Rafe (18 page)

“Let me spoil you, ok? It’s what boyfriends do, Snowflake.” I see the guy smile at us when Rafe says my nickname. Rafe pays and we go and find somewhere for a bite to eat. We end up a pizza place, which is no surprise since Rafe loves pizza.

“Be right back, babe. I have to go to the ladies room,” I kiss his head and go to the bathroom. On my
way back, I pop into the jewellery store and buy something I spotted for Rafe earlier. It was very similar to mine but a white gold guitar instead of the Peace sign. Feeling pleased with myself, I make my way back to Rafe in the food court. He is playing on his phone when I get to the table. He smiles when he sees me.

“I have something for you, Snowflake. Don’t freak because I just bought you that bracelet but this means something to both of us, ok?” I nod and take the little blue box from his hand. I pull the lid off and a loud gasp breaks free.

OH MY GOD.

Inside the
box, lying in white satin, is a white gold encrusted diamond snowflake, hanging from a white gold chain. I have my hand over my mouth trying to hold the sobs back, but a tear spills out and Rafe moves to my side.

“Baby, are you ok? If you don’t like it we can take it…” I cut him off, devouring his mouth.

“Don’t even think of taking it back, Rafe Phoenix. It’s simply beautiful, stunning, Rafe really.” He kisses me again and pulls away.

“Will you wear it tonight? Does it go with your costume?” I smile.

“Even if it didn’t I would still wear it, babe. We need to get home; I need some Phoenix loving before tonight.” We head back to my place Maisey and Gunner are in the living room watching TV when Rafe struts through the apartment with me over his shoulder.

“Sorry for the noise guys, be right out.” I hear them laugh as we enter my bedroom, where we make love again before Rafe leaves to get everything ready for the party.

Chapter 18

Lucy

Maisey, Tru, Trinity, Kenzie, Izzy and even Sarah are getting ready at my apartment for the Halloween party. I haven’t seen much of Sarah these past few weeks, she has been busy with a new boyfriend. She is the loudest out of all us put together but in a good way. She says what she likes but also she isn’t nasty about it unless nasty is needed.

We have the music blasting while we do out hair and make-up. There are make-up and hair products all over my place, mirrors leaning against the wall, costumes lying around. We are having a blast, the drink is flowing. At seven-thirty the doorbell rings and our driver is there waiting for us. We all stumble down the stairs and out to our waiting limo thanks to the Phoenix boys. We get to arrive in style.

The Phoenix Halloween party is being held at ‘Horton Manor,’ the manor hired out for all kinds of functions. It’s famous for holding big celebrity parties, as it has plenty of b
ack rooms for different themes and upstairs bedrooms, which I’m sure will be in use tonight. We pull up outside and there are Halloween decorations and lights everywhere; it looks amazing. Each of us get out one at a time and head in the door. I spot Beck and when he sees me his eye bulge out of his head. He turns and heads out of the room and I can only assume he is going to get my boyfriend. We all line up and wait for the boys. Beck comes back out with Gunner, Skeet and Zach trailing behind him. All four boys are dressed in army clothes, combat boots and camouflage pants with a white wife beater with the word ‘Army’ in black print and they have matching dog tags. Love it. I see Jackson head our way and he is dressed in Hawaiian board shorts and a white wife beater that’s ripped by his rib cage with fake blood. I get it, ’Shark Attack Surfer Dude.’ Awesome.

Then I see them.

The Phoenix Boys.

Ryder appears first. He is in his black boots, but tonight he is wearing a black vest with nothing underneath it
with black jeans. There is a sticker on his right shoulder, and as he gets closer I can see the sticker says, “I’m a Rock God.” Typical Ryder.

Reeve comes up behind Ryder in a similar getup, but with a black button up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His sticker says, “I’m a Sex God.” Oh my god, freaking hilarious. He winks at me and I laugh.

My breath catches when I see Rafe step out from behind his brothers. Rafe is wearing black biker boots, black jeans with a tight black V-neck t-shirt but he has a leather cut over it. Fuck me, he knows I freaking love bad ass biker books. I can guess who got him the cut; I glance at Zach and he winks at me. Rafe steps up to me. I can see his sticker and I can’t help but fall in love with him even more.

“I am Lucy’s God.” I smile and reach for him to kiss his hot lips. He deepens the kiss and the cat calls get louder. I pull away and smile at our friends.

“You are fucking beautiful, Snowflake. God, you take my breath away, baby.” He touches my snowflake necklace and smiles. “It looks good on you, even with this sexy as fuck Angel costume.” He dips his mouth to my ear, “I am so going to fuck you later with you just wearing these sexy wings.” I gasp and feel myself getting wet again, how does he do that?

