Who’s a Good Boy: Dog in This Fight #1
Page 18
Now my boss thinks I’m getting the scoop of the century, but all Jace is giving me is climax after leg-quivering climax. When he puts his hand on my throat and growls in my ear…
“You are mine.”
I know it’s true.
I’ve fallen hard and I’ve never felt safer…
Until I see him kill somebody.
Jace
I dedicated my life to taking down the Picolli Crime Family from the inside. I made a name for myself, the mafia’s most brutal enforcer. I worked my way up the chain, and my revenge came. A righteous bloodbath.
Then I took their place so they could never come back.
Nothing else has ever mattered. Until Kendall.
She was an innocent girl for me to defile, and then leave her ruined for other men like all the rest. But she makes me so hard I ache for release, and for the first time in my life, I want to have her again.
Kendall’s the chink in my armor my enemies have been looking for.
I don’t care.
She is mine and I’ll die before I give her up.
Kendall
I didn’t dare move for fear of breaking something. If I did, I’d probably have to declare bankruptcy. It was only a waiting room, but I’d never seen such lavish attention to detail before.
If I wasn’t mistaken, that was a real Van Achthoven painting on the wall. Even the receptionist’s desk looked like something the President might have to save up for.
All glass, it seemed to be custom made to show off her long legs from all angles. She had them crossed, making her short skirt ride high as she tapped away on the keyboard in front of her, sometimes pressing the button on the wireless headset to answer calls.
Back home in Woodville I felt small. When I moved to the city, I felt tiny. Now, especially under her occasional disdainful glance, I felt positively microscopic.
I wrung my hands in my lap, second-guessing myself for the millionth time about the big move. I’d thought I’d show my family that I could be something, but I’d been here for months and I was still just an intern at The Weekly Enquirer.
My funds were evaporating fast. If my boss, Mr. Kinsley, didn’t give me the actual job he’d promised me soon, I’d have to go home with my tail between my legs.
So why did he send me to interview Jace Barlow, the mysterious man who took his one hundred and eighty million dollar lottery winnings and quickly turned it into an empire pushing at a billion dollar valuation?
Was it because he liked my “moxie,” as he liked to say to the people he actually paid to work? Because he saw some untapped potential in me? No.
As Mr. Kinsley said in the meeting room in front of everybody, as if I wasn’t even there, Jace Barlow had scheduled and cancelled meetings with every major publication you could think of dozens of times. It was like a joke to the new multi-millionaire to screw with the media.
So send me to the appointment, and then when Barlow cancels again, at least nobody important will have wasted their time.
The receptionist’s headset beeped and she pressed the button. “Yes sir? Of course, sir. Yes I’ll tell her. One moment.”
This was it. I looked over at the tall blonde as she unhooked the headset from her ear and stood up, smoothing her skirt. Was she going to escort me all the way to the elevator?
“Miss Brookes?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Barlow will see you now.”
I had to let that set in for a moment as my heart seemed to say “Right, I’m outta here” and tried to make good its escape via my throat. Swallowing hard, I managed to get it back down.
“What?”
“Mr. Barlow will see you. Now. You’ll have to hand over your phone, and do you have any recording devices?”
I fumbled at my little handbag. “Uh… I’ve got a…” My mind went blank looking for the word. “Dictaphone!” I blurted out.
You could almost see the concentration in the receptionist’s face as she tried not to roll her eyes at a so-called journalist who couldn’t remember what a Dictaphone was. With shaking hands, I opened my handbag and took out the offending items.
The receptionist walked around her desk with a supermodel sashay and reached out for them. “I’ll keep them in a secure container until your meeting is finished.”
This couldn’t be happening. A nobody like me doesn’t interview the most elusive man in the city. Mr. Kinsley didn’t even give me a questionnaire, he was that sure this was going to be a bust. I had nothing prepared to ask him and I was about to walk into an interview that famous journalists would kill their own mothers to conduct.
She confiscated the forbidden electronics and put them in a drawer before beckoning me through the door behind her desk. Once on the other side, I could see that the horizontal strips of mirror on the wall of frosted glass were actually one-way, so you could see into the waiting room like you were peeking out from a bunker without being seen.
There was no time to contemplate that though, as I was led at a brisk pace down a long hallway. At the end was a door, flanked by two men wearing suits and looking for all the world like Secret Service agents. One of them told me to hold my arms out to my sides as he waved a metal detector over me, while the other inspected my handbag for contraband.
