Fuck it.
I had ignored my instincts with her before and things had gone badly.
Granted most of the time I hadn’t had any choice.
But this time I did.
So I made it.
I hopped into the driver’s seat, revved the engine and turned onto the first through street that led back into town. My plan was to make sure she got into the building ok. If she spotted me and gave me grief, so be it. After that was accomplished, I would let her be.
I pulled onto Newport from Bacon and parked in front of Mona’s. Right after I cut the engine, I heard a scream that turned my blood to ice accompanied by tires screeching. Heart vaulting to my throat, I launched myself from the vehicle and sprinted in the direction of the sound. A truck had stopped at an odd angle in the middle of the intersection ahead and a plume of acrid burnt rubber rose from it. I couldn’t see around it, but I saw Karen’s white and pink surfboard on the sidewalk on the other side. I ran so fucking hard I could barely breathe. I skidded to a halt when I saw her lying as still as death in the middle of the road, the homeless girl from the day before beside her. Another woman was standing next to the open door of the truck sobbing. I heard a voice saying, “No. No. No,” over and over again and snapped my jaw shut when I realized it was my own. I barked for someone to call an ambulance.
“Already on its way,” a male voice replied.
I didn’t pause to acknowledge. My feet ate up the remaining distance separating me from her. Space I should never have granted.
The street girl lifted her head. I noted absently that she was pretty in an ethereal kind of way, though her face was covered in grime. Her doe like eyes widened when she realized I was staring straight at her. She scurried backward, her skirts peeling back to reveal pale limbs with a myriad of bruises above purple converse hi-tops before she scrambled to her feet and dashed away. I didn’t turn my head to follow her. I dropped onto the pavement beside Karen. I gently stroked the back of my knuckles across the cold skin of her cheek. My breath left me entirely when I saw the rapidly expanding puddle of blood beneath her head.
15 Years Ago
Chapter Twelve
* * *
Karen - September 2000
I broke the surface gasping for air. “You are such a pain in my ass, Ramon Martinez,” I sputtered blinking the stinging saltwater from out of my eyes after his dunking.
“If you truly think so, mamacita, then why are you clinging so tightly to me?” His accented rumble was deeply sensual, an audible caress.
“Only because the current’s so strong,” I replied breathily releasing my hold on his shoulders and unhooking my ankles from his trim waist. But his grip on me didn’t relent, and his dark chocolate gaze glistened with amusement at my futile attempts to wiggle myself free. I scowled. It was always like that between us. Push and pull, back and forth, slings and arrows. I gulped as his large hands spanned my narrow waist, my bikini exposing my skin to the warmth of them. My pulse thrummed from the thrill of his teasing as well as his touch. It felt wrong and yet wickedly right. “Let go,” I insisted, my command lacking conviction. My conflicting feelings regarding him had me unsettled.
Lifting a mocking brow, he suddenly released me. I nearly went under again because I had given over to his strength as he held me steady in the surf. Ocean water rushed in, swirling around me. The chill of the current washed away his warmth. I swam from him, putting distance between us while inwardly chastising myself for letting him get to me, again. As if he could read my mind, his barely there smirk transformed into a knowing grin. Blood that seemed to always simmer around him began to boil. It irritated me how much it amused him to annoy me. I slapped and splashed water at him hoping to wipe away his mocking smile.
“Thank you, beautiful,” he said evenly after my childish display. His eyes remained closed as the last of the water rolled over the rugged planes of his face. I found myself mesmerized by him, by the chance to study him without his knowledge. The setting sun gave the coppery skin stretched over his chiseled torso a polished glow and made the droplets of water clinging to his jet-black hair glisten. He opened his eyes, catching me staring. Inexplicably, his lips lifted into a brilliant smile, one that seemed appreciative for some reason, despite the drenching I had given him. Puzzled by his response, I was unprepared for the barrage like a lawn sprinkler that blasted me as he shook his head releasing all of the water that had saturated his dark curls.
