Pieces of Rhys Read online

  I thought I looked pretty good, and so did Rhys since he immediately tried to get me out of the dress. I shut him down, but with a ton of will power, because I was all too willing to have him, too.

  The bar had more of a club atmosphere. Bodies moved provocatively on a dance floor, a DJ was set up in a corner, and the bar was full of people drinking and waiting for drinks. It was crowded and warm. I was surprised we found a booth big enough for all of us. After some food and drinks and boisterous conversation, we took to the dance floor. Some of Tina's acquaintances who were in town for the weekend joined us, and everyone seemed really nice. I was having a great time, especially whenever Rhys held me close and whispered naughty things into my ear.

  After a couple of hours of dancing and drinking, I felt that I needed some fresh air. Tina and a couple of other girls had gone out a back door to smoke. Even though standing in a cloud of smoke wouldn't be fresh air, it was marginally better than remaining inside the hot building with sweaty, smelly, intoxicated bodies.

  I stumbled down a dim hallway, past the restrooms and other closed doors towards a door that was open to an alley. I was almost at the threshold, but stopped when I heard my name. I didn't exactly hear in what context it was used, but alarms went off in my head since it was Tina talking. I shrank back into shadow, unable to see her or her friends, but I could hear them clearly.

  "I just can't believe that Rhys chose that over me," Tina said vehemently. "He knew I was going to be here this weekend. Last time I talked to him he said he wanted to hook up again, and then he shows up with that megaton cow."

  "Tina!" Someone laughed. "She's not that bad. She's kind of pretty."

  "Yeah, pretty fat," Tina spat. "She's also delusional. Rhys doesn't stay in one place for very long. She can't possibly think that this is serious. He's going to get bored with her soon enough and move on."

  "Did you see her gut?" Someone else asked, appalled. "I wonder if he has to lift that shit up to find her cooch."

  They all giggled as I stood frozen, unable to move forward to confront them or backward to retreat from their biting remarks.

  "Maybe she's really good in bed," another voice piped in. "I've heard big girls are really good in bed."

  "She probably smells," Tina snorted. "If I wanted to, you guys, I could take him right from under her nose this weekend. I've been giving him little glimpses of what he's missing."

  "Then why don't you?"

  "I don't want any drama."

  Yeah, right. Or you just can't.

  "Has he responded to your little glimpses?"

  "What do you think? He stared down my tits at the beach today, and while the cow was getting ready he was looking at me like an ice-cream cone he'd like to lick, and then on the dance floor while she was dancing with Phil, he grabbed my ass and said 'maybe next time'."

  I didn't want to hear anymore. I felt like throwing up. I closed my eyes and took a step back and bumped into someone. When I opened my eyes, I was looking into Muriel's face, and beside her was Phil.

  The three of us stood there quietly, them looking at me and me looking at them. Tina continued to trash me a few feet away. I was beyond mortified.

  And angry.

  I turned away from Phil and Fred and walked outside to battle an ugly demon.

  Chapter Eighteen

  "I'm not going to hit you," I said after Tina registered my presence. "I don't believe in hitting someone weaker than me."

  She forced a smile, but her eyes were wide with anxiety. She took a puff on her cigarette and said "What are you talking about?"

  "I'm not as deaf and stupid as I am fat," I said. "And for the record," I looked at her stunned group of friends. "My fat stomach and my cooch, udders and all, fit very smoothly into Victoria's Secret."

  "I didn't realize that Victoria's Secret had a plus plus department," Tina snorted.

  I didn't believe in hitting people weaker than me, but Muriel didn't have the same belief system.

  It all happened in slow motion. Tina's eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect O as Muriel's fist appeared out of thin air and knocked Tina's head sideways. It was almost comical, but I didn't have time to laugh. I had to help Phil restrain Muriel.

  Chaos erupted. Most of Tina's "friends" ran away, but two of them tried to fight both me and Muriel. Other patrons that were outside tried to either stop the fight or join in. It didn't matter, because in a half a minute, everyone was either throwing punches or trying to avoid getting punched. There was pushing and shoving and shouting and cursing and the sounds of glasses breaking.

