by L. P. Maxa
Corey snorted. “I’ve known you since we were five-year-old little girls running around the bayou in our pigtails. If you wanted to sleep with Baze, you would’ve done it already. And you would have been honest about it.” She shook her head and tapped her chin with her finger, thinking out loud. “You don’t do relationships, you don’t do feelings, you don’t do dramatic outbursts. So for you to slap Linc across the face for being an ass last night? Red. Flag.”
Madden hung her head. “Fine.” She couldn’t believe she was about to do this. That sex genius owed her, fucking big time. “I asked Linc out and he turned me down.” The words coming out of her mouth felt bitter. But she really, really wanted to keep playing with Linc. The instant she’d seen him at her front door this morning she had wanted to jump him. Madden couldn’t remember the last time she’d wanted someone that fiercely.
Corey threw her head back and laughed. “Yeah, right. There is NO WAY that Linc would ever turn you down. And like I said, I know you—you wouldn’t have asked him out. You would have asked him, uh, in…if you know what I mean. Linc? He’d be alllllllll over that.” She pointed at Madden, waving her finger around to encompass her whole body.
Madden leaned a hip against the counter. “Okay, okay, you’re right. I propositioned him. He has so much energy I figured he’d be a fun time. But he did turn me down. He said that he wasn’t allowed to hang out with me like that. Something about some stupid contract he signed.”
“Linc told you that? For real?”
Madden nodded. “Yeah. And since you know me so damn well, you know that rejection doesn’t really sit well with me. So maybe the slap was a little more punishment then he deserved. I’ll apologize next time I see him.” She cocked her head to the side, pouting. “Now, if we could please stop discussing the fact that Linc, the giant player, turned me down, that would be great.” She could see all kinds of thoughts pass across Corey’s face. Madden held her breath waiting to see which one she would actually settle on. She hated lying to Corey; it was something she’d never done before. But she couldn’t seem to help herself. She couldn’t let Linc go—she couldn’t let this fling be over yet. She wished she knew why.
“Baze isn’t off limits. Do you really have a little thing for him too?”
Madden mentally rolled her eyes. She was pretty sure this was all going to backfire in a huge way. But she wanted Corey off her case about Linc, and she wanted Linc in her bed. So she really wasn’t left with much of a choice. “Yeah, he’s more my type anyway. I mean come on. He’s so damn hot. Those tattoos? I bet he has some hidden piercings too.” Madden winked at her. “When I find out I’ll let you know.”
Corey wrinkled her nose. “I absolutely do not need to know if Baze has his dick pierced. Thank you though.” Corey grabbed her hand, getting serious and looking her right in the eye. “These guys? They’re amazing. All of them, in their own way. But Baze and Linc? They’re just out for a good time.”
Madden countered with a smile. “Perfect. Me too.”
Chapter Ten
Linc
Linc was counting down the hours in his head until it would be acceptable to text Madden that he was coming back over. When he’d woken up that morning, she was the first thing on his mind. He’d gone for a run to try and clear his head. It hadn’t worked, which was how he’d found himself at her front door. That chick was under his skin in a bad way. When she slapped him across the face to get Corey off his case, he’d pretty much swooned. Whoa. Swooned? Thank god he’d said that in his head and not out loud. He was sitting on Dom’s back patio with all the guys.
Killing time.
Keller propped his feet up on the table and leaned back in his chair, threading his hands behind his messy blond hair. “Corey said you two have started looking at houses.”
Dom nodded, taking a sip from his beer. “Yeah, we don’t have room for a baby. Apparently they require a lot of stuff.”
Linc chuckled. “Is Riley moving in with you guys too?” He’d meant it as a joke, but no one laughed. “Wait. Is he?”
Dom shrugged. “He’s not moving in per se. He’ll be going off to college next year. But he’ll have his own room for when he comes to visit.”
