Hard Sell: A Bad-Boy, Rock Star Romance

by Savannah Skye

  A hot stab of lust shot through her, settling low in her belly and she gasped.

  Nope. No way. She needed an intervention, and fast.

  She shut the shower off, wrapped her red locks in a towel and threw on a robe. Half-jogging, she made her way to her cell phone by the bed. She picked it up and pounded at the screen until the phone cooperated, dialing Cheri.

  “C’mon, pick up, Cher…”

  She needed to speak to someone she could trust.

  “Mm…hello?” a sleepy voice finally answered on the other side.

  “Cheri, it’s me – Kaitlin.”

  A long pause followed by an elongated yawn floated through the phone. “No shit, Kitty. I have caller I.D. It’s the 21st century. Anyways, who else would I pick up for at eight in the morning?”

  “Right. Sorry,” Kaitlin mumbled.

  “So what’s up? I worked a double yesterday, so this better be something good. How did it go last night? I want details.”

  “Blerg…yeah. No. Not good. In fact, a total shit-show.”

  That woke Cheri up, and Kaitlin could hear her friend’s mattress springs squealing as she bolted upright. “Crap, what happened? No action from Dr. Studmuffin? I find that hard to believe after seeing how sexy you looked in that bustier.”

  “Oh, I got some action,” Kaitlin murmured miserably. “But not from Dr. Studmuffin.”

  She paused to think of how to say it, but couldn’t pull the trigger. It was just too humiliating for words.

  Cheri finally deadpanned, “You’re killing me, kiddo. I’m literally dying here.”

  Kaitlin took a breath for courage and let the words bubble from her lips in a rush. “I seduced the wrong brother.”

  A moment of silence lingered on the line for what felt like an eternity before laughter roared through the receiver.

  “You--” Cheri struggled to catch her breath, “you slept with Michael Blade? You can’t stand Michael Blade, remember?”

  “I didn’t sleep with him.” Kaitlin was beginning to lose her patience. “And it’s not funny. I was mortified. I mean, how could I be so stupid?”

  Being true blue like she was, Cheri stopped laughing and flipped into bestie mode.

  “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Throw on a pot of coffee and get dressed. I’m coming over and I don’t want to show up to a mopey mess wearing sweatpants and weeping into a tub of cookie dough.”

  Kaitlin reluctantly agreed and hung up the phone. She slid into a pair of jeans and threw on a light green blouse.

  In the kitchen, she dumped the last of her coffee grounds into the basket of the coffeemaker and flipped it on. Even though the strong Colombian brew filled the house with an aroma that could wake someone from the deepest of slumbers, she swore she could still catch the faint scent of skin that haunted her dreams last night.

  The thought of him triggered another dreadful realization – she had to go back over there. Technically, she was still getting paid to work for them, even if it was just enough to cover her own cost for materials.

  Who could’ve known a month ago when Rick had asked her to help with the rehab of their gran’s house that something like this would happen? She’d loved Honey and had been broken up when she’d passed away last year. The Blade brothers had finally decided to sell their childhood home, and it had seemed like a fitting gift to sweet Honey to help her beloved boys get the house back in shape. Now though?

  She wished like hell she’d never even come back.

  Stirring sugar into a cup of coffee, she wondered if Mike was just as distraught as she was.

  Highly unlikely. His cocky ass was probably laughing it up at her expense.

  “Kill me now,” she muttered and slumped forward to rest her head on the cool, walnut cabinet.

  She was still in that same position when Cheri sailed in a few minutes later, a bouquet of flowers in tow.

  “Awww. Thanks, Cher,” Kaitlin said, wrapping her arms around her friend for a quick hug before taking the sunflowers from her.

  Cheri nodded and yawned. “Yeah, yeah, no problem. Now where’s the coffee? This is wayyyy too early for me.”

  Kait made her friend a mug of joe and the childhood friends sat across from each other in Kaitlin’s mom’s tiny breakfast nook, two steaming cups creating a haze between them. Kaitlin braced for the inevitable barrage of questions that she knew was coming.

