“Shit. Let’s hope he says no.” I pout but then there is a knock on the door and when I open it Mase is standing there.
“Have you told her?” he asks with a nod of his head in my direction. “Dec says yes.”
“Great,” I cry, hoping I will be lucky enough to avoid Dec and if not, to at least remain dressed in his company.
Chapter 7
Declan
I last a total of forty-eight hours avoiding Anita in my club. I finally give in to curiosity and enter the kitchen where she is laughing with another girl who works with her. When she looks at the doorway I occupy, the glorious sound of her laughter stops dead and that slays me. The knowledge that just the sight of me renders her unhappy and incapable of amusement cuts me deep. I have no clue if the other woman knows who or what I am. What I was to Anita, but she certainly knows there’s something. Her speedy exit with just a couple of muttered apologies confirms that. We remain, looking at each other, maybe deciding what to say or do.
“They look good,” I say pointing towards some kind of canapes I have no interest in whatsoever.
“What do you want?” she asks, her directness shocking me, but it’s more than that, she’s cold, detached almost.
Her attitude, whilst understandable on a personal level is pissing me off because the truth is that I am helping her out. Well, her father’s company at least. I ignore my own acknowledgement that I agreed to help partly for Mase and Olivia but mainly to be able to do this, to see her and find out if my regular three ways with Lindy and Laura and countless other nameless encounters are really helping me to get past how it felt with Anita. They’re not. Just the sight of her with her hair pulled up in a ponytail and dressed in baggy jeans and a plain blue t-shirt has got my dick hard and my heart hammering out of my chest which is pissing me off even more than her arsy attitude.
“Look, darling,” I snap, already hating myself for where I am going to take this conversation. “I am already doing you the favour by allowing you to knock up your mediocre prawn vol-au-vents, so just remember your place.”
If looks could kill I would currently be a rotting corpse because her look is murderous with a heavy dose of contempt thrown in for good measure.
Her reply is flat, short and to the point. “You made my place perfectly clear, Declan. On a countertop, against a wall, but never asleep in your bed.”
She looks hurt and ashamed now which makes me sad and humbled. I need to make this right somehow even if all previous attempts to make things right backfired and seemed to only have the opposite effect.
“Anita,” I say, having trampled down the Cupcake I wanted to bestow upon her.
She looks at me thoughtfully and I think possibly optimistically as she speaks, “Dec, just fuck off!”
My brain is still debating whether to laugh or cry at her words as her phone rings. She smiles down at the screen before answering it.
“Hey, babe. I thought you’d still be in bed after last night,” she says with a sexy as fuck giggle, but the meaning of her words cut me deep, too deep.
She’s moved on, like you have, I tell myself but dismiss that thought and do as she asked and fuck off, seething as I go, my mood darkening with every step that takes me further away from her.
Anita
I watch Dec walk away and feel a bitch at the hurt and anger filling his eyes, but then he started it with hisremember your place. Arrogant prick!
The voice at the other end of the phone is calling to me and I can’t believe I did that.
“Sorry,” I begin. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, although that’s what I called to ask you. To see how things were going at home and with Dec, but—” Liv’s voice trails off and I assume she has figured just how things are going with Dec with the way I answered the phone to her.
“Home is better. We’ve agreed that my walks of shame need to be no later than daybreak. Either that or I need to take a change of clothes.”
Liv laughs, loudly, slightly disbelievingly I think which is confirmed by her words. “I bet that wasn’t awkward at all. And Dec?”
“It was great until he appeared and opened his mouth.” I think that sums it up.
“I see, and Jack?”
“It’s fun, Liv. Easy, but no more.”
“Okay.” I can hear the cogs turning in her mind.
“Olivia.” I’m attempting to warn her off.
