Trinity (Moonstone Book 1) (21 page)

“Do you feel better now?”

“No,” I seethed, “you need more than one fucking punch. You need one for every false promise you ever offered her mother, for every time that woman hurt Trinity, you need a punch for every lie you’ve told your family, told Melissa, and you need a fucking beating for talking about Trinity like that and suggesting that I am
anything
like you are.”

He glared at me. “You done?”

“No!” I roared, “I am just getting fucking started you piece of shit. You hear me, I am not a part of your world, I am not marrying your daughter and I am not going to lie for you.”

He met my steady gaze. “You are going to tell Trinity.”

“Fucking oath I am going to tell Trinity,” I spat at him, “she deserves to know the truth.”

“And what do you think that will get you Luke? I am sure you have already had her in bed with you, you think that by telling her the truth she will spread her legs any wider?”

I slammed my fist into his face again and this time he fell back on the ground. Blood trickled out the side of his mouth. Good. Seeing him bleed made me feel better.

“You will not talk about her like that. You will not talk about her period. You don’t deserve to be her father, you piece of fucking shit.”

I shook my hand which was throbbing now and turned to go.

“Luke,” Mr. Newton called from the floor just as I reached for the handle, “if you care about this girl so much you should stop and think about what will happen if you tell her. What will happen to her and what she will think of you having kept this secret from her for how long? Weeks now.”

I shook my head. I knew what Trinity and I had and I knew that I had no right keeping secrets from her.

Opening the door I started as Melissa jumped back. Her pale face and trembling lips told me everything I suspected.

“Melissa,” I said quietly, “you heard all that?”

She blinked at me and her eyes filled with tears. My gut twisted. I hated that she had heard all of that. I hadn’t wanted that.

“Is it true?” she whispered.

I nodded. “Yeah,” I ran a hand through my hair and cursed myself for being so thoughtless as to confront him at his house. I should have known Melissa would be sneaky enough to eavesdrop on our confrontation. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t have anything more to say.

She stared past me to where her father still sat, slumped on the floor. “Dad?”

“Oh my god!” Suddenly Mrs. Newton appeared, emerging from the kitchen. Her eyes went from me to Melissa and then to her husband. “Luke! What have you done?”

She hurried past me into the office. “Honestly! What has come over you, ever since that damned girl came along and turned your head—”

I didn’t wait to hear anymore but turned and left the house. From behind me I heard Melissa start to cry and I think I even heard her cry my name but I didn’t turn around. This was his mess and this was something he needed to start cleaning up after all these years.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Trinity

I stretched out languidly in bed and stretched my arms over my head. Morning sunlight streamed in through the window and my body tingled with warmth and the post sex vibrations that always continued to thrum through me even hours after Luke and I had…

Rolling to my side I snuggled down under the bedsheets as I let the images from last night wash over me. Luke above me, behind me, below me. Inside me. Luke’s hands moving over me, touching every inch of me, his mouth following suit. Last night he had made love to me in a kind of desperate way as if he couldn’t get enough of me, and whilst it terrified me a little it had also made everything more intense and alive.

I’d responded. I couldn’t get enough of him either. I didn’t think I ever would.

My phone vibrated beside my bed and I pulled it up frowning when I saw it was a message from my mother. I hadn’t heard from her at all since that day Luke had pulled her off me. My hands went to my throat feeling her fingers close around me again, a strange burning sensation choking me as if she was doing it again, right now.

I read the message. She wanted me to come over. Fuck. I threw my phone against the wall and curled tighter into a ball. Why couldn’t she just leave me alone? I was happy to walk away, it was what she wanted from me, gone from her life. So why did she keep pulling me back in just when I thought we were done for good. Why couldn’t she just let me go?

Getting up I pulled on some shorts and a t-shirt as I went out to get some breakfast. At the same time Luke came in through the front door. He was dressed in short shorts and a t-shirt that was drenched with sweat. Earphones dangled from his ears and when he saw me a lazy grin stretched across his face.

“Good run?” I asked, letting my gaze wander the length of him.

He stretched both arms over his head. “Yep. Good sleep in?”

I giggled. “Yes.” And then I remembered the text message from my mom.

“What is it that is making that little frown pucker your eyes together?” he teased.

“My mom,” I said and heard him suck in a breath. “She texted me asking me to come see her today.”

“You aren’t going.” He said it like a statement not a question as he made his way over to the fridge and grabbed a carton of orange juice, drinking straight from the carton.

“I know I shouldn’t go,” I told him.

“But?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. She sounded upset.”

“You got that from a text message?”

