The Fall of the Red Queen (Self Made Men...Southern Style Book 3)

by Lexxi Callahan

  He sat back, watching her with those bittersweet chocolate eyes. He was quite possibly the most devastatingly handsome man Madlyn had ever seen. Well, man was stretching it. He couldn’t be more than twenty-five or twenty-six. Too young for her. Too rough around the edges.

  And wasn’t he in a band? Wasn’t every guy under thirty these days? She’d bet money he spent weekends busking on Frenchmen Street. Female tourists probably couldn’t throw money into his guitar case fast enough.

  But she’d never been one of those girls who fell for musicians. She’d fallen for Robert way before she’d noticed other guys, so she’d never looked at anyone else. She was looking now, and it was completely stupid. She inhaled, then leveled her best cold hard stare at him. He didn’t even flinch. Damn. Everyone flinched at that one.

  “I can’t help you,” she told him evenly. “West JDC was before my time.”

  He didn’t believe her. She didn’t blame him. She was lying, but West JDC was her ace in the hole, and she doubted Jared knew a tenth of what he thought he knew. Still, if he’d had a friend who hadn’t been released until after Katrina…no. It didn’t matter.

  Their lunch arrived, but she ignored it. The food wasn’t what she wanted to taste.

  “West JDC closed before I finished law school,” she added, not daring to relax when he did.

  He still didn’t believe her. “We’re tossing you a lifeline, Madlyn.”

  She smiled and tried not to laugh in his face. “Why would I help you?”

  “What did your mother mean about your grandfather holding Robbie hostage?”

  The spell broke and she nearly slumped with fatigue. She was so exhausted, the truth slipped out. “My grandfather has custody of my son.”

  Amazing how she sounded so calm when everything inside her was screaming. Nine years later and she couldn’t think those words without dying even more inside.

  The devastating admission sailed right past him, proving she hadn’t given herself away.

  “We know that. You signed custody over when he was what? A minute old?”

  Unexpected and unreasonable anger shot words out of her before she could stop them. “Sure. What was I going to do with a baby?” The sarcasm burned her throat, and the pain she’d spent years building up a tolerance against clawed at her, breaking through her defenses and leaving fresh bloody marks she felt all the way to her soul.

  Her reaction didn’t escape him that time. Brown eyes narrowed on her. She braced herself, curling her fingers into fists at her side as her guard clamped back down double strength. She didn’t feel anything. She didn’t care what anyone thought of her. She had one goal and that was all she cared about. Nothing else mattered.

  She waited. Seconds ticked between them as time slowed to a crawl.

  But he didn’t take the shot. He looked…concerned? That concern gave her the ridiculous urge to confide in him. Maybe he could…

  No.

  No. No. No. She couldn’t trust anyone.

  She wasn’t the damsel in distress. She was the evil queen. She ate white knights and handsome princes for dinner. And while he was much too edgy to be a prince, he had white knight written all over him.

  “You’re afraid of him.”

  All the hairs on her body lifted at the same time. This wasn’t happening.

  “You’re afraid of your grandfather.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “How did your grandfather end up with custody of your son if you’re afraid of him?”

  She didn’t have to explain herself to him, no matter how much she suddenly wanted to. She wasn’t even sure she could talk about it. She had barricaded all of that behind so many walls, she almost didn’t even think about it anymore. Almost. And she wasn’t dragging it all out now.“I want a partnership.” She threw the demand at him to distract him. They would never agree to a partnership.

  He switched gears without a hitch. “No way. It’s Marshall and Marshall for a reason.”

  “If you think I’m going to work for some half-grown hippie with tattoos and piercings, you’re crazy. Maybe if you cut your hair and bought some grown-up clothes, I might consider it.” She waved her hands at him and did her best to look dismissive, when what she wanted to do was claw those clothes off him and try to feel something else besides that ever-present knife spinning inside her. “It’s hard to take you seriously with all that hair and bling.”

