Chapter 145

I lose my courage and turn back to Arrick’s car once more, aiming for the door, but he catches me from behind and turns me back around, keeping his arms around my waist and shoving me forward to walk slowly with his groin pressed to my ass to help push me onward.

“We’re doing this… My mom will probably not react like you think she will.” He’s trying to get me up the path of his parents’ house. The entire drive here I tried to talk him and myself in and out of doing this, my nerves are frayed, my emotions a mess and I’m losing all courage. I feel like I’m going to be sick or pass out and maybe just want to stay in his car and hide.

Or go home, we could just go home.

“It’s not her, it’s facing everyone, knowing that my mom has told them all. That they all probably know the stuff we get up to now. How they’re all going to react. It’s awful.” I beg him, tensing against him to try and stop our descent down the drive. He keeps moving me onwards, not letting me go, and not backing down. His chest against my shoulders and winning with sheer strength.

“Where’s my little warrior, huh? She’s fearless in the face of tough times! Pretty sure you can get used to the family knowing that we have sex, Sophie. What happens if you ever get pregnant? Are you going to tell them it was an immaculate conception?” He chuckles and bumps my ass with his groin when I stop suddenly, urging me on and not giving into me. Arrick is trying to keep me moving, despite me digging my heels in, I push my butt back into his groin to stop him, but he’s too strong.

“Keep that up and I might bang you here, and then no one will be in any doubt about what we get up to.” Arrick leans back and smacks my ass hard, making me yelp and I throw back a glare at his face.

“You wouldn’t dare. You’re not allowed to touch me when we go in… Don’t be all like lovey and touchy and stuff. I don’t want you doing weird shit that you do, like smacking my ass…. Or you know, being sweet, or lame, or annoying me with wanting to touch me up.” I scold, suddenly aware that they might scrutinize us in every way and not sure I will be comfortable with affection in front of them. Arrick sighs as I duck away from him and shove his hands off, not ready to have people seeing us all touchy and cuddly when I think it will just weird them all out. It’s already weirding me out that they might see it.

“Don’t make me carry you, baby. I don’t think we’ll need to hide anything if the first thing they see is me manhandling you in the door.” Arrick yanks me back firmly and pulls me into a loose headlock, squirming as I give up the fight and sigh.

“I changed my mind. I don’t want to come with you to see your mom.” My tone fearful because I’m really starting to panic. Hitting that age old childish part of me and sulking, pouting, and whining expertly.

“Yeah right, you’re my human shield. My mom is less likely to throw dishes at me for defiling your innocence if you’re standing between us.” Arrick smirks, still refusing to let go but I shake my head hard.

“Nope.” I turn and wrap my arms around his waist in a bid to stop him walking, crushing my skull to that wide chest and pleading with little tense nudges; he unravels me, turns me back around and pushes me in front of him with more force than necessary, that sends me skipping ahead.

“If you don’t come with me, I’ll be forced to tell her to pick an engagement party date and that you want to give her ten grandbabies. You know she will hold you to it.” He grins, and I stop, spin and stare at him in open mouthed horror.

“Stop with the B word! …What engagement? You wouldn’t dare!” I accuse, coming back to put my hands on his abdomen to keep him from the last few feet to the door.

“I might even have to bring up the M word… So, you better come in and supervise. Who knows what might come out of this mouth if she puts me under the grill. My mom can be really terrifying when it comes to you girls and her maternal need to protect you all.” He chuckles, obviously smug at his attempts to blackmail me, but I admit, it’s working. I don’t trust him to not promise his mom big white weddings and three hundred grand babies before I’m twenty-two. I don’t like that at all.

Arrick tugs me the last foot towards him and kisses me softly, tilting his head so he can get close and personal. I jump back again, gasping in panic and dart my eyes around wildly, scanning the empty street for spies.

“Someone could see.” I chastise him, fearful of prying eyes and infuriated with his sudden grin. It’s going to take a while to get used to letting Arrick be this way with me in front of the people we love; it’s not natural for me, and even though Jake got a glimpse I would rather ease into this in a more comfortable way.

“It would save us all of this drama. Come on you. We can stand out here all-day bickering, but I’d rather face the music and tell everyone I’m fucking little Sophie.” He dodges my slap on the shoulder and chuckles at my outrage at calling it that. Hauling me back under his arm and pulling me towards the house, despite my protests and struggles. Arrick isn’t taking any excuses, he is intent that coming home is for one reason alone and that’s to tell his parents and face my family as a real couple.

God help me!

Getting me in the front door completely changes my entire demeanor. I revert to scared and wide eyed, cowering behind him, grabbing onto his upper arm with a death like grip as he leads the way. I’ve no idea how Sylvana is going to react, seeing as she has been like my surrogate second mom, or maybe third, for years. Suddenly it’s too terrifying that she may not approve of this, because I know she genuinely liked Natasha.

“I think you’re cutting off the blood supply, baby.” He nods at my hands and I loosen them a little. Arrick peels one of them off and slides it into his hand as he pulls me towards the sound of chatter in the day room.

“Mamma…. Where are you?” He yells into the echoing house and both jump when a voice comes close by from the kitchen to the right instead.

