DARE SERIES COLLECTION

by Tessier, Shantel

  Lilly jumps in, getting two rings that were close to one another this time.

  “Bruce said no, that we didn’t have time for her, but I have nothing but time.” Her eyes fall to the water, and she runs her hand through it slowly. “He’s always away. And I don’t think Austin was safe. I think she just needs a different environment. Different friends.” She looks up at me and smiles. “You could help her.”

  I chuckle. I’m not a good influence, by any means, and Celeste knows that. This entire town knows that I do what I want, when I want. No one tells me I can’t do something. And when I find myself in trouble, my father bails me out because he hates it when I make him look bad. “You know that’s not true, Celeste,” I finally say as Lilly jumps in again, splashing me.

  She drops her head. “We both know that you’re the lesser of two evils,” she whispers, and my chest tightens at her words.

  Yeah, I try to beat the kind of men who she married. Like my father. Right now, I can only do so much. But one day, they will all pay. I will release all that anger bottled up inside me, and it will fucking rain blood on this town.

  AUSTIN

  I wake up with a headache and a throbbing forearm. Shelby couldn’t give me any pain meds, but she said that it shouldn’t hurt once the numbing shot wore off. It’s not painful, just a dull ache.

  Getting out of bed, I walk over to my closet and put on a white long-sleeve shirt to cover my stitches. It hangs off my right shoulder, letting whoever sees me know that I didn’t take the time to put a bra on. Then I yank on a pair of yoga pants before walking out of my room in search of Celeste.

  I make my way down the staircase. “Celeste?” I call out when I walk into the kitchen. “Oh, I’m sorry,” I say to a woman who stands in front of the open fridge.

  “You’re fine, dear. Can I get you something?” she asks, placing strawberries on a silver platter.

  “I’m looking for Celeste.”

  She nods. “They are out in the pool. I was just about to take them some fresh fruit. Would you like something?”

  “No, thank you,” I say and then walk out of the kitchen and then down the hall. They? I hope my father isn’t back home. I want to avoid him as much as possible. I know he didn’t want me here. As much as I hate my mother, she was right. My father’s never wanted me, and he won’t now. I’m here because of Celeste. And although she drives me nuts, I must admit she’s pretty awesome. But you’ll never hear me say that out loud.

  I push open the back doors and step out onto the porch. I hear splashes coming from the right and make my way over to the edge of the terrace. I stop short when I see Celeste in the pool floating on her bright blue raft over by the rock slide in the deep end, and Cole is also in the pool with a little blonde on his hip.

  “Austin!” Celeste spots me and waves. I wave back slowly. “Did you have a good nap?” she asks, and Cole looks over at me. He lets go of the little girl, and she swims over to the steps.

  “Yeah,” I say, walking around the pool and plopping down on a lounge chair. I look anywhere but at Cole. What is he doing here? Is he trying to fuck with me? Is he feeling Celeste out to see if I said anything to her? I wouldn’t do that. She would tell my father, and who knows what he would do with me. He’d probably try to help Cole pin it on me so my ass would go to jail. Out of his life.

  “You should come swimming with us. The pool is heated.” She lies back on her raft. Her purple string bikini reveals more than lingerie would. Letting the world know that my father paid for most of her body.

  I think about saying yes but stop myself. “Not today.” I just got stitches. I’ll have to get those removed before she can see my arm. Plus, I don’t think the chlorine would feel very good on it.

  The little girl gets out of the pool and makes her way over to me. “Hi,” she says with a big smile on her face.

  “Hello.”

  “My name is Lilly. I’m six. Wanna watch me dive?”

  This is his sister? They look nothing alike. She has blond hair where he has brown. She has brown eyes to his blue. “I’d love to,” I say with a smile of my own.

  “Cole, can I dive in the deep end? Please?” she begs, jumping up and down.

  I take a chance to look at him, and he’s staring right at me. My hair is still up in a messy bun from when I slept and pieces fall out down my back and shoulders. His eyes drop to my exposed shoulder and then down my chest. They slowly run down my body to my legs, and I feel them tighten at the look in his eyes.

