10. Chapter 9
Ria
Igroan at the bright morning sun that is hitting me square in the face. It seems I forgot to close the drapes before falling into bed. I attempt to roll over, but someone is clinging to me, and I struggle to untangle myself.
“Grace, will you let go?” I moan as I continue to wriggle out of her embrace but instantly regret the move as my stomach churns.
“Babe, shh.” She pulls me in tighter. “It’s too early and you’re warm. Your sexy butt is staying right here.”
“I need to close the drapes. Then I’m more than happy to get my sexy butt back in bed.”
“Good plan. Be quick.” She releases me and I gingerly sit up, not enjoying the way my head spins.
I don’t drink much for this exact reason.
I was always good at holding my liquor and prided myself on never getting hangovers, but it seems I turned thirty and my body decided that enough was enough.
I heave out a long sigh and stand, moving slowly and pulling the drapes shut, encasing the room into darkness.
Grace snuggles closer into the pillows, a satisfied smile on her face.
I trip over a top hat and abnormally large sombrero as I make my way back to the bed.
“Babe, why is there a top hat and sombrero on the floor?”
She peers slowly over the edge of the bed. “No clue but I’ve woken up in weirder situations.” She sighs as she snuggles back into the bed.
“Remind me again why you’re in my bed and not your own?” I question her as I pick up the bottle of water that one of us was clever enough to leave by the bed last night—or this morning. I’m really not sure.
“I have no clue, but I’m not mad about it.” She pulls the covers up. “Now get back in here, wench.” Rolling my eyes at my friend’s antics, I relent and get back in bed with her.
We must have drifted back off to sleep as I’m jolted awake by the loud knock on my door. “Who is it?” I grumble, really regretting whatever drink I decided last night was a good idea.
“Why are you shouting?” Grace folds her pillow to cover her ears.
“You both okay?” Trixie comes into view as she pushes my door open.
“Living the dream over here, Trix,” Grace mumbles as she removes the pillow. “If you haven’t come bearing gifts of the biggest, greatest, hangover cure or a beautiful hunk of a man who will worship me and nurse me back to health, I’d advise you turn around.”
Trixie laughs softly. “No man, I’m afraid.”
“But you do have greasy food?” Grace raises an eyebrow and Trixie nods. “Ugh, I knew I loved you. But how greasy are we talking?”
“Clogging your arteries greasy.”
“It’s official. I’m in love.” She groans as she very slowly moves to get out of bed. “Now if you can work on the sexy man, I’ll love you forever.” She heads to the bathroom, the door clicking shut behind her, and I hear her turn on the shower.
“You know, I’ve always thought Lily was a one-off, but it seems she has a blonde American doppelg?nger,” Trixie says as she stares at the door that Grace closed.
“I thought the same about Grace.” The air seems to have become very close as she toys with the ends of her hair. “Everything okay?” I question.
“Yeah… No, it’s not.” She shuffles to sit next to me on the bed. Sighing, she clasps her hands together. “I’ve woken up to a text from Ezra and I don’t know what to do.”
I grind my teeth at the mention of that prick. “Okay, what did it say?” I’m a little confused why she’s come to me and not Lily or Jade.
“He said he is coming to Vegas.” She turns to look at me with fear in her eyes. “He said he’s taking me home.”
“What the fuck?” My brow pinches. “You can’t let him do that.”
“I don’t want to go.” She holds her head in her hands. “Jade is going to flip. I know she hates him and only puts up with him for me.”
“But why does he want to take you home? I don’t get it. What happened between yesterday and today?”
“I don’t know.” Her phone beeps and she pulls it from her pocket. “Fuck. I know why he’s coming.” She hangs her head as she passes me her phone, specifically the picture she has up on her personal Instagram profile of us from last night.
“Babe, there is nothing wrong with this photo.” I pass her phone back and she grips it tightly.
“I know, but I didn’t tell him this was a joint trip and that Beck would be here.
” She hangs her head. The picture is an innocent shot of us all at the club.
