Chapter 1
Nikki
“Right there…right there…who’s your daddy?” Rocky hissed breathlessly while I ran my tongue along the tip of his cock, swallowing all his delicious juices. It had been our morning ritual lately, blow jobs before breakfast. It was quick and Rocky didn’t last long, which only meant that I gave great head – obviously.
I pulled his boxers up, satisfied with myself for getting that done in less than two minutes. Now I had peace and quiet for the next half hour before we had to pack and head back home to the city. The Hamptons was a great place to relax, but I missed the pressure of work. I missed bossing people around and telling people to shove their million-dollar lawsuits up their asses. But I never called myself a workaholic. I wasn’t Charlie.
If there was one word to describe Charlie it would be determined. Most of the time (and I emphasize MOST of the time) she knew what she wanted and was unstoppable. In college, she would cram in studying every second of the day she had free, which worked to my advantage because, let’s face it, I was too busy up to my ears full of Rocky’s jizz to be cramming like her, which explains why I’m a mom to a six-year-old at the ripe old age of twenty-six.
She aced college, graduated almost top of the class, and without her we wouldn’t be Mason & Romano. She was steadfast and knew exactly how to make our firm a success. To add to that, the woman was a fucking goddess. She would walk down the street and you could see guys, strangers, walk past her with their dicks practically saluting her.
The only area she couldn’t get right was her love life. I mean failure of epic proportions. She dated randomly throughout college but something or someone always held her back. I didn’t push, I wasn’t that type of person but I did work hard to organize blind dates with the hottest guys in college. I mean the ones that if Rocky wasn’t my husband, I would have rode them faster than a rollercoaster at Disney World. The point is that no one piqued her interest until Julian Baker came along.
There is no question that he is Mr. Perfect, kinda scary because really there is no such thing. Everyone has a flaw, but with Julian, it was impossible to find it. When Charlie announced they were engaged, I was in shock because they had only been together six months. He was handsome so their babies would have made the Beckham kids look ugly, but she was still my best friend and something didn’t feel right.
That was just the tip of the iceberg, until that beautiful jerk walked back into Charlie’s life. I knew who Lex Edwards was. Rocky rambled on about him every time he was on page six. In my lifetime, I never would have figured out it was the same man – THE Alex who Charlie would scream out for in her sleep. Her waking up drenched in a cold sweat with tears streaming down her face was exhausting that first six months we lived together. When I pieced the puzzle together, I realized there was more to this story than Charlie let on.
Lex irked me, rubbed me up the wrong way. Not the way I normally would like to be rubbed up, but hey, the man was obscenely gorgeous. He had some hold over Charlie and without a shadow of a doubt, every time he was near her, her vagina celebrated like it won the Super Bowl. Bottom line is I loathed him. My best friend was fucked up royally over what he did to her and you always gotta have your girl’s back when the going gets tough. The thing is, I saw a change in him over the weekend. He wasn’t the man I thought he was. OK, yeah, I was becoming a soft bitch, but he revealed himself this weekend and I no longer saw him as the man who was splashed all over the tabloids. I saw a man who fell in love with a girl and did what he thought was right by everyone. Just because I saw this other side of him didn’t mean I lightened up, I was still a bitch – a hot bitch who gave the best head to her husband.
I rolled over to my side and checked my cell quickly before hopping into the shower. In thirty minutes I was dressed, packed and ready to pick up Will from next door. I knew it would be a shit fight; Will hated leaving his friends, so I decided to grab a quick cup of coffee from the kitchen so I could muster the energy to deal with his impending tantrum.
I found Rocky pacing up and down the kitchen clearly upset about something. “Babe, what’s wrong?” I asked as I poured myself that much needed cup of coffee. He threw me the paper, my eyes darting to the article he pointed to. My heart sank because I knew half of it was bullshit, but Charlie wouldn’t believe that. The house was quiet which I knew wouldn’t last once word got out. “Where is she?” I asked.
“She drove back to the city, asked me to get her car back.” He looked worried. He always had a soft spot for her. He treated her like a sister and I loved him even more for it. I paced up and down the kitchen, mirroring Rocky.
“Where’s Lex?”
“Still sleeping I guess.”
“Shit, Rocky. What did she say? Was she upset? Of course she would be upset.” I was panicked.
“Babe, calm down.”
I grabbed my cell and tried to dial her number. Straight to voicemail. I left a message as well as texted her. Lex needed to wake up. As the thought left my mind, he walked into the kitchen looking very content. He looked different, jubilant, like a man who got laid by the girl he was in love with.
