Forever Mine (Providence Series Book 1) Read online

  “Just leave the car here, baby, we’ll walk across, and you can come and get it after,” I caught her hand and gave her a gentle tug, but her eyes were on my mouth, and she didn’t look like she was listening. “Maya, you with me?” I laughed. She seemed to come back into herself and the most adorable blush heated up her face making me laugh harder. “Come on, gorgeous, let's go!” I tugged her out the door.

  I was pretty impressed with how she’d dealt with Cole and the whole period debate. Ever since he was a kid, anything menstrual was met with dramatics. I’d heard his sex ed class was entertaining when he was 12 too because he’d spent most of it rocking in the corner with his hands over his ears. I decided to share this story and a couple of other similar ones with Maya to break the tension.

  “He took your sister to the hospital and told the ER Doctor to sew her up?” She repeated laughing her ass off as we walked into the Diner. I could see a couple of guys I knew from high school watching her and looking at her tits and ass. Rather than ruin the easy flow we had going, I stood between them so they couldn’t see her, and guided her to a corner booth so she had her back to them.

  “Yup, she told him she needed to go to the store to get some Tampax, and when he took her, they were out of the biggest size.” I had no idea how you measured Tampax, but she was back to holding her side as she laughed. “So Cole decided it was an emergency, and she was about to bleed to death and took her to the ER and told the doctor to sew her up or give her a transfusion. He’d called all of us on the way to tell us she needed immediate medical attention, so we all walked in to hear him saying this. Poor Layla was standing in the corner with her back to the room, and her hands covering her face embarrassed as hell. The whole time Cole was saying that she was only seventeen and she couldn’t be that big down below, so they needed to do something ‘stat’’.” I was laughing my ass off too at the memory, and we were drawing a lot of attention to our table.

  I looked around the place, still laughing until I saw the one female I would have begged God happily never to see again in my life - Francheska Benner and her group of bitches. We’d hooked up a couple of times in high school, but then she’d hooked up with pretty much every male in the county and since then she’d been trying to get back on my dick. I wasn’t up for touching her with someone else’s, let alone my own. Let’s just say thank fuck I don’t have rabbits because I’m sure she had some mighty big pots, and right now she was staring at me with what she must have thought was a flirtatious smile, but it just looked ugly and scary to me.

  “Who's that?”

  “That, baby, is the thing that horror movies are made of,” I reached over to hold her hand that was resting on the table. “Don’t make eye contact, okay? She’s a bunny boiling nightmare that won’t take the hint.” I looked up and saw Maya watching me, her eyes were scanning my face, but I had no clue what she was looking for. She must have found it though because her head did an almost imperceptive nod and she smiled and relaxed.

  “Lucky you,” she winked. I laughed because when she winked it just looked like a blink but with one eye and shit did it look cute on her. I looked over at Francheska one more time to see her giving us a sneer and a look I didn’t like one bit before she turned back to her friends who were huddled over the table and the whispering started. Shit, I needed to keep an eye on that.

  Louise, the co-owner of the Diner, came up to us and asked us for our order in her normal loud voice. She was a great woman and had gone to school with my mom, but she left to tour the States a couple of years after graduating. She’d come back one Thanksgiving and had met Jeff. They fell in love, and the rest was history, but man did she have some wicked stories.

  “Hey Lou, this is Maya Price, George Montgomery’s niece.”

  “Hey, sweetie, nice to meetcha. I’ve heard a lot about ya,” Louise said. Really it was more of a shout because she was incapable of using a normal volume when she was talking and I laughed at Maya’s look of surprise.

  “Uh hey, nice to meet you too, Louise,” Maya replied holding out her hand. After a quick handshake and recommendations, Lou left with our orders leaving Maya and me alone. I saw that Francheska and her hags had left during all of this, thank fuck. I did not trust that bitch one bit.

  I saw Maya watching me out of the corner of my eye and turned to look at her. She had such a sweet, but beautiful face. I had never wanted to have that one person that fit me like a piece of a puzzle. I never even gave it much thought aside from how suffocated I’d feel if it happened to me, but meeting Maya - I didn’t feel any panic inside myself, just peace and a feeling that everything had slotted into place. From a distance, her eyes looked almost turquoise, but up close, that they change color depending on her mood. They were mainly a bluey greeny-gray, so different from any eye color I’d ever seen, but then she was so different from anyone I’d ever known. It was only right that everything about her was unique.

  Aware that I had chick thoughts going through my head and that we were just staring at each other, I started asking her questions about her childhood. Listening to her talk about all of the countries that she’d lived in and visited, what she saw, how much she’d experienced and seeing her eyes light up, I couldn’t help but think that she would be bored with me. Sure I’ve traveled, but I have a business here in Piersville. Is that going to be enough? Immediately after that thought, a more determined one hit me - I’d make it enough. We could still vacation and experience things together while we were based here, and she had her own business here too.

