Picking Up The Pieces: Book 1 of the Broken Series Read online

  “I’m going to the toilet and then the bar, same again?” I ask Jack and Amelia.

  “Yes please, Blake,” Amelia answers and Jack holds his bottle up to me.

  As I’m heading towards the bathroom I see two women walk in, it’s full of single women tonight. I’m just really not interested, there’s only one woman on my mind at the moment. I take a second look at the brunette and I know exactly who that is; Alexia. She looks gorgeous. She’s wearing dark skinny jeans which fit her like a glove and a one those cami tops. Her hair is flowing down her back and is rod iron straight from what I can see from her.

  Shit, I need a piss.

  I break away from staring like a perv and carry on to the toilet. As I come out and make my way back towards the bar she’s standing with her back to me. I stand right behind her and I feel her tense.

  “Hello again, Alexia,” I whisper in her ear.

  She turns around and she looks at me in shock. “Blake!”

  I can hear the shock in her voice, well I’m shocked too, sweetheart.

  I look straight into her eyes only this time she doesn’t look away. She drags her teeth across her bottom lip, I can feel my dick starting to wake up, I look away cough to clear my throat.

  “I wasn’t expecting to see you in here.”

  “Well, I could say the same. How are you, Blake?”

  Shit I can feel my dick getting harder from the melodic way she says my name.

  “I’m good. All the better for seeing you. You’re not here alone are you?” I ask knowing full well she’s not anyway.

  “No, no my friend’s at the bar waiting to be served.”

  At that a bubbly blonde sidles up to her with four drinks in her hand and I look at her gobsmacked.

  “Becka are you kidding me? Why did you get two each?” Alexia asks in a high pitch tone.

  “What? I’m not waiting in that queue all night. This way we don’t have to queue up as much.” Alexia shakes her head at her and smirks.

  I stand looking at Alexia and I can see how relaxed she is.

  “Who is this hot piece of stuff? You’re a dark horse, Lex.”

  “Blake, this is Becka, Becka, this is Blake.” I shake hands with Becka and we exchange pleasantries.

  “I have to go to the bar, my friend Jack will think I’ve got lost.” I look over my shoulder and I can see Jack and Amelia watching us, they’re smirking. Amelia smacks Jack so I can imagine what he’s saying.

  Alexia looks over my shoulder and smiles a little and faces me. She drops her chin and then looks up at me with her to side a little and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Her friend tells her she’s going to stand in the corner. Alexia tells her she’ll be right there and turns back to me.

  “I better go, bye Blake.” I stand there like a fucking mute idiot and don’t say a word to her and I watch her walk away - again.

  What the Fuck!

  I walk towards the bar and straighten my rock solid dick in my jeans, then I go and get our drinks. I walk back towards my friends and I just know I’ve got a world of shit coming to me from them.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ALEXIA

  Oh, my God. What is he doing here! It’s Blake, standing in front of me and he looks…wow!

  I’m standing just looking at him like an idiot, I hear him speak to me, “I wasn’t expecting to see you here,”

  “I could say the same for you. How are you, Blake?” As I answer he answers my question I can feel his eyes burning holes into me and boy, are they intense? He asks me if I’m here alone and I say no and that Becka is at the bar. I feel Becka bump me.

  “Who’s this hot piece of stuff, Lex?” I can feel the colour rising in my face as I look at her and she hands me my drinks.

  I introduce them and Blake tells me he has to go back to his friends. As I look over his shoulder, I see a man and a woman sitting down. The man has sandy coloured hair, good looking too, from what I can see and the woman is a redhead and absolutely stunning, they’re looking this way, and I see the woman smack the man she’s sitting with, but they’re laughing so it’s not serious. I smile their way and look back to Blake, I watch his eyes turn darker. Becka tells me she’s going stand over in the corner and Blake says he has to go to the bar. His eyes are so intense; they are burning straight through me. I walk towards where Becka is, I look back, and he’s standing there, watching, I smile at him and join Becka.

  “Oh my god, Lex. He is hot. Who is it?”

