Fighting Ever After Read online

  Fighting Ever After

  Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  Copyright © 2015 by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  All rights reserved by the author, including the right to reproduce,

  distribute, or transmit in any form, by any means.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For

  Prince Charming …

  Wherever he’s hiding

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  I flipped my phone open to check the time. It was almost four. Elaina should be here any minute. Shit. I had to adjust my jeans; I was already getting excited just thinking about her. I hoped Mom had some stupid campaign function to plan, or charity board meeting to be at. Not that I think charity is stupid. The women that run those meetings with my mom and spend most of their time gossiping while they delegate the real work to assistants and volunteers, who get treated like slaves, are fucking stupid. If it means Elaina and I will be able to have our “tutoring session” without my mother hovering, then they can gossip about whatever the fuck they want all damn day. It was rare that we spent any of our sessions actually working on my violin playing anymore. No, what we did was so much more fun and satisfying.

  I walked over to my bookshelf and pulled out the copy of The Sound and The Fury, by Faulkner, that I hollowed out on the inside. I had to make sure my stash wasn’t low. I have to hide them in there, because if my mom found rubbers in my night stand, she would flip her shit and make my dad beat my ass.

  I had got plenty, which is a good thing because I swear Elaina has the stamina of a marathon runner and it’s hard to keep up with her. I don’t mind trying though. My eye caught on the little wrapped box sitting on top of the bookshelf. I nervously ran my fingers over the paper and bow. I wrapped it myself. It wasn’t the best, but I hoped she liked it. Her birthday wasn’t for a few weeks, but with elections right around the corner, I didn’t know how much I’d see her. I had no doubt Mom would have us traveling all over the damn state for Dad’s campaign. This state representative office was just a stepping stone on his way to the senate. I also had no doubt he’d be elected and eventually get there.

  He’s a charmer and a good looking guy – has that smile that makes you want to trust him, comes from the right background, went to fucking Harvard and studied law. He says all the right stuff and makes all the right promises. It’s such a crock of shit. My dad is an asshole. My parents expect me to follow in his footsteps. They don’t care what I want. In fact, I don’t think they’ve ever, not even once in my life, asked me what I want. It’s all about them: their image, their name. Every decision they make, from the clothes they were, the house we live in, the people they associate with or don’t, the friends they allow me to have – it’s all about power and feeling superior, what they can gain or who they can control or who they can impress.

  Elaina cares though. She’s the only one who really does. My parents don’t allow me to attend school, they hire private tutors, so the only people my age I get to hang out with, are the pre-approved sons and daughters of their friends. Most of them are as fake as their parents and mine. It doesn’t bother me much though, I only need Elaina. We talk about everything, real shit like what we want to do with our futures. As soon as I graduate, we’re going to take off together. I want to pursue my music. It’s the only thing that’s mine, the only thing besides Elaina I’ve ever really wanted. It’s my escape from this life. Every time Mom is bitching at me, or Dad is on my case, I can go to my room, pick up my guitar and shut out everything else. I love the violin, okay, that’s not true, I think it’s kind of lame for a dude, but I love that the violin brought Elaina to me. I guess I do have one thing to thank my controlling mother for. If she hadn’t forced it on me, I never would have met Elaina, but I feel like I was born to play the guitar. I’ve never known peace like I feel when I’ve got a guitar in my lap and my fingers are gliding over the strings. Being with Elaina is about the only thing that comes close to touching that feeling I get when I’m in my own little world, making the music I want, expressing myself through those chords.

  I’ve started writing too. I haven’t shown anyone though. I don’t know if my songs are any good. They probably need a lot of work, but I think I’m finally going to show Elaina the song I wrote for her tonight when I give her the necklace. I hope she likes them – the song and the necklace.

  I checked my phone again. It was four. She should be here by now. She’s always on time. My mother is a stickler for punctuality. Even when she’s not here, I’m sure she has the maids report to her what time Elaina and my other tutors arrive and leave again. I wish I could text her, but she always says I can’t, that it would be too easy to get caught. I grab my violin case and head down to the music room. Maybe she’s waiting for me. Usually she texts me when she gets here. She says that’s alright, but it’s the only time she ever texts me. Outside of our sessions I can’t see or talk to her at all. It kills me, but I trust that she’s right. I don’t want to get caught and have anyone come between us.

  When I got to the bottom of the staircase, I saw my mother was on her way out the door.

  “Is Elaina here yet?” I asked.

  She paused and looked at me with my violin case in hand. “Oh, did I not tell you? You won’t be having violin lessons anymore,” she informed me like it was a trivial bit of information that just slipped her mind, but to me it wasn’t trivial. It was my whole fucking world, and she just turned it fucking upside down.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, trying not to give away how close I was to losing it.

