Loosen Up: Up Series Book 3 Read online

  “I love everything about you, Darla. However, my inner control freak sees you as someone to tame. You would either let me, which would be wrong on so many levels, or you would hate me for trying to mold you. We would drag each other down, and I cannot, ever, give myself reason to resent you or worse, have you hate me.”

  “Wow, you’ve thought about this a lot.”

  “I love you as you are, and I don’t want to be the one to change you. Hell, I’d hate myself if I did.”

  “I’d never let that happen.”

  He brought his forehead back to mine and placed a gentle kiss on my nose. “I am not willing to risk losing you.”

  We held each other for a while, listening to each other breathe. I hated to admit that he made a lot of sense. He was listening to his own universe, but I thought it best not to point that out.

  Finally he stepped back and smiled wickedly.

  “Will you keep Candy’s creation of my magnificent cock?”

  I chortled. “Yes, I am keeping it.” I wiped my tears. “It’s proof that you have at least one romantic bone in your body.”

  His smile widened. “So you will be putting my romantic bone in your body? Because if you do, I want pictures.”

  “Ha! No, I won’t be using it. If I can’t have the real thing, there’s no sense teasing myself with the imitation.” I smirked. “I think I will just place it on my mantle.” I winked.

  “That would be just like you.” He sobered. “I will call and Skype you all the time,” he promised.

  I narrowed my eyes. “You better.” I remembered I hadn’t told him my news. “By the way, I got an acting job. I happened to be on the set when a chick got morning sickness so bad, she couldn’t say her lines. They needed a redhead, and I was there.”

  He smirked again. “See? You are the luckiest girl on the planet.”

  “It’s not luck, it’s the…”

  “Universe setting the path and you follow. I know.” He kissed my forehead.

  “It was a one-shot deal. I won’t leave my day job.” I sighed. “What do you have left to do before you leave?”

  “Nothing. I’m all packed and ready. My flight leaves tomorrow at two.”

  I looked down and asked shyly, “Stay the night with me? And before you answer, we can have a Star Wars marathon, pajamas on. No funny business.”

  He brushed my hair out of my face. “You had me at Star Wars. Promise to give me a ride to the airport?”

  I smiled. “Promise.”

  ~~~

  We stood holding each other just outside the security line, me to his heart, like the clichéd couples you see in any airport, not giving a damn who was inconvenienced by our embrace.

  “You have to promise me, Jase,” I said through my tears, “that you will do at least one fun thing a week while you are away from me.” He took a breath to say something. “And no, talking to me will not count.”

  He kissed my head. “I will try.”

  I pushed back to look at his face. “Try not. Do or do not…”

  He smiled. “There is no try. Alright, I promise.”

  “Reports, I want, young apprentice,” I warbled in my best Yoda voice.

  He cupped my cheeks and pulled me in for a tender, chaste kiss. “I’ve got to go,” he whispered against my lips. “I do love you, Darla Maize.”

  I choked back a sob. “I love you, too, Jase, always.”

  Twelve

  “My Best Friend’s Girl” – The Cars

  I spent the next few months working, going to L.A. and back and prepping the office for the move. Weekends were reserved for time with Dex and my parents. Jase created a schedule for us to talk or Skype and stuck to it religiously. He took my suggestions to do fun things in London seriously, too. He emailed me pictures of his adventures. I loved it.

  I genuinely liked spending time with my brother. He legit was my hero.

  “When are you leaving again?” I asked him Christmas Eve. We sat in our PJs drinking hot chocolate on the couch watching Christmas movies like we did when we were kids.

  “Freddy and I leave for base right before the New Year.” He burped. “This is our last tour, Darls. I’m done.” He pulled my feet across his lap like he used to do. “There’s a security firm that’s owned by one of Jase’s friends. He offered me a job.”

  “Well that sucks.”

  He tickled my feet, making me squeal.

  “Stop it! You know how I hate to be tickled.”

  He pushed my feet off him. “Well? You don’t want me home, kid?”

  “No, that part’s awesome. I just mean that when you come home, I’ll be living in L.A.”

  “Guess what?” He wagged his eyebrows. “The job is in L.A.”

  “Are you shitting me? The Flurkeys will tear up tinsel town.”

  He high-fived me. “You know it.” He smiled. “Speaking of Jase, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Did he ever get the balls to make a move on you?”

  I blushed. “Sort of.” I took a long drink of my hot chocolate. “We did some… stuff, and he told me he loved me, but we decided we’re better off as friends.”

  “Whoa, kid. That man has had it bad for you for a long time. You friend-zoned him?” He nudged my knee. “That’s harsh.”

  “He moved to fucking London, Dexter. Friends was our only option.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “So is that why you’re so down?” I must have looked confused. “Come on, Darla Maize, you haven’t been yourself since I’ve been home. I was going to ask what was wrong, but Mom and Dad were always around. I didn’t think you would want to go through one of Mom’s aura cleansing ceremonies.”

  “You guessed that right. Those are brutal. But Mom already knows.” I laid my head on his shoulder. “I miss him, Dex. I love him, but it’s just not in the cards. If the universe had made it so, I could have seen us together.”

  He gasped, “What?”

  “I know, me… commitment? Yeah, not really my thing. But I could have… with him.” I sighed just like Jase. I adopted his habit. “It kind of sucks.” I dropped my voice. “I miss him so much.”

  He slipped his arm around me and pulled me close. “When do you leave for L.A?”

  “The end of January.”

  “Found a place to live yet?”

  “No, I don’t like anything I can afford, but Charlie says I can stay with her until I find one. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Plus, she keeps trying to set me up with guys. Says I need a rebound from Jase. I think that she thinks if she gets me laid, I’ll get my kick-ass personality back, except I never lost it. I mean, I’m still fucking awesome, right?”

  “Typical Darla.” He chuckled. “I guess you haven’t told her you like girls, too.”

  “There’s a lot she doesn’t know about me. I’m really starting to worry about my living situation. A good way to ruin a working relationship is living in the same space as your boss.”

  “I guarantee you will have a place to live before long.” He mussed my hair. “Things always work out for us Flurkeys.”

