Chapter 5 Crazy Ex

• Rayne
• The squawking woke me.
• The annoying squawking sound grated on my nerves and ruined the best sleep I’d had in a long time.
• “She’s here,” he had whispered. “Don’t acknowledge her. Pretend she’s not here.”
• “Make it stop…” I turned my head and groaned into the pillow. “Please make it stop…”
• “Ignore it.” Javier nuzzled my neck and threw his leg over my hip, holding me closer. “It will go away if you don’t give it attention.” He continued to pretend his crazy, cheating ex-fiancée wasn’t on a rampage.
• “Really, Javier??!” The banshee shrieked, continuing in her reign of terror, tossing anything and everything she could get her hands on up in the air. There was a strong possibility I could be next.
• “In our bed, Javier??!!!” She shrilled, trashing the place like the raging bull he had warned she was. She was elegantly dressed like Sophia Loren, but she behaved like someone who had escaped from an asylum.
• Javier ignored her like she wasn’t even there, pulling me against his chest and whispering in my ear. “She hates it when she’s ignored. Just follow my lead, yes?”
• “How dare you bring this-this-this American whore into our home!! A whore that you just picked up at the bar!!!!” Something bumped against the wall and she screamed. “You impotent perro! Cheating, sick bastard!” She yelled throwing furniture around. “Ahhhhhhh!!!” she screamed, overturning almost every piece of furniture in the room. “How dare you!!!”
• “How about a nice long bubble bath?” He slipped off the mattress and jerked his head towards the bathroom. “I think she’ll be gone by the time we’re done.”
• I threw a furtive glance at his demented ex and he smiled, holding out his hand like this was all in a day’s work. “Don’t worry she won’t hurt you, amorcita.” He said out loud. “Let her vent.” She was too caught up in her rampage that she didn’t see us step into the bathroom.
• “You can take the bathtub, I prefer the shower,” he said stepping into the cubicle like we did this every day. I tried to focus on his face-not allowing my eyes to stray to his muscular chest and sculpted, sexy abs, right down to his…
• Damn, these traitorous, greedy eyes!
• “We can shower together if you want to?” He winked and stepped into the glass booth, leaving the glass door open.
• I ran the bath and lowered myself into the hot water with a sigh. It was only six in the morning and the drama was already in full swing. Life with Javier was going to be very entertaining, to say the least.
• “Javier!!!!” Isabelle pounded on the door, wriggling the knob until it threatened to fall off. “Open this door right now, you hear me??!!”
• He turned on some music and began to hum along like there wasn’t a racket going on outside. These two were a very interesting couple.
• “How dare you have sex with that flaca while I’m right here!!!” She hammered away and I was impressed by her resilience. “Listen, you cheap whore?!” Oh, I think she’s talking to me now. “He doesn’t love you! He’s just using you for sex!” The hammering stopped and was replaced by insults. “That’s all he’s good for anyway. He’s not man enough to fertilize an ovary! He probably can’t even fertilize a chicken’s ovaries. He fires blanks! Blanks! Water, you hear me! He can’t give you a baby! Never will! You’re welcome to him! I’m going back to your brother, Javier! He’s more of a man than you ever will be!!”
• The silence that followed was the most beautiful sound I’d heard all morning.
• I froze and my eyes flew to Javier who had turned stiff, his hand crushing the bottle of shower gel in his hand. He turned off the taps, grabbed a towel, and vigorously rubbed his body, and I feared his skin would peel off from all the friction.
• My heart went out to this beautiful stranger. The woman he loved had just said the most hurtful things to him. She knew just how to get to him. Hit him where it hurts the most. Way, way below the belt.
• “I’ll send someone with a change of clothes and to bring you down to breakfast,” he said in a gruff voice as he stormed out the room.
• A lovely summer dress and a bikini were laid out on the bed, they were brand new, with the tags still intact. Did they belong to that crazy lady? I wonder.
• Javier was sitting at the table, reading a newspaper when I walked in, his mood seemed to have improved. He stood up and pulled out my chair like the gentleman that he was. “I didn’t know what you liked to eat so I told them to make a bit of everything.”
• “Thank you,” I said as he pushed it back in. “It looks delicious,” I flashed him a friendly smile.
• “I must apologize-”
• I held up my hand and stopped him. “Don’t. It’s not your fault she behaved like a mad woman.”
• He leaned back and returned my smile. “Thanks for that but I was going to start by apologizing for forcing you to share my bed and then a bath. I had to do that to make it believable, please forgive me?”
• “You could have handled it better.”
• “I know but I was desperate-”
• “That you decided to take advantage of me?” My eyes narrowed into slits. “I didn’t sign up for any of this.”
• “I have never forced myself on a woman. I would never do to you what your foster brother-“
• “You know about that too?” I pushed back my chair and threw the napkin on the table. “I’m not hungry. Take me back to my motel please?”
• “Rayne I’m sorry. Please stay?” he rushed to my side and took my hand in his. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that. I need you.”
• “I can’t do this, Javier. It’s too much. I can-”
• “If you do this for me, I’ll help you find your young sister and I promise to do everything within my power to make sure you get full custody.”
• My head snapped back and I clutched at the chair to steady myself. “Don’t do that!”
• “I mean it, pequeña,” he said, pushing me back down on the seat before kneeling at my feet. “I’m very serious. Do this one thing for me and I’ll do this thing for you. Do we have a deal?”
• “How do I know I can trust you?”
• “While I’m working on locating your young sister-what do you want me to do to prove myself? Name anything I will do it, right now.”
• “Anything?”
• “Anything,” he echoed.
• “One thing?”
• “Two, three-whatever you want, querida. Name it and it’s yours.”
• “I want my own apartment in New York to be exact. Title deeds in my name.”
• “Is that all?” Is that all??
• My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. I kept my cool. “No,” I stuck out my tongue and licked my lips. “I also want to go back to Julliard and I want a private dance instructor."
• “Consider it done.”
• “You’re playing with me, aren’t you?” I eyed him skeptically. “You just want to get a reaction?”
• “No,” he shot to his feet. “Eat up. Once you’re done we’ll fly to New York then we can go and buy you your penthouse and get you back into school.” He took out his smartphone and punched in numbers then spoke rapidly in Spanish. “The jet will be ready whenever you are.”
• “But I can’t leave…my friends…”
• “We’ll be back by tonight. Don’t worry,” he said. “Finish your breakfast. I’ve got a few calls that will make the transition easier once we get there.”
• “Huh?”
• This was all too surreal. Too easy. What was the catch?
• “You’re too cute, carina,” he laughed “I think we need to get you a car while we’re at it,” he brushed his lips with mine and hurried out of the dining room, a spring in his step.