Chapter Ten
Show Me How Special
I tore my eyes from Tex and moved them through the Rock Chicks, but stopped when I saw Indy.
She was not head of the pack. She was at the back. This was not only not her usual place, but the look on her face as she stared at me made my lungs start burning.
“I… I… I…” Shirleen stammered, and I looked her way, stunned she was stammering. Shirleen didn’t stammer. Then she stopped stammering and shouted, “I don’t even know where to begin!”
“I know where to begin,” Tex boomed from the back, and I looked at the mammoth wild-blond-haired, wild-russet-bearded man that stood head and shoulders over the Rock Chicks (and gay guys). “Woman, you know, you got action, you give some to me! I mean, you women have been quiet for f*ckin’ months. Some woman in the mountains was buried alive and I was cut out?” His face started getting red before he shouted, “Unacceptable!”
Brody.
It had to be Brody. Darius wouldn’t talk. How I’d kept Brody’s mouth shut as long as I did was a miracle. But that miracle had ended.
Not surprising.
I had no idea when the news hit what I’d get, if they knew about my activities, or Ren, or both.
I suspected both, considering the number of phone calls I had and the news Brody received that morning about Ren and me.
But, at the very least, a bomb blast was hard to miss.
Before I could reply to Tex, Daisy shoved up to the front. “And Ren was up there with you. And Ren was at your apartment with you when it exploded. And Ren was walking out of Lee’s office two seconds ago and he was doin’ it with you.”
At her last two words, her mass of platinum blonde hair was shaking and she’d planted her hands on her hips.
In other words, I’d hit the Daisy Danger Zone.
But Daisy wasn’t done.
“And just so you know, you take a swing at a hot guy at a Rock Chick wedding then disappear—completely—we know you’re off doin’ the nasty, as in the angry nasty, which is some of the best nasty you can get,” she declared.
She was not wrong. I knew this because Ren and I had existed almost entirely on the angry nasty for going on a year.
She was also still not done.
“And you know, when you’re doin’ the nasty, we know all about that nasty!”
She wasn’t wrong about that either.
She kept going. “But you’re zipped tight for months, like you totally forget you make everyone else spill. Well, sugar,” she leaned in and her eyes narrowed, “the time has come for you to spill. Comprende?”
I’d already comprende’d.
Before I could explain this to Daisy, Tex started up again.
“Don’t give a shit about that. Her apartment exploded,” he said to Daisy then looked on me. “I’m in on whatever that shit is. Starting now.”
I opened my mouth to say something to Tex or Daisy or all the Rock Chicks, but I ended up looking at Indy and just calling, “Indy?”
Everyone looked at Indy.
Indy just looked at me.
Then she opened her mouth to speak as the door flew open.
Ren was there and he didn’t delay in cutting a swathe through the Rock Chicks, gay guys, Tex, Duke and Smithie.
He grabbed my hand and turned to the group. Everyone’s eyes dropped to our hands. Some of them widened, some mouths fell open.
They looked back at Ren when he commenced in giving a Macho Alpha Speech.
“Ally and I have been together a year,” he declared.
He also ignored the gasps, big eyes and Sadie whispering, “A year?”, and kept talking.
“She had her reasons for keepin’ that from you. She also had her reasons for doin’ other things and keepin’ that from you. Now it’s all out and you want answers. But you’ll wait until she’s ready to give them to you, which will be sometime after I take my woman out to dinner. So you’ll hold your shit until Ally’s ready. Is that understood?”
Apparently it wasn’t, and this was proved when Roxie asked, “Do you actually think that’s going to work?”
Ren said nothing, but he leveled his gaze on Roxie.
Roxie pressed her lips together and gave big eyes to Stella. Stella bit her bottom lip, but that didn’t mean both her lips weren’t curled up in a big way.
So maybe I was wrong. It was going to work because no one else said a word.
Maybe that macho alpha gig wasn’t such a bad thing. At least it was good to know it had its uses.
Or it had its uses until Smithie spoke up.
Smithie, by the way, owned a strip club. Jet worked there as a waitress during her drama. Jet’s sister was currently the headliner there as a stripper. He was a big black guy gone slightly soft. And strip club owner or not, there was nothing “slightly” about his soft heart.
