Chapter Eight
Semi-Sweet
We were in Ren’s Jag, nearing my apartment complex, when I pulled my phone out of my purse.
For obvious reasons, I elected to ride back with Ren.
When I called Darius to inform him of this fact and ask him to meet me at his truck so I could get my stuff, Darius laughed his ass off.
I did not take to this kindly but I was in a good enough mood I let it slide.
Letting it slide got harder when I met Darius at his truck and Brody was there.
He took one look at me and said to Darius, “She got her some.”
I glared at Brody.
“She’s anywhere near Zano, she always gets herself some,” Darius replied.
I transferred my glare to Darius.
Darius took in my glare, lifted his brows and asked, “Am I wrong?”
Since he wasn’t, I decided not to answer.
“So, are you guys together together, as in, you’re gonna stop pretending to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and come out of the bedroom, or are you two still gonna keep dancing your dance?” Brody asked nosily.
“Ren and I had a meeting of the minds this morning.” I decided to share.
“Sounded like the opposite,” Darius muttered and I started glaring again.
“Yeah, when you fight, you guys are seriously loud,” Brody put in.
Unfortunately, I’d discovered Brody and Darius’s rooms flanked Ren’s and mine.
Though, I had to admit, even if they didn’t, they probably still would have heard us shouting.
I took in a deep breath, reminding myself Ren loved me and I’d just had a fabulous orgasm, and let it out feeling much calmer.
Then I told them, “We worked it out.”
Brody leaned into Darius and mumbled loudly, “That’d be the part where she got her some.”
Darius’s eyes never left me through this, but when Brody was done, he grinned.
I practiced more calming breathing and requested, “Can I get in the truck?”
Darius beeped the locks.
I moved to the door.
“This sucks,” Brody remarked as I yanked it open and reached in to get my purse and laptop bag. “The Rock Chicks have cost me a shed load of money. And now there’s none left. I can’t win any back.”
I pulled out of the cab, slammed the door and looked at Brody. “You bet on Ren and me?”
“Sure,” he replied and when I started glaring again, he added, “But I bet on you. I thought you’d hold out longer. But you caved.”
My back went straight.
“I didn’t cave,” I snapped. “Like I said, we had a meeting of the minds.”
“You’ve been having a meeting of a variety of things but you never caved,” Brody pointed out. “Though, if it makes you feel better, you held out a whole lot longer than any of the other Rock Chicks. I did a spreadsheet. Sadie took the longest to win. You beat her by, like, eleven point five months. You should be proud. That’s a lot.”
Darius started chuckling.
“Do you want me to hurt you?” I asked the both of them and the both of them grinned.
They said no more and I didn’t either. I was in for a lot of this, I knew. I bought it and I knew that too. I was just going to have to suck it up and take it.
“I’ll see you guys back home,” I muttered, moving away.
“Ally,” Darius called and I turned back.
“Yeah?”
“Believe in it,” he said softly, “and be happy.”
God, I loved Darius.
I swallowed as my eyes started feeling hot.
Then I nodded and got the hell out of there.
I barely had the door to the room closed before Ren asked, “How much shit did they give you?”
He was sitting on the side of the bed tugging on his boots.
I dumped my stuff on the bed and turned to him. “I’m screwed.”
He straightened, reached out, grabbed my hips and shifted me so I was standing between his opened legs.
I rested my hands on his shoulders and looked in his eyes.
This man loved me.
Seriously.
How lucky could I be?
“I’ll make it worth it,” he whispered.
Yeah.
He loved me.
And I was very lucky.
“I think, after acting like an idiot for a year, that’s my job,” I replied, and his warm eyes got warmer, his hands slid from my hips to my ribs and he pulled me down to him as he fell back so we were lying on the bed, me on top.
“How you gonna do that?” he asked as one of his hands drifted over my ass and the other one drifted up and into my hair.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “But I’ll be creative.”
He smiled.
My heart soared.
“Lookin’ forward to that,” he murmured.
“Would you like to start now?” I offered. “Or after we get back to Denver.”
“Seein’ as I’m takin’ my woman on our first official date tonight even though she’s been my woman for a long f*ckin’ time, I want to get back to Denver. So you can start there.”
God. I’d been such an idiot.
I didn’t admit that since I figured he knew. And, by the way, he was being very cool by not rubbing my nose in it.
Which made me love him more.
Instead, I replied, “Copy that,” and got another smile.
Then I got a hot, heavy, wet kiss.
After that, I got my ass hauled to a sweet ride and Ren pointed the Jag toward Denver (after we checked in on Faye who, surprisingly, after being buried alive, was doing all right; then again, she had her own hot guy badass so maybe this wasn’t a surprise).
I delayed until nearly the final moment to check my phone because I knew what I’d find. I’d even avoided looking when I’d called Darius.
But this was sissy behavior and not me. However, I allowed myself this bubble of happiness with Ren without letting the world intrude as he drove his sleek, high performance machine through the beauty of the Colorado Mountains.
