Bad Boys Under the Mistletoe: A Begging for Bad Boys Collection

by Anthology

  As if being in Hundred Falls Valley and St. Skin was some kind of act of crazy fate.

  “Sweetheart, I’m on my fucking way,” I said. “Who hurt you?”

  “Everyone,” she said. “Just please. Fast. Don’t leave me again.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  Again.

  I had no choice but to leave the last time.

  This time… I was going to save her… and fix everything that was done wrong.

  I pulled up to this expensive looking building and sent a text to Steph. I asked her if she needed me to come get her. She replied with a no and I was left waiting. I climbed out of my car the second I saw her appear from the front of the building. She had a bag on each shoulder and a suitcase rolling behind her.

  When she saw me, she froze.

  She stood right under a damn light and it was like an angel standing there. She was all woman now. Those last little bits of young were gone, and I was just fine with that. Her hips had a little more curve to them. Her face showing what time did but it was all in a beautiful way. She looked tired though. And scared.

  I left my door open as I walked toward her.

  Years between us now reduced down to just feet.

  “Is this real?” I asked again.

  Not the three words I should have said after seeing her after all these years.

  “We need to go,” she said. “I’m sorry, Taz. I’ll explain later.”

  “Are you in trouble here?” I asked.

  She nodded. Her hazel eyes punctured a hole in my heart. You know everyone always says that time heals all wounds. I believe that. But at the same time, all it takes is one look from the right woman to rip that wound back open.

  “Give me your bags then,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I took the bag from her shoulders. I got close enough to smell her. That same sweet smell that had been haunting my heart and dreams for so long. I glanced at her from the side. Fuck, she was still as beautiful as ever. My sweetheart. My one and only.

  “Taz, I don’t want you in trouble though,” she said. “This could get-”

  I stood right at her. I towered over her. I used to stand like that and slowly walk her back against a wall and then kiss her until her panties were melting off her body.

  “You fucking text me,” I said. “I showed up. If there’s any trouble here, I’m already in it. So let’s move.”

  I dumped the bags off my shoulder into the trunk of the car and then put the suitcase on top. I slammed the trunk and saw the silhouette of Steph in my car.

  It was goddamn surreal.

  But she needed me.

  I made a promise to her. I didn’t give a shit about promises except this one. This one was the most important of my life.

  So I got into the car and looked at her. “I haven’t seen you in years, sweetheart. You were crying before. You said you were hurt.”

  “I’m okay now,” she said. “I just have to get out of here.”

  “Because of a guy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he hit you?”

  “No,” Steph said.

  “Good. Then I don’t have to kill anyone.”

  Steph turned her head. “Can we go now?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said.

  I sped away from the apartment building. I looked in the mirrors and had a really shit feeling going through me. I was supposed to be tattooing. I was supposed to be drinking, finding someone new to fuck.

  Now I was part of an escape plan.

  And I was with a woman who just lied to me.

  Chapter 6

  STEPH

  I lied to him.

  That’s all I could think about. I told him that Jon hadn’t hit me. I just couldn’t do it right then because if Taz was the same guy I knew from before then he would have waited for Jon to come back and then destroyed him. Not that I didn’t believe Taz could take on Jon, I just feared what Jon had waiting in the wings. He had a lot of power and it was bad enough I called Taz for help, I didn’t need to have him end up getting killed.

  Not because of me.

  I bit my nails and stared out the window and the world passed by.

  I was in shock. I was in pain.

  I had plastered a lot of coverup on my face but I didn’t fully trust it. My plan though was to crash on Taz’s couch and then sneak out in the morning. I would have to make the decision to face Jon or just go on the run. Start a new life somewhere else.

  “I don’t like the silence,” Taz said. “You called for help.”

  “And you’re helping,” I whispered. “You kept your promise. Thank you for that.”

  “You can at least fill me on some details here.”

  “The less you know the better,” I said. “It’ll keep you alive.”

  “Alive?” he asked. “What the fuck is this, Steph? Who are you involved with?”

  “Not a good person, Taz.”

  “I can fucking see that.”

  “I guess my track record never got any better,” I said. I looked over at Taz and saw his lip curl.

  “So we’re jumping down memory lane…”

  “You left me,” I said, taking a jab.

  I had to take a jab. I had every right. I was tired of being a doormat for the world. It crushed me when Taz left. It crushed me when my cop father bullied me for years. It crushed me when my father died. And it crushed me for everything Jon had done to me.

  “I had to leave to protect you,” Taz said. “And that’s what you want? Years later you want to jump on my back.”

  “Maybe I do. Maybe you deserve it.”

  The car came a tire screaming halt. I threw my hands to the dashboard as we darted to the side of the road.

  One second we were flying down the road, the next second we were stopped dead on the side of the road.

  Taz turned and faced me. “What the fuck is this? A set up? You text me for a ride before you needed to get away? You want to cut into me? Take a knife and go for it. My best fucking friend was murdered, sweetheart. I made a decision to leave that town before I got hurt. Before you got hurt. Before your father hurt you.”

  “My father is dead.”