He was also a nut. Then again, the Rock Chicks, as a collection of nuts, collected their own.
“Are you sayin’ her apartment just exploded not two hours ago and you two are goin’ on a date?” he asked, brows raised, eyes big.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Ren confirmed, then muttered, “We’re done here.” And he made that statement true by dragging me through the Rock Chicks and out the door.
But as I went, I locked eyes with Indy and mouthed, Are we cool?
She just watched me go and gave me nothing.
* * * * *
In Ren’s bathroom, I spritzed with perfume, set it aside and looked at myself in the mirror.
After the Rock Chick Confrontation, I’d spoken with the police in reception at Lee’s office for five minutes, giving them my semi-statement, which was only semi seeing as I had no involvement in the activities, outside my apartment exploding, so I had nothing to give them that The Kevster hadn’t already provided.
Then Ren had guided me to his Jag and we left.
He took me straight to Cherry Creek Mall, valet parked (total class) then dragged me to Nordstrom’s. There, he found a comfortable chair, pulled out his credit card and handed it to me.
“You got an hour. Use it wisely,” he ordered.
I knew what his wisely meant. I couldn’t help but know. My apartment exploded, the only clothes I owned I was wearing. We were going out on our first date, he considered my dresses foreplay, and we were at a mall.
I just didn’t know what the credit card meant.
“Zano, my purse didn’t explode with my pad. I had it with me, and just saying,” I pointed to it on my shoulder, “I still do.”
Ren ignored this and replied, “Text me when you decide on something to tell me where it is. Give them the card so they can ring it up. I’ll go and sign.”
This didn’t address my remark.
“What I’m saying is, I have my own money,” I told him.
“Ally, we’re not arguing about this,” he told me.
I was trying to be confused and not pissed, though, in truth, I was both.
In order to acquire the information needed not to be confused, or pissed, I asked, “Are you saying my emergency provision purchases are on you?”
He looked at the card I was holding aloft and then at me.
However, he didn’t verbalize his answer.
That was still an answer.
So now no confusion and I was stuck with trying not to get pissed.
I pushed the card his way. “I’ve got it.”
“And I said we’re not arguing about this.”
“Zano, I make my own money.”
To this, he asked strangely, “Was it you sittin’ in that booth with me, beer, bourbon and the Bears?”
“Yes,” I answered the obvious.
“And was it you cryin’ in my arms over Sadie?”
“Yes, Zano, but—”
“And was it you who opened my Christmas present naked in my bed on Christmas morning?”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Where is this leading?”
He didn’t answer my question or wait for an answer to his. He kept up his bizarre interrogation.
“And was it you who told me you loved me in a motel room this morning?”
I crossed my arms on my chest. “You know it was.”
“And who were you with all those times?” he asked.
“Zano. You!” I snapped. “What’s the deal?”
“And do you know me?” he pushed, and I sucked in breath.
I knew him.
And I got him.
He knew I got him and this was why he said, “You know what you signed on for, babe. Now take my card, buy what you need and text me to sign for it so we can get outta this f*ckin’ place.”
I had to admit, his desire to exit the mall without delay was a surprise. Ren dressed really well. Although it would be a hit to his alpha badass to be comfortable in a mall, the results of said comfort couldn’t be argued.
Still, I found it interesting he clearly had an aversion to the mall.
This made me wonder where he got his clothes.
“Ally?” he prompted, and I focused on him.
Seeing as we were together together, I loved him, he loved me, I decided in that moment to try new conversational gambits that might result in actually conversing and not fighting.
Therefore, quietly, I pointed out, “You know what you signed on for, too.”
“Yeah,” he agreed instantly. “I also know my woman’s apartment exploded. So I want to get her across from me at a nice dinner with booze so she can relax. Then I want her at home with me in my bed so I can make her really relax.”
I was down with both of those.
Ren kept going.
“And she’s facing a variety of shit, including a lot of shopping, which is going to cost a whack and take a lot of time. You can do that. I want no part of that. I’m doin’ this. And I want this done quickly. But I also want you to have something nice that makes you feel good that’s from me so that makes it special, so you can have something special on a very special day that, unfortunately, included your apartment exploding. Not something you like that you can afford that’ll do. So, go, enjoy and,” he leaned in, “text me when I gotta sign something.”
