More Than Forever (Providence Series Book 2) (10 page)

“I’m done!” I said, standing up quickly and throwing my napkin onto the table. Before I could walk away and find somewhere to cry in peace,
fucking baby hormones
, Luke had his arms around me and was pressed against my back still laughing. 

“Angel,” he chuckled. “I may have been wild, but the sight of dicks and balls has never been a quirk of mine. Jesus,” he was still laughing, “
threesomes
!” 

I’d given up trying to get away from him and just stood as still as I could facing forward and not giving away any of my emotions. It had been all around school and all around town that the guys had shared, so the fact that he was lying to me and the way that he’d condescendingly phrased it just fueled how pissed off I was. 

He must have realized, though, because he stopped laughing and moved around so he was standing in front of me, still holding me around the waist.  

“Holy fuck, that’s what you thought?” He was actually gaping at me and the temptation to knee him in the balls was so strong.
Patronizing prick!
  “Angel, fuck no! We never…I haven’t…” He shook his head and shuddered like the thought of it really was disgusting. I almost believed him. 

“Let go of me, Luke. I’d like to go to bed!” I tried pushing him away, but as always it got me nowhere. 

“Isla, look at me!” The tone he was using wasn’t one that I’d heard before and had me looking up, obeying orders like a good puppy. Shit, this was annoying! “I can promise you, even swear on these two,” he put his hand on my stomach while still staring me right in the eyes, “that I never did that shit. When the word
share
was used, it wasn’t meant like that. It was meant in the way that none of us laid claim to them, so…” He trailed off and looked uncomfortable and with good reason. Even that didn’t sound good, but it kind of took the repulsed feeling that I’d always had about it all down a notch. Yes, it was still bad, but was it as bad as the thought that he’d engaged in nothing but threesomes?  

“I see that look and I know what you’re thinking, Isla.”
Of course he did, the big shit
. “It was all consensual and it was their choice to do that, too, remember that.” 

He had a point, but it still stung. Closing my eyes and leaning in so my forehead hit his chest, I let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know what to do, Luke!” I wish that I had a family that I could have gone to for advice, the closest I had was Gram and this wasn’t the kind of thing that I’d talk to her about. If Calista or Jodie had been decent human beings I would have gone to them, but they were the opposite and would latch onto this and use it to make me even more miserable. There was always Maya, in fact with Ren being part of this she might even be the best person to talk to. I made a mental note to bring it up the next time I spoke to her. 

“Right now, we just stay safe and we look after Thing One and Thing Two in here,” he said gently rubbing my tiny bump. The reference made me laugh and was actually pretty accurate. He lifted my face so I was looking back up at him and then continued, “and I’m going to prove to you that I’m worthy of you and of our babies, okay?” 

A huge part of me wanted to give him this chance, regardless of how scared I was of being taken for a fool for a third time and how much it would break me when, no
if,
it happened. I had never been one for making rash decisions and I realized that because I’d been mulling all of this over since yesterday that technically this wasn’t a rash decision. So, because of that, I did the only thing that I could do - I nodded. 

I didn’t expect the fierce hug that he gave me and refused to let me up from, but I did notice that he never squeezed my waist, he just kept his arms around my shoulders.  Eventually, I pulled back and looked up at him and made sure he knew how serious I was when I said what I had to say next. 

“I’m going to try. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust you, but I promise I’ll try. But if you fuck up again, I’ll pull each one of your pubes out individually and slowly wax the skin and then neuter you with nail clippers.” 

His shock lasted about five seconds before he burst out laughing yet again and pulled me back into him and said between laughs, “Consider me warned!”  

Just to make sure, I pinched the sensitive skin under his bicep as hard as I could, making him jump back and rub it frantically while glaring at me. I used to do that when we were younger, and I couldn’t help the smug smile when I saw that it got to him as much now as it did back then. I just needed to work on doing what I’d promised to do now.

Chapter

EIGHT

C
ole
 

S
itting on the edge
of the hospital bed, I put my face back in my hands and groaned for the millionth time remembering what I’d done. A fucking windmill? A goddamn unicorn? And then chasing butt nekked after Ebru? I was never gonna live this down. 

I could feel the glare of the nurse that I’d apparently shown my windmill to burning into the top of my head. She’d come in five minutes ago and just stood against the wall with her arms crossed glowering at me. In my defense, I apparently had a concussion and had been given some strong painkillers seeing as how I’d been blown across an entire yard and all. Where was the sympathy? 

