The show begins
My best friend Thalia has been acting strange all morning. Her and I live together, and she disappeared before I was even awake this morning, then when I asked her where she was, she acted very nervous.
As I sit at the breakfast bar watching her make us both a latte, I notice she keeps checking her phone before nervously smiling at me, and I'm not going to lie it’s making me nervous as s**t!
“How do you feel about a party tonight?” okay, surely that can’t be what she is nervous about saying
“Sure, what’s going on Tal?” I ask her, I’ve always called her Tal unless I'm pissed which is when her full name comes out
“Nothing Lex, just got a lot going on, but a party might help” yeah of course, bullshit!
“Well, I'm off to the gym soon, then I'm going to the shelter, so you will have to get everything for the party, I'll be back about seven, so I'll just get ready then” I own a dog rescue center and I know at the age of 23 you’re probably wondering how I can afford to own California’s biggest rescue center and how I own the huge detached house that we are living in.
When I was nineteen my whole family, mom, dad and two brothers were in our family home at Christmas, and I was on a flight home from Italy where I was studying. My parents had the whole houses electrics re-wired a few days prior and while I was on my flight home to spend Christmas with my family the house caught on fire and exploded. The electrics were to blame for the whole thing and only person who survived was my older brother Liam, Liam had severe injuries and spent two years in a burn's unit and rehab.
He’s doing okay now but he lives in New York with Tal’s older brother Jacob (Jake as I call him) yeah, it’s weird our families were always close, anyway, Liam told me to fight for justice for our family while he was recovering which I did. I took the company to court with the best lawyer who had also told Liam and I that everything our parents owned was now ours and we had become millionaires from our parents. The judge who took my case against the company who did the work was horrified with the evidence that the fire service had provided and when photos of my brother's injuries were shown she instantly called for recess.
Within a week of the trial starting the jury had made their decision, the company, contractors and the state were found guilty, and compensation was ordered leaving Liam and I with an additional forty-five million dollars. The state was found guilty due to emergency service operators not giving correct information to the fire department who were told it was a small, contained house fire which considering our house exploded while one of the neighbors was making the call obviously the operators who heard the call still passed on false information, the operators who heard the call that evening were also given jail time along with the owner of the company, and the contractors who actually carried out the job, the company was one of the biggest in the world and it quickly crumbled when the news got out.
So, along with mom and dad's inheritance I'm worth thirty-five million dollars to date. Tal and I have a house bank account which both Tal and I put money into each month for food, luxuries and anything we might need for the house, you might wonder why Tal puts money in it, I didn’t ask her to in fact I was against the idea but her parents own over seventy percent of California’s retail, hospitality and housing industry and they wouldn’t allow me to pay for everything.
Back to now, I finish my latte and head to the gym. I managed to get a good hour workout session in, and I feel f*****g fantastic. I showered at the gym and changed quickly into some denim shorts and a black tank along with my sneakers before driving my Lamborghini Aventador to my rescue shelter.
I have amazing staff here, I have a manager who is here most days to make sure everything is running smoothly and she has employed some more staff recently due to the amount of rescue dogs that we are currently receiving, I’m only here today to finalize some plans for a large expansion and another possible rescue center for all different kinds of animals.
I walk through the main doors greeting the reception staff before heading through to my office and checking on any notes which there aren’t many, by the time Sarah the manager comes to the office she has the team who will be doing the expansion work with her.
