Pieces Of You & Me (6 page)

“For a date?
That’s all
, right?” Where was I going with this?

He hesitated. “
Starting
with a date.” He emphasized, “One date.”

“But I already made plans.”

“Gavin again?”

I hid back a smile. He hated that I was somewhat dating his friend, but I didn’t feel anything towards him. He was fun to be around, even so, there were no chemistry there, unlike this unquestionable one I had with the guy I’d rather feed to the dogs.

“No, but with all these hot actors.” I pointed at the pile of my favorite DVDs. “It’s a date I can’t cancel.”

Grey smiled and I became a little dizzy. “May I invite myself?”

Sigh, things were already complicated. “I don’t think you’ve earned that right yet, Grey.”

“Then spend some time around me. Come out tonight. Not as my date, but just to hang around… feel me out.”

Feel him out… with my hands? Tongue?
Jesus, my thoughts were leading me astray.
“I can’t make promises.”

“I won’t ask you to.”

“If I go, will you keep this between the two of us? Not even Jet can know.” My mouth ran along and I said the words before I caught myself. Shit. And. Double shit.

“Done.”

“Good.” I was making a deal with the devil. Okay, maybe that comparison was a little extreme, but I was going to get burnt. I just hoped that I could play him at his own game and come out breathing.

He stood up, looking down on me. “Oh, and one more thing, no more bathing suits for you. Not tonight anyway.”

The barbeque was going to be here and everyone was going to use the pool. “Why’s that?”

The end of his lips lifted, making my stomach somersault. “I don’t want to be distracted.”

Oh.

“I’ll come by and get you for our non-date tonight.” He bent over and leaned against my face. “Dress…
for me
.”

My face contorted. “I don’t understand.”

“Wear something with me in mind, Pooh.” He looked at me for a good minute before leaving, walking away without looking back.

When the door closed, I didn’t let out my breath until I heard the loud click of the latch securely shut. “Oh my freaking shit! What did I get myself into?” I wondered out loud.

Chapter 10

Grey

It had been two hours since I asked Olivia that question, and even though one hundred and twenty minutes had past, I was still reeling from the moment. What propelled me to ask her was something I had been internally arguing with myself all morning. It was why I left because I needed to think. And when I got back and found the house all clean, I was more inclined to get to know the woman who hadn’t left my thoughts since the moment I saw her again back from her trip in Australia.

One would think that with all of her bitchiness, she was uncaring and lazy, thinking that the world revolved around her, but time and time again, she would prove me wrong. She loved her mom; on several occasions, I heard her tell her exactly that before she left for school. Same with her father, too; whenever he called and I got to hear the end of their cheery conversation when I was around the house. Picturing her as a bitch through the years, it was quite refreshing to be proven wrong. That Olivia was, after all, a caring person, a woman who was willing to help without anything in return.

When I saw her stuffing her mouth with popcorn and watching
Sweet Home Alabama
with intense concentration, I knew I had to do something. I could fight anything, but my attraction to her was too powerful for me to keep going on this pretense.

Taking a step in, asking her out, could only lead to something bad because, let’s face it, she and I had always never met eye-to-eye. Even with all that, though, my gut was telling me to keep on going. That maybe, just maybe, things wouldn’t be such a nightmare. Things were complicated already. If Brett decided to marry Laura, then shit would be over between us. However, if they won’t, there was still that possibility between us.

With all these obstacles, I was hoping that things would be okay. I mean, after all this consuming chemistry we shared, there had got to be something amazing to be shared between us, wasn’t there?

The barbeque was set up for six, but I was ready at five, checking out the time for the tenth time. I shouldn’t be worried… neither should I be anxious, but here I was, agitated with sweaty palms.

“Jesus, Grey, it’s only a girl. Don’t sweat it,” I muttered to myself before finally releasing a sigh as I stood up and strode over to the fridge for a bottle of beer.

Olivia was a girl, but not just any other girl. She was a girl I hated and yet couldn’t keep my eyes off almost my entire life. She was a girl who had the power to get me so keyed up that I couldn’t think straight. Yeah, she was a girl all right… a special twisted kind especially formulated to fuck me over.

