Beach Reads Box Set

by Madden-Mills, Ilsa

  “Yeah, no way we did that,” Cass agreed, laughing quietly.

  As we walked toward the bar, I caught Kline’s reflection in the giant mirror accented by liquor bottles. My gaze moved to the attractive guy sitting beside him and déjà vu hit me full force, damn near knocking me to the ground.

  Holy shit.

  I stopped dead in my tracks, holding on to Cass’s arm in a viselike grip.

  “What the hell?” She turned toward me, confused.

  My hands shook as I realized why I knew the guy next to Kline.

  It was Ruck.

  Oh, no.

  Ruck was here and he was sitting beside Kline, chatting like they were the best of friends.

  Oh. Fuck.

  I pulled Cassie away from the bar.

  Will turned toward us, hands pushed out in a what the fuck? gesture.

  “I forgot I need to go to the bathroom!” I called over my shoulder, damn near dragging Cassie across the floor.

  “Holy hell, what is going on?” she questioned as I pushed through the crowd.

  I didn’t answer her until we were safely tucked inside the ladies’ restroom.

  “Oh my God, Cass!” I groaned, my voice echoing in the dimly lit room.

  “I’m so confused,” she muttered. “What is going on?”

  “I know that guy next to Kline.”

  “Because he’s Kline’s friend Thatch, right?”

  I shook my head, pacing the confined room like a caged animal.

  “Are you going to give me a hint here or do I need to keep guessing?”

  “He’s Ruck.”

  “Huh?”

  “Ruck! TapNext Ruck!” I stopped, my arms flying out in front of me.

  She tilted her head. “The guy who sent the Hunchcock?”

  I nodded maniacally. “Well, it wasn’t really his Hunchcock,” I started to explain, but realized we really didn’t have time for that.

  “I think I’m still missing something? I’m not really understanding your panic here…” She paused, waiting for me to give an explanation.

  “Well, I never really stopped talking to him,” I muttered, feeling ashamed to admit it out loud.

  “Excuse me?” she asked, her eyes popping out in shock. “You’ve been talking to him this whole time?”

  I nodded.

  Cassie shook her head like she couldn’t process it.

  “Listen, I’ll tell you all of the details later, but you need to act like you’re familiar with him.”

  “With who?” She was still not catching on.

  “Ruck!”

  “Wait…who’s Ruck again?”

  I was about three seconds away from pulling my hair out.

  “Kline’s friend, Thatch! That’s Ruck!” I whisper-yelled.

  “Okay, okay.” She gripped my shoulders. “Just take some breaths, G. Everything will be fine.”

  I took a few cleansing breaths, calming my racing heart down.

  “Just tell me one thing. Why do I need to act like I know him?”

  I sighed, staring down at my feet.

  “Georgia?”

  “Because you’re still my profile picture,” I whispered in a rush, hoping she wouldn’t understand.

  She started laughing and shaking her head in disbelief. “Remember this moment.” She pointed a finger in my direction. “Because you owe me. Big time.”

  I nodded. “Anything you want.”

  “When we get home, you’re going to explain why you’re still talking to other guys when you’re very happy with Kline.”

  “I swear to you, it’s not like that.”

  She quirked a brow.

  “I promise. I really like Kline. I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. Ruck is dating someone. I’m dating someone. And we never make plans to meet in person.”

  “Okay, I believe you.” Cass pulled me in for a hug. “Who knows? Maybe he won’t even know it’s you…well, me…fuck, this is confusing.”

  I groaned. “How do I get myself into these situations?”

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ve got your back. I’ll distract what’s-his-face while you and Kline enjoy a night out.”

  “Thank you.”

  She handed me my clutch off the sink and moved toward the door.

  I glanced at myself in the mirror, making sure I didn’t look as crazy as I felt. My makeup was still intact, not a hair out of place. All I needed was another drink, or five, to calm my nerves and I’d be good to go.

  Maybe.

  As I walked past Cassie, she whispered, “Just so you know, this is really screwing with my big plan of seducing your brother tonight.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  She held the door open for me. “Don’t worry, I’ll save it for another night,” she added, a smirk on her face.

  “Good plan, you slutty turncoat.”

  “Heyyy,” she slurred, hinting at less sobriety than I’d hoped for going into a situation like this. “I’m no fucking traitor and you know it. I’m getting ready to eye-fuck the shit out of this guy for an entire evening just for you.”

  “No,” I corrected. “No fucking, eye or otherwise. Just talking. We’re friends.”

  She smirked as we rounded the corner and the guys came into view.

  “What’s his name again?” she asked, her eyes glowing like the last embers of a dying fire.

  “Thatch,” I answered by rote, minutely horrified that another member of my work world knew I was a virgin—or that I used to be—even though he didn’t know I was me…I was Rose. Whatever. “Thatcher Kelly.”

  “Mmm,” she moaned, fluffing her breasts into an even higher elevation in the cups of her bra and licking her lips.

  “I’d thatch that.”

  Fuckkk. I should have known. For Cass, it was all in the name. This was going to be one long-ass night.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kline

  “This place is unreal. You come here all the time?” Will asked as we walked into The Raines Law Room, dim lights and old-style sofas filled to the brim surrounding us.

