A Little Bit of Truth (Little Bits) (13 page)

Her jaw clenches, I pull her closer and lead her out of the restaurant. As expected there are carefully placed photographers hiding nearby.

“I apologize for not paying attention,” I say softly. “But don’t pull that shit again.”

She only nods, her face still a hard mask.

I give her what she wants, what the cameras want and what the world wants. Spinning her in my arms I press my lips to hers and wrap my hand around the back of her neck so she can’t go anywhere.

Shock becomes me when her hands pull me closer by the lapels of my jacket. Then she moans when I thrust my tongue into her mouth. She’s not a bad kisser. It all feels so orchestrated and technical though. There’s no chemistry, none whatsoever. Oh well.

I release her and lead her to my car before helping her inside and climbing in after her. “Your place or mine?”

“Yours,” she says and I inwardly curse. If she’s at mine I can’t leave and go to Marie’s.
“Actually mine, I didn’t bring anything with me.” Phew. “No, yours. It’ll look better if I leave yours in the morning than if you leave mine.” Shit.

“Mine it is,” my jaw clenches. I lead her to the car.

“You shouldn’t drive this late, stay the night,” Kev suggests as I pull on my jacket. “
You sleep in my bed and I’ll sleep on the…” he pauses and starts laughing.

“No bed
,” I laugh with him. “It’s no problem. I’m always out late, I feel more comfortable in the dark than I do the light. I’m just that used to it.”

He follows me outside to my car, “Well, it was nice to catch up with you. Thanks for coming.”

I nod and give him a quick hug, “No problem. Keep in touch.”

Marie
:
On my way home. What are you doing?

Jacob
:
Not much.

Marie
:
Want me to come to your place?

Jacob
:
I wish. Beth is here. They think it’ll set our non-existent relationship in stone. People seeing her leave my hotel tomorrow morning.

Not sure how I feel about this.

Marie
:
She’s staying in your room?

Jacob
:
Yeah. Threesome?

I don’t respond, I’m driving now, it’s unsafe. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

Threesome?

Does that mean he’s going to fuck her? Or does it mean he wants to? What the hell am I getting myself into? Ugh, why am I even obsessing? It’s not important.

Jacob
:
I’m kidding. ;-)

Oh…

Jacob
:
Your silence tells me you’re giving it some thought.

Marie
:
I’m driving. There’s a cop car behind me.

I lie but I don’t care. I’m processing my thoughts. If that makes sense.

Jacob
:
So no threesome then?

Marie
:
If I end up wrapped around a tree because of your texting… or worse, in jail. I will set a rabid dog on your male parts.

Jacob
:
Now, now Marie. Feisty you are, but it’s not nice to refer to yourself as a rabid dog… no matter how bad you want to feast on my male parts.

I can’t help it, I laugh. He’s such a goof.

Jacob
:
So, no threesome then?

Marie
:
Yeah sure, I’ll just give Kev a call. Always fancied being shoved on two poles like a spit roast.

His silence is extremely reassuring, either he’s thinking about it or he’s laughing so hard he can’t respond.

Jacob
:
Did you fuck him?

Well… there’s a huge conversation changer. Umm, what do I do with that?

Marie
:
Did you fuck Beth?

His call is instant. I pull to the curb, not wanting to speak and drive at the same time without my hands free device.

“Did you?” he asks me instantly. Sounding irritated. What did I do?

“Did you fuck
Beth?” I laugh a little, unsure of this sudden change to his tone. A tone he’s never taken with me before. A tone I recognize from James, Maya’s husband, when he’s grouching at Maya. This can’t be good. Is Jacob jealous?

“Nope,” he responds instantly. “Your turn.”

I laugh nervously, “No, I didn’t fuck Kev.”

There’s silence for a few beats. I can hear him breathing. Then he blurts… no, he commands, “Good. Keep it that way.” And then the line goes dead.

Holy. Fuck.

Obsessing

I don’t like this feeling in my stomach. It’s irritating. Maybe I ate something bad.

“Are you okay?”
Beth asks when I flop back onto the bed and rub my ribs with my hand.

“Yeah, indigestion.”

“Who were you talking to? You sounded annoyed,” her large eyes scan my face as she stands by my knees that are hanging over the side of the bed.

“Nobody,” my response is automatic. I flick through
my texts and stop on the one from Marie, telling me she wants two dicks in her body. Surely she was joking? Yet the thought of it makes me really fucking irate.

Holy fuck.

My thoughts continue shifting, images of Marie straddling some unknown male while I ate dinner with Beth. This is… fuck. I’m jealous. I’m fucking jealous! I want to go over to this, ‘Kev’s’ house and knock out his teeth.

I want to go downstairs right now, climb into my car, go to Marie’s and make sure she’s alone. If she’s not, I want to drag out whatever man is there and then go back in and shake her. Then fuck her. My feelings are almost primal, like a caveman. At the same time I want to shake her and never speak with her again for sharing that golden pussy, I also want to dip into her one more time. Mark her tits and ass with my…

“Jacob,” Beth starts giggling.

I groan and pull a pillow over my lap, she laughs harder.

My thoughts from a moment ago vanish. I’m being stupid, I’m not jealous. Not in the slightest. I’m just tired and grumpy and wanting to take it out on Marie. I’m also horny.