Oh my God.
That was really nice.
As in, really.
“You could have explained it like that,” I shared.
“I just did.”
He did. Though belatedly.
In order to keep conversing and not fighting, I didn’t point out the belatedly part.
Instead, I informed him, “You’re freaking me out.”
His brows shot together.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because you’re thoughtful, or more thoughtful than I thought you’d be.”
“If you’d let me in a year ago, by now you’d know intimately just how thoughtful I can be,” he replied, and that was when my brows shot together.
“Just saying right now, you have precisely two more opportunities to throw that in my face, and then you’re done,” I snapped.
He looked at the ceiling.
Then he looked at me, his hand snaking out, hooking around the back of my neck and his mouth came down on mine.
In Cherry Creek, at Nordstrom’s, he laid a hot, heavy, wet one on me.
Then he lifted his head and I blinked, trying to remember what we were talking about, at the same time trying to make certain my knees didn’t fail me.
“Go. Shop,” he urged softly. “And don’t freak if you see Lucky or Santo trailing you. They’re both on you unless I’m with you and they’re both here.”
This was news.
Lucky and Santo were Zano family sidekicks. I’d met them both during Ava’s Rock Chick Ride. I also didn’t know what to make of either, as in, if they were buffoons or if they concealed crafty under a thick veneer of moron.
Since he was kind of their employer so hopefully didn’t think they were buffoons, I didn’t ask Ren his opinion on this.
Instead, I asked, “They are?”
Ren nodded.
“Since when and… how?”
“Since I called between you getting corralled by the Rock Chicks, then saving you from the Rock Chicks, and I told them to haul their asses here to watch your ass.”
“You know I can take care of myself,” I told him.
“I know I’ll feel better if you got backup,” he told me.
“I’m uncertain, since you’re here, why you aren’t my backup.”
“If I was your backup, I couldn’t use this time to return the fifteen messages I got while we’ve been dealing with this shit.” His eyes started heating and he concluded, “And if I was with you when you bought what you’re about to buy, I wouldn’t get the surprise I suspect I’ll like later.”
This was a very good answer.
“I think it’s time for me to go shopping,” I announced, and he smiled.
Getting his smile, I leaned into him but lifted up to my toes.
He touched his mouth to mine before he murmured, “Go.”
“’Kay,” I murmured back and pushed away.
I got two steps in before he called, “Ally?”
I turned back.
Eyes holding mine, he stated, “I don’t need those two opportunities. That one was one too many. It was also out of line. That’s done.”
I stared at him, knowing what I was feeling but unable to put it into words.
Then I found the words.
“You do know I think you’re the shit, right Zano?”
They were the right words.
I knew this when he gave me another smile and replied, “I know.”
I tipped my head to the side and lifted the credit card I was still holding. “Do I have any limits?”
His answer was a question. “Is tonight special?”
I started feeling warm(er) inside.
“Yes,” I replied.
He looked beyond me, then at me, and finally answered, “Then show me how special.”
I smiled at him. He jerked his head so I’d get a move on.
I got a move on. I shopped, texted, shopped more and got an LBD, fabulous shoes, equally fabulous undies, a phenomenal nightie, a plethora of makeup, perfume, shower stuff and a few other bits and bobs to get me through the next couple of days.
We loaded up and Ren took me to his place.
At that point, it was well into the afternoon so I headed to the bathroom with my bag and Ren headed to his office upstairs with his phone.
We had the same charger. He had one in his bedroom so I hooked my cell to it before I did my going out gig.
But now I had smoky eyes, sleek hair and I smelled good.
And the only jewelry I was wearing (because it was the only jewelry I now owned) was my guitar pendant. It didn’t exactly go with my slinky dress with its tunic-style, v-neck top, empire waist, ruched short (short) skirt that was skintight and my strappy stilettos. Then again, what it was and who it was from, it was my opinion that it would go with everything I owned.
After I gave myself a once over and walked out of the bathroom, I didn’t go to Ren.