  “Shit,” Taz whispered. “When?”

  “A while ago. I’ve been a little lost since then. I met someone. He sort of just swept in and I went for the ride. It was good until I learned who he was. No, I didn’t text you to start a fight, Taz. You’re my last hope of trying to get away. And I’m only asking for help for one night. Just give me somewhere to sleep and I’ll be gone by morning. I’ll be out of your life for good then. So you can tattoo your way across the country.”

  Taz then made a sudden move, reaching for my hand. He grabbed it and squeezed. “I made you a promise and it doesn’t expire after one night, sweetheart. My place is on the coast but I’m renting an apartment in Hundred Falls Valley. I’m tattooing at St. Skin for a little while. Doing a little showcase and helping the shop get some eyes.”

  “I’m not bringing you into you my mess,” I said. “That’s not fair to you.”

  “Yeah, fairness,” Taz said. “I’m about to head out for some whiskey and company and look at me now.”

  “Asshole,” I said.

  “That’s me,” he said. He reached for my cheek and stroked down to my jaw. I sucked down the pain the best I could. “Never forget that I’m an asshole, sweetheart.”

  I would never forget that.

  Taz had always been an asshole.

  But he was the asshole I loved with all my heart.

  Chapter 7

  TAZ

  I threw a blanket and pillow to the couch. “You know what that is. Fridge is in the kitchen. Remote is on the table. You order any porn, make it something I would enjoy.”

  A switch had flipped inside me when I was staring at her in my car. I kept my promise but I regretted it. Stepping back in time was never a good thing. I couldn’t save Steph from herself. I couldn’t do it then and I sure as hell couldn’t do
it now. Plus, she had moved on. I never did. Yeah, I fucked my way through every emotion in the book, but I never offered my heart.

  I went into my bedroom and looked around. The fucking pre-placed furniture was driving me insane. It wasn’t my place. It was a rental. A temporary home. And now I had temporary woman on the couch. A woman whose innocence belonged to me. While she wasn’t my first anything, I was her first everything. The first guy to touch, taste, and fuck.

  I opened my suitcase and took out a wad of cash. I was going to give it to her along with a cab ride to a hotel. Let her crash. Let her figure out whatever happened between her and her man. For all I knew it was just some lovers spat and she fell back on the first guy she loved for comfort. I wasn’t going to be a goddamn blanket, only needed for certain things. That wasn’t my fucking style. I used women and moved on. Fast. Hard. See you later, sweetheart.

  I tucked the cash into my back pocket and exited the room.

  Steph stood at the couch, her back toward me. She was topless. No fucking even. Just the smooth, creamy color of her skin. Her slender shoulders, those goddamn curves again, no exposed, right down to where her pants rested against her hips.

  She looked over her shoulder at me and gasped. “Sorry. I was just getting changed.”

  She grabbed a shirt and put it on.

  When she turned, the t-shirt did dick for hiding her nipples. They pressed against the shirt, my eyes unable to stop looking. I missed the taste of those nipples. The way she’d grab my head and pull me tighter to her chest. Dig her nails into my scalp, scratching fucking hard.

  I swallowed hard, my cock trying to slither down my leg.

  I couldn’t get rid of her now. She was changed and settled in for the night.

  We were going to have a fucking sleepover for sure.

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” I said. “All these years between us, Steph. And it comes down to this.”

  “A promise is a promise,” she said with a weak grin.

  I thought about the cash in my back pocket. Then I looked at the door. Tate’s offer was on the table still to go to some bar for some drinks.

  So I made my move.

  Sticking around and being close to Steph was going to be nothing but trouble.

  I got to the door and Steph said my name. Just hearing that off her sweet little lips was like a dagger to my back. My lung felt punctured.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I don’t have to answer that, sweetheart,” I said. “I fulfilled my promise. You’re safe here. What you do next is up to you. Not me.”

  I left with a cold feeling running through me.

  Maybe it was wrong to do, but I had to leave. I left her before and I’d probably end up leaving her again. Some people just weren’t meant to be together.

  I got to the door to the stairs and stood in the landing area. The place smelled too clean and too fucking fake. There was definitely some kind of fresh linen bullshit plugged in somewhere.

  Every decision in my life had been subtly based around the woman on my couch. Never opening myself to another woman because of Steph. Never settling anywhere because of Steph. When I was on the move, it was easier to forget things. When I was still, the demons and memories started to claw back at me.

  And now she was on my couch in my apartment. Not wearing a fucking bra. Her fucking nipples poking through the shirt. Her beautiful face and those hazel eyes still as dangerous as a drug. Shit, she was more addicting than drugs. I had taken that route for a little while and was able to clean up.

  But I couldn’t clean up from her.

  Unless I just faced it and moved on.

  I grabbed the door handle and tore it open. Next thing I knew, I was heading right back to the apartment. I jammed my key into the lock and turned it. I opened the door with a fire in my heart, my heat, and my tongue ready to unleash.

  She wanted to blame me for leaving? Fine. But she was the one who pushed me away. She was the one who could have found long before she was in some fucked up situation.