Linc looked over at Riley, dumbfounded. “Why would you want to spend your breaks and holidays with Dom and Corey? You should be off partying and banging random chicks.” He was outraged at the thought of Riley wasting all those good times. Riley was cosmically connected to Dom and Corey’s unborn baby girl, but he wasn’t her dang parent. He should be living it up, not on diaper duty. And that wasn’t Linc being a bad role model. That was him being a good one. Riley was graduating from a prestigious private school. He had worked his ass off the last three years and he deserved a break when he got to college. He needed to get laid. A lot.
Riley spoke with his head down, something he typically did when he felt embarrassed. “It’s not Dom and Corey I want to be around. It’s the baby. I can’t explain it, and you guys will never understand.” Linc felt like shit for giving the kid a hard time. It was basically second nature to bust each other’s balls. But Riley was the youngest; he was the low man on the totem pole. No matter how many times they all told him he was pack, he still seemed to get self-conscious at times.
“Hey, man, my bad. I was just joking around, okay?” Linc dipped down to make eye contact with Riley. “Having a room here in Haxton makes perfect sense.”
Dom reached over and patted Riley on the back. “Don’t get all worked up about it. Ignore Linc. He’s a dumbass.”
Linc stuck his tongue out at Dom but kept quiet. The connection Riley had with the baby was uncharted territory for all of them. Something like that hadn’t happened in decades, according to St. Leasing’s anthropology professor.
Riley sat up straighter in his chair. “I don’t know exactly how I’m going to feel when the baby is born. I just assume that my protectiveness will get stronger. I want to live my life. I want to go to school and drink tequila in Mexico.” He glanced at Linc like he’d read his earlier thoughts. “But I want to be able to come home when I miss the girls.”
“Girls?” Linc gasped, breaking the tension with humor. “Are there two of them? I knew Corey was way bigger than she should be.” He winked at Riley, making him smile in return.
Baze leveled him with a glare, clarifying even though there was no need. “He means Corey and the baby.”
“You better be glad she’s still at Madden’s. She would have crucified your ass for that comment.” Keller lifted his beer to his lips hiding a chuckle.
Riley grinned and nudged Linc in the arm. “Speaking of Ms. Madden, did you ever ask her out? Did she turn you down again? Please say she did.” He put his hands together like he was begging. “Please.”
Linc slapped Riley’s hands away. “I didn’t ask her out. I asked if she needed a ride to the bar.” He glanced over at Baze. “I’m not allowed to sleep with the nurse. So what’s the point of taking her out? I don’t need any more female friends. Corey and Molly are more than I can handle as it is.” Was Madden his friend? He guessed so—his friend with benefits. He had to bite his cheek to keep from grinning once he started thinking about all those benefits. He checked his watch again.
“You have somewhere to be, Casanova?” Baze frogged him in the leg. “That’s like the hundredth time you’ve checked your watch this afternoon.”
“No.” Linc searched his mind for a sarcastic remark or a quick one-liner. But he felt brain dead. The only thing he seemed to be able to focus on right then was getting back to Madden.
Baze let out a quick laugh. “No? That’s all you’re going to say?” He took a pull off his beer then narrowed his eyes on Linc again. “I have to hand it to you, Linc—I’m impressed you’re staying away from Madden and keeping your word to us.”
Dom chuckled. “I heard she turned him down.”
Riley nodded. “I heard she slapped him for trying to ditch her last night.”
Keller looked between Linc a
nd Baze. “I heard she has a thing for Baze.”
Linc swore he saw red. He knew that the slap was for his benefit, and he was almost positive that Madden didn’t actually want Baze. But the mere thought of them together was making him feel murderous. His palms were sweating and his heart was beating out of his chest. He had to lock his legs in place to keep from getting up, going straight to Madden’s house and mounting her just because he knew he could. Just because he needed to be inside of her. He knew his friends were all staring at him, all waiting for him to say something Linc-like. “Uh, you three spend way too much time with the chicks. You’re starting to gossip like little old ladies.”
Baze held his hand out for Linc to high five him. “Word.”
Linc felt himself relax. Felt his heart rate slowly start to return to normal.
