Twenty One (Love by Numbers Book 2) (22 page)

Both of us show our hands when Liv reaches “three” and without even looking at hers I say, “Paper covers rock.”

“How the hell did you know I was rock, you haven’t even looked?”

We both look down at our hands and sure enough, she’s rock and I’m paper.

“Not bloody fair Em, you cheat!” She pouts and throws the pack of Lovehearts straight at my chest.

“Ow, you cowbag, quit throwing things at me and I
do not
cheat. You just need to change your game plan, it’s getting old.” I wink at her surly face before adding, “Thanks for the sweets.”

She mumbles under her breath, “I hope you choke on them.” So I launch myself at her, tackling her down on the bed and tickling her sensitive sides.

“Beg for mercy, you know the rules.” I straddle her legs to stop her from kicking me and she laughs so hard that tears spring from her eyes and she struggles to catch her breath.

“Mercy you cheat, mercy, Mercy, MERCY!” The words, although getting louder in volume, begin to get harder to decipher the more she squirms and laughs.

“Em stop, I’m going to pee.”

That is Liv’s standard, ‘I’m not giving up but I’m going to stop you from tickling me’, response, so I roll off her, panting and out of breath and she rolls in the opposite direction, landing on the bedroom floor with a thud.

This causes me to clutch my stomach and laugh even harder, especially when she pops her bedraggled head up over the side of the bed and sticks her tongue out.

“We are such children, if our guys could see us now….” she finishes my sentence, “They’d be all hot and heavy from seeing two gorgeous chicks having some rough and tumble. It’s every man’s dream.”

“Knowing Jake I think you might be right.”

I push myself up onto one elbow and look over at her, “So you’ve hounded me all night, fair’s fair, what’s been going on in the loved up world of Liv and Nate?” I raise an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to spill all the details.

All humour is gone when she finally replies, “I want to marry him Em, he’s it for me. I’m just not sure he feels the same.”

I go to speak, wanting to tell her that she’s a fool to think he isn’t crazy about her, when her phone starts to sing
All of Me
by
John Legend.

She looks up at me shyly, “Nate chose his own ringtone”, then swipes the screen to answer.

I smile at my best friend and wonder how she can be so clueless sometimes. A man doesn’t programme his ringtone to be something like that, without wanting you as much as you want him.

R
olling off the bed, I stumble to my feet in order to give Liv some privacy and head into the lounge area to check my phone for messages. I have none.

This doesn’t sadden me but actually makes me happy because it finally means that Jake must be relaxed enough, to enjoy his night out and is not spending it worrying about me.

Grabbing myself a bottle of water from the fridge, I plonk myself down on the sofa with a big content smile on my face.

My life has changed so much over the last year and I’m grateful for every person in it.

Liv interrupts my musings with a small cough and she approaches me with a ‘cat that caught the canary look’.

“Nate is heading back; he said Jake and H need some male bonding time, so he’s left them to it. Don’t mind if I shoot off do you?” Her face is apprehensive; she’s worried I will think she’s ditched me. “The thing is, when I leave tomorrow, I won’t be seeing him again for two weeks.”

I smile over at my friend, loving the quiet joy that is written all over her face, “Not at all, go and spend some time with your delicious man. I’m just going to try and sleep off my sugar high, seeing as I haven’t had much rest since I arrived.”

She gives me a knowing smirk, leans down to give me a hug and whispers, “It makes me so happy to see you like this Em, both of you. Just let him in okay?”

“He’s already in Liv, so far in it’s going to hurt when he tries to remove himself.”

She kisses me on the cheek before replying, “He’s not going anywhere, you’ve changed him Em and he likes the man he’s becoming.”

I nod and squeeze her tightly before allowing her to leave.

C
rawling into bed, I lie on my back, only for something to dig right into my spine. I fumble around beneath me, finally finding the packet of Lovehearts that I won from Liv earlier.

I roll them around in my hand, before grabbing my iPod from the nightstand and hitting play.

The calm, soothing voice of
Mr Probz
singing about waves, washes over me, taking me straight back to the perfect day that I spent with Jake, with the sound of the waves our only company.

I want to leave something for him, so that when he gets back from his night out, he knows I’ve been thinking about him.

The packet of sweets in my hand rolls out of my grasp and onto the bed. I pat around the bed covers, find them by my thigh and proceed to unwrap the little hearts embossed with messages. The first one says ‘Lucky Lips’, the next ‘Dream Girl’, so I eat them quickly not wanting to make a mess. The third one says ‘Kiss Me’ then I get ‘Heart Throb’ and then ‘You’re Mine’…… perfect.

I put the half empty packet of sweets on the nightstand and place the ‘Kiss Me’, ‘Heart Throb’ and ‘You’re Mine’, all in a row on his pillowcase.

Then I lie on my side to face the space that will soon be filled by Jake’s big body and I drift off into a blissful sleep.

My dreams, like most nights, are filled with him. At one point the kiss he gives me whilst dreaming, feels so soft and so sweet, that I almost wake and expect him to be there but a warmth envelopes me and I fall back into slumber.

“I love you Emmy” are the softly spoken words that float on the air all around me. Even in sleep I know that he has come back to me.

I wake some time in the early hours to find Jake naked and wrapped around me like a limpet. The heat from his body is sending my temperature sky high. I shift my backside a little, as the hairs on his thighs are tickling my sensitive skin and he groans in response, thrusting his erection into the cleft of my butt.

Tingles spread all over my sleepy body but he’s still fast asleep and I’m not going to wake him. Hopefully his dreams are also filled with me and if they’re not, I’ll be sure to give him plenty of dream worthy material when he wakes up.