  I decided to ask about the business to see how committed she was to it. “So you’re pretty young to be the owner of an interior design business aren’t you?”

  “The company is a division of Uncle George’s business. He offered me the opportunity to set up a team that would take on independent contracts as well as fulfill contracts attached to his builds. Fortunately, there isn’t a company in this area that offers a full build and interior design consult that would save time and money in the long run for clients.

  “I’ve just been offered the contracts for a further three homes on top of yours, as well as a company that wants a full refurbishment,” she blushed and looked down at her hands that were tearing her napkin into pieces. “I love my job. I’ve been interning and working alongside designers since I was twelve which was when we lived in London. When I was sixteen we came back here, and I had to go to a school away from my parents, so I contacted a local interior design company who offered me an evening and weekend job with them after I showed them my portfolio. Since then, it's all that I’ve wanted to do,” she finished with a huge smile that brought a little dimple on either side of her mouth that I hadn’t noticed before. Fuck me, she’s perfect!

  “So, do you see yourself staying here?” Please say yes, please say yes, I was chanting in my head.

  “Of course. The people are fantastic, and it’s a great place to operate from in the business sense because, if anything being here opens up the business side of life for me because retro is the in ‘thing’ and most people associate small town living with retro and refurbished furniture. That aside, though, even after a couple of weeks I love it here so I’m thinking there isn’t a chance that I’m leaving. Does that answer your question?” She had her head tilted, and her eyes were shining with laughter. Guess I hadn’t been that subtle after all. “So tell me about you.”

  “I’ve got three brothers and a sister. Dad owns the ranch, and we all help out when we’re around. As you now know, I own the garage and built it up from the ground when I was twenty-two. I’ve lived here all of my life, but I’ve traveled to different places around the world, although not to as many places as you. Um, I played ball at school and college and studied engineering. I’m twenty-seven,” I trailed off. Figuring that now was the time to make my intentions clear, I said, “and I really li…” when I was rudely interrupted by the shit stain that just wouldn’t wash out of my life.

  “Hey, Ren and Maya,” Cole yelled walking
towards us.

  “Fuck!” Maya and I groaned at the same time and then looked at each other with matching grins.

  Cole pulled a chair up to the table and went to sit down between us, but I kicked the chair out from under him, for the millionth time in my life, leaving Cole mid perch with no seat. He tipped backward, and Maya lunged to catch him and lost balance. In a blurred twist of bodies, they both came down onto the tiled floor making the sort of noise that only flesh hitting tile can make — that noise that you hear when a toddler falls and splats.

  I stood up to help Maya, feeling like shit that I’d caused this, and saw that somehow Cole had twisted them so that his head was in Maya’s cleavage face down and that he was rubbing his face in it and sighing.

  “There is a God! It’s the wrong time of year for Santa, but if he’s listening or God has him on speed dial — can you tell him that this is what I’ve been asking for all of these years? For Christmas though, could they be a double D cup, please?" The last word ended on a squeak when I picked him up by his boxers and hauled him off of her.

  “You okay, baby? Shit, I’m sorry,” I crouched down and looked her over as she just lay there on the tile floor. “Is anything broken?”

  She wheezed, “Holy mother! How much do you weigh? And how the hell did you land face down in my boobs?” I lifted her up off the floor and sat her back in the booth.

  “It’s a gift,” Cole muttered, probably still picking his underwear out of his teeth and ass. “In fact, I have many gifts, Maya…”

  He wasn’t quick enough to dodge the smack that I aimed at the back of his head. Cock blocking shit head!

  6

  ____

  Maya

  After a great lunch, laughing to the point of pain at Cole and getting to know them a bit better, we walked slowly back to the garage with the two of them pointing out things to me about Piersville with the boys winding each other up. I could tell Ren had an equally cheeky side, but he was being reserved until I got to know him and I appreciated that.

  Halfway back to Ren’s garage, my phone started ringing in my bag, and I dug it out and answered without looking at the screen — note to self, you should always look at the screen.

  “Where are you, darling? I’ve looked everywhere for you!” I heard my ex Andy ask.

  Thinking back to our last run in with each other, I froze. I had been leaving my farewell dinner in Tampa with a huge client who was a close friend, and Andy had turned up out of nowhere and made a scene by grabbing me outside of one of the most expensive restaurants in Miami and begged me to take him back. I’d said no, and it had ended with my client's security guards pulling him off of me and him being charged.

  When I got home, I discovered he’d even broken into my apartment and had made a trail from the front door through my living room, all the way down the hallway to my bedroom of rose petals and had also covered my bed with them too. In movies and books people swoon and think that that’s the most romantic thing a man can do, but firstly, he was a stalker. Secondly, he broke into my apartment, and thirdly, they don’t have to clean that shit up. Seriously, you can't sweep it or vacuum it. If you vacuum they attach themselves to your filter and block it up (my poor purple Dyson), and if you sweep they just roll into cigars or split into pieces; neither of which are conducive to getting them the hell off your floors and furniture. After a long discussion with my parents, it was agreed that a change of location needed to be made, so that was what I did when I moved here. And now the asshole was calling me - again.

