by Lucia Grace
And I won’t.
Because it’s time I put me first.
NOW I KNOW WHAT GUS was talking about. Wanting to keep her away from the night crowd.
This girl is fucking stunning. Like bring-you-to-your-knees fucking gorgeous.
She’s on the short side. I’m about a foot taller than her, so that puts her at five four. She has slender curves but is stacked like you wouldn’t fucking believe. Natural, big tits and an ass that is just calling my name. Round globes forming the sexiest fucking heart-shaped ass I’ve ever seen. With long, honey-brown hair that hangs in waves down her back complimenting her flawless olive skin.
Making her seem like she’s glowing.
Like she’s a goddamn angel.
And when she finally looks up and directly at me, as if she can feel my eyes running all over her, it’s like my fucking world stops spinning. Pale green eyes widen slightly, and her lush, pouty lips part on what must be a quiet gasp.
Fuck. Me.
I don’t know what the hell is happening. But my heart is racing, my pulse thrumming, and the need to protect and own rushes hot through my body.
Vulnerability and innocence mix with her sensual good looks, causing a reaction in me I’ve never felt before. This unknown possessiveness and immediate jealousy of any other man even looking at her threatens to steal all the air from my lungs.
But it ain’t just her stunningly good looks that have me taking pause. It’s something more. Something deeper. It may seem cliché as all hell, but it’s like my soul knows her. Like it’s calling out to her.
Goddamn, but she’s got me fucking twisted.
As my eyes continue to take in her unrivaled beauty, she blushes a beautiful shade of pink before rushing off to another table.
“You’re drooling, big brother” is murmured to my side.
“Can you blame me?” I reply. In fucking awe.
“Well reel it in. I don’t need you scaring her off when she just got here.”
“Plan on doing a lot to her, but scaring her off isn’t one of them.”
Saylor scoffs. “Real smooth.”
I shrug. “The damn truth.”
“Something tells me your usual charm and game won’t work on this one. Plus, I like her. I never like your other floozies.” She points out.
This is true. She makes her dislike of each girl I take home known loud and clear. Doesn’t matter if they’re in earshot or not. She prefers if they are.
“She’s also…different. More reserved and quiet. I can tell she’s holding onto something, maybe even running from it.”
I look over to Saylor then. “She say something to you?” My interest piqued.
Wanting to know all I can about this girl. Good or bad. Feeling like I need to protect her if need be. The urge foreign but so strong it can’t be ignored.
“No,” she replies as she wipes down a couple mugs. “Just the way she carries herself. How she came in here yesterday looking two seconds away from breaking down. Like life hasn’t been easy for her.”
Something heavy settles on my chest at hearing that. Something dark and familiar.
My protective instincts rise even more.
I get lost in thought as Saylor goes back to working behind the bar.
Then Kennedy walks by me again. Eyes downcast, trying to block me out, and I can’t take it a second longer. Not with her hips swinging and her ass swaying just so. And the vulnerability rolling off of her in waves calling out to me to protect.
Possess.
Own.
Sure as shit have never felt anything like this before.
On her way back to the bar to pick up an order Saylor’s filling for her, I can’t keep my mouth shut despite the hard glare Say’s throwing my way as she pours and mixes drinks. Knowing exactly where I’m at right now from the look on my face.
She’s seen me work my game day after night for years. She just doesn’t know I’m about to play the game of my fucking life.
I know it.
“Hey there, gorgeous. You must be new in town.”
Saylor rolls her eyes at my lame-ass attempt at small talk while Kennedy ignores me. Looking down, at Saylor, anywhere but at me.
So I try again.
“Would recognize a beautiful face like yours anywhere. So you must be.”
I see her eyelids close and her chest move on her inhale. Like she’s centering herself before she finally turns my way. Giving me the attention I’ve been craving from her.
“Did you need something?” Her words detached and disinterested.
But it doesn’t matter, because her voice hits me like a sledgehammer. The impact ‘bout near knocking me on my ass. The soft quality and angelic tone lay over me like a thick blanket.
Warm and comforting.
And her eyes. Soft and bright. The color of moss.
Goddamn, this girl has got me twisted.
“Just you, angel.” I lay my charm down thick. Hoping to reel her in.
Because I have to have her. Don’t know why. But I need to. The urge so strong it’s about to take me under.
Unamused green eyes stare back at me. My smirk falls from my face.
“Lines like that usually work?” she asks. Calling me out.
“With you? Absolutely not. Just truth.”
She scoffs. “No? Considering more than half the females in this bar are either eyeing you up or glaring you down, I’d say it’s a line. One you’ve used one time or a hundred.”
Shaking her head, she doesn’t speak or acknowledge me further. Just looks back to Saylor as if begging her to hurry up.
Well shit. That’s sure as fuck something I’m not used to. Getting shot down with such little interest.
I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make my need for her ratchet up another dozen notches.
Shaking her head, she doesn’t answer or acknowledge me further. Just looks back to Saylor as if begging her to hurry up.
“Kennedy, right?” Her shoulders tense at hearing me say her name. Surprised, I’m sure, that I know it. But Saylor is my sister, after all.