  “Bling?” he choked as his jaw dropped.

  Her heart skipped a beat as she hit the mark. He was gorgeous. And a tiny bit dangerous. Bad combination. Bad. Bad.

  “Metal. Whatever you call it.” Her fingernails bit into her palms, what she wouldn’t give for a taste. A quick flick of her tongue across that silver curl of metal that made it impossible to look away from his mouth.

  He leaned in, too close. “So, if I get a haircut and a couple of suits, you’ll come work with us?”

  “Maybe.”

  He stretched further across the table and lowered his voice. “Do you want to know what I really think?”

  She hated it, but anticipation flamed inside of her. She couldn’t wait.

  “I think you want to tear my clothes off and go down on me right here in this restaurant so bad you can’t think straight.”

  Heat flooded her body before his words penetrated, firing up something inside her she hadn’t felt in almost a decade. Desire pumped through her, hot and liquid and waking up parts of her that she’d believed were long dead. That she wanted to stay dead.

  Again, she didn’t react. She had too much self-control after years of discipline. She had grown up with Winston Robicheaux. After him, even some of the scariest criminals in Angola paled in comparison. The only way to survive around the Judge was to never show emotion. Emotion was a weakness he would exploit in a heartbeat.

  She had no less than twelve cutting remarks ready, but first she gave him her best condescending smile. She was going to slice him to ribbons, wipe that arrogant smirk right off that gorgeous face. What self-respecting evil queen didn’t enjoy tearing the white knight apart? Instead, she heard herself say, “I’m not into public displays. Can we take this somewhere more private?”

  What part of her wretched brain had come up with those words? It didn’t matter. He came unglued right in front her. His fist came down hard on the table. His eyes flashed with anger and hunger at the same time. That gorgeous mouth flattened into a line almost as hard as his jaw. She let herself smile. Everything she was feeling was coursing through him, too. A small taste was never going to be enough.

  A small taste would destroy her. She still wanted it more than her next breath.

  “Let’s go.” He stood, dropping some twenties on the table before reaching for her hand. Long fingers wrapped around her, and she tried to jerk away but she may as well have been handcuffed.

  “This isn’t funny.” She stumbled after him, prying his fingers off her wrist.

  “Am I laughing?”

  The security system on the SUV chimed, and he wrenched the passenger door open and almost shoved her inside. He locked the doors. The child locks were on and she couldn’t open the door. No longer amused, she started to launch into him when he slid in behind the wheel, but there was something dark and dangerous dancing around the edges of his eyes.

  “Let me out of this car,” she said, her voice even and smooth because she was good at not taking what she wanted. It was all she could do not to grab hold of all that dark and dangerous and pull it hard against her. He’d burn her to ash, but she had been cold for so long.

  His eyes narrowed on her and she realized they weren’t brown at all. They were dark hazel with shots of green. Her breath caught at the same time his mouth crashed into hers, his tongue invading hard and deep. For the first time in almost ten years, Madlyn went up in flames.

  She kissed him back without even realizing it. Her palms flattened against rock-hard pectoral muscles. She’d been right. He was lean and hard all over. The only thing on h
is body that wasn’t hot skin over steel was his obscenely sexy mouth. A mouth moving on hers with a drugging intensity that chased reality into a corner and beat it senseless.

  He was glorious. And for a moment, she let herself have it. She let go of the whole world and sank into all that heat. For a second, she glimpsed life again. She brushed right up against it and remembered how she’d once felt.

  Alive.

  He raised his head a minute, and her eyelids fluttered, lost in all that gorgeous warmth. Shaken, his voice was ragged. “This, this isn’t…”

  Madlyn had been cold for too long. She couldn’t give it up yet. She slid her hand up, tangled her fingers into all that silky black hair and pulled him to her. She felt him groan against her as he kissed her again. And it wasn’t a fluke. She felt it all over again.

  If anyone had told her the first man she would feel anything remotely for since Robert’s death would be five years younger with metal barbells through his eyebrow, she would have laughed in their face.

