Fallen (The Frenemy Series Book 3)

by Kate Benson

  He smiles, and that warms me up all over again.

  “Hey pussycat,” he winks, his tattooed bicep flexing slightly as he pops the cap off three bottlenecks with speed not lost on me even a little. “You okay?”

  “Yes,” I nod. “I just got bored. I thought you were only going to be gone for a couple of hours?”

  “Well, that was the plan, but I got held up waiting on a truck order,” he explains. “I forgot Walt told me they called and changed the delivery this week, so I was just finishing that up and watching the bar while Mason took a break. I’ll be done in about twenty minutes.”

  “Okay,” I smile, sliding onto my favorite stool across from him.

  “You want something to drink?” he offers, and my eyes narrow slightly.

  “Didn’t the doctor say I can’t do that?” I ask quietly, my gaze darting to the side for a moment to make sure I’m not overheard.

  Since we still hadn’t told my mother about our unexpected little newsflash, I’m being a little more secretive than usual. I can’t help but be reminded of the start of our unlikely love affair. I smirk small to myself but quickly wipe the expression from my lips, scanning the area once more. The last thing either of us need is one of these yahoo’s blabbing it to her by mistake.

  “I meant like a water or some juice or something,” he chuckles, pulling me away from my thoughts once more. “No tapping the keg for you, sweetheart.”

  “Oh,” I smirk, rolling my eyes as he grins and quickly dries his hands on a towel before settling it onto his shoulder. “Sure, I’ll have some water.”

  “I’ve got a few bottles in the office,” he replies. “I’ll be right back.”

  I thank him and reach for my phone, lazily scrolling for a moment before the doors to the back swing open and pull my eyes up.

  “Hey girl!” Amy smiles, coming to a stop across the bar. “I didn’t know you were coming up today.”

  Over the last couple of months, since the night of the now infamous bar fight to be exact, Amy and I had kept in touch. I’m happy to say we’d developed a pretty great friendship. Today was only the second time I’d seen her since I’d come home from Austin, but it didn’t take much than a quick look to know the smile she’s wearing is forced.

  “I didn’t either,” I admit. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, just dealing with bullshit,” she sighs, pulling a questioning look from me. “Men.”

  “Ah,” I nod my understanding. “Well, they are idiots,” I sigh, making her giggle. “Can I help?”

  “Do you know how to make one pull his head out of his ass?” she asks dryly, making me smirk.

  “Well, you see what I’m working with,” I shrug, neither of us hiding our amusement at my joke. “Why? What happened?”

  “I kicked his sorry ass out of my apartment last night.”

  “Oh, no,” I reply, my nose scrunching up. “What are you going to do?”

  “No idea,” she sighs, smiling at Dash when he slides my water across the bar. “I’m definitely open to suggestions.”

  “Can you fuck his best friend?”

  “The fuck you just say?” Dash admonishes me from across the bar, his eyes widening in shock as my bottle hovers against my lips.

  “What?” I ask. “They haven’t even had the ‘don’t screw anyone else’ talk yet,” I argue. “She’s not in love with the guy or anything, right?” I ask, pulling a shrug from her. “See? It’s fine.”

  “Are you serious?” he asks, pulling a laugh from Amy.

  “Maybe,” I shrug, glancing back at my friend. “I mean, is his friend good looking?”

  “He’s not bad,” she admits, pulling some pictures up on her phone and handing it to me, smirking at my nod of approval. “This is from a couple weeks ago at the lake.”

  “Well, then there you go,” I shrug again, finally taking a sip. “Just screw him once, your man will find out, be crazy with jealousy and either want you back or hate you forever. Then, you’ll know.”

  “Huh…” she starts. “And that really works?”

  “That’s a really cute top,” I compliment her as I glance back down at the image and answer her question with a quick nod. “Yeah, it for sure works. I’ve done it like three times.”

  “Don’t fucking listen to her,” Dash interjects, pulling Amy’s phone from me and handing it back to her before swinging his gaze back to mine. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

  “Don’t judge me,” I insist, my eyes narrowing toward him. “You so easily forget that I had the pleasure of witnessing you at the height of your whoredom, so don’t start coming at me like I’m the asshole here. She’s my friend and she needs my help.”