I felt like it was a pretty thorough inspection before walking the plank. What would they do to me back at work when they heard I actually made it into Jace Barlow’s office? I racked my brain trying to think of everything I’d heard about him, trying to come up with something halfway relevant to ask.
About a year before I would have been ready, the security men were apparently satisfied that I wasn’t an assassin, and gave me the all clear. The receptionist knocked on the door and opened it, ushering me through before standing at my side.
If I thought the waiting room was expensively decorated, it had nothing on Jace Barlow’s office. Everywhere I looked were sleek, sophisticated lines, fine furniture and tasteful art.
The man himself was sitting behind his desk, and my breath caught in my throat. I’d seen pictures of him before, of course, usually with a woman who looked like this receptionist on his arm. So I knew he was handsome, but I never could have expected what it would feel like to have those eyes on me in person.
All the luxurious surroundings and art in the world couldn’t hide the fact that he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I could see the edges of tattoos on his neck and arms, lurking just under the Armani, like snakes waiting to ambush unwary prey. He looked like if he flexed his muscles the suit would explode off of him as if he was a bomb.
Behind those dark eyes, I swore I could see thoughts beneath the surface that contrasted just as starkly with the cool exterior. None of the guys back home ever looked at me like that, and in this big city I was practically invisible. I almost felt naked in front of him.
It’s a shame that the more you try to stop a blush, the worse it gets. I hated standing next to this beautiful tall woman. It was impossible not to notice the contrast between the two of us. She looked a lot like my sisters, and that was one of the comparisons I’d been desperate to get away from my whole life.
A barrel-chested man with a shaved head had been standing next to Barlow’s desk, and now appeared to be leaving.
“Kendall Brookes, from The Weekly Enquirer, sir. Would you like coffee? Tea?” she asked me.
“No thank you,” I squeaked.
She smiled and stepped out of the way of the man who was leaving, holding the door for him and following him out of the room. I heard the click behind me and gulped.
“Take a seat, Miss. Brookes,” said the one and only, Jace Barlow.
* * *
Read the rest of the book (and Still a Bad Boy series!) starting here:
Still a Bad Boy (Still a Bad Boy #1)
Check Out Ada Scott’s Other Books
Still a Bad Boy (Still a Bad Boy #1)
Kendall
He wasn’t supposed to notice me.
Jace Barlow: the most powerful man in the city. Mysterious, scarred, pure muscle and tattoos.
He was my first. That didn’t stop him from pinning me against a wall, using me for his own pleasure until I screamed his name.
Now my boss thinks I’m getting the scoop of the century, but all Jace is giving me is climax after leg-quivering climax. When he puts his hand on my throat and growls in my ear…
“You are mine.”
I know it’s true.
I’ve fallen hard and I’ve never felt safer…
Until I see him kill somebody.
Jace
I dedicated my life to taking down the Picolli Crime Family from the inside. I made a name for myself, the mafia’s most brutal enforcer. I worked my way up the chain, and my revenge came. A righteous bloodbath.
Then I took their place so they could never come back.
Nothing else has ever mattered. Until Kendall.
She was an innocent girl for me to defile, and then leave her ruined for other men like all the rest. But she makes me so hard I ache for release, and for the first time in my life, I want to have her again.
Kendall’s the chink in my armor my enemies have been looking for.
I don’t care.
She is mine and I’ll die before I give her up.
* * *
Submission Specialist (Still a Bad Boy #2)
Skylar
I promised I’d save myself for my wedding night.
Of course, I didn’t know it was going to be a fake marriage to a heavyweight MMA fighter. I couldn’t have known how good it would feel to be pinned under all those muscles and tattoos, squirming, panting, and even whimpering in ecstasy.
None of us knew how deeply he was involved with the mafia.
When he disrespects them, they think they can use me to punish him.
They’re wrong.
He’s a tank in human form.
And he’s coming for me.
Austin
Men tap out inside the ring, women surrender themselves outside of it. That’s always been my specialty.
I chose Skylar because she was so innocent. A good girl like her would help sell my reformed image to the public. To corrupt her and leave her ruined for all other men would be my hottest conquest yet.
But I found more in Skylar than that. Who’d have thought that the first woman I wanted to lay more than once would be my wife?
Now they think they can take away what is mine?
Even if I have to kill every last member of the Bertolini Crime Family…
I’m coming for her.
* * *
The F King (Still a Bad Boy #3)
Sarina
I was always so focused on my career that I never had time for a relationship until it was my job to have one. I was supposed to "gain his trust," but I doubt they meant I should let him take me to bed.
