Undone: A New Adult College Bad Boy Romance (Mature Young Adult Fun Contemporary Romance) (31 page)

Epilogue

Six months later

Cassie pulled up in front of the bar in her mini, excited to share the news with everyone.  Chrissy would jump for joy, Norman the dishwasher would smile his lopsided grin with a toothpick hanging onto his lip like it was grown there, Angie the newest waitress would grin her I-told-you-so smile, and Jackson would probably just faint.  Nah, he wouldn’t, but what a funny sight that would be, she thought giggling.

Grabbing her cell, and tossing it in her purse, Cassie exited ‘Lucy’. Making sure she didn’t blurt out her news immediately upon entering, she calmed herself and headed toward the bar entrance.  Remembering her first time here so many months ago, she was just as happy now as she had been then, except now she was in love and living with the most handsome bar owner she’d ever met.  Her life was wonderful now; new job, new love, new house, and soon, a new addition to her and Jackson’s life.

Bursting in the door of the bar, she couldn’t stop hollering to anyone that could hear, “I’m pregnant!” She really had tried to contain herself, nope didn’t work.

A squeal came from the bar as Chrissy ran over to hug her, squeezing her hard.  Angie smiled that smile she’d expected, no need for words.  Norman smiled at her lopsided, as he put clean glasses over the bar, and Jackson’s glorious body filled his office door, that Cheshire grin bigger than she’d ever seen it.

With a nod, he sauntered over to her with open arms, and wrapped her into his warm, strong embrace kissing the top of her head.

“Congratulations baby, time to buy a bigger vehicle.”  He kissed her lips, tasting of love, desire, pleasure, and forever.

The End

I spat what was left of my lunch on the ground. Okay, it wasn’t
really
my lunch anymore; I’d eaten it three hours ago. My throat clenched.

“Oh gods.” I gasped for breath as I felt myself want to puke again.
Oh no, no, no.

The man behind me grabbed my hair to make sure it was out of the way as I took a deep breath trying to control myself. I heaved for breath a couple more seconds before reaching up and taking my hair from him. “Water.” My voice was hoarse but I could tell he’d heard me because he let go of my hair and walked away.

Keep it down Gee.

My stomach ached and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball. But nope, that’s not what big girls did. I turned to face my partner. He’d put pants on but he was still shirtless. I couldn’t help glancing at his perfectly toned abs and the tribal tattoos covering his chest. I bit my lip as I stared at the man who had been my partner for three months.

“Here,” he handed me a bottle of water.

“Thanks.” I couldn’t believe I still wasn’t used to that.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” I didn’t like flying in airplanes, let alone bareback on a goddamn dragon, but I had to admit it was faster and more convenient. Though I still hadn’t figured out why he was working for my bosses. What could my boss possibly offer a fucking dragon?

I still hadn’t worked up the urge to ask, because really I might not want to know that answer. I took the water bottle from him and drained it in record time before handing it back to him. He padded over to the backpacks and stuffed it in there. “Are you ready to get going?”

Not really.
But I didn’t want to come off as weak. “Yes.” I forced myself to take another deep breath and then padded towards the backpacks. I took the one he held out to me and we began to make our way down the mountain top. Sometimes I couldn’t help wondering if he picked them for the joke, or if he really did pick them because of his nature.

Dragons were old beings, and for one to still be alive was impressive. I had to admit I wanted to know his story, but when I got him as a new partner my boss told me not to ask any questions. So I didn’t.

I bit my lip as I slipped the backpack onto my back and we started to make our way down. “So, do you have the job?”

“There is a vampire gang that needs to be dealt with. It shouldn’t be hard; just kill them all.”

I nodded. He was the muscle and I was the stealth, normally we went in and got out jobs together but today I’d been at the gym when a rush job got called in, so Eric took the call on his own while I finished my back day and then he picked me up, promising to fill me in on everything once we’d landed- he didn’t like talking when he flew.

“There are seven of them from what our sources can tell; they’ve been smuggling women into the country and have been trying to trade them with local mobsters, it seems like they are trying to make connections here which leads the sources to think they are thinking of moving in on the city; something that we should avoid before they set up a routine so it will deter the mob to go out and find more and just set up again with the same routine.”