“I can always tell,” I told him honestly, “something must have happened with Kent.”

At the mention of his name Luke’s jaw hardened but he didn’t say anything.

“Maybe I should just go,” I told him.

“Are you kidding me? That woman tried to kill you last time you went there,” he reminded me, “and if Kent has kicked her to the curb for good this time then I say that that is fucking great.”

“Luke,” I flinched at the hardness in his voice.

“Listen to me,” he gripped my shoulders tightly, pulling me to my tiptoes as he stared down into my eyes, “listen to me carefully, Trin, because I need to make sure you understand. You are not to see that woman. You are not to go there and you are not to answer any of her fucking text messages. Am I making myself clear?”

I nodded and then struggled out of his hands. “I get it.”

“Promise me,” he demanded, “I know how you get with her. Promise me you won’t give in.”

He was right. I was a coward when it came to my mother. I let her push me around like no one else. I gave in all the time when it came to her, always hoping and praying that this time it would be different and it never was. “You’re right,” I told him with a confidence I didn’t quite feel. “I promise. I won’t even reply.”

He smiled, and kissed the top of my head. “Good girl. Now tell me, what are we doing today?”

I shook my head. “We aren’t doing anything at all, and I have the gig tonight remember. Molly is picking me up in a couple of hours and driving me to the country club.”

Luke’s smile fell. “That’s right, you are gone all night. You sure I can’t come?”

I giggled. “I would love it if you did but unfortunately the invitation was just for us. I’m not sure that they would appreciate me bringing a date.”

He frowned. “Well I guess I can be without you for one night, although I don’t know how I am going to stand it.”

I ran my fingers over his chest and leaned in close to him, inhaling deeply. He smelled like sweat and orange juice, a weird combination that did strange things in the pit of my belly. But then this was Luke, everything about him did strange things to my body. Delicious things.

“Well, we do have a couple of hours,” I whispered into his ear, “Maybe I could make it so that you are so exhausted you won’t even notice that I’m gone.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” He walked me backwards so that we were headed for his room.

“Well, we could start with this…” I reached up and pressed my lips to his, tugging on his lower lip and swirling my tongue across his lips.

He groaned against my mouth. “Tell me more.”

“Tell or show?” I teased, just as we reached his room. He picked me up and threw me back on the bed.

His eyes glowed down on me as he pulled his shirt off over his head revealing his hard, muscled body. I gasped at the sight of him, still slick with sweat from his run, the smooth planes of his chest, the narrow hips, and the thin line of hair that disappeared beneath his shorts.

“Tell me first,” he muttered, grabbing my shorts and tugging them over my hips, “tell me what you want me to do to you. I know you like to talk like that.”

I swallowed. He was right. I did like to talk dirty, but so did he. As I began to speak, I could see his erection pressing against his shorts and felt my desire stirring. “I want to feel your hands on me. I want to feel your fingers sliding over my skin.”

“Here?” he asked, sliding his fingers up and down my thighs.

I gulped. “Higher.”

He pushed my t-shirt up and traced circles over my stomach. “What about here?”

I moved my legs up and down on the sheets in frustration and groaned. “Lower.”

He pulled his hand away and sat back on his heels his eyes glittering darkly. Then he suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand pushing it between my legs. “Why don’t you show me exactly what you want me to do?”

I flushed and moved my hand away, embarrassed, but Luke grabbed my hand and pushed it back.

“Show me,” he insisted, “I want to watch.”

Feeling a mixture of brave and nervous I moved my fingers tentatively at first, unsure. Luke’s eyes left mine and instead he focused on what my fingers were doing. A small sound escaped the back of his throat as he watched me and I grew braver and more wanton, spreading my legs further for his view.

“Fuck, babe.”

His words only served to increase my own desire and I moved with more confidence, my fingers sliding back and forth over my clit. The tension was building in me, further enhanced not just by my actions but by the way Luke was looking at me. God, his eyes alone would send me over the edge.

“You are so beautiful,” he muttered, “so fucking sexy.”

I smiled and then felt my body began to clench but it wasn’t enough, I was close but I needed more. “Luke,” I moaned, “I need you.”

He wasted no time but pulled of his shorts and before I knew it he had plunged himself deep inside me, his hands holding my ankles out to the sides to surge deeper. I cried out at the first contact and came instantly, feeling my body clench against him as he thrust deeper and deeper inside me. Then I heard him call my name, his hands reaching down to pull me up to meet his demanding kisses as he reached his own release.

“Oh my god,” he muttered against my mouth, “do you know, Trin? Do you know how much I love you?”

