I hear a woman’s voice, it’s sultry, unlike mine. I look to the door again. Checking the number on the hotel room door, confirming that it’s his. So why did he say I can come over if there’s a woman inside? I stand there, unsure of what I should be doing. Jake wanted to come, maybe I should have let him. So I don’t have to face this alone. Except, I’ve always loved alone time with Liam. It’s completely different now, but somehow and in some ways, it’s still the same.
Knocking on the door because I can’t stand here any longer, I either have to do it, to see him or walk away. Which is impossible to do, I could never walk away from him, even when I was sixteen.
“I can’t, I won’t go with you.” My voice was raised, my mother getting angrier, my temper high, and she knew it.
“You don’t have a choice, Rose. This is what’s best for us. You can’t stay here anymore, that boy is no good for you.” I scoffed at her. Really? She didn’t even know him. She had heard, though, people talked in a town that was small. I was now associated with the bad boy, someone I shouldn’t have been socializing with. But who were they to tell me so?
“I won’t go, you can’t make me go. He needs me, I need him.” I was on the verge of tears, she couldn’t take me away, she wouldn’t take me away from him.
“You don’t have a say!” She stepped closer to me, her hand brushing my face. “He is just a phase, darling, you’ll soon forget about him.”
I never did. I never would.
Sixteen, I remember that day, the day I was meant to go back to him. He would have been waiting for me. Like I always waited for him. It was us, we waited for each other, just to be near each other. I never forgot him, but mother never knew that. I went back once, before I met Robert, before my life collapsed. I searched for him, no one knew of a man named Liam, I didn’t even know where he lived. I asked everywhere, no one knew. I got on that train and never went back. I wish I found him then, I wish I had those years. Except I don’t, and I’ve even missed so many more. It’s like we’re to be torn apart no matter what.
Except when a sexy brunette answers the door, I know that’s a lie, that I will have him and no one else. As I stare at him behind her, his eyes go to the woman, then back to me, and right there is my confirmation. Just that slight look alone. He won’t see any other woman the way he looks at me. It’s small, but I know. Just as I know him.
“You need to leave,” she hisses at me. Like I’m the intruder.
Well, maybe I am? I go to step back, not wanting to be involved in whatever’s going on, though wanting to stay so I can see him.
“Don’t leave.” His voice is strong, just like it always is. He comes off demanding, without raising his voice.
The woman’s head snaps back to his, but his eyes leave mine to look at her. “She can’t stay. We need to talk, you need to come home.”
A punch in the gut is what that is. Black doesn’t speak, he doesn’t have to, his body language and the way he looks tells you exactly what he’s thinking. And just as she realizes this, it hurts. It hurts so much because she understands him, she knows him—the now him. Not my him.
“I’ve seen you before,” she says turning to me now, my head is down, I don’t want either of them to see the pain in my eyes. I look up to her, realizing she’s speaking to me. I drop my head to the side, trying to gather where I’ve seen her. Nothing comes, I have no idea.
“You were high as a fucking kite. You still a druggie?” She steps closer. She’s taller than me, prettier, everything I’m not. She’s wearing shorts, so short they would fit my ten-year-old daughter. I’m wearing a knee-length dress. His hand snaps out and wraps around her arm, her eyes leave mine and look up to his. “What baby,” she says. That makes me snort, and both heads turn toward me then. “You think that’s funny, bitch? You won’t think it’s funny when he’s fucking you and wishing it was me riding his cock.”
“Enough, leave now.” He pushes her arm forward, and I step to the side. He then closes the door in her face, locking it, effectively trapping us both inside together.
“Umm… that was interesting,” I say. He looks to me, his green eyes staring right into mine. His hand runs through his dark hair, pushing it backward.
“Interesting bloody day! Had your friend here just before…” I look behind me, who? Obviously not that chick. “The heavily pregnant one… a bit crazy…”
“Shit, sorry, I told her where I was going, she wanted to know. I didn’t even think she would come around.”
He sits on his bed, watching me as I stand still near the door. “How many kids do you have?” he asks, and I remain there shocked.
“Three.”
“I knew you had three kids? And I still wanted to be around you?”
“What’s that meant to mean?” I’m defensive now. That was rude, and two of those kids are because of him.
“I don’t do kids. Fuck! I hardly do people.”
“I know.” I understand now, he still slightly the man I once knew. “You liked these kids if that counts?”
He nods his head, I know he doesn’t believe me. He just agrees for the sake of it. “Your name?”
“My name?”
“Yes, I still don’t know it. And as far as I’m concerned, I’ll call you Red.”
“I kind of like it,” I admit. I do. I kind of like it—it goes with his, Black.
“Name?” he questions again. He’s looking at me so intensely, the only way he can, the only way he does. And I have no choice but to answer.
“Rose,” I finally reply, watching him as he stares at me, his lips quirk when he responds.
“Perfect.”
“Can we go somewhere?” A simple head nod is all I get.
We come to a stop at a two-story home. It’s nothing special, though in some ways, it feels special. She climbs out of the truck, and stands in front, waiting for me. I walk up next to her and she reaches up and touches my face, then removes my glasses.
“I like to read you, your eyes tell me more than you do,” she explains, and I don’t stop her even as she walks toward the house and I follow blindly behind her. She stops at the bottom of the stairs, I see that there’s an open door and behind that is a spare room, her gaze lingers on it longer than necessary, before she walks up. I watch her ass as she sashays in front of me, knowing I shouldn’t. Her ass is perfect, the whole package of her is perfect actually, she shouldn’t be able to tease the male population with her looks because it’s a crime.
“Stop staring at my ass.” She doesn’t even turn around when she says that. It’s like she knew. I chuckle slightly not denying the fact that I was blatantly checking her ass out.
She opens the door and the inside of this house is the most colorful thing I’ve seen, the walls are lined with tags and graffiti covering the walls. What an odd thing to see, or even decorate? She walks straight past it all and goes to the back, opening a door. She stops and doesn’t flick on a light, I stand next to her and everything in this room is the complete opposite of the house. It’s all black, the walls are black, the bedding, even the bed. Not a sign of color anywhere.
“Whose room is this?”
She turns to look at me, her glasses now on top of her head. “Yours.” She smiles sadly, a tear leaking from one eye. I walk in, and touch things, hoping something or anything will come back to me. Nothing does.
“It took me ages to come back in here, I had to sleep in the living room or on the floor.” She smiles just barely.
“Why?”
“You had your demons.”
“Did you?”
“Did I have demons?” she asks raising her hand to her chest. I nod my head. “Yes, plenty. You saved me from them actually.”
“Really?” I question her, I’m not the type to save someone, I’m actually the complete opposite. I destroy, ruin, kill. Her ice blue eyes lift to mine. She steps closer, so our toes almost touch. Her hand shakes as she reaches up and touches my chest.
“Is she allowed to touch you whenever she pleases?” Her eyes won’t reach mine, even though I want them to.
“Yes.” I know who she’s talking about. I know it is ain the way she says she. Savannah. Her hand goes to drop but I catch it with mine and hold it there. “Why?” Our last conversation about touching, she broke down, I couldn’t get many words from her.
“It took me ages to be able to touch you, I thought I’d never be able to.”
“I didn’t allow you to touch me?”
Her cheeks blush. “Only in certain areas,” she says shyly.