  I felt strong arms around my waist and knew automatically it was Rhys. I don't know when he came out, but now he was literally carrying me away from the fight. After he got me far enough away from the action, he put me down and told me to hurry to the car. Jake,Veronica, Phil and Muriel were with us and rushing to the side of the building where the parking lot was.

  "Where's Tina?" I asked and stopped walking.

  Rhys looked back to the brawl. It was dark, but I thought I caught a glimpse of her in the group. The crowd had definitely grown. I could hear sirens not too far away.

  "You can't leave her here," I said.

  Veronica had come back to stand with us. She looked torn between leaving and getting her friend.

  "Veronica!" Jake barked her name and tried to pull her on.

  "Lindsey's right," she said. "We can't leave her."

  "She called Lindsey a cow!" Muriel argued. "She said horrible things! Let her fry there, I don't care."

  Rhys and Jake looked at me funny, but Veronica didn't seem at all surprised.

  "I'm going to get Tina," I said, angry that they were wasting time. "You guys go on."

  "I'm not leaving you here," Rhys said, just as angry. "Stay here."

  He jogged back to the fight. Some big bald guy went for a sucker punch, but Rhys dodged him and kept moving. He disappeared into the mass of moving bodies.

  "Maybe I should go get them," Jake said when Rhys didn't emerge soon enough for any of us.

  "And then someone will go get you," I said. "And then someone will go get them and someone will go get that person and we'll all be absorbed into the cluster fuck and end up in the clinker."

  "You think I'm going to let my little brother get his ass beat and then thrown in jail for bailing her out for you?" He looked at me with such a hard expression, I almost wilted. Literally.

  "No," I said. "I'll go get him."

  Jake caught me by the arm. "And then my little brother will kick my ass for letting you go."

  I looked at him with exasperation. I felt anger bubbling inside of me. I was about to yell at him about being a pussy, but Veronica cut me off.

  "Here he comes!" She exclaimed, pointing.

  Rhys supported Tina around her waist as they hurried towards us. We raced around the building to where Phil and Muriel were waiting in Phil's SUV. The doors weren't even closed all the way when he floored it and we rocketed out of the lot, past incoming police cars.

  Tina's mouth was bleeding, as well as her nose. I found a box of tissues under the seat and threw it in her lap.

  "Don't bleed all over Phil's truck," I said dryly.

  Muriel turned in her seat to look at Tina. "Just for the record, I would have left you there."

  "You started this shit!" Tina yelled and reached for Muriel, but Rhys restrained her.

  "No, you started this shit. I don't know how they do it in Rhode Island, but here in dirty Jersey, bitches get stitches for talking shit and fucking with something they shouldn't."

  "Muriel," Jake said as a warning from the very back seat. She sighed and turned back around.

  I looked at Muriel with wonder. Without her fingers probing at her phone, she was a whole other person. I had a newfound respect and admiration for her now, and gratitude for sticking up for me, even though bitches with stitches wasn't what I had in mind. I didn't know she even liked me.

  "That was kind of hot," Phil said quietly to Mu
riel a moment later.

  Bitches get stitches. I stifled a giggle. It made no sense for me to be laughing, but for some bizarre reason, bitches get stitches tickled my funny bone. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was the fact that Tina's pretty face was now kinda jacked. Maybe it was because little quiet Five Finger Freddy started a bar brawl with her tiny fist. Or maybe bitches with stitches was plain funny. Now I had a new reason to call her Five Finger Freddy.

  I covered my mouth to try to hide my snickering. Tina looked at me with hatred and even in the dark I could see Rhys looking at me like I had lost my mind.

  "Well, this was a good night," I said, after managing to push away my laughter.

  "I got the shit beat out of me, you stupid bitch!" Tina yelled.

  "Yeah, there's that," I said in a distasteful tone.

  "This is all your fault," she growled.