  “So tell me,” she started, “how exactly did you end up fucking the grease monkey instead of the doctor?”

  “First off,” Kaitlin retorted, “I told you before, I didn’t--” she peered around and then irrationally lowered her voice to a whisper, “fuck him. We just kinda…made out a bit. I mean, nothing too crazy. And he’s not a grease monkey.”

  “Innnnteresting. So you’re defending him now?”

  Kaitlin’s eyes grew wide at the accusation. “Oh shut up. You just make him sound sleazy--”

  “Well, I’m not one to judge, but he did sleep with half our high school and God knows who else since then. And hey, I’m here for you. I was just trying to be supportive. I actually think he’s dead sexy, so if you decide you don’t want him…”

  “I don’t!” She knew it was a lie the second she said it, and judging by the smirk on Cheri’s face, so did she. Kaitlyn cut her hand through the air with a groan. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Point is, I humiliated myself. So now what?”

  Cheri cocked a suspicious eyebrow and took a long draw of coffee.

  “So you went over there in nothing but lingerie and didn’t bang the guy? Okay. I’m going to believe that – but only because you’re my best friend and I know you wouldn’t lie to me. But how the hell did you mix him up with Rick? I know they’re supposedly identical, but c’mon. You’ve known them for what, fifteen years? And Mike is so much more masculine than Rick.”

  “I don’t know,” Kaitlin wailed, rubbing at her now-throbbing temples. “Once I knocked on the door my adrenaline took over. Then he opened the door looking all good and the hormones just kicked in. It was dark and…” she buried her face in her palms and shook her head, “I guess looking back, there were some pretty dead giveaways.”

  “Yeah, like?”

  “Well, first of all, his stubble. It’s, I don’t know. Like you said, manly. And the body. He’s absolutely rock hard.”

  Sweat began to bead up on her forehead. She wasn’t sure if it was from the warm air and too much coffee or reminiscing the night before.

  “Okay, okay,” Cheri cut in, “I think I get it now.”

  “Good. Now tell me what to do from here. Do I ignore him and quit? Do I confront him and tell him I’m sorry?”

  “God, no,” Cheri said with a snort. “You don’t do any of that. You offered to work on the yard as a favor because you cared about Honey. You can’t take it back now.”

  Her friend was right. Kaitlin thought back to the day the Blade brothers had moved in. From what she’d pieced together through the years, Honey’s daughter had basically dumped them off when she decided that scoring meth took precedence over raising two young boys. But sweet Honey, bless her heart, had taken her grandsons in and raised them like her own. In fact, Honey treated all the kids in the neighborhood like her own.

  A pang of sadness ran through Kaitlin as she recalled knocking at the door each Sunday morning. Honey would swing it open with a smile, the smell of cooking butter and maple syrup wafting past her.

  “Hi, babe. Come on in, the pancakes are almost ready.”

  Tears stung the back of her lids and she blinked them back.

  Nope. No way was she going to back out on her offer. She’d told Rick that she would help get the house back in shape because that’s what Honey would want. To give her beloved boys the best inheritance she could. It was the least Kaitlin could do for the woman who had been a safe-haven of stability when her own house was like a war zone.

  The sound of hammering from next door broke into her thoughts and she shot a glance out the front window. Nerves bubbled up in
her stomach.

  Great. Speak of the devil. He was awake and already working. And whistling, no less. Clearly he was far less affected by the night before than she was.

  Kaitlin turned her attention back to Cheri, more desperate for answers than ever.

  “So what, then? What do I do?”

  “Nothing.” Cheri smiled. “Since I’ve walked in, all you’ve talked about is how hot Mike is. You haven’t once mentioned how this would affect your chances with Rick, and you even considered going over there and apologizing to him. Seems to me like he was more than willing to accept your sexual advances.”

  Kaitlin realized with a start that she was right. Through all of it, she hadn’t even considered the fact that she might have blown her chances with Rick. Even now, when she thought about him, it was with warm affection. Nothing at all like what she’d felt in Mike’s arms.