Keller used his beer bottle to gesture towards Baze. “How ‘bout it, man? Since Linc isn’t allowed to bag Madden, you going to give it a go?”
And just like that, Linc was back on edge. He gripped the handles on the chair he was sitting in so hard that he felt the wood start to splinter. He needed his friends to shut up or change the subject. He felt close to losing his shit. He was even getting the shakes, which hadn’t happened to him since he was seventeen and learned to control his shift.
What the hell was going on? This wasn’t him.
Baze shrugged. “Nah. Don’t get me wrong—she’s hot as fuck. But I like things a little rougher than she’s probably used to.”
Dom looked back toward the house before dropping his voice. “I don’t know, man. From what Corey tells me, Madden is a wild child. She might be down for your thing.”
That was it, Linc thought. That was the moment he was going to spontaneously combust. Trying to hold in his anger, his need, his thoughts, his words. It was too much. Maybe it was because he’d never had to hold his tongue before? That had to be it. Right?
Riley held his hand up, like he was in class asking a question. “Just so we’re all on the same page here, what exactly is Baze’s thing?”
Baze, Dom, and Keller all started to laugh. And once again the tension eased out of Linc’s body. He was so relieved that the chaos inside him had subsided that he smiled, answering his youngest pack mate. “Riley, kiddo, if you have to ask then you’re probably too young to know.”
Chapter Eleven
Linc
Linc left about thirty minutes after he’d almost lost his mind in front of his pack. He told them he had a thing with a girl at her place. Which was the absolute fucking truth. And it gave him the perfect alibi. Baze wouldn’t be expecting him home tonight. Linc drove his car across campus and then used the woods to walk back to Madden’s place. It was strange walking through the woods in human form. He made so much damn noise and kept hitting his head on tree branches. But ever since the Feds had come to investigate in Haxton last year, no one was supposed to shift during daylight hours on school property.
When he got to Madden’s, Linc didn’t knock, he just opened up the back door and slipped inside. “Madden?” He heard a small scream come from the living room. He found her sitting on the floor surrounded by boxes, clutching her chest.
“You scared the shit out of me! Don’t you knock? Or use the front door like a normal person?”
She looked fucking amazing. Her hair was piled on her head haphazardly. She was wearing a loose tank top and some yoga pants. Hot mess had never looked so good. “The guys are still over at Dom’s. I didn’t want to be seen.” He hopped, skipped, and jumped his way across the room. He sat down on the floor next to her, grabbing her face and pulling her in for a quick hello kiss. “Hi.”
Madden pushed him away laughing. “Hi.” She turned his face toward the light. “How’s the cheek?”
He smiled. “It’s fine. You hit like a girl.”
“I didn’t hit you. I slapped you. If I’d have hit you, you wouldn’t be saying that.” She got up and helped him to his feet. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? I was about to pour myself a glass of wine.”
“I’m always hungry—and thirsty. But I don’t drink wine. Do you have any beer?” Linc followed her into the kitchen, staring at her ass the whole way. Fuck, she had a nice ass. Tight, high, round. Madden handed him a beer from her fridge and went about pouring the last of her wine into a large coffee mug. “Haven’t unpacked your wine glasses yet?”
“No. I had high hopes about what I was going to get accomplished today, but then Corey stayed this morning after you left. And she convinced me that my day would be better spent posted up on the couch watching movies and going through old yearbooks. She’s an enabler, that one.” She hopped up on the kitchen counter, taking a large sip of her dark red drink. Despite growing up in California and attending lots of fancy dinners, Linc knew damn little about wine.
He let his gaze linger on Madden’s now exposed cleavage, licking his lips. “Speaking of Corey. How did things go after I left?”
Madden winced. “She accused me of sleeping with you.”
Linc choked on the sip of beer he’d just taken. “What?”
“Yeah. She said she knows me too well and me slapping you was a big overreaction and a red flag.” Madden shrugged. “So I told her that I asked you out, but you turned me down.”
Linc raised an eyebrow. “And did she instantly call bullshit?”
