“Shit,” I yell running from my chair at a now crying Leo.
I get outside first, and I know Joss is closely following me. His footfalls in the big clunky boots he’s wearing would never sneak up on anyone unless they were deaf.
“Excuse me, he’s with me. Is everything okay?” I hesitantly question knowing everything is not okay when they turn my way. Both bouncers have black smudges all over their faces and arms. The same as those strippers had on their bodies. I’m starting to piece everything together when a magic marker dangles from Leo’s fingers.
“Your friend thought it was a good idea to give a dancer abs because they were missing. We’re lucky we found him after he pummeled Cliff to the ground and kneeled on his arms. We should call the police.”
I look over to Leo, and I fight back a laugh when his puppy dog eyes hit me. Serious Emerson, this is a serious matter.
“I was doing him a service! Women come to these things to see pecs and abs. I couldn’t do anything about the pecs because really, some of them needed a good bra. Abs though, I’m a self-proclaimed trainer. Erecting abs is my super power! These heathens stopped my life’s mission!”
“Ah shit.” I hear Joss mumble from beside me.
“Leo, give me the marker.” I stick my hand out.
“No.” He cradles it to his chest.
“Leo,” I say sternly.
When I go to grab it, he hisses at me. Jesus Christ. Is this what it’s like when I’ve been drinking? I look around, praying for something divine to give me strength tonight. When the door opens to the club, Penny comes out followed closely by my brother.
“He got kicked out. It’s time to go home.”
“Not until I see some fucking abs.” Leo crosses his arms like a petulant child.
“Christ,” Danny mutters gesturing for a word with Joss. He whispers in his ear then they both turn to face Leo.
“We’re doing this to get you far away from here, Leo, so don’t get any crazy ideas.” My brother says before they lift their shirts in his direction.
I find myself stepping to the left and angling to get a better view of the show. Not for my brother, hell no. I’m doing it to get a better look at the godly washboard abs Joss is displaying. I know I’m only hurting myself, but they’re too beautiful to look away from. This is much better than the torture I’ve been put through all night in the strip club.
Danny quickly pulls his shirt down, but Joss lingers when he begins to pull his down. My eyes meet his, and he winks at me. My word, he’s giving this show to me.
“My demons have been exorcized. Let’s get some burgers and head back to the hotel.” I help him off the ground, and he’s like a new man. Apparently, he takes his strippers physiques seriously. Good to know so I can avoid ever going again with him at all cost.
“A word first.” One of the bouncer’s nods for Joss and Danny to follow them far enough away that we can’t overhear their conversation.
“I need to call a code turquoise,” I whisper-yell to my friends. They stand at attention a second later, and we grab Leo when his body starts to dip to the sidewalk.
“You’re too drunk.” I huff.
“If you need my dick you’re shit out of luck. Anything else and you have me. I’m always down for a code turquoise.” He says it like tur-kwaas making me giggle.
Damn, I only have so much time before they’re done talking to the bouncers and I need to make every second count.
“He told me I was full of shit, and that he’ll make me remember why I fell for him.”
“Full of shit about what and also who are we talking about? Let’s go, bitch, I’m clutching my fucking pearls here.” Leo snaps at me.
“Christ Leo.” I shake my head. “I may have told Joss I don’t have feelings for him anymore and he may have hinted that he may feel some sort of way about me.”
“What?” Leo shrieks as I shush him. The group of guys turns our way, and I wave them off. I quickly hushed him again, and thankfully he talks in a whisper. “He has feelings? For you?”
“I think so; I don’t know.” I huff out a breath and tell them everything that was said.
Things have changed rolling through my head over and over. Does that mean he’s interested in me? Am I still interested in him? That’s a silly question, of course, I am. I’ve dreamt of being with him since I was a teen and it only amplified since I saw his physical penis.
Then, on the other hand, my fight’s coming up.
He’s still Danny’s best friend.
He still embarrassed the hell out of me the night I came onto him.
He has a girlfriend.
My head is completely jumbled, and I’m at a loss. “Just because he said all that, doesn’t mean he wants to be with me.”
“Do you think he’s said anything to your brother?” Penny asks.
“Oh my god!” Leo shouts before realizing he did so and continue in a whisper. “He didn’t use your lipstick, you guys made out.” He starts to jump up and down clapping his hands. “I know for a fact Joss is crushing on you. Don’t ask how I know this, you’d make me violate guy code.”
A crush. I groan. “Stop saying that, teenagers get crushes. Guy code? When have you ever cared about guy code, spill?”
“Fine. Oh, this is perfect! The night of blow-gate you can’t be too sure of what you saw in the dark. Rub up against him, and I’ll watch his pants for confirmation.” He stares at Joss talking to the bouncers, more accurately, at his crotch. Little does he know I saw everything. Everything.
“Stop it. I don’t know what to do. Last time I read his mixed signals I was getting kicked out of his hotel room with the feel of his penis still warm on my lips. I can’t humiliate myself like that again.”