He did this, by the way, almost the whole time holding my hand against his thigh. Yes, the fact that I loved this was more romantic girlie than Rock Chick, but who cares? A hotheaded Italian badass loved me. This required being romantic girlie on occasion.
And I picked that one.
But it was time to stop being a sissy and face the music.
So I hit the button to turn on my phone and found I had fifty-seven missed calls and thirty-three voicemails.
“Shit,” I hissed.
“What’re you lookin’ at?” Ren asked, having been around the Rock Chicks enough to know what I was facing.
“Fifty-seven missed calls and thirty-three voicemails,” I told him.
Ren started laughing.
I didn’t find it funny and found it less funny when I went to my Recents list, scrolled down and saw the vast majority of calls were not from the Rock Chicks, snippy and calling to ream me because I didn’t share.
They were from Lee, Hank and Eddie.
Not good.
Those three were also the vast majority of voicemails.
Also not good.
I turned off my phone and shoved it in my purse as Ren pulled into the parking lot of my complex. I did this deciding that maybe I could still be a sissy for a little while longer.
Ren parked. I put my hand to the handle but stopped and turned to him when I felt his fingers curl around my knee.
“We go up, you pack enough to stay at my place awhile, but you make sure you got a variety of dresses and heels,” he ordered and I bit back a smart mouth retort at him being bossy. It took me so long to do that, he was able to keep talking. “And you do that shit fast.”
At bossy part two, I failed in biting back the smart mouth and asked, “Should I salute when you issue an order? Or will nodding and instant compliance do?”
He grinned and replied, “No salutes. No nods. But you could kiss me.”
I gave him a look.
He kept grinning.
I decided to throw out a deal that he couldn’t refuse.
“I’ll kiss you, and comply with your order, if you do me a favor.”
His fingers gave my knee a squeeze and he asked, “What do you need?”
I dug in my purse, got out my wallet and opened it. I found the little pocket that had absolutely no use. A pocket I put a use to. I snapped it open and pulled out what was inside.
I dumped the wallet back in my purse, turned to Ren and lifted my hand between us.
Then I dropped the guitar pendant and it bounced between us from where I held the chain.
“What I need is for you to put this on me,” I said quietly and Ren’s eyes moved from the pendant to me.
His voice was rough when he stated, “You carried it with you.”
“Yes.”
“Always?”
I took a breath in through my nose.
Then I nodded and whispered, “Always.”
His eyes stayed locked to mine, heated and intense, before he grinned and declared, “I was so in there.”
I palmed the necklace and snapped, “Zano, do you want me pissed at you?”
“Semi-sweet Ally, just seein’ how far she goes,” he replied.
“You reached the end, mister,” I returned, twisted to exit the vehicle but instead found myself in Ren’s lap, wedged between him and his steering wheel.
Oh, and he was kissing me.
I decided to forgive him and kissed him back.
Then kissing turned into making out.
After we were done doing that, he put the necklace on me.
When the guitar was dangling in the dent of my collarbone, Ren touched it as his eyes watched.
He lifted his gaze to mine and stated, “You do know you aren’t bullshitting me. There is no semi-sweet Ally. She’s pure honey all the way through.”
I slid my fingers along the dark stubble at his jaw and whispered, “Don’t tell anybody.”
“Baby, your secret’s safe with me.”
I smiled at him.
He smiled back, touched his mouth to mine and deposited my ass in my seat.
We got out of his car and walked hand in hand into my complex and up the stairs.
I was in my head. Precisely what I was thinking up there was which dresses and heels I was going to pack to take to Ren’s.
On the way home, we’d made the deal that we were going to try this together togetherness, not f*ck around and not delay. That meant me staying at Ren’s (because, seriously, his house was awesome; he even had a sauna in his bathroom).
This also meant me meeting his mom and two sisters, him meeting my family not as Ren, a member of the Zano Crime Family, but as Ren, the boyfriend of me, and me sitting down to dinner with Vito and his wife Angela.
None of this scared me. Vito liked me. Ren loved me and he was the kind of guy who, if he made that decision, even if his mom and sisters didn’t like me, they’d have to deal. As for my family, Ren was Ren and his family was his family and mine were who they were and usually this would be a Romeo and Juliet type of scenario. But I wasn’t big on Shakespeare so my family was also just going to have to deal.
I was narrowing down my dress and heels choices when I felt his hand tighten in mine and he pulled us both to a dead stop.
I looked up and tensed when I saw The Kevster running our way down the hall.
“Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bo—!” he was shouting.
But he didn’t get the last one out.
This was because my apartment exploded. The Kevster was taken clean off his feet and was blown our way. Ren and I rocked backward, Ren tugging my arm and curling me into him so when he landed on his back, I landed partly on his front but my left side slammed into the floor.
Instantly, he rolled me so I was on bottom and he tucked me low so he fully covered me.
Oh man.
Here we go.
Shit.