  “I told you, his name’s Blake,”

  “Yeah but who the fuck is he and how do you know him?”

  “Remember that day in the coffee shop, when I had the bruises on my face?” Becka looks at me, and the anger takes over her.

  “Well, he was the man I bumped into,” her face changes then into a smile and the tension is gone.

  “He’s also been in the restaurant, I waited on his table,” I smile at her shyly. “Last night in fact.” I look away from her so she can’t see my eyes.

  “What, and you didn’t think to tell me?” she says astonished.

  “There was nothing to tell, well, he did tell me I was beautiful – but I think he was just trying to be nice, to be honest. Because why would he say that to me, I mean come on, let’s face it I’m not pretty.” I’m rambling, but Becka looks at me as if she’s about to burst.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Look at you, you’re gorgeous! Open your eyes Alexia. Did you not see the way he was looking at you, he was mesmerised!”

  “You called me Alexia.”

  “Out of everything I just said, that’s all you got, that I called you by your full name. Unbelievable.”

  “But you’ve called me Lex, for years.” She looks at me in amazement.

  “You -are - Stunning. Do you hear me? Don’t let that piece of shit Paul, get in your head anymore, okay. He’s gone” she tells me sternly.

  He’s always going to be there, in my head. He’s deeply embedded in my thoughts that I can’t shake him out, every time I look in the mirror he’s there telling me I’m ugly, and how nobody will want me, and then I feel like shit all over again.

  I nod at her to appease her she doesn’t need to know what I really think; I take a sip of my vodka. I look up and across the way to see Blake walking this way, and my breathing speeds up. I shouldn’t be feeling like this. As he approaches us, he smiles at me.

  “Ladies, can I get you both a drink?” He asks not taking his eyes off me for a moment.

  “No, it’s fine but thank…”

  “Ooh, yes please, two vodkas, one with red bull and the other with orange.” Becka butts in and tells him what we’re having.

  “What did you that for?” Covering my face with my hands.

  “What I accepted a drink, just hush it you,” she smiles and bumps her eyebrows up and down.

  “Ugh, I give in.” Blake returns with our drinks, and we both thank him.

  “You’re welcome.” Becka watches us both intently.

  “I’m going to the toilet. I’ll be back,” I nervously answer okay.

  I take a sip of my drink and turn my face up to look at Blake.

  “Hi,” I say shyly.

  “Hey, so, do you come here often?” I burst out laughing. “Oh my god, did you really just ask me that?” I cover my face with my hands again and just laugh. Blake makes me relax with just that one question.

  I bite my lip to stop myself laughing, and when I look up, I can see he’s laughing too. His smile is beaming.

  “What? It was a valid question!”

  “Okay, in answer to your valid question – no I don’t come here often, in fact, I hardly go out at all. I don’t get the chance.”

  “Why not, I thought a pretty woman like you would beating the men off.”

  “Yeah, right.” I turn my face away.

  “Hey, Alexia. Look at me.” He puts his finger under my chin to my head so he can look in my eyes. There’s something there, in his eyes. I can’t put my finger on it, though, it�
��s like he’s looking right through me.

  “Don’t do that. Don’t turn that gorgeous face away from me. Talk to me.” I clear my throat, take another drink and start to tell him a bit about myself.

  “I have a baby,” I tell him shakily. He looks at my left hand. “That’s the reason I don’t go out much.”

  I can see he’s thinking about that. He put his forearms on the table and leans on them. They’re just so muscly and tanned, I look back up. He’s smirking, the arse. He knows I was checking out the arm porn.

  OH god, kill me now.

  BLAKE

  After standing there and watching her walk away, I vowed not to let her go without talking to her at least. No fucking way! I get our beers and an iced water for Amelia and go back to my friends. They watch me closely. I put the drinks down on the table.

  “What, why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You like her,” says Jack.

  “Yeah, she’s pretty and shy and nothing like some of the girls you meet around here.”

  “She’s not pretty, she’s stunning!” adds Amelia. I wink at her.

