AMBER’S POV
Emery and I left his room and explored the ship. From the itinerary given when we boarded, we would be on the water for six hours and we would leave the Bahamas by two o’clock Sunday afternoon making it back home at eight o’clock.
We made sure we took pictures of each beautifully decorated floor. There was a space for anyone’s pleasure: a casino, bar and grill, dance club, you name it, it was on the ship. Emery wanted to go to the dance club but you had to be eighteen to get in.
We settled on lounging by the pool on the top deck. Emery escorted me back to the room Axel purchased and luckily my mom and Axel weren’t there. I grabbed my luggage and pulled out my bathing suit. Emery saw my pumps and grabbed them.
“Oh yeah, here they are.” he smiled while admiring the shoes.
“Are you in love with me or the shoes?” I tease.
“Both.” he smirks.
I laugh and pull him to me. I kiss him and he throws his arms around me. We pull away when we hear someone clearing their throat. I see Axel standing there but my mom is not with him.
“Where’s my mom?” I ask him.
Axel looks from me to Emery and then back at me. “She went to his room looking for you.”
Before I can say anything Emery jumps in Axel’s face. “Look, she’s told me about the shady shit you’ve been doing and I don’t think it’s cool. If you’ve got a thing for young girls than you should pick one who isn’t your fiancée’s daughter!”
“Emery!” I gasp in shock.
Axel smirks at him. “Listen little boy, you shouldn’t accuse someone of something and you have no idea what you’re talking about. I would never hurt Vivian or Amber and for you to think that I would is a damn shame.”
Yeah, he was definitely a smooth talker.
“Just stay away from Amber.” Emery states in a low growl.
Axel chuckles. “Or else what? You want to fight me?”
Emery pushes up against him. “If you fucking lay a hand on her, it’ll be the last thing you do!”
At first the two men just stare at each other and then as if in slow motion Axel reaches back and punches Emery in the face.
I scream out at the action and Emery falls to the floor. I rush to him and hold him back from getting up and going after Axel.
“He’s not worth it.” I whisper to him.
I want to cry as I see his right eye swelling up. I then see Axel bend down next to Emery and I. He is staring at Emery.
“I don’t take kindly to threats and know that I do what I want, when I want. If you want to question me or come at me like you just did, I’ll swell up the other eye and you’ll need a Seeing Eye dog. Do I make myself clear?”
He doesn’t say anything further and leaves the room. I look at Emery’s eye and apologize.
“It’s not your fault baby. Get me some ice.”
I immediately jump up and grab the ice bucket and rush out to get some ice from the machine. When I go back in the room Emery has a cloth in his lap. He places a few cubes in the cloth and then places it on his eye.
My mom comes in the room a few minutes later and sees Emery tending to his black eye. She rushes to him and removes the cloth. She gasps at the sight.
“Emery! You shouldn’t have spat in Axel’s face!” she states causing me and Emery to glance at one another. “What were you two arguing about anyway? I thought you two were okay with one another. Amber, I won’t tolerate Emery coming around if he disrespects Axel.”
I can’t believe what I just heard! I jump up, ready to tell my mom everything but Emery jumps up and grabs me. He whispers to me that Axel has pulled the wool so far over my mom’s eyes she wouldn’t know up from down let alone right from wrong.
He pulls back and looks to my mother. “Mrs. Richards, I apologize for the situation that took place between Axel and I. I will keep my distance from him so that this doesn’t happen again.”
My mom blows out a breath. “Fine, but you should really respect your elders. If you expect to keep seeing my daughter than I don’t want to hear about another scene between you and my fiancée.”
I roll my eyes at her statement. Did she really think she could keep me away from Emery?
Emery nods and gives me a hug before he leaves the room. I flop down on one of the bed and stare away from my mother. I couldn’t believe her!
I hear her sigh and then she sits down on the bed next to me. She reaches over to touch my leg but I move away from her.
“Amber, what has gotten into you? Why don’t we go up on deck and have a talk, huh?”
I shake my head no. “I don’t want to talk.”
Just then Axel comes in the room with a bright smile. “Why are my favorite girls sitting in here sulking? Let’s go explore this beautiful ship!”
My mom jumps up and walks toward Axel. When she’s before him, she takes his hands in hers. “Baby, I want to talk to Amber alone. Give us ten minutes okay?”
He nods and she gives him a kiss before he leaves. My mom comes back to the bed and sits back down next to me.
“So, do you want to tell me what’s wrong and why Emery and Axel were fighting? I mean to spit in someone’s face is just vile but there had to be a reason for it. Did Axel say anything to him about you two having sex?”