Knowing that, here I was, crazy excited at the idea that I might get to have her around for a lot more. It was a roadway to disaster, and no matter how this turned out, I’d rather have fun on my way there.

Even though it was early still, I walked out of my place and strolled towards the main house. My heart was beating so loudly, I could literally feel it ringing in my ears. I hadn’t felt this alive in a long time. Apart from racing, Olivia was the only woman who could get my heart beating.

Once I was inside, the house was eerily quiet. I had always used the back stairs to get upstairs, but today, I went through the main hall and chose one of the two-curved marbled stairways. Turning a sharp left, I eyed the last door at the end of the hallway. From here, I could hear music. When I got closer, I realized that she was listening to
Somebody Told Me
by The Killers. That seriously made me smile and smirk at the same time.

Knocking softly, I waited for a second and when I didn’t hear her, I gradually opened the door. This was a ballsy move, but I just wanted to see her and hoped that maybe we could… talk?

When I heard the shower running, I let out a sigh and told myself to back off and wait for her downstairs. Looking around for the last time before leaving her space, I was surprised that her room wasn’t at all flowery and pink. In fact, it was very comfy… rustic-like. The last time I was here, I didn’t really look around because—one, it was dark and I mostly hung around in the bathroom, and two, my thoughts were focused on scoring a kiss and maybe something more, other than noticing what her room looked like.

Leaving her
be, I left her room and went downstairs to call Jet to come over and help out.

After my call from Jet, I also got a message for a meet tonight.

Topanga at midnight.

This should be interesting.

Chapter 11

Liv

I had been standing amongst my clothes. Some scattered on the floor, a few hung around the door and wherever I could find places to latch the hanger around. You see
, this was the first time that a guy told me to dress for him. I mean, each and every time I went on a date I dressed for myself and whatever I was comfortable in because if a woman couldn’t be comfortable on her first date, disaster always tends to strike.

All these theories were noted due to Josie’s interesting first dates. Example, a brand new thong that was beyond uncomfortable with tight jeans—instead of paying attention to what the guy was talking about, you were more focused on how much you just want to get in there and tug the sucker off your skin and scratch it mad. Josie was a gem and had hilarious stories to share, though some were borderline mortifying.

So here I was, not knowing what to wear. Nor did it help that Liam was texting non-stop and was being all nostalgic. He was the one who suggested this whole dating other people idea. Now that I was in it and going through the motion, he was not at all pleased. He was the one who went on a date first for crying out loud so that I would know that he was dead serious, and now he wasn’t pleased. Great, seriously. I couldn’t deal with his indecisiveness on top of my first non-date with the notorious Greyson Edwards.

The thought of him and how he whispered in my ear made me convulse in a shiver.
Dress for me.
Something about that dark raspy tone simply made me heave and palpitate.

Grey was a man I had never come across. He was a bad boy that I tried to stay away from for so long, and now I was skirting around his orbit
—around danger—and yet, nothing, it seemed, was stopping me from going to see him tonight.

Dress for me…

I was trying and damn, I wanted to look hot and sexy without being too obvious. Because yes, I was a girl, and even though Grey and I have the most complicated connection, I wanted to go out there tonight and blow any expectations he had about me.

Knowing how these people go about, Tiffany, Edith or both will be there tonight. No one would know about us. I would die with shame if one of them guessed. Yet, even with this knowledge, it still didn’t stop me from deciding to see this through.

Nor did it stop me from making me grab the white floral sundress that stopped just above my knees. It was modest enough even though the top area pressed against my breasts like I was wearing a corset. The back area was open except for the massive crisscross of an X.

Fixing my hair in a loose ponytail, I applied mascara and strawberry-tinted
lip gloss. The last part was footwear. Since it was technically in my backyard, should I even bother? With a smile, I strolled out of my bedroom barefoot, on my way to Greyson’s pool house.

It was around half past six and the pool area looked busy. Standing next to the French doors, I scanned for him, but he wasn’t in sight. Swallowing my nervousness, I contemplated if I should go inside his house and see if he was entertaining one of his girlfriends. If he was doing that on the night he asked me to “feel him out”, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with my furious ranting spree.

Baron Mitchells, who was on our football team, flung his arm around my shoulder and kissed my head. “’Livia, have you thought about that date I asked you about three years ago?”

