by Jo Raven
SETH
(Damage Control #3)
By Jo Raven
SETH (Damage Control, 3)
Jo Raven
Copyright Jo Raven 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Model: Jack Wellon
Photographer: Gilles Crofta Photography
Cover art: Jo Raven
Blurb
Life is a bitch. Keeps screwing me over, and I take blow after blow, sucking it up, giving her the finger.
Don’t get me wrong: I love women. Especially one woman – Madeline. She’s gorgeous, she’s sexy, she’s goddamn perfect.
Plus – minor detail – she has a boyfriend already.
Not that she’d want anything to do with the likes of me. Apprentice tattoo artist, former homeless person, covered in ink, without a penny to my name.
And sort of cursed. I mean, I’d be lucky to run into a girl, any girl, on my way in and out of hospitals with the way life has been knocking me about lately.
But I’m not lucky. Never was. Doesn’t look like that’s gonna change any day soon, either.
Until the day the girl of my dreams literally runs into me. With her car.
Life hates me, and if this isn’t a clue, then I don’t know what is.
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PART I
Life is a game. A game of luck. And I keep losing.
Not gonna bitch about it. Did that, long ago. Learned a thing or two since then. You gotta learn to roll with the punches. It is what it is. So I try. I take the punches and roll as best I can.
Like now.
Chapter One
Seth
Broken legs are a bitch. They take too fucking long to heal and for the muscles to start functioning again. Been there, done that.
Doesn’t matter. I ditched the crutches a week ago, against the doc’s orders, because I’m done crashing on Micah’s couch—his and Ev’s apartment has an elevator, something my building sadly lacks—and I’m done hobbling around, and being unable to use my hands. Need to be independent again.
That includes walking to the closest convenience store for some much-needed ibuprofen and a pack of smokes, like, now.
So I’m using a walking stick, and I’m slow. Way too slow, and unsteady, despite the hellish exercises Rafe has put me through every night since I was released from the hospital. I know my balance is shitty, so when the afternoon darkens with the onset of a sudden storm, and the first fat raindrops splatter down, I do my best to hurry the hell up, because slick sidewalks and my stick? Not a good fucking combo.
Especially since the reason I ventured out in the first place was because my leg was killing me. Pain didn’t get any better after climbing down two flights of stairs and walking across three streets, let me tell you.
Never mind.
I’m almost there, anyway. The store is right across the street, and even though the rain is falling in buckets now, I won’t give up.
Not in my nature, see.
Squinting in the solid wall of rain, checking for cars, I step off the sidewalk. In the dimness of the downpour, the store lights from across wink at me. The cold is helping with the stiff muscles in my thigh and damaged knee. I practically drag my foot after me, one step after another, across the wet asphalt.
Almost there.
The car comes out of nowhere, tearing through the curtain of rain, headlights blinding me for an endless moment.
I jerk back.
The car swerves. Its tires screech on the wet asphalt as the driver brakes and tries to avoid me.
My stick sliding sideways, I stumble backward and wobble, trying to regain my balance.
No chance in hell. I drop like a brick. Letting go of the stick, I put down my elbows to cushion my fall, and ow, the impact cracks like a whip all the way down my spine.
Goddammit. Nice start to the week.
Happy Monday everyone.
I lie there, dazed and thankful I haven’t hit my head—I haven’t, right? I’m missing the last coupla seconds of my life—and wondering if I’ve broken my leg again. Or my arms.
Fuck, that would seriously suck in a year that has already sucked ass.
Then someone is kneeling down beside me in the rain, and I get a glimpse of wide eyes set in a small, pale face.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” Her hands flutter nervously as she looks me up and down. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you, I was distracted, I… I’ll call an ambulance.”
“Don’t. I’m okay.” My voice is scratchy, my mind reeling. I struggle to sit up, my walking stick forgotten as I stare hard at that pretty face.
A familiar face. It still takes me a moment to place her—my vision is sort of blurry, and hell, it just can’t be…
The person who almost ran me over is Manon, AKA Madeline Torres. Cassie’s best friend. Prettiest girl alive.
The girl of my dreams. Stuff of my wildest fantasies.
Yeah… With the way my life has been riding my ass this year, it figures she’d be the one to hit me tonight.
***
“Let me help you up,” she’s saying, and shit, I should stop looking at her mouth. “Can you move?”
“I just…” I shake my head, hoping that might put my thoughts back in line. Christ, she doesn’t even know who I am. “Need my stick.”
“Stick?”
“My walking stick.” I gesture vaguely in the direction where I think it fell. The brace I’ve been wearing presses into my knee, and I straighten my leg carefully, relieved that I can.
“Jesus.” She wipes wet strands of hair out of her face and fumbles around on the wet street for my walking stick. “This is… unbelievable. I’m so sorry. Never happened to me before.”
Yeah. Well, I believe it. I’m so unlucky my bad luck spills over to those near me. I get them hurt.
Shane, my cousin and half-brother, thinks he’s bad luck, which is why he chooses to live on his own.
I know I’m bad luck.