I hear Saylor’s voice but don’t turn to look at her. Can’t take my eyes off of Kennedy. “This here’s Rhett. My older brother,” she says in way of explanation of how I know her name.
When Kennedy doesn’t react further, I lean in closer from my stool at the bar. “Can you look at me, angel?” Needing to see her beautiful face.
She breathes deep again, before turning those pale green eyes on me once more. She doesn’t speak, just looks at me. Knocking the wind from my lungs and a beat from my heart.
“There she is,” I say through a smile and lean closer still. Not giving a fuck that I’m sitting in a crowded bar with my sister standing right there, listening to every word and witnessing my every move.
As I lean in, I run a finger down her cheek, the skin like the softest satin.
She flinches slightly in shock at my touch before settling on a sigh, pale eyes closing at the contact.
“Gotta say you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on.” True awe evident in my voice. Because it’s the absolute fucking truth.
Her eyes pop open at that, and then as quickly as she seemed to calm, she shakes her head and spins from me. Completely disregarding me now.
“Thanks, Saylor.” Her voice seems unsteady, her body shaken. Her hands have a death grip on the serving tray she’s carrying over to one of her tables.
“Good going, Casanova.”
I look over to Saylor before my eyes track back to Kennedy, my brows bunched in confusion. My chest tight with the sting of rejection.
Something I’m not used to.
And it damn near almost kills me because I want her so bad I can’t see straight.
“Told you your usual charm wouldn’t work.” Saylor gloats.
Seems so.
I shrug it off, trying to act nonchalant. Like I don’t give a shit.
When in reality I want to pitch a fit and demand her
attention.
Yeah, she’s already got me resorting to acting like a damn child wanting to tantrum.
Goddamn.
Without a word to my smug-as-shit little sister, I grab the beer she’s placed in front of me and spin my back to the bar as I bring it to my lips, taking a pull as my eyes seek her out. When they land on honey-brown hair, my chest pulls tight and my heart triple beats.
Then my mind starts racing, planning, hoping. Because this girl’s got me twisted and fallen and done after just one look.
One simple touch.
Ain’t no turning back now.
LATER THAT NIGHT. SAYLOR AND I are both relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine after closing down the bar together. I was only supposed to work the day shift, being my first day and all, but when one of Gus’s girls called in sick, I jumped at the chance to help out. Not only for the extra money, but more so to be a part of something. Even if it is just work.
So now, after working a double, I’m exhausted and thankful for Saylor offering me her wine and company.
We’re sitting on opposite ends of the same couch, backs resting against the arms with our feet propped up on the middle cushion. Chatting away like old friends. Something else I’ve never had before. Girls always kept their distance and guys…well, guys never wanted to be friends.
“I’m sorry about my brother,” Saylor says over the rim of her wine glass before taking a sip as our conversation lulls.
“It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before,” I mutter quietly, trying to brush it off. Not wanting my newfound friend to feel she needs to apologize for him, even if he is her brother, which let me tell you, completely floored me when she first introduced us.
“I imagine it’s not.” She says it hesitantly. Like she knows my looks are all I’ve ever had since the ripe old age of thirteen when one moment changed the course of my life for years to come. Like she knows my looks are all I’ll ever have to offer and men just like to take, take, take because of them.
I look at her, then shrug. “Where I come from…men like him are a dime a dozen.”
Staring and wanting and lusting over my long hair, too-big boobs, and even bigger butt. Never after my heart or my soul. What makes me, me.
“So you’re not leaving anyone behind?” she questions.
I scoff lightly behind my wine glass. “No one there to leave.”
Besides the mountain of mistakes I’ve made when it comes to letting men ruin me.
“Not even family?”
I shake my head. “Never had one.” Heaving a deep breath, I ready myself to let someone in. Something I don’t ever do. “I grew up in foster care. Surrounded by family after family…yet I don’t even know what one looks like, wouldn’t even know what it was like to have one.”
Saylor’s eyes turn sad and sympathetic.
Empathetic.
“My brother, he really isn’t so bad,” she tries to sell as she bends her knees and wraps her arms around them.
I scoff again, thinking she’s just saying that since he’s her brother. She must hear me because she continues on in his defense.
“He really is a good man with an even better heart. It’s just…it’s been just us two for so long, plus Gus and Nash. But we’re all each other has and because of that and the life we used to live…he’s shut himself off to forming connections. From forming anything meaningful. And he hides behind this tough-guy persona, which has him coming off as an arrogant asshole.”
I nod. Understanding more than she realizes.
And getting that she understands where I’m coming from just as much.
“Just thought you should know because I’d bet we all have more in common than we think,” she says softly. This side of Saylor is more subdued and tender compared to her brash and fiery nature at the bar.
My heart aches, thoughts of my past whirling like a tornado through my mind as we both get lost in the memories that haunt us.
All the boys and men I let use and abuse me. Making me feel like I was something special before letting me loose when they got what they wanted.
My body and nothing else.
Leaving me to pick up the piece of my heart and soul each one chipped away until I was left a pile of broken and fractured pieces I’m now trying so desperately to put back together again.
