“I know, right?” I responded with a smile. “Put Kristian next to us and we’d look like triplets.”
She gestured for me to take a seat, which I did. Then Abbot placed a beer in front of me while he stood talking with his brothers. Alesha sat with us.
“Hey, Sloane. Glad you’re still here,” she said with a smile. “You and Abbot seem to be getting along well.”
“We’re not together,” I said. “Just friends.”
“Oh, I know.” Then she touched me on the knee. “I heard.”
“Yeah, so did I,“ Holland said leaning on her hands. She pursed her lips and studied me. “But I don’t know if I’m buying it. You”—she wiggled her shoulders like the action would help her conjure the right words—“you light up around him.”
“I light up around him. OK.” I widened my eyes like I thought she was crazy then took a swig of my beer and looked away.
Was I that obvious? Ugh. Abbot had been teasing and taunting so much that the sexual frustration was probably rolling off me in waves. And the kissing, my God, I still hadn’t caught my breath.
Damn Abbot’s no-masturbation rule.
“You know, she totally does light up,” Alesha agreed. “Huh. What does that mean, Sloane?”
“It means that I’m so incredibly lonely in my life that Abbot’s goofing around is actually funny to me.” That should put a stop to their questioning.
“Sure,” Holland said with a smile. “Just watch how you look at him around Jasmine. She won’t let you leave if she decides you’re a good match.” Another warning.
“I seriously feel like I’m sitting in the middle of a period drama with you people sometimes. Who talks like that?” With a quick shake of my head, I stood up and touched Abbot on the arm to get his attention, telling him I needed some fresh air.
He followed me outside.
“Want a hit?” he asked, pulling out an e-cigarette and holding it out to me.
“What is that? Weed?”
He wiggled it at my eye level with a cheeky glint in his eye. “You tell me.”
Taking the vaping device, I held it to my mouth and inhaled, smoke flowing over my tongue and tasting like… “Apple?” I blew the smoke out and frowned. “What the hell?”
He took the device back and leaned against the building as he inhaled. “Some homeopathic shit. Supposed to give you focus but it tastes like—”
“Toffee apples.”
He nodded. “Those things are fucking delicious.”
Resting my back against the bricks beside him, I took the device when he handed it back and had some more. It was like lollies without calories. Clever.
“You know, my mum used to buy me these,” I said, passing it back. “When I was a kid.”
“Vaping devices?” I could tell he was poking fun by the glint in his eye.
“Funny. Toffee apples. Whenever she showed up, she’d go straight into ‘funnest mum ever’ mode and take me out, feed me junk and ignore my bedtime. I thought she was so cool, and I always begged her to stay so it could be like that all the time. But she never would. I’d literally turn around and one second she’d be there and the next she’d be gone. Poof. Not to be seen until she was in trouble again and needed Pop’s help.” Pop had loved his daughter, but the disappointment I saw in his eyes more than once had propelled me to be better to him than she was. His flighty, gypsy daughter had no clue how to take care of herself, let alone anyone else. So, I’d made it my life’s purpose to be reliable. I often wondered if in doing so, I’d become such a doormat that no man would ever find me attractive. Men like to be challenged. And they’d never had to chase me, I was just…there. Too reliable.
“Was this before or after she fucked your boyfriend?”
Somehow, I managed to laugh at that. “Before. I was, like…ten.”
“You still see her?”
“She came for the funeral. Asked me about money during the service then left while I was in the shower that night.”
“She sounds amazing.”
I chuckled, smiling softly. “She has her moments. And she is who she is. The trick is not expecting anything. That way, there’s no disappointment.”
He offered me a vape again and I shook my head.
“Want to go back in?” he asked, shifting so he was now standing in front of me, blocking the diminishing sun with his size.
“You think they’d notice if we left completely?”
“You having that much fun?”
“Holland and Alesha think I light up when I look at you.”
He laughed. “Well, I am pretty awesome.”
“Maybe I’m just constantly on my guard, watching for your next move.”
Placing a hand on the wall next to my head, he took a quick look around then dipped his head. “I’m not going to surprise fuck you, Sloane.”
I inhaled a shaky breath. “I never know what you’re going to do.”
“But you’re having fun, right?” His mouth pulled up at the corner.
I nodded. “You make me feel like a kid again.”
“Is that a compliment, Sloane Slater?”
Reaching up, I took a hold of his tie and ran my fingers down the silk. “Yeah, Abbot Cartwright, that’s a compliment.”
He grinned then pressed his mouth to mine, kissing me deeper than was appropriate in a public place, even though we were hidden around the side of the building. It felt far too good, too distracting, too tempting. I couldn’t keep letting him take liberties or I’d go broke.
“Abbot.” I turned my head away, breaking our connection first.
“I caught you, Sloane. Kissing you is my prize.”
“You already took your prize. Plus a bonus one at the mall after.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” he tutted. “The deal was if I caught you, I get to kiss you. There was no cap on the number of times.” Cheeky arse.
“That’s a loophole you’re inserting right now, and you know it.”
“But am I wrong?”
