Serena
“It’s beautiful!” Becky said, squeezing the life out of me.
We were standing at the Atmosphere Gallery of Rachel Montgomery, who’d agreed to showcase my paintings in one of her events. I even signed a contract with her. It wasn’t bringing me much money, but it brought small recognition, which was one of the best things for an unknown artist.
The minute I decided to do it professionally and said as much to Alice, she took me to my dad and I told him the news. He wasn’t surprised at all and just nodded, but I saw happiness in his eyes, as though he finally had his daughter back. I went back to Columbia and asked them if I could go back to studying a Bachelor of Arts degree. They transferred some of my credits, but I would have to study for another year and a half. I didn’t mind.
I finally felt like I was on the right track with my life. I’d found confidence with belief in myself that wasn’t there before. Hopefully, I would get something from selling the paintings soon, and then I would be able to afford my studies myself. I’d already moved out of Dad’s house and was renting an apartment downtown, which was very different from what I was used to. I could practice my craft there, and thankfully, due to my experience from the ranch, I knew how to take care of myself and discovered I could do a lot by using the metro or walking. I loved it, and I wouldn’t change a minute of it.
I had my city that never sleeps and the things I loved to do. I cut out most of my friends. They thought I was crazy, and to be honest, it wasn’t like we were close. Becky had other plans for her future. Even though I asked her to move in with me, she refused. She was acting strange, but I didn’t ask why.
I submitted my work to several galleries, but sent it anonymously since I didn’t want them to do it because of my name. I needed to know I could do it on my own. Finally, after ten rejection letters, Rachel agreed to meet me and loved my drawings and paintings. And here I was during my first show. People loved it, and I was happy.
Part of me was, anyway. All those things kept me from thinking about Shane and what we had. I didn’t call or write him, and he didn’t do it either. I didn’t understand why I kept hoping he would change his mind.
“He looks like a warrior gazing at nature, you know?” Becky’s voice brought me back to reality, and my eyes studied the painting of Shane, which captured him on the grass looking at the ranch. His stance was fierce, wearing only jeans, and his black hair was blown back by the wind. Some ladies even blushed, whispering he was hot, and who could blame them? He sure was.
“Serena, honey, this is amazing work!” Alice said and hugged me. The softness of her embrace calmed my nerves a bit.
After the talk we’d had, we started mending our relationship, and slowly it turned into friendship. She helped me move out and assisted with art. She was, in fact, an amazing woman, and part of me felt sad that Dad would never love her. I tried to ignore the glimpses of pain she had in her eyes when she looked at Dad, even though she tried to hide it.
“Baby girl, I always knew you had talent.” Dad was next to embrace me, allowing me to exhale a heavy breath. It seemed surreal that everyone loved my work. I didn’t understand my need to cry.
They strolled down to greet someone else, and I was again left alone with Becky.
“Babe, you need to try harder with this whole ‘I’m happy’ act.”
“I’m not acting,” I said defensively, hating the truth in her words.
“Sure, and all those paintings of the hot cowboy? I mean, I love to look, but you are clearly not over the guy, so stop acting as though you are.”
I didn’t need to talk about it right then, because it was my moment to shine, and I was finally finding my way in life where I could be happy and comfortable with myself. I hated I couldn’t get enough satisfaction from this. Silly me wanted love, too.
Not any love. I craved my warrior back with me, not looking back at me from paintings.
I spoke with Maggie sometimes. She was back in Austin starting her last semester of college. She wanted to be at the ranch by Christmas and start doing something there, though I wondered what. There was something on her mind, but I couldn’t quite catch what. She never spoke of Shane, only that he was grumpy and didn’t talk much, not that I expected anything else, but I still wanted to hear something.
Like I said before, really pathetic.
“I’m not pretending, and could you just drop it?” It was easy for Becky to say, she continued to enjoy an active sex life as usual and was dating some jock from my university who had all the muscles but somehow lacked the brain. But as she pointed out, she loved to get freaky with his body and didn’t care much for what he had to say, so everything was fine by her. Sometimes I wondered what it would take for her to settle down with one guy. Even with all those problems she had, she managed to sleep around.
“Fine, jeez, you’ve become no fun at all.” She waved somewhere in the crowd. “Derek is here, so I’m gonna go. He spotted a dark closet where we can have some fun.” She winked and left, and I rolled my eyes. Leave it to my best friend to have sex in the closet at my first gallery show.
Being left alone allowed me to wander around and study people’s reactions to my work. Many of them had the sold sign, and it created butterflies in my stomach. Some of them I would give to charity. The one that my mom started, I thought it would make her happy that I had some personal input into it. The money was the first I’d earned by myself and that hadn’t been given by birthright.