Saylor’s voice cuts through the air, breaking me from my wayward thoughts. “But ya know…I have to tell you.” She drops her legs flat to the cushion and leans in at the waist, quieting her tone when she speaks, as if she’s sharing the world’s greatest secret. “My brother has never, and I mean never, reacted that way before. No woman has ever brought him to his knees. And let me tell you, girlie, you laid him out flat.”
I roll my eyes dramatically. “I’ll bet.” My tone is nothing short of sarcastic, and while my heart pounds with disbelief, my tummy is full of fluttering butterfly wings.
That old, familiar feeling kicking in.
“I mean it, Kennedy!” she exclaims as a hand slaps to the leather below her, the little bit of wine left in her glass sloshing about. “He saw you and about fell on his face.”
Right…saw the exterior. But what about what’s underneath?
“Like I said…nothing I haven’t dealt with before.” I swallow and set my half-full wine glass to the coffee table in front of the couch, suddenly feeling uneasy from the butterflies and our talk.
“It’s more than that, girl.” Saylor’s voice is back to the tenderness of earlier. “Yes, you’re stunning. I can’t deny that any more than you can. But he felt something more. I know it. I’m his blood, his sister, and I’m telling you the look that crossed his face was nothing short of awe because of you. Not just your looks, but whatever he saw beneath it all when his eyes landed on yours.”
The butterflies ease. But my heart, oh my heart, it’s beating a rhythm I’ve never felt before.
“And as a bystander in the bar, feeling all that winding tension and sparkling chemistry…I can say without a doubt it was so much more than your pretty face.”
Tears fill my eyes, uncertainty now filling my heart. Because she’s making me want to believe in something I gave up trying to find.
My person. My home.
“Well.” I clear my throat. “As sweet as all of that sounds, my move to Sunvale wasn’t to find a man. I’ve had enough of those to last me a lifetime.” And I really have. My lonely heart seeking out way too much way too often. “This is my time to find myself, to heal the broken parts of me I was trying to mend with them.”
Tears slowly well, then roll down both of our cheeks by the time I’m done. Saylor wipes hers away.
“I promised myself no more men until I did that. Until I could stand tall on my own and not have my worth depend on the affections of their false intentions.”
She nods. Understanding. “I can get that. Admire it even. Lord knows I’ve had my fair share of frogs along the way to my Prince Charming. But fair warning, my big brother doesn’t take too kindly to being told no.”
I swallow harshly, thinking I know where this is going.
Her fingers fidget absentmindedly with a loose thread from her oversized sweatshirt. And then she smirks. “So prepare yourself for the Shaw Effect he’s sure to unleash on you. Because if I know Rhett at all—which I do—he’s going to be laying it down thick. And I can promise it’s for more than just what you have to offer on the outside.”
Seems as though my move to Sunvale may prove to be more of a test than I thought.
“WHADDUUUP!” A DEEP VOICE echoes through the empty shop before boots stomp down the hall into the back.
I’m a big dude. But Nash McKinley, my best friend and right hand at Inked Souls, is a huge motherfucker.
Six foot seven, wide-as-a-shit-brick-house body covered in tattoos, and a full beard and head of long hair wrapped up in a man bun all come together to give him the I’ll-fuck-you-up slash lumber-sexual look.
Man bags ladies left and right because of it.
“Heard you were drooling over some new piece that came into town,” he says through a smirk, leaning against the back of the chair in my station when he makes it out back.
“Yeah, where’d you hear that?” I ask as I finish setting up for the day. “And if you ever refer to her with anything other than respect again.” I set him with a hard look. “I’ll lay your ass out.”
Punk may have ten pounds of muscle and three inches on me, but I’d rough him up good for talking about Kennedy like that.
He chuckles. “Well fuck, one look and you’re already whipped.”
I keep glaring.
He tosses his hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. I get it.”
I grunt. “Fuckin’ better.”
“Stopped in to the bar to place a food order. Say’s already in and couldn’t wait to spread the news.” He smiles wide.
Little sisters. Fucking hell.
He chuckles again at my scowl.
“Has the mighty fallen?”
“Jesus Christ, man.” I stop organizing my gun and ink for my first appointment and run my hands through my hair. “I just fucking met her. Don’t make me sound like a fucking pussy.”
Although I’d damn near lay down my life for her already, and she’s barely given me the time of day.
Just something about the look in her eyes. The pale green orbs carrying pain and vulnerability, yet a strength I don’t think even she knows she possesses.
Can’t pinpoint it. But there’s something about her that calls out to me.
Fucking hell, I am a damn pussy.
But it’s the goddamn truth.
“If the shoe fits, man.”
“Fuck off.”
“Special delivery,” an all-too-familiar voice shouts as she walks in the now unlocked front door.
Saylor sets down a to-go bag with a wide smile on her face.
“Food,” Nash booms out, making his way to the bag and rummaging through it.
She rolls her eyes. “Neanderthal.”
“You know you love it, firecracker,” he says through his signature sidelong smirk.
She groans. “You and that damn nickname. Drives me fucking nuts.”
He tosses out a wink as he shoves some fries in his mouth, chewing before saying, “Give me an hour and I’ll drive you fucking wild instead.”