Grinning, I pulled my bottom lip with my teeth. “Technically, no,” I admitted, kind of pleased about it because I wanted to keep kissing him. My problem lay in my own ability to keep it that way.
“You’re gonna have to be better at this game to beat me, Slater.”
“You think?”
He leaned down and sucked gently on the lip I was biting. “I will win you.”
I shook my head, my grin uncontrollable. “How about you save the games for elsewhere? Anyone could walk out here.”
He stepped back. “I know, I’ve been listening for footsteps. We’re cool.”
“Give me another puff of that apple thing.”
With a grin he handed it over. “Addictive, right? And it’s all stuff that’s good for you.”
Once back inside, it was assumed we’d gone for a cigarette since I was the only one who knew Abbot had quit smoking. We bounced around a little, talking and larking about with the brothers before Breaker clamped his hand on Abbot’s shoulder.
“Seems you forgot to greet your mother,” he said, squeezing so that Abbot winced a little.
“Well, Dad, I noticed you were busy sucking on her neck, so I thought I might leave you to it.”
“Don’t call me Dad,” Breaker said, looking unimpressed. “She tried to catch up with you for a smoke outside but didn’t find you. Where’d you go?”
Abbot shook his head. “We were there. Must have missed her.”
Fuck. Did she see us? I didn’t like the way the family kept making thinly veiled threats about not being allowed to leave if Abbot and I were thought to be a thing. It was unsettling.
“Listen,” Breaker said, leaning closer to Abbot’s ear. “I get that you’re pissed with me over that job right now, but don’t let that get in the way of your love for your brother.”
“Their precious wedding is safe. Relax.”
Breaker’s gaze drifted from Abbot to me, down the length of my suit then back to Abbot again. “Looks that way.”
> “Sloane is my date for the wedding. We’re having some fun.”
I am?
“Well, you might want to talk to the bride and groom about that. RSVP date passed and all that.”
“Kris is cool with it. He likes Mini-me.” Abbot slung his arm over my shoulders as he was wont to do.
“Don’t think you’ll be finished your job by next weekend?” Breaker directed at me.
“Well,” I started. “I’ve noted the possible ranges for each of the four wheels. Now it’s just a matter of testing the different combinations to get that damn gate to drop without doing anything to disturb the vial.”
“I know you were just speaking English, but fucked if I understood any of it.” Breaker looked at me, bewildered.
“Oh, you see, the lock consists of four wheels called a wheel pack.” I held up my fingers to try and explain visibly. “Each of them rotate on a single rigid post—”
Breaker placed his hand over both of mine, stopping me mid sentence. “That’s a really cool story, Sloane. But it needs less words.” He gave me a wink then walked away.
“Are lock mechanics really that boring?” I asked Abbot, who laughed.
“Fuck yeah,” he said, just as Kristian came over and clapped his twin on the back.
“We’re doing the ceremony rehearsal in five, then we’re eating and getting the fuck out of here. After party at the shack. You cool with that?”
“Are you kidding me?” Abbot said. “Party is my middle name.”
Kristian laughed then looked at me. “How about you, Kris the second? Up for something a little less stuffy when this is done?”
“I will literally do anything to take off this tie at this point,” I said.
He grinned and clapped me on the arm. “That a girl.”
With most of the room seated, the bridal party was called to the front of the room and talked through their positions for the ceremony. It was being held on the beach, but since you needed a permit for that, the practice run was done indoors.
“Wait, we’re unbalanced,” Jasmine said, stopping the proceedings as she looked from side to side.
“Jazz,” Kristian warned, his eyebrows raised as he stood before the celebrant holding Ronnie’s hands.
Jasmine moved from her spot as a bridesmaid—a strange place for the mother of the groom—and held her hand against her chin. “There are too many groomsmen compared to bridesmaids,” she said, pointing to the four brothers on Kris’s side, while Ronnie had Holland, Alesha and Jasmine on hers.
“There isn’t anyone I can ask,” Ronnie whispered, looking a little embarrassed as her eyes begged Jasmine just to get back in place. Poor girl. This must be mortifying.
“Nonsense,” Jasmine countered. “Sloane can do it. Why, she’s practically family, right?” With a broad grin, Jasmine’s eyes landed on me before she gestured for me to get up and join them.
I shook my head and opened my mouth to object, trying to get a clue from Abbot as to how I was supposed to play this. He looked almost…bored.
Is that how he really feels about all this? Bored?
“Come on,” Jasmine insisted, waving at me still.
“You’d be helping me out,” Ronnie said, helping to plead Jasmine’s case. “The Cartwrights are my only real family. I’ve never done the girly friends shit so I’m short a bridesmaid. Will you join in?”
“Do I have to wear a dress?”
She laughed. “Culottes?”
I stood up. “Deal.” Ronnie seemed like my kind of girl. No girly friends shit. I definitely identified with that.
As I walked up to the front of the room, I noticed Abbot’s mouth twitch in amusement. I guess he’s not bored, after all.
Chapter Fifteen
Ace of Fucking Spades
“Culottes, huh?” Abbot said later when we were sitting around a bonfire, beer in hand and a salty wind whipping our hair. “Do you ever agree to anything without cutting a deal first?”