“Out here from this end wall I want the new build to start” I say pointing to end of our kennel area, the reason I chose this place for the rescue is due to land that came with it, there’s a private lake which the dogs love, there is ten acres of land so plenty of land for walks and ball games for the dogs
“Okay, and the expansion, you still want it the same size?” Sarah’s husband (The owner of the company I hired) asks
“Please, and I have a few viewings tomorrow for the new rescue center and I might need some work done once I buy somewhere, are you still okay for that?” I ask and of course he nods, Sarah and her husband Dean have become really good friends of mine and Tal's
“Oh, and thanks to Tal’s we are having a party tonight if you guys want to come along” I offer, and they both look at each nervously, I raise my brow at them and place my hand on my hip
“Okay, listen, we don’t know what the party is for all we know is Thalia told us about it on Monday” Sarah says, hmm this is f*****g strange
“Okay, no worries. So, will I see you both there?” Dean smirks and Sarah smacks his arm
“Thalia told me she would cut my d**k off and feed it to the dogs if we don’t come” Dean says covering his private area making me laugh, yeah that sounds like Tal.
After finishing up with some work on my desk, I made my rounds giving treats to every dog we have in and giving them fusses along with reading their notes. Everything here is running perfectly.
I got home just before seven in the evening, and the kitchen is filled with beer kegs, bottles of beer, cider, fruity drinks, there are a ridiculous amount of spirit bottles, a huge punch bowl full of something that smells like it's just alcohol.
There is red solo cups placed on the breakfast bar, some mixers for the spirits and a stupid number of bottles of water which has been my thing to do for parties, I quickly grab my leftover pasta from the fridge and heat it up before demolishing it within a few minutes and I make my way upstairs.
“Tal's, you getting ready?” I shout through her closed door, and she swings it open freshly showered
“Yep, go for a shower and I'll meet you in your room “she says, and I nod heading for my room right down the other side of the landing. I have a quick shower and wrap my bathrobe around me.
Two hours later and a few cocktails down, I'm stood looking in my mirrored closet door, my tanned skin is glowing against the sleeveless white tube dress I'm wearing, it ends just at mid-thigh and my long legs look longer with my white heeled wedges. My makeup is flawless I decided on a smoky eye with a white shimmer, my lips are painted nude with a pink outline that matched my pink blush. My long brown hair is curled at the ends.
Tals is dressed in a black copy of my dress with black heels, and her blonde hair is curled at the ends like mine, she got ready to quickly for my liking and as soon as she was ready, she practically ran downstairs.
Spraying some of my favorite perfume that Tal got me for my birthday over my neck, wrists and ankles just in case (yes ankles. If you know you know).
As I walk downstairs, I see that the house is already packed. Saying my greetings to everyone I know, I head through the crowd looking for Tals. The music is so loud that I'm instantly glad we don’t have neighbors, I walk through crowds and into the kitchen and I still can’t see her, so I pour myself a cup of Jack Daniels and coke.
I get pulled into a conversation with Sarah, Dean and few of their friends in the foyer, we all drink and talk about the rescue center, one of Deans friends Taylor is clearly hitting on me and don’t get me wrong he’s good looking but he’s just not my type, but for someone who has only been with one man and that only lasted two months and I didn’t sleep with him, a little fun couldn’t hurt right?
The door opens and my eyes snap up to see who it is and Tals walks inside giving me one of her huge smiles which I haven’t seen on her for almost a week, she motions for me to go over, and I notice the group I was with follow me, she opens the door wide and I look down the three steps and onto the large curved drive where a Black Audi R8 sits along with a black Kawasaki Ninja H2R, I look at Tals who holds a finger up and points to Audi where a figure gets out from the Audi.
“LIAM!!!” I scream as my brothers face comes closer, I run down the stairs and straight into my brothers' arms, he spins me around and the tears are flowing, thankfully the mascara is waterproof
“Hey Lex, miss me?” he asks when he sets me on the ground
“You have no f*****g idea” I sob laugh “What are you doing here?” I ask
“Came to see my little sister, and her annoying bestie” he chuckles looking at Tals who is also sobbing up on the steps, I look around my brother's shoulder
“Who’s that?” I ask looking up at him and scratches the back of his neck, that’s his nervous habit, how bad could this be to make him nervous, I watch as he looks to Tals who is coming closer to us
“Liam, come inside and get a drink” she says pulling him away from me, which makes me frown I watch as they stop by the door, and I start walking towards them but they both point to the figure who gets off the bike, their back is facing me, the black helmet comes off and gets set on the bike and the broad figure turns around.