“Ugh,” I huffed. It was my turn to squeeze my eyes tightly shut. My fingers curled into frustrated fists beneath the rolling waves. When the assault ended, I blinked my vision clear again.
“You looked…hot…like you might need cooling off.” He laughed, the deep booming sound of his amusement working strange fluttery wonders on the inside of my chest.
“Enough you two.” We both turned toward the sound of Dominic’s voice, the Dirt Dogs’ easy going, quick to lend a hand, and even quicker with a friendly smile bassist. He stood in a faded blue shirt and beige shorts at the shoreline a couple of yards away holding up two takeaway sacks in his hands. “You have been at it all day like siblings. It’s driving me crazy. C’mon, children. Your food’s getting cold.”
“Sorry, Dominic.” I pasted on my sweetest smile for the thoughtful boy who always treated me like I was his queen. The way any girl wanted to be treated. The way my dad treated my mom. He returned my smile before turning toward the picnic table. Swimming first, the slogging through the waves when my feet could reach the bottom, a spot between my shoulder blades tingled. I glanced back over my shoulder to find Ramon watching me as I had suspected.
“Run to your daddy, little girl.” He grinned.
I stuck my tongue out at him, faced forward again and threw my wet braid over my shoulder dismissively. An arc of cold water suddenly doused me. Temporarily blinded, a wave buffeted me as I tried to get my bearings. Before I could catch my breath to get even with my tormenter, he grabbed me from behind, his fingers wrapping like clamps around my upper arms.
“You’ve been a bad girl.” His breath gusted hot against the chilled, sensitive flesh beneath my ear, and the contact with his hard body weakened me in a way the waves never could.
“Let. Me. Go!” I squirmed in his grip, but he only held me tighter and pressed us closer together. There was no space between us now, no barrier except my bikini and his swim trunks. Skin to skin, his hard chest against my back, his thighs pressed to my ass. Captured, my pulse began to race. He was rock hard. A shiver rolled through me that had nothing to do with the sixty-degree water. I sucked in a ragged breath and struggled anew to break his hold.
“Not yet,” he rasped low and near my ear, his tall form shadowing me. I forgot that Dominic waited as I glanced down at Ramon’s hands on my arms, their bronzed skin several shades darker than my summer tan. An incoming swell rocked us. My breathing came as choppy as the churning surf. I hated that Ramon made me feel things I shouldn’t feel considering that he was such an ass to me most of the time. “I advise you to keep that forked tongue in your mouth, Maleficent.” His warm lips brushed against the shell of my ear and his knuckles grazed the sides of my breasts. I barely registered his warning over the roaring of the surf and the thundering of my pulse. “Unless you are inviting me to suck on it.”
I gasped. “You are out of line, Romeo,” I said huffily, using the nickname he had earned earlier in the summer with his shameless flirtations.
“So you say,” he returned. “But I think you like it.” How could he know? Could he feel my pulse racing imagining what he suggested? I wondered what it would be like to actually have his mouth covering mine and his lips around my tongue. “Just say the word.” His warm breath whispered over my damp skin as he rocked his impressive length against me. When had I become helpless in his arms?
Ramon was the ultimate player. In all of the time that I had known him, I had never seen him with the same woman twice. Smooth as silk, waltzing up to them, whispering his seductive sweet nothing
s into their ears. They never refused him. Given the orgasmic moans coming from his bedroom, next door to Dominic’s, I doubted any regretted being one of his many. After hearing his climactic groan last night, I had dreamed those types of dreams about him. I had opened my eyes in the morning and wondered if the real thing could possibly be as good as my imagination.
As if he sensed the direction of my thoughts, he began to trace seductive patterns along my skin. Fingertips roughened from hours of playing his guitar skimmed my arm from the curve of my shoulder to the insides of my slender wrists. He encircled them in his much larger hands. I swallowed, though in the Pacific Ocean my throat was a desert. He threaded his fingers between my own. Even if Dominic had been turned our way, what Ramon did was hidden beneath the waves. When he began to rub circles with his thumb into the center of my sensitive palm, I froze outwardly but inwardly I burned with a contemptible curiosity. “I’ve seen you watching, Karen. Come to my room tonight. I promise to make it good, so good you’ll beg me not to stop.” His hands over mine, he brought them backward, placing them on his length. Even through his swim trunks, the heat of his steel pipe cock seared my skin. “That’s all for you, baby,” he breathed. “I can teach you things. Dirty things I think you will like. Things you won’t forget. And when you’re back in your dorm room and you touch yourself, it won’t be Patch that you’re thinking about.”