I’d given it time, and not just the time my cell needed to charge.
So I went to the phone.
I scrolled down and dialed Indy.
I got voicemail.
I took in a deep breath and disconnected. It wasn’t unheard of I’d get voicemail. If Lee had Indy’s attention or she was neck deep in coffee, she wouldn’t answer her phone.
The thing was, her BFF had her apartment bombed. This was not a time when she wouldn’t take a call from me.
I hit go on her contact again.
I got voicemail again.
This time I didn’t disconnect.
Instead, after her message, I left one.
“Hey. I figure you’re pissed and just to say, you have a right. I kept a lot from you, but I had a lot going through my head. I kept that from you, too. But if you’ll let me, I’ll explain everything. I had my reasons, chickie. And hopefully, when you hear them, you’ll understand.” I paused, then whispered, “Love you.”
Then I hung up.
I was unplugging my phone from the charger and pushing thoughts of Indy being pissed at me to the back of my head by lamenting the fact I hadn’t bought a bag to go with my slinky dress when I heard Ren mutter, “Christ.”
I straightened and turned.
While I was in the bathroom, he’d changed into dark blue trousers and a light blue shirt with dark blue and gray stripes.
Nice.
“Hey,” I greeted.
He said nothing, but his eyes were glued to the vicinity of my hips where my dress was very tight and didn’t leave a lot to the imagination, even through material.
I took this as indication he liked the dress.
I smiled big inside, but my lips only tipped up slightly on the outside.
His gaze drifted to my shoes and locked there.
“Zano, I’m hungry.”
He looked at my face.
“If I tell you to get your ass over here, are you gonna give me shit?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “Though, I will warn you, you unwrap this package now, you spoil the surprise I have planned for later, and I’ll note that whatever you might make up in your head from now until then, the reality is better.”
His eyes heated but his lips quirked.
“Baby, just to say, I’m likin’ how special you’re showin’ me this night’s gonna be.”
My tipped lips tipped up higher.
Then his head cocked to the side and the heat went out of his gaze, but it stayed fastened on me and changed to probing. He studied me a moment before walking to me, lifting both hands to either side of my neck and dipping his face close.
“You have insurance?” he asked gently.
I wasn’t following from our sexual banter to that question, so I asked back, “What?”
“Insurance, personal property. You covered?”
“I don’t know how covered I am, but I do have a policy,” I answered. “Why?”
“You’ve got something on your mind. Not surprising since your apartment exploded. And maybe we should talk about that.”
Oh. That.
I blew it off. “It’ll be okay.”
His scrutiny, already acute, got more so right before his thumbs moved to stroke my throat.
Both of them.
He’d never done that before.
It felt delicious.
So delicious, I wondered if I threw a tizzy about my apartment, what that would get me.
“You haven’t talked about that hardly at all, honey,” he noted.
“What’s there to talk about?” I asked, genuinely curious, and his thumbs stopped.
“Ally, baby, you lost everything,” he said quietly and carefully.
“Yeah,” I replied and he blinked.
“Yeah?” he repeated after me, but his was a question.
I shrugged. “It’s just stuff. I had my phone and my laptop on me and the backups of both were at my pad so it was good I had them. Clothes, furniture and kitchen implements can be replaced,” I told him, but finished on a mutter, “though I’m gonna miss my towels and sheets.”
When he said nothing and this lasted awhile, I focused on him, not my incinerated sheets.
“That’s it?” he pushed. “You’re gonna miss your towels and sheets?”
I shrugged again. “Sure.”
Then I stopped being an idiot and realized he was concerned for me. And it was sweet, as Ren could be.
Therefore I leaned into him and lifted both my hands to wrap my fingers around his wrists.
“Stuff is stuff, Ren,” I told him softly. “If someone wiped my memory clean of the Whitesnake concert Indy and I got in shitloads of trouble sneaking off to Vegas to go see but was totally freaking awesome, that would be bad. Or if someone wiped away me standing in a bridesmaid dress watching one brother, then another, take the women that were made for them as their wives, that would be bad.”
I leaned in closer, gave his wrists a squeeze and kept going.
