Forgiven (Book 3, The Watchers Trilogy; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) Read online

  “Girl, just chill your heels and let us pamper you,” Tara said, directing me to sit down in the chair in front of Abby’s vanity.

  For the next hour, the girls curled my hair, gave me a manicure and pedicure and applied my makeup. Once perfectly coifed, they showed me what I would be wearing.

  “You’re kidding right?” I said, looking at the hot pink dress. “Where’s the rest of it?”

  “This is the last time you’ll be free to flirt with any guy you want,” Tara told me. “Do you really think we would put you into something normal? Now just go put it on.”

  “But…” I began to protest.

  “No buts!” Tara said turning me in the direction of Abby’s bathroom and pushing me forward. “Just go in there and put it on, Lilly Rayne Nightengale.”

  It wasn’t so much that the dress was extremely skimpy, but I couldn’t remember ever showing so much of my legs in my life. The top hung from one shoulder by way of a rhinestone bejeweled strap. It draped down loosely to a snug fitting miniskirt which made me wonder how I would sit in it without flashing everyone who might be watching. I made a mental note to keep my legs crossed whenever I had to sit down.

  When I stepped out of the bathroom, the girls seemed extremely pleased with themselves.

  “Now put these on,” Tara said, handing me a pair of rhinestone T-strap stilettos.

  “Are you trying to kill me?” I whined.

  Tara just waved her hand at me. “Stop complaining and just put them on. If worse comes to worst, you can always phase yourself somewhere safe.”

  I knew in that moment I loved Tarajinka Shovanda Jenkins very much. Only for her would I risk my life in a pair of heels so high.

  “Are you girls ready?”

  I looked up to the doorway of Abby’s room and saw Malcolm leaning against it casually watching me. He was dressed in a very well tailored black double breasted suit with his hair pulled back into a ponytail and wearing a fedora. I had never seen him with so many clothes on before. He usually wore only pants and button down shirts opened to the waist to show off his well defined chest.

  “Ready for what?” I asked. “And why are you dressed like Fred Astaire?”

  “I’m escorting you to your first location,” he told me, a lopsided grin on his face.

  “We’re ready,” Tara said, grabbing her purse which lay beside me on the bed.

  Malcolm strolled into the room and offered me his hand to help me stand. I instantly felt myself start to topple. A pair of strong arms caught me. Malcolm held me close to him until I regained my balance.

  “Be careful, dearest,” Malcolm murmured.

  When I met his eyes, I could see the mask Malcolm usually hid behind falter for a second showing me his true concern and love for me.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Stupid high heels.”

  “They may be hard to walk in but they do wonderful things for your legs,” he told me, instantly bringing up the roguish personality I was more used to dealing with.

  “Shall we go?” He said holding out his arm for me to take.

  When Malcolm phased us, I felt the heat of the place instantly. A crowd of people walked by us like we had been there all along, never consciously realizing we had materialized out of thin air.

  When I looked up and down the street, I instantly knew where we were.

  “Las Vegas?” I turned to Tara.

  “Yep, thought you needed a little sin city before you swore off all other men forever.”

  Malcolm patted my hand still lying on his arm. “Come, dearest. I’ve arranged a special show just for you.”

  I won’t lie. Walking into the Rio Hotel and Casino on Malcolm’s arm made me feel like I owned the joint. Partly because that’s just how Malcolm seemed to think about everything. He was the most confident and self-assured person I knew. Not to say Brand didn’t brim with a self-confidence of his own, but Malcolm never tried to temper his with the same humbleness Brand did. Malcolm knew he was the most looked at and sought after man in any room he entered and didn’t try to shy away from it. In fact, he reveled in it.

  We were escorted by one of the casino guards to the nightclub on the top floor.

  “Are we seeing a show?” I asked, noticing billboards which had been covered up with black velvet material.

  “Yeah,” Tara said. “We asked them to hide everything so it wouldn’t give it away before you saw it. I need to see your eyes pop out of your skull for myself.”

