Chapter 4
Leo
Kai arriving in true Kai style was the distraction I needed.
Two seconds later and my lips would have been on Ria’s.
She looked so damn beautiful in her relaxed travel clothes of baggy joggers and an oversized sky-blue sweater that hung off one shoulder, showing me her slightly tanned smooth skin that I wanted to mark with my teeth.
She has always had this way of drawing my attention, and the whole plane trip, I was constantly checking in.
Every time she laughed or I heard her sweet voice in the distance, my head was swinging in her direction.
And when we all decided it was a good idea to have a nap over the Atlantic before we landed so we were all ready to party as soon we got there, I watched her sleep next to me.
Her eyelashes splayed out across her cheeks and her soft breaths coming from her slightly parted pink lips had me in a trance.
I’m so gone for this woman.
“We’ve got you in the Elvis Suite, Mr. Brent, with the bachelor party, and then Miss Chambers,”—the chirpy receptionist turns to Lily to hand her the key to the girls’ suite—“the bachelorettes are in the Priscilla Suite.”
“You’re kidding me, Petardo?” Marcus growls in her ear, and she’s grinning from ear to ear.
“What? They are the best suites in the hotel. Isn’t that right?” she addresses the receptionist.
“That’s correct, Miss Chambers.”
“Don’t worry, princess, they cleared out the geese.” She kisses his cheek before she joins the girls, laughing the whole way.
“Geese?” we all ask in unison.
“Don’t ask.” He shakes his head, and I see all the girls throwing their heads back laughing and looking at Marcus while Lily blows him a kiss and finger waves before they head off to the elevator, their suitcases trailing behind them.
Ria gives me a small smile as she walks into the elevator, and it makes my breath catch in my throat.
She looks so goddamn beautiful. I need to get a hold on myself.
Bury my feelings deep like I have been doing for so many years.
It was a silly moment on the plane, and Hunter would hate me.
A woman can’t hold my attention for more than a night, and Ria is worth more to me than that.
She deserves so much more than that, and she knows that now.
Since Ezra crushed her, she’s determined not to let someone hurt her like that again.
“You need to explain.” Henry bumps Marcus’s shoulder.
“I’m certain Olivia will fill you in later, sir.” Marcus grins as he hooks his arm around Henry’s shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
“Less of that ‘sir’ stuff. I’m no one’s teacher this weekend.” He playfully bats Marcus away. He’s an English teacher. That’s where he met the lovely Olivia, Jade’s mum and his complete world. He’s much younger than she is, but you can’t deny the love that rolls off them.
“Come on, boys, let's get these bags upstairs and then we can get this party started.” Kai is practically vibrating with excitement next to me, and it shakes me out of my wandering thoughts.
“Too right, my friend.” I clap him on the shoulder before hooking my arm around my best friend. “You ready, brother?”
“Honestly? No.” Hunter nervously chuckles.
“Perfect. You’re nervous; that's just how we want you.”
After spending the remaining part of the evening yesterday in a cigar bar, courtesy of Thomas, Hunter’s dad, we have successfully managed to lull Hunter into a false sense of security that this trip will be calm.
He really should know me better than that.
“Morning, sugartits.” I burst into his room and jump on top of him, wrapping him up and basically pinning him to the mattress.
“Shit,” he groans. “Leo, what the fuck are you doing? We’ve spoken about this. Personal space.”
“Sorry,” I say brightly as I move off him and throw open his drapes. “But the sun is up. You need to get up.”
“Clearly you have woken up in my favorite mood.” He stretches before sitting up and squinting as the morning sunshine streams through, hitting his barely awake face.
“Which is that?”
“Chirpy, full of energy, and fucking annoying.” He throws his pillow across the room at me, and I catch it with ease.
“I can see why that would be your favorite mood of mine. Now…” I clap my hands together. “Get your handsome self up and ready; we’ve got lots to do today.” Grabbing his hands, I pull him up.
“I’m very capable of getting myself ready.” He quirks his eyebrow at me as he stands.
“I’ve heard from Jade you are indeed very capable.” I guide him to the bathroom. “But I also know you are still half naked, and as gorgeous as you are, we have places to be.”
“I’m actually scared by what you and Jade talk about.” He turns on the shower and moves to brush his teeth.
“I think it’s best you don’t know.” I swat his butt, moving to leave the bathroom. “Now move that fine ass and get ready.”
Propping myself up against the headboard, I pull out my phone and scroll to find my dad’s number.
He was invited to come to Vegas, but he felt he needed to be near my grandparents.
They keep telling him they are fine, but he’s stubborn and thrives on being needed.
Since I moved to London, he can no longer helicopter parent me, so they get his constant checkups.
The phone rings twice before he picks up.
“Hey, how’s things in Vegas? You behaving?” His teasing tone has my lips tugging in a half smile.
“All good, Dad. I’m behaving.”
“For now?”
“Yeah, for now. Sure, I’ll go rogue soon.”
“Wouldn’t have you any other way. So, what’s up?”