We all head over to the bar and have a few rounds of shots, doing tequila off each other. Skeet also ma
kes us do Jaeger Bombs, which are really nice, by the way. We dance and we chat. Mama Phoenix is there for a short time before heading home but I know that Nix and Brax are staying behind.

I pull Rafe onto the dance floor again and we grind against each other. He pulls me tight to him and I can feel how hard he is for me. He slides his hands up my bare thighs and up to my bare stomach. His thumb is rubbing and leaving a hot trail, he knows what he is doing, the evil sexy man of mine. I never thought that Rafe could look any sexier than what he normally does, but tonight he has blown me away. And the biker cut? Oh my fucking god, he will be the death of me. I turn around to face him and see his eyes are glazed over. He has had quite a lot to drink tonight, as we all have, but I am now on water. I have never been one to get black out drunk, not my style. He slides one of his legs between mine and pulls me closer, two hands on my ass as we slowly rub each other and dance to the song. The water is taking affect and I need to pee badly.

“Baby, I need to pee, I will be right back, ok?” He smiles and nods.

“I’m going to find my brothers, and see what trouble they are causing,” he slurs. Just great, no Halloween sex for me tonight, not even drunken sex. I head to the ladies room and stand in line. After listening to a few girls talk about the Phoenix brothers and which one they would love to take home, I clear my throat.

“Girls, that’s my boyfriend you’re talking about, could you rein it in a little?” I use my fingers to emphasise my meaning. They shut up instantly and smile shyly. “But I have to agree with you girls, they are all fucking hot and sex on legs. You can talk about Ryder and Reeve until the cows come home, but leave Rafe to me.” I wink and head into the toilet. After I finish peeing and washing my hands I head back out to the dance floor and search for Rafe. I can’t see him, so I head to the other rooms and kitchen with no luck. I check the garden where there are Jack-O- lanterns all over the garden. I find Skeet, who is sucking face with a sexy nurse; I tap his shoulder.

“Sorry, have you seen, Rafe?”

“No, babe sorry.” I nod and walk away. I head upstairs, since that the only place I haven’t looked. Maybe he went to lay down, maybe the drinks got to him finally.

I see Ryder kissing a girl who is dressed like a sexy fairy. I clear my throat and as Ryder lifts his head, something crosses his face. Confusion maybe?  “Have you seen Rafe? I can’t find him.”

“Lucy, umm I thought… fuck.” He shakes his head and I catch him glancing at the door just behind me. My body stiffens, he wouldn’t… would he?

I run towards the doo
r and open it and flick the light on, making the room super bright and I freeze. My boyfriend is there kissing some girl's neck, she is dressed all in white. My body runs cold.

“Oh, Snowflake, you are sexy as fuck, baby. I wanna fuck you all night.” The girl moans, I am frozen to the spot. Ryder slam
s into my back and swears.

“Fuck..RAFE!” Ryder screams from behind me. Rafe’s head
snaps up his eyes meeting mine after blinking from the now bright room. The color drains from his face and he looks at the girl then back to me and he pushes her so hard she stumbles and falls onto her ass. Serves her right, fucking bitch.

My whole world is crashing around me.

“Baby…” Rafe moves towards me but I bolt before he can reach me. I run down the stairs and head for the door. I look back while running to make sure that Rafe isn’t following me and I run straight into hard muscle. I look up and see Reeve looking worried.

“Lucy, what the fuck? Are you ok, babe? What’s happened?” He threw questions at me and I only had one answer for him.

“Ask your fucking brother.”

I see Dani standing by the front door looking pleased with herself and I know that I have to walk past her. “I told you it wasn’t over, bitch.”

Did she set us up? It doesn’t matter, Rafe should have known it wasn’t me. I run towards the waiting cars outside the manor. I climb into a waiting town car and give the driver my address. I send a quick text to the girls.

Me:
All gone to fuck. I’m going home. See you all tomorrow.

I turn my phone off, not wanting to get any replies. I need to shut myself off from everyone while I deal with my heart shattering into a million pieces.  I thank the driver once we have pulled up outside my apartment building and climb the stairs. Once in, I lock the door and head for my room. I remove my costume and throw it in the trash. I don’t want any reminders of this fucked up night. I wash my face and brush my teeth, get into my pajamas and climb into my bed. I feel so numb. I look at the clock and see it’s just past midnight. I try to sleep but toss and turn. I can’t get the image of Rafe and that girl out of my head.

I wake with a start to someone banging on my apartment door, what the hell? I make my way out to the living room with my phone in hand.  The banging starts again and I jump.