  “Not really,” I answered honestly, knowing it wasn’t really the place but the actual going that was the problem. “This is really more Thatch’s style.” The vibe was chill, but the allure was the drama. “The cloak and dagger, the limited access.”

  Will laughed and nodded in understanding.

  I turned from him to the room to finish what I’d already started. My eyes had scanned the crowded bar immediately upon our arrival regardless of my knowledge that such an exercise was foolish and futile. My Georgie would be late to our wedding, the birth of our kids, and her own funeral.

  Wait. What?

  I glanced at her brother, panicked that he could read my mind, but he must have seen something other than outright terror in my eyes.

  “Don’t worry, man. George’ll be here eventually.” He laughed. “But if Cass is with her, they probably stopped at Barcelona Bar before even thinking about coming this way. That girl actually gives no fucks.”

  I nodded along as though I understood, but I was barely even listening.

  I mean, I could almost understand the wedding thing. I was crazy about her, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. But the kids?

  Jesus.

  My thoughts were in a tailspin, headed straight for the harsh reality of a quickly approaching ground when my pinballing eyes caught on something unexpected and unwelcome. Loud, boisterous, and impossible to ignore, it was quite possibly the only thing that could have superseded my line of thinking at that point.

  Shoving through the crowd as gently as possible, checking to see that Will was trailing along behind me, I sought confirmation of my new, much more immediate fears.

  Bodies moved with ease, and flirty smiles bombarded me from several female angles. I didn’t have eyes for any of them, though, and for the first time in weeks, it wasn’t because of Georgia.

  Thatch turned as I approached, a shit-eating grin topping his redwoodlike frame at the s
ight of me. “K-man! Fuck yes! Out on the town! I thought I’d seen the last of this,” he spewed out in quick succession, the effect of being several drinks deep slightly loosening his already slack tongue.

  Will smiled at his greeting, and I tried not to cringe.

  I really didn’t need Thatch to be there tonight. I’d stupidly believed I could keep being Ruck and myself without the gun going off in my face. I was wrong. This was what happened when people played with things they weren’t responsible enough to handle.

  The walls collapsed, or at least, they felt like they did, and my tie set out to strangle me. Will smiled and greeted Thatch happily.

  I ran through the consequences of his presence and tried not to puke.

  God, if I couldn’t get him the fuck out of here quickly, I was in trouble. His picture was on my profile. His face was the one Georgia had been associating with Ruck.

  What was already a goatfuck of dishonesty was setting up to turn into an all-out cluster.

  I leaned forward and right to Thatch’s ear, using the crowd noise as an excuse to keep Will out of the loop.

  “You need to leave,” I told him succinctly, knowing that if ever there was a time my girl would be less than forty-five minutes late, this was it.

  He laughed and slapped me on the back.

  “It’s good to see you too, man. I miss you. I only get to see you at practice these days.”

  I shook my head in frustration.

  He laughed some more.

  “I’m gonna run to the restroom, guys,” Will excused himself, fading into the crowd fairly quickly.

  Thatch nodded and smiled, taking Will’s leave as an opportunity to shit talk.

  “But, really, I guess that’s the same as always. It’s just the reason that’s changed, right? Instead of work, it’s the mystic pussy.”

  “Thatch.”

  “I get it, man. Sometimes your dick just gets caught in the snare of a good snatch. Like a vise grip, am I right?”

  “Thatch, listen.”

  “How is Miss Georgia? Almost done with your ass and looking—”

  Eyes to the door, I only heard the first half of his sentence—thank God—because, just as I knew she would, the object of my affection walked in looking like sex on legs right then. Leather and lace and enough beauty to make me think my earlier panic about kids was actually the best idea I’d ever had. Her blonde hair was styled wild, just how I liked it, and I could see the blue topaz of her eyes shining from across the room despite their failure to meet mine.

  And arm in arm with her? The face of her profile, a woman I could only surmise was the infamous Cassie Phillips. I’d heard a laundry list of antics and anecdotes featuring Georgia’s best girl, but I had yet to have the privilege of meeting her.

  Fuck.

  The web of lies was starting to look more like a convoluted clusterfuck of what are the goddamn odds? We’d each put our friends as our profile pictures—a scenario I should have predicted but absolutely had not—and now, I had to sit through an evening where any second this mess could brilliantly blow up in my face.

  Out of time and patience, I turned to Thatch in a flash, and when I did, I led with my fist.

  “Ouch,” he said through a smile, rubbing his shoulder teasingly.

  “Fuck, Thatch, fucking listen to me.”

  He mocked me with wide eyes and cupped his hands around his ears.

  I considered hitting him again, this time for real, but with a glance in the girls’ direction, I knew I didn’t have time.

  “The girl in the picture from the TapNext profile, the one you took it upon yourself to—”

  “Traumatize.”

  I nodded. “Right. Well, I’ve been talking to her.”

  “Behind the lovely Georgie’s back?” he asked in faux outrage. Regardless of his mocking, I could tell he was curious. Talking to two women at once wasn’t like me, and when it came to these “two,” he didn’t know the half of it. And I didn’t have the fucking time or means to explain.

