The Right Kind of Reckless

by Heather Van Fleet

  “Fine. But you gotta promise to keep your head on straight.” I pointed a fork at him just in time for something warm to hit my cheek. I blinked, turning toward Chloe. Her hands were filled with leftover eggs, mischievous eyes pointed at me.

  “Uh-oh.” She giggled, knowing damn well what she’d done.

  I couldn’t help but grin, just as the flash of a camera went off. I lifted my head to find Gavin leaning back in his seat with his phone in hand.

  “Collateral.” He smirked, pocketing the phone a second later.

  I shook my head. “Cocksucker.”

  “Ock, ock, ock.”

  Both Gav and I jerked our heads toward Chloe. She giggled even louder this time and bounced in place. I groaned. “Collin’s gonna beat us bloody.”

  Gavin choked back a laugh and said, “He’s gonna do more than that.”

  Chapter 5

  Lia

  For a Thursday night, Jimney’s was pretty dead. A few of the regular patrons were there, of course, but nothing like usual.

  At the end of the bar sat James, a well-dressed business professional who had been coming in for about two months now. He didn’t wear a wedding ring, but I spotted a tan line on that left finger. It meant he was either having an affair or looking to have one.

  I tucked my purse beneath the bar, threw on my apron, and covered my windblown hair with a do-rag before approaching him. “What can I get you tonight, James?”

  His grin grew wide as he eyed my halter. The stench of whiskey flowed off him in waves, which meant he’d been at it for a while.

  “Whatever you’re willing to make me, sweetness.” He nodded, his lecherous gaze never straying far from my chest.

  Because I was used to disgusting behavior, I ignored him as he took me in. Maybe if he got it out of his system with me, he’d go home to his wife and look at her later.

  Patricia moved in from my right, stacking the tap glasses into their usual design. “You had a visitor earlier.”

  “Oh yeah?” I finished pouring James’s drink and set it on the napkin in front of him. He nodded his approval, moving on to leer at Patricia’s chest next. “Who was it?”

  “Who do you think?”

  My stomach dropped.

  Crap. Travis.

  I dried my damp hands on the towel in front of me, then slung it over my shoulder. With a hip against the bar, I tried to act casual as I asked, “What’d he say?”

  “Not much.” Patricia poured a couple of beers and took the money from a guy with lip piercings before she continued. “Just wanted to know when you were going to be working next.” She frowned and looked at me. “I thought you two were done.”

  “We are.” Except that Travis wouldn’t take a no, a hell no, or a get-the-hell-out-of-my-life no for an answer.

  I moved to serve a group of three older gentlemen, all wearing motorcycle vests. They looked out of place in Jimney’s, eyeing everything with dark suspicion.

  “That all you gonna say about it?” Patricia asked.

  I winced. Of course she’d be looking for more gossip. The woman lived vicariously through her younger employees. I had half a mind to tell her to get a life, but I needed this job—and, even more, that thousand extra bucks.

  “Yep.” I smiled and grabbed the money from one of the biker dudes. He told me to keep the change to a fifty. I pocketed the rest after sorting out the bar’s cut, thankful for generous tippers.

  “Not kidding when I say you need to keep your personal business outta my bar. I’m already in enough hot water with fire code violations. Don’t need no more drama in here to shut this place down.”

  I spun around to face her. “If you want to talk drama, then I suggest you speak with Aubrey, since she’s the one who screws her coworkers’ boyfriends.”

  “Hey now. Aubrey may be high maintenance, but she brings in business. This sounds like something you two need to work out, not me.”

  “Whatever.” And with that reply, I went back to work.

  I’d be fired by the end of my shift if I had to listen to Patricia rag on me all night. Thankfully, two hours later, the place was hopping, so neither of us had time to talk again.

  By the time eleven rolled around, sweat was pouring down my back between my shoulder blades, and by midnight, my halter top had practically turned into a second layer of skin.