  The man who tried to pin me for murder is now at my father’s house with his little sister, swimming with my stepmother.

  He’s up to something. And I need to get ahead of his game. I’m not some stupid little girl who he can play.

  “Please, Cole? Just once,” she asks, standing by my lounge chair. Water runs off her bright yellow one-piece and onto the concrete.

  “Yeah. One time,” he tells her, running his hand through his wet hair, making it stand straight up, and she squeals with excitement. He swims over to the deep end, passing Celeste on her raft. He comes to a stop and looks up at her. She prepares herself for her dive, takes a deep breath, and falls in head first. He reaches under the water and grabs her, pulling her up and then helps her to the side. She climbs out and comes running back over to me.

  “Did you like it?” she asks with that excitement still on her face. I envy it. I wish life was that simple.

  “I give it a ten.” I hold up all my fingers, and she bounces up and down. “Perfect.”

  She lunges for me, wrapping her arms around me for a tight hug and soaking my shirt and legs. The water feels good. Not too cold but not warm either. She pulls away. “I can dive for rings.” Her face falls all of a sudden. “I can only grab one at a time, though.”

  I refrain from laughing at how adorable she is. “I’d love to watch you dive for rings.”

  She bounces over to the edge of the pool and tosses five rings in the shallow end. “Cole?” she yells at him. “Cole?”

  I look at him to see why he is ignoring her, but when my eyes meet his, he’s staring down at my chest. His jaw tight and eyes glaring with anger.

  I look down to see what he is staring at. “Geez,” I mutter to myself. She soaked my white shirt, and I don’t have a bra on.

  I hunch over and pull it away from my chest. Standing up, I go to walk away, but Lilly stops me. “You’re not gonna watch me?” She pouts.

  Shit!

  I reach over and grab a blue towel off the back of a lounge chair and drape it over my shoulders. “Of course, I am,” I tell her, sitting back down and plastering a smile on my face.

  I ignore Cole, but I can still feel his gaze on me for a few more seconds before he turns to her and helps her out with diving for her rings.

  We spend another hour out in the pool when Cole finally announces that they have to get going. At first, Lilly tried to beg him for another five minutes, but he didn’t budge. He’s better than I would have been because the moment she pushed that bottom lip out, I would have caved. Then she threw a fit. He glared at her, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to swim.

  “She can stay out here with me,” Celeste tells him.

  “I don’t think …”

  “Please?” Lilly begs, interrupting him. She hugs his shoulders while they still stand in the pool.

  “Lilly …”

  “Let her swim a little longer, Cole. It’ll be dark shortly. She can stay the night. We can have a girls’ night. You kids go have some fun.” She looks at me, and my brows rise. What is her deal with Cole? Does she not know how much he hates me? That he wants me in jail? Or worse, dead?

  “Please? Please?” Lilly begs. “I wanna stay. I wanna swim. And have a girls’ night.” She splashes the water around them with her hands.

  “Fine,” he says with a heavy sigh. “Just tonight, though. Okay?”

  “Thank you.” She hugs his neck, and he pats her back.

  “Yay.” Celeste claps her hands excited
ly. And it makes me wonder why she and my father never had a child of their own. I’ve never thought about it. And sure as hell never asked. Then she looks at me. “Austin, we have a ten o’clock appointment at the salon in the morning.”

  “For what?”

  “I figured you’d want to get you hair done.” She shrugs. “Something new for school. And it gives us time together.”

  “Thanks.” I’m not really into spending time at a salon, but I’ll give her this. Celeste has been more of a mom in the past twenty-four hours than my mother has in the past seventeen years.

  She claps excitedly as Cole hands her Lilly. She bounces on her raft, straddling Celeste’s legs.

