Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
I take another bite of the yogurt. “Who the fuck are you?” I ask, although I already know.
“What should I wear …?” Blakely trails off, exiting her bedroom. Her wide eyes go to the woman. “Mom?” she shrieks. “What are you doing here?”
“Blakely,” she hisses when her eyes go to her daughter. They pause on the bite marks and hickeys that dot her neck and run down over her arms. Then drop to her legs. I’ve left marks all over my girl. “What in the fuck is going on here?”
Blakley looks at me, mouth hanging open and eyes still the size of quarters. I finish off my yogurt, then throw it in the trash. Walking past her mother, I go over to Blake. Cupping her face, I lean down and gently kiss her forehead. “Don’t take long.” Then I walk into the bedroom, shutting the door behind me.
BLAKELY
“MOM,” I GASP. “What are you doing here?” I ask, blinking. The fact that Ryat kissed me on the forehead brought me out of my trance.
“Looks like I got here just in time!” she snaps, placing her hands on her hips. “Who the fuck was that, and what have you been doing with him?”
I roll my eyes. “That’s none of your business-“
Her rough laugh interrupts me. “I pay for this apartment and this college, young lady. Everything you do is my business. And I’ve been calling you. Is this why you haven’t been answering? Because you’ve been with him?”
I frown. “I haven’t had any calls from you.”
“Like I believe that.” She snorts. “Where the fuck is Matt?” Her dark green eyes search the apartment as if I have him hidden somewhere. That I’ve been shacked up in this apartment having a fuck fest with both him and Ryat.
I fist my hands. “We’re not together anymore. I told you I dumped him. He was cheating on me.” My voice rises.
“And I told you that you will still marry him!” she snaps.
I throw my hands up. “You know what, I’m not doing this.” After Ryat disappearing and then showing back up nearly beaten to death and acting like nothing happened. To him waking me up and fucking me all morning, I’m still pissed. At him, at her, and at myself for allowing all of this to go on. “You can’t force me to be with him. I won’t do it.” I just need to make it to his graduation. Then I’ll run. I can save enough money by then to get away without them knowing. I’ll just pull out a little cash every day, so I won’t be forced to use my card and leave a trail.
“What? You think that guy in there is better than Matt?” she demands, pointing at my closed bedroom door. “He doesn’t love you.”
I flinch at her words. Even though I know they’re true, I hate that she acts like no one ever could. She makes it sound like Matt is my best option, and I should just settle for that. “Don’t worry, Mom. I won’t be bringing him home for the holidays. It’s just sex.”
She slaps me across the face, making me gasp in shock.
“You little ungrateful bitch …”
I hear the bedroom door open behind me, and my mother takes a step back when Ryat storms out of it. He wraps his hand around her throat, slamming her back into the wall. “Never touch her again!” Yanking her from the wall, he shoves her back into it once again, making a picture of Sarah and me fall off the wall beside her, and the glass shatters on the floor next to them. Stepping into her, he asks, “Do you understand?”
She nods the best she can, her hands gripping his forearm with wide eyes. He’s cutting off her air.
“Blake isn’t going to answer your calls or return your texts. So quit fucking trying.” He lets go of her. “Now get the fuck out,” he commands as she rubs her neck.
“I don’t take orders …”
He grabs her hair, and she screams out as he drags her across the room to the front door. Opening it, he shoves her out into the hall. “You son of a …”
“Don’t fucking come back!” Then he slams the door in her face and proceeds to lock it. “I’ll have the locks changed today.”
I stay where I’m at, my hand pressed to my throbbing cheek and tears stinging my eyes. He turns to walk back over to me. “You okay?” he asks, cupping my chin and forcing me to look up at him.
“Yeah,” I lie, shamed and embarrassed at what she did. My mother has never hit me before. I wish I knew what her obsession with Matt was.
“You sure?” His emerald eyes search mine before dropping to my reddening face.
I nod, looking away from him, and whisper, “Thank you.”
Stepping into me, he gently forces me to look up at him once again. I can’t tell through the tears that I refuse to let fall, but he looks concerned. “You don’t need her, Blake. Not when you’ve got me.” Then leaning forward, he kisses my forehead before pulling me into the bedroom to start round four.
I hate to think of it, but it’s obvious he returned just in time.
_______________
I’M WALKING DOWN the hallway with Sarah at Barrington Monday morning when I ask, “Have you messaged me lately?”
She frowns. “Not since the other weekend. Why?”
I haven’t received any from her, but she’s also been staying at the apartment. Except for Saturday night. She and Gunner never did return after they left for the house of Lords party. Something tells me Gunner knew Ryat was back and wanted to leave us alone. “Well, my mother showed up at our apartment yesterday morning ….”
“She what?” she shrieks. “What did she want?”
“Well, that’s the thing. She said she’s been calling and texting me, but I haven’t received any. And I know you had said that you were texting me when Ryat and I were at the cabin, and I wasn’t answering.”
She nods. “I blew up your phone and nothing.”
I adjust the books in my hand. “That’s odd … right?”
She shrugs. “I call it a blessing. Well, not the fact that my calls didn’t go through, but definitely regarding your mother’s.”
“But shouldn’t your text have come through once I got service?” I ask, thinking out loud.
“Maybe. I guess it depends on how long you went without it. You were gone all weekend.”
“But …” It did work. I spoke to Ryat while I was there. I had called him and then received that text from him. Had it been dead when I plugged it in that night? I can’t remember. When I’m with Ryat, he demands all of my attention. “Will you call it now?” I ask her.
“Sure.” We come to a stop, and she digs her cell out of her back pocket. She goes to her recent calls and presses call on my number. Mine starts ringing immediately.
“Hmm.” I decline the call.
“See, like I said. It’s a blessing that you’re missing her calls,” she jokes.
“Guess so,” I add skeptically. It just seems odd.
“So, what else did she have to say?” she goes on.
“A lot. She walked in on Ryat and me both in towels fresh out of the shower.”
She throws her head back, laughing. “That’s fucking gold. Wish I was there to see it. What all did she have to say about that?”
“She went off on me. Said I was still marrying Matt …” I trail off, not wanting to tell her that my mother slapped me. It was embarrassing enough that Ryat was there.
“God, she’s such a bitch.” She sighs. Turning to fully face me, she smiles softly. “I’m glad you have Ryat. No matter the situation you have with him, he’s way better for you than dick face. I mean,” she goes on. “The guy has barely left you alone since the vow ceremony. Unless the Lords demanded his attention. You know for a fact that guy isn’t out there fucking around on you, and that’s more than Matt’s ever done for you.”
She’s not wrong about him not ignoring me as Matt has done in the past, but that doesn’t mean that Ryat isn’t fucking other women, right? Can I even call it cheating if he has been? I mean, this isn’t a relationship per se. It’s more of an understanding. I’m his and he’s … mine? Then I get a new thought. What if the Lords had him shack up with someone else for his assignment? He has spent every second with me, so it wouldn’t be farfetched to think they had him do the same with someone else, right?
Jealousy slithers up my back and makes my blood start to boil. Even though I have no right to call him mine, the thought of him touching someone else still infuriates me. I swallow down the bile that wants to rise at that thought.
“How are you and Gunner?” I ask, changing the subject. Trying to tell myself that it doesn’t matter. I don’t love him, and he’ll never tell me anything regarding the Lords.