Saved (Tempted #2) (10 page)

“Oh, we already did and it’s not over yet,” West yelled back.

And I felt my face go bright red.

“You do not get to be shy after what we just did,” West said as we both got in his car.

“It was pretty amazing, wasn’t it?”

“It was beyond that,” he said, starting the engine and pulling out of the parking lot.

I watch all the street lights pass as we sped down the nearly empty road. I was so lucky to have a man like him in my life. And I hoped he felt that he was lucky to have me in his.

I prayed that when I told him what I had been hiding that he wouldn’t want to forget that he loved me. I didn’t want to throw away all the progress we had made. He had finally told me he loved me and I didn’t want our relationship to be tainted and broken after I told him.

If you loved something more than you loved anything in the entire world, would you want to lose them?

If you felt like where you belonged was with one person, would you want to lose them?

I didn’t think so.

Everyone was at work today but me. I rarely ever had a day to myself, so I decided to go grab some coffee and catch up on my school work. It had been extremely hard to focus on my work with everything going on.

Walking down Main Street, I rolled the sleeves of my mint green windbreaker up. The weather was finally starting to warm up a bit.

That was one of the best things about living down south. Our winters were very short. It was almost Christmas time and the weather was 60 degrees.

Reaching the door of Jitter Bug’s, I pulled the door open.

The strong smell of coffee whirled around me as I walked inside.

After I ordered my coffee and a cream cheese danish, I sat at a vacant table and opened up my laptop. I had a paper due but it wasn’t looking good.

I tried to focus on my work but my brain wasn’t cooperating. All it wanted to think about was West.

And I wasn’t complaining. Taking a bite of my danish, I tried to clear my head and force myself to do the work.

Feeling someone standing over my table, I looked up.

Luca.

“What’s up, Maddie? Where’s your boyfriend?” Luca said, sitting at the table with me.

“At work. Who invited you to sit down?”

“I’d be nice to me if I were you. Remember who knows your secret,” he said, smirking, “A secret I plan on telling him very soon.”

“Why? Why would you want to hurt me like that? What did I ever do to you?”

“Because you hurt me,” he said, shrugging his leather clad shoulders.

My eyes widened in surprise. When did I hurt him? And was it even possible to hurt the devil?

“What are you talking about? When did I hurt you?”

“When you picked him,” he said, staring me dead in the eyes.

Wow, he actually had feelings.

Who knew?

“You had to see that coming, Luca. We never had a relationship.”

Seriously, we went on a few dates and we made out a few times but that was it. I had no feelings for him.

Zip. Zilch. Nada. Zero.

He was really freaking sexy and he definitely had everything going for him. But I couldn’t feel anything around him.

I wasn’t even really attracted to Luca. Heck, even my mom was attracted to him. But there was no comparison to West.

No one did.

“That stung,” he said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, Luca. I thought you knew.”

“I’m sorry, too.”

“Why are you sorry?” I asked, immediately getting the feeling that something wasn’t right.

“Because I think the time has come to tell him what really happened that night,” he said, getting up from the chair and starting toward the door, “It doesn’t look like you’re going to do it so someone has too.”

His sister, Sadie, was the sweetest girl ever. I wasn’t sure how Luca’s mom had him and then turned around and gave birth to her. They were polar opposites. Seriously, the only thing they had in common was their faces. They were so blessed in the looks department. She was beautiful inside and out. Him? Not so much.

“Where are you going? I asked, feeling my heart drop to my stomach.

I already knew the answer but I wanted to pretend like maybe I was wrong.

“I’m going to pay West a visit,” he said, stopping and looking at me.

“No, Luca. Please don’t do this,” I begged, feeling my knees buckle.

I knew he heard me but he just walked out without replying.

Throwing my stuff in my bag, I rushed out of the door. I had to get there before he did.

Jumping in my jeep, I drove to the shop.

Where was Grace when you needed her?

I sped until the shop was in full sight. Parking, I saw Luca’s car already there.

I got out and ran to the door without even shutting the door.

He was going to tell him. And West was going to be livid.

I should have told him but I was just waiting on the right time.

And it looked like I had waited too long.

Pulling the door open, I saw West and Luca talking and it looked pretty heated.

I needed to do something, anything. But I couldn’t.

All I could do was stand there and brace myself for what was about to happen.

Would he be angry with me? Would he understand? Would he leave me?

“Angel, what are you doing here?” West asked, walking past Luca and making his way over to me.

He called me angel so that was a good sign.

“I thought I would stop by and surprise you. Surprise,” I said, trying to seem genuine.

“I love you,” he told me, pulling me close and wrapping one arm around me.

“I love you.”

“Aw, aren’t you guys the cutest?” Luca asked, leaning against the wall.

“Yeah, we are. Now, if you are done being an ass I’d like to make out with my insanely beautiful girlfriend,” West said, slipping his hand in my back pocket.

“I’m bored anyway,” Luca said, walking out of the door.

“What did he want?” I asked, pretending not to be interested.

“He came here to bitch about his oil change. He said Ethan didn’t do it right,” he said, placing kisses all over my neck.

Relief washed over me and I relaxed into his inked up arms.

I had managed to escape him this time but I wasn’t sure how much time I had until he made good on his threat.

“You okay?” he asked, hugging me.

“Yeah, I’m fine. He just gives me creeps,” I told him, running my hands up and down his back.

“That’s because he is creepy, Angel.”

Laughing, I let him lead me into the garage where Roman and Ethan were working.

“Can I have you attention?” West yelled as he opened the door.

Both of their heads shot up and when they seen me they smiled.

“I have just entered the garage with the most beautiful human on the earth.”

“Babe, stop it,” I said, covering my face.