  Wild.

  Bold.

  Sexy.

  In other words, nothing at all like the real Kaitlin.

  Which was exactly why she had to nip this in the bud, and fast. Wild was the exact opposite of what she wanted. After years of watching her parents’ screaming fights after her father cheated.

  Again.

  She just wanted stability. And there was no one less stable than bad boy Michael Blade.

  Rick was the man she wanted. The man she needed.

  Then why can’t you stop thinking about Mike?

  “Cripes, I feel sick,” Kaitlin breathed. “I have to go work over there. Today. This is so bad.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Maybe he won’t even come outside. Just go over there, do your work and be nice. If you play it cool, so will he and it will be like nothing happened.”

  Mike’s whistling had only grown louder and more chipper and she nodded. She could pretend to be cool. For once.

  “Maybe you’re right.” Kaitlin pondered for a moment. “Orrrr…you could come help me.” She batted her lashes at her friend pleadingly.

  “Not gonna happen,” Cheri deadpanned with a shake of her head.

  “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun! I’ll teach you everything I know about landscape design. You could learn something useful.”

  “Dude, I live in an apartment. And I know you better than anyone – you’re going to use me as a shield.”

  “I promise I won’t. Just, you know, it’d be nice spending some time together.”

  “Digging up weeds and mapping out flowerbeds? No thanks.”

  “Please?”

  Cheri stood up from her chair and went over to the sink to dump the rest of her still-warm coffee. “Nope. You’re gonna have to suck it up and do it on your own. I have to go,” she said, running a hand through her short cap of bleach blonde hair.

  “Where do you have to go?”

  “Back to bed,” Chari announced and made her way to the front door. “Good luck with Mikey. I believe in you!” she called out from the foyer. And with a slam of the door that shook the house, she was gone.

  Shit.

  Cheri was right. Better to just face it head on, like nothing happened.

  Surely there was no rush, though?

  She marched over to the little radio her mom kept on the kitchen counter and flipped it on, turning the volume up loud enough to drown out the whistling. First, she scrubbed the kitchen, then the bathroom. Then she decided to organize the spice rack.

  Two hours later, the little house sparkled, but she was just as conflicted.

  “Stop being such a baby, Kait,” she muttered to herself.

  She marched into her bathroom and spent about ten minutes brushing her teeth. Then, she changed her clothes half a dozen times before realizing how stupid it would be to do yard work in a blouse. Instead, she slipped on her favorite black v-neck and decided to call it good.

  Here she was, tripping over a guy that she never had feelings for until the unfortunate mix-up the night before. All this nonsense was just that.

  Nonsense.

  An unbidden memory of a night, seven years before, flickered in her mind. A cool summer night, a drunken kiss of gratitude…a kiss that had wound up causing her a month of sleepless nights.

  She pushed away the memory with a groan and slip on her sneakers. She wasn’t eighteen anymore. But Michael Blade might as well have been. He was nothing but trouble.

  She checked her teeth and touched up her makeup one last time in the mirror. Not for him, of course. Just looking put together gave her confidence, was all.

  But as she forced herself to walk the green mile toward Mike’s backyard, she couldn’t quell the butterflies fluttering like mad in her belly.

  Chapter 4

  Michael stared at the half-demolished kitchen and grunted with grim satisfaction. It had taken him three hours of hard, physical labor, but he’d finally tired himself out enough to dampen the need that had been pooling in his groin since Kitty had showed up on his doorstep last night. Wearing that damned bustier and those frigging panties.

  His cock stirred and then stiffened and he let out a groan.

  Usually he’d at least be enjoying the remodeling work. Physical labor took his mind off his problems.

  But even that was a bust.

  He cursed under his breath as he swung the claw end of his hammer between the drywall and the last of the cabinets. The night before rang fresh in his memory with every powerful swing. With a single tug, he pried out the side of one of the cabinets. It flew clean off the wall, leaving massive holes on the drywall.

  Fuck.