It was such a funny concept, birthright.
“Serena.”
I turned around, saw Jason, and groaned inwardly. I mean, we did fool around a bit—well, a few kisses hardly even counted as fooling around, but still—and I never called him back and then disappeared. He tried to make contact with me after that, but I avoided him like the plague, and I thought he’d gotten the hint, but here he was.
“Amazing artwork!” He looked as handsome as ever, wearing a suit with his light blond hair neatly done. Typical GQ material, just my type before summer. And even though we couldn’t have been a permanent couple, we would have worked great with my dad, because he had some business with Jason’s family.
“Thank you,” I replied with a smile.
Suddenly, out of the blue, he leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I was so shocked at first I didn’t react at all, but then I took a step back. Before I could say anything, I noticed silence around us and that everyone’s attention was on something or someone behind me. Surely, it wasn’t because of the kiss. A kiss I had to set Jason straight about, because in no way did I want to start all over with him and whatever it was we had.
I was almost dreading looking back, because I got a tingling sensation in my body that only one person could awaken. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around.
There he was, wearing jeans, a black T-shirt, and black loafers. His hair was down on his shoulders, and it was like black silk while his blue eyes held fury in them. He was every bit as fierce as he was in my paintings, and every bit as scary.
Like I said, a warrior.
My warrior.
“Oh my!” I heard one of the females gasp, and someone took a photo of him.
Oh my was right.
He didn’t look pleased with the situation he found himself in at all.
Part of me was furious he thought he could just show up here and be pissed off with me. What the hell was he pissed off about? Part of me was just happy to see him and thrilled by his behavior. I had a feeling the former was winning over the latter.
Shane
I couldn’t fucking believe the rage rushing through me.
My girl—mine!—was standing there, receiving a kiss from some uptight upper-class blond guy and did nothing to stop him. The rational part of me knew we’d broken up and she was free to do whatever she wanted. I was the one who’d screwed up and had to ask for forgiveness and hope like fuck she would give it.
None of those thoughts calmed me down, and I still wanted to murder the guy and then spank my girl’s sexy ass for letting someone else, someone who was not me, touch what was mine.
I was happy she, at least, had a deer-caught-in-headlights expression, which meant she was a bit afraid of my reaction. Good. I liked that, because that would make her attentive to my every action, and I fucking loved that. Loved her attention on me.
“Serena,” I said quietly, but she knew my tone. She swallowed and her eyes were hooded slightly with arousal, but she stood straight and narrowed them.
Ah, she remembered she was angry with me. First things first though.
“Who is the guy?” I didn’t care everyone was watching us. It wasn’t like, if I kept my mouth shut, they would stop talking about me. Hell, my face was everywhere here, so I was already a celebrity for them.
“Excuse me?” GQ guy raised his brows.
I shifted my attention to him. “Okay, who the hell are you?”
“Oh, God, did you hear his voice?” someone called out, but I didn’t give a shit who. All those people seemed weird as if they had sticks up their asses. I had better things to do.
Like getting my girl back.
“Jason Branson.” The guy looked unsure for a second but then gave me his hand, and I took it. Not because I wanted to be polite, I just wanted to know the measure of his strength and show him mine.
“Shane Alexander. You kissed my girl here, and I didn’t like it.” I heard Serena gasp but still kept my eyes on the guy. I saw the minute he registered what I said and how his lips moved into a line. He didn’t like that bit of information.
Well, tough luck.
“I see.” He briefly glanced at Serena. “You forgot to mention that.”
Well, hell, was there something between them, giving the guy the right to act as though I’d pissed on his territory? Not that I cared much, but still. Not for one second did I believe she’d started something in our three month apart, but maybe before.
Clearly not that serious, since I was the first to take her to bed. And didn’t that thought just please me and make me one chauvinistic fucker?
“That’s because there was no reason to mention anything.” Her voice was cold and her eyes held a challenge. Well, I got her message loud and clear. She was telling me it wouldn’t be easy to come back, but knowing her, I knew it wouldn’t. But I would be damned if some fucker thought he could take her away from me.
“Are you sure?” My question was met with her narrowed eyes.
Before she could answer, I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced back. Braden Devlin was standing there with his beautiful woman on his arm. He raised his brow, looking amused and a little bit pissed off. I had a big suspicion it had to do with that almost naked picture by the river, where I was lying down, looking pleased with myself, and some girl was near. It was the moment of our first time skin-to-skin by the lake.
