Hailey's Game

by Hailey's Game (lit)

  She might not ever admit to it, but Hailey was vulnerable. That made her very, very dangerous by Kyle’s reckoning. It would be easy to take Cole’s approach and consider simply overwhelming Hailey with lust, but that path dead-ended. For all the pleasure they could give her, all it would do was strengthen the wall of her defenses.

  Kyle knew, he understood. Hailey needed to learn to trust them first. She couldn’t let go of that control until she trusted them to take care of her. Despite what some men might thought, trust wasn’t earned between the sheets. It developed slowly, strengthening every minute they spent together just talking. Or cuddling.

  Here, she couldn’t hide. Not like she had when she called Cole a whore. Defensively attacking Cole, Hailey had been trying to re-enforce her own reasoning more than hurting Cole. It had been the same way she tried to reduce him down to nothing more than a sex toy in her shower.

  Hailey didn’t want to admit that it was the men and not the sex that lured her wicked passions out. Well, she’d set a time line on her revelation, because in four weeks Kyle would be helping Cole prove Hailey wrong. They’d seduce the most primitive desires out of Hailey. When they’d finished, she’d be bound to them, because she would trust no other men, love no other men, enough to enjoy those lust with.

  Hailey was smart. She’d figure it out. Figure out it was about hearing a good joke and turning around to tell it to the person he most wanted to share a laugh with. It was about finally getting something fixed after pulling his hair out for four days and reveling in that victory with somebody who understood.

  It was just about enjoying life with the person he knew he’d most enjoy it with. That had always been Cole, but Kyle could see now that he needed Hailey in that picture for it to be complete.

  “It isn’t going to work, you know.”

  Hailey’s voice intruded with the sharp dryness that clearly challenged the cozy warmth of their snuggled embrace. Kyle smiled as he awarded himself two points for being right. Real intimacy terrified Hailey. He shared that victory only with himself, keeping her curled tight into his chest as he responded lazily.

  “What isn’t, princess?”

  “Just because you’re being all sweet, and that’s quite a contrast from that ass you live with, it isn’t going to make me forget our last conversation. You remember? The one where you paid me for my services?”

  Kyle snorted at that. “I didn’t pay you for nothing.”

  “You said I earned the car.”

  “And you did, or you going to deny you love it more than I do?”

  “You said it right after we had sex,” Hailey retorted, pulling free of his hold. “It was rude.”

  Kyle sighed, reluctantly pushing himself to a sit. “If you don’t want the car, give it back.”

  That caught her off guard, breaking up the tirade he could sense her building toward. “What?”

  “You heard me. You don’t want the car. You’re insulted by the way I gave it to you. Nobody’s making you take it, so give it back.”

  Hailey’s clenched jaw rolled as her gaze narrowed. “You’re intentionally missing the point, Kyle. You made me feel like a whore.”

  “I did?” Kyle blinked in mock shock. If they were going to fight, then they’d have a good one. One worth having. The one he wanted to have.

  “Why are you trying to piss me off? You’re doing just what you did in the shower. Everything is going nice and fine, then all of a sudden you get as prickly as a cactus. Why?”

  Her features clenched with tension as her arms crossed over her chest, and Hailey appeared almost to hunker down. He found a way to actually piss her off. True anger, that’s what growled out at him now.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Perhaps a considerate man would have taken the hint and let the subject go, but Kyle didn’t worry about politeness. He worried that he might not ever be able to break through this wall Hailey erected. If he failed, it wouldn’t be from a lack of trying because Kyle would get a jackhammer if need be.

  A dark glower wouldn’t deter him. In fact, Kyle returned it, letting her see the steel of his determination. “You really do think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

  The sudden accusation caught Hailey off guard. “What?”

  “You think I can’t see the obvious in front of me. I get close, you get bitchy.”

  “Gee, you think that means I don’t like you?” Hailey snapped back. The defensive attack. Kyle could still see hear the fear in her tone.

