by Max Monroe
Thatch nodded and smiled, taking Will’s leave as an opportunity to shit talk.
“But, really, I guess that’s the same as always. It’s just the reason that’s changed, right? Instead of work, it’s the mystic pussy.”
“Thatch.”
“I get it, man. Sometimes your dick just gets caught in the snare of a good snatch. Like a vise grip, am I right?”
“Thatch, listen.”
“How is Miss Georgia? Almost done with your ass and looking—”
Eyes to the door, I only heard the first half of his sentence—thank God—because, just as I knew she would, the object of my affection walked in looking like sex on legs right then. Leather and lace and enough beauty to make me think my earlier panic about kids was actually the best idea I’d ever had. Her blonde hair was styled wild, just how I liked it, and I could see the blue topaz of her eyes shining from across the room despite their failure to meet mine.
And arm in arm with her? The face of her profile, a woman I could only surmise was the infamous Cassie Phillips. I’d heard a laundry list of antics and anecdotes featuring Georgia’s best girl, but I had yet to have the privilege of meeting her.
Fuck.
The web of lies was starting to look more like a convoluted clusterfuck of what are the goddamn odds? We’d each put our friends as our profile pictures—a scenario I should have predicted but absolutely had not—and now, I had to sit through an evening where any second this mess could brilliantly blow up in my face.
Out of time and patience, I turned to Thatch in a flash, and when I did, I led with my fist.
“Ouch,” he said through a smile, rubbing his shoulder teasingly.
“Fuck, Thatch, fucking listen to me.”
He mocked me with wide eyes and cupped his hands around his ears.
I considered hitting him again, this time for real, but with a glance in the girls’ direction, I knew I didn’t have time.
“The girl in the picture from the TapNext profile, the one you took it upon yourself to—”
“Traumatize.”
I nodded. “Right. Well, I’ve been talking to her.”
“Behind the lovely Georgie’s back?” he asked in faux outrage. Regardless of his mocking, I could tell he was curious. Talking to two women at once wasn’t like me, and when it came to these “two,” he didn’t know the half of it. And I didn’t have the fucking time or means to explain.
One quick glance showed the women and Will together, hugging and laughing and all too close to heading this way.
I closed my eyes briefly to gain patience. He’d have to wait to hear how twisted my truth had become because that talk required more than fifteen seconds and several glasses of scotch.
“I’ve been talking to her ever since, and she’s here. She’s getting ready to come over here, right now, and she’s gonna be doing it with Georgie.”
With her? Ha! Fuck! More like, it is her.
“Well, fuck me,” he said with a smile, his eyes searching mine in an effort to figure me out.
“Your picture is on that profile. You need to pretend to know her,” I urged.
He paused for a beat, but he couldn’t miss how important this was to me. Whether he agreed or understood or wanted to play along, or not, Thatch would always have my back. When you pulled back all of the prank-pulling, shit-talking layers, he was unmistakably one of the best kinds of people. “Got it.”
I took air all the way into my lungs for the first time in the last two minutes and turned to greet my girl.
But she wasn’t there. She and her friend had disappeared, leaving only her brother Will in their wake.
As Will made it to us, shaking his head, Thatch leaned over and added with a whisper, “And all this after I gargoyle-dicked her?” He whistled low. “You must have more game than I thought.”
“What’s up?” I asked Will, pointedly ignoring Thatch and hoping my face managed to do the same.
“Who knows, man? Hell if I can understand women.”
When he provided no further information, I was sure my eyes tried to crawl all the way inside his head.
“Oh,” he said, turning from the bar to find my inappropriately intense gaze. “They’re in the bathroom.”
I nodded woodenly in understanding, and Thatch nudged me as a result.
“You gotta lighten up,” he whispered, turning me to the bar and flagging down the bartender. “Order a drink, for fuck’s sake, and calm down.”
I nodded again because I knew he was right, and it seemed to be the only action I could successfully complete at the time.
