False Illusions (False #1) (23 page)

Grease pops up making Yoel jump back, which is making Squishy jump back and hitting his water bowl behind him making the clashing noise.

Water splashes into the already made puddle.

“Please tell me you made coffee.” I walk in the kitchen.

He looks back at me. “Morning babe, yeah coffee is in the pot.”

It still feels weird he’s here. We have never been in a domestic setting, but oddly it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. It feels normal. I make two cups of coffee as he sets the bacon and eggs on the table.

I sit across from him and sip my coffee slowly ,watching him fix my plate and sliding it front of me. “So it’s morning,” I casually say taking a bite of bacon.

Yoel leans back in his seat. His tattooed arms flexing as he holds on the edge of the table. He smiles. “I told you last night. I don’t need any more time.” He shrugs. “It’s very simple. Let’s not make this difficult. I love you. Do you love me?”

Is he serious? Of course I love him. Instead of answering right away I shrug and sip my coffee. Squishy is laying at my feet so I give him some attention. I can feel his eyes burning a hole into the side of my head, but I refuse to look at him.

He coughs and I look up at him like I didn’t see him there. His eyebrows raise and his smile drops.

Oh hell.

Bringing my mug to my lips I grin. “Knock, Knock.”

Yoel coughs out a small laugh. “Who’s there?”

“Olive”

He licks his lips. “Olive who?”

Standing up I walk over to him and swing my leg around to straddle his waist. His hands automatically gripping my hips. Leaning over I whisper in his ear. “Olive you so much.”

A laugh ripples through his body. “Fuck, I love you, baby doll.” His lips crash into mine and I savor the taste of him. Yeah, I definitely missed this.

As he carries me to our bedroom, yes OUR bedroom, I know this is the start of our new beginning. A much needed beginning. This may have started as a false illusion, but it’s very much real now. We both played with fire, watched it crash and burn, but we built from the ashes a beautiful truth.

We are in love.

Purpose- Justin Beiber

Six months later…..

Something wet touches my face and I slowly blink my eyes open. Fuck. The gremlin is in our bed again. No matter how many beds I buy him he won’t sleep in them. I refuse to call him by his unmanly name.
Squishy
.

I still can’t believe Madison named him that.

Pushing myself off the bed I sit at the edge for a moment trying to get my thoughts together. Madison is already up, I can hear her in the bathroom.

The last six months have been crazy. After I packed up my life in Atlanta I showed up at Madison’s door at one in the morning tired from traveling. Chris told me to wait until the next day, but I couldn’t spend another second away from her. I moved in the next day.

A month after that I was signed to her family’s agency that came with a ton of endorsement deals for major boxing brands. I also found a gym to train a few blocks away. Chris was now my manager and Javi stepped down as my trainer since he refused to move to New York. Chris had no problem packing up and making the move. He is currently staying down the hall in the guest room. It was Madison’s idea, but that meant no sex in the common areas. Bummer.

Running a hand over my face I glance at the Gremlin. “Are you ready for this?” I open the drawer to my nightstand. The light blue box stares at me and I stare back at it. My stomach is doing fucking somersaults everywhere.

Swinging my feet over the bed I try and hype myself up. “Come on, if you can win the belt then you can get down on one knee.”

Yeah I wasn’t too convincing, even Gremlin thumbed his paw at me.

Grabbing the box I open in it and take out the inner box that is holding every hope I have. Making my way to the bathroom door I see that it’s cracked. Looking through I see Madison sitting at her vanity. Her pale blonde hair is up in a knot on her head. She is applying some kind of gunk to her face when our ugly dog pushes the door open. Madison looks through the mirror and smiles when she see’s me standing at the door frame.

I stop to take her in one more second. I can’t believe she is mine. Never in a million years did I think I would be ready to get on one knee. But here I was, starting at the girl who crashed my plans and my world.

Taking a few strides to reach her I lean on the edge of her vanity.