  “I think it means you like me too much.” Kyle slid to the side, crowding her back toward the wall of the truck bed. “I think it means you like me so much it scares you.”

  He fully expected an all-out assault for that one. He even braced himself to be hit, but instead Hailey just sat there glaring as if she hated him. Rage and pain echoed in a molten mass of green and brown shards swirling through her gaze, and Kyle knew it wasn’t him she hated.

  “It’s because of your dad, isn’t it?” Kyle knew the story, just like everybody else in town. “It’s because he left your mother and now you’re afraid you’ll get left, too.”

  Pausing for her response, he could see it forming on her lips. They parted, halting, before her voice finally came out sounding perfectly calm and too rational to be sane.

  “My father didn’t leave my mother. Nine years ago, he walked out on our family, and do you know how many times I’ve seen him since?” Hailey didn’t wait for an answer but held up two fingers that ironically made the peace sign. “Two. First time was after my mother died in the lawyer’s office and the second was when I bumped into him at the mall. I’m not afraid of being left, too, Kyle.”

  “You’re afraid of being left again,” Kyle finished for her when she didn’t. “Here’s the thing you’re forgetting, Hailey. I don’t have anywhere else I want to be. If I did, I’d be there, but instead I’m here.”

  “For now,” Hailey tacked on as if he hadn’t finished.

  Kyle gave her a little smile that dipped when she flinched over the hand he lifted to her cheek. Not letting her escape the touch, he followed her the inch back, making her accept his small bit of comfort.

  “I don’t see that changing, Hailey.”

  “Not until you’re done playing whatever game Cole and you cooked up.” Hailey hopped to her feet, taking that accusation to a full, arms-crossed-over-chest stance

  “You think this is a game?” Kyle rose to his own feet to glare down at her. “I didn’t take a beating to help Cole set something up on you, and I sure as shit didn’t sleep with you to help him.”

  “You’re Cattlemen, Kyle,” Hailey stated, her chin lifting defiantly toward his.

  “So?”

  “You really expect me to believe you’re going to side with me over your partner? Weren’t you going on about how you were going to get revenge for me playing the two of you?”

  “I get it.” Kyle didn’t want to touch that one. Hailey obviously didn’t believe his promise earlier. She’d taken it as a hallow threat, which would just make her shock all the more great when he made it come true. Kyle intended to savor that moment.

  Letting it go with a smirk, he started pulling the blanket up and cleaning out the bed. “You’re scared. We’ll take things slow.”

  “Slow?” Hailey repeated behind him, obviously annoyed at his dismissing their argument. “What does that mean? You going to start bringing flowers by the house?”

  “Would you accept them if I did?” Kyle cast her a grin, hoping to lighten up the moment. Slow meant keeping Hailey completely in the dark about what she had coming. It would be more fun that way.

  “I don’t know. Guess it depends on whether you bring food.”

  Kyle just laughed at that. Hailey didn’t have to repeat herself because he learned his lesson these past five weeks—a hungry Hailey was just a mean Hailey.

  “I’ll remember to come bearing gifts.”

  “I’m not for sale, Kyle.”

  “It
would be easier if you were,” he retorted just as flippantly.

  She didn’t come back at him but held her silence for a minute. When she finally did speak, her tone held a distinctive pout to it. “You’re serious about this slow thing?”

  Pausing to straighten up and turn to confront her, Kyle nodded. “Oh, yeah. It’s like I said. I’m not dumb. You put Cole on a four week probation period. Well, princess, you can count me in on that deal, because I want in on the big finish.”

  “Well, that just sucks.” It popped out of her as an honest enough response to make him laugh as he turned back to folding the blanket. She didn’t let it go but snorted behind him. “I’m going to have to object to that.”

  “Object all you want.” Kyle flipped the truck gate up. “It doesn’t change the fact that your bed is going to be cold for the next month.”

  Hailey sighed with a shake of her head. As if she felt the weight of the world settling on her shoulders, her back arched and her gaze lifted toward the heavens.