  Cole goes under the water and then his head pops up in the shallow end. He stands, and I watch with complete fascination as he climbs the stairs to exit. Water drips off his lean body. Shelby had mentioned that he was the captain of the swim team, and I didn’t understand what that meant until just now. His black swim trunks hang low on his narrow hips. He turns to face me, and my mouth starts to water at the defined V that dips into his shorts and his chiseled abs. Thoughts of him pinning me down to the ground last night come back, reminding me of how strong he was. You can still see the faint marks my nails left when I clawed at his chest.

  He isn’t overly muscular; he’s lean. But what he does have is chiseled, and my legs threaten to buckle. Good thing I’m sitting down.

  “You have my towel,” he speaks, making me jump.

  “Oh, sorry,” I say in a rush and yank it from my shoulders and toss it to him.

  I look up at him through my lashes when he just stands there in front of me, and now, he’s the one looking down at me like he wants to push me up against the wall. Or down onto the lounge chair.

  That’s when I remember why I had his towel in the first place. My shirt is still wet. And my nipples are hard from the wind making me cold. “Excuse me,” I say as I jump up. Turning around, I take off into the house.

  CHAPTER SIX

  COLE

  FUCK!

  That’s the second time since she’s walked out here in the past hour that she has got me hard. I fist my hands down by my sides. I don’t have time for her. To be some teenage boy obsessed with a set of tits and ass. Especially Bruce Lowes’s daughter.

  “Cole?”

  At the sound of Celeste’s voice, I wrap the towel around my hips and turn to face her in the pool. Lilly’s still on her lap. “Yeah?”

  She sighs heavily, her eyes dropping to my hard cock, letting me know she knows what I’m thinking. “Keep an eye on her.”

  “I can’t—”

  “Cole,” she interrupts my refusal. “You owe me.”

  Running a hand through my wet hair, I growl. “Pick something else.”

  She gives me a kind smile, but we both know it’s fake. “I’m picking her. And that’s not gonna change.”

  Fuck!

  I turn around and walk into the house, water still dripping from my hair and board shorts. I take the stairs two at a time, knowing where her room is. I watched her stand at her window after Deke and I finished with Jeff.

  I don’t knock. I barge right into her room, and she squeals, jumping back from her dresser, a shirt in her hands but not on. She holds it up to cover her naked chest. And I wonder if her nipples are still hard. “What the hell, Cole …?”

  “Get dressed, we’re leaving in ten.”

  Her eyes narrow on me. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she snaps.

  I smile. I gotta say, I do love how challenging she is. The fight. The constant back and forth. She actually thinks she has a chance to stand up against me. Austin Lowes doesn’t have a choice. Her mother doesn’t want her, her father is just itching to send her back, and her stepmother just threw her to the sharks. I’m all she has, which sucks for her because I destroy everything I touch. And as much as I don’t want her around, I look forward to ripping her to shreds.

  I shut the door, and she swallows nervously as her eyes go to it, then shoot back to mine. I advance on her with slow and confident strides as if I’m about to attack my prey. My hard cock reminds me that I could throw her on her bed and take her right now, and no one would stop me. But even I have limits.

  “What are you doing in here?” Her voice shakes with fear.

  I reach up and cup her soft face. She still has on the makeup from church this morning. Her dark green eyes lined with black. Her lashes long and thick, and her plump lips stained with a light pink. Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t pull away from me. I lean down, my lips inches from hers. “Do I need to remind you again?” Her chest rising and falling fast with each breath. My free hand itches to yank the shirt she’s using to shield her chest from me. To get a better look at her tits without the wet fabric she wore outside. To touch them. To suck on them. “That you don’t have a choice.”

  She lifts her chin, and her green eyes simmer with rage. I like it. “You’re not my boss, Cole. You can’t tell me what to do.”

  I let my hand on her face trail down over her delicate neck, where her pulse races, to her bare shoulder. Her body shudders. My fingers continue downward over her bare arm and bent elbow, and then I stop on the bandage covering her stitches. My eyes meet hers. “We both know that I can.” I take a step back before I go too far. “Now get dressed. We have somewhere to be.”

  Her narrowed eyes stay on mine. Almost as if she’s challenging me. Her chin lifts, and nostrils flare. “Cole—”

  “This is not up for discussion,” I snap, interrupting her. “I will drag you to my car by your hair, if need be.”