  “You know what?” I said as I walked back into the apartment. “I have something to fucking say here…”

  Steph popped up from the couch and turned her head to look at me.

  She was fucking crying.

  I was supposed to angry. I was supposed to be the tattooed outlaw that didn’t give a fuck about anything.

  But just one look in those hazel eyes…

  I was done.

  Chapter 8

  STEPH

  We stared at each other for a few seconds. I felt the coverup starting to mush away from my jaw. The apartment was dark enough though that I was pretty sure Taz couldn’t see. He approached the couch slowly.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked.

  “My life is a mess, Taz. I fucked everything up. So bad. I should just go.”

  “No. You needed me and I’m here now.”

  “Thought you were going out.”

  “No. I’m okay right here.”

  Taz then swung his right leg over the top of the couch. He did the same with his left leg and was then right there next to me, almost throwing me from the couch. I put my hand out to the coffee table. My face was just inches from his face. I could smell his breath. I wanted to taste his mouth. I wanted him to completely smother me with his rock hard body. He was bigger than I remembered. Years gave him muscles. Years gave him experience, too. I could see it all over his face, deep within his eyes. He had been with women. And why not? He was chiseled cut of gorgeous muscle, features, and a bad boy look and attitude that could make even the most innocent woman wet.

  That’s what I used to have.

  Taz slipped his right arm around me. “Kind of like in the bed of my truck, huh?”

  I grinned. “Yeah, right.” I swallowed hard. Feelings were starting to rush back like a leak quickly turning into a dam breaking.

  “So are you going to tell me what happened?” Taz asked.

  “Should I start at the beginning? When we met?”

  Taz laughed. “Yeah, that’s the real beginning, huh?”

  “Feels like a lifetime ago, Taz.”

  “I guess in some ways it was. You were so innocent. Standing there with warm beer, trying to look cool in front of all the bad kids. You had, what, two beers and you were wasted.”

  “I never drank before,” I said. “You know my father.”

  “Yeah. Your father was a peach. Always breaking up those parties. Chasing us deeper into the woods. Hate to say it but that’s why some of us starting taking other stuff. It was easier to get drugs than to get beer. You believe that? I remember when some of them started shoving powder up their noses. That’s when I pulled away.”

  “By then you had me to distract you,” I said playfully.

  “You were something of a distraction,” Taz said.

  We were so close. My shoulder touching his chest. Our legs touching. Crammed on a couch. My body was warm… no, it was on fire.

  “Hey, sweetheart, I’m sorry about your father,” he whispered. “He was a real piece of work, but it seems he went way too young.”

  I nodded. “Thank you, Taz. He lived hard and fast. Doctors found some spots on his lungs. Sort of ironic how he spent all that time making sure I was smoking but he was the one devouring cigarettes all day and all night.”

  “Shit,” Taz said. “So that’s what it was?”

  “Yeah. By the time they found it, it was too late. He had this persistent cough for a few months and refused to get it checked out. Even by then it was too late. It all just happened so fast. I was working and then I wasn’t. Then he was gone. I found out then he had some serious debts. So I sold the house, paid off the debt, had a little for myself, and I was gone. By then I lost my job and…”

  “What were you doing?”

  “Finance. Believe it or not.”

  “Why wouldn’t I fucking believe that?”

  “Look at me. I’m a mess. Who would trust me with their finance
s?”

  “I would,” Taz said. “Damn, sweetheart, don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  “Says the guy who was yelling at me a couple hours ago.”

  “I never thought I would get that text from you, Steph,” Taz said. “I just got settled here with St. Skin. Trying to keep time moving. You have the ability to make time stand still.”

  We were frozen in time again. I reached up and touched his face. My fingertips traced down his cheek and touched his strong jaw.

  “I feel like I’m dreaming,” I whispered. “That this can’t be real.”

  “Well, it is real, sweetheart. And you have a lot of things to figure out it seems. I’ll help you if you need.”

  “Thank you, Taz. You crushed me all those years ago. I’ve hated myself for so long that I didn’t runaway with you the night you left.”

  “I know I hurt you. And I was crushed too. But time moves on. And here we are.”

  What did that mean? Time moves on? That he feels nothing?

  The questions were on my mind and lingering on my lips.

  Taz then moved, almost rolling on top of me. He put his left foot to the floor and kept his body hovering over mine. For a brief second our foreheads touched.

  “Get some sleep, sweetheart,” he whispered. “I have to get down to the shop tomorrow morning. I’m booked up most of the day. You can stay here as long as you need. This place is yours now. Don’t make me regret that.”

  I kept my face slightly turned to the left. I needed to keep my face hidden. What Jon did to me.

  “Taz, thank you for not letting me down tonight.”

  “No problem. You were lucky I was as close as I was. Even still, I would have gotten on a fucking plane to find you. I hope you know that. And I hope whatever happened… I hope you don’t do anything stupid, Steph. Some guy hurts you, you deserve better.”

  “But you hurt me, Taz.”

  “I know,” he said. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “And that’s why you deserve better. You can’t dig into the past, sweetheart. It’s no good for both of us.”