  “Exactly what I said. I’m sure you understood me, I don’t think I could have made it any clearer. You will no longer be receiving violin lessons.”

  “Why?” I started to panic. I didn’t think she had any idea about me and Elaina. If she did, she wouldn’t be as calm as she was right now, but I couldn’t think of any other reason for her to end my lessons.

  “Hmm, I really meant to tell you after your last lesson, it must have just slipped my mind, but Elaina informed me weeks ago that she would be quitting. She didn’t want us to tell you right away because she said she’d noticed you had a little crush on her and was worried you wouldn’t take it well. She recently got engaged to her boyfriend and now that she’s finished with college, they’ll be moving to be closer to his family before the wedding. Your father and I decided that rather than try to find another competent teacher, you’ve had lessons long enough that your time would be better spent focusing on your studies. The SATs are right around the c
orner, and even though they’re more of a formality, because you’re already assured a spot at your father’s alma mater, low scores would reflect badly on us.”

  I heard her words, but it was like they weren’t registering. My mother looked at her watch and then said something about running late and then she was out the door. I just stood there like an idiot and everything crumbled around me as realization finally began to sink in. Elaina wasn’t coming. She wasn’t ever coming back.

  She has a boyfriend.

  They’re engaged.

  She was marrying some other asshole and she told my mother I have a fucking crush on her. A crush! Is that what it was when I was inside of her and she said she loved me, just a damn crush? She promised we were going to be together. How could she do this to me?

  I’m not sure how long I stood there, but every second I grew angrier and angrier until finally I couldn’t take it. I sprinted up the steps to my room, slamming the door behind me. She was just a bitch, a lying, manipulative bitch. Just like my mother. She fucking used me. She played me. She got off on making me fall in love with her. I gave her fucking everything and it was all a joke. I threw my violin case across the room. It slammed into the wall and then flung open. The instrument and lyrics I’d planned to show Elaina spilled out onto the floor. I walked over and picked them up, tearing them to pieces as I did. Then I grabbed the violin by the neck and swung it at my dresser. It splintered and snapped, chipping off a piece of my dresser as well. I didn’t give a shit. I just needed something to make this stabbing pain in my chest stop.

  I picked up the shreds of paper and tossed them in my trash, and then I did what every teenage girl does with pictures of her boyfriend when they break up. I found a lighter and set them fucking ablaze. The words on those pages turned to ash, as did the love I felt for Elaina. I told myself I should have known better. I’d thought she was different, but she was no better than my mother and her stuck up friends and their stuck up daughters. They were all the same. Every last one of them.

  I felt something wet on my cheeks and realized I was fucking crying. I angrily wiped at the tears. She wasn’t worth it. No bitch was. All they did was use people. They get what they want and then rip your fucking heart out. Lesson fucking learned. I wasn’t going to let it happen again. I grabbed my guitar off its stand and did the only thing I could to take my mind off the vice grip that was clamping down on my heart. I started playing and let the words just come to me as I felt them. I wrote my first breakup song, promising myself it would also be my last. I was determined not give any girl the chance to make me feel that way again. So from then on, I wouldn’t let any of them get close enough to. I would take what I wanted and then take off before they could try to sink their claws into me.

  At least that was the way it worked until her.

  I never fucking saw her coming. She was like a damn meteor, burning bright and hot, crashing into me and changing everything.

  Chapter 1

  I shoved my way through the bar. The place was packed. It always was when we played. Girls eyed me as I made my way through the crowd. I just grinned, but kept moving. None of them really caught my eye, at least not enough that it was worth it to stop. I needed to find Rick, the bar manager and make sure he had our check. We’d made enough of a name for ourselves that we didn’t play anywhere for free. Most bars didn’t mind paying either, since we always brought in a crowd. Just looking around the room I knew this place was making a killing tonight off the cover charge alone, not to mention the amount of alcohol being consumed.

  I spotted Rick over by the bar, talking to one of the bartenders. Just as I headed that direction, someone brushed past me, knocking into my shoulder. I started to tell the asshole to watch where he was going, but then I noticed the curves on the asshole and suddenly I didn’t mind so much. She wasn’t looking at me, in fact, unlike most of the girls in this place, she didn’t seem to notice me at all. She appeared distracted, and was looking around the room like she was searching for someone. I only got a quick glimpse of her face before she turned her head, but it was enough that I knew she was pretty, maybe even beautiful. She was small, a lot shorter than my six feet and three inches, and that hair – it was something, like a silky fucking rainbow I wanted to tangle my fingers in. She was slender, but looked soft in all the right places, just how I like ‘em, even if she was shorter than my usual preference. Her ass in those skinny jeans made me want to dig my fingers into it while I pounded into her.