“No,” I gasped. The mention of Dominic helped me sort my scrambled senses. I tugged my fingers free from his. “No, Ramon. I won’t. I’m with Dominic.” I couldn’t do that to him. I wouldn’t. I barely recognized my breathy voice. I broke away from him and this time he let me go. But his laughter followed me as I jogged the rest of the way in, kicking up shoulder high splashes in my haste to get away. Not just from Ramon. I realized that I was also running away from myself.
Finally free of the surf, I quickly padded over packed sand and up to the beach to where Dominic stood beside a fire pit. He had his back to me. I reached for him, touched his arm softly and he turned toward me.
“Karen,” he greeted warmly and steadied me as I clumsily stumbled in the deep sand, dripping wet and shivering in the air that had cooled considerably since the sun had set. His expression unreadable in the flickering shadows cast by the dancing flames, he unfolded and stretched out a beach towel he must have been warming between his hands.
“Th.Th. Th. Thank you.” My teeth clattered together as I stepped into the towel. He wrapped it around my shoulders, pulling me in close. I sank into him gratefully, more exhausted from battling with Ramon than from being out in the surf all day. Dominic didn’t complain about the chill of my skin, or the fact that my wet body and bikini soaked his dry clothes. He was always so considerate. Planning this day at the beach even though he had deadlines from the record label hanging over him. The more I learned about Dominic, the more reasons I found to believe that he was the right choice for me. Besides when had Ramon ever shown any real interest in me?
I glanced down the wide sandy stretch of beach at the cliffs in the distance. We weren’t very far from the band’s swanky new condo in San Francisco’s Financial District. The park had been a popular destination earlier in the day, but it was virtually empty now except for the two of us and the cynical guitarist making his way to the shore. I bounced my gaze away from him and tipped my head back to Dominic instead. “Thanks for getting the food, for getting the fire started and for warming me up.”
“You’re welcome.” His light green eyes hinted at adoration beneath the heavy layers of thick brown hair that the sun had streaked with gold over the course of the summer. “Ramon,” he acknowledged, breaking eye contact with me as the brooding Latino stalked toward the fire. His gaze hardened. He offered his best friend a frown. “Lay off Karen.” There was an edge to his voice that made me wonder how much he had seen. “She’s not one of the groupies. You know that.”
“I know no such thing.” Ramon flicked me a look through his inky ocean darkened lashes while I tried to pretend that cold condemnation in his eyes didn’t hurt. “It’s you who’s decided she’s different.” He returned his gaze to his friend. “Do whatever you want. I’m not your keeper. And you’re certainly not mine. You know as well as I do that one pussy’s the same as another once the lights go out, amigo.”
Inhaling sharply, my cheeks flaming bright from his harsh words, I ducked my head into the soft cotton that covered Dominic’s muscular chest.
“Oh, grow up, Karen. You’re not in high school anymore.” Ramon’s voice was sharp, cutting right through the comfort the soothing motion of Dominic’s hand on my back provided. “And toughen up. You’re dating a guy in a rock band after all. You’re gonna hear and see a lot worse if you plan to stick around.” Dominic’s stroking hand on my spine stilled. I could feel the tension building in his body.
“Enough, Ramon,” Dominic stated softly. “You’re being an asshole.”
“Yeah, tell me something I don’t already know. Sometimes a guy has to look out for his compadre. I just think you might be making a mistake, that’s all.”
