When Love Comes Around (Love Conquers All) (8 page)

She ran as fast as her wobbly legs would carry her. There was a man her bathroom!

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Bang! Bang! Bang! ... Bang! Bang! Bang!

Untangling himself from the warmth of his wife’s petite body, Nick hissed, “Who in the hell is banging on the door like that?”

“I don’t know.” Summer sleepily purred as she rolled over, pulling a pillow over her head.

Yanking a pair of jeans from a nearby ottoman and pulling them on, he grumbled, “It’s six-thirty in the damn morning. Whoever it is better not wake up those kids.”

Taking long strides, he’d already made up in his mind whoever was at the door was about to get a good cussing out. As much as he adored his children, they were quite cranky and evil when sleep deprived. A trait they’d inherited from him.

Not bothering with looking through the peephole, snatching the door open, Nick growled, “What the―” His annoyance was cut short by the sight before him.

Hair sticking straight up in the air, smeared makeup, wrinkled dress, panties in one hand, bra in the other, and barefooted, stood Starr Avery. He had never seen such a beautiful woman look so unsightly. Starr was torn up from the floor up! She looked a hot mess!

Taken aback, Nick just stood there like an idiot staring at her wondering what in the world had happened to her.

Starr was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. Shifting from barefoot to barefoot, she stammered, “Um, Nick…is Summer here?”

He wanted to ask her where else would she be at six-thirty in the morning. Instead, he held his tongue. Stepping aside allowing her entry, he had to jump back as the unkempt blur darted past him nearly trampling his bare toes. She didn’t even give him a chance to respond to her question.

Leaping on the bed, she cried, “Summer…Summer, wake up. I need to talk to you.”

Summer moaned, “Give me five more minutes.” After a night of drinking white wine spritzers and then later happily indulging her husband, she was beyond exhausted. The man had the stamina of twenty year old.

Starr pulled the pillow from Summer’s head and shook her more vigorously. “Come on, wake up. There’s a man in my room and I don’t know how he got there.”

Starr nearly jumped out of her skin. And Summer was like the dead coming back to life at the sound of the deep, baritone roar coming from the doorway. “What the hell do you mean there’s a man in your room and you don’t know how he got there?”

Neither woman had been aware Nick was standing behind them overhearing Starr’s tearful confession.

Starr covered her face with her hands and wept from pure embarrassment. Never in her adult life had anything like this happened to her. The last thing she remembered…
Oh, no, no, nooo.

Wrapping her arms around her friend who was in apparent distress, Summer soothed, “It’s okay, honey. Everything’s going to be all right.”

Shaking her head, sobbing even louder, “No, Summer, I think…I think… I did something stupid.”

Becoming further irritated, Nick demanded, “I’m still waiting for an answer.”

How in hell does she not know who’s in her room? I know she has more sense than to have picked up some man off the street.

Shooting her husband an evil glare, Summer snapped, “Why don’t you go down there and see Nicholas!”

Nick clenched his jaw. Summer only called him by his full name when she was irritated with him. How had his morning gotten off to such a terrible start? If they hadn’t been interrupted, he probably would have eased himself between the warmth of her legs again, and rode her one last time before the kids woke up.
That’s not going to happen.
.. That last thought made him throw his hands up in the air and bark, “Maybe I will!”

“Well good! Go then!” His once timid wife barked back, rolling her eyes at him.

Crossing the room, huffing, he snatched his shirt from off the same ottoman his jeans earlier occupied. Throwing on the shirt and shoving his feet into a pair of casual loafers he threw over his shoulder as he left the room, “I’ll be back.”

Hearing the door slam, Starr apologized. “I’m so sorry. I got you and Nick fighting over me.”

“Girl, don’t pay him any mind. He’ll get over it. Now tell me what happened.”

Feeling embarrassed all over again, she admitted, “That’s just it. I don’t know. I can’t remember everything.”

“Well, tell me what you do remember. Maybe it’ll come back to you.”

“Okay.”

Starr started with everything she could remember from the time they’d left each other the evening before.

After going back to her room, she had taken a shower and dressed for bed. Not really tired she decided to watch some television. Everything on cable she’d seen before. Instead of going up to Summer’s room to hangout with her and Ava, she’d decided to go to the lounge for a drink. As of lately she just wasn’t in the mood to be around anyone. It wasn’t that she no longer cared for her friends she just didn’t want to bring them down. Nor was she in the mood for cheering up. Nothing could cheer her up.

Sipping on Malibu and pineapple juice, her sadness became even deeper. Before she knew it, an hour had turned into two, that’s when a friendly male voice asked if he could sit with her.

Everything after that became fuzzy and hazy. Things came in and out, in snapshots. Starr vaguely remembered going to a chapel watching a couple get married, then going to a lounge in another hotel, and then waking up naked in her bed.

At the end of her story, Summer’s mouth hung wide open in disbelieve. Starr had always been the most leveled headed one.
Lord have mercy what in God’s name did Starr do?

“Don’t look at me like that.” Starr tearfully pleaded, attempting to keep the tears from falling again.

“I’m sorry, honey. I’m just a little shocked.”

“I know. I shocked myself. I can’t believe I did something like this.”