“Just wanted to check in. I haven’t spoken to you for a few days. Nana and Gramps okay?”
“I’m actually here with them now.”
“Leo, my boy.” Gramps’s deep croaky voice travels down the line. “Tell your dad to get on that plane and join you, will you? He’s driving us crazy.”
“Hey, thanks, Arthur." Dad sighs.
“He’s hovering around like a mother hen; I’ve told him he needs to be out there. Walk on the wild side and let loose, not be here with us old grumps.”
“My wild side is long gone, Arthur.”
“Your wild side never truly got going, son.” His soft tone hits me square in the chest, as I swallow the lump forming in my throat and my mind drifts to my mom.
Dad didn’t have anyone else when he met Mom—no family or at least none that he knew of.
He aged out of the foster system and got a business scholarship, and that’s where he met Diana Beaumont.
The ballbuster who knew exactly where she wanted to be and wasn’t going to let anyone stand in her way.
I’ve heard so many stories from their time in college about how she was the smartest person in every room, but also, she was unfiltered.
Her mouth ran away with her. It got her in trouble more times than they could count, but because she was so clever, she could talk herself out of any problem. Dad says I inherited that part of her.
Joseph Brent was hooked from the very first moment, but he didn’t make the first move, too nervous and struck dumb. Apparently, that was Mom. But if she told the story, it would be completely different. Their story was the perfect love story until it wasn’t.
One day my mom was there, and the next she was gone. She was alive, so full of life and joy, but her heart failed her.
It just stopped.
We had no warning, no time to prepare, just a huge gaping hole where her vibrant aura had been. Her warm motherly smile, her loud laughter, and her calming hugs, all just gone.
In my dad’s head it was his job to keep her safe, to protect her, and he failed.
She was taken from us when I was only twelve, and Dad has never and will never get over it. She was the love of his life. He told me once his heart will only ever be owned by one person, and once hers stopped beating, his lost its rhythm. Never beating the same again.
“You really should have come out with me, Dad.” I force my voice to remain upbeat and not allow the sadness washing over me to take hold. Always the joker, I steer the conversation away and deflect. “We’re at the tables tonight, and apparently Thomas said you still owe him for Chicago.”
“Chicago? He can’t still be holding that against me.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever told me the story. Something about motorbikes and hot dogs?”
“You tell Stone that I’ll take that dare when he pays me back for LA.”
“Do I even want to know?”
“I think it’s best you don’t.” He snickers, and my shoulders sag, knowing the sadness that grips him so tight has loosened slightly. I know it will never leave him, but my job has always been to make him smile. Only cry with tears of laughter.
“I’ll see you in London in a few weeks for the wedding, right? You can fight it out with Thomas then.”
“We will be there,” Dad says just as Gramps vows, “Just try and stop us.”
“You ready to get your butt whipped?” I shake Hunter’s helmet, slamming his visor down.
Brushing me off, he flips his visor back up. “Should I remind you of our race in Monaco?”
“You were just lucky.”
“He wasn’t,” Noah pipes up, his hands lazily resting on the handlebars of his dune buggy. “My little brother schooled you. You were so far in his rearview that Nana Stone could have lapped you on her scooter.”
“Oh, you’ve got jokes. What about you, Mr. the sun was in my eyes that’s why I spun off the course and crashed my dad’s new Bugatti?”
“You did what?” Thomas bellows behind me. Shit, I forgot he was here. Noah stares at me and I grimace.
“Hmm?” I spin to face an angry-looking Thomas Stone which honestly scares the shit out of me.
“Is that true?”
“No, of course not.” I wave him off. “I’m just messing with Noah.”
“You sure? Because there was a delay on me getting that car.” He raises his eyebrow at me, and I catch Noah’s pleading eyes.
“Definitely. Just messing.” I laugh nervously. “Noah definitely didn’t take that car round the track. It wasn’t even there that day.”
“You’re the worst liar on the planet, Leo Brent.
” Thomas grips my shoulder and my balls shrivel, getting sucked into my stomach.
I don't think they will ever come back down.
He slowly turns to look at Noah who has gone rigid on his buggy, and Hunter is toeing the ground while Deacon busies himself with his phone. “You scratched my Bugatti, son?”
“No,” Noah says quickly, and Thomas crosses his arms, staring down his firstborn.
And I actually think I hear Noah’s balls squeal.
“I mean, maybe I took a turn a little too quickly and hit a barrier, but I paid for it to be fixed,” he says quickly.
“I paid, Dad. I made sure it was perfect before it came back.”
Thomas chortles, shaking his head. “Do you really think I didn’t know?”
“You knew?” Noah says.
“Of course I knew, you fool. The garage called me to ask if everything was okay with the repairs.” He puts his helmet on and climbs into his buggy.
“Now which one of you has it in you to beat me?” He slams his visor down and spins off into the sand, leaving us all staring open-mouthed and wide-eyed at his retreating form.
“Okay. You boys need to explain that to me later on,” Kai says, climbing into his buggy. “Then I need a word with Papa Stone, because that man is cool as shit and I want to be him when I grow up.”