  One quick glance showed the women and Will together, hugging and laughing and all too close to heading this way.

  I closed my eyes briefly to gain patience. He’d have to wait to hear how twisted my truth had become because that talk required more than fifteen seconds and several glasses of scotch.

  “I’ve been talking to her ever since, and she’s here. She’s getting ready to come over here, right now, and she’s gonna be doing it with Georgie.”

  With her? Ha! Fuck! More like, it is her.

  “Well, fuck me,” he said with a smile, his eyes searching mine in an effort to figure me out.

  “Your picture is on that profile. You need to pretend to know her,” I urged.

  He paused for a beat, but he couldn’t miss how important this was to me. Whether he agreed or understood or wanted to play along, or not, Thatch would always have my back. When you pulled back all of the prank-pulling, shit-talking layers, he was unmistakably one of the best kinds of people. “Got it.”

  I took air all the way into my lungs for the first time in the last two minutes and turned to greet my girl.

  But she wasn’t there. She and her friend had disappeared, leaving only her brother Will in their wake.

  As Will made it to us, shaking his head, Thatch leaned over and added with a whisper, “And all this after I gargoyle-dicked her?” He whistled low. “You must have more game than I thought.”

  “What’s up?” I asked Will, pointedly ignoring Thatch and hoping my face managed to do the same.

  “Who knows, man? Hell if I can understand women.”

  When he provided no further information, I was sure my eyes tried to crawl all the way inside his head.

  “Oh,” he said, turning from the bar to find my inappropriately intense gaze. “They’re in the bathroom.”

  I nodded woodenly in understanding, and Thatch nudged me as a result.

  “You gotta lighten up,” he whispered, turning me to the bar and flagging down the bartender. “Order a drink, for fuck’s sake, and calm down.”

  I nodded again because I knew he was right, and it seemed to be the only action I could successfully complete at the time.

  “Macallan,” I muttered, knowing he’d make sure my order got to someone who actually made the drinks. Ordering directly was too complicated for me right now.

  “Yeah, man,” he said, smirking. “I know you drink Macallan. Macallan and lime, every day, every night for years now.”

  The cords of my throat tightened in frightened reflex. “No lime.”

  “No lime?”

  I shook my head, feeling the tension drain from my shoulders a little at the memory of my sweet, doped up girl. “Georgie’s allergic.”

  “Well, shit. That’s problematic.”

  I laughed. “Not really,” I said, then clarified, “Not now that I know, anyway.”

  “Make sure to leave out the lime,” Will interjected, coming up on my other side to join the conversation.

  “I guess she told you?” I asked with a laugh.

  “Eventually. I still don’t think she told me everything, but now that Cass is here, I’ll find out the rest.”

  “Cass?” Thatch asked.

  “Yep. Cassie Phillips. I’d say she’s like another little sister to me, but I’m not sure she’s the kind of girl who can be a little sister.”

  Thatch’s eyes flared with excitement, and my panic came back tenfold. “Wild?”

  Will just laughed and jerked his head toward the approaching women. “You’ll see.”

  I forgot about everything else as soon as I saw her again. Long legs, a sliver of tan stomach, and a nervous smile, she was so fucking beautiful, I literally couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

  I pulled her straight into my arms, put my lips to her ear, and breathed. “Benny.”

  Out with the words and in with her smell, I held her body to mine and kept it there until she started to giggle.

  “Kline.” I struggled to remove m
y face from her hair and my hands from her hips, but she helped it along, turning her body to include her friend in the conversation and making my hand slide along the skin at her back. “This is crazy Cassie.”

  “Crazy Cassie?” Cass squawked. “Is that my given name now?”

  “Yes,” Georgia challenged adorably.

  “Ohhh, okay then,” Cass conceded with a gleam in her eye. “I see. I’m a little slow, but I get it now.”

  Her hand reached for mine and I took it without question, giving it two quick shakes. “Hi, nice to meet you,” she said.

  I smiled.

  “I’m Crazy Cassie. You must be Big-dicked Brooks.”

  Thatch spewed his whiskey everywhere, coating us all with a layer of spit to complement the shock courtesy of Cass.

  Georgie squealed and Cassie just laughed, and through the chaos my eyes met those of an amused Will. He raised his glass in a gesture of confirmation.

  Wild.

  And unpredictable and funny and completely apathetic.

  Good God, the people in this party were going to make this one interesting night.

  I hoped we all survived.

  I grabbed some napkins from the bar and handed them to Georgie, watching closely as she wiped Thatch’s half-drunk whiskey from her cleavage. She shook her head slightly to let me know she’d noticed, and I felt my face dissolve into an outright smile before I turned back to Cass.

  “That’s me,” I told her. “It’s a wonder your friend is still alive.”

  Thatch and Cassie burst out in hysterics as Georgie slapped at my chest and Will covered his ears playfully.

  “Kline!” Georgie screamed.

  “Come on, baby. Let’s go sit down,” I told her, scooping her into my arms before whispering in her ear, “My legs are tired from carrying this thing around.”

  “Kline!”

  “It’s a real problem, Benny.”