darlin’, you know that, and you deserve to do whatever you want after all you’ve been through, but—”
“Please don’t.” I sigh, burying my head in my hands. “I can’t do this right now. I need more time.”
“Time’s running out, Han.”
He’s right. That’s the thing about secrets; they don’t stay secrets long.
Sean
Are you ready for our trip?
Hannah
Get fucked.
Sean
Keep talking dirty to me.
I think my eyes just rolled out of my head.
The doorbell rings, and I toss my phone onto the bed and make my way into the foyer. Before I even have the door halfway open, Cammie comes barreling in. “Okay, so hear me out before you get upset.”
“That’s never a good way to start. What’s going on?” I ask, closing the door behind us and heading back to my room.
Cammie follows behind me, and as she plops down next to my suitcase, she plucks one of my shirts from the bed and begins folding it. “I think I should stay back.”
Ping.
“Noooo. Please don’t say that,” I beg, grabbing my wingsuit and stuffing it into my suitcase. “Are you scared? If you’re scared, you don’t have to jump. You can hang out in the landing zone.”
When I turn my head to look at her, icy-blue eyes—the same as her twin brother, Carter’s—stare back at me with so much guilt shining in them. I don’t want her to feel bad. There’s gotta be a good reason why she wouldn’t come along.
“No, it’s nothing like that. When I said I would go, I didn’t think about River being so close to her due date. But after speaking to my brother today, I feel like I need to be here in case she goes into labor.”
Ping.
“But she’s not due yet,” I argue.
“True.” She sighs. “But I still think I need to hang back just in case . . .”
Ping.
“Should I stay?”
“No! Absolutely not. You need to do this,” she says, folding a pair of shorts and placing them into my bag. “I’ll call you if you need to come home.”
“Are you sure?”
Ping.
“Positive. Who keeps blowing up your phone?”
“Ugh. It’s probably Sean.”
I snatch up my phone and silence it, then toss it back onto the bed. “Why are you smiling? We’re not Team Sean, Cameron Graham!”
With a devious smirk, she shifts, and I launch to grab my cell at the same time she does, but she’s much faster than I am.
“I’m not ‘Team Sean,’” she argues, typing in my passcode. “I’m team: I want to see what he has to say for himself after kidnapping you.”
“Oh my god. Did Aiden get a hold of you?”
Cammie looks off into the distance with an expression that says, “I wish he would.” Or at least that’s how I interpret it anyway.
Objectively, because I don’t see Aiden in a romantic way, he’s incredibly handsome.
Then there’s the whole Texas charm thing with the darlins’ and yes ma’ams. I could smack him sometimes with the stupid shit he does.
He’s quite literally the biggest man-child I’ve ever met, but his heart?
Solid gold. There hasn’t been a time I needed him that he hasn’t been here for me.
“Something like that,” she responds.
I continue packing, not really interested in what Sean has to say . . . okay, that’s a lie. I’m curious, but I know better. I need to block his number because this isn’t good for me. He’s not good for me.
Cammie stares down at my phone with a frown, tugging at her brows. “Hey, ummm. You should read these.”
Taking the phone from her, I look down at the screen.
Aiden
I would call you, but I’m not in a place where I can talk.
There’s no way I’m gonna be able to go with you. I’ll probably be held up for the next couple of days.
What? Noooo.
I click out of Aiden’s messages and open up the ones from Sean.
Sean
Remember that time we went to Hawk’s Nest?
I was being a dick about your music, but we put on that show for your mom.
The memory slips in before I can stop it.
“Your taste in music is shit,” Sean complains, leaning against his truck, arms crossed, acting like he was forced to bring me here even though the trip was entirely his idea.
My mom’s playlist is set on shuffle and flows quietly through my phone’s speaker as I stare up into the night sky.
“You’ve never complained before.”
“You’ve never had terrible taste until now.”
“Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna.” I look over at him and smile. “I’ll take them any day. Listening to them makes me feel close to my mom.”
As I say the words, a cool wind picks up and whips through my hair.
Some part of me might even believe it’s her saying, “Hello.” I was nine years old when cancer ripped her away from us.
Seventeen years later, and I still remember her clearly.
She was so full of joy. When I close my eyes and concentrate hard, I can almost remember the sound of her voice or her melodic laugh.
There’s no light pollution out here. Every star is sparkling in the night sky, and as I look up at the beauty of it, I wonder if there really is a heaven. I’d like to believe there is, that one day I’ll see her again.
“Do you think she’s up there watching?” I whisper more to myself, but when he doesn’t answer, I glance over at him.
That scowl he always wears softens, and he shifts, grabbing both my hands and pulling me away from the truck.
“Come on. Let’s give her a show,” he says, twirling me.
On an old dark winding road, with Mom’s playlist flowing through the speaker, he danced with me. When I wanted to feel close to my mom, he held me close to him.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I glance back down at his messages.
Sean
Hold onto that memory when you’re mad at me. K?
Confused and against my better judgment, I click Sean’s picture and tap the call icon. After a couple of rings, his sexy as sin voice answers the phone.
“Hello, Rebel.”
Closing my eyes, I inhale a deep breath and force all of those little tingles to leave my body.
“Sean, just what the hell did you mean by that message?”
He doesn’t explain immediately, and something tells me I’m going to be thoroughly pissed by his answer.
Rustling.
Crackles.
He’s definitely covering the receiver. What the hell? I’m not hanging around for this crap. Right before I hang up, I hear Aiden’s muffled voice yell, “You drugged me!”
“I didn’t drug you; I medicated you,” Sean argues in a bored tone.
“What did you put in my coffee?”
“It’s called Milk of Magnesia. You said you were having trouble moving things along.”
“I wasn’t fucking talking about that, and you know it!”
I grip my phone so tight, I’m surprised it doesn’t break. This asshole ruined my trip. I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna fucking kill him. Hanging up, I dial Aiden and put the call on speaker.
“He’s the devil, Han. The fucking devil! I have to go. I’ll call you later,” he groans before three beeps indicate he’s hung up.
My phone immediately buzzes in my hand, and I’m apprehensive to even look at the text because I already know who it’s from.
Sean
Can’t wait for our romantic getaway.
Hannah
Fuck you!!!
Sean
Can’t wait for that either.
Ugh!
My thumbs hover over the keyboard, ready to unleash, but then I think better of it. I’m not wasting any more time on him.
“I need you to take me to the airport,” I say to Cammie, mindlessly grabbing things and cramming them into my suitcase.
“Your flight doesn’t leave for a few hours.”
“I’m changing flights. I need to go now.”
After everything he’s done, I don’t know what makes him think he can barge back into my life. I have news for him. I’m not letting it happen . . . again.