  “I must leave you ladies here at the door,” Malcolm said. “Only women are allowed beyond this point.”

  “Thanks, Malcolm. I owe you one.” Tara grabbed my arm and practically dragged me into the dark room beyond.

  I could hear the whispers and giggles of women in the room and could faintly see them seated in a line of chairs in front of a stage. A lady with a flashlight escorted us to a group of seats front and center of the stage. They were the best seats in the house for whatever we were there to see.

  “How come Malcolm had to arrange a special showing?” I asked, as what remained of the lights in the room was extinguished and music with a rhythmic thump started to play.

  “Just watch,” Tara said. “Watch the stage Lilly Rayne Nightengale cause you’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  Five spot lights flashed on the stage illuminating male figures in long black trench coats. At first the sight alarmed me, reminding me of the cloaked figures of the vampiric Watchers. When they began to dance in unison to the beats of the music, my hand involuntarily flew to my mouth and I indeed felt my eyes begin to bulge out of my skull. I heard Tara cackle with glee beside me.

  Abby leaned in towards me and had to yell in my ear to be heard over the music.

  “Welcome to the Las Vegas Chippendale show!”

  I sat at a loss for words, but I think I was the only one. The array of women in the room soon got up out of their seats to cheer and/or leer at the dancers performing in front of us. As the men began to tease the crowd by revealing one muscular shoulder after another, you would have thought the women around me had never seen the skin of a man before. The men suddenly turned around all at once to face us and let the trench coats dramatically fall to the floor in unison.

  Malcolm was the only man I’d ever seen with such large, well toned muscles. But the five standing in front of me proved that humans could indeed have similar physiques. I felt flush all of a sudden. Tara soon stood up, joining the raucous crowd around us yelling to the men to take more of their clothes off. I seriously thought about hiding underneath my chair until the show was over, but the girls wouldn’t let me. Tara and Abby soon pulled me up to stand with them as they began to dance to the music.

  I’m not sure how many dance routines followed but by the middle of the show I’d joined in on the frivolity of it all and found myself enjoying the role reversal. Usually people associate strip tease shows as being men watching women. I found it interesting women could turn such an event into a party without even having to see the men strip down past their underwear. The men came out dressed in a myriad of costumes for each routine. Once they were dressed as firefighters, once as bikers, once as clones of Tom Cruise from the underwear dancing scene in Risky Business and once as hip hop dancers. Near the end, the boys were dressed up as cowboys and seemed to know exactly where I was in the crowd like they had been tipped off it was my bachelorette party. Before I knew it they had me up on stage wrapping a white rope around me like they were lassoing me for safe keeping. As the song ended, they took the rope off me and asked that I sit in a chair directly in the middle of the stage. I didn’t have much choice. It was either sit or stumble my way off stage in the dark. An act I felt sure would lead to my untimely demise at the hands of my own clumsiness.

  A song I recognized began to play and a single spot light illuminated the solitary male figure on the stage. I felt more than heard my sharp intake of air.

  Baby take off your coat

  Real slow…

  Baby take
off your shoes…

  As the woman’s husky voice continued to sing the tune, the familiar muscle bound figure in front of me began taking off the suggested clothing.

  It was then I realized I should have known something was suspicious when Malcolm showed up with so many clothes on to bring us to Las Vegas.

  As he performed his strip tease in front of his enamored female audience, he would turn to face me as if making sure I was watching every undulation of his body. Malcolm’s strip tease was in a completely different league from that of the Chippendale dancers. He moved each of his muscles with confidence, knowing without a shadow of a doubt every woman in the room desired him. His fluid movements left no doubt about his prowess in the bedroom yet somehow he maintained his dignity even when he stood in only a pair of black nylon underwear gyrated his hips in front of me in a completely sexual way.