I back myself further into his embrace, so that every piece of me touches every part of him. He sighs, squeezes me tightly and I drift back off with a blissful smile on my face.

S
pending time with someone you are close to, knowing that it will soon come to an end, is bitter sweet.

H
just dropped his bombshell and I feel like the coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons, having just had a one tonne weight dropped on my head.

His words have left me devastated.

Crushed.

“I’m flying back with you for the surgery.” It’s a statement not a request and I pick my phone off the table to send Nina an email, making sure she sorts out all the necessary arrangements.

He grabs the phone from my hand and places it back on the table with a firm thud.

“No Jake. You have commitments here and have already missed numerous interviews and appearances due to your little escapade at sea. I can do this myself. I don’t need you there to hold my hand.”

His words are spoken calmly but still feel harsh to my ears.

“But I want to come with you, I don’t care about that other shit, it’s not important.”

“No Jake, you aren’t listening as usual. I. Don’t. Want. You. There.”

He stands abruptly from the table, forcing his fingers through his hair, causing it to stand on end. “I’m going to get laid while I still can. Don’t wait up for me.”

Before I can form the words to stop him, he’s prowling the dance floor, looking like he’s about to devour anything that comes in his path.

Well he might not want me here but I sure as hell will not leave him here alone.

I watch from a distance as his aggressively sexual moves, garner him numerous dirty looks and a few slaps from some of the female clubbers.

Shit.

If he carries on like this, he’s going to piss off the wrong person and end up on the end of someone’s fist.

I nod over to one of my security guys to follow him on the dance floor, while I continue watching from the VIP. I want to follow him down there, make sure he doesn’t get into trouble but more than a few people have already recognised me and my presence would only cause more trouble than H is right now.

Fuck.

This is one of those times that my job sucks. When your notoriety and celebrity cause hurt to your loved ones, like FML’s lies have Emma. Being unable to go and watch H’s back, when he needs me most, makes me wonder why I thought being successful was my ultimate goal in life.

Yes I love my job; I even love the attention it brings to some extent, but not at times like this. At times like this I wish I were still a nobody.

Would Emma still want a nobody?

I know that my fame didn’t attract her to me and she is not in the least bit shallow but would she still want me if I was just a Haver’s employee?

Both my heart and my head are in agreement for once.

Yes. Emma sees
me.
Emma wants
me.

Not a bad boy, TV star, who’s dipped his wick one too many times.

W
hen H gets knocked back by a girl who is blatantly dancing with her boyfriend, I nod to my security guy to intervene before he gets walloped.

He doesn’t take too kindly to being dragged away from the action and after pushing away from the arms of the man I sent to bail him out, he storms towards the club’s main restrooms.

Fuck this shit.

I head over to my remaining security guy and tell him where I’m going. He attempts to warn me off, stating he’s looking out for my safety but I couldn’t care less right now. So I tell him to follow me or back the fuck off.

He follows.

I force my way through the throngs of clubbers, getting an uneasy sense of déjà vu. Why am I always in a club chasing after someone I care about?

This is some seriously whacked out shit.

I can feel dozens of eyes on me as I squeeze my way through the crowds, some people standing right in my way with a look of shock on their face. It’s not until I begin getting stopped by people wanting a photo, or for me to sign different parts of their anatomy, that I remember how huge the VB franchise is over here.

When one particularly amorous fan, attempts to stick her tits in my face, my security guy pushes me behind him and all but drags me towards the men’s toilets.

I finally reach the doors a little flustered, turn to thank my guy and let him know that I can take it from here. He nods once and lets me know that he’ll be just outside if I need him.

O
nce you’ve seen one club toilet, you’ve seen them all.

No-one pays attention to my entry, everyone is too busy pissing in the urinals or queuing up to buy condoms. I am of no relevance to them. Thank fuck.

I don’t spot H in the main area, so I wait until all but one of the cubicles empties and then I knock on the closed door.

“H. C’mon buddy, let’s get out of here.”

Silence. I bang my fist a little harder against the stall door.

“H, fucking answer me will you. I’m not playing hide and bloody seek with you all night. C’mon man, let’s go and get a quiet drink back at the hotel.”

The door vibrates with an answering kick.

“Just fucking leave me J. Go back to your girl and leave me in peace.”

I run my hand over my face then rub at my eyes with my thumb and forefinger, trying to stop the ache that is pounding in the depths of my skull.

“Listen H, I’m not going anywhere, so as soon as you get that into your thick head and open the fucking door, the better. Or trust me when I say I’ll kick the fucking thing down.”

Silence.

“Running away from this shit isn’t going to make it just disappear H. I should know, it’s all I’ve ever done when things get ugly but you know what? ….. “

Silence.

“Life will kick the fuck out of you no matter what, run and hide, it will still find you. Sometimes you have to have the wind knocked out of you, to finally remember how to breathe.”

Silence.

“Come and breathe with me man, I refuse to do it without you.”

I’
m ten seconds away from making good on my threat to kick down the door, when I hear the latch click and the door slowly opens.

H comes out looking like a little lost boy. All the anger has left him, only the shell of my friend remains.

He stumbles towards me, losing his footing and almost hitting the cold, tiled floor. I loop my arm around his waist and take his full weight, slowly staggering with him to the door.

I open it to find both my security guys blocking the doorway and a queue of pissed off clubbers waiting to use the john.

“Thanks guys, I could use a hand to get him back to the limo.”

Without further ado, they both take an arm each and guide us out of the club via a nearby side exit. The limo is conveniently waiting for us on the side of the road, just a few steps away.