“Girl, you got your grand gesture. Alpha badasses like those two don’t beat around the bush, they like to beat the bush if you know what I’m saying. He laid out his cards and…” Leo’s cut off when the guys come back to our group.
“Em, you have to send them some tickets to your fight, and we won’t have to worry about the tabloids. Apparently, there were a few people that recognized you.”
“Motherfucker. Can’t I go anywhere? We’re in the middle of nowhere for crying out loud.”
“We warned you, and I didn’t want to throw Leo under the bus, but he was telling everyone backstage that Rebel Cage was in his lady gang.”
“Leo!” I shriek.
“I said what I said.” He slurs, sidling up to Danny and putting his arm around his shoulders to be batted away. Danny does, however, grab his arm and lead him back to our car.
A quick stop through a fast food drive-thru and we’re finally walking down the hall to our rooms. First Leo disappears with his three bags of food, then Penny, then Danny’s left for his and Joss’s shared room. Crap, my room’s across from theirs, Joss’s doing of course.
I speed walk for my door and have my key card in place, but before I can turn the door handle my body’s pressed against the door.
“I’m not done with you yet.” I feel his warm lips on my neck, and my head makes a thud when it drops onto the door.
If I’m not mistaken, I can feel Joss growing between the cheeks of my ass, and I push back purely out of vaginal instinct. My body wants what he’s offering even if my head knows it’s a bad idea.
Simultaneously, I pull Joss through my door after I slam it against the wall. He’s on me, his lips and hands roaming. My lips are eager, his are needy, and my body becomes an inferno when his hands start sliding my dress upward.
I break our kiss needing oxygen and feeling lightheaded. He doesn’t stop but continues to kiss down my neck and over my collarbone.
“Fuck, I want to make you look at me like that every second of every day.” He pulls the strap of my dress down my shoulder, but I don’t let him pull it below my breasts.
Apparently, my brain’s pushing through my Joss fog as I quickly push him back. I’m surprised when he takes a step away as his chest heaves. He runs
his fingers through his disheveled hair, the picture of a man on the edge.
“Mandy, I can’t do this to her,” I say with tears in my eyes. I’m beyond frustrated, both mentally and sexually. I will never, ever be the other woman and she deserves more than this.
“She’s no longer in the picture.” He crowds me and cups my face. “Do you really think I’d do this with you while having someone back at home? You’re better than that.”
“I’m not a mind reader. I can’t think when you’re close to me.”
A cocky grin hitches at the corner of his lips. “I don’t want you to think, I want you to feel. Be in this moment with me because I’m so completely lost in you. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, but that night I was attached to someone, I did care that Danny was your brother.”
“And now?” I ask for what feels like the millionth time in the last twenty-four hours.
“Fuck it all. I’m not tied down, and Danny will come around.” His lips crash back to mine, and I know there’s no going back.
Not when he slowly slips my dress from my body and drops to his knees.
Not when he slides my panties off and lifts one of my legs to wrap around his shoulder.
Not when the first swipe of his tongue between my legs has me arching my back and moaning his name.
Not when I come on his face over and over until I’m boneless in his arms.
As I’m on the cusp of sleep, in the most peaceful state I’ve felt in a long time, Joss brushes his lips across my forehead.
“I’ll never stop showing you that I deserve another chance.”
Chapter 19
Joss
It’s way too fucking early in the morning when I’m hesitantly walking out of Emmy’s hotel room. After tucking her in and watching her in her slumber for a while, I want nothing more than to join her in bed. Except I know that if Dan finds out what just happened, he’ll go postal. I didn’t lie to Emmy earlier; I couldn’t give a bigger damn if he disapproves of me dating his little sister. He is my best friend, and I’d like to talk to him man-to-man instead of sneaking behind his back. He needs to be eased into it.
I quickly enter the dark room and shut the door, so I don’t wake him up. The last thing I need is Dan questioning where I’ve been. There’s only so many excuses I can give after disappearing.
After a quick shower, I slide into bed and fall asleep instantly despite Dan’s snoring.
All too fast, there’s a knocking on the door that has me cursing the motherfucker. I know with the time we got in this morning it can’t be any of the misfits across the hall. With another curse, I pull the covers back and head for the door.
“About time.” Dan walks into the room after checking the hallway.
Well, this is enlightening. “Where the hell have you been? Breakfast and forget your key?” I ask around a yawn.
“Never came back to the room but don’t you dare tell my sister that. She’d kill me if she found out I was with Penny.”
“You do have a thing for her.” I punch his arm. “You haven’t said anything. I’m surprised.”
“Yeah, well, it’s new. It kind of started before we left. Nothing major, we ran into each other at a bar one night and talked. It was nice.” He has fucking stars in his eyes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.” I clap him on the back then walk to my bed and freeze.
“We’re not in a relationship,” he clarifies, then mumbles something about Penny being stubborn under his breath. I tune him out because the form of a human being under the blanket on Dan’s bed moves.
I snap into action and rip the blanket away to find an extremely happy Leo under the covers. His grin is huge, and after looking at my face, his eyes roam lower.
“Well my word, you’d make a little southern girl blush,” he states in a southern drawl.