Instead of showing me where he gets his supply of F, he shows me what it's like to writhe in ecstasy as I scream his name. Instead of giving me the identity of the drug lord known as The F King, he gives me climax after climax.
My world now revolves around him so much that I can't tell which life is a lie anymore. I was an undercover cop. What am I now?
Ryan
I thought Sarina might be a cop until I carried her into my bed and discovered she'd never been with a man before me. A cop wouldn't do that, and they damned sure wouldn't beg for more.
I wanted to destroy the Acardi Crime Family and build my own empire on the ruins. After all, I'm The F King, and a king needs a kingdom.
Sarina though… she makes me question my priorities. All that money and power is within my grasp, but the only thing I can think of is shaking Sarina one more time, tasting her, hearing my name on her lips.
If anything ever happened to her, to us, things might get really F'd
* * *
Stockholm Syndromance (Still a Bad Boy #4)
Eliana
My father kept me locked away from the world, my only purpose in life was to stand in the background while he campaigned for President, or to be sold like a slave to cement his old alliances as a Mafia hitman. All I’ve ever known was his contempt and my loneliness.
Then my deepest darkest fantasy kicked my door down and dragged me off into the night.
He's the first person I ever met who wasn't afraid of my father. He's a machine of war, and he's making me so... damn... hot.
Eric
The contract is simple: abduct the daughter of Jace Barlow's nemesis and deliver her safely.
I'm a professional. She's off limits... but this chick is the hottest kind of crazy. I never met a woman who could take everything I had to give and beg for more, and now I'm dangerously close to addicted.
I need to concentrate on keeping us alive before her father's goons, the Feds, the cops or the biker gang catch up with us, but the way she licks my gun has me thinking maybe nothing else matters if I can't have her wrapped around me forever.
* * *
InnocenceForSale.com/Amy
AMY
I sold my innocence for over a million dollars. Don’t judge me. You have no idea how far I’d go to save my Mom and our home.
This was the only thing I had that could bring in enough money in time, so yeah, I did it.
What kind of a guy purchases a girl’s virginity though? I had no idea what I’d be walking into when I arrived at the airport.
Kris Lane sure doesn’t look like he needs to pay for it. Tattoos, muscles, abs like a god, he must be tripping over panties wherever he goes. A girl could do worse for her first.
But why is he making me work so hard? Why doesn’t he just take what he paid for? By the time I stumble upon what he really wants, he’s wrapped me around his little finger…
KRIS
Buying Amy’s virginity was a dare, a high-stakes wager with my business partner. He knew I couldn’t resist the challenge.
The rules were simple. One week with Amy. I had to resist her every advance and send her home just as untouched as when she arrived.
Little did I know that the photos on the website didn’t do her beauty any justice. Her body speaks to mine in ways I didn’t know was possible.
But I never lose. I was winning this bet until she whispered those magic words in my ear. No man could resist her, and it’s time I got my money’s worth.
All bets are off.
But what happens at the end of our week together?
* * *
InnocenceForSale.com/Bree
Bree
I wish my mom never dragged me along when she ran off with her junkie boyfriend Antonio. The worst thing about it was she was having an affair and they took fifty million dollars of Andrew’s money when they went.
Now he’s got fifty million reasons to want us all dead and, after years of life on the run, I can’t take any more of their abuse, so I’ve got to get out of here… somehow.
Andrew
It couldn’t have been any more poetic when I saw Bree auctioning her first time on Innocence For Sale.
After years of searching for my revenge, it fell right into my lap. Mouth-first.
I’ll take everything she’s selling, and more. She’ll moan my name, she’ll tell me where Julia, Antonio and my money are.
I knew all that. I didn’t expect to find an accomplice, my other half, the only woman who ever made me want to grind out our pleasure non-stop until we can’t see straight.
Just when I think I’m going to drive off into the sunset with my dream girl, it looks like we’re going to have to make a last stand instead…
* * *
InnocenceForSale.com/Jane
Jane
Would I sell my innocence to save my grandfather’s life? In a heartbeat.
My dreams of immersing myself in the world of art will have to be put on hold while I do whatever it takes to raise the money he needs for the operation.
When I turned up at the hotel to give my winning bidder what he pa
id for, I never expected that it would be the one man who’s been dominating my fantasies lately. I never expected what would happen next either…
Caleb
It’s not about love. She’s auctioning her innocence, but I want her for her other talents.
Maybe I should never have dragged her into my world, the underbelly of Las Vegas. Without a doubt, I shouldn’t have fallen for this girl, but I defy any man to not melt under her smoldering beauty. I had to make her scream my name, over and over again.