Arms slung round one another, goofy smiles on our faces, and the top hat and sombrero are making more sense as we’re all wearing different hats of various sizes.
But it’s the way Trixie is leaning into Beck and the lopsided grin on his face as he presses his face into hers.
As an outsider looking in, they look like a couple, and if I know Ezra, he’s pissed.
“How do I tell Jade?” she pleads, her gaze darting between my eyes.
“Please help me; you know Ezra better than anyone.” Her tone is frantic as she picks at the skin by her nails.
“Trixie, are you scared of Ezra?” I say softly.
“What? No, of course not.” She jumps up, her posture defensive, as she pins her deep brown eyes on me. “I don’t like what you’re assuming.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say something out of turn. You just looked shaken.”
“I am shaken. I’ve now got to tell my best friend that my boyfriend is coming to crash her bachelorette party and take me home because I was drunk and stupid and posted a picture of me and Beck on my Instagram.
And I lied saying it was a girls’ trip.” She’s pacing now, and I stand and grab her shoulders to stop her spiral. I smile warmly at her.
“Jade will be fine. And you’re not going anywhere. He can’t make you do anything you don’t want.”
“I know.” She sighs. “But he can’t hang around with the boys; they hate him too.” She flops back down on the bed, groaning as she throws her arm across her face. “I sure know how to pick them. This is why I never did relationships before. I’m fucking terrible at them.”
I lie next to her and pull her arm away from her face. “You aren’t terrible at them.”
“I am.” She lets out a humorless laugh. “I can’t help but fuck things up.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong here except post a picture with your best friends.”
“And lie about who was here.” She cringes.
“Okay, yeah, you shouldn’t have done that, but if he can’t trust you enough to let you have a trip away with your friends, then that’s his issue not yours.”
“So what do I do?”
“You tell him you’re staying—if you want to stay, which I know you do—and that he’s going to be making a wasted trip. I happen to know he has a very important meeting next week that he will not want to miss, so he isn’t hanging around for the whole trip.” I give her a half smile.
“How do you know he has a meeting?”
“He emailed me yesterday gloating that he was meeting this client before me. Rookie mistake, if you ask me, because now I can plan for his tactic. He forgets I taught him everything he knows. I know how he will play this.”
“So you’ll help me?”
“Yeah, he isn’t taking you home. And I know for a fact Lily will throw down if he tries.”
She laughs, staring up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I don’t think Ezra has seen the full wrath of Lily Chambers. It’s enough to make a man’s balls shrivel up into his stomach and never drop again.”
“She is a queen.” Nudging her shoulder with mine, I smirk. “But add Grace and my mom, and Ezra isn’t taking you anywhere.”
She quickly returns her gaze to mine. “Shit, that’s a force I don’t know any man would be able to cope with.”
“Okay, ladies.” Grace swings the bathroom door open, wrapped in a fluffy white bathrobe. “I’m feeling refreshed.” Flamboyantly, she poses, stretching her arms above her head. “Show me the grease.”
“Where the hell have you gone?” Grace clicks her fingers in front of my face.
“Huh?” I blink over at her as she pushes her oversized sunglasses on top of her head. She is perched on the edge of my sun lounger with a worried look on her face.
“This face”—she jabs her finger gently into my cheek—“isn’t the face of someone who is just nursing a hangover. If you’re thinking about work when you promised me you wouldn’t on this trip, I’ll ask Chuckles to throw you in the pool.”
“I’m not thinking about work as such.”
“Don’t try me, Ria; I’ll do it.” She brings her forefinger and thumb to her lips, ready to whistle when I pull them back down into her lap.
“Please don’t.”
“What is it then?” She pinches her brows in concern.
“While you were in the shower this morning, Trixie said something to me.” I sigh, trying to work out how I’m going to word this.
“And?”
“She posted a picture of us all last night on her Instagram when she was drunk. She and Beck looked very cozy in it.”