“Shane.” He nodded and held his hand out to me. I shook it. There was a kind of warning in his shake, but I didn’t mind. I never expected it to be easy. I liked the fact he loved her and gave a damn.
“Hello, sir. Do you mind if I talk to Serena for a minute alone?” I wanted to talk to her, but I did not intend to steal her for the night. Not right then at least. She deserved to enjoy her moment of glory. Later on though, all bets were off.
“I can speak for myself, thank you very much.” God, she was so perfect.
“I know, beautiful.” I winked and she just raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed.
“Sure, Shane, you can have a few minutes, but then I need my daughter back. We need to celebrate her success.”
Yeah, like I believed that. The old man was just making sure I stayed here and gave me a warning not to leave the place with her and not to upset her. I looked at her and knew she was about to refuse, and I had to grab on to it while I had the chance.
“Serena, a few minutes, that’s it,” I said quietly.
After several seconds, she nodded and excused herself from the rest of the crowd. We went into the private section of the gallery. Since she was walking in front of me, I had a great view of her ass from behind, even though I frowned a little at her dress. A bit too short for my taste and hugging her body too tightly, exposing my favorite curves and those shapely legs of hers. I wanted to touch her pale skin and run my fingers over it, but I had to take my head out of the gutter. Those things wouldn’t make her mine again, though in my mind she’d always been mine.
Finally, she stopped at the balcony, which opened to a view of the busy New York streets. The lights from cars and everything else made it seem like something magical, and for the first time, I saw the appeal of the big city. Something about it set the world on fire.
“Talk.” Well, wasn’t she the one to get to business immediately?
“How are you?”
She blinked at me in disbelief. “You came all the way here to ask me how I am?”
“No, I came here to apologize.”
“Apologize?” she asked, clearly confused. “For what?”
“For being an ass. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did.”
“Yeah, well, you did, so what’s the point?”
“I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry I ended things like that, that I didn’t say goodbye, and—” She raised her hand to stop me, and I had no other choice but to close my lips.
“Apology accepted. You can go back now. No need to feel guilty.” She made a move to go back inside, but I stopped her with my arm around her waist.
“Wait a minute. I didn’t come here out of guilt.”
“Let go of me, Shane. Whatever you came for, I forgive you. Are you happy now?”
“No.”
She stopped struggling and just glared at me, and her soft perfume of lavender and vanilla washed over me. I missed her smell and wanted to bury my face into her neck, inhale her, and just be with her. When she was in my arms, the world seemed calm and beautiful.
Just like her.
“Then what do you want?”
She was hurt, and I was doing the explanation all wrong. She wasn’t supposed to want to get away; she was supposed to listen. I wanted to explain, to tell her about my trip to Houston and everything else, but the moment I looked into her eyes and saw the pain she held there, I wanted nothing more than to hold her and kiss her.
Fuck the logic, I fucking wanted a taste of her.
Serena
I recognized what would happen before he even made a move to lean toward me. The arousal, I’d seen so many times before in his eyes, but it was different. It was mixed with desperation and longing. I didn’t want the kiss to happen. He’d let me go. He’d allowed me to go and didn’t fight for me or for us just two days after he’d told me he loved me.
What kind of love was that?
All that, though, didn’t make me move away. At once, his lips were on mine. He slowly licked my upper lip. He hugged me tight, making me gasp in surprise, which allowed his tongue to enter my mouth, and we both groaned.
I’d missed it so much, the taste of him, the way he held me as though he was afraid to let me go. I couldn’t help myself. I circled his neck and pushed my hand into his hair. Our kiss deepened, causing my nipples to tingle. He slowly pushed me to the wall and tried to press between my thighs, causing reality to crash in.
I was at the art gallery, at my first show, yet here I was allowing him to kiss me while he was the one who broke it off. Yes, what he made me feel was amazing, wonderful, out of this world—but I’d felt like that before in his arms, and he’d ruined it, broken my heart, and I couldn’t take his crap anymore.
I pulled my mouth away to breathe and pushed him back, and surprisingly he allowed it.
Breathing hard, his eyes bored into mine.
“Don’t do this.” My voice was husky from desire, and I hated that part of me was still questioning why the hell I stopped it, even though I knew it was the right thing to do.
“Why not?”
“Because it means nothing.” I couldn’t believe he needed to ask.
“It means everything!”
“Why? It didn’t mean anything when you kissed me goodbye while making love to me.” He retreated, and I really didn’t get what the hell we were doing here. I didn’t want to have a public scene, or worse break down in front of him. “Look, Shane, I get it. I lied to you and you can’t forgive me, but you felt badly and needed to apologize. I accepted it, and I want to move on. So thanks for the visit, for giving me closure and all, but I really have a party to get back to, okay?” I moved toward the terrace, a bit disappointed he’d said nothing to stop me, and I was about to open the door when I heard his quiet voice.