  “Whatcha having, boys?” I hollered at four guys hunched over the far end of the bar. Each of them was wasted and probably not even legal. Yeah, I’d checked their IDs and they looked legit, but that didn’t mean much.

  “One of your kind, in the back room, naked.” The tallest one, a meaty-looking dude with gray eyes and short brown hair, leaned over the bar and grabbed my halter strap. A football player from Western, was my guess; I knew that type far too well.

  An unwelcome shudder powered through me, memories taking me on an unwanted joy ride. But like I’d learned to do over the past few years, I pushed that disgust down, reminding Old Lia she didn’t have a place within me any longer.

  I unhooked his fingers from my strap, slammed his hand on the bar, and smirked. “I’m not for sale.” He flinched while his friends hooted and hollered in that way only douche college boys did.

  I turned to my next customer, ignoring the asshole’s “What a bitch” comment from behind. Thankfully, I was no longer sensitive about unjustified word vomit.

  Two women asked for screwdrivers, and as I was pouring the vodka in, another arm stretched across the bar and grabbed my wrist. “I’m not gonna tell you again, asshole. Hands. Off.” I growled and lifted my chin, only to have two dark eyes meet mine.

  “You good?” he asked as he let go.

  My chest warmed at Max’s words, like a soothing fire had been lit inside me. “What are you doing here?” Regardless of my initial shock, I blew out a breath and smiled. Twice in less than seven days he’d graced my presence—though the first time wasn’t necessarily by choice.

  I handed the two ladies their drinks but didn’t miss their lingering stares as they latched on to my new companion’s profile.

  Max’s eyes were soft, while his normally playful grin was replaced with concern directed toward me. “Someone bothering you tonight? Is it Travis?”

  I shook my head once, taken aback by his appearance. “No. Not him.” Normally, I didn’t take stock of what a man wore. But when it came to Max, I couldn’t help myself. Dressed in a sky-blue, V-necked T-shirt that only enhanced the hard muscles hidden underneath, he looked like something straight out of GQ. The black hair hanging over his left eyebrow only added to the sexy, yet worried quirk of his brow. “Just some over friendly college boys looking to see if the rumors here are true. Nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Are they true?” Max’s eyes narrowed in accusation.

  A shot of ice pushed through my veins, and all the warmth I’d been feeling fizzled out. God, he was worse than my brother sometimes. Jimney’s did not house prostitutes in the back room. Sure, this was a scuzzy bar that used to have the occasional hooker entrepreneur when Patricia’s husband ran the joint, but that’d been stopped the second she divorced him and took over.

  “Go home, Maxwell.”

  Ignoring whatever answer he had for me, I moved to serve my next customers. Surprisingly, he let me go, which wasn’t a Max thing to do. I wasn’t sure if that pissed me off or worried me more. Maxwell Martinez never let me have the last word, no matter what direction our conversation went.

  I used to be his equal, the one he’d fight and make up with. Now, I felt more like his problem than his friend. I already had enough protection from my brother, so the last thing I wanted was to be treated with kid gloves.

  Ten minutes later, the sound of glass shattering on the floor broke me out of my trance. Eyes wide, I glared across the bar, finding Gavin in some guy’s face and Max driving his fist into the meaty
guy’s nose.

  “Son of a—” I raced around to the front of the bar.

  “I’m calling the police,” Patricia hollered at my back.

  I turned and yelled over my shoulder, “Don’t you dare.”

  I swirled back around, my eyes focused on the back of Max’s head as I contemplated how the hell I’d break this up before Joe Bob, Jimney’s only bouncer, came in. For the first time since I started working here, I was thankful Patricia was too cheap to hire more than one security guard.

  The red fire extinguisher by the door caught my eye. On a mission, I unlatched it off the wall and stood next to the group. “Knock it off,” I yelled, not caring who’d get shot with the spray. I did not get paid enough to deal with this kind of crap.

  I pulled the trigger, and white foam filled the air. It landed on Max’s back first. He stumbled off the beefy jerk from earlier and covered his face.