“Macallan,” I muttered, knowing he’d make sure my order got to someone who actually made the drinks. Ordering directly was too complicated for me right now.
“Yeah, man,” he said, smirking. “I know you drink Macallan. Macallan and lime, every day, every night for years now.”
The cords of my throat tightened in frightened reflex. “No lime.”
“No lime?”
I shook my head, feeling the tension drain from my shoulders a little at the memory of my sweet, doped up girl. “Georgie’s allergic.”
“Well, shit. That’s problematic.”
I laughed. “Not really,” I said, then clarified, “Not now that I know, anyway.”
“Make sure to leave out the lime,” Will interjected, coming up on my other side to join the conversation.
“I guess she told you?” I asked with a laugh.
“Eventually. I still don’t think she told me everything, but now that Cass is here, I’ll find out the rest.”
“Cass?” Thatch asked.
“Yep. Cassie Phillips. I’d say she’s like another little sister to me, but I’m not sure she’s the kind of girl who can be a little sister.”
Thatch’s eyes flared with excitement, and my panic came back tenfold. “Wild?”
Will just laughed and jerked his head toward the approaching women. “You’ll see.”
I forgot about everything else as soon as I saw her again. Long legs, a sliver of tan stomach, and a nervous smile, she was so fucking beautiful, I literally couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
I pulled her straight into my arms, put my lips to her ear, and breathed. “Benny.”
Out with the words and in with her smell, I held her body to mine and kept it there until she started to giggle.
“Kline.” I struggled to remove my face from her hair and my hands from her hips, but she helped it along, turning her body to include her friend in the conversation and making my hand slide along the skin at her back. “This is crazy Cassie.”
“Crazy Cassie?” Cass squawked. “Is that my given name now?”
“Yes,” Georgia challenged adorably.
“Ohhh, okay then,” Cass conceded with a gleam in her eye. “I see. I’m a little slow, but I get it now.”
Her hand reached for mine and I took it without question, giving it two quick shakes. “Hi, nice to meet you,” she said.
I smiled.
“I’m Crazy Cassie. You must be Big-dicked Brooks.”
Thatch spewed his whiskey everywhere, coating us all with a layer of spit to complement the shock courtesy of Cass.
Georgie squealed and Cassie just laughed, and through the chaos my eyes met those of an amused Will. He raised his glass in a gesture of confirmation.
Wild.
And unpredictable and funny and completely apathetic.
Good God, the people in this party were going to make this one interesting night.
I hoped we all survived.
I grabbed some napkins from the bar and handed them to Georgie, watching closely as she wiped Thatch’s half-drunk whiskey from her cleavage. She shook her head slightly to let me know she’d noticed, and I felt my face dissolve into an outright smile before I turned back to Cass.
“That’s me,” I told her. “It’s a wonder your friend is still alive.”
Thatch and Cassie burst out in hysterics as Georgie slapped at my chest and Will c
overed his ears playfully.
“Kline!” Georgie screamed.
“Come on, baby. Let’s go sit down,” I told her, scooping her into my arms before whispering in her ear, “My legs are tired from carrying this thing around.”
“Kline!”
“It’s a real problem, Benny.”
“Kli—” she started to chastise again, but I didn’t give her the chance. Sealing my lips over hers, I licked and sucked and nibbled out a real hello. The night had just started and the implications of my lies hadn’t even begun to be realized.
But God, I’d missed her.
And right then, in my mind, that was all that mattered.
“Where’ve you been all my life?” I asked against her lips as our kiss pulled to a close.
She smiled just for me, lust and like and maybe a little bit of love lighting her eyes and reflecting into mine. She rubbed the bridge of my nose with her own as I settled her into my lap, finding a space on a couch by sheer miracle. Hell, for all I knew, someone had moved at the last second to avoid having me on their lap. I wouldn’t have noticed.