  Like every other female in the room, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Malcolm. But unlike every other female in the room, I knew the reason wasn’t because of the overpowering pheromone all Watchers produced to attract the females of the human species. Of anyone in the room, I knew the real Malcolm best, and I knew exactly what he was trying to do: seduce me.

  I felt my body begin to quiver slightly of its own accord. Breathing became harder as Malcolm continued to stare into my eyes as if daring me to look away from him.

  By the end of the song, as the woman crooned her last ‘baby leave your hat on’, Malcolm straddled my thighs and placed his fedora on my head.

  He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “I haven’t forgotten. You still owe me a day alone with you.”

  The lights went out plunging us into complete darkness, and I felt him place a gentle, wet kiss on the side of my neck.

  Then he was gone.

  Chapter 2When the lights came back on in the room, the girls came up on stage to help me down.

  “I can’t believe that big lug did that,” Tara said shaking her head. “I swear to God, Lilly Rayne, I didn’t know he was planning to do that to you. You know if I had I wouldn’t have let him.”

  “Can I suggest,” Abby said, “that we not tell my father about Malcolm’s… demonstration? Their relationship isn’t the strongest as it is. Plus, I really don’t want to have to tell my boyfriend his father just got me completely flustered in a good way.”

  Angela was waving a hand in her face like she was trying to cool herself down. “I agree. That information should remain between the four of us.”

  “I’m not going to lie to Brand,” I quickly said.

  “Well, you don’t have to lie exactly,” Abby said. “Just don’t offer the information freely. Surely you’re allowed to keep some secrets to yourself.”

  “I have to say I agree with Abby on this one.” Tara nodded. “We don’t need to add gas to an already burning fire. Though, I can’t say I minded seeing the big boy strut his stuff up there. And boy howdy, do I mean big.”

  Tara’s admission soon had us all remembering the one stand out feature of Malcolm’s act. I think Angela was the first to start giggling which soon became contagious.

  After that we all decided to go eat at the Bellagio hotel. Of course, they had a buffet big enough for a king and Tara tore into it. I never understood how such a small person could eat so much food and not weigh fifty more pounds afterwards. I stuck to the crab legs and shrimp for the most part only allowing myself a sweet treat at the end. I did after all have to fit in a couture wedding dress in less than a week.

  As I was battling with myself on whether I wanted the strawberry shortcake or the fruit tart, I heard a familiar voice say, “I would go with the fruit tart myself: sweet and tangy, just like me.”

  I turned to face a fully clothed Malcolm. He only wore the slim fitting tailored black pants and white shirt open at the chest but that was definitely more than the last time I saw him.

  “What were you thinking?” I said, pulling him off to the side before the other girls could see him. “Have you completely lost your mind? Brand will go ballistic when he hears about what you did.”

  Malcolm smiled. “I’m not really concerned about what he thinks. You should know that by now, dearest. But I would love to know what you thought about it. Or do I even have to ask from the way you were breathing at the end?”

  I took a deep breath and tried to wipe the picture of a virtually nude Malcolm straddling my lap out of my mind.

  “You know you’re gorgeous,” I told him. “And I’m still half human. It was a natural reaction.”

  Malcolm took one of my hands into his and twined our fingers together intimately.

  “I would be more than happy to give you a private show on our day together,” he said, his voice full of suggestive overtones.

  I closed my eyes no longer able to look at the promise of sensual delights in his gaze and whispered, “Stop.”

  “But do you really want me to?” He pressed his body in closer to mine.

  “I need you to,” I sighed, opening my eyes and looking into his handsome face. His jet black hair fell like a curtain shielding us from those around us. He bent his head down even closer to mine.

  “Why deny yourself the pleasure you know I could give you, dearest? You know how much I care for you. I would make it a moment you would never forget. Even you can’t deny you have feelings for me.”

  “Malcolm, please,” I begged.

  “Lilly,” he murmured, saying my name as he placed a gentle finger under my chin to tilt my face up, forcing me to look at the desire he held in his eyes for me.