“Or if I hadn’t watched an Italian American hothead in action in a parking lot brawl and sensed he was the one for me, that would be bad. Losing my sheets sucks. They were awesome. But they don’t mean anything. People mean something. Memories mean something. Things mean nothing.”
Ren stared down at me, but his thumbs were sweeping my throat again and his gaze was unwavering.
When this lasted some time, I asked, “What?”
“You do know I think you’re the shit, don’t you, Ally?” he asked back.
I got to feeling warmer and leaned even closer, which was to say, I pressed my body to his and replied, “I know.”
He moved in and brushed his lips to mine, but he didn’t move away or take it further.
He stayed close and stayed on target.
“So what’s on your mind?”
“Dinner,” I answered, and that was partially true.
“Baby,” he whispered, said no more and didn’t move.
I sighed.
I knew what he wanted.
Okay, this was us now and I figured it was time I started sharing.
The problem with that was, I didn’t share. Not with anybody. Not even sometimes Indy. That just wasn’t me.
But I had seen the way my mom was with my dad, and Marcus with Daisy, and any of the Rock Chicks with their Hot Bunch boys and learned that give and take was key.
If I wanted this to work with Ren, who had indeed busted his ass to get in there, then I needed to let him in there.
Starting now.
And anyway, he was being all kinds of sweet.
Shit.
“I think Indy’s pissed at me.”
His hands left my neck so he could wrap his arms around me. When he did, my hands left his wrists so I could rest them on his chest.
Through this, he spoke.
“You two have been through more thick and thin than anybody. She’s gonna bust your chops, babe. She’s also gonna get over it. And you know that.”
Okay, that required more sharing.
Shit!
I pulled in a breath and whispered, ‘I don’t like her mad at me.”
He nodded and his face got soft. “Sucks when anyone you love is mad at you. But if they love you, they get over it. And Ally,” he gave me a squeeze, “that woman loves you. She’ll get over it. You just need to suck it up and let her bust your chops.”
He was right.
And he was definitely all kinds of sweet.
Because of that, I slid my hands up his chest to wrap my arms around his neck and I pressed in, saying, “I’m suddenly not hungry.”
“Anticipation,” was his reply.
I rocked back on my heels, but kept hold of him as I asked, “What?”
“Honey, the next two hours I get to sit opposite you wondering what’s under that f*ckin’ phenomenal dress. Then I get to peel that f*cking phenomenal dress off and find out. Anticipation. Makes something sweet all the more sweet. You gonna take that away from me?”
“I’m thinking that would be selfish,” I answered.
“It would,” he replied on a smile.
“The problem is, I’m in the mood to be selfish,” I shared, then I got to watch and feel as he burst out laughing.
Both his hands also slipped down to my ass so I thought I was going to get my selfish way.
I didn’t.
He bent his neck, kissed mine then pulled away, as in, entirely, letting me go and ordering, “Get your bag. The sooner I get food and champagne down you, the sooner we can see just how special this night’s gonna be.”
Champagne?
I liked my tequila. Definitely.
But Ren in a suit I got to peel off later, good food, just us, our first date, and champagne?
I was all for that.
Ren tagged his suit jacket from the bed and shrugged it on.
I grabbed my bag.
Ren grabbed my hand.
We were out on the landing, Ren one step down the stairs, when I tugged on his hand. He stopped and looked up at me.
It was time for more sharing.
“Thanks for making this easy, honey.”
Instantly, his eyes got so hot, they burned through me. He pushed back on my hand so I took a step back and he took the step back up. Then his hands were at my ass, his mouth was on mine, and he was shuffling me backwards.
Quickly.
I landed on the bed.
Ren landed on me.
His mouth went to my neck and his fingers went to my zipper.
My lips went to his ear. “What about anticipation?”
He didn’t answer.
He pulled down the zip.
No, I wasn’t right. He did answer. That was his answer.
And I liked his answer.
Jeez. This sharing stuff was easy.
Or, at least, Ren made it be easy.
I hooked a leg around his thigh and slid my hands inside his jacket.
We’d never know if we gave it a couple of hours if the anticipation would have made it sweeter.
Then again, with the sweet Ren gave me, that would be impossible to beat.