Through the years, Baron had been asking me out, but each and every time I declined him and we would end up arguing about it. It was rather offbeat, but we ended up having a good laugh about these moment. Now it just became a joke.

“Same answer, B; nothing’s changed.”

“So you say.” He winked, glancing around before looking back at me. “One day, you’ll want a piece of this chocolate.”

I laughed along with him, but the moment I saw Grey come out from the pool house, with a bunch of people and a blonde woman whispering into his ear while they walked, sent me somehow heated. She was new; I had never seen her around. When it came to Grey, he had scouted the women around the valley, the hills and the beach. He was known for that. It seemed everyone wanted a piece of him. The more notorious he was, the more popular he became amongst women.

Right now, I felt like a total idiot for almost falling for his lies.

“Can I get you something to drink and some food?” Baron asked, breaking me away from my thoughts.

Pasting a grateful smile, I declined his offer and immediately excused myself when I saw Gavin arriving through the French doors. I walked towards him with a smile on my face.

“Aw man, what did I ever do to deserve this kind of welcome?” Gavin grinned, eyeing me from head to toe with wicked eyes before tugging me around his hips and then moving towards his friends, with Grey among them.

I wanted to seem like I wasn’t at all affected that Grey wasn’t waiting for me as he promised earlier. The thought crossed my mind that maybe he had changed his mind about me. And if he did, I wished he had the decency to tell me instead of letting me feel like an utter idiot wondering for a good hour what to wear. So imagine my surprise when we got to join them that Grey smiled at us. His smile wasn’t even forced and seemed genuine, much to my irritation.

For a good two hours, we chatted, drank and ate, and not once did our gazes cross. If he was purposely ignoring me, he was doing a splendid job at it.

I was disappointed, amongst other things. Most of all, I was more ticked off at myself for falling into his trap. Maybe it was one of his jokes to make me feel like shit and I almost fell for it.

“Everyone’s going to swim and drink, but I want to shoot pool. Wanna do a game with me, Liv?” Jet asked me with a stern face. He and I never interacted much, so for him to speak directly to me right in front of everyone was baffling.

Now that everyone was now staring back at me, I felt trapped to say yes. “Sure.”

He nodded, smiling before he got up and took out his pack of cigarettes and tapped it on his hand. “Going to smoke. Meet you in there in five. Cool?”

Yeah, ‘cause we did this all the damn time.
“Okay.”

I almost jumped on my seat when Gavin gave my knee a tight squeeze, making me glance towards him quickly. “Come back out here when you’re done. And don’t forget to wear a bikini.” He leaned close to my face. He was very touchy feely ever since he got here, but I wasn’t interested in him. In fact, my radar was pointed towards the man who sat across me.

But,
since he was technically avoiding me for some odd purpose, I was actually thinking of going back to my room and calling Liam… maybe it was time to talk. “We’ll see,” I murmured, getting up before giving him a small smile and then striding towards inside the house. Most people were outside, so indoors, it was a lot quieter.

The game room was somewhere close to the movie room. I heard Brett mentioned that it was in the basement that he jokingly referred to it as a dungeon. My thoughts ran along with Jet and his intention of needing to get me alone while I hunted down for the game room. Thankfully, it wasn’t at all hard to find. Everything was lit with mood lighting. Some areas, like the stairs, were brightly lit, but the game room area dialed down on that. It was dark with only the fireplace to light up the place.

Standing amidst everything, I took three shallow breaths before I walked towards the billiard table. Two cues were on the green felt and the billiard balls were all in set-up with the white cue ball resting on the far side. I wasn’t so great at this, but a few times when I was younger my father taught me how to play. That was long, long time ago, though.

Even though it was dark, the fire in the fireplace had enough glow to illuminate the pool gaming area enough to see clearly.

Gripping the cool polished cue stick in my hand, I spotted the nearby chalk cube and polished the tip with it before grabbing the cue ball and placed it right at the far right, aiming to hit a solid ball. Conscious about my stance, I situated myself again as I spread my hand on the felt and curled my thumb right above my forefinger and let the cue stick run along it, feeling my aim and target.

I was about to thrust the stick forward when I heard light footsteps behind me. “Thought I should practice. It’s been ages,” I said before returning my concentration to the game. Immediately, I tensed up when I felt a hand over mine before I heard him whisper into my ear.