See the difference?
She hands me the stick. “We need to get you off the street.”
Makes sense. With the way things are going tonight, baiting luck isn’t wise. What if another car passes by and kills us both?
Two men arrive, asking if we need a hand, and I gratefully accept their help. Not sure she can take my weight, anyway—she’s only, like, five feet five to my six feet —and with the way my leg feels right now, I doubt the stick will be much help.
The two men help me hobble back to the sidewalk, and by then my leg is on fire. Let’s not even talk about my stinging elbows and hands. At least, the cold of the rain is numbing the scratches, cooling the fire.
I thank the guys and they go their way, but she hovers, water streaming down her face. It plasters her dress to her body in a very distracting way, and even through the haze of pain I can’t help looking.
Good thing the pain keeps my dick in check, or this could get awkward. More awkward, that is.
I mean, this is the girl I’ve wanted for ages, but can’t have.
Because she’s with someone. I not only saw her status on Facebook—‘in a relationship’—I fucking saw her with him, holding hands, laughing over something he said. Someone who’s better than me, I bet, someone smarter, richer, with good prospects.
F
uck.
Meanwhile, the rain is still falling, and I’m shivering—with shock more than cold, I guess. Trudging back home like this will be a bitch, but hey, I’ve had worse.
“Hey, wait!” She blocks my way when I turn to go. “You can’t. I mean, it’s my fault you fell, and I…” She frowns. “Don’t I know you?”
“That’s a good pick-up line, you know.”
“What?” Her brows arch, then she frowns again. “I wasn’t… Oh crap. Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
What the hell am I doing? I’m being an asshole when she’s trying to be nice. “I was just screwing with you,” I mutter. “I’m friends with Micah. Evangeline’s boyfriend?”
“Oh, right.” She looks uncertain again. I bet she can’t remember my name or where she’s seen me to save her life. “Can I offer you a ride home? It’s the least I can do. Or maybe the hospital?” She glances at my walking stick. “To get yourself checked out?”
“No, no hospitals.” I shudder. “I’m all right, really. Just need to pop a few painkillers and warm up. My place ain’t far.”
And oh fuck, going up those stairs will probably kill me. Not to mention I never got around to buying those painkillers in the first place, and there’s nothing at home to get me through the night, not even booze.
At least I wasn’t run over. Small mercies. I’m like a cat with nine lives, but even I would have trouble ungluing my flattened self from the asphalt.
“You sure?”
Oh yeah, so sure. Sure I can’t go home like this.
I pull my cell from my pocket, thinking to call Shane or Jesse, ask them if I can crash at their place tonight, but the damn phone looks dead. “Shit!”
“What is it?”
“Nothing.” I shove my cell back into my pocket. I’m shivering harder now in my drenched T-shirt and pants, and I clench my fingers on the handle of the stick. “Mind if I use your phone to call someone to pick me up?”
“Your leg.” She’s giving me a serious look, and fuck it’s hot. “What happened?”
“Broke it.”
Which is making a very long story short, but Jesus on a toast, I need to get out of this rain and sit down somewhere, take the weight off my leg before I keel over.
“Oh man.” She shifts from foot to foot and bites her lip. Shouldn’t be so distracting, dammit. “You do you have an elevator at your place, right?”
“Nope.”
“You don’t…?” She gapes at me. “Then can I call your roommate to come pick you up?”
“Don’t have one. Roommate, that is. Not yet.”
Maybe not ever. The last one who came by to see the place never called back. Still hoping, though.
“I can’t leave you like this,” she whispers.
“Sure you can.” I plaster on my brightest smile. “I’ll be fine.”
“No. I’m serious. I feel so bad about this.” She rubs her hands up and down her bare arms. “Why don’t you come over to my place?”
I blink at her, the rain water stinging my eyes. “What?”
Brilliant response. That’s me, the brilliant conversationalist. And probably also in need of a hearing aid, because she can’t have said—
“Come over to my place. It’s close by, and the elevator works. You can dry yourself, I’ll make you something to eat, and we can check your leg and your hands. You’re bleeding.”
I am? I unclench my hand, turn it palm-up, stare at it. Oh yeah. I am. Skinned my palms and probably my shins, too.
Joy.
“You sure?” It sure is tempting—for oh-so-many reasons. My teeth are chattering, my stomach is rumbling with hunger, and avoiding the stairs sounds like a fucking wet dream. Not to mention—her place. Manon’s place. She’ll be there. “I’ll make a mess in your apartment.”
She tsks and waves toward her car, parked at the curbside. “Don’t expect anything fancy or tidy. This is a fair warning. It’s more like a war-zone, really.”
Hard to believe. Can’t be worse than my place.
But I don’t care. I wouldn’t mind entering a fucking war-zone if it meant seeing her, talking to her for a while longer.
Which is fucked-up. I know, okay? I’m the biggest idiot in the world. She didn’t even remember me, doesn’t know a thing about me—and if she ever finds out about my past… I’ll never see her again.
So yeah. Laugh all you want. I don’t fucking care.