I nodded. We were fighting a war here, a war most people knew nothing about but a war that would change the world for better or worse. I was just hoping we came out better, or at least not worse. I bit my lip.
Great, now the drug dealers and mobsters are getting involved.
That wasn’t good. There was a lot of money to be made off them joining in on this.

I stepped over a fallen tree as Eric turned to make sure I was alright. I guess me puking my guts out made him worry.
How sweet.
I wasn’t sure if it was sarcastic or not; probably a bit of both honestly.

“So, we take the vampires out and then we’re done?”

“Yes, and they said the vampires would have some papers. They want them burned, but we shouldn’t read or look at them; they’re confidential.”

“Sure.”

It’s not like I always took pictures of whatever it was I was supposed to burn… oh wait… A smirk touched my lips. A girl had to protect herself in this line of work. The secrets I had ranged from sexual indiscretions to things that could start world war 3. They made a girl feel powerful really, not that anyone else knew about my gathering of secrets; except for Eric now, but he didn’t seem to mind when I documented what we’d found.

“So, that’s it?”

“Yup. Then they want us to come home.”

I groaned. Home. “But it’s fucking Italy.” How could they expect us to come home without any fun time?

“Well, maybe we could stick around for a couple days.” He glanced back at me, a twinkle in his eyes. “If you want.”

“You’d break orders just so we can stay in Italy for a little longer?” I raised an eyebrow as a grin widened over my face.

He laughed softly. “Like you said, it is fucking Italy.”

I laughed. “We could at least get a little sightseeing done… you know, on the ground.”

“Hey, it’s not like I
enjoy
having you on my back.”

“You’d rather have me on my back?” I shot back quickly.  When you were with someone as often as Eric and I were together a little flirting always happened, not that it was allowed for co-workers to become involved with each other, but flirting was a good way to ease any tension you might have before a job. He laughed softly.

“You’re the one always checking me out.”

My jaw dropped. I did not check him out. Not
always.
“I do no such thing!”

He snorted.

My cheeks turned a deep shade of pink as we fell into silence making our way down the hill. Most because I couldn’t think of a quick comeback that was any good.

I looked around. I’d never been to Italy before, I’d been all around the world, but this was the first time I’d been here, normally I made time my first day to explore and get to know the area, mainly for fun but also just research and to know the area well enough to get away if I needed to- on the other hand now I had a fucking dragon to protect me. I didn’t
really
need to be that careful.
It’s all good work.
I reminded myself.

“So, do you want some pasta or something for dinner?”

Eric snorted. “Actually, I know a place in the area… it might still be open…” He looked around.

“Of course you’ve been here.” I was coming to find that Eric had been everywhere. “How long?”

“Has it been? Over 20 years.”

“Do you really think it’s still open?”

“I hope so.” He licked his lips just thinking about the place. “We’ll have to check it out and there is even a hotel right down the street from the place, it’s a perfect place to stay.”

“Whatever you say.” I learnt within the first month that he’d probably know where to stay, or know someone who could let us crash with them- no questions asked of course.

“First I’d better stop in and see Anna…” he glanced at me. “Um, maybe you should sit this one out.”

Something tugged at my stomach. I’m not sure what it was but it wasn’t good. “No. I can come with you. Your ex booty calls don’t scare me.”

“I never said Anna-”

“You don’t need to.” I cut him off. “It’s written all over your face. What is she?”

“Vampire.”

“Ah.” Of course. That whole unaging, flawless beauty thing. And here I was a mortal girl who just got pulled into this all by mistake. Eric didn’t try to argue with me. He just shrugged as we reached the bottom of the mountain and turned south.

~

Eventually we made it to a large house. The kind that they would feature in a catalogue if they wanted to convince you that you wanted to visit this place. It would sure sell me; until realizing that a vampire owned the place. I bit my lip trying not to show how nervous I was, I shouldn’t be nervous but I was. Was she really that pretty? What was so great about her?

I took a deep breath as Eric knocked and stepped back beside me waiting. His fingers brushed mine accidently as we waited. Neither of us said a word about it though.

The door opened slowly.