  “Tell me something, Kyle. I’ve always wondered what’s it like having such a big family. I mean, you’re the one with like eight kids and three different dads. That’s gotta kind of be an odd thing.”

  Her sudden interest in his twisted family line gave him a pause. Leaning back against the truck, he followed her look to the stars above. “It is an odd thing, but it’s kind of a fun thing, too. For the record, my mom is on husband number four, and if you want to talk about weird, she’s still friends with the first three.”

  “That’s impressive.”

  “Ah,” Kyle rolled his shoulders. “It’s just the way she is. Don’t get me wrong, my mom’s side of the family is great. A little weird and definitely chaotic, but great.”

  “Then why didn’t you move with her when she left town?” Hailey asked a question he’d been asked a million times, though not once in many years. “I mean, everybody knows you chose to stay with your grandmom.”

  “I don’t know.” Dropping his gaze back to her, he simply absorbed the beauty of Hailey in the moonlight. “I guess the thing is in a family that big it’s just sometimes hard to feel like you belong in the same way just having one parent dote on you all the time makes you feel like.”

  Hailey grinned. “You’re saying you liked being spoiled?”

  “Yeah, well, who doesn’t?”

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t recognize the feeling. I’m more smothered.”

  Kyle laughed at that characterization. Hailey could only mean her brothers. “Ah, Brett and Mike aren’t so bad.”

  “Yeah?” Hailey’s head dipped until her gaze met his. “I guess we’ll see what they have to say about you when they get back into town in four weeks.”

  With that gun blast blown through his center, she left him watching her as she sashayed toward the truck door. If the little princess thought her brothers would save her from Cole’s reckoning, from their reckoning…well, then she placed a bad bet.

  Kyle considered what move he should make next as he lumbered up into the truck. Hailey clicked on a radio station, leaving him to his thoughts as he drove her home. One thing for sure, he’d be taking back his interest in the car.

  That had just been a stupid, angry moment on his part. Getting back in the shop with Hailey would help get her past her fears, or at least under them. Kyle could do with some help, though, because he bet Hailey planned on being stubborn.

  He already knew she could hold a grudge. It figured her fear would last even longer. One would think she could get over it and be thankful that a man like him would be interested. And she should be thankful.

  Kyle didn’t drink too much, didn’t gamble too often, he wouldn’t run around on her, he earned a good wage, and he even happened to be a neat, clean kind of man. What more could a woman ask for? Hell, he screwed her like no other, and that had to be worth its weight in diamonds.

  In fact, he bet he could ace any boyfriend test in any girly magazine Hailey threw at him. That’s how perfect Kyle was. All he had to do was get her to agree. That started with opening her truck door for her, even if he technically caught it because she didn’t wait for him.

  At least she let him escort her up the path and even unlock her door for him. His sudden on-set of perfect manners had him smiling as she stepped past him through the door.

  “Well, thank you, kind sir. I—”

  Catching her just as she turned to say goodnight, Kyle trapped her between his embrace in the door, following her back until it banged into the wall. Every step of the way, he kept his kiss bound her lips, making her go wild in his arms. Becoming the aggressor, her tongue toyed with his, her lips sucking on it as her nails bit into his shoulders and her legs rubbed along his.

  Only with words could she have said it better.

  Fuck me here, now, I don’t care who sees.

  That’s all he wanted to hear. Releasing her, Kyle basked in the glory of having been the one to drain all the sour out of those pert features and leave them looking flushed with desire.

  “Now it’s a good eleven inches of meat I ain’t gonna give you. See ya tomorrow, princess.”

  * * * *

  Smacking his lips, Cole released the metal bar in his hands. With a whoosh and a clank that vibrated down the bench, the weights fell back into place as he sat up. Swiping of the towel across his forehead, he chugged down almost a whole bottle of water. After a whole hour of working out, Cole still hadn’t stilled the restlessness prowling in him.