  “Get out of here.” I glared at the college boys next, pointing the nozzle their way.

  Gavin grabbed Max’s wrist. Together, the two of them stood—tall, brooding, foam-covered men whom I both loved and currently despised. Max laughed when he looked down at his clothing, while Gavin narrowed his eyes.

  The beefy jerk coughed and spit blood all over the floor. I winced, knowing I’d be the one to clean it up. “Fuck you and this fucking bar.” The kid swiped a hand over his forehead and stood, drops of white foam flinging through the air.

  Gavin darted forward, but Max held an arm against his friend’s chest. “Not worth it, Gav.”

  I snorted at his supposedly heroic words. If these guys weren’t worth it, then why was Max throwing punches? Hypocrite.

  Joe Bob came forward, parting the crowd of onlookers with his six-foot-five frame. A beast of a man, he towered over every idiot—man or woman—in the bar. He was my hero in a black T-shirt, the one person in this bar I could relate to and love.

  “We got problems, Lia?” He moved in from my right, calm, yet deadly.

  “These guys”—I motioned toward the four college jocks, glaring at the one with the messed-up face and nasty attitude—“need to go.”

  Because Joe Bob didn’t question me, he took a step toward the group and managed to usher them all outside.

  Gavin darted my way, his pointed glare like a laser beam. “If that’s the kind of bullshit you deal with on a daily basis, Lia, then you need to find a new job. Now.”

  Unconcerned with Gavin’s orders, I focused my attention on Max. Unlike Gav, he was bent over, hands on his knees, chest heaving from exertion and laughter.

  “Maxwell.” I snapped my fingers, and his eyes met mine. “Follow me. Now.” I pointed toward the storage room behind me and hoisted the fire extinguisher onto my shoulder, not bothering to see if he was following as I headed toward the door.

  Chapter 6

  Max

  “Are you really that much of an idiot?”

  Those weren’t the words I’d expected to hear after defending a woman’s honor. There again, Lia was on a whole other level when it came to women.

  She slammed the storage room door shut behind me, flicked on an overhead light, and set down the fire extinguisher. Dust filled the air, and I coughed and swatted it away. The side of my head hurt like a bitch from the one shot the guy got off on me, so I used my other hand to curb the pressure with my palm.

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  She pushed me back against a ceiling-high set of shelves, then settled her hands on either side of my shoulders. A few empty boxes rattled and fell to the floor, but even that didn’t distract me when Lia’s body went flush with mine. “Don’t,” she warned.

  “Don’t what?” I grinned, studying her face, the piercing above her lip specifically. The stud was silver, small, shiny, and sexy as fuck. I’d always wondered what it’d be like to run my tongue around it.

  Down, boy.

  Her bare stomach rubbed against my jeans, and the scent of her skin filled my nose when I inhaled. Always fresh flowers. Always so fucking perfect. My hands clenched against my sides as I fought the urge to bury my face against her neck to get a bigger whiff.

  “Don’t play the coy card with me. And don’t ever come into my place of employment and play superhero again.” She took a step back and folded her arms, chin high and mighty.

  “Why? You start fights at your place of employment.” I lifted an eyebrow.

  Her right eye twitched. “That was different.”

  “How so?”

  “It was…outside and on my break.”

  “He was saying shit about you.” My smile fell at the memory. “I didn’t like it.”

  She sighed and took an even bigger step back, her anger fading. “You really think I care? I deal with assholes like him all the time. It’s part of the job.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.” I stepped toward her. Her breath caught as I touched her hip, but the scowl on her face was back. Needing her to get what I was trying to say, I grabbed her hands and pressed her palms flat against my chest. Then I wrapped my hands around her waist and whispered in her ear, “You’re better than this place.”

  Fire burned in her eyes when I leaned back to look at her. She lifted her chin even higher in that don’t fuck with me way I loved. “You don’t know what’s good for me. Nobody does.”