  “Fine. That’s fair,” he shrugs. “But how’d you like it when someone did that shit to you?”

  “I didn’t,” I confess. “But it forced me to see things for what they actually were, and I dumped his ass the same day. If he hadn’t been such a dick and I cared enough to work through that, maybe I’d have reacted differently and this gorgeous little thing here I’ve graced you with never would’ve happened. Either way, it moved shit along,” I resolve, turning to Amy. “Fuck his friend, girl. Hand to God, you’ll know in a day.”

  “Jesus Christ,” he says from behind her, moving toward the register.

  “Oh, chill out,” I roll my eyes. “It’s not like I’m ever going to ever do that to you.”

  “Why? Because my best friend is your brother?”

  “Obviously,” I tease, smirking at his stunned expression.

  He’s about to say something, God only knows what after that little gem, but is cut off by the sound of Mason swinging through the doors behind him.

  “Hey kid!”

  “Hey,” I smile, watching him come to a stop beside Amy. “How’s the new chick working out?” I ask, gesturing toward the brunette at the far end of the bar. “Dash said she’s learning quick.”

  “I hate her,” Mason mouths, making me grin wider.

  “How bad can she be?” I ask, watching his eyes widen before he slowly shakes his head. “What happened?”

  “Let’s fuckin’ not,” he groans. “Anyway, how are you feeling? Dash said you’ve been hacking your guts up for three days.”

  “Oh, yeah!” Amy’s face shifts into a wide beam. “I forgot to congratulate you!”

  “What the hell?” I ask, my mouth falling open in shock as I glare across the bar at Dash. “Why are you telling people?”

  “What are you talking about?” he asks as he takes a sip from my water and hands it back to me. “Mason already knew.”

  “He knew it was a possibility,” I reason, sipping from the water myself, the cold liquid immediately making me want more. “He didn’t know know.”

  “I figured you wailing like a maniac when I carried you to the car was a dead giveaway,” he muses. “Was I wrong?”

  “Fine, but what about Amy?” I counter. “Why are you telling my friends?”

  “Amy’s my friend, too.”

  “No, she’s not!” I argue. “She doesn’t even like you that much. She’s only nice to you because you’re the manager.”

  The lie pulls a loud laugh from Amy’s chest that makes Dash shake his head, cutting his eyes at her.

  “What the hell are you laughing at?” he asks her accusingly.

  “It was funny,” she shrugs.

  “Whatever,” he replies, hiding his smirk. “You two assholes deserve each other,” he shakes his head before glancing back over at me. “Anyway, sorry. She overheard us talking.”

  “You didn’t tell mom, did you?” I ask, my eyes whipping around to Mason’s immediately.

  “No,” he shakes his head as Dash and Amy leave our end of the bar to tend to customers. “No, I didn’t tell anyone. I hadn’t even talked to you yet.”

  “Okay,” I say with a long breath of relief, immediately resting my head in my hands. “Okay, that’s good.”

  “You should tell her soon, though,” he a
dds, promptly pulling my hands from my face to reveal the death glare. “She’s going to figure it out sooner than later.”

  “Don’t. Rush. Me,” I insist, reaching for the bottle and taking another sip, my eyes never wavering from his in challenge. He starts to argue, and I immediately cut him off. “I’m serious, Mason. You’re going to have to let me do this my way. You can’t come barreling in with your rules and shit this time. I need you to let me handle it. God knows I’m getting enough shit from this one.”

  “Well, can you blame me?” Dash interjects as he returns. “You made me look like a fucking idiot for months while I waited on you to deal with this jackass,” he reminds me, gesturing toward Mason. “Never again.”

  “I don’t know why you’re so dramatic about it,” I shake my head. “It all worked out fine.”

  “It was hell!” Dash argues, throwing his arms up at the both of us. “I don’t know how you two are so capable of instantly forgetting everything. It’s legitimately fucking astounding to me, but whatever. I’m standing firm on this shit, Evie.”