“You’re too tense. Relax.” His hard body wrapped around mine as I watched a large male hand above mine on table. “Concentrate on your target.” His hand that was wrapped around mine on the cue stick started to caress it gently.

I was tense all right.
Furious, too. “Why are you here?” I wanted to scream, but my voice could only manage to squeak out the words.

His breathing became ragged as he spoke to my sensitive ear, “I forgot that I promised that this will remain between the two of us, that’s why I couldn’t get you, knowing there were a lot of people that were going to notice. I didn’t want to compromise that.”

I wasn’t sure what was frustrating; that I had forgotten that we made this stupid pact of keeping it a secret or that I had completely forgotten about it? “Don’t worry about it, Grey. I didn’t notice you that much at all.” Total bull, but heck, had to save some of my pride and self-respect.

I just couldn’t let him think that he could get with me any time of the day. I never planned to get intimate with him. It was more of getting to know the real man underneath it all. One of the real reasons that got my curiosity was that I wanted to see if he was all talk and no fire. It was confusing since my brain was all against it, but something propelled me to go forward, so I was going to follow that gut feeling, cautiously.

“But I noticed you, Liv.” His hand disengaged from mine. The pole was now resting against my hip. “You’re barefoot.”

Hiding back my stupid grin, I responded, “Got a problem with that?”

His hand started to massage the side of my hip while he slowly whispered, lingering around my ear, “No, I like it bare, skin to skin, where I can see everything.”

Jesus, were we still talking about my feet? I doubted it. “Where’s Jet?” I changed the subject. Not only was he making me nervous, but also Grey was seriously giving me serious discomfort…
down there.

“
Jet’s partying outside. It’s just you and me here. Alone.” He made sure to emphasize the word
alone
before pulling away from my body.

Was this a set-up? I was becoming suspicious. “Why did he ask me to come down here then?”

Grey let my question hang in the air for a little longer before responding to my question with steady voice. “Because I asked him to. I told him I needed to discuss something important, away from Gavin and everyone.”

“
Why?
”

“I wanted to see how you’re doing tonight,” he simply said without skipping a beat.

Was he messing with my brain? Did I hallucinate that he did not acknowledge my existence for the last couple of hours? “
You’re joking, right?
”

Tiger eyes
sharpened on me like lasers. “No. Should I be?”

Folding my hands underneath my breasts, I directed him a fact, “All night, you did not even say hi or hello. Not fucking once!
Now you’re curious to know if I’m doing okay?
Are you bipolar?” He sure as hell was a good candidate.

“No. I made a promise not to give any suspicion to anyone. And since you and I were good at ignoring each other for years, I couldn’t suddenly go up to you and greet you ‘good evening’, could I?” He paused, pressing closer. “If it were up to me, things would be different.”

I was sure it would be. I’d have a known nametag as one of his “women”. “I’m not going to join your pussy possy.”

Grey didn’t utter a reply. Instead, he remained calm, observant, staring openly at me. We glared at each other for quite some time before he finally broke the silence. “First try and we failed,” he murmured, cracking a tiny smile. “Epically.”

He had an infectious smile and I ended up smiling back before laughing at our stupidity. “I didn’t expect any less from us.”

He was smiling down at me, while I watched the flames from the fireplace play around his face, noting how his sooty lashes framed his gorgeous eyes. When he smiled like this I tend to forget why I hated him so much.

Entranced and dazzled at his smile, the spell broke when he briefly checked his watch for a quick second before reverting back to me. “Well, this was not how I pictured things to end, but I guess this is goodnight.”

Wait, what? Goodnight? It’s not even midnight!
“Where are you going?” I asked, not wanting for it to end. Not just yet.

He studied me a moment, pressing his lips together. “I have a race tonight.”

“Can I come?” I blurted out.
Where the freaking fuck did that come from?

He shook his head while looking at me, thinking, before shaking his head again as he raked his hair with his left hand. “No. It’s too dangerous.”

Did he think I didn’t know that he always had women with him during these times? I had heard all about it, and I knew tonight was not any different. “Please?” I pleaded, surprising myself that I did in fact want to go and be there with him.