“I’ve been—eeeep!” she squeaked as she was ripped from my arms.
For a full second and a half, I feared for every single patron, a hulklike rage overwhelming my emotions and tensing the seams of my clothes.
“Relax, K,” Thatch teased, cooling my rage but stoking the fire of my aggravation. “Just rearranging the seating chart.”
My eyes narrowed as he set Georgie down on the sofa across from me and pushed me back to sitting next to him.
My thoughts were nearly murderous.
“Sheathe your claws, buddy,” he cooed in my ear. “You’re gonna have to get over your tantrum because old Ruck here needs some information and there’s no one else to give it to him.”
Goddamn, I hated when Thatch was right. And I hated it even more when it meant Georgia’s ass couldn’t be in my lap.
I looked at her, across from me, and found startled eyes bouncing back and forth between Thatch and me. To her, we were both a significant part of her life. It felt weird and I felt jealous, but mostly, I just felt bad. Bad for lying to her and bad for putting her through the confusion she felt now.
The responsibility for all of it sat squarely on my shoulders, and believe me, I could feel the weight. The sooner tonight was over with, the better.
“Cassie, right?” I heard Thatch ask above the ringing in my ears.
“Yeah.”
“You know,” he pushed, clearing his throat. “You look familiar.”
“You too, actually. You look very Ruckish or Rucklike or something.”
I shook my head and glanced at my panic-ridden girlfriend. She couldn’t see it like I could—she was too nervous. This was like watching a bad spoof film of Ruck’s and Rose’s lives where the blind were leading the blind. We would never have reacted like this to seeing one another. Not in a million years.
Thatch’s laugh was boisterous, his body nearly falling into my lap with the action. Turning his face to mine, he mouthed “name” quickly. I had to fight the urge to sigh. If it wouldn’t have been a spectacular failure and an embarrassment for Georgia, I would have told everyone to give it up right then.
Instead, I typed out Rose on my phone and showed it to him quickly.
“Rose!” Thatch practically shouted. Cassie nodded along while Georgie’s eyebrows pulled unconsciously together. She was rightfully confused. “I thought that was you, Rose! I can’t believe how beautiful you are in person, Rose!”
I discreetly elbowed Thatch in the ribs. “Say her name one more time and I’ll kill you,” I whispered through gritted teeth.
He grimaced and shut his mouth.
“What’s going on?” Will asked, the spectacle apparently just as confusing from the outside looking in.
“I was wondering the same thing,” I said, playing along.
“It, um,” Georgia mumbled. “It seems like they know one another or something.”
“Thatch and Cass?” Will asked, confused.
“Yeah,” Cassie confirmed. “We’ve been talking online ever since he sent me a picture of his big, ugly dick.”
Will jerked in surprise. “What?”
“It wasn’t his,” I interjected at the same time Thatch taunted through a smile, “Well, you’ve got the big part right.”
Georgie’s eyes came to me.
“Or so I’ve heard,” I added.
She looked upset. “He talks to you about it? What…” She paused and swallowed. “About what they say?”
God, this was horrible. I hated this and myself and every-fucking-body right now.
“No, baby. That’s the only thing he told me,” I assured her, digging my fucking grave a couple of feet deeper.
The urge to flee was strong, but we’d literally just fucking gotten there. To hell.
The Raines Law Room was definitely what hell looked like. The devil and fire and the roaring fucking twenties.
She’d confided in Ruck, and she felt badly about what that meant to her relationship with me. I could see it written in cursive, scribbled and scrawled all over her beautiful face as she warred with herself about not wanting me to know the things she’d told him and feeling like a liar and a cheat for having hidden something behind my back in the first place.
It made me sick inside, twisted the lining of my stomach and my intestines alike, and I just barely managed to stop myself from jetting to the bathroom for reprieve.
But my face was her lifeline in this situation, for as much as she feared being outed, every smile I gave her was a comfort. I refused to leave her on her own in this stormy sea to float and flounder.
