Shatter (6 page)

She straddled my lap and sighed as my hands traced her face and finally cupped her
chin.
Nat needed the words. She needed the truth
,
but all I could do was lie again and hope to God that it would someday become truth
.
B
ecause as of right now
,
I felt her slipping even further away from me.
“What we have is more.”

“Promise?”

“With all my heart.” My
voice caught
as the words stumbled out of my mouth. Shit. I couldn’t go on like this.
“I would never intentionally hurt you. You
know that
,
right?” I played with a lock of her hair, twisting it around my
fingers.

“I know.”

“Good.”
I
sighed
. It was good enough for now
. “
Now, if your moment of hysteria is over…
I think we should pop some champagne, eat some food, and be lazy.”

“Y
es
!” She yelled in my
face
,
making me shake my
head in laughter. “Sorry
.
I
was bummed that we were going to miss lazy whore day today
.”

“Me too.” I chuckled and patted her
butt
. “
Okay
,
up. Let’s tell Mr. and Mrs. Smith what we want.”

“You.” She
shrugged.

“Unfortunately, they still refuse to put me and Demetri on the menu. Weird
,
right?”

“I’ll lick you anyways.” She nudged me
as we walked to the door.

I
groaned
. “
You better run, woman, before I tackle you to the ground and have my way with you.”

She
shrieked and took off running down the
hall, laughing the entire way.

Alec

I let her win. I mean, we jogged with each other every day. I ran
marathons;
she used to be on track team in high school. The competitive streak in that one was
incredible, but I felt bad since she just broke down in my arms.

I felt even worse when I realized I was the cause of it. It was my fault. I knew that
much. I knew I was acting like an insane person, but I couldn’t shake the guilt, the
worry, the threats. Maybe if everything wouldn’t have happened at once, I would have
been able to carefully deal with each situation. Instead, it was like I woke up one
day
and I was
in Hell. And
I
haven’t been able to leave ever sin
ce.

“Beat you!” Nat huffed and crooked her finger in my direction
. “
I shall receive my winner
’
s kiss, good sir!”

“Knight
.
K
night in s
hining armor
,
please.” I rolled my eyes
. “
At least get it right.”

“Fine.” She did a little curtsy and laughed
. “
Knight in shining armor.”

“At your service.” I swept her into my arms and swung her around the dining room
,
ravishing her mouth with such hunger that I was having trouble remembering my name.
Just as I was pondering how s
trong the table was next to me
,
a
nd if we would break it if I just so happened to slam my girlfriend against it and
rip her clothes off
,
I heard a throat clear.

“Ain’t that kind of establishment.” Mr. Smith laughed and waved his apron in the air
. “
But oh, how I remember the days when the miss
u
s and I used to—
”

“Oh
,
stop!” Mrs. Smith came barreling in
. “
D
o you want to scar the young ones for life?
”

Thank God. Pretty sure I would have had to cut my own ears o
ff after that particular story.

“
Sparkling soda
, chocolate
soufflé
,
followed by a light
lunch and tea sound good?” Mrs. Smith smiled at
us
and put her hands on her hips.

Needing something stronger
,
I added
,
“
A bottle of champagne too.”

Mr. Smith winked and added it to the order. I knew he would. Drinking alc
o
hol underage was only one of the many perks of being famous. People never said no.
Shit, I felt like Demetri in that moment. He used to use his fame as a way to get
anything.
If it was illegal
,
he wanted it.

“
So
…
” Nat wrapped her arms
tightly
around my waist
. “
Do you guys want us to help or—”

“—
Absolutely
not! You’re guests! Shoot, you’re even staying in the honeymoon
suite
.”

Expecting
a horrified glance from Nat, I looked down and waited for the reprimand. Instead she
merely shrugged and said
,
“
C
ool.
”

Cool? I booked a honeymoon suite with a girl that just graduated
h
igh
s
chool a year and a half ago!
She should be freaking out! Hell, I was kind of freaking out. I didn’t want to pressure
her,
then again she had thrown herself at me and basically begged me to take her virginity.
Okay, maybe begged is the wrong word. But still.