  “Oh, you’re putting your foot down, are you?” I narrow my eyes sarcastically, promptly rolling them before I shake my head in amusement. “That’s good to know.”

  “You leave me no other choice,” he insists, ignoring Amy’s laughter as it trails off behind her. “If I leave it up to you, we’ll be living somewhere off the coast of Antarctica and this kid will be halfway through graduate school before you grow enough balls to tell her we even moved in together.”

  “You guys moved in together?” Mason asks, his offended expression making me cower into myself while Dash simply shakes his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “That, my friend, was your sister. Point made,” he grins triumphantly before settling his eyes on me once more. “You said Friday and come hell or high water, we are sticking with it, baby.”

  “I swear to God you’re a ninety-six-year-old living inside an idiots’ body,” I roll my eyes. “Fine. Friday. Just don’t say anything to anyone else. Both of you.”

  “I won’t,” Dash promises.

  “My lips are sealed,” Mason adds. “I won’t tell a soul.”

  The doors to the back of the bar push open and Walt, the rarely seen owner steps out, his always-reddened cheeks and heavy beard stretching out as his eyes fall on me.

  “Evie!” he beams as he makes his way around the bar. “Congratulations, kiddo. You’re just a-glowin’ already.”

  He pulls me in for a hug, missing the death glare traveling over his shoulder to the two morons standing behind the bar.

  “Anyone else,” Mason says, raising his hands up in surrender. “I won’t tell anyone else.”

  Ten

  dash

  By the time I push the door open to my apartment, she’s turning green and I’m in serious danger of passing out on the couch.

  I toss my keys onto the counter, raking my palm over my face as she disappears into the bathroom. The faint sound of her discomfort only a few feet away isn’t pleasant, but it somehow manages to give me the gut check I need.

  This time next year – next month even – the level of exhaustion I’m feeling right now is going to seem like a fuckin’ cake walk.

  I grab a beer and move toward the bedroom, the sound of water running pulling a little sigh of relief from my chest as I pull the t-shirt over my head.

  “You okay, baby?” I ask as the door swings open, revealing her exhausted, yet slightly less green appearance.

  “Ugh…” she groans, wiping the remnants of the toothpaste from her full lips and clearing the small distance between us. She steps into me, nestling against my bare chest easily and wrapping her arms around my waist. I hold her close and press my lips to her hair, the pad of my thumb moving over her shoulder in an effort to offer some comfort before she pulls away and glances up at me. “Do I look as shitty as I feel right now?”

  “Nope,” I smirk, pressing my lips to her forehead. “In fact, if I hadn’t just heard you from across the apartment, I wouldn’t even know you’d just had your head in a toilet.”

  “Thanks,” she smiles up at me weakly before letting her forehead rest against my chest once more. “We have to pack now, don’t we?”

  “Yeah,” I yawn. “We’re gonna have to go get your shit from your moms at some point this week, too.”

  “I figured we could just do it on Friday since we’ll be over there anyway,” she replies, my nod pulling her eyes back to mine. “Unless you think we can just skip it?”

  “Nope,” I shake my head, unable to shake the smirk from my lips when she releases another low groan and lets her head return to my chest. “It’s gonna be fine, sugar.”

  “You know, you keep saying that, but we both know it’s a complete and total load of crap,” she argues, this time pulling away from me completely before dragging a stray box from the foot of the bed and dropping it onto the floor in front of the closet. “We’ve all known for years it was only a matter of time before you managed to knock up some idiot, Dash,” she continues, thumbing through the half dozen hangers she’d left in my closet over Spring break and tossing a few items into the box. “But my mom’s going to shit when she finds out I’m the idiot!”

  “No, she won’t,” I shake my head and take a long pull from my beer before I set it on the dresser and start helping her. “Besides, even if she does, it’s not like she’s never going to talk to you again, baby. She’ll be upset for like ten seconds and it’ll be over.”

  “I’m not worried about her being mad,” she admits, her voice low enough I almost miss the crack. “She’s just going to be…” she trails off and my eyes move to hers, hating when I find her trying to discreetly wipe her tears away on her shoulder. “Ugh… it’s just going to be so freaking-”

  “Fine,” I cut her off. “Everything is going to be fine. You just have to chill the fuck out.”

