Chapter 21
Ystafell wely - Bedroom
Rhys
My cheek fucking hurts.
Not content with sexually abusing Lucy, her attacker walloped me before legging it.
Top end to a fucking brilliant time. At least he aimed the punch at my face and not hers.
Thank fuck. The guy was so pathetic; it was more a tickle than the full on whack she gave him – I knew she could punch a guy if she needed to – but I’m gonna have a banger of a bruise in the morning.
As if my swollen cheek isn’t bad enough, I’m fuming.
What the fuck was I thinking, letting Cai come to the party instead of sending him back to the house where he’d be safe?
If he weren’t there, I could’ve been the one dancing with Lucy instead of my sister, and the creep wouldn’t have dared try it on with her.
Muggins here was the most senior bodyguard on shift, which means it was my job to deal with the shithead scumbag. Would have preferred to stay in the club to look after Luce. To be the one taking her to the hospital. Not passing off the job to everyone else.
Seriously, they’re doing my tits in. Luce has only been back ten minutes and they’ve already tucked her into bed – after Beth helped her with her pyjamas and shoved her hair up – and now they’re piling bottles of painkillers, books, the TV remote onto her bedside table.
Like she’s been confined to her bed for the rest of her life.
He just got back from grabbing her a glass of water. The arsehole didn’t offer me anything.
And all right she’s in a cast, so things might be tricky for a bit for her. But it’s Lucy. She’ll bounce back after a decent sleep, and she can send her alerts one-handed until she’s better. So all their fussing is for fucking nothing.
Cai reaches behind her to fluff her pillows for the second time, and she tuts.
They’re annoying her, too. I sigh, and maybe the noise is a little over the top because they stop their clucking.
All three of them look at where I’m leaning on her bedroom wall, my arms crossed over my chest. They raise their eyebrows at me as a collective, judgey unit.
Bethan’s the first to get what I’m hinting at. It’s all too fucking much. She stares me down, as if it’s unreasonable for Lucy to be left the fuck alone. I pull on our sibling bond, if it exists, sending her a silent message to get the fuck out.
It works.
‘Come on, babe.’ She eases the pillow out of Cai’s hand and puts it back behind Lucy’s head. ‘We should go to bed. It’s late, and we’ve got a long day tomorrow.’
‘You sure? I don’t mind hanging around a little longer. What if—’
‘No. Lucy needs her rest. You can fuss over her more tomorrow.’
I push off the wall. ‘I’ll come with you.’
‘It’s fine, Rhys,’ Beth argues. ‘It’s not like anything will happen to us. We’re two doors along the corridor. You think Gethin’s gonna jump out and nab us?’
‘I’ll come. I need to check if the house is locked up.’
It’s not their fault I’m pissed off. Not really. But they’re easy targets. Tonight was supposed to be more, but all I’ve enjoyed’s half a flat Coke and a thump to the face.
I can’t bring myself to look at Lucy as she says goodbye to Bethan and Cai, but I do lift my hand in a small wave so she can’t shout at me in the morning for being too much of an arsehole. She doesn’t reply. I don’t blame her. I wasn’t there to look after her when she needed me.
It’s less than twenty steps between her room and Cai’s, and we walk them in silence.
The rest of the house is quiet too – everyone else is already in bed.
Once Bethan and Cai are safely in their room, I can go wallow.
There’s a fully stocked bar in the dining room, and I bet I can find something a little stronger than pop there to wash away my bad mood.
Cai opens the door and heads in with a grunted, ‘Night.’
Beth doesn’t follow him.
‘Are you going back to her room?’ she asks, propping herself on the doorframe.
‘Why?’
‘To talk to her.’
I scoff. ‘Pam y byddai hi eisiau siarad a fi? You’ve fussed over her enough. She needs her rest.’
‘Oh my God.’ She flicks my ear, and I swat her away. ‘Tell me you’re not this stupid. I promise it’ll be worth your time if you go and say goodnight.’
‘Whatever.’
‘Prat.’
The door closes, leaving me in the middle of the hallway.
Her nosing sucks, but she’s usually good at this dating shit.
The more she hangs out with Luce, the more she becomes proficient in her, too.
Maybe it’s something to do with her job – spotting what’s going on with her players so she can fix them.
If there’s a small chance she’s right about Lucy, I should give it a try, right?
Could pop my head in, check she’s okay before I go to bed.
Clean the slate so we can start afresh in the morning.
Perhaps I can take her out for dinner when we get to our next location.
If her hand’s okay. And if it’s not, we can stay home and watch a film.