“Everything’s almost ready.” Mr. Smith winked
. “
We’ll just knock and set everything on trays outside the room, okay?”

“Sounds great.” I
nodded at Mr. Smith
and led Nat back to the room. She was eerily quiet. I watched the waves for a few
moments
.
I felt in control when I fo
cused on things. Balanced even.

“What are you thinking ab
out?” Nat asked from behind me.

“Life.”

“Oh.” She laughed, and then her hands were underneath my shirt and lifting it
over
my head. “Guess you’ll have to catch up with my train of thought then, huh?”

“What?” My shirt fell to the
floor. I turned around and nearly passed out. I blinked once, twice
.
H
ell
,
I wasn’t even sure if
my eyes were screwed in right.

“Nat?” My voice cracked.

She stood in front of me in nothing but one of the bathrobes from the Inn. Her long
hair dangled in front of the silk robe
,
leaving nothing to the imagination
,
and I had to fight to keep from charg
ing
toward
her like a caveman.

“Bath?”

“Hell
,
yes.” I almost tripped
as I swept her into my arms. She wrapped her legs around me. I was going to die. I
pushed her up against the door in the room and placed one hand underneath her so she
wouldn’t fall. Her soft m
oans and sighs were killing me.

Such a sweet deat
h.

I nipped her ear.

“Oh
,
that felt good. Do that again.” She giggled.

My blood ran cold. Shaking, I put her down and kissed her on the nose just as a knock
came on the door. “Room service!”

Luckily Nat didn’t notice anything
.
S
he simply blushed and went to open the door.

“I’ll be
…
just a minute.” I could hardly get the words out as I ran into the bathroom and locked
the door. In two strides I was in front of
the toilet puking my guts out.

Guilt tasted like Hell.

An
d sin tasted like being damned.

“Oh
,
that felt good. Do it again…” She giggled, totally drunk
out of
her mind as we staggered into the hotel room. “Alec, come on…
I’ll help you forget her.”

“Doubt it.” Disgusted with myself but too sa
d to do anything about it
,
I pushed her away and sat on the bed
. I hated it when my publicist made me do these things. Just be seen with her and
it will help both your careers.

I’d gone back to LA to clear my head. Nat and Demetri. Of course it would happen.
He deserved that after the shit I pulled.

“Baby,
lay down with me
,
”
s
he whined.

“No thanks.”

“Such a gentleman.” She hiccupped
. “
Please? I’ll make it all better.”
She reached for me and moaned.

Said the snake to Eve in the garden. I laughed at my own joke. “Doubtful, and I’m
not even feeling nice enough to let you try.”
I slapped her greedy little hands away and got up.

“Fine.” She threw a pillow at me. “Just leave.”

“Fine!” I yelled and stormed ou
t of the room, directly into
her
.

“That lasted long.” She smiled. I’d seen her before.
She’d been at a few
m
ovie
p
remier
e
s with Jaymeson
. She looked like
an older version of
Nat.

“She’s crazy.”

“Aren’t they all?” The pretty
woman
tilted her head to the side
. “
Wanna come in my room? I promise. No crazy here.”

“Promise?”
I rubbed my eyes. Damn
,
I just needed to get some sleep. I’d had too much to drink and wasn’t feeling particularly
like going back into that witch
’
s room. Besides, I wasn’t sober enough to drive home, not by a long shot
,
and the last thing I wanted was to leave my car
overnight
at the same hotel that
S
atan was staying at
, or worse, get a room and somehow find my face next to hers on the tabloids. Which
really begged the question what the hell was I doing at the same hotel?

“Absolutely. And you can tell me why such a famous rock star like yourself looks like
someone just kicked your puppy.”

“It’s a long story
,
” I muttered catching a w
hiff of her rose water perfume.

“Hey, I’ve got all night.”

“Okay, sure.” I followed her into the room.

The first mistake. One I would
live with the rest of my life.

“Alec!” Nat called from the other side of the door
. “
The food’s here
.
Y
ou okay?”

“Yeah.” My hoarse voice sound
ed
anything but okay
. “
I’ll be right out.”

I was in some de
ep shit.

Demetri

“Dude, you look depressed.” Jaymeson nudged me in the shoulder
. “
What? Someone run over your dog or something?” He put his feet on the coffee table
and checked his cell.