Thank God my woods gone from when I woke up. He might have a heart attack if he saw my dick in all its morning glory.
“What the hell, Leo?” Dan yells.
“I wanted to snuggle, and Penny wouldn’t answer her door. I also heard sounds which I now know was you pile driving her, so I broke into your room.”
“Why didn’t you knock on Em’s door?” Dan asks.
His eyes bulge in my direction. “Oh dear, why didn’t I think of that one?”
Fuck, he heard what was going on in there too.
“Now spill about Penny. I didn’t know you guys even liked each other and believe me when I say the girl hasn’t mentioned a single word about you. Not. One. My eavesdropping only got me so far. This started before the trip you say?”
Dan takes a deep breath, walks over to Leo and pulls him out of bed by his arm.
“Let’s talk about this like rational adults. I’m very objective for these talks. I don’t like pussy. Feel free to use diagrams.”
“Feel free to see yourself back to your room.” Dan leaves Leo standing outside our door in his underwear and shuts the door.
“Damn, I dodged a bullet last night if that’s what was waiting for me back here.”
“Let’s get back to Penny,” I say.
“I’ll deny it to anyone who asks. Last night was actually the first time we…you know. She doesn’t want anyone to find out.”
“Did angels sing?”
“Fuck you, man.” Dan removes his shoes and looks at his bed for a beat before pulling the comforter up and laying on the top. “She’s different. I can’t believe I haven’t noticed how great she is before this.”
If he only knew that seems to be the anthem for this trip.
“Dan, listen. Since we’re acknowledging our feelings…”
He narrows his eyes and sits up. “Can we wait until I get some sleep before you profess your love for my sister? I’m not in the mood to have to punch you out and threaten you with how little sleep I got last night.” The fucker can’t wipe the damn grin from his face, and it’s kind of infectious because I feel the same way about Em.
“Nah, has to happen now. Two seconds.”
“Just answer two things for me.” I nod and sit down across from him on my bed. “Did you break up with Mandy for her?”
“No,” I say slowly.
“Are you in it for the long haul? If she’s a quick fuck to you, then I’m adamant that you should walk away.”
“You know I’d never do that to her.”
Dan shrugs his shoulders. “I thought I knew a lot of things about you.”
God this guy’s frustrating. “Dan, you know me. You know who I am and that I’d never ever go into this lightly. How did you feel when you first realized you had feelings for Penny?”
“I denied it. Figured I was just lonely and needed someone to talk to. I think our friendship is leading into something pretty amazing, even if her stubborn ass won’t admit it yet.”
“Why is it so impossible to think that’s not happening between Em and me? Now imagine sitting on those feelings for four years. It’s not like my old ass has been pining after her when she was a minor. She’s an adult Dan.”
“Christ.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “I have to admit, if anyone of my friends were to date my sister, I’d want it to be you. I know you’ll treat her right.”
Wow, this conversation went way better than I ever thought it’d go. I expected Dan’s diva ass to chew me out, hit me, yell and drag his sister far, far away.
My lungs ache as I try to pull in a breath. I look up and see Dan hovering over me.
“If you ever hurt her, I’ll kill you. It won’t just be me. There’s a whole line of Cages that would be dying for a shot at you.” He points down at me during his whole threat and walks away and into the bathroom.
Surprisingly this puts a smile on my face even though I was just sucker punched in the gut. Dan’s as protective as an older sibling can get and I know he’s letting me off easy.
Game on, Emerson Cage.
***
Emerson
The light from the curtains I f
orgot to pull closed hits me in the eyes, and I groan. I’m too tired to wake up from the rising sun. On the plus side, I roll over ready to cuddle and find…absolutely nothing. Where Joss once laid next to me is now cold to the touch and vacant.
So much for waking him up with the blow job he stopped months ago.
Maybe I read too much into his words last night. He never promised me anything. Not one thing and my stupid naïve brain led me to believe what happened was the first step in the right direction for us at the chance of us being an us.
Now here I am alone after the best night of my life. No note and no messages on my phone. He snuck out like I’m some dirty secret.
I’m not about to feel sorry for myself, but I need to get some of this rage that’s boiled up out of my system. After changing my clothes, I head for the exit of the hotel and start running. I’ve never been to Kentucky before, and it’s a little humid this morning. It’s the end of September, and I assumed their weather was close to ours back home. Thankfully I opted for my running shorts and a racerback tank. I pull my hat low and slide my sunglasses on my face as I round the curve at the end of the street.
With my feet pounding the pavement, I think. I know I want a relationship with Joss, and he said he’s a single man. A pang hits me in the heart thinking about Mandy. I really did like her. She was extremely sweet, and you can just tell from the way she looked at Joss that he was the sun in her sky. I feel bad, just not bad enough. Since I was sixteen, whenever I envisioned my wedding, the father of my kids, the person cheering me on the loudest at my fights, it was always Joss. My stupid crush through the years turned into genuine feelings on my part. Feelings I haven’t been able to shake no matter what I did to try and forget them.
Rebel: A Brother's Best Friend Standalone Romance Page 12