Once again I couldn’t believe my mother. I didn’t say anything; I just jumped off the bed and headed for the door. My mother calling my full name made me halt my steps.
“If you can’t tell me the truth, I prefer if you stay in here the rest of the trip. You can see Emery when we go to dinner and I’ll allow you to be together while we’re in the Bahamas, but I think you two should distance yourselves for a while.”
I turn to my mom and frown. “Mommy, you wouldn’t believe the truth so why bother? I’m just going to go check on Emery and I’ll be back okay.”
She just nods and I leave the room. I head to Emery’s door and knock softly. He opens and moves aside so I can walk in.
“Are you okay?” I ask and spin to him and look at his eye.
He nods. “I hope the swelling goes down before we get back home.”
“Do you have any shades?”
He nods again. He takes my hand and pulls me to the bed. We sit down and I notice I just sat on his phone. I pull it out from under my butt and see that the screen is on a message, from Noelle. A naked picture message of Noelle!
“Emery what the fuck is this?!” I scream at him, showing him the picture.
His eyes widen and then he looks at me like he was just busted.
“What the fuck?! Emery why is there a naked picture of your supermodel ex-girlfriend on your phone? And were you looking at it just now? What the fuck?”
Emery reaches out for me but I jerk away from him. “Calm down. Can I explain?”
I fold my arms across my chest with his phone still in my hand. “This had better be good!”
“Baby, Noelle got my number when her dad called my parents okay. She called me the other night asking me to come over for sex but I declined her. I guess she was thinking the picture would entice me but it didn’t.”
I scoff and throw his phone at his chest. “Why would you be looking at it though? You should immediately erase any messages from her!”
Emery pinches the bridge of his nose. “Baby, I promise you that the picture means nothing. I don’t want to argue and I don’t want to fight. You should trust me.”
I sigh. “I don’t trust her okay. Look, just stay away from her.”
He nods. “I’ll change my phone number when we get home.”
I smile and relax. “Good. I’m going to back to the room so I’ll see you during dinner.”
I get off the bed and Emery grabs my arm. I look down at him.
“Why are you leaving?”
I sigh once again while removing my arm from his grasp. “My mom wants us to keep our distance from each other because of you and Axel’s ‘fight’.” I use finger quotes.
It’s Emery’s turn to sigh. “I really hope your mom learns about this dude soon. He screams trouble and I don’t want either of you to get hurt.”
I nod in agreement and bend down to kiss his lips. I then tell him to delete that naked picture and he does so before I leave the room.
I go back to the room and I sulk for the rest of day until it is time for dinner.
EMERY’S POV
My eye hurt like a son-of-a-bitch! I was tough but I had to admit Axel was tougher. If we got into an altercation again I would have to outwit him to keep from getting my ass beat.
After Amber left my room I applied the ice packed cloth to my eye. I hated that Amber and I were going through these trials and tribulations but I knew if we made it through, our relationship would be so much stronger.
I fell onto my back on the bed and decided to take a nap until dinner.
My cell rang a few hours later and it was Amber calling. I was a bit grouchy as I answered the call.
“Yeah?”
“Oooh, did I interrupt your nap?” she asked in her own groggy voice.
“Yeah, you did.” I yawn.
“Well, get up. Dinner is being served in fifteen minutes.”
She hung up after telling me this. I got out of bed and stretch. After taking a few minutes to decide what to wear I go into the bathroom for a quick shower. I dressed once I was all clean. I placed on my shades before I left my room and headed for the dining hall on the top deck.
I met Amber, her mother and Axel outside the hall and we walked in together. We were seated and brought out the premade menu of food which was included in our ticket price.
The four of us ate dinner in silence. There was a live band playing soft music and a bunch of couples made their way to the large dance floor. I asked Amber if she wanted to dance but she shook her head no. Axel then asked Amber’s mom to dance and she accepted.
When they left the table I placed my hand on top of Amber’s. She smiled at me and pulled her hand back to eat her dessert.
“Something wrong?” I asked her.
She blew out a breath. Uh oh.
“What happened?” I pressed.
“Axel has my mother tied around his finger. He had sex with her while I was in the room.”
I nearly choke on my saliva. “WHAT?”
“I was in the bathroom. I heard them come in and I could hear my mom telling Axel she didn’t want to have sex because I could walk in at any moment. I peeked out the door and he looked right at me. He then convinced her I was probably in your room and then they started doing it. He was behind my mom and he threw me the most sickening smile you would ever see. I was so disgusted!”
This was just too fucking weird.
“I waited until they left the room to come out of the bathroom.” she finished.
I shook my head. This guy had to get out of my girl and her mom’s life and the wheels in my head started turning as I thought of a plan to make this happen.