“Quit embarrassing her before she drops your ass,” Roman said, throwing an oil covered rag at him.

He caught it without even breaking a sweat because he’s sexy like that.

“To what do we owe this pleasure?” Ethan asked, closing the car hood he was working under.

“I wanted to surprise West and thought maybe we could all go for lunch? Why don’t you guys call Emma and Grace?”

“Yeah, that sounds great. I’ll call them now,” Roman said, pulling his phone from his pocket.

Holding West’s hand, I was thankful for another day of us being happy. I thought for sure Luca was going to tell him.

But by some sort of miracle he didn’t. I could relax for now but I wasn’t sure when he would decide to tell.

“They said they’ll meet us at the diner in fifteen minutes. And Emma wanted everyone to know that she’s starving,” Roman said, smiling like a love drunk fool.

I used to make fun of him but I couldn’t anymore because I looked the same.

Like the exact same and I was loving it.

“Great. Let’s wash up and then we can go,” Ethan said, walking toward the sink.

He tried his best to hide the smile on his face but it was no use. We all knew how excited he was to see Grace. And West teased him about his crush every chance he got.

“Why don’t you just make your move already, E?” West asked, wiping his hands off, “Oh, that’s right you don’t have any.”

“Shut up,” Ethan said, pretending to think it was funny.

I could tell he wanted to tell Grace how he really felt but he didn’t know how they would make it work.

He was so clam and settled. Ethan was the best person I knew. And Grace was wild and loved to party. She wasn’t anywhere near settled.

West and I were opposites and so was Roman and Emma. But Grace and Ethan were two totally different wave lengths. He would want to stay in and watch a movie while she would want to go out and dance until the sun came up.

But I still had the feeling that they could make it work.

Ethan and I were going to talk about Grace.

And we were going to do it soon.

By the time we got in Roman’s car, Emma called letting us know that they were there waiting on us.

“Emma would kill all of us for food right now,” West said, tapping his knee to the beat of the music.

“Leave her alone, dude. She’s pregnant,” Ethan said, turning to look back at West.

“Thank you for pointing that out, Sherlock. I know she’s pregnant I’m just stating the facts she would choose food over Roman right now.”

Roman gave him a death glare through the rear view.

Leaning my head off his shoulder to look at him, I rolled my eyes and tried to hide my smile.

He said stupid stuff all of the time and I knew he was an idiot.

But he was my idiot.

“Babe, don’t say that around Emma. You know how sensitive she is,” I told him, resting my hand on his thigh.

“Damn,” he shouted as his whole body stiffened.

“What is it?” Roman asked, slamming on his breaks.

“Maddie just put her hands on unmentionable spot and my body may have had a small reaction,” he said, shifting in his seat.

Ethan and Roman started howling with laughter.

“Calm down, Angel. You can get this tonight but first a man’s gotta eat.”

Slapping his shoulder, I scooted away from him and pretended to be mad.

He was just too cute. But I would never let him know that.

Looking around, I saw that we were in the parking lot.

“I was kidding, Angel,” he whispered, against my shoulder.

“I didn’t find it funny,” I told him, getting out of the car and walking inside of the diner.

I liked to watch him squirm and being playful like that might help in keeping my mind off of Luca and when he was going to tell West.

I knew I needed to be the one to tell him and I knew he needed to hear it from me. But I couldn’t build up the inner courage to do it.

The fear of his reaction was what was stopping me. We were finally together and happy but if I told what I had been hiding would he decide that he didn’t love me anymore?

A relationship is supposed to be all about love and honesty. And I knew he would feel like I had betrayed him because I felt like I betrayed him.

I didn’t feel like being playful anymore.

“Mads? Over here,” I heard Emma’s voice yell, making me realize I was standing in the middle of the diner completely frozen in place.

I felt paralyzed by my own thoughts.

I wasn’t being fair to West or to myself.

“Angel? Is something wrong? I told you I was kidding,” West said, placing his hand on the small of my back, “I’m sorry.”

Yes, something is wrong. I’ve kept a huge secret from you. One so huge that I’m afraid that it will tear us apart and you may never want me back. And you shouldn’t be sorry, I should be. And you want to know the worst part? I’m too big of a coward to tell you. I’m sorry, West. So sorry.

That’s what I felt like telling him. But you know what I did?

I lied again. Once again digging myself a bigger whole.

“I’m not mad. I just feel a headache coming on. I’ll be fine,” I told him, pulling him by the hand to join everyone at the table.

“About time you showed up. I’m famished,” Emma said, scanning her eyes over the menu.

“Hey! Can we order? My friend is pregnant and if you don’t want your menu eaten you’ll get over here quickly,” West yelled, dodging eye contact with Emma.

The waitress ignored West and kept wiping the counter off.

“West! I told you not to joke about that in front of her,” I told him, giving him the stink eye.

“Sorry! You’re touchy today. Are you pregnant too?” he asked with a goofy grin on his face.

“Nope, not pregnant. But I think Aunt Flo is on her way,” I told him, purposely trying to gross him out.

“Me too!” Grace exclaimed, maybe a little too excited.

We had just realized we had synced up.

“I don’t miss bleeding like crazy for seven days. Or the cramps for that matter,” Emma said, looking at Grace and I with the utmost sympathy in her eyes.

Periods were serious business.

All of the guys moaned and groaned. Even Ethan and he was the understanding one.

“Damn it, Maddie. Didn’t we talk about bringing up periods?” Roman said, shaking his head.

It was true. We had a family meeting about it. They guys thought Grace and I talked about our female problems too much. We promised them we wouldn’t bring them up around them anymore.

But they got so worked up about it and I needed a good laugh at that moment.

“Yeah, please don’t bring it up again. Especially when we’re eating,” Ethan said, shivering.