I shrugged. “What can I say, I’m a competitive person.”
“I’ve noticed. It’s what I like about you.”
“Sport in the hunt.”
“Huh?”
“You enjoy the chase.”
He grinned. “I honestly do.”
“What do you think would happen if I actually gave in to you? Think you’d loose interest right away then go back to chasing surf bunny tail again?”
His chest bounced with laughter. “Surf bunny tail? I’ve never heard that one.”
“Probably because I just made it up.”
Shaking his head, he downed at least a quarter of his beer bottle as he focused on a couple of girls jumping around on the sand in a dance that made their tits bounce hypnotically. “See those girls over there?”
“They’re your usual, right?”
“Yeah. They’re easy. Just wanna party. They go home the next morning, and maybe we hook up again, maybe we don’t. No biggie. But there’s no sport in it, you’re right about that. I enjoy this game we have going on.”
“I like how confident you are of winning.”
“I like how confident you are of winning.”
“I give in and I become one of those girls over there.”
“You would never be one of those girls, Sloane.”
“Let me guess, because I’m different to other girls? That’s such a cliché.” And generally the first excuse guys used when they told me they weren’t interested.
“No.” He laughed then finished his beer. “It’s because you would have fucked me already if you were like those girls. Which, by definition does make you different.”
I grinned and shook my head. He had me there.
“How about we up the stakes a little?” he suggested after a while.
“In what way?”
“Well, I’ve already won kissing. How about we play a game where heavy petting is on the table?”
“Heavy petting?” I cleared my throat as my insides formed a cheer squad that screamed a resounding yes. “That’s a bit of a jump, don’t you think? How about second base?” My voice cracked a little on the second last word.
He considered my words. “Are we talking over clothes or under?”
“Um, under?” Damn throat kept getting thick.
“OK. You wanna choose the game?”
I looked around the party, trying to see if anyone was watching us and would notice if we left. Jasmine and Breaker had gone home after the dinner, and Toby had left after the first hour, saying something about a boat.
The other Cartwrights were quite caught up in their significant others, and the remaining guests were simply hangers-on.
“If you have a pack of cards and somewhere private, I definitely have an idea,” I said.
Abbot sprang to his feet. “I need a deck of cards,” he yelled.
* * *
“I want something this time,” I said, kneeling on the opposite side of a coffee table while shuffling a deck of cards. He’d brought me to an apartment building about ten minutes walk from Kristian and Ronnie’s place that had all the mod-cons and looked out over the beach. It was a family owned property that none of them had ever lived in, but had all used from time to time since it was in the centre of town.
“And what exactly do you want, Sloane Slater?” Abbot had removed his jacket and tie and was sitting in his vest and white shirt, sleeves rolled up, the top two buttons undone. There was just enough of a pectoral bump showing to make my heart rate kick up. I can have fun with him without having sex. I can have fun with him without having sex. It was my new mantra to build confidence for when thinking about the money wasn’t quite working.
“Like, if I win, you take me to the workshop you told me about.”
“Done,” he said without any hesitation.
“I feel like that was too easy, and I should have asked for more.” I narrowed my eyes as I placed the cards in the centre of the coffee table.
Abbot sat with his back against a grey couch, his long legs an
gled so one bent to the side and the other worked as his armrest, his forearm resting on his knee.
“Too late now, the terms have been set. But for the record, I would have taken you to that workshop for free.”
“You are an arse.”
He grinned. “And you love it.” No. But I did love his arse.
I shook my head. “OK, so we’re playing ‘high card, low card’. We both cut the deck and the high card wins. Best three out of five.”
“That’s all?” he asked, lifting a stack of cards off the deck and flipping it up to show the Jack of clubs.
“That’s all,” I confirmed, doing the same. “King of spades. I win that one.”
“Serious? Where’s the skill in that?”
“That’s the point really. There is no skill. It’s completely random so the fates get to decide.” I pushed the cards towards him. “You shuffle this time.”
“You really believe in that stuff?” he asked, his big hands obscuring the cards. “Fate.”
“Of course. I mean, the world is so far out of our control that there has to be some defining reason as to what happens to us. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“To go down laughing.”
“Maybe that’s your fate?”
He placed the cards on the table. “Maybe. Pick.”
“Four. Diamonds.”
“Nine. Also diamonds.”
“One all,” I said, collecting the deck.
He rubbed his hands together. “Start unbuttoning that shirt, Slater, I’ve got incredible luck.”
“You’re so confident. Where does this come from?” I shuffled the deck as he got to his feet and went to the kitchen in the open-plan living area.
“In this line of work, confidence is everything. I hesitate at the wrong moment and the people I love are in danger.” He took two glasses out of the cupboard and grabbed a bottle of vodka out of the freezer.
“Danger of being arrested, or are there other forces at play here?”
He grinned as he set the glasses and vodka on the coffee table, but it was more of a sad grin than happy one. “Devil’s in the details, Sloane.” He sat back on the floor and poured drinks, two fingers of straight vodka each.
Fool’s Errand: Cartwright Brothers, Book 4 Page 11