“And I think there might be more to it,” Dominic said. “I think maybe you’re a little jealous.” Surprised, I lifted my head. Dominic’s jaw was hard, and his gaze was locked with Ramon’s. “Maybe if you’d tone down the rhetoric and take a chance on a nice girl for a change you would find one of your own.”
“I’m not interested in nice girls.” Ramon’s honed gaze sliced my way. “Even if there were such a thing. I much prefer the ones who are honest about their needs. Ones who take what I give them and hit the highway. No hard feelings. No expectations. No one’s leading me around by my dick.” The last statement was definitely aimed at me. Ramon’s gaze dipped to me briefly. That was when I saw it, something soft like yearning in his eyes that I’d never seen there before. Something that for a moment made me almost believe that maybe Dominic might be on to something. But the wood in the fire cracked, releasing sparks. Ramon’s features shimmered in a wavy wall of heat. And then nothing remained but his usual disdain.
Chapter Thirteen
* * *
Karen
Oh, how I loathe him, I told myself as Ramon dismissively waved me through the line at the condo door. He had given me a pass on removing my top as if the idea of me unveiling myself like the other women bored him. I hated him, I decided. I hated him as much as I loved Dominic. Dominic and his sweet smiles. His soft touches. His constant praise.
“Ignore him, Q2,” Dominic said, invoking the nickname that referenced my dual beauty queen titles from high school. He tucked a curled finger underneath my chin and gently turned my head to face him. His eyes searched mine. “He often says things and does things just to be shocking. He doesn’t mean most of it. Besides, he gets testy when he’s between women. He’ll mellow out after he finds a new one.”
Dominic threw his arm around my shoulders, and I snuggled closer to his warmth. He drew me further into the living room filled with people and noise. Confident and poised, he introduced me to a couple of Zenith Employees. He might be a year younger than me, but he was much more mature than the guys I had dated before him. I closed my eyes as he turned me into him and pressed his lips to mine. I forgot about Ramon’s slight. I forgot everything and everyone else when Dominic kissed me, his tongue slipping between my lips and dancing with mine. I was breathing hard and a little disoriented when he lifted his head and tapped my nose. Yet when he shifted to take a beer someone offered him, my gaze found Ramon. The fire Dominic had kindled was doused in ice as Ramon gave me another disapproving glance and crooked his finger at a redhead with enormous breasts. His reactions confused me. It seemed to piss him off whenever I was openly affectionate with Dominic. Yet, it amused him when I rebuffed his advances. Was he only playing the part of the protective friend and testing my intentions? Was I continually failing when he flirted with me and I faltered?
Thoughts troubled, I had no idea what was wrong with me or why Ramon’s opinion of me should even matter
. I shifted my weight from one sandal to the other, following the pattern of the rug beneath the large sectional as Dominic excused himself to get me a soda.
Guys drive me crazy. I lifted my head and glanced around the room. Ramon had his arm around the redhead now, but he was staring back at me as she twirled on the black curls that framed his handsome face. With those dark eyes and proud features, he wasn’t the safe boy next door kind of handsome. No, Ramon was dangerously good looking.
When Dominic returned with my soda, we took a seat together side by side. I feigned nonchalance at the scene around me, trying to pretend like I had seen it all before, but my eyes must have been bugging out of my head. Simone had told me about the party she had interrupted a few weeks earlier when she had discovered Linc in a compromising position with other women that had ended any chance of them mending the relationship that had already started unraveling after Linc’s accident. But she hadn’t mentioned the public sex or lines of coke on the bar. Maybe the guys had gotten more out of hand since Charles Morris the CEO of Zenith Productions started throwing cash advances at them.
Liquor bottles littered every available surface. When one was emptied another seemed to magically replace it, even though the guys were underage. There was no shortage of half-clothed pretty women, either. All of them were required to shed their tops at the door. Ramon apparently being the enforcer of said rule.
“You ok?” Dominic asked as he sifted through my hair. I had washed it after the beach and wore it loose around my shoulders instead of in my usual braid.
“Sure,” I brazened, lifting my head from where I had rested it on his chest to glance at him. “Why would you think I wasn’t?”
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 35