  “It’s a lot easier said than done.”

  “I’d believe that if I was talking to just about anyone else, but not you,” I shake my head, my attention returning to the closet when she pulls away and moves toward the dresser. “What’d I say the other day at the doctor?”

  “What? When you got mad that he said we couldn’t do anal?”

  “No,” I narrow my gaze, shaking my head at her smirk. “Although we are gonna circle back around to that shit.”

  “Not for seven more months, we aren’t,” she counters with a triumphant grin as she sets a stack of clothes into the base of the box still resting at my feet.

  “Anyway,” I roll my eyes. “Remember who the fuck you are, baby. My girl doesn’t get scared. She’s strong and brave and scrappy as fuck,” I remind her as she stands, gripping her chin and forcing her blue gaze to mine. “Right?”

  “Right,” she whispers.

  “Okay. So, stop acting like a little chicken shit and get your mind right, King,” I threaten playfully, pressing my lips to hers. “Your mom loves you. Everything else she feels after that comes second.”

  “This sounds suspiciously close to how you talked me in to telling my brother we were sleeping together.”

  “Yeah, and look how good that turned out,” I smirk, nudging her chin up until her lips are hovering against mine.

  “You’re so stupid,” she laughs, pushing me away, her smile broadening when I catch her and pull her back. “I hate you, baby.”

  “Back at ya, little monster,” I whisper the lie, taking her kiss. “You know, you reminded me of something when I saw you at the bar today.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Mhmm,” I hum against her lips, my tongue darting out just enough to stir the beast. “As soon as I saw you, all I could think about was the kitchen table.”

  “The table, huh?” she asks, angling her neck to one side as my lips move down her chin, my hands sliding beneath her shirt. “What about seeing your pregnant girlfriend in a bar reminded you of the kitchen table?”

  “Well, I don’t think it’s going to fit in
the new place,” I continue, pulling her top up and dipping my head lower, unfastening the clasp at the front of her bra and wrapping my lips around one of her nipples. It pulls a low mewl of pleasure from her that’s instantly got my dick throbbing. “And I’m pretty sure I’ve never fucked you on top of it, so we’re going to have to rectify that just in case we have to leave it behind.”

  “We’ve had sex on that table at least four times, baby,” she giggles breathlessly.

  I run my lips across her chest, my tongue swirling around her neglected nipple as I begin working on her jeans.

  “I don’t recall any of that,” I lie, pushing my hands into the denim and peeling her jeans away before I stand to hover over her once more.

  “You’d better recall all of that!” she balks, smacking me playfully as I release a low chuckle.

  I reach for her hair and give it a gentle tug, pulling her eyes toward mine before I press my lips to hers once more.

  “I’m just fucking with you, psycho,” I promise, running my free hand over her, the feel of her bare skin trembling at my touch making me release a low groan. “You feelin’ okay?”

  “Mhmm,” she nods, her breath hot as it begins to splay over my neck.

  “You feel like feelin’ a little better?” I tease, sliding my hand down her front.

  “Mhmm,” she nods once more, her hooded blue eyes staring up at me, making me needy as fuck.

  “Good girl,” I husk against her lips, my tongue darting out as I hold her gaze, the whimper leaving her chest making my cock throb. “Grab my neck, little monster.”

  Her hands move higher, her fingernails digging into my skin just slightly as I lift her small frame, wrapping it around mine. She releases a little huff that sends another jolt straight into my cock and I move down the hallway toward the dining room. As I set her on the edge of the table, still holding her eyes, I begin to kiss her hard, savoring in the taste of her hot tongue running against mine. Her hands leave my shoulders and as she deepens the kiss, I feel her fingers slide toward my belt. The slight clank of the metal as it hits the edge of the table between her thighs has my hand moving to her hair, her teeth grazing the edge of my lip. By the time she’s pulled me free and wraps her hand around my base, her lipstick is smudged, we’re both panting and my craving for her is rapidly moving toward desperation.