My hands tremble when I lift them to knock on her door.
That’s no good. Can’t fucking face her all jittery.
My arm flops back to my side. The effect she has on me’s bloody mental.
Plenty of women have strolled in and out of my life, and I’ve never lost my cool like this.
Because most of them used me to get to Cai.
Not Luce. I’m certain her interest in him’s purely professional and if it wasn’t, she wouldn’t need me to get closer to him.
I stare at her door. A reason to drop in might make me less nervous. Cai made sure she had everything she needed, except…
Ice! I hurry downstairs, giving Bryn a small nod when I pass him in the hallway, and open the massive chest freezer I spotted in the garage yesterday. I have to dig deep to find some. It takes me another minute to unearth a couple of tea towels from the kitchen.
As I skid past the front door, I remember it needs checking. I give the handle a quick tug. All locked up. Good. Bryn’s a fucking angel.
I’m back in front of her door, cold water already dripping onto my sock, in less than five minutes.
A deep breath helps me brace myself. At least I’m giving it a shot.
Other men wouldn’t bother, would let their nerves ruin the opportunity.
Not me. I’m the fucking Head of Security for a world-famous pop star.
I can talk to the fucking woman I fancy.
I’m ready. I knock on her door.
I wait for what feels like a minute, two, three, and I’m about to give up when she opens up, frowning.
‘Rhys. Are you okay? Did you leave something here?’
‘I brought you ice.’ Good start. Ignore all her questions and get straight to the point.
I hold the bag out to her like a ticket to enter her room.
‘Beth didn’t grab you any, and I figured the last thing you wanna do when you’re in pain is hike around the house in your pyjamas.
It’s for your hand. We can put the bag in cold water in your sink, and you can keep the compress topped up.
Until you run out. Or it melts. But I can go get you more.
There are plenty of bags in the freezer.
I checked. All you have to do is text me. ’
Cau i fyny, butt. I’m rambling, but my tongue's got a mind of its own all of a sudden. She cocks an eyebrow at me. She’s noticed it, too. Pain radiates through my cheek when I beam at her.
‘Thank you, Rhys. Ice will be great. We just have to make sure my cast doesn’t get wet. Why don’t you come in?’ She holds the door open wider for me, gesturing with her bad hand.
‘Go on, get back into bed.’
Her injury makes her clumsy, but I give her the space to get settled, letting her pull her duvet back over herself. I concentrate on a cluster of embroidered strawberries on her shoulder until she tells me she’s ready.
‘I thought you’d all gone to bed,’ she tells me.
‘I can go if you’d rather be alone.’ Shit. Have I done bad coming here?
‘It’s not— It’s just earlier, I thought you might be tired, or…’
I sit on the edge of her bed and fill one of the tea towels with ice. ‘Or?’
‘Nothing. Forget I said anything.’
I narrow my eyes at her, but she shakes her head. Fine. No pushing. She might be more open once her wrist is iced. Maybe it’s pain affecting her. Or maybe she doesn’t want to approach the grumpy man-child of it all. That’s fair.
‘Gimme your hand.’ I hold my spare out for her.
There were no intentions of fussing over her.
The plan was to give her the ice, check she’s okay, invite her out for food, leave her to sleep.
I didn’t want to add to all the henpecking she’s already had.
But now I’m here, I don’t want to leave.
She doesn’t grumble about my request and places her cast in my waiting palm.
I press the ice over her wrist, and she moans softly.
I warn my dick to behave. ‘Good job you only managed a mouthful of your wine. You’d feel like shit tomorrow with this and a hangover. ’
‘I was only having one.’ Her eyelids close, and I stroke my thumb along her exposed arm at the edge of her plaster. She sighs.
‘Why? It’s a party. You deserved to relax a little.’
‘I wanted a clear head. We needed to talk. But Cai and Bethan came, and I embarrassed myself in front of everyone.’
She wanted to talk to me. My sole goal at the damn party was to chat to her about how I feel. We were on the same path, but too fucking stupid to see it. Idiots, the pair of us.
‘Not everyone,’ I reason. ‘Only the people around you.’
‘The music stopped when I hit the floor, Rhys. There were like a million mobiles pointing in my direction, watching Cai play the hero. I’m surprised it’s not already on social media.
Oh, look at Cai’s fat PA. She should be grateful some guy paid her attention.
Isn’t it sweet how he looks after her? They’ll be gushing over him while bitching about me. All at the same damn time.’
I’ve never seen this side of her – full of self-pity and down on herself. All my other thoughts whoosh out of me.