  Robert.

  Everything stopped and she let go at the same time Jared pushed away, dragging air unsteadily into his lungs. She caught the faint moan of protest climbing up her throat and turned it into a harsh laugh.

  “You’re pathetic,” she bit out, meaning it for herself but wanting to draw blood in the worst way. Fury choked her. He had kissed her first. He had made her feel all the emotions she’d locked away years ago. He’d dragged it all out, and it cut so deep, she lashed out without mercy. “You think I helped my grandfather kidnap the woman you love, then tried to have her committed and now you can’t keep your hands off me?”

  He didn’t miss a beat. “I understand why Sellers almost strangled you.”

  She turned away, ‏‏brushing her hands across her face. “Let me out.” She reached for the car handle and tried to open the locked door.

  His breath was hot on the back of her neck. “Don’t fuck with me, Madlyn.” The edge in his voice raised all the hairs on her body again, more inappropriate heat flaring through. There wasn’t anything she wanted more.

  She shuddered then, knowing she was passing the last roadside warning to crazy town. She stared as his hand covered hers on the door handle. “But I want to so much I can’t stand it.” It was probably the first honest thing she’d ever said to him.

  She turned, bracing herself for whatever he came back with. He still wasn’t in control of himself. The wildness in his eyes absolutely made her want to launch herself at him again. And he wanted her. He didn’t like it, but he was shaking with it. She wanted him, too.

  “Fuck it,” he snapped, and kissed her again.

  She kissed him back, tracing the line of his mouth, opening to let him in deeper and sinking her nails into his shoulders. His mouth steamed across her throat, burning a trail down delicate skin. Tracing the curve of her neck. Her whole body shivered then, her skin rippling with reaction and heat flooding through her.

  He raised his head, scanning her face; looking for something she had no intention of giving him. He wanted to be wrong about her. He wanted to find one thing that would make it okay for him to want her like this without hating himself later. She should sleep with him just to make him despise himself.

  She shuddered, pushing away‏‏. She didn’t mind if he hated her, but she didn’t want him to hate himself. He wasn’t part of all this, and she needed to leave him alone. She’d left enough damage in her wake; she didn’t want this beautiful man’s blood on her hands, too.

  “Joke’s over. Tell your brother I said nice try.”

  Chapter Two

  Less than fifteen minutes ago, Jared Marshall had understood how the world worked. A late-in-life baby, he’d taken the Marshall family by storm. Adored by older parents and older siblings every second of every day, Jared had lived a charmed life, although he was still expected to be a part of his family’s law firm.

  He’d tried to rebel in high school by joining a band. His father had bought him a vintage Stratocaster most professional musicians would drive across the state line and sell their soul for. When he’d wanted to take cooking classes, he’d gotten professional cookware for Christmas. They hadn’t even complained when he’d gone to Tulane instead of LSU, like generations of Marshalls, because he didn’t want to give up his position in Elliot Carter’s restaurant in the French Quarter.

  The only thing his father had ever asked him to do was finish law school and pass the bar. He’d done that and worked at the law firm part time. He still managed to keep his job at Elliot’s. Last year he’d been on the verge of promotion to poissonnier when he’d taken a huge detour to help a friend.

  He’d spent six months in Paris with Jen Taylor at pastry school. He’d been trying to keep her from making the biggest mistake of her life. He’d also wanted to see if he had a shot at her. Getting her away from her overbearing fiancé should’ve done the trick. But sharing an apartment with her in the most romantic city in the world had made him realize he had zero chance with her. He’d also realized he was okay with that, which surprised the hell out of him.

  They’d come back from Paris and opened the bakery they’d planned. And Jen had married Stefan.

  Everything had been great until Madlyn Robicheaux and her grandfather had started their melodramatic attempt to take control of Jen’s trust. Suddenly, being a lawyer and fighting that old bastard on his own turf sounded like a great idea to Jared. He’d gotten his brother involved, and Grant expected him to help. Grant wanted Madlyn on their team and he needed Jared to deliver her.