“Morning. Have you guys seen Charlotte?” he asked cheerfully.
If this was two weeks ago I would have gladly thrown the paper at his face and told him he was nothing more than a selfish man-whore. But like I said, something changed. He was different. I saw this side to him that Charlie was once, and still was, in love with. This happy carefree fun-loving guy who adored her. I wasn’t surprised they were fucking all over The Hamptons. There was so much sexual tension between them that a hundred dildos couldn’t ease it. It only meant they were also having hot sex all over the joint. Eww. I wondered if they did it in the hot tub that night after we did… I told Rocky it was gross to jizz in the water but he said with my tits bouncing in front of him all wet, he couldn’t help himself.
Rocky and I looked at each other as Lex asked about Charlie again. I stood there, arms folded, as Rocky passed him the paper. Lex looked at it confused. I watched his face ch
ange from confusion to rage as he read. He slammed the paper down on the table and grabbed his cell, muttering the words ‘you stupid bitch.’
“Kate. Get me Victoria on the phone right now.” He slammed the cell down, leaning on the table for support. “Where is she?”
“She went back to the city.”
“How long ago?”
“About half an hour.”
“FUCK!” He slammed his fist against the counter startling the both of us. “This is the fucking bullshit press. Victoria is a fucking business colleague and nothing more. These pictures are not of us fucking. I’ve never touched the stupid whore nor would I ever!”
I don’t know why I believed him. The thing is that even though I disliked him, he proved me wrong, something quite unheard of. He loved Charlie. And yeah, I knew the past was fucked up but that was seven years ago and they had both grown since then. I didn’t understand why Charlie had this massive trust issue, why she couldn’t see how much he loved her. I also knew tabloids could spin shit out of their asses and manipulate photos. I learned that the hard way when there was a photo of Rocky a few years back at a sporting event and it looked like a chick was blowing him. Now, I didn’t want to go taking his side, but I knew how stubborn Charlie was and right now I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy. Not that I was gonna tell him that.
We needed to get back to the city as soon as possible and fix the damage that had been done. I knew Charlie and right now she would be shutting everyone out because that’s what she did. I tried her cell again, it went to voicemail. I asked Rocky to get Will from next door. It wasn’t long before Adriana and Elijah walked in.
“Hey guys, what’s happening?” Adriana asked as she sat down at the table grabbing a banana and peeling it. She looked from me to Lex, confused by our silence.
“Charlie’s gone,” I answered.
“Gone? Where?”
I handed her the paper, watching as Lex was standing at the window gazing outside. His eyes were glazed over and his expression looked heartbroken. Maybe he knew just like me how Charlie would take this.
“Lex, is this true?”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Adriana?” he shot back.
“But the photos look, well...”
“What, Adriana?”
“Well, they look like what the article says.”
“FUCK, ADRIANA!”
“Lex, calm down,” Elijah said.
“Don’t you get it? She finally fucking told me she trusts me and wants a future with me and then this happens. THIS IS SO FUCKED UP!” He slammed his fist on the counter, startling us. “Last night…” he mumbled.
“Last night what?” Adriana asked as she put her arm around her brother’s shoulder, attempting to comfort him.
“Lex, we need to head back,” I said. “Let me deal with her in the meantime. She needs to calm down. You need to make sure whoever posted this article retracts their words. Look, Will is going to be here any minute. Can you please not mention why she left?”
A few seconds later Will walked in. He was elated to see Lex who tried his best not to show any anger in front of the child. I had to hand it to him, taking a kid’s feelings into account was hard to do when you were feeling like complete shit. Will asked where Charlie was so of course Adriana quickly explained that something urgent came up in the city. He didn’t seem to notice anything else but he begged Lex to ride in the car with us. Of course Lex agreed and that was the end of the conversation.
We packed our things and drove out of the Hamptons. Adriana and Elijah took Charlie’s car and the rest of us took the RV that Rocky borrowed from a friend. I sat in the back with Will as he quietly played his DS. Every so often he would look up and asked if we were home yet. I scoured my emails for anything from Charlie. Nothing. Frustrated, I placed the cell back in my bag and stared out the window. Lex was texting furiously on his blackberry; the constant pinging sound kept coming through. Thankfully he at least had the decency to not answer calls because his words would be enough to make Will scared of him for life. A few moments later my cell vibrated. I grabbed it out of my purse. It was Eric.
“What do you want?” I answered. I didn’t want to say his name because I knew Lex was listening.
“Nikki what the hell is going on?” His voice was all high pitched, typical Eric in panic mode.