“I don’t want closure. I want you.” My body froze at his words, afraid of what they meant and the emotions they brought up in me. He wasn’t finished. “I lashed out at you, and I shouldn’t have done that. I mean, it was bad of you to lie, but I was afraid.”
Finally, I turned to face him. “Afraid of what?”
“That I wouldn't be able to give you what you want.”
Frowning, I didn’t get him at all. “Give me what I want?”
“The amazing life you have here, money, and all those dreams about Europe. I can’t give you that.”
It was about money? He left me because of damned money? Suddenly, I was pissed off. “You thought I would—” He didn’t let me finish though.
“Don’t say you wouldn’t or anything else. We don’t know that. Yes, you handled living on the ranch without all the luxuries you have here, but it was temporary, and you knew you had an out at any time. Living with me though? It would be permanent. There would be no getting out of it once you got bored, and we would have to face lots of shit together. I don’t want your dad’s money, and you know I would never take the help. You though? You are used to his help.”
I had nothing to say to that because he was right, but it wasn’t the point. The point was I loved him more than I loved the life I had. How different would it be? I’d already moved from my dad’s, had a career going, and yeah, I used money from my dad for my education, but I don’t think that was such a bad thing. Part of me respected that he didn’t need money or anything else from me.
Like he said, just me.
Just freaking me.
How awesome was that?
I had to admit that maybe if the summer experience hadn’t happened, I would have never taken the step to be on my own and believed I could survive. Maybe my love wouldn’t be strong enough if I didn’t know how to handle the outside world. I’d learned, and I was ready for anything. Our breakup allowed me to come to terms with what I wanted and the direction to take my life.
I was so deep in thought that I almost missed the fact he kept talking.
“I have a degree in business administration and had a scholarship playing football. Never liked it much, but I was good at it and knew it would be my ticket to the rich life. Got lots of offers from different teams, but I refused all of them. The NFL was an amazing opportunity, just not for me.” No, I imagined it wasn’t. “I like finances and received some offers from the corporate world, which I put on hold while I addressed the whole Hawk situation and my roots. Now though, I have the means to start my career.”
“Shane—” It was like he didn’t hear me.
“I got an offer from a firm in New York. Never was much interested, because I didn’t like the city on the one occasion when I visited. I prefer Houston. It’s something I’m used to and I love the fucking town.” He smiled as if remembering something great that happened to him. Then he became serious again and looked at me. “But for you? I’d move here in a heartbeat, because I know everything you love is here. That is, if you want me,” he finished, and I was left speechless.
I didn’t recognize this guy. He just offered to move his entire life here, so he could be with me. I wasn’t stupid; I knew what he meant. No one was talking about marriage. We were both too young for that and had our whole lives ahead of us. It was, however, a long-term commitment, and he was asking if I was ready for life with him and everything that came with it, if I’d choose him over money.
He was asking if he was enough.
He was freaking asking?
But I remembered how cold he was that last day on the ranch, and that was holding me back. I hated it. I knew what he offered was something I truly wanted, but I didn’t feel like I was brave enough to reach for it, knowing he could reject me again.
“What if it gets hard for you?” I asked. “You were the one who pushed me away when things got tough. How can I be sure you won’t do it again? I don’t know if I can be with you while you do whatever you please because you think it’s the right thing to do.”
Shane came closer but didn’t touch me, just looked at me with those blue eyes of his, which held so much promise. I wanted to give in, but I couldn’t do that, not before he reassured me.
“I can’t promise that, baby.” My face fell. “I can’t promise I won’t freak out or think you deserve better. Hell, I know you deserve better. The thing is, you’ll be with me, and I’ll be able to look at you and know you love me, and that’ll help me to go on. You would help me.”
I knew he spoke the truth. I would be there to soothe him, and he wouldn’t run away, because it would be only the two of us.
Finally, I smiled for real for the first time in a long time as I launched myself into his arms. I was finally home, and it felt so good. When I raised my head, I saw him smiling at me, but there was still vulnerability in his eyes, as though he wasn’t sure what my reaction meant.
“I love you,” I assured him, and his eyes heated, becoming darker blue, full of emotions. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them back up again, he seemed more relaxed and had his aura of confidence back.
“Thank you, baby.”
“For what?”
“For giving me a chance.” With those words, he kissed me gently and all other thoughts flew from my mind.
My warrior conquered the dragon, came into the castle, and took the princess.
And they say fairy tales don’t come true.