I smiled. “You love me?” It was the first time he had actually said he loved me.

“So fucking much it hurts, babe,” he muttered collapsing on the bed next to me, “so much I can’t breathe just thinking about it.”

I stared into his eyes, feeling my chest swell. “I love you too. I love you.”

****

Trinity

Molly picked me up from Mark’s house. I still officially lived there even if I spent nearly every night at Luke’s apartment. I knew he wanted me to leave Mark’s and move in permanently with him but I couldn’t do that to Toby. It was bad enough that I was there all the time and he had to put up with Luke and I. I knew the walls were paper thin, Toby made sure to let me know that, and I was also treated to the sounds of his own love making. He had a steady stream of girls in and out his room, girls that no longer included Gwen. I frowned at that thought. I had a feeling that he had hurt her bad.

“You ready?” she asked as I climbed in the back seat next to Olivia and Shawna. Gwen was in the front.

“Yep.”

“I almost expected to see Luke,” Shawna teased. “How is he coping letting you go for one night.”

I shrugged, “I think he is going to visit his family or something. I think they have some family function.” He had mentioned it briefly but hadn’t gone into detail. I suspected that it involved the Newtons. Even though Luke hadn’t said it out loud I knew that his family didn’t approve of me. I was the wrong kind of girl for him, I came from the wrong type of family and basically everything about me was wrong. After that horrible lunch he hadn’t taken me back to see them, instead going to visit when I had rehearsals or was at work. I hated that he was torn between them and me and vowed that I would never make him choose. They were his family and they loved him, they needed to be a part of his life but in saying that I knew that I too needed to be a part of it too. That I was not going to give him up for them, no matter what.

“Just think, girls,” Gwen said, with a grin, “ten grand for one night of singing.”

“And the contract.”

We all whooped at the mention of the contract. After last Saturday night we had all gone to Sunlight Records and met with Charles Murphy, signing a contract with him just yesterday. In two weeks we were headed into the studio to record our first single. I could pinch myself and was sure I would wake up any moment. It was all too perfect. Between Moonstone and Luke I felt as if life was being way too kind to me at the moment. I was terrified to think too much about it though, scared to be too happy in case it all got swept away.

After all just six weeks ago I had been sleeping in my car, with no money and a busted up face.

We pulled into the country club and waited as Gwen booked us in, following a valet as he led us down to our rooms. We had two rooms. Shawna, Gwen, and Olivia were sharing one and Molly and I had the other. We had a couple of hours to settle in and get relaxed before we needed to get ready for the wedding reception later that evening.

“Come on,” Molly tugged on my arm just as I had lay back on the bed, “let’s go and check this place out.”

“Can’t I rest first,” I groaned, suddenly feeling tired. My body ached all over from the bedroom activities I had shared with Luke, but it was a welcome kind of pain.

“No,” she grinned, “no rest for the wicked, now get your ass up.”

I followed her out of the rooms and down the corridor. I had never been to a country club before and it was a part of a world I wasn’t familiar with. Everything was beautiful and elegant, including all the people that milled about everywhere. We stumbled into a beautiful dining room and stopped dead. It was set for a wedding and was obviously where we would be performing later on. Waiters and staff milled around setting things up still but it was breathtaking.

Massive chandeliers hung from the ceilings and there were flowers everywhere. Massive pink and white bouquets covering the tables and spread across the bridal table. About a hundred pieces of cutlery lined each place setting and bottles of wine were placed in front of each setting.

“Cute,” Molly muttered, picking up one of the bottles of wine and holding it up for me to see, “the wedding couple.”

I had never met the groom and bride, Gwen having taken care of all the arrangements. Now I took a moment to examine them. She was tall and slender with long blonde hair that hung down her back, he was taller with dark hair and they smiled at the camera looking for the world like the perfect couple. Glancing around the opulence of the reception venue I couldn’t help but wonder if they were not in fact the perfect couple.

“Come on,” Molly tugged on my hand I replaced the bottle of wine as I followed her outside and down the rolling green lawns to where a floral arch stood. I pulled her back when I realized what we were about to intrude upon.

“It’s the wedding,” I hissed.

“I know,” she told me, “we are just having a peak. C’mon.”

Reluctantly I followed her as we crept up on the couple who were exchanging vows. The girl was beautiful, dressed in an amazing figure hugging lace wedding dress, a simple veil tumbling down her blonde locks and pooling in a swathe of fabric at her feet. The groom was repeating his vows, his eyes locked on hers. I drew in a breath. They were in love. Deeply in love.