“Yeah, my imaginary dog. Some giant ass British man ran it over with
his
tiny car. Weird.” I rolled my eyes at Jaymeson
and flipped to another channel.

“
You do realize you and Alec are part English right?” Jayemson felt the need to point
out
. “
Furthermore,
my accent gets me laid, what’s yours do?”

I sighed and showed him a
picture of Alyssa on my
phone
.

“Point Demetri.”

I wasn’t in the mood to joke around. I mean
,
I loved Jaymeson as much as anyone
.
H
e was one of my best friends. I just couldn’t shake the horrible feeling I had about
Alec and everything goi
ng on.

After much coaxing and pleading with the producers, Alyssa was given the rest of the
night off to spend with her family. Technically, they only needed the celebrities
to appear tonight, leaving me stuck in the car with Jaymeson,
Angelica, and Alec’s dark mood
. I could only pray that Nat took his mind off things…
hmm. Weird thought
.
W
as I actually praying that Nat had sex with my brother? See, now
he had me losing my damn mind!

I needed to back off
of
the taffy if I was going to have any
appetite
at the restaurant, but I was a nervous chewer. If I didn’t have taffy
—
especially now, you’d better believe I’d be drowning myself in t
he ocean with a bottle of Jack.

“You morons ready?” Angelica came around the corner in the shortest dress I’d ever
seen on a human being.

“I didn’t know it was Halloween
.
” Jaymeson laughed.

I winked at Angelica
. “
Dressing up as a whore…
nice. I’m sure that will get great press for the new
family
restaurant. Good thinking. Let me just take off my pants and grab my stripper pole.”

“Ah, the stripper pole!” Angelica slammed her hand against her forehead
. “
I knew I was forgetting something.” Her evil eyes bored into mine
. “
Care to
oil me up before my dance?”

“Do you promise to slip and bleed to death?”

“Why? Blood turn you on?” She purred.

Holy hell this woman had to go.

“Too far.” Jaymeson stood between us
. “
Alright, fake girlfriend, let me go
…
” He tilted his head and took in her outfit again
. “
Find coveralls or something.”

“Coveralls?” Angelica
squawked
.

“Yeah
.”
Jaymeson nodded
. “
To make up for your nakedness.”

“Brilliant
,
” I exclaimed in a fake British accent while Angelica flipped off Jaymeson
’
s disappearing form.

The sound of the TV made the silence in the room worse. Um, awkward. Angelica and
I hadn’t really talked about that one week we spent together a year ago.

Shit. The elephant was getting bigger by the second.

“So you hate me now?” Angelica managed to sit without flashing me her goodies. Her
face fell into a pout
. “
I thought we got along reall
y well when you visited me and—”

“
Y
e
a
h,
I’m going to stop you right there. I was high.”

“But—
”

“—
On
drugs
, Angelica. I would have slept with an ant had it looked at me cross
-
eyed, okay? Drop it. And if I remember correctly the one and only time you and I did
hook up was so damn horrible
I was traumatized for weeks
. Thanks for calling me by my brother
’
s name by the way.
That
didn’t make me want to kill myself.”

“I didn’t do that.” Angelica’s face blushed a bright red
. “
I hate Alec
.
I would never, ever…” Her shrill laughter gave me
a headache.

“Right. And I wasn’t taking like five party drugs at the same time in order to envision
Nat’s face whi
le I screwed you. Okay, yeah
.
L
et’s just lie because that always solves everything.”

“Does Alyssa know?” The gleam in Angelica’s eyes made me want to pull out every piece
of
her hair one by one.
I
f she didn’t shut up I
was
going to fight her chick
-
style.

“Yup.” I exhaled and leaned back against the couch. It had been the best and worst
night of my life. I had to come clean about Angelica before the show started. Alyssa
was pissed and then worried I would fall back into old habits.

But that was all before she actually met Angelica. I believe her words were
,
“
What the hell were you thinking?”

My answer was always the same. “I was high.”

Seriously. A guy would have to be either high or s
tupid to sleep with that bitch.