“Lucy, open this door now. Baby, I need to talk to you. I’m so fucking sorry, I thought it was you, baby please. Let me in. I fucked up, I know.” I sit on the chair that faces the front door and listen, I can’t stop the tears again. He is breaking my heart, he should have known it wasn’t me, drunk or not, right?

After everything I went through with Dallas I can’t believe he would do this to me. I guess I am just another ‘groupie slut.’

My snowflake necklace feels heavy around my neck. With Rafe still banging on my door, I remove the necklace and walk to the door. I take a deep breath and open the door. God, why does he have to look so damned sexy? Even with this, my anger and hurt stay in place. He looks shocked that I opened the door to him.

“Baby, I’m so fucking sorry. Baby, please believe me?” He looks devastated but he brought this on himself.  I shake my head at him, tears falling freely.

“Here,” I hold out my hand to him. He opens his hand and I drop the necklace into his palm. He visibly shakes, his face covered with tears. He sobs right in front of me. He falls to his knees and cries. My heart breaks all over again but I know that I have to stay strong.

“Baby, no. Please don’t do this, I’m begging you. Please don’t leave me, I need you to breathe,” he says between sobs. My chest feels like it’s caving in as I close the door on him, still on his knees crying. He keeps saying ‘No’ and that he is sorry over and over again. I close the door and lock it, my knees giving out, and I slide down the door. I can hear Rafe crying through the door, so I have no choice but to go back to my room so I don’t have to hear him. I really don’t know if I can survive Rafe not being in my life, but I will have to try and lean how too.

I wake the next morning with a raging headache from all the crying last night. I just want to bury my head under my pillow and never come back out. I had the day off because of the party. Shit, the party. My chest tightened. He hurt me. Fuck my life. I head to the shower and blast the hot water, I need to wash this feeling away. Well try, anyway.  I get dried off and dress and head to the kitchen. Maisey and Gunner are sitting there drinking coffee. I put the kettle on the stove to warm the water for my tea.

“Morning, how are you feeling this morning?” Gunner asks.

“Fine,” I say, still with my back to them. I close my eyes and count to ten to try and stop the tears again.

“Bullshit, Coop. We know you are hurting right now. What he did was a dick move, but you have to hear him out. He was drunk as a skunk and he thought it was you in the room with him.” Anger boils in me, I turn to them.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You are my best friend and roommate, who’s fucking side are you on, anyway? He cheated on me, Maise. I don’t want any fucking excuses from him or any of you covering for him.” I slam my cup down on the worktop, and Gunner flinches, but I’m too angry to apologize.

“I’m always on your side, Coop. You know that but, Rafe is also a good friend and I hate seeing the both of you hurting.” She looks down at her hands in her lap.

“So? He should be hurting, he deserves to hurt more than me after what he has done. I’m sorry, I can’t stay here. I’m going to stay with my parents for a few days, I’ll send you a text.” I leave my tea and head to my room. I pack a small bag while crying.

Why shouldn’t he hurt? He has ripped my heart out and smashed it in with his guitar. Men. Suck. Ass.

Maisey and Gunner are still at the table when I exit my bedroom. Maisey is crying and Gunner is comforting her. Hurt hits me again that my anger towards Rafe has me hurting the people I love. I drop my bag and step towards them. Gunner looks up and pats his leg. I sit on his other leg and pull Maisey to me, and Gunner wraps his arms around the both of us. I rub my hands up and down Maisey’s back.

“I’m sorry I yelled, it’s not your fault, it’s his. I just need some space and time to deal with this. This is why I didn’t want to date.” I kiss Maisey and Gunner’s cheeks and head for the door, grabbing my bag on the way.  I climb into my car and head to my parent’s house. I listen to Paramore’s ‘Decode’ on my way to my parents'; it’s one of the only songs that calms me. I know that Tru is going to know some of what happened last night so I just hope that I can explain to my parents before she adds her own story. It doesn’t take long to get to my parent’s house. After I park my car, I make my way through the front door and hear my family in the kitchen. All conversation stops when I walk in.

“What?” I look at my parents and sister at the kitchen island.

“Tru told us about what happened last night. Are you ok, baby girl?” I look at Tru, who can’t meet my eyes. Does she know everything that went down last night? My phone rings again and I see Rafe’s face. I shake my head and mute the call; he hasn’t stopped calling me. He needs to give up already.

“And what exactly did
, Tru tell you?” I can’t keep the attitude out of my voice. Why did she have to tell them anything? It wasn’t her story to tell. It was my heart broken into pieces, not hers.

“Well, she said that you caught Rafe with another girl. But also that he was pretty drunk and thought the girl was you, as you were wearing similar costumes.” Fuck my life, Tru pretty much hit the nail on the head. I look up at the fan spinning above my head, trying to hold the tears at bay.