Summer gently asked, “Did you sleep with him?” Just because she woke up naked in bed with a man in her bathroom didn’t mean she had slept with him…right? She prayed that her friend hadn’t. With her past failed relationships, Starr was determined to be celibate until she meant the man of her dreams, her future husband. It would be a crying shame to see years of being celibate go to waste if she’d slept with a man she’d picked up from God knows where, and in Vegas of all places.

She didn’t even want to bring up getting tested for sexually transmitted disease if she had slept with mystery man. It would have to wait until later, once Starr had gotten herself fully together.

Hunching her shoulders, she whispered, “I think so.” This was so humiliating admitting to her best friend that overnight she’d become a whore, a slut, a tramp. What would people think once this all got out. It was bad enough that her best friend and her husband knew.

“You think you did?”
Oh no, please no.

With shame, Starr hung her head. “Yes. I’m a little sore,” lifting her gaze to meet Summer’s, she pointed, “down there.”

Dropping her face into her hands, she shook her head from side to side. “What am I going to do?” She muffled out to her friend between her fingers.

This was heavy. One of the people she loved most in this world was hurting so bad she had acted out of character and irresponsible. And as a result, she may have to suffer some very harsh consequences. At a loss for eloquent words, she told Starr the plain truth. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out.”

He was wearing the carpet out, pacing back and forth. Finally, he said, “Let me get this straight, because I’m not understanding something.” He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. “You picked Starr up last night.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And she’d been drinking...so you brought her back to her room and banged her brains out.” He gritted out between clenched teeth.

Kevin winced from Nick’s accusing words and the menacing stare he was pinning him down with. It wasn’t exactly like that. He was making it sound as if Kevin had taken advantage of her. As if he’d dragged her by the hair caveman style back to her hotel room.

“Come on Nick, man, that’s not how it went down. I mean she wasn’t that drunk. Hell, she knew what she was doing. She invited me here!” Kevin shouted in his defense. As a matter of fact, she was the one who had seduced him! But he wasn’t about to tell Nick that. It wasn’t any of his business.

Lifting a dark brow Nick snipped out, “How in the hell do you explain her showing up at my front door reeking like a damn distillery? I almost got drunk just by standing within five feet of her.

Kevin chuckled. When he stumbled upon her, she had been teetering on that fine line between being tipsy and smashed. The more she drank the frisker she became. By the time they reached her room, she was tearing at his shirt and then his pants. Again defending himself. “Man, Starr wasn’t drunk, just tipsy when I saw her down at the bar.”

Losing his patience again, Nick snapped, “Tipsy, drunk, whatever! Dude, all I know is my wife is pissed at me and it’s your fault!”

“My fault? How?” Kevin shouted, an incredulous scowl masking his handsome features.

“Yes! All your damn fault!” It wasn’t even seven thirty in the morning yet and Nick had a headache. “Starr’s up there crying, talkin’ ‘bout there’s a man in her room. Summer’s yelling at me, to come down her to check things out because her friend did something stupid like bringing a man back to her room. I ought to punch you dead square in the face! I told you to stay away from her!”

Although Nick was pissed off, relief rushed through him when Kevin opened the door at his persistent pounding. At least Starr hadn’t ended up with some skuzzy stranger she’d been rolling around with all night,

Kevin’s jaw clenched. He didn’t care that Nick had just threaten to physically harm him. He could hold his own if they’d ended up scraping. What had him incensed was that Nick had no right to pass judgment on Starr. “Man, don’t call her stupid.”

The flash of anger and snarling tone took Nick by surprise. He had never seen Kevin so protective over a woman. Maybe, just maybe his friend was interested. And not for just a one night stand.

“Whoa, dude, didn’t mean to offend you.” Nick said as he held up his hands up in surrender.

“Yeah…well, you did.” Kevin mumbled under his breath, rolling his eyes.

Staring at his buddy it became difficult to maintain a straight face.
Oh snap! My man is sprung after one night! Daaayum!

With that thought, Nick threw his head back as rumbling laughter began bubbling up from his gut. Releasing his clenched jaw, Kevin roared, “What’s so damn funny?”

Still laughing, Nick teased, “You man! I mean, you spend one night with the girl and you’re sprung like a mug! Man oh man! That must’ve been some good lovin’. I’ve never seen a woman have your nose so wide open.”

Nick was so preoccupied with ribbing his buddy he hadn’t paid attention to him stalking over to the dresser snatching a piece of paper from off the top of it. Nick’s laughter came to a halt as the paper was shoved in his face.

Yanking the paper that was centimeters from his nose, glancing it over, his dark complexion ashen as he looked from the paper to Kevin. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

Sitting on the foot of the bed, Kevin hung his head and rubbed his hands over the smooth baldness. Finally, after a few seconds he looked up at Nick. Not knowing how to say it any other way, he just calming stated the truth. “Me and Starr got married.”

“But how…why…I don’t understand.” Nick all but sputtered out confused.

Shaking his head, Kevin admitted, “I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it out. We both were pretty lit by the time we stumbled into that little wedding chapel.”

“You actually don’t remember getting married?” Nick inquired, still perplexed by the whole situation.

“Man, I remember us coming back here. We started going at it hot and heavy. Next thing I know she was out cold. So I went to sleep.” Taking a deep breath he continued, “When I woke this morning I thought I had dreamed everything until I found Starr curled up next to me sleeping. I didn’t just want to get up and roll out on her. So I took a shower to try and clear my head. You know, figure out what the hell was going on. When I came out of the bathroom, she was gone and that thing in your hand was on the floor.