“She did. But then I told her that you told me that you couldn’t get involved with me because of some stupid contract. And she seemed to buy that.”
“Good girl.”
Madden took another sip, grinning. “I also told her that I’d take Baze’s dick as a consolation prize.”
Linc wasn’t sure how it happened. One second he was cradling his beer like it was the most precious thing in the world, because it was. Then the next thing he knew, he had shattered the bottle with his bare hand.
Beer went everywhere and Madden scrambled off the counter to get a towel. “Oh my god, Linc. Are you okay? Did you cut yourself? How the hell did that happen?”
“I’m so sorry. I’m fine, really. I’m not even cut.” Linc flicked beer off his hands and into the sink. “I have no idea what that was. Maybe the bottle was defective or something?” Or maybe hearing the words Baze’s dick come out of Madden’s pillow-plump lips had elicited a nuclear reaction out of him. For no fucking apparent reason. He needed to get his head checked. Maybe Corey knew of a good shrink in the area? He grabbed some paper towels and the Windex to help Madden clean up.
She went to the fridge and got him another bottle. “Here you go. Try not to murder this one, okay?”
Linc gave her a small smile. “Really, I’m so sorry.” He took a long pull before continuing. “Now what were you saying? You told Corey what now?”
“Corey wasn’t buying my slap or my story.” She winced. “I didn’t know what else to tell her to get her to leave things alone. I still don’t really understand why you let your friends tell you who you can sleep with. But that’s your issue.” She pointed at him and then herself. “Not mine. If we need to keep this between us, that’s fine.”
Linc crossed the kitchen and positioned himself between Madden’s thighs, his hands resting above her knees. He set his beer on the counter against her thin pants, and the cold made her tighten her muscles. “So what you’re saying is that you’ll say and do anything necessary to keep me here between your legs?”
She wrapped said legs around his waist and gave him a playful squeeze. “What I’m saying is that for right now, you are an exceptionally fun toy so I don’t mind telling a few white lies. But rest assured when I move on—and I will move on—”
Linc didn’t let her finish her sentence. His body went all haywire again, acting without his permission. He took possession of her mouth, not giving her a choice about it. He invaded her. His hands roamed all over her hot body. Her little moans and whimpers only fueled the fire inside of him. A fire that burned so bright it was consuming both of them. Linc knew he should slow down, knew he should take a step back, be g
entler. But he just couldn’t get his mind and his body on the same page when it came to Madden.
Chapter Twelve
Madden
Madden shivered when Linc’s hands trailed up her thighs then wrapped around her body to lift her by the waist and carry her to the dining room table like she weighed nothing. He laid her down, stripping off her pants. She felt like she was being worshiped. His hands and his mouth were all over her body. Every touch made her crave the next. Madden watched with rapt fascination as Linc tore off his own clothes and climbed onto the table, positioning himself at her entrance.
Madden wiggled beneath him, laughing lightly. “Hey speed racer, go grab a condom from my nightstand.” Linc made no move to get off of her. Instead he grabbed her leg, tossing it over his shoulder and positioning the head of his cock at her entrance. She threw her hand out against his chest, stopping him. “Linc. Condom.” He stared down at her, his jaw clenched. His eyes were on hers, but they were glassy. It didn’t seem like he was actually seeing her.
“Linc? Are you okay?” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.
He blinked, and then he shook his head and gave her a confused grin. “Of course I’m okay, baby. Where did you say the condoms were?”
Madden peered up at him for a beat, relieved to see his eyes return to clear and normal. Had she just imagined the distance in them before? “My nightstand.” Linc kissed her deeply before hopping off the table and walking shamelessly naked through her house. “And don’t call me baby,” she shouted after him. What the hell was that? It was like he had mentally disappeared for a moment. His face became hard and almost aggressive. Not that she didn’t like a smidge of aggression in the bedroom. But that whole thing had been weird. She propped up on her elbows as he walked back into the dining room. “Hey, you sure you’re okay?”