  ~~~

  I ran late to meet Charlie for lunch after leaving Dex at the airport. A tough goodbye was made easier with the knowledge that he would be back for good in less than nine months. We talked about possibly living together for a while once he moved to L.A. It was a comforting thought, except that meant I would have to find a two bedroom apartment, and those weren’t cheap. Charlie paid me well, but not “living in L.A. comfortably” well.

  I parked and flew into the restaurant. I spotted Charlie right away. She was sitting with a rather broad man whose back was to me.

  “I’m sorry I’m late.” I turned to face the man, who looked shocked when he saw me. He was very handsome, with his short beard and ruggedness, and he seemed so strikingly familiar. I thought maybe he was one of Charlie’s famous clients, but that didn’t really feel right. I knew I’d actually met this guy before, but I didn’t have much time to think about it. I felt embarrassed, like I should know
his name. I stuck out my hand “Hi, I’m…”

  “D.”

  My mouth dropped open as my heart fell to my ass. He grabbed my hand and locked eyes with me.

  Yep, he was my suitor.

  And his eyes were blue.

  Charlie looked between the two of us before settling her gaze on me. “I guess you know my brother?” Her brother? Shit, what did she say his name was? Nick? Nate?

  I shook my head. “We met once,” I let go of his hand and focused on Charlie, “but I had no idea he was your brother. And the beard is new, which is why I didn’t recognize him at first,” I managed to say calmly, even though every atom in my body wanted to run out of this restaurant and into oncoming traffic.

  The one guy on the planet Jase arranged to watch me fuck is the one and only beloved brother of my boss. What are the fucking odds?

  Thanks, universe, for the bitch slap. Now YOU can get fucked up the ass.

  I sat down hard in the chair, mostly because running would draw too much attention and too many questions from Charlie. I had to stay and police what he told her about me.

  “Well, I asked Noah to join us,” Charlie announced. “He lives in L.A., and I thought you two should meet. I thought maybe he would help you find a place to live.” Translation: she is setting me up with her brother. She leaned in and stage whispered, “And maybe he could help you get your kung-fu grip back.”

  Noah spit out his water and laughed a little too hard at the joke. “Alright, Charlene, please explain that.”

  She set out to tell him the story while I sat there trying to figure out what I did that was so wrong for karma to bite me in the ass in this royally cosmic fashion.

  “Thank God that’s what you meant,” Noah added. “Because my SEAL buddies used to say that ‘kung-fu grip’ is when a woman has the ability to make a man orgasm in just a few seconds.” He locked eyes with me and grinned innocently.

  I didn’t grin back. I stared, blankly. Noah’s grin faded and his face transformed into one of concern. I shook my head infinitesimally, and he nodded. I’m not sure if we just had the same conversation in that microsecond that I think we did, but he seemed to get that I was not going to freak.

  Charlie might have witnessed that exchange if her phone didn’t ring. “Oh, great. I’ve been waiting on this call all morning and of course they pick lunchtime to get back to me,” she grouched. “Charlene Reed,” she sweetly sang into phone and walked away.

  Noah stared at me intently. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” When I didn’t say anything, he stood. “I’ll leave.”

  I grabbed his forearm before he could walk away. “Did he… pay you?”

  He stopped but remained silent. I looked up into his face, which was the blank face of a man who was not going to reveal anything, and it told me what I needed to know. “Of course he did,” I muttered. Tears stung my eyes, and he noticed.

  He sat back down, placing his hand over mine. “Oh, shit. You meant for… God, no, Darla. He didn’t,” he said soberly. “Not for that.”

  “I have to go, guys,” Charlie interrupted, digging in her purse for her keys. “They want the contract before two, and I have to go by the office to get it.” She saw Noah’s hand still over mine and grinned. “You two, please… stay and have lunch on me.” She practically vibrated with joy trying to figure out what her nieces and nephews would look like with our combined DNA.

  “Calm your tits, Chuckles.” I snarked.

  “Oh, but how my tits love to cause a ruckus.” She winked at me.

  “We met through Jase.” I nodded toward my suitor. “He knows him.”

