by Holly Hood
Ryker throws an arm behind his head and takes in the fireworks. I’m sure he is enjoying them since he is the one who set them in the first place.
“I’ve called you a few times this morning. You want to let me in on why Nash suddenly went back on his deal because of another offer?”
I open my mouth to say something but nothing makes it’s way out, so I go for my underwear on the floor by Ryker’s shoes. “I haven’t the slightest idea. He took another offer?”
“Someone offered him way more than what the place was worth. And a hell of a lot more than what he would have made through me.” He’s looking right at Ryker. “And now it all makes sense.”
“What does that mean?” I hop into my underwear and open my dresser, finding a t-shirt to throw on. “You think I talked Ryker into buying an old warehouse by getting him into bed?”
“I’d have bought the place regardless of what sexual acts went on all over this apartment last night,” he says, sitting up in bed.
Jackson stares him down, his jaw flexing under the stress but he doesn’t say anything to him.
I can’t believe he just said that. “Look. Jackson. He took another deal, you can’t come here and blame me for that. And besides, one warehouse isn’t the end of the world. There are plenty of other properties out there.”
“I don’t know, babe. My guy told me that location is the next big thing,” Ryker tells me.
I make a face. “Don’t ever call me that again. And stop trying to piss Jackson off. It’s clear he is pissed off enough already.”
I take Jackson by the arm and lead him out into the hallway. “I can’t control what Ryker chooses to do. But, if you must know it’s for the best. And I wouldn’t lie to you about that.”
“Is this for the best too?” He says, referring to who’s behind my bedroom door.
I shrug. “I don’t know. When I figure that out I will let you know.”
“Don’t bother, Savy. I’m over waiting around for a girl like you to figure out what she wants. If you wanted me you wouldn’t be laying in bed with someone else.” He sighs. “And fucking me over personally I can get over that. But when you mess with my career that’s different.”
I search his eyes for an explanation. “This has nothing to do with you, Jackson. Quit making it about you. This is about me and what I have been through, don’t try to threaten me.”
He pulls his gaze away from mine and heads for the door, I release a breath when the door slams shut.
Thirty
Another night of toting shots to drunk guys with partial hard ons for the likes of my work uniform.
I pass out the last on my tray and go back behind the bar waiting for my next order.
“Looking good,” Angel tells me coming up behind me. She sets her tray on the counter and sighs. “I really need a vacation. That guy over there almost shoved his tongue down my throat.”
I watch her reapply her lipstick. “That’s disgusting.”
Murphy cuts in between us. “That’s your job. There’s a couple of eager guys waiting for you over by the pool tables.” He hands over a tray of shots and gives me a look.
“Me?” I touch a hand to my chest.
“Yes you. They specifically requested you.” He shakes his head and leaves me to ponder what the hell is going on.
I weave my way through the crowd and find Nash and Ike standing next to the pool table, a game in progress. And like always a throng of girls are hovering around Ike like some haze of human sex and desperation.
“There she is,” Ike announces, as if anyone cares besides him I am sure. I make contact with Nash before I say anything.
“I was told someone over here wanted to see me.” I remove a shot leaving the tray on the edge of the pool table.
Ike rest his pool stick against the table. “We were more interested in your company.” He slips a hand around my waist, his fingers brushing against my skin—and it gives me the creeps.
“Oh, is that so?” I do my best to humor him. I watch him down a shot.
He nods. “Any girl willing to fuck two of our best men up in honor of my brother right here is fine by me.”
He’s clearly referring to the pepper spray situation. I look at Nash, he raises an eyebrow.
“It was nothing.” I wave a hand dismissively and offer Nash a shot, he declines.
“Trying to not have a replay of last weekend,” he tells me. “But I do want to talk to you.”
I replace the shot and look up at him. “About what?”
Nash looks past me to Ike. Ike’s busy rubbing pool sticks in places on the little blonde that it really shouldn’t go. When he sees he is busy with his latest girl he focuses back on the conversation.
“I got the strangest call the other day from a lawyer offering me even more money for the warehouse. He was able to make the contract I had with Jackson null and void.” He zones in on my lips. “Do you have any idea how that happened?”
I touch my face, things just went up in temperature now that he is giving me that look—the one that says I want to throw you down on a flat surface and fuck your brains out.
“I know you said to stay out of it.” I don’t want him to be mad at me.
He swoops in, pulling me to his lips and plants the most intense slow well calculated kiss my lips have ever felt. The bar goes wild.
I grab hold of him to steady myself and go for it. Meeting up with his tongue, his lips, his intensity. His fingers clamp down on my jaw and he controls everything about it, ending the entire thing when he bites down on my bottom lip before he breaks away.
I can hardly catch my breath. I suck in my bottom lip unable to take my eyes off of him.