“Hello?” A petite girl looked us each up and down.

“Let them in!” A female voice called. The girl standing in front of us bowed her head and stepped out of the doorway.

“Hello Eric.” The voice came closer to us as the door was closed. As soon as the sunlight was taken from the room she came into view. She was gorgeous. Although a little too typical vampire for my liking. She’s kept her dark brown hair long and in a bun, although she wore jeans and a tank top she still wore some of the jewelry she’d probably been given when she still had a pulse.

She was in front of us within seconds and pulling Eric into a hug. Her eyes locked on me. “It’s been
too
long. You said you would visit.”

“And I am. Remember, I’ve never had the same sense of time as you.”

A smirk touched her lips. “Oh I remember.”

Again, something I couldn’t identify tugged at my stomach. I watched them as their eyes locked. Yes. She still wanted him.

But did he? He was so good at hiding his emotions I was never sure if he actually wanted someone or was just pretending.

“Well, I’m in the area so I thought I’d stop in and say hi, we were just on our way to the hotel but I didn’t-”

“Nonsense. You can stay here.” A smiled touched Eric’s lips. “I insist… for old times’ sake.” She batted her eyelashes gently.

“I’d love to, but we have some… business to take care of in the city. It really would be best for us if we stayed there.”

“Alright.” She looked him up and down. “But you and your
friend
need a ride to the city. I won’t even let you think about turning it down.” She had still only looked at me once.

My brow furrowed. What made her think we were friends? Why couldn’t we be more than friends? I opened my mouth about to ask but Eric cut me off. “That would be wonderful.”

“But first you must stay for lunch. Please?”

“It’s been a long flight.” Eric held his hands up in submission. “I’d be no fun to you, how about the day after tomorrow? We’ll need a long time to… catch up.” Something about the way he said it made me wonder if he meant talking.

Anna must have heard the same voice because she smirked. “Alright, I expect you here for lunch time, and don’t be late.” Finally she glanced at me again. “Alone.”

I snorted. As if that was some kind of insult. I didn’t want to have any part in their freaky sexual reunion.

“I’m sure Gee will have lots of sightseeing to do.”

“Wonderful, I’ll see you then.” Again she turned her attention back to him. They hugged once more and then the girl who had opened the door gave us a ride into town. As we slipped into the backseat of the car Eric glanced at me, a silent warning not to say anything until we’d made it to the hotel.

At the front desk the man seemed to know Eric very well. He got us the penthouse suite and promised we’d most likely have the entire floor to ourselves. He glanced at me, smiled and handed me the key card. “You two have fun.” Was all he said before making his way into the backroom.

“Well, he seems to think we’re together. Why didn’t your… girlfriend?” That had not been the word I wanted to use. I wanted to use a not so nice one, but that wouldn’t have been nice and really there was no reason to be a bitch to her just because she was a bitch to me.
She wasn’t a bitch, that would have involved admitting your existence for more than 30 seconds.

“She could smell it.”

“What?” I snapped.

Eric laughed. “Anna is… very sensitive. Unlike most vampires she has a very good nose on her. She’d have been able to smell that we hadn’t been… intimate.”

“You mean fucking.” I frowned as we made our way towards the room. “I don’t like her. I think she’s shady. You have to remember what we’re here to do, Eric. Don’t you think someone like her would know about it?”

“Anna isn’t that kind of girl.”

“I don’t think you’re thinking with the right head.”

“She’s not evil.”

I shrugged not saying anything else. Clearly we weren’t going to agree on this and there was nothing I could do to get him to see my side; he was blinded by lust that much was obvious to me.

“You should go see her tonight so you guys can get this crap out of your system and you can think straight.” I didn’t mean it to come out as cold as it did. I tossed my backpack down onto the bed and opened it, reaching for my supplies.”

“I have no intention of going back to see her.”

I raised an eyebrow turning my head away from my backpack and looking at him. “You don’t?”

“No.”

“But you said you would go see her-”

“And you heard her, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“So you lied to her.” a smirked. “And she didn’t notice?”

Eric shrugged. “She might have, but she didn’t protest. I doubt she really would care if I stopped in to see her. She just wanted to try and cause friction.”