  Understanding spread across her face, knowing that since Jase and Noah knew each other, her plan to get me to live happily ever after with her brother was crumbling right before her eyes. She tried to hide her disappointment. “Well, whatever. Stay.” She turned to walk away. “And stop calling me Chuckles.”

  I removed my hand from his arm. “So you know him.”

  He stared, stone faced.

  “Well, I know you know who I am. You said my name. Charlie didn’t say it to you, and based on your reaction when I walked up, you had no idea I worked for your sister.”

  “True,” he admitted. “I knew this was a set up, but she only said she wanted me to meet her assistant; she did not give me a name.”

  The waiter took the opportunity to come take our orders. It gave me a moment to collect myself and try to get some questions answered.

  “So…” I raised an eyebrow. He said nothing. “C’mon, Noah. He made a big deal to me about no names, but you know mine. How?”

  He sat back casually and crossed his leg over his knee. “My name is Noah Reed. I own a company that specializes in personal and commercial security and private investigation.”

  “There’s a security firm that’s owned by one of Jase’s friends. He wants to hire me… The job is in L.A.”

  I blinked. “Holy mother of Odin. You’re the one who hired Dex.”

  He stared for a second. “I forgot that you are connected to Dex.”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “He’s my brother.”

  “Ah,” he nodded. “Small world, huh?”

  “Okay, great, you hired my brother. Now answer my first question.”

  He stared at me for a minute, carefully choosing what to say. “That’s kind of tricky, Darla. I can’t reveal the details about current clients. It would go against my business arrangements and my personal code of ethics.” I kept staring at him. He shifted in his seat. “How about this? Since we probably will cross paths a lot, why don’t we get to know each other?”

  I took a drink of my water and nodded.

  “Okay. I’ll start. I attended high school here in San Francisco. On to the Navy and the Navy SEALs. Four years later, an injury ended my military career. Right after I healed, a guy running for senate hired me to be a private bodyguard, for lack of a better term, for a kid who was going to college.”

  “I thought you couldn’t reveal anything about clients.”

  “This was before I started my business, and the guy stupidly didn’t have me sign an NDA, so I can tell you this, although I won’t reveal who it was.” He raised his eyebrow, and I smiled. “I was to make sure this kid didn’t go out and get into trouble or do anything that would reflect badly on his powerful father. I was also to protect him. It’s no secret now that his dad was into some shady shit, so he wanted to keep his kid safe. I lived with the kid and ended up befriending him, kind of adopting him as a brother since he had no siblings. I made sure he ate healthy, trained him, stuff like that. I also had to report all activity back to the dad. Other than the kid being a clean freak, there was absolutely nothing to report.”

  “Wow. Poor kid.”

  “Yeah, well, in my line of work, I have found that it’s the guilty who are the most paranoid. And his dad was guilty of many things, not just the things that eventually destroyed his career.” He took a drink of his water.

  “So, you and the son were friends?”

  “Yes. Actually, from what I could tell, I was the only person at that college he called ‘friend.’ He had a couple from high school, but they had joined the Marines, which wasn’t an option for this kid.”

  Ah. Dex and Freddie. They were like the three musketeers in high school. Why his dad allowed them to remain friends is a mystery.

  “The kid lived like a monk, only going to school and studying. He told me repeatedly how much he hated his studies, yet he worked harder to be the best he could at everything he did. He never drank excessively, didn’t touch drugs.” He leveled his gaze at me. “He had no women at all.”

  My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “Wait… He never had sex?”

  “Not on my watch. He could have had a lot of sex with all the girls who showed interest in the beginning,” he smiled, “but since he turned them all down or ignored them, the rumor around campus was that he was in a relationship with a hot military guy.” He flipped his collar
.

  “They thought you were… together?”

  He shrugged. “We were seen together all the time, so it was an easy conclusion to make. We didn’t stop the rumors. I was his only non-family relationship.”

  I closed my eyes. “You would have made one hot man-meat couple.”

  That earned me an eye roll. “Calm down your fantasies, lady, and focus.” He took a drink. “Anyway, when he was about twenty-one, he goes to this party that one of his Marine buddies is throwing. I would have tailed him, but I had an emergency family thing. He assured me he would be fine in the presence of Marines, so I didn’t call in a replacement. He comes back the next morning… different.”

  “Different how?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it. He was more… animated maybe? It was like something woke him up.” He smiled. “I figured it was a girl.”

  Again, I blushed.

  “He developed a friendship with this girl, and I watched him fall in love with her, even though he was too shy or too scared to tell her. He asked me for advice. He was worried that since she was open in her sexuality, he would never have a chance. I reminded him of the night she came on to him, but he still worried. I was just happy he was getting out there. In fact, I was so excited for him, I didn’t even report the relationship to his father.”

  “That was nice of you.”

  He winked. “When he graduated college, I left the employ of his father to start my own company. The son and I remained close friends. In fact, he became my first client. He hired me to investigate… someone in his life. I was to amass a dossier of atrocities this person had committed, which was not terribly easy to do. It took time.”

  I remembered his words from my porch years ago.

  “I have a plan though. It’s going to take a little while to execute.”