“Right here waiting for you two to come in and stop arguing on the drive.” Sylvana is standing with a mixing bowl, in her kitchen, wooden spoon furiously pounding some sort of batter, eyeing us up with her usual loving face, a raised brow of a woman who already seems to be in the know.

Arrick glances at me and despite telling me I’m his human shield he steps in front of me to bridge the gap with his mother, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. Sylvana lays down her bowl, pats his cheek and then moves forward to kiss me on the forehead.

“Do I need to wait for you two to awkwardly beat around the bush and spit it out ,while I pretend I don’t know, or are you going to tell me how serious it is?” She says pointedly; my mouth snaps shut, and I recoil behind Arrick once more. Arrick only giggles and gives her another kiss on the cheek.

“Can’t get nothing by you, can I? Guess I know who I take after……. Serious Mom…. I asked her to move in with me and she said yes. I love her.” Arrick doesn’t hesitate. Always so at ease with his mother and he never really fears retribution. That is the perk of being the golden child, the good one in all the years, while Jake had been the devil. He dips his fingers in the bowl of batter and sticks them in his mouth, throwing me a wink as she bats him away for his dirty habit.

“Well, it was hardly a shock seeing you kiss her on the drive. Last time I saw you here you were dragging her off in the dark like a crazed jealous loon when her gay friend was making an awful job of acting like her boyfriend. Sophie, darling? ….. You left your shoes in my garden, and your underwear under my son’s bed.” She smiles gently my way and moves the bowl out of reach of her sons wandering hands and lays it behind her on the worktop.

I’m instantly speechless, face flaming as I recoil like she’s burned me. Praying the ground opens up and devours my mortified body as shame courses through me. Arrick on the other hand is smiling, chuckling, and pulls me forward into his arm casually. Like this is no big deal at all.

“Not as fly as we thought we were, huh?” He kisses me on the head and I wriggle free, shoving his hands off me in sheer awkwardness and slapping his hands away when he tries to catch me again, grinning at my reaction as Sylvana shakes her head.

“Stop tormenting her!” She smacks him on the lower arm with a warning look and then turns to me with a warm one.

“If he’s anything like Jake, then the more you make a fuss, the worse he will try and get a reaction. I would get used to being pawed by him. It’s pretty clear to anyone you are bumping uglies already. He is a Carrero after all.” She smiles widely, motions to the coffee machine in a ‘would you like some’ gesture and seems oblivious to anything wrong here at all.

“Mooom?” Arrick groans. “Wherever you heard that phrase, please never use it again. It’s not cool or hip and it’s really cringe. I never want you to say anything like that to me again.” He leans back against the worktop behind us appearing traumatized, his mom giggling girlishly sways a hand his way.

“Well genitals are hardly attractive, and you do sort of bump when, you know? … Copulate.” She raises an eyebrow and then softens her face with a smile, that cheeky Jake like glimmer in the depths and I realize she is doing it on purpose to get a reaction out of him. Sylvana is naughty and I giggle too, losing all shame and embarrassment and suddenly wondering why I was ever worried that she would hate this.

“I swear, I’m scarred for life.” Arrick groans again, clearly at a loss for words.

“You’re not mad?” I turn to her now, little inner Sophie reaching out to her maternal figure and needing reassurances. Insecurity peeking out and needing the balm that the Carreros have a way of applying.

“No. I’m not mad, darling child. I’m surprised it took him this long to see the beautiful woman you were becoming.” Sylvana reaches out and takes my hand, holding it tightly and squeezing it gently.

“Yeah, took him way too long.” I nudge him in the ribs when he comes back up behind me and slides an arm around my shoulders. Feeling a little awkward under Sylvana’s scrutiny but leaving him alone to touch me, urging myself to relax and accept that it’s not going to stop, and I want to be able to relax with him.

“I didn’t fail to see it…. I just didn’t think I should ever act on it.” He points out defensively, suddenly being ganged up on by two women he adores and deflecting the hard time that he knows he’s going to get.

“I can’t say it seems odd. You two have always been close, so seeing you being this way isn’t really new. Don’t play with her heart, Arrick. Sophie is a fragile soul and she needs stability, not some lothario romance that messes with her head. I know what you and your brother are like.” She tuts at him. Arrick frowning in complete disbelief.

“Mom? Jake has been married to Emma for the last five years, and they’re solid and happy. I’m more than capable of being in a committed relationship too. You’re basing your facts on maybe seven years ago.” He laughs at her and meets that scowling look.

“Make sure that’s what this is, because if you hurt my little Mimmo and break her heart, I’ll break your neck. There better be a ring on that finger before long.” Sylvana is deadly serious, scarily so and a hint of momma bear and fiery temper makes me squirm back in his arms a little.

“Steady on, I’m only turning twenty.” I squeak in sheer panic, knowing this was going to be a topic at some point, but not thinking she would swoop right in. I want that with him one day, but I have so much to do first.

“Mom, there will be a ring on her finger eventually, I swear. Right now, we’re living in the moment. She’s moving in and we’re taking it from there.” Arrick encircles my waist affectionately, his body molding to mine, despite my attempts at batting him off subtly and then giving up again. Somehow her non-

reaction makes me relax and I admit, I like his touch a little too much to ever push it away for long.