  Shit. Suddenly I was wishing I was the lucky fucker she was looking for. I’d make it a point to look for this girl after our show. Kaylie would be pissed since she was expecting to go home with me tonight, but I just didn’t give a shit. I wanted to get this girl naked and underneath me. I was confident that after the show that wouldn’t be a problem. Once girls knew who I was, they practically laid down and spread their legs. I was confident this one would be no different.

  After she finished looking around, she kept moving toward the opposite end of the bar I was headed toward, but with that hair, she would be easy to find later. I walked over to Rick and then followed him back to his office. He wrote me out a check and I raised my eyebrows when I saw that the amount was more than we had discussed. “Thanks man. The guys are going to like this,” I told him.

  “No, thank you. Have you seen this place? They’re here for you guys. Our business is good as long as you guys keep playing,” he said, and then he wanted to talk about setting up more shows. We were pretty booked up though for the weekends. We didn’t do many week night shows because we all worked other jobs. Rick was a cool guy though and this was one of the first places to give us a shot when we started out, so I pulled up the calendar on my phone and we scheduled a Friday and Saturday night set for next month.

  It was getting close to time for us to go on; I could hear Kaylie on stage closing out her set, so I went to make sure the guys were ready and not screwing skirts in the bathrooms. That could wait until after. A few guys who came to our shows pretty regularly stopped me and we bullshitted for a minute. One of their girlfriends kept eyeing me like she wanted me to take her back to the bathrooms. That shit pissed me off. How hard is it just to be fucking faithful? If you don’t want to be, then don’t get a damn relationship.

  I only have a few rules when it comes to the opposite sex: I don’t let them in my bed, I don’t sleep over, I don’t ever do a girl without a condom, I don’t do girls looking for a relationship and I don’t mess with other guys’ girls. The relationship ones can be tricky, because sometimes girls say they’re okay with casual, but really they think they’re going to be the one to change me, and sometimes a girl lies about already being in a relationship, but for the most part, following those rules keeps me out of trouble. There was no avoiding the trouble that was about to fall into my lap though, I just didn’t know it yet.

  I found the guys sitting at the same table they’d claimed when we first arrived. They’d been joined by a couple of girls. Chris was the only one missing. Spade had some hot little blonde on his lap, and a sexy red head was trying to get Ace’s attention, but they both looked up at me excitedly when I pulled up a stool next to Spade. “You guys about ready?” I asked. Before they could answer me, I felt someone come up beside me and then everyone was looking up at whoever it was. I turned and started to smile when I recognized the girl from earlier standing there next to Bas, then someone knocked into her from behind and she tumbled right into my lap. I reached out to catch her, placing one hand on her elbow and the other on her hip. Her hands landed on my chest, her colorful hair spilling over one shoulder. I could see a small tattoo peeking out from under all that hair.

  Once Upon A Time.

  Huh. So she was into fairytales and that shit. Cute.

  Her hands slipped down my stomach as her head lifted. I bit back a groan, because her little hands felt good on my body. When I finally got my first real glimpse of her face, I realized I had been wrong earlier. She wasn’t just pretty. She was gorge
ous, and I almost believed that she could have been a princess straight from a fairy tale. She wasn’t blatantly hot or sexy, her features were more soft and sweet. She didn’t even look like she could be twenty one. Her lips were full and a soft pink that didn’t come from a lipstick tube. In fact she wasn’t wearing much make up at all, but she didn’t need it. I wanted to pull that bottom lip between my teeth and bite it.

  Her eyes traveled up and down me and I could tell she was checking me out. It made me grin because I could also tell that she liked what she was seeing. Then her eyes finally met mine, and if I hadn’t already been sitting, it would have knocked me on my ass. They were a bright silver color I had never seen before, and I swear they looked into mine and saw right through me. She was staring at me like she was searching for something and it made me damn uncomfortable. I didn’t like it one bit.

  “Not that I mind Princess, but I should probably know your name before you start getting frisky.” I felt her stiffen and a deep blush tinted her cheeks. Then Spade interrupted the little moment we were having.

  “That’s Sebastian’s unicorn. Turns out she’s real.”

  Well, well. So this girl was Bas’ Jaxyn. Not at all what I had expected, hearing about his childhood friend. The way he talked about her – more like she was his sister – I’d figured she must be fat, or unattractive or just plain, because if a guy’s best friend is a girl, and he’s not screwing her, there’s usually a reason. Only I couldn’t figure out what it was in this situation, because this girl wasn’t any of those things. Not even close. I was starting to think Bas was a liar and that the reason we’d never met this chick was because he wanted to keep her all to himself. I sure as hell would.