“Morning babe,” she says brightly as she evens out the black shit on her face.

Maybe this is a bad time.

No, do it now chicken shit. You were supposed to do it days ago.

I force a smile, “Hey, babydoll.”

Her eyes narrow. “What’s wrong?” Dammit she knows me too well.

Nervously I run my hand through my hair. “You know I love you, right?”

I wince as soon as the words come out of my mouth. Fuck, this is already turning into shit.

Madison frowns and tilts her head. She doesn’t say anything. I can see the wheels turning in her pretty little head.

“I love you so much.” I hurriedly continue, stuttering. “An...and I know we haven’t been together for too long bu... but... but.” I take a deep breath. Get it together.

Without thought I sink to one knee and pull the box out of my pocket where it was mocking me.

Her grey eyes lock on mine, they widen with shock as she gasp. Her perfect mouth making an ‘O’.

Licking my lips I taking a deep breath. “Madison Nicole St. Cruix. I love you more than I love my belt, and I love that belt a lot.” She laughs, tears starting to form in her eyes. “But I would give it all up for you. I know we didn’t have a great start. We had a rough road, but here we are, and I want this forever. I want the jokes, the carb-filled pasta and that ugly ass dog. I want you to be my wife.” I grab her left hand and kiss it. “Just say yes, baby doll.”

Her eyes narrow again. “I can’t believe you asked me this right now!” She motions to her face. “Seriously El. This is so like you.”

My stomach drops. Oh shit. I knew this was a bad time.

I told you to wait
. My mind chimes.

Frowning I wait for her to turn me down, but instead she starts to smile.

“But that’s why I love you.” She starts laughing. “Of course I’ll marry you!”

Thank fuck. I smile relieved as I pluck the three carat princess cut diamond ring out of the box and slide it on her ring finger. She jumps off the chair and into my arms. Standing up I swing her around, carrying her into the bedroom. She’s kissing me all over my face, smearing her fucking gunk all over and I don’t give a shit.

She fucking said yes.

I’m about to lay her on the bed when there’s a knock on the bedroom door. I already know it’s Chris and I can’t wait to tell him the good news.

Madison slips off the bed and opens the door for him to walk in, but I can tell by his face something is up.

“What is it?” I ask.

He gives us a weird look and I figure we look crazy with all this shit smeared on our faces.

He frowns and holds his phone up. “I just got a call from Marcus’s manager.”

Madison straightens up at the sound of his name. He hasn’t tried to reach out to her at all. He hasn’t even done any interviews since the fight.

“What does he want?”

“Wait is that a fuckin ring?” He lifts Madison’s hand and inspects it. “Nice job.”

I nod, “Yeah, thanks. Now what did he want?” I wanted to know why the fuck his manager was calling mine so I can get back to fucking my fiance.

Chris lets out a short laugh, dropping her hand and looking at me. “El, he wants a rematch.”

What. The. Fuck.

First I want to thank my husband, best friend and soul mate, Josh, for pushing me to write this story and putting up with the late nights, the constant brainstorming, random questions, and being the mom and dad for a while. You are the best. I love you.

I wouldn’t be here without Naughty Smutty Book Blog. Thank you girls for taking me in your group and being a big part of my life. Cherry and Chantel ; thank you for everything, you’ll never know what your friendship means to me.

To Jodi Drake, Maria Pham, Carina Soliz, Mayra Statham and Stephanie Alcala: Thank you for reading my scraps and horrible grammar, and giving me great feed back even if I didn’t want to hear it.

Kim Ginsberg, thank you for fixing my horrible grammar and spelling. Also thank you for making me question how on earth did I pass English and graduate.

Melissa Gill for my amazing cover. I’m still in love every time I look at it.

To my amazing ever supporting family and friends that have pushed me along even though they have no idea what I’m talking about.

And to the readers, thank you for taking a chance on my story and me, you’ll never know what this means to me.