“JAKE?!!!” I watch his signature smile start spreading across his face popping his dimple out, not caring that my feet are going to hurt tomorrow from the running, I run towards him and just like Liam he immediately picks me up, spinning me around and now the tears are out in full force, I look over to the door to see Tals, Liam, Sarah and Dean with smirks so wide I'm surprised their faces haven’t split but they turn and head inside closing the door.
“Glad to see me then, Lex?” you have no f*****g idea Jake, so there may be a slight back story here, obviously both of our families were close, but only one person ever knew the truth and that was Tal. For as long as I can remember I've had a thing for Jake, Tal always says I'm in love with him which I'm not, but after seeing him now after two years, maybe I am, no I'm not, that would be crazy!
He has changed so much, he’s now got longish stubble on his jaw, his physique well f**k me that’s unbelievable now, and he’s covered in black ink, his throat, all his arms and his hands are also covered. Not to mention that he’s stood here in black slacks, and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
“Babe, you have a bit of drool” he swipes at the corner of my mouth with his finger, and I swat his hand away as the smirk grows on his face and his sky-blue eyes stare into mine
“Shut up! I need a drink!” I mumble as I turn to walk away but he grabs my wrist pulling me back to him
“You look f*****g stunning, Lex.” my mouth dries at his statement, before I have a chance to saying anything he grabs my hand before walking us inside and my hand feels like it’s on fire.
As soon as we walked in, I managed to get my hand back and I stormed into the kitchen slamming back two shots of tequila
“Now do you understand why I've been acting a bit off” Tals says as she grabs two shot glasses pouring us a tequila each
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I ask before necking the shot
“Liam and Jake wanted to surprise you, it was beyond stressful keeping it from you. You’re not mad at me are you, Lex?” I wrap my arms around her neck and give her a hug
“Not at all, just shocked. Plus, I just made a fool of myself in front of Jake” I mumble in my ear as I tell her about him catching me checking him out which she laughed a little too hard at.
I made my way upstairs into my room and into my bathroom, I did my eyeliner again and took a few deep breaths. I exited my room making sure to lock it and I put the key back in my bra as Taylor walked up the hall towards me
“Hey Lexi, would you save me a dance?” he asks, there’s no harm in dance, right?
“Sure, I'll see you downstairs” I say as I head back down and into the lounge where people are dancing and standing around drinking, I see Tal dancing with Liam, and I can’t help but smile, Liam and Tal have a complicated past to say the least.
Taylor approaches me and starts to dance behind me, he’s a bit to handsy, his hands sliding over my waist and hips and up my stomach but when the thunderous blue orbs that I dream about stare at me, I sway my hips against Taylor who groans in my ear making me feel slightly nauseated.
“Should we move this upstairs?” Taylor asks, and I shake my head excusing myself as I head through to the kitchen and outside around the side of the house where it’s private.
“What was that about, Lex?” oh f**k, not now! I turn to see those f*****g eyes again and they are still thunderous but now their only inches away from mine
“What?” I ask
“Don’t f*****g test me, Lex. You knew exactly what you were doing. I mean do you even like that guy?”
“I wasn’t doing anything except dancing, and no I don’t!” he grabs my hand pulling me back inside, through the crowds and into the crowded lounge before spinning me around so my back is pressed against his front “Jake, what are you doing?” my voice sounds like it’s shaking
“You want to dance, then you dance with me and only f*****g me, Lex” he growls in my ear, and I shiver in response as his hands grip my hips, and his fingers dig in through my dress, so I do what any sane person would do and I start swaying my hips against his crotch, is this a bad idea? Yeah, it really is!
A/N Hey everyone, thank you all so much for reading so far. Please feel free to leave a comment and show some love. This book will be updated every 24-48 hours.
Love ya 🖤