I couldn’t hide forever, so I looked up and saw all of the fucking shit around my room for the billionth time. As soon as I’d finished humiliating myself, i.e. had been caught and brought back to my room, the crap had started to arrive. I had unicorn balloons, stuffed unicorns, those windmill things that kids love because they move when the wind blows, a unicorn blanket, cards, and the best thing yet - a unicorn piñata that was apparently stuffed with more of the windmills with the sticks cut down and small fucking My Little Pony unicorns of all sizes.
Betraying horse-loving dickwhistle spack twat’s.
This new phrase came courtesy of the new app on my phone that generated swear words and was now a new obsession of mine. Thankfully the most recent one fit the bastards perfectly. 

The door to my room opened and I figured it would be my parents or one of Coleman’s guys, but instead the one person that for once I didn’t want to see walked around the corner carrying a bag. Ebru. 

Her lips twitched as she took in the ‘generous’ gifts from my friends and family who will from this day forward be commonly known as the disloyal animal-fondling semen twat extractors. Seriously, this app was too good to be true. 

Watching Ebru look around and try not to smile, it hit me again how much I liked this woman. I knew I had a bad reputation in town, but I definitely hadn’t been as bad as the rumors made out I’d been. I’d just never corrected them because then there would be expectations and I had expectations of my own, so it suited me to hide behind what people assumed I was. Ebru meant something to me, though, and her thinking that of me or believing the rumors didn’t sit well with me. I never got the chance to prove otherwise to her or set the record straight because there were either other people around or I was making a twat of myself. Then again, with my history and the shit and betrayal that I’d gone through, would I ever have the balls to do anything about how attracted I was to her? I knew that I’d never be able to trust anyone like that, ever, so was it worth even thinking about? 

“So…how’s your magical horn today?” It rankled that she’d witnessed it, but at the same time she was looking at me in a way I hadn’t seen yet and I liked it. The embarrassment won, though. 

“Any chance I could convince you to forget that yesterday happened?” It was worth a shot! 

I would have held my breath waiting for her to reply, but she stared at me for that long that I would have passed out and then said, “Not a fucking chance Robin Sparkle Reins!”

E
bru
 

He looked so damn miserable
that maybe I should have said yes. My ‘perfect’ parents would have been disappointed in me for cashing in on someone’s misfortune, not that I gave a fuck about their opinions on anything or they actually gave a shit about me. But that shit face had chased me around the entire hospital ass naked trying to catch me. When he’d eventually cornered me in the cafeteria, he’d run toward me yelling, “Rub my magical horn and the dancing leprechauns will grant you a wish!”. He’d then turned around and done the devil horn rocker thing with his hands and yelled “VIVA EL UNICORN!” to the cafeteria.  Explaining that to the boss had been interesting. Thankfully she’d seen from his chart that he’d been given strong painkillers and had a concussion or I could have lost my job. The humiliation wasn’t so easy to deal with, though. That said, I did like the guy for some reason. Sure he needed to be tested because something was definitely loose in there, but I couldn’t stop thinking that he was hiding who he really was under his clown act. The fact that he might actually have a vulnerable side made him a bit… endearing. 

That said, I was still going to get revenge for yesterday. 

“Here’s your medications. As the doctor explained earlier when he signed your release papers - you’ll most likely have a headache for a while, but if it gets worse or you’re struggling then come straight back or call me on my cell. Follow the instructions on the bottles with the medications, too.” I passed him the bag with what he needed in it. 

“None of these are the…” he stopped and glared at the unicorns everywhere. “The same medication as yesterday, are they?” 

Oh, how I wish they were! The shit I could get on the guy would be awesome, but it had been decided that for his safety, and also the safety of the public, that he wouldn’t be given that medication again. “Umm, no, they’re not!” I couldn’t help laughing at the thought, and his glower made me laugh that bit harder. 

“Listen,” I took a deep breath so that I wouldn’t burst out laughing again. “I know that you’re embarrassed about what happened and that all of this stuff,” I pointed at a particularly big unicorn balloon, “Must be making it worse. So, I got you something.” 

I almost felt guilty as I turned around to get the surprise that I’d left beside the door when I came into the room. But then I remembered all of the crap that I’d had thrown at me by my colleagues since it happened and how long he’d chased me around the hospital for and gave his surprise a shove away from the door. 

His scream as I opened the door made me chuckle. Apparently, he wasn’t a big fan of the five-foot walking clown balloon that I’d got him. I’d even glued a red wig onto its head the night before and widened its smile with a red Sharpie.
So ungrateful.
 

B
rett