***
Gritting my teeth with each and every step at the pain shooting up my leg and a pounding headache, I make my way to her car. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse…
But that’s bullshit. Things always take a turn for the worse, right when they seem to be going better.
It’s a good trick, this one. Life has it down pat. Lets you relax a little, only to trip you up when you least expect it. God knows, it happened to me so often I should be able to see the pattern by now.
Besides, chin up. And stop whining. How basic is that? You aren’t dead, plus there’s a hot chick—the hottest chick ever—taking you home. Her home, with promises of warmth and food and…
And nothing. That’s all. More than what you have now, though. More than you ever hope to get with her.
Take it.
Keeping a groan behind my teeth, I fold myself into her small car and prop my walking stick between my legs. I’m shivering with cold, and fuck, need to stretch my leg, but there isn’t any space.
Suck it up, Seffers.
To take my mind off the pain, I glance at her as she slips in behind the wheel and cranks up the heater. Even dripping wet, long dark hair stuck to her face and neck, she’s beautiful.
Scratch that, she’s even sexier like this. Of course she is. Her dress is glued on her body like second skin, the light gray almost see-through. I can see clearly her black bra, the curve of her tits, and fuck, why was I feeling sorry for myself?
This is worth the pain.
“Hang on,” she says, and without the noise of the rain, her voice’s soft and exotic. Musical. I can’t place her accent. “We’ll be there in two minutes.”
I unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth and nod. The heater is warming up the air fast, at least, and I’m not shivering my bones loose anymore. I work on keeping my eyes straight ahead as she drives off, on the wipers sluicing water off the windbreaker, and on the street, the pools of light cast by the lampposts and shop fronts.
She parks outside a white building, three stories high with big lit-up windows and trees on the sidewalk. Red maples, their leaves already turning ruddy with the onset of fall. We had them outside out house, too, when I was little.
Feels like centuries ago.
She turns to me, flashes me a brief smile. “Home sweet home. I hope, uh…” She turns the engine off and sticks her tongue out to the side. Makes me want to laugh. Or maybe I’m just nervous. “Hope this is okay. I may have pressured you a little to come over. I just didn’t feel okay leaving you there, you know? But if you change your mind, I can still drive you back to your place, or call a cab for you.”
I blink at her. She’s… sweet. Don’t know why it catches me by surprise.
“It’s fine,” I mutter. “Honest.”
The thought of going back to my cold and empty apartment right now is damn depressing.
The smile flashes again—small, white teeth, the canines slightly crooked.
Charming. Cute.
Hot.
I lick my lips. God, I want to kiss her. This is fucked-up. So instead, I throw my door open and start the slow process of getting my sorry ass out of her car.
“Let me help you.” She comes around and grabs my arm, steadying me as I try to find my footing. Her grip is shockingly strong for such a small girl.
She puts the walking stick in my hand and closes the door as I take a few tentative steps, hissing and leaning on the stick when my knee shoots fire up my leg.
Ow, dammit.
When she puts a slender arm around my back, I su
ck in a sharp breath—not from pain this time. Her touch lights up a different kind of fire in my blood. I was semi-hard during the car ride, and now I’ve gone to diamond-hard in two seconds flat.
Oblivious, she helps me to the entrance of the building and punches a code into the keypad by the door. It clicks and we enter into the dark but dry lobby. Fuck, it’s cold in here. Her arm is a naked flame wrapped around me.
The elevator carriage is there, and we ride up, pressed together, side by side. I shouldn’t like this so much. My dick shouldn’t like it so much, either. I shouldn’t get used to it.
She’s being nice. But she has a boyfriend. And that’s not the only problem.
Dammit.
We step out onto the landing, and she unlocks the door, pushes it open and flicks on the lights. I hobble inside, taking in her living room—warm and cozy, with a red sofa and armchair, huge black and white posters of houses and horses and… a dancer?
She’s moving around the room, lighting another lamp in a corner, opening the window a crack. Her movements are graceful, her legs slender, and her ass is a perfect heart, full enough to fill my hands.
My mouth is dry. I desperately lick my lips and maneuver my uncooperative body sideways to hide the hard-on tenting the front of my soaked jeans. In the very last second, I remember that maybe I shouldn’t drop my wet ass on her furniture and hesitate, half-bent over, leaning on my stick.
“Should I…?” I glance around, trying to find a safer place to land, but fuck, my leg is killing me and won’t hold me up for much longer. “Manon?”
She turns around, surprise flitting over her face. “What? Oh, I’m sorry! Only my mother and Cassie call me that.” She bites her lips. “Give me a sec, I’ll be right back.”
On the plus side, the longer I stand, the more pain I’m in, and the more my erection flags. By the time she’s back with a plastic sheet, I don’t have to hide my crotch anymore. All my focus is on staying on my feet.
She sits down and spreads it beside her. Pats it in invitation.
Oh yeah, at last. I hobble over and sink down with a groan. The ceiling spins a little, and I can’t help but lean back and squeeze my eyes shut until I’m sure I won’t toss my cookies all over her sofa.