“I’ve never understood you young folks and all this living in sin before marriage, just get married if you want to cohabit, and be done with it.” She sighs, contemplative and moves off to drag mugs out of the cupboard despite no one saying they wanted coffee.

“Mom, are you trying to give Sophs a heart attack. She has an aversion to marriage and babies. Give her another five years at least.” Arrick laughs, his breath tickles my neck, yet I’m still staring at her as though she has two heads. And as for five years. I think not. My five year plan has stores and fashion week, not B’s!

He better re-think his time scale.

“Why? If my son upsets you then come to me, I’ll kick him in the balls for you.” Sylvana wanders back to me, kisses my forehead and smiles gently. “Although knowing you my darling child, you’re more than capable of doing it yourself.” Sylvana smiles at me again, patting my cheek tenderly and then wanders back to the counter.

“Amen to that.” Arrick agrees.

“I’ve recently discovered I have a right hook.” I point out, subject change smoothly applied. Head very clearly diverting from the cringy B and M words and pulling me to safer shores.

“A pretty good one… I have her in the boxing ring with me, teaching her to kick ass, should she ever need it.” Arrick leans his head against mine and sighs.

I went with him yesterday evening for his late session with his trainer, because he’s adamant that I learn some self-defense moves before we left. He’s been a lot clingier to my presence since the night I was grabbed by Tyler’s men, not that we talked much about it again. There is some unspoken rule that we forget that it ever happened and no mention of Alexi or how he took care of things. All I know is he took over Camilla’s debt and she remained unharmed and somehow in the shelter of the Carrero family. Alexi’s problem now.

That’s where my need to know ends.

I wasn’t any good when he got me in that ring with him, and he did grab me a million times in a million ways to rile me until I got stroppy with him and threw his stupid gloves in his face. Yes, I was tantrummy and he was patient as hell, and kept talking me back into the damn ring until I mastered one evasive maneuver. Also, how to properly knee a guy in his family jewels. I can now break a pinkie to get a hand off me too. I guess he’s just making sure that if I ever get grabbed again I’ll have a fighting chance to get away and I can’t not love him for that.

“Will come in handy then won’t it. When you’re being a jerk and Sophie needs to put you in your place.

I’m guessing your arrival is the reason Cynthia has arranged a mass Carrero and Huntsberger family dinner party tomorrow night?” Sylvana glances at us with a smile and every ounce of my blood drains from my body.

“What?” I told them we were coming, and my mom mentioned dinner, but she never mentioned this. I think I may pass out. Heart stopping mid beat, breathe halting in my frozen lungs and the instant sweats come over me.

“Ouch…. Guess we better get our glad rags on and behave, baby.” Arrick laughs over the back of my head and I feel sick.

“Oh, my God.” I groan, imagining how they’re all going to behave. I already have the texts from Leila and my brothers over the last couple of weeks teasing me about my new boyfriend. My family have mainly seemed to have taken it well, after my parents told them, and I got a lot of non-surprised responses. Rylanne however, asked me if this was new… He thought we’d been dating for years and I literally had no response for the lack of observation on that front.

I’m not worried they will say anything bad; I’m just not relishing how my hands-on boyfriend will behave in front of people that I tend to act demurer in front of. People I make an art form of appearing non-

emotional and non-affectionate in front of.

He kills all of that. Ironically.

“Better hone my skills of feeling you up. Can’t let an opportunity like a mass gathering slide by without torturing you.” He brushes against my ear huskily and I already know he’s grinning, I can feel it. I elbow him in the ribs and turn with a glare.

“I swear you better not. I’ll make you sit at the other side of the room and ignore you all night.” I threaten, seriousness to my tone and that warning glare aimed at his face.

“Fat chance, I’m going to be glued to you all night, every opportunity to get my hand on your ass and my tongue in your mouth. Might even get a hand up your skirt at dinner, baby.” He chuckles, eyes glued to my mouth as he says it and I shake my head at him with such an urge to poke him in the eye.

“Arrick Carrero!” Sylvana slaps him across the head softly, getting an instant naughty boy scowl of surprise; doing what I wanted to and eyes him up. “That’s not an attractive trait. Don’t tease the love of your life. If she isn’t comfortable with public displays of affection, then leave her be.” She scolds haughtily.

I laugh at the irony in that sentence. Never did I ever imagine Arry would be on that side of that sentence. I giggle at the complete switch up in what we have become. He’s still my cool and calm outward man, but I know that only seems to be the surface layer he shows the world.

“Nope. I need to cure her, I have no intention of stopping.” He shrugs and seems to be trying to prove the point by roaming his hands down my thighs then back up towards the hem of my dress, but I slap him away.

“Well, I may just leave you to Leila then. Sure she will have something to say about you groping me over dinner.” I shove him off with more force, slapping every single attempt to haul me back and moving away to glower at him accusingly.

“Groping …Hmmmm…. I like the sound of that.” He winks with a cheeky smile. Both Silvana and I systematically slap a shoulder each.