Am I standing in a bar? I really don’t know anymore.
I adjust my hair and tug down my shirt trying to pull my shit together. “I take it you’re not mad?”
He shakes his head, making love to me with his eyes. If this is what it feels like when he looks at me I can imagine when he is touching me.
“Just the opposite,” he moves in, brushing hair away from my eyes so he can get a better look. “I don’t like asking for help. And usually nobody cares enough about me to want to do that. So, thank you.”
My heart pounds against my chest. “You’re…welcome.”
He smiles, at me, and I die a little on the inside because it’s a beautiful and rare thing. And somehow I manage to smile back.
“Do you get breaks at this place?”
“Yeah. Why?” I swallow.
“I was thinking maybe I could thank you again outside,” he throws a thumb over his shoulder to the exit.
I clear my throat, fisting my hair. “Let me tell Murphy.”
I hurry through the crowd sort of knowing what I might have coming to me. And a lot excited about it.
***
“Alright,” I tell Nash when I come outside of the bar. He’s leaning against the bar next to his bike. “I have twenty minutes.”
“I think I can work with that,” he pulls me to him and proceeds to plant another kiss on my lips. This is the most affection I ever have seen him give to me and I don’t fight it I gladly accept it.
His hand slides down to my shorts and he pulls them down skimming the front of my underwear with his entire hand. I’m a wet mess before the moan escapes my lips. He moves them out of the way, his two fingers slipping inside of me.
He kisses my neck, thrusting in and out of me. I am a moaning shaking mess and his two fingers are in control deciding my fate on the side of the bar.
We meet back up, and I lean in, my tongue attacking his. He’s by far the best kisser. Everything is so intense.
I groan against his mouth and he keeps thrusting in and out until I am so close to coming. He pulls his hand free and lifts me up pressing me against the wall.
I continue to kiss him and break away for a couple of seconds. “That wasn’t really a thank you.”
He fumbles with his jeans, my legs wrapped around him, when he frees him
self I know he isn’t finished with me. He holds me against the wall with one arm, working his boxer briefs down with the other.
The grit of the brick against my back reminds me we are out in public, but I don’t care. I want the entire world to see this.
He brings a condom between the two of us and tears it with his teeth. I wait patiently for him to secure it and he pushes into me, both of us moaning at the same time when our bodies connect.
He thrust, pushing me hard against the wall, and it’s only a few more seconds before I am convulsing around him and he is crying out in return, his body giving in just as fast.
We kiss once more before he sets me on my feet. I pull up my shorts and he tears off the condom and dresses himself.
Now that was a thank you.
Thirty one
“Let me get this straight,” Sophie says. “Yesterday you were screaming Ryker at the top of your lungs in my apartment, now you are bumping uglies with Nash on the side of a bar?”
She makes it sound so much dirtier than what it seems in my head. It doesn’t feel as dirty as she is making it out to be. But now I am beginning to feel like a huge slut who doesn’t know how to keep her pants on.
“And why would Nash just toss you down outside of a bar and have his way with you?” She shakes her head. “The two of you barely shared three full conversations with one another.”
“He didn’t toss me down, he pinned me against the wall,” I correct her. I work on the pair of jeans in my hand and fold them perfectly sitting them down on the stack of freshly washed clothes on my bed.
“And I thought Ryker was engaged.” She sniffs one of my many perfumes lining my shelf and sprays it on her wrist.
I shake my head. “He said he met her two weeks ago. It was some tabloid mix up. He’s never talked to her again since that picture was taken.”
“And Jackson has now declared an all out war on the likes of you.” She smacks her lips together. “You have a hell of a lot on your plate.”
My bathroom door opens and Ryker pops his head out. “Where’s your shampoo?”
“Underneath the sink,” I tell him, feeling even dirtier when Sophie stares me down.
He shuts the door. I look at Sophie. “He’s leaving tonight, I told him to just stay here instead of going to a hotel.”
She shrugs. “I don’t care what you do. I just hope that you’re smart and don’t get in over your head with any of these boys.”
I pluck a shirt from the basket and wiggle a hanger through the neck hole. “I have no intentions on intertwining my life with anybody right now.”
“Oh they’ve already been entwined.” She gives me one last word of advice. “Promise me you will be careful.”
I go back to my laundry once she leaves. Ryker comes out of the bathroom towelling his hair with my robe. I give him a look of disapproval.
“There was only one towel in there,” he tells me. “What did you expect me to do?”
I raise an eyebrow and don’t say anything.
He sighs, rips the towel from his waist and chucks my damp robe at me. “Is this better?”
“I guess it depends on how you look at it.” I smirk, grabbing some more hangers from the closet. “You’re a hot guy and you are standing in the middle of my room completely naked right now. I could look at that as a good thing.”