  “Are you kidding me, Andy? You were arrested for attempted assault and essentially stalking in Tampa. You were told to stay away from me yet you called, and I gave you a friendly heads up about breaking the warning that the police had given you and here you are, again no less, calling me! What the hell?” The end came out with a shout. I could feel the shakes setting in and the anger building. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?

  He started to say something, but I cut him off. “You cheated on me for nine months! You fucked so many women you couldn’t even give a ballpark figure when asked. You even fucked almost every friend that I had. Is that not enough for you? I’m not interested, I’ve moved on, I don’t want you, and I am done!”

  I heard him saying in the voice he used to use to get what he wanted, “But Angel,” just as my phone was taken out of my hand and Ren said, “Listen, man, I’m giving you warning — leave Maya alone. Forget her number and forget she exists or you got trouble, you with me?"

  You could hear the sniveling diseased dick asking who he was speaking to before Ren cut him off. “I see you don’t hear so well, man. Name’s Ren, I’m looking after Maya now. You fucked up, and you lost. Move on and leave her alone. I only give one warning, I’ve never been a two warning guy, and my best advice is to listen and fuck off, yeah?" Disease Dick must have hung up because the next thing Ren was pressing buttons on my phone as well as his own. I needed to speak to my provider about blocking his numbers or changing my number. I hated that I’d had such a fantastic day that had been ruined by that STD riddled prick.

  “Sorry about that, guys,” I whispered, feeling like an idiot because they’d had to deal with my ex and they knew what I’d been involved with.

  I felt hands gently cup my face either side and then they raised so that I was looking up into Ren’s beautiful gray eyes. “Baby, what the fuck? This isn’t on you, it's on him. Now, I just spoke to the dick, and he had jack shit to say back to me, so I’m hoping that it’s scared him enough to make him fuck off, but if not then you tell me and I’ll fix it. If I’m not around, you got Cole, okay, Maya?” He was looking at me so softly, and I flicked a glance at Cole to see him standing there with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. It was a shock to see him looking so serious, as he kept scanning around us like he was expecting someone to jump out. “Maya baby, eyes on me. Do you get me? If he contacts you, you get one of us. I have his number, and I’ve programmed our numbers into your phone, so any issues , you call one of us, and we’ll deal with it. Say you get me,” he ended, giving me a gentle nudge.

  “Uh I get you, but what’s Cole doing?" Ren turned just as Cole was standing on his tiptoes and doing a spin on the tips of his feet looking left and right at the same time.

  “I’m on the lookout, this ain't no laughing matter!” He said still doing it. He suddenly stopped and swayed to the left and a bit to the right before coming to a halt. He had his hand on his stomach and face had gone pale. “Yeah, uh I think I’ll stick to just looking,” he said still holding his stomach and walking up to the wall to lean against it while taking deep breaths.

  “Is he gonna throw up?” I asked Ren, who was frowning at him and had a tic in his jaw. “Seriously, he’s gone a bit green.”

  “I told Mom he shoulda been adopted. I begged her for years, and now this is the shit I’m stuck with,” he growled. “Yo Cole, there’s Francheska!” Ren shouted suddenly. Cole jumped up, grabbed my arm and started dragging me back towards the garage.

  “Walk faster, walk faster — there're rabbits in danger!” He chided, still pulling me along. I couldn’t help but giggle at him because he’d moved from vomiting to running in a matter of seconds.

  Ren caught hold of my other hand and gently tugged me away from Cole, and I ended up chest to chest with him. I swear I could feel an eight pack, maybe a 10… “Cole man — don’t drag her, you’ll hurt her! I was kidding you, idiot. She left before you arrived!” He looked at the arm that Cole had been holding and then at the hand he’d tugged me away from Cole with and checked it. “Did I hurt you, baby?" he asked with a soft look on his face. With every breath, the bumps on his stomach were touching my chest and tummy which was not conducive to a normal thought process at all. “Maya,” he said laughing and making the bumps touch me more frequently and with more pressure which I was sure was the closest thing to heaven on earth that I’d ever get. Then he laughed even harder, and I swear I had a mini orgasm which was fortunately and also unfort
unately interrupted by a car as it drove past loudly at that precise moment, waking me out of my Ren induced stupor.

  Looking around to see if anyone had noticed or was watching, I heard Cole mutter, “Lucky bastard,” as he stomped back towards the garage.

  7

  ____

  Maya

  After meeting Ren and Cole’s Nana, I drove Hulk to the park closest to the shops that I wanted to visit, and also so that I didn’t have to make eye contact with Ren or any of his coworkers after the kiss almighty that we’d shared.