  He was letting his thoughts get the best of him. It wasn’t that he was angry. So what was he then? He swung hard at the next cabinet, sending splinters of wood all over the kitchen.

  Did he regret it?

  He dragged his tongue across his lips and could almost taste hers. And even through the smell of sawdust and sheetrock he could still recall that damned scent.

  Hell no.

  It didn’t exactly end like he would have liked, but he regretted nothing.

  Why in the fucking world was he so antsy then? He couldn’t concentrate on his work. He could barely aim a damn hammer. She was toying with his mind and she didn’t even mean to.

  He let his eyes drift closed. She was on his lap again, grinding and kissing and licking and biting.

  He opened his eyes and ripped the head of the hammer out of the cabinet before tearing the cheap wood from the cold steel and taking another swing, dead on target.

  “I want you.”

  Her voice echoed in his skull, bouncing around his brain and touching every nerve, before reverberating down his spine and radiating outward. The skin wrapped tight around his biceps was covered in goose bumps.

  He had to get it out of his head. It was nothing. A simple case of mistaken identity on her part.

  So why didn’t it feel like a mistake to him? For some reason, it had felt so right. Maybe he thought of her as a bratty little tagalong, but if he was being totally honest with himself, that notion had been squashed the night of her graduation years before. Last night had just been a reminder. Maybe that very knowledge had been the exact thing that had made him determined to do whatever it took to keep her at arm’s length. Because if he got too close, there would be no more denying that Kitty was a grown woman now. And she could say what she wanted, but she had to have felt it too, last night. The chemistry between them…

  Little Kitty Pepper had flipped his world upside down. The girl he used to tease and screw with was now on the frontlines of his thoughts and desires. Only he didn’t want to screw with her anymore.

  He wanted to screw her.

  And that wasn’t likely to change anytime soon.

  Once he had the last cabinet completely torn from the wall, he set down the hammer and cracked open a bottle of water. He chugged it and wiped the sweat from his brow as he noted the time. Almost noon. Hell, she was probably in the back, surveying the yard right now.

  Careful not to step on any nails, he hopscotched his way over to the window and pee
red through the blinds.

  And there she was, dressed in a pair of cutoff shorts and a v-neck shirt that looked like it was made for her.

  He let his eyes touch every inch of that body, just as they had the night before. Her fiery red hair flowed in springy locks down past her shoulders, framing her voluptuous breasts. Her skin was like fine porcelain, flawless and smooth. A pair of gorgeous blue eyes studied the tablet in her hands, like two planets suspended in a galaxy of faint freckles. Her lips, full even now, when they were pursed, called to him through the glass.

  It was weird – she was just outside the front door, but it felt like she was miles away. He’d always been so confident around her. So at ease with their sharp banter. But now, his every muscle tensed in anticipation of getting close to her again.

  In spite of every effort not to think about it, the memory of the first time they’d kissed assailed him. Honey had badgered them into attending Kitty’s graduation. Rick had been back in town after his college finals and, at age twenty, Mike had just opened his one-man bike shop.

  Once the ceremony was over, the Blade brothers convinced Kitty’s mother to let her go out for a night on the town with them. She was hesitant, but eventually she relented and soon they were packed into Rick’s Tahoe, armed with a set of fake ID’s, flying towards the bars and clubs of Third Street. They found a parking spot on the street towards the end of the strip, and decided to bar hop down it and back. Rick, always the fucking white knight, acted as designated driver.

  They were halfway through their pub-crawl, drunk and stumbling, when Kitty started shivering in the unseasonably cool evening air.

  “Take my jacket.”

  This was a big deal for him and Kitty knew it. He loved his leather motorcycle jacket like a fat kid loved cake. So when he slid it off and around her shoulders, she had beamed with drunken joy and damn, it had felt good.

  “Seriously, Mikey?” she’d said.

  “Just don’t puke on it.”

  Even with his snappy little joke, her eyes had gone all soft and pretty. Then, out of nowhere, she’d grabbed a fistful of his shirt in each hand, rose up on her tiptoes, and planted a long, soft kiss on his lips.