  He made to lower his lips to mine.

  I stepped away trembling. I stared at him for the space of a second and quickly turned my back to him no longer able to stand looking at the desperate longing in his eyes.

  When I got back to the table, I told Tara I needed to go to the bathroom. As is the unspoken rule among females, Tara stood to join me. Once we reached the bathroom, I pulled her into the same stall as me.

  “What’s going on?” Tara asked. “Are you sick?”

  “Tara, I almost let Malcolm kiss me,” I confessed, feeling as though I might faint.

  “When?”

  “Just now.” I went on to explain the scene.

  “That man will not give up,” Tara said, shaking her head. “Listen, you’re only human Lilly Rayne Nightengale. Hell, I’m not sure I wouldn’t drag that man to my bed after the show he put on in front of you. And I know you love him in your way for your own reasons. But girl, you’re in love with Brand. Of that I have no doubt in my mind or I wouldn’t let you marry the man.”

  “But why did I almost let it happen?”

  “I can’t answer that for you,” Tara said. “But don’t start doubting your love for Brand. He’s the right man for you. Malcolm’s just a hormonal accident waiting to happen. My advice is to stay as far away from that man as you can for a day or two.”

  “But what if I’m not able to do that? The night of the Halloween dance I promised him I would spend one day alone with him before I married Brand.”

  “What the hell for?” Tara almost shouted.

  “I accused him of something he didn’t do and he said if I spent a day with him before I was married he would forgive me for it.”

  “Can’t you get out of it?”

  “I promised him, Tara.”

  “And you don’t break a promise,” Tara sighed, knowing me all too well. “Well girl, the only other advice I can give you is take a cold shower before you go off with him because he’s not going to make things easy for you. I can tell you that right now. Now that he knows he can have an effect on you, he won’t give up so easily next time.”

  “Next time?” I asked in alarm.

  “Girl, you know there’ll be a next time. That’s just a fact of life. You just need to figure out what you’re going to do when it happens.”

  Soon after I was instructed to phase us back to Tara’s house. When we reached it, Will and Malik were just stepping out of the front door with what app
eared to be empty cardboard boxes in their hands.

  “Are y’all done?” Tara said, walking up to Malik and giving him a kiss on the cheek so naturally it almost didn’t register in my mind. It was the first time I ever saw her do such a thing with him.

  “Everything is as you instructed,” Malik said, beaming down at her like she was the most important person in the world.

  When we brought Tara home to recover from her injuries, Malik had been instrumental in her care. Since he was a fairy, his knowledge of herbal remedies helped her heal faster than she would have naturally. He even found a poultice which would diminish the scar from her wound to almost be unnoticeable in time. But, I would always see it. I would never be able to forget how close I came to losing my best friend.

  “Don’t blame me for the decorations,” Will said to me, seeming to want complete absolution for the decor. “I just did what I was told.”

  “See you later?” I heard Tara say to Malik.

  “Just call me when you’re done and I’ll be right over,” he answered before giving her a chaste kiss on the lips.

  I raised an eyebrow at the pair not realizing their relationship had progressed so far in such a short amount of time.

  When Malik saw me staring at them, he said, “I promise Lilly. She made the first move, not me.”

  Tara slapped Malik playfully on the arm. “Why did you have to go and tell her that? Now I can’t pretend it was all your idea.”

  “Because I made a promise to Lilly that you would have to make the first move,” Malik said, putting the box in his hands down and bringing a playfully reluctant Tara into his arms. “And I always keep my promises.”

  “Well, I’ll forgive you this time,” Tara put her arms around Malik’s neck. “But just remember who butters your bread.”

  “I didn’t need to hear that,” I said.

  Tara giggled before giving Malik a full on kiss in front of God and everyone standing around her. It was one of the few times I’d seen Tara so unabashedly happy.

  While Tara was otherwise engaged, I walked over to Will as he was putting his cardboard box in the trunk of his car.