  Now, one on one with the Red Queen, Jared got in touch with his inner ruthless bastard. And for the first time in his life, he hated someone. At least that’s what he thought the violent emotion singing through his body was.

  It had to be hatred. It couldn’t be anything else when it came to this woman.

  But she didn’t hate him. She wanted him. Her whole body vibrated with desperation, and the glimmer of an idea hatched somewhere in his reptilian brain. He knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he could destroy this woman. And it would be easy. He’d even enjoy doing it.

  He didn’t care what that said about him. She had it coming after trying to destroy Jen’s engagement, then later her marriage. And for what? Money? A desperate attempt to get Stefan Sellers back?

  The thought of her with Sellers ramped up that anger until all he could see what red. A growl came from deep in his throat like he was singing an old U2 or Ramones song. “Lady, you don’t know me well enough to play with me. I will break you in half.”

  Her chin lifted, inflaming him even more. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  Jared tried to kiss her again and stopped short, hesitating as her lips parted. The monumental effort it took not to kiss her was worth it when he saw her face. Why did unhinging her sing through his veins like a narcotic?

  “You wish,” he whispered against her lips, then set her away from him. ‏‏

  He hit reverse and left the parking lot before she straightened in her seat. He’d gotten to her. He wanted to be smug about it, but he ached so much that it was hard to feel anything other than white-hot frustration.

  He’d never wanted anyone like this. Not even Jen. He hadn’t known he could want anyone this much. Especially when he hated everything about them. He should be trying to destroy her, but instead he wanted inside her in the worst way.

  He had no idea who he was anymore.

  Worse, he wasn’t sure he was all that upset about it.

  He parked in front of a chain salon that took walk-ins. He wasn’t really going to cut his hair, was he? And now that she’d had her hands in it, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to. She could still feel all that warm silk sliding through her fingers as he devoured her mouth and made her forget absolutely everything. Her body throbbed and her chest ached, but no way was she backing down. He wouldn’t go through with it, she was sure of that.

  She turned as he opened her door, but he didn’t step back. “You aren’t really…” />
  “You said I had too much hair and too much bling.”

  He removed the diamond stud in his earlobe and the loop that curled around his lower lip. Then the barbells on his eyebrows. He dropped them into her palm without a word, then stepped back so she could slide out of the SUV.

  A ridiculously cute blonde girl glanced up, and the bright smile that curved her bubble gum-pink mouth made the salon lights dim. “Can I help?” she practically purred at Jared, not even looking at Madlyn.

  That super sexy smile grated on Madlyn’s nerves. If she’d had fur, it would’ve been standing on end. She flexed her fingers, wishing she had claws so she could scratch that sexy pouty smile right off her angelic face. The unfamiliar wave of jealousy surprised her. She’d never been jealous of anyone in her life and she didn’t like it. At all.

  But she did like when she heard Jared say, “My girlfriend thinks I need a haircut.”

  She couldn’t help the proprietary satisfaction that calmed the urge to shred the girl. She was losing her mind, but it felt too good to stop.

  “Are you sure? Your hair is gorgeous.”

  He ran his fingers through it. “Whatever she says.”

  The girl turned those adorable blue eyes on Madlyn. “Why do you want him to cut it? It’s great the way it is.”

  “Cut it short.”

  “Okay, but it’s a shame. Come with me.”

  Jared leaned into her like he was going to kiss her. Instead, his mouth brushed across her ear. “You don’t want me chasing after you. Stay put.”

  Madlyn shivered as the harsh words brushed across her skin. There was a real threat in his voice, but instead of scaring her, it turned her on even more. “Oh, baby. I wouldn’t miss this.”

  His eyes flared as he met her gaze. “Keep pushing, Maddie.”

  “Just keep calling me Maddie.”

  “I’m going to enjoy this.”