  “Then tell me something,” I said, pulling her even closer, my hand splaying against her back. Beneath my palm, her skin was slick with sweat, and because I couldn’t help myself, I slid my thumb up and down her spine, a calming gesture that did nothing but make my cock go hard. “If I’m satisfied with the answer you give, I’ll let you go and leave.”

  “What do you want to know?” she mumbled, folding her arms between us, clearly uncomfortable with our close proximity. I knew I should have let her go, but the selfish part inside of me needed this.

  “Do you feel safe here?”

  She hesitated, and I could tell she was lying when she said, “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I feel safe?”

  “I’m calling your bullshit.”

  Eyes narrowed, she shook her head. “I want you to go now, like you promised.”

  “That’s not a good enough answer to make me leave.” My stomach knotted even tighter, this time because I was pissed. I hated when she lied to me. Hated it when I couldn’t do anything to get her to trust me.

  “I’m a big girl, Maxwell. I don’t need you and Gavin coming in here and fighting my battles for me. I’m not some idiotic college girl anymore.”

  I flinched and softened my tone. “I never said you were, Lee-Lee. Never once gave you that idea.”

  “No, but you came here and picked a fight when I already had it handled.”

  “I saw that asshole put his hands on you at the bar. I was going to let it lie, but…” I ran my hand through my hair and took a step back, pulling at the ends to keep myself in check. Only Lia could push my buttons like this. Only Lia made me want to explode with every emotion known to man.

  “But what?” she asked, her voice going hard.

  My thoughts took me back, reminding me what she hadn’t heard from that idiot punk kid. I closed my eyes, willing the rage away, fighting with what I wanted to say versus what I needed to say instead.

  I didn’t want to tell her what that guy said, but because I kept nothing from this girl—because she needed this knowledge to prepare herself in case something happened when I wasn’t around—I told her anyway. “Those guys, Lee-Lee… They said shit, planned on coming after you after work. I heard them talking about it.”

  She froze. “Oh.”

  “That’s what you say when I tell you some guys were planning on doing God only knows what to you?”

  I pulled her closer by the shoulders this time, slowly lowering my hands to her upper arms. Goose bumps pebbled her pretty skin as I slid my palms down to her elbows, proof that
what I said affected her, regardless of her don’t-give-a-shit attitude.

  “Just stop, okay?” She lifted her finger and pressed it to my lips, those eyes I dreamed of night after night locked with mine. “Guess it’s high time I start paying you back for some of what I owe you. First bail, now…this?”

  “What?” I jerked my head back, confused. “What you owe me? You don’t owe me sh—”

  And that’s when she kissed me.

  Fingers in my hair, lips parting, tongue dancing…

  Holy. Hell.

  Lia fucked with her mouth, and it was the hottest thing I’d ever done in my life.

  She moaned. I might’ve too. Wet, sweet, hot…everything I’d ever imagined our kisses could be. I bit down on her lip, her fingers grazing my neck, digging into my skin, then my hair. I lowered my hands to her ass and squeezed, jerking her close, grinding my cock against her stomach.

  More, more, more. I need more.

  Fingers aching, I tucked my hands into the back of her shorts, finding the string of her thong. I tugged it aside, damn near ripping it with my fingers. Our teeth rammed together, my body wound up, hers pliant.

  This was it. Our moment. The one I’d been dying for. The one that showed me she wanted me too—that I wasn’t losing my mind after all. This was the moment when everything changed.

  That is, until she stopped. Froze was more like it.

  Then her hands were on my chest, shoving me back. Not hard, but just enough to break our connection.

  I panted like a dog, reaching for her, growling at her. Needing her.

  But then she winked. Fucking winked at me. “That work for you, Soldier Boy?”

  “Uh…” I blinked, confused and in a hell of a lot of pain from my dick pressing hard against my zipper. Unconsciously, I adjusted my cock, forgetting she could see, that she was waiting and watching for my reaction. Maybe even waiting for me to say something charming. Which I couldn’t, because Lia had mouth-fucked the words right outta me.