“Okay. Nothing happened with them, did it?” Her eyes widen. “I mean we all know they should be together, but I don’t see Trixie cheating.” She swings her gaze around the pool to where Trixie is chatting with Jade.
“No, nothing like that.” She brings her gaze back to mine as I rub my temples. “Ezra saw it.”
“Okay?”
“She didn’t tell him Beck would be here.” Grace sucks in a deep breath and scrunches up her face as I continue. “And he has decided he’s coming to Vegas to take her home.”
“Fuck off.” She huffs out a laugh.
“Yep.”
“What a wankpuffin.”
“Wankpuffin?”
“Lily is rubbing off on me.” She waves me off. “But seriously, who does he think he is?”
“No idea,” I muse before leaning over to take a sip of my water. “Was he this possessive with me?”
“Babe, he scowled at me every time I planned a trip for you or just wanted to spend time with you. He hated me having any of your time, but it only made me do it more. I enjoyed making his face go a beautiful shade of purple. I prayed I’d push him so far over the edge his head would actually explode.
” She leans back on her hands with a satisfied smile.
“It was the only thing I hated about him leaving you—that I never actually managed it.”
“I have no words for you.”
“I have plenty. Inspiring, exciting, fantastic, magnificent, hilarious, sexy.” She drags her foot up my calf, nibbling on her bottom lip.
“You’re insane.”
“Another great word for me.” She turns her body to look across the pool. “Do the happy couple know yet?”
“I think that’s what’s happening now.” I nod my head toward where Jade and Hunter are in a heated discussion with Trixie.
“Oh, lovely.”
“Do you know what that’s about?” Leo questions as he appears with the other guys.
He towers over me, and my breath gets lodged in my throat.
I’m glad my eyes are covered by my sunglasses as they shamelessly scan his body.
I know he fills his suits out very well, but I can’t remember the last time I saw him shirtless.
Probably back in high school before I went to college and he was still a scrawny teenage boy splashing around in our pool.
But he isn’t that scrawny teenage boy anymore.
His chest is toned and tanned, and his stomach is stacked with muscles and a tight slim waist that his swim shorts are hanging off.
His thick, powerful thighs complete the package.
My insides heat at the vision of that body dominating me.
Jesus, what am I doing? I must still be drunk.
But when I look at his face, he has pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, and even though I can’t see his eyes, I feel them on my bikini-clad body. The sweat that trickles down my breastbone is not just from the heat of the sun.
“Ria? Want to take this one?” Grace nudges her foot against mine, shaking me out of my lust-induced thoughts.
“Umm, yeah.” Pausing, I push up to sit on my lounger, making space for Leo. Deacon, Beck, and Kai sit on the one opposite. “So Ezra is on his way to Vegas.”
“You’re fucking kidding me?” Beck looks at me, anger written all over his face.
“Yeah, I’m afraid so.” I sigh. “He saw the picture Trixie posted last night and apparently now wants to take her home.”
“What a prick,” Leo seethes next to me, and my eyes betray me as I watch his muscles coil and tighten. “He better stay away. If he ruins this trip for Jade and Hunter, I’ll never let him live it down.”
I love how much he cares. “Me too,” I say gently as I place my hand on his shoulder to calm him down. It has always been something I’ve admired about him. If you’re in Leo Brent’s inner circle, the man will fight tooth and nail for you. He gives me a small smile before he shakes his head.
“How do you feel about all this?” he asks, and my grip on his shoulder tightens.
“Me? I’m good.” I haven’t told him or anyone else about the email yet, only Mom. I don’t want to ruin this trip and make it about me. I go to move my hand from his shoulder, but he grasps it instead.
“Remember who you are, Ri Ri.” Nodding slightly, as a shiver threatens to run through my body at his touch and his sincere words, I reluctantly move my hand from his.
“And on that note, I think we deserve a small glass of tequila.” Grace wiggles her eyebrows at me. Relief floods me as she knows I need the conversation to end.
“Isn’t that just a shot?” Deacon looks across at her, confused.
She grins devilishly. “Sounds classier this way.”