When I turn around he already has his boxer on. “Did I hear Sophie say you banged that guy last night?”
My jaw drops. “I thought you were in the shower.”
“I was looking for shampoo,” he sits down beside me on the bed. “Kind of soon don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t think anything is soon. I think things like this happen in life. Are you trying to make me feel slutty for sleeping with two guys in the matter of two days?”
Ryker steps lightly. “Those were not my words. Those were your words. Maybe you need to think about what you have done.”
“What I did…” I stand up, hands on my hips. “What I did was enjoy the company of two men at two different times. We are all consenting adults.”
“No shit,” he mutters, combing his fingers through his hair.
I turn away, opening my closet so I can put my clothes away. “You were just engaged. Like you have any room to talk.”
He touches my arm, spinning me around so I am facing him. Instead of a lashing or his judging looks, he wraps his arms around me. “I should be back in a couple of months. Stay out of trouble. And take care of your latest investment.”
I squeeze him tight and pull away confused. “What are you talking about?”
“The warehouse.” He nods. “I put that place in your name. I figure I’m on the road all the time, this way you can do and say what happens to it.”
Thirty Two
He’s waiting for me after my shift.
I’ve never been so surprised to see someone standing by my car.
“I didn’t see you in there,” I point out. I was busy with a bachelor party but I didn’t see Nash anywhere.
He pushes off of my car. “I was in the back playing pool with Ike. I figured you were busy.”
“Oh, how polite of you.”
He nods and looks down at the ground before he looks back up at me again. “What are you doing now?”
“Heading home?”
“Do you want some company?”
Pangs of lust rocket through my insides, we both know what we did the last time we were near each other. “Sure. I was just going to go home and make something to eat and probably watch a movie.”
“What movie?”
Oh shit. “The notebook.” It’s not true but I own it and it’s also the first thing that comes to mind.
He could be my Noah. I’d let him.
“Don’t girls who own cats and have no social life watch that?”
I roll my eyes. “How very sweet of you.” I squeeze my keys, summoning up the courage to be myself around him. “I’m sure we can find something else to watch.”
“I’ll meet you there. And then we can discuss what we should be doing.” He leaves, walking over to his bike that is parked next to the bar.
I toss my bag in my trunk because I need to wash my uniform when I get home. And slam the door shut.
When I spin back around the guy in the bar that I sold a lot of shots to is standing there.
“Leaving so soon?” He stares me down. “I got the feeling we had something back there. What do you say you come back inside and party?”
I back as far away as I can get from him. “I think you’re mistaken. It’s a job. They pay me to sell shots.” The bumper of my car digs into my legs. He moves closer, reaching out to touch me.
“Please leave me alone.” I can barely get the words out because everything about him reminds me of years ago when I was a scared nervous mess of a child.
When his hand touches my face and slips through my hair I am frozen in terror. Every bad thought is rushing through my mind.
I shut my eyes, panic taking over, leaving me vulnerable to whatever he is going to try to do.
Someone grabs me. I think it’s the guy but it’s not, it’s Nash. He shakes his hand out, the guy is laying at his feet. He looks at me and I think he can see the terror in my eyes.
He kicks the guy, once, twice, three times, before jerking him back to his feet. “If you ever touch her again I will kill you. Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back.” He shoves him.
Bloody and completely humiliated he looks at me one last time and takes off through the parking lot.
I’m shaking.
“Are you okay? For some reason I looked back and I saw that asshole coming over to you.” He’s talking, explaining all the reasons in the world why he nearly beat him to death but I don’t care, I’m just glad that he was there.
I wrap my arms around him, thankful for his arms that are now wrapping around me. He smooths my hair. “I promise you I wouldn’t have let him do anything to you.”
I nod, so
bbing into his t-shirt.
“I’ll leave my bike and drive you back to your place.” He leads me to the passenger side, letting me in. He even buckles me into place before going around to the driver’s side.
He drives out of the parking lot. And I am in a haze.
It’s safe to say that all my inner problems are slowly coming to the surface—and I can’t fight them.
***
I let Nash unlock my door for me.
Sophie is still at work.
He sets the keys down on the table.
I go to the kitchen and get a glass of water. “Thank you.”
We seem to do a lot of that.
“You don’t have to thank me for that.”
I open the refrigerator and take out some hamburger. I’m not that much into cooking but I am longing for real food.
“What are you about to attempt to make?” Nash is beside me in seconds.
I shrug. “I don’t know. What most people make with hamburger. Tacos, spaghetti.”
He gives me a look. “Why do I get the feeling this would turn out better if I helped?”
“Because you are overly confident.”
“Not only that. But I can make a killer taco.” He starts opening cupboards. “I need a skillet.”
I hand one over and watch him open the meat. He’s hot no matter what he is doing.