“Doesn’t mean you didn’t want it.” Angelica leaned forward, her boobs literally begging
to be released from her dress. It was like they were holding up signs that said
save me
,
save me
!

“Um.” I averted my eyes and pointed
. “
You’re about to lose the natives
,
and I don’t want to get puke on the carpet.”

She stuffed her boobs further into her dress.
Poor dress. Poor boobs. Poor me
. Where the hell was Jaymeson?

Within seconds he was bounding down the stairs
. “
Alright, this is as good as it gets.” He did a quick turn in front of us and held
out his hand to Angelica.

“Nice.” He was sporting nice jeans and a long shirt with a blazer. At least he was
covered up
,
whereas
his little arm candy was going to get dollar bills thrown at her all night. Guess
that w
as normal for her kind anyways.

“Where are Nat and Alec?” Jaymeson asked
looking at his watch
. “
We have to
be there in ten minutes.”

I sent a quick text to Alec.

MEET US THERE? OR U WANT US 2 WAIT?

He answered back right away.

MEET U THERE.

“Well, let’s get this show on the road!” I jumped from my seat and walked out the
door. Since Alec had taken his SUV it meant I had to drive, which also meant that
air was going to be in limited supply in the car ride over. I didn’t want to catch
anything that girl had.

Jaymeson opened the back door for Angelica. She scooted over but he slammed it righ
t away and took the front seat.

“Hey!” She smacked the seat with her talons, I mean hands
. “
What the hell, Jaymeson? We’re supposed to be happily dating!”

“And if you want it to stay that way. I suggest you stop complaining.” He winked in
the rearview mirror and put on his seatbelt. “Plus Brits have this thing about…
umm.” He looked to me for help.

I rolled my eyes
. “
Backseats. They hate backseats.”

“Huh
?” Angelica leaned forward. If she didn’t stop breathing down my neck I was going
to run my car into a
building. This time on purpose.

“Backseats
,
” I repeated
. “
They hate backseats because…” I cleared my throat and glared at Jaymeson.

“It’s not Brits.” He shook his head solemnly
. “
It’s just me. I’m scared of backseats. I can’t sit in them.”

“Fine. I’ll go for it. Why the hell are you afraid of backseats?”

“Sex.” Jaymeson’s lower lip trembled
.
“Bad experience in the backseat of a girl
’
s car when I was twelve—
”
I nudged him
. “
I mean sixteen
.
”

I nodded.

“Bloody awful experience. She said I wasn’t doin
g it right and then I just frea
ked. I couldn’t perform and she made fun of me.
There was lots of p
oi
n
ting and laughing and
…
well
,
I’ve been scared ever since that if I sit in a backseat, I’ll not be able to have
sex ever again.”

“I’m really sorry
,
man.” I choked on my laughter
and
patted his shoulder
. “
That must be hard for you. Is that why you’re such a man-whore?”

He nodded and wiped a fake tear
. “
I just worry that one day I won’t be able to…
you know? It’s the
nightmares
that are the wors
t
. The nights are the hardest.”

“I bet they are
,
” Angelica
murmured
.

I
couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I burst out laughing. Jaymeson glared and then joined in.

“I seriously hate you guys
,
”
w
a
s
Angelica
’
s heated
reply
.

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to us
,
” I retorted. “Now stop
,
and let the parents talk.”

“Ugh!” She punched our backseats
. “
Why the hell did I agree to do this show anyways?”

“Money
,
” Jaymeson answered just as I said
,
“
To torture humanity?”

The car fell silent.

Had we finally pushed her
too far?

“You just wait
,
”
s
he said in a very chilling voice
. “
In a few weeks you won’t know what hit any of you. Hell, you have no idea now. And
I’m just biding my time.”

“Until the world ends?”

“Nope.” She laughed
. “
Until I come out on top.”

“You mean you’re always on bottom? Lazy
American
.” Jaymeson shook his head in the rea
rview mirror and winked at her.

“I’m not even going to answer that. Just know
,
Jaymeson, you
r
time is almost up too. And I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you find
out the truth.”

I slammed on the brakes
. “
He’s adopted!”

“Laugh it up now
,
” Angelica hissed. “Laugh it up now.”