  The four bedroom house he and Kyle owned had a massive master bedroom suite. It had probably been the original one room house back in the late eighteen hundreds. Like most older country homes, it had evolved from one room to two and onward. Somewhere along the line, somebody modernized the room with a closet and bathroom.

  Instead of fighting over the bigger bedroom, he and Kyle had opted to turn it into a gym. It had been a great compromise because both of them really liked having the equipment so readily available. Like having a good therapist on call, working out normally helped both of them work through their problems.

  Not tonight. Not with Kyle still out there with Hailey doing God knew what.

  Like I don’t know what that bastard is doing.

  After his battle with the ever delightful Hailey Mathews, Cole decided to console himself with a great deal of alcohol at the club. Actually, the plan had been to find the best looking red head in the club and wear out some of his mad, but he only ever made it as far as the parking lot.

  That probably was for the best, Cole thought as he swallowed down another gulp of water. Not that he worried Hailey would find out about anything that happened at the club and use it to violate his four week pledge.

  It hadn’t even been his honor that saved him from making that mistake. No, it had been his burning need to wreak as much revenge down on Hailey’s ass until it glowed as red as her hair. Nobody and nothing would drain the Mr. Man for the next four weeks, and that would make him a hungry beast when it came time for Hailey to pay up.

  Oh, yeah. Cole stretched his arms out. He promised Hailey she’d pay like no other, and Cole intended to deliver on that. The only thing that would make it sweeter would be her fearing her coming fate for the next four weeks.

  The next four weeks. Cole grimaced at that and straightened up. It would be hell for him too. He hadn’t gone one week without sex in the last four years. Now suddenly he had to prove himself? Stupid ass, piece of shit that is, and for what? For Hailey, like she was some prize.

  You’re a joke, Cole…You’re just not the type of man a woman takes seriously. An old familiar voice echoed out of his past, trailing on the heels of Hailey’s comment. Serena. That’s who Hailey reminded him of. Just the thought had him wrenching off the bench seat and stomping off toward the kitchen to refresh his water and outrun his past.

  It just wouldn’t let him go. Like an angel, Serena glowed to life in his mind, transfixing him even in memory with how beautiful she’d been. Tall, toned, tan, she bore he
rself with that regal bearing that had other women whispering that she was too confident, too arrogant. All they’d ever been was jealous over the way Serena demanded the attention of every man in a room.

  Even if she hadn’t been half as well endowed or blonde, men still would have noticed her. She just had that “it” factor. Hailey…well, Hailey tended to be along the lines of a Smurf. Cole almost laughed at that thought. Comparing Hailey to Serena was like comparing an orange to a banana. Short, little, and rounded, Hailey didn’t draw a lot of notice from the men.

  Nah. Hailey and Serena didn’t bear much resemblance at all. No resemblance except for the fact that they both had the power to ruin a good man’s life. Serena had come damn close to succeeding with him. In a lot of ways, some might say she won, but Cole would disagree.

  One day Kyle would understand why.

  “That’s a hell of a look.”

  Kyle’s dry comment had Cole blinking back to the reality of the kitchen and the cool container in his hand. His so-called best friend strolled past, chunking his keys onto the dining room table before veering for a beer in the fridge.

  “It’s been a hell of a day,” Cole retorted, moving out of Kyle’s way. He tracked his friend, studying the way he moved with a critical eye. “You didn’t sleep with her.”

  “Huh?” That had Kyle glancing over as he slid his beer under the old-style, wall-mounted bottle opener.

  “What happen?” Cole felt his mood lighten slightly as that fact became firm in his mind. “Hailey back out on you?”

  “No, wise ass. I backed out on her.” Popping the top free with a gasp, Kyle relaxed into the arched opening to the dining room and gave Cole a grin.

  “Why? She give your last performance that bad of a review?”

  That earned him a snort. “Don’t be a dick, Cole.”

  “I think I’ve earned that right, Kyle,” Cole shot back, more than ready to pick another fight. Kyle thought didn’t appear to want to give him one. Instead of turning into a scowl, Kyle’s smile dipped only into an expression of honest regret.