I groaned and placed my head in my hands. “Tell Jonas to get his butt back to uni and leave any sorting out to me.”
“Your brother cares. He thought of Rory like a big brother.”
“Well his big brother just left home for good and isn’t coming back.”
Mum wiped a tear from her eye. “I feel like I’ve lost a son.”
I swallowed hard and studied my parents. They were pale and drawn as if there had been a death in the family. Sadness haunted their gazes, and it wasn’t just for my sake. They’d loved Rory.
They had taken the ungrateful wretch into their lives and into their hearts for the six years we’d gone out—three in uni and three after—and this was how he repaid them. Although people could say I hadn’t fought for him, since a short argument in the car hadn’t been much of a fight, I’d seen it in Rory’s eyes. He’d been determined, and it had been there for days.
Rory had grown up with junkie parents. They’d died before he left primary school, and he’d ended up living with his grandmother until she died. He was self-reliant. When Rory made up his mind about something, there was no point trying to dissuade him. I was now a single girl, and he’d chosen to throw away the only family who ever cared for him.
Well hell mend him. I was just sad he’d broken more than my heart in the process.
Chapter 5
Rory
LACEY BLOODY KENDRICK. I stood there, watching the bright red door with the shiny brass knocker, long after she clicked it shut. She’d walked up an external staircase to the entrance of her flat which was framed by cute little stands with plant pots. The plants weren’t up to much, since it was March, yet I imagined, knowing Lacey, in the summer they would be a riot of colour. Like with other flats in the area, she also had one of those signs telling cold callers to get lost.
I blew out a long breath and headed for my own flat in Partick, about a mile from where Lacey lived. My dick was still hard from the whiff of her perfume when I’d whispered in her ear. It was just as well my winter jacket was long enough to cover the evidence. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, making sure to avoid touching the offending appendage through my clothes. It needed no further encouragement; my brain was encouraging it enough. I kept thinking of the birthmark Lacey had in the crease between her thigh and her butt cheek. God, I had loved that. It was about three inches in diameter, and although Lacey hated it, I thought it was sexy as hell. I would bite, and suck, and kiss it whenever I had her on her front.
And now my dick was even harder.
A horn broke me out of my erotic reverie. A grey car jolted to a halt to my right, stopping a metre from hitting me. The driver, a young guy with dark hair and hipster glasses rolled down his window and tipped his head out. “Oi, watch where you’re going, dickhead.”
I lifted my hand in apology.
“Fucking drunks,” he said, pulling his head back in and rolling up his window again. I shook my head and hopped onto the pavement. One meeting with Lacey and I was a lovesick fool again. This was why I broke up with her in the first place.
No.
I stopped in my tracks and ran the fingers of one hand through my hair. When I broke up with her, I’d been an idiot. The grass had seemed greener where my single mates were, and friends were teasing me about wedding rings and babies. God, she’d look amazing with a baby bump—not any baby bump, my baby’s bump.
I strode home and up the steps of the tenement to my second-floor flat, my fists clenched and my jaw locked tight. Lacey had been a virgin when I met her. Now other men had known her body, touched her, made her arch her back as she came, made her cry out their names.
I burst through the door of my flat, stomping inside and slamming the door behind me. Throwing off my coat, I hung it up by the door and turned to the sofa where my flatmate held himself above his girlfriend, dry humping her.
“For fuck’s sake,” I growled. “You have a room.” Olivia giggled as she fought her way out from under David. “You’re not normally this sensitive about us making out in the living room, Rory. Who pissed in your cornflakes? Or are you narked Lacey didn’t invite you to stay for cornflakes?”
“I’m not interested in Lacey. She’s the past.”
David twisted to stare at me, arching an eyebrow as Olivia played with the beads at the end of his neat braids. “You sure about that, bro?”
I frowned. “Did you ever sleep with her when she went through her slapper phase?”
David sat back on his heels, raising his hands in the air as Olivia adjusted her top. “Woah, man, what are you suggesting? I’ve been with Olivia since before you guys broke up. I would never cheat on her.”
Okay, David was a good guy; he wouldn’t cheat.
“But you would have if not for Olivia?” I said.
“No man. That would be against the bro code.”
“What bro code?”
“Don’t sleep with your best friend’s ex. You also don’t sleep with your bestie’s ex. She’d be breaking girl code,” David said
Olivia nodded.
I glowered at her then turned my attention back to David. “That’s the only reason? You’re not saying she’s not good enough for you?”
“Nah man. She’s a cool dude.”
“Dudes are guys.”
David rolled his eyes. “I cannae win. Look, she’s off limits, but she’s a good-looking lass. She’s just not my type.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Nothing. I’m fond of my balls, and you’d castrate me if I went near her.”
I thought about that for a moment, then fixed him with a hard stare. “She’s mine. Got it?”
David nodded.
“Umm, not to rain on your parade here, Rory, but is Lacey on board with this little claiming ceremony?” Olivia asked.
I huffed and spun on my heel, leaving them to their dry humping. I slammed the door and stomped down the short hallway to my bedroom. Bloody women and their details.
Grabbing a towel from my bottom drawer, I headed for the shower.
I undressed and stepped under the lukewarm spray. We needed to talk to the landlord about the shower. It was crap.
Taking myself in hand, images of Lacey filled my mind. Me and her against the lamp post. Me slipping my hand up her skirt, right on the busy four-lane Great Western Road. My fingers sliding into her tights and knickers, finding her wet and ready for me. Making her gasp. Claiming those lips as I pushed my fingers into her wet heat.
That was all it took.
I didn’t even get to the good part before an orgasm barrelled down my spine, and I shot my load all over the frosted glass of the shower stall. I leaned against the cool tiles, my breath coming in gasps as I pumped the last few drops of cum out of my dick.
Lacey Kendrick was very much still in my system, and I was going to have to do something about it.
Chapter 6
Lacey
“SO BABY GIRL, WHAT’S new in the big city?” said my mum.
I laughed as I moved around the kitchen island and grabbed an apple, selecting a knife to chop it into slices.
“Nothing much. The hounds of Glasgow are in good health, the cats are still looking at me as if they wish me a slow and cruel death, and the budgerigars are ambivalent.”