Page 2 of Caged Heart
The same fucking bar we went to last night as a group. The same bar I had shot after shot with Lily and Damon. The same fucking bar that I laughed so hard with everyone forgetting my problems to the point of ending up in bed with the brother that makes me want to bitch slap him into next year every single time I see him.
Waking up yesterday morning nursing a hangover and seeing that I was face down on a pillow while spread eagle alongside a very naked Ares Wolfgang made me walk the hell out without discussing what happened between us… after spreading my legs wide open for him one more time. Still, I will never say it out loud.
“Earth to Carmi…” Lily called out to me as she giggled in Damon’s lap. These two were bound to hook up sooner or later, but it turns out it’s Ares and me.
The two least people to even end up kissing each other. How the hell did this happen?
“Yes?”
“You can stay with Ares,” Lily repeated what she must’ve said.
“What? What are you talking about?” The words came out faster than I could process what she was saying.
“I would let you room with me, but Monica and I’s landlord is giving us fucking grief because of when my sister stayed with us for a bit. He threatened to make us pay for three people instead of 2. Damon and Mars can’t either because of whatever fucking reason.”
“You’re going to cramp our style.” Damon offers. “The only other solution is you staying with Ares. He’s barely home and always sleeping out. I’m sure he won’t charge you crazy rent.”
“Ares would never let me stay at his place.” I chortled. They forgot how Ares was. He had a prickly attitude, and he kept a lot of shit to himself. We wouldn’t even know Ares’s business if it wasn’t for his brother.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Mars, the sexy son of a bitch asked me. I mean, look at him! He was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome from his dark locs, which he always kept in a low bun with a few tendrils out. He didn’t have a single tattoo on his body, but he didn’t need it. But Ares was the complete opposite, and he looked like an all-American magazine spat him out; dirty, dirty blond, green eyes, a short tapered style in the back, and straight hair that fell longer on one side passed his eye. With tattoos peppered all over his body, places I didn’t need to see but saw anyway.
Both Wolfgang boys were tall. Six feet and 3 inches of being tall, but while Mars had a very much I work out body, Ares had a more athletic build to him, like a hockey captain would. Both men were hockey players and loved to run. I only knew that because of some morning classes when we all would spend the night at Damon and Mars’s place.
“We already asked Ares. He said he was cool with it.” Damon chimed in. “He said that he doesn’t care for rent either. If I didn’t foot the bill, I wouldn’t care much anyway.”
“You’re sure he said he’s cool with it? Because last I checked, we barely talk to each other.”
Is this an exaggeration? Probably but honestly, I don’t know if we talked while we decided; we were so horny and hot that we just had to sleep together.
Suddenly, there’s this feeling. This particular kick starts up, kind of like anticipation, when I feel a cool breeze passing by my ear. A tattooed hand is placed next to mine as I finally know what caused the draft. Ares.
“You can stay with me if you’d like. I promise not to be a dick and fuck with my door open.”
I didn’t have to look up to know he was smirking. My eyes rolled, but my body hid the evidence that his voice suddenly had on me. What the hell!
“Whatever, Ares.”
It was all I could come up with on such short notice.
Pushing my chair back hard and hearing the oomph sound made me smile wider. When I stood and turned to face him, Ares was giving me a very nonchalant expression, something that I couldn’t quite decipher.
“Where’s your shit? I’ll take them with me since I’m headed home soon.”
Home?
“Come on, Ares, stay for a bit first.”
Monica whined in her voice that she used to make men do what she wanted. I’m not shocked that it worked because Ares smiled brightly and sincerely at her, making me want to puke. Despite him always somehow getting on my nerves, Ares barely spoke to me while we all hung out, which is why it was a shock that he said yes to staying at his place while I saved up to find another.
“Excuse me a second, guys. Just gotta go make a phone call.”
Announcing it wasn’t necessary, but honestly, sometimes I just did things that didn’t make sense. It was part of my charm; it made me Carmen Barnes—adding my dark caramel hue paired with the oddly-naturally blonde curls, big brown eyes, and my smile. I was beautiful because I looked like my father and smiled like my mother.
My mom and dad met in what was once called the United Kingdom, but now it’s called the New Kingdom, then one thing led to another. Papa died of a random heart attack at work when I was still a kid, so mama packed her shit up, moving us back to New Dominion with her sisters and their families so they could help us.
It was nice finally growing up around family and being with them, but I was young and didn’t see the signs of my mother becoming an addict. The many ways that the family didn’t talk to us anymore because of it. The frustration and worry lines took over. My mother was on a spiral so bad that she once left me in a crackhouse overnight.
She was too busy fucking for some drugs to care about what happened to me. Nothing happened to me then, not one thing, and I will never forget what a blessing in disguise that was.