  “So who is she? Jack asks. I go on to tell him about the meeting in the coffee shop, a few months before and also about the restaurant last night. I tell him about the bruises the first time I saw her, and I think someone hurt her.

  “Why don’t you go over and talk to her?” Amelia says.

  “You think so?” I ask her frowning.

  “What’s up with you, you’re usually more cocksure than this,” he laughs.

  “Fuck you, Jack. She’s different.” I watch her talking to her friend, have a long pull of my beer, put it down.

  Amelia grabs my attention, “Ignore him, Blake. He’s a twat. Go over to her, talk to her.” I carry on watching her. She’s having some kind of intense conversation.

  I nod at Jack and Amelia, put my beer down and start walking to towards her. As I get closer, I see her eyes widen, and her friend turns to see what she’s looking at and smirks. She knows what I’m going to do. I ask the ladies if they want a drink and head to the bar. The queue isn’t too bad now so I get served pretty quickly. I pick up their drinks after paying and head back towards their table. They both thank me. Her friend, Becka, I think she said her name was, very subtly leaves us to use the ladies.

  Once we get the pleasantries out of the way, I ask her the most used, corny chat up line ever! I didn’t even mean it as a chat up line, though.

  Oh well, roll with it!

  “Hey, so, do you come here often?” I watch her burst out in laughter. What a fucking idiot. I see her how happy she looks in this moment and I think how much I want to keep putting the smile on her face and that flush in her cheeks because it’s damn sexy! She’s talking to me while I’m checking her out, I need to stop that.

  “Oh my god, did you really just ask me that?” I’m still smiling at her.

  When she answers my question and says she doesn’t go out much, I watch her intently, I tell her I thought that a pretty girl like her would beating the men away, she turns her head away from me - again. I put fingers under her chin so she’s looking at me again and tell her to look at me. I can see right into her soul, and I know there’s something she struggling with, I also know how insecure she is.

  “Don’t do that, don’t turn that gorgeous face away from me. Talk to me.”

  Alexia takes a drink, clears her throat and then proceeds to tell me she has a baby. Wow, I lean on the table and see her looking at my arms, and I smirk, busted! I look at her hand to see if there’s a ring - no ring, I see the flush take over her face again, I carry on watching her. She’s beautiful, she’s inside her head. She has zero confidence.

  “How old’s your baby?” I ask her.

  “He’s just turned one.” I see the soft, happy look take over her when she thinks about her baby.

  “Boy or girl?”

  “Boy, Grady,” he smiles sweetly at me.

  “So, is there a boyfriend, that I should maybe know about, before I make a complete and utter idiot of myself, not that I’m not already.” She shakes her head but not facing me again. I frown at the way she goes into herself so easily.

  “Alexia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “You haven’t, honestly.” She looks past me, and I turn to see her friend behind us.

  “Hey, guys,” she says happily.

  “Where have you been,”

  “The ladies, I told ya,”

  “Yeah right, you were ages,”

  “I saw someone I knew too, so I stopped to say hi.” I watch the pair have their conversation, and then an idea comes to me.

  “Would you girls like to come and join me and my friends, they won’t mind.” Alexia looks across at them, smirks and says, “You sure, they seem cosy on their own,” she answers.

  “Nah, come on grab your drinks. Let’s go.”

  As we reach the table, I say “Oi you two, get a room.” I offer Alexia the stool to sit on and Jack gives Becka his, and goes to stand behind Amelia and wraps his arms around her.

  “We’ve got one thanks,” he kisses Amelia on the cheek.

  “Who do we have here then?” Jack asks.

  “This is Alexia and her friend Becka, ladies this is Jack and Amelia.”

  They all shake hands; we then fall into comfortable chatter. Jack making the girls laugh and the easy banter between the two of us as usual. Jack used to be my wingman before I met Cara and then he met Amelia, but there was something with her and Cara, they never got on, seeing the way she’s talking to Alexia now, it doesn’t really surprise me. Amelia is one of the nicest people you can meet, she’s more like a sister to me. She was there for me when that bitch left me, her and Jack.