  She lets out a growl, and I take that as her acceptance.

  _______________

  She sits next to me in my car as I drive down the curvy road, heading farther away from town.

  I take the steep hills at a fast pace, speeding more than I normally would to keep her on her toes. I can taste her fear—smell it—and it’s intoxicating.

  She places her hands out in front of her on the dash, and I chuckle. Her head snaps to the side to look at me. “You’re trying to scare me on purpose.”

  “We both know you’re already scared of me.” She doesn’t comment.

  I make my way down the last hill, and the road curves to the right. I take it, the rear end fishtailing, and I hear the intake of her breath.

  “Where are we?” she asks, looking out her window.

  “Does it matter?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes but doesn’t respond.

  I come to a stop at a stoplight and make a left turn and remove my seat belt.

  “What are you doing?” she asks, looking over at me.

  I throw her a smile, and her eyes narrow on me. She hates when I ignore her questions. Too bad. She’ll find out soon enough.

  We arrive at the warehouse and pull up to the curb. I look over at her. “Do you know how to drive a stick shift?”

  “What?” she snaps. “Why would that matter, Cole?”

  “Yes or no.”

  “Yes!” She crosses her arms over her chest, and my eyes fall to it. The memory of seeing her tits still fresh in my mind. They had looked round, perky, and so fucking perfect. I need out of this car.

  I nod my head and then turn around, reaching for my black bag and hoodie. “Keep your phone on you,” I tell her. “As soon as I call you, answer.”

  “Cole …”

  I get out and slam my door shut before I hear her say anything else. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, expecting it to be her, but Bennett flashes across my screen.

  “Hello?” I answer it, throwing my bag over the metal gate.

  “Hey, man. Thought we were on for tonight.”

  I place my hands on the gate and climb it before jumping over it, landing on my feet. “I am.”

  “What?” He pauses, and I look up at the sky. The sun almost done setting. “Well, what time?”

  “Now.” I pick up my bag.

  “Cole, how the fuck are you doing it right now? I’m wi
th Deke and Shane. I spoke to Kellan earlier, and he said he hasn’t spoken to you all day.”

  “I’ve got it covered. Disable the alarm system now and then head to the clubhouse. I’ll meet you in an hour.” I hang up, placing my phone back in my pocket.

  I pull my hood up and over my head and throw the bag over my shoulder. I run around to the back. The dim light buzzing above my head, I keep my eyes down, staring at the ground, knowing where all the cameras are. I helped place them, after all. Then walk up to the back door. Seconds later, my phone vibrates, and I check it.

  Deke: You’ve got two minutes.

  Grabbing the tools out of my pocket, I place them in the lock and twist them. A pop sounds seconds later.

  Walking in, I smile at the car that sits before me. A bright fucking red Ferrari 250 GTO. My favorite color. Only thirty-nine were produced, and I’m about to make this one mine. A few other cars are in the warehouse, but I ignore them. They’re not why I’m here.

  I grab the key off the hook that hangs on the wall and then jump into the car, throwing my bag in the passenger seat. I take out my phone and call Austin.

  “Cole, what the hell are you doing?”

  “Turn the car around,” I order her.

  “What? I don’t have time for this. What are you—”

  “Turn the fucking car around, Austin,” I snap, interrupting her. She’s right; we don’t have time for this.

  I sit in the silent, dark warehouse and can hear the engine of my car outside in the street as she pulls forward and turns around to face the right direction now. “Follow me,” I tell her.

  “Follow you?” she asks, her voice rising in panic. “You’re not coming back?”

  “Nope,” I say and hit the door opener on the visor. “Don’t lose me, Austin. You stay on my ass. Do you understand me?”

  Silence.

  “Fucking answer me, Austin!”

  “Yeah.” I finally hear her answer in her small voice.

  “Let’s go.” I hang up, start the car, and take off.

  AUSTIN

  I hang up the phone and toss it into the passenger seat. You stay on my ass! What the hell does that mean?