Bottom line, Rose would have ditched Ruck ages ago if I hadn’t twisted every conversation to my advantage. I was the guilty party here.
As Thatch started to flirt, I pulled my attention from Georgia long enough to tell him to pump the fucking brakes. One comment about her tits and the ruse would be roasted.
“Ruck and Rose are friends. Ruck’s dating someone else, and Rose is a virgin for fuck’s sake,” I informed him. “Lay the hell off.”
Wild eyes jumped to mine. I wanted to shove the words back in as soon as they escaped.
“Excuse us for a second,” Thatch said with a smile, dragging me from the couch and over to the bar in a way no one else could.
My ass hit the stool in front of him and he leaned in menacingly.
“You better start talking, dude. I’m fucking dying over there in the name of your two-timing ass, and you can’t take your eyes off of your girlfriend long enough to save me.”
I shook my head.
“What the fuck is up? If that woman is a virgin, I’ll freeze my fucking nuts off with one of those wart removers.”
I grimaced.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Not a pretty fucking picture. So tell me, what’s the real deal here?”
I considered it for a second, what it would hurt if I told him versus what he would hurt if I didn’t. I decided I liked all of my bones like they were. And anything I told him to keep to himself, I knew he would.
“Georgie is Rose, not Cassie. But she doesn’t know I know that, and she doesn’t know I’m Ruck.”
“Jesus.” He put his face in his hands and rubbed at his temples. “You don’t pay me enough for this level of complication.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not here as an employee. You’re here as a friend. And I didn’t invite you, if you’ll remember. I tried to get you the fuck out of here before they got here.”
“All right, all right, I get it. You and Georgie need to leave or something. I can’t keep this shit up, but I can’t abandon you either.”
“Noble of you.”
“Duh, dude. My character is top of the pyramid.”
I shook my head and scrubbed a hand over my face.
Realization flooded him in a surge, like the swelling of a tide. “Wait a minute. Does this mean Georgia girl is a virgin?”
I tried not
to give him anything, but my face must have conveyed some kind of confirmation.
“Oh holy hell, K.”
“Thatch—”
“But she’s not anymore, is she, you dirty dog?”
“Thatch—”
“Kline?” Georgia asked from behind Thatch timidly. My tongue made a valiant attempt to choke me. The conversation, the circumstances. All of it was fucked, and a timid Georgia was the last fucking straw.
My girl was a fucking shark, and I was completely over anything that made her feel any different.
“Hey, baby,” I greeted her from around Thatch, leaning out to make sure my eyes met hers.
“Is everything okay?”
With one last look to Thatch that conveyed just how important his eternal silence was, I was up, moving toward my woman to the slow beat of the house band.
I was done with the secrets, done with the space, done with the whole scenario of the night, and nothing made me happier than dragging this woman out onto the dance floor when she least expected it.
“How about a dance, Benny?”
Her eyes cruised the room, but I made her walk as she did, a warm palm at the small of her back allowing her to lead but still guiding the way.
“But no one else is dancing.”
“I like being the first,” I teased as I pulled her around to face me and planted her square in my arms. She blushed furiously.
“Kline.”
“I’m selfish,” I admitted through a smile. “I don’t want to share you anymore.”
The color in her face drained to white, the transition from blush to blanched one of the fastest I’d ever witnessed. Immediately, I regretted the words despite their validity. She didn’t need any more evidence to build a case against herself in the court of Georgia’s opinion.
Lips to hers, I apologized the only way I could, loving her on an endless loop of licks and swoops and tongue to tongue connection.
She hummed right into my mouth, the rightness too powerful to be contained in silence.
My fingers in her hair, I rubbed at her jaw with my thumbs and sank every ounce of myself into her. I didn’t worry about Thatch or Cass or Will or anyone else, and for a couple of minutes, neither did she.
I’d never been this consumed. Not in my entire life, not by anything or anyone.