  I smile at the exchanges that are made, I see Alexia smiling. Her face is lit up, and I promise to myself I’m going to make her look like this more often.

  “I think it’s time we made a move, I’m knackered. I wanna try and get some sleep before Grady wakes up.” I listen to Alexia and Becka.

  Shit! Think Blake!

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll ring a taxi now, be right back,” says Becka.

  “Hang on.” Amelia calls out, I look at Amelia curious, “I’m driving, if you’d like a lift, is that okay with you two?” she looks at Jack and me, and I know what she’s doing. I smirk and reply of course.

  Jack says whatever, his usual agreement. “If you don’t mind, if it’s not out of your way,” Alexia asks.

  “Where do you live, not that it matters, I’d prefer to drop you off than get a taxi.”

  We drink up, and I wait for Alexia, I put my hand in the small of her back and follow her out. I feel her tense up, but I pretend I hadn’t felt anything. We pull up to some flats, and the girls start to get out of the car and thank Amelia for the lift. I get out after Alexia and shut the door.

  “Alexia?” she turns and sees me, then looks at Becka, “I’ll carry on in. Nice to meet you, Blake.” Becka tells Blake happily.

  “You too, Becka. See you later,”

  I look towards Alexia again, she has a soft smile on her face, patiently waiting to see what I’m going to say. I walk towards her, she gets that nervous stance again, where she’s not sure what I’m going to do.

  “I’m really pleased you were there tonight.”

  “Really?” she asks softly.

  “Yes, really! Maybe we could go out again, what d’ya think?”

  “Mmmm, yeah, okay.”

  “I’ll need your number, so I can ring you, and we’ll make some plans.”

  “Oh, yeah of course,” she answers breathlessly. I watch her rummage in her bag for her phone, and she hands it to me. I ring my number so I have hers and hand it back to her.

  “There you go you have my number. I’ll probably text you tomorrow if that’s okay with you.”

  “Yeah, I’d love that.” She smiles at me, and I know I’m done for.

  I take her hand because I just have to touch her, I lean forw
ard, and I hear her breath hitch, I kiss her cheek softly, she bites that lip again and then licks her lips, so I gently move and kiss her lips softly. I feel her lips meet mine and then pull away. She’s breathless.

  So am I. I’m completely fucked!

  “Bye, Blake.” I stand there and watch her walk away, and I call out to her that I’ll text her tomorrow. She turns back, smiles sweetly and she lifts her hand to me. I watch her enter her building, I hear a voice behind me.

  “Oi, Romeo are you done now? Come the fuck on will ya.”

  “Screw you, I’m coming now.” I walk back to the car, get in and go home.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ALEXIA

  After I told Blake about Grady, I thought he’d run a mile, but there’s still time I suppose. I can’t and wouldn’t expect him to stick around with all my baggage. My head is full of excuses of why I should walk away right now. But those arms…wow! He’s sweet and gorgeous, he actually wanted to know about me, maybe it was just his way of getting me to like him and relax. His eyes say a lot about him, though, they’re truthful and trusting, affectionate, loyal, but they also have a little sadness in them too. Maybe we can help each other.

  We chat for a while. He asks me if there’s a boyfriend he should know about, and I panic. I can’t tell him; we hardly know each other. It’s enough that he knows about Grady already, but Grady comes before anyone or anything in this world. He’s my life.

  “Alexia, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “You haven’t, honestly,” he’s frowning.

  Shit, I hope I haven’t upset him!

  I look over Blake’s shoulder and see Becka returning from the ladies’ room. Blake asks us to join him and his friends, I look at across at their table, they’ve got their heads together, and he’s holding her hand, he kisses her sweetly, and she looks at him lovingly. I wish I could have that…a man, that will stare into my eyes so I could see love staring back at me instead of hate and disgust. I clear my throat,

  “You sure, they look cosy enough on their own,” I smirk. He looks back at me with a playful expression and says,