The bed shifts as
Beth lies on her side beside me. I blink and look at her. She’s female, she can fix this ache in my trousers.

“I need to sleep,” she quickly states
, after a realization dawns on her face, then she jumps back up again. I guess she doesn’t want to fix my ache. If I were a crying man, I’d be sobbing. Not for my mommy, for Marie.

“Oh my god, that bastard!” Maya screeches as she storms into my apartment.

I look up from my laptop, “Well hello to you too.”

Something slams onto the keys of my laptop, I look down at the cover. Then I look up again at Maya. “I’ve seen it.”

“And?” She prompts with her arms folded over her chest.

I shrug, “And what?”

“But… he… and… you… but,” her scrunched up face, confused and bewildered, makes me smile. She’s so adorable. “I thought…”

“Hate to say I told you so,” Ah, Lucas is here. “And you know… I am crippled. You could have waited for me to get up the stairs before vanishing.” I move my mess from the couch so Lucas, who is on crutches, can sit beside me. “Hey you.” He leans over and kisses my temple. “Missed me?”

I lower my voice in jest, “I miss no man.”

“That sucks. I guess you don’t want this then,” he pulls a brown paper bag from his pocket. It’s small, it’s greasy. It’s my favorite lunchtime pastry from my favorite place for pastries.

“I love you, I missed you. All hail the mighty Lucas and his might
y pastry.” He hands the bag over with a large grin. When I look up, my mouth full of food, Maya is pouting at me. “What?”

“Gross, chew and swallow before you speak,” Lucas states. I ignore him.

Maya responds, “Operation whores TBW is failing.”

“Whores what now?” I swallow the food in my mouth and finish off the pastry.

“TBW,” Lucas and Maya say together. He explains further, “TBW stands for, to be wed. Whores to be wed.”

My mouth drops open, “You and James aren’t getting married?”

Her mouth drops open, “You just called me a whore!”

“I think whores TBW, is the name of the operation to bring you and Jacob together,” Lucas leans into me and says with a scrunch of his nose.

Oh, well… okay then.

“And you’re insulted because I called you a whore?” I laugh at Maya. “When your ‘operation’ name is referring to me and Jacob as whores?”

Maya quirks a brow, “So. How many people have you slept with?”

“Umm…”

“And what percentage of them did you call Rex, simply because you forgot their name, or didn’t care to know their name?”

Oops. “Umm…”

“Therefore, you are, a whore. But, you are my whore,” she smiles triumphantly. “And I love you. Even if you don’t love yourself.”

Should I be insulted or happy? “Umm… thank you?”

Her smile widens, “You’re welcome. Now… What’s going on with you and
Jacob?”

“Not a whole lot, he’s busy a lot with Beth. They’re pretending to have a relationship to boost their new movie or something.”

“Oh,” Maya instantly relaxes. “Well, okay then… now I regret telling you about operation Whores TBW.”

“I regret you telling me,” I mumble with a sigh and punch Lucas’ arm when he starts chuckling. I fail to see what’s funny.

“So, has anyone picked up Jacob’s photos yet?”

I nod, a smile stretching my face, “Yep. For a helluva lot of money too! Two high end magazines want the photos. It’s great. One of them offered to throw an extra fifteen grand in if I convince Jacob to do an interview with them.”

“Savages,” Maya snarls and I nod in agreement. “I hope you told them no.”

“Well…”

Her mouth drops open, “Marie!”

“But…”

“He’s not an object!”

I huff. She’s right. “Of course I said…” Maya’s eyebrow quirks, she knows I’m lying. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell them no!”

“Good girl.” She vanishes into the kitchen. Skipping as she goes.

I turn to Lucas and growl, “Did she just pat me on the head?”

“Yep.”

“Sometimes I hate that girl.”

He only grins, “Yep.”

“Want to sneak out? Get some lunch?”

He glances at the kitchen where Maya is currently singing and banging pots around. Then he nods, his grin now a smile, “Fuck yeah.”

And with as much speed as is possible from a temporarily crippled man, we sneak out of the front door and climb into my car. Right as we reverse out of my parking space Maya comes storming from the house a whisk in hand. Then she throws said whisk but it misses because we’re already driving away. Laughing our asses off in the process.

“Feeling mean yet?” Lucas asks as I bite into my burger and groan.

I glance at my phone which is ringing for the seventeenth time since leaving my place and shake my head. “Nah. You?”

He looks at his own phone which starts ringing when mine stops and shakes his own head, “Nah.” Then we clink glasses and I add, “Serves her right for calling me a whore.”

Someone is at the door, I groan and with aching muscles make my way towards it. As soon as it opens an angry looking Maya stomps in. “I made lunch! Eat it with me.”

“Okay?” I blink and grunt when a large plastic bag is thrust into my hands, filled with boxes. “Umm…”

“Your girlfriend is a bitch!”

“Girlfriend?”

“Yes! Marie! She left me after inviting me to lunch. Took Lucas with her and left. So I cooked thinking they’d be back…” her jaw muscle jumps. “But instead,” she angrily slams two plates on the counter and hands me her phone. “They send me that picture!”

I try not to laugh. Marie and Lucas have sent a picture of their faces pressed together, both of them with their eyes crossed and a burger hanging out of their mouths. Yeah, that’s funny. “Why did they ditch you?”