  "It's not my fault you can't handle rejection."

  She reached for my neck, screaming obscenities. Rhys once again restrained her.

  "Hey, keep it up," I told her, moving over as far as my seatbelt would let me. "It seems to be the only way you're going to have Rhys's hands on you."

  "I hate you!" She yelled as Rhys restrained her. "And you better suck up every little bit he gives you because he won't stay with you! You cow!"

  "Hey!" Muriel turned in her seat, ready to jump in the back with us from the look on her face. "That cow insisted we not leave you back there. A thank you will suffice."

  "Thanks, Muriel," I said. "I think." She did just call me a cow.

  "Thank you!" Tina shrieked. "Thank you, cow bitch!"

  "Can I take you out of this dress now?" Rhys asked once we were alone in our room.

  The drama had died down, about an hour after Veronica asked her friend to leave. I kind of felt bad for Veronica, but she confessed that her friendship with Tina was long overdue for an ending.

  "I'm perfectly capable of taking my own dress off," I said to Rhys. "I've been doing it since I was two."

  I stepped away from him and unzipped my dress. When I was nearly naked, he looked at me expectantly, but I plucked a pair of shorts and a tee shirt from my suitcase and quickly put them on.

  "I am so tired," I said, climbing into bed.

  Rhys was still standing in the middle of the room, looking at me with apprehension.

  "What's wrong with you?" I asked.

  "I was wondering the same about you."

  "I told you. I'm tired." I covered my eyes with my arm.

  "You're being evasive."

  "Am I? I thought I was being perfectly honest."

  "Sure, but you left out a lot of the honesty part."

  "You wanted to know what was wrong with me. I said I was tired. Clearly you can see that I'm tired."

  "Lindsey," he sighed and ran his hand over his face.

  "I'm cow bitch."

  "You're trying to go off topic."

  "I don't know what the topic is."

  He shook his head, and even though it was a gesture of frustration, it was still sexy. Even without the smile.

  "You handled Tina well," he said a minute later as he settled into the rocking chair.

  "I handle all of your 'exes' well," I said with a faint smile.

  He frowned, but I smiled wider, which made his frown deepen. Ying and yang we are.

  "Did you know she was going to be here?" I looked away from him and started picking at my nails, chipping off some of the paint.

  "Yeah."

  "Then you shouldn't have brought me here," I said in a low voice.

  "I know Tina can be a little over the top sometimes, but I didn't think she would hurt you," he argued softly.

  "She didn't hurt me," I said quickly, glancing at him. "I hurt her, just by being present in the one place she knew she could have you."

  "I didn't make any promises to her."

  "Yeah, I know that," I laughed darkly. "That's not your style."

  I looked over at him. Rhys's face hardened ever so slightly. Even that was sexy, and I wanted to reach out and touch his face, but I kept my hands to myself.

  "I promised to not hurt you," he said.

  "We both know you can't keep that promise," I said stiffly. "For you to keep that promise, other promises would have to be made, and you're not prepared to do that. You can't even say you love me."

  He tried to object, but I talked over him.

  "No, Rhys! I asked you if you did and you said yes, but you haven't actually said it yourself. Saying it is entirely different than just confirming it with a one word answer. You answered me to appease me, but you can't say it because you know it will mean other things you don't want."

  He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off again.

  "No! Don't say it now because I brought it up. You will again only be attempting to appease me.

  "Tina didn't hurt me with her words because she was right. She didn't say anything I haven't been thinking myself for the past few days. What hurt me is hearing it out loud."

  Rhys looked for words to come to his lips, but all he did was a lot of sputtering.

  "Wow. I didn't think it was possible to make you speechless."

  I sat up and spun around so that I was sitting directly across from him. I leaned forward so that we were nearly nose to nose.

  "I know that you love me," I whispered. "But I know you don't love me the way that I love you. I don't want to talk about it anymore. You wanted to know what was wrong with me. Now you know. Let's stop talking about it, because there's nothing to do about it."

  He put his hands on my head, in my hair. "I'm sorry," he said and I knew he meant it. I could have questioned what he was sorry for, but the list was too long, and I was so over talking about things that most likely weren't going to change.

  He kissed me, hard and desperate. Once again I pushed my trepidation down into the dark recesses of my mind and heart, with the full realization that it would eventually all blow up in my face.

  Chapter Nineteen

  "Don't look at me like that. We're going to have to find a way to get along. Don't worry, it's temporary. Your person has commitment issues." I leaned in close. "But you should know, I'm better than any of those other girls."

  "Meow," Fat Joe the Cat said in a boring tone and then yawned in my face.

  "How rude! You can get your own Friskies, fatty."

  "Did you just call my cat fat?" Rhys asked, walking into the kitchen in nothing but a towel. The droplets of water clinging to his beautiful body looked refreshing.

  "He was rude," I said defensively. "He has no manners."

  "You're going to give him a complex."

  "He's the King Kong of cats," I pointed out. "It's not like he doesn't already know he's a fat cat."

  "Don't be mean," Rhys said firmly and then gave me a short and sweet kiss.

  "Whatcha got under that towel?" I asked, tugging slightly on it.

  "You already know because you saw it first thing this morning."

  "Correction. I felt it first thing this morning. I didn't see anything."

  "Well, in that case who am I to stop you from having a peek?" He grinned at me.

  "You're all wet," I sighed.

  His hand slipped between my thighs and under my underwear.

  "So are you," he whispered.

  "Round two?" I breathed as he nuzzled my neck.

  "Mmm hmm."

  He walked me over to the table and swiped everything to the floor. The salt shaker shattered a few feet away and a few papers drifted to the floor.

  "You're a messy boy," I admonished.

  He smiled and kissed me slowly as he pressed me against the table until I was sitting on the edge. I ran my hands over his wet body, relishing how hot this man was. Several weeks after our Labor Day weekend at the shore, he could still turn me on like a freakin' faucet, making me wet and wanting.

  Rhys slowly pushed me back as he kissed me until I was on my back and my legs were wrapped around him. His towel had slipped
away and I could feel his erection pressing against the most sensitive part of my body. He slipped a hand under my shirt and rolled a nipple between his fingers.

  "People eat at this table," I groaned.

  "I don't care," he said, standing upright.

  He pulled me to the edge of the table, pushed my panties to one side and just as I felt him entering me, I cleared my throat really loud.

  "What?" He asked, his face beautifully confused.

  I started to point at Fat Joe, but he was watching me, and it was rude to point. Didn't I just tell him how rude he was? So, I nodded towards him instead.

  "The cat's giving you stage fright?" He asked incredulously.

  "He's watching us. It's creepy."

  "You've never had sex in front of an animal?"

  "No. You know people are always saying pets are people, too. It's like having sex in front of a person. I can't even perform in front of a goldfish."

  Rhys shook his head and laughed. So cute. Fat Joe protested when Rhys picked him up and carried him to another room. I heard a door close and a muffled, angry meow. He returned to the kitchen, positioned himself in front of me and without any further preamble, plunged inside of me.

  "Holy shit!" I cried out.

  We had just done this not even two hours ago, and it felt just as good as it did then. In fact, it felt just as good as it did the very first time we had sex.

  Rhys held onto my thighs as he moved, and I gripped at his wrists. He moved deeper, as far as he could go and then moved side to side. I moaned and wiggled beneath him.

  "I love being inside of you," he groaned. "Come for me, baby."

  I did as I was told. I called out his name as I reached the peak of my climax, digging my nails into his skin, unable to release him. He came quietly, holding my thighs so tightly, I knew I would bruise.

  That was a quickie but goodie, and we didn't even have to do it in front of the cat.

  "I'll clean your table for you," I said a few minutes later.

  He smiled and kissed my forehead before leaving the room.

  I quickly swept up the salt and glass then got to work on the table. I'm no germaphobe or anything, but I didn't think it was right to just leave sex juices all over the table.