by Jenny Penn
“So? How was your day?”
“Miserable,” Angie admitted as she began to dig into the delicious layers of frozen goodness. “I’d ask you the same, but I think it’s fairly obvious how yours went.”
“I’m working at a club full of naked women.” Brett grinned like a boy up to no good. “There is live-action porn everywhere I look. My day was fan-fucking-tastic.”
“Yeah? Well, give it a few years. The glow wears off,” Angie warned him.
“Wow, aren’t you Miss Grumpy?”
“I said I had a miserable day,” Angie reminded him.
“Wanna talk about it?”
“No.” Angie really didn’t. “I want to sit here and eat ice cream.”
“Fine. You just sit there and sulk, and I’ll tell you about my day.”
That was just what Brett proceeded to do. He talked non-stop, though Angie didn’t think he was trying to annoy her. He was just that excited. Strangely enough, despite his original comments, the things that seemed to thrill him the most were operational. Brett seemed amazed at how well the club was organized and how smoothly it ran.
Those were not subjects that normally tickled Angie’s fancy, but she couldn’t help but get sucked into his enthusiasm. They spent over an hour, lingering there they discussed his ideas for the club. They weren’t half as outlandish as Patton’s, but that didn’t mean Brett didn’t approve of some of the new owner’s ideas. He certainly had his own spin on them.
As they sat there laughing, Angie couldn’t help but remember Slade’s advice to her that morning. He was right. She had them primed and ready for a full-on assault. Now was the perfect time to switch gears and go for the under-the-radar friendship connection. It wasn’t as though it was hard or that she had to pretend to find him funny and engaging.
Brett was both of those things without trying, just like he was sexy without any effort. Angie watched him dig into his own milkshake and smiled as she felt her heart melt. He really was just an overgrown kid, and she couldn’t wait to experience that fun-filled enthusiasm between the sheets. She got wet just thinking about it and had to focus on something else before she did something really outlandish like tackle him right then and there.
“So, Cole challenged you to a duel? An actual duel? Like pistols at dawn?” These men, they never stopped competing.
“Please.” Brett snorted. “He may be a Sally, but he isn’t stupid. I am, after all, considered a hell of a good shot.”
“I can imagine.” Actually, Angie didn’t want to. Guns were not her thing. “But if not guns, then what? Swords?”
“Like Hailey would let me run her girlfriend through.” Brett shook his head. “Nope. We’re going to run an obstacle course. Apparently, they got one out at someplace called Camp D. Ever heard of it?”
“Run by the notorious Nick Dickles.” Angie nodded. “He’s never made the rounds here at the club, but his reputation precedes him nonetheless.”
That earned her a quick look from Brett, and she could all but read the thoughts swirling through his head. Angie could have put him at ease and assured him that Nick had not cut his reputation on her ass, but then she might have to admit that Cole had. She suspected he’d view that as a worse sin, so she just smiled politely and waited until he shrugged and continued on.
“Well, apparently, he’s trying to rehab his reputation and help a bunch of kids at the same time.”
Brett paused to glare down into his glass as if offended to find it empty. Angie could sense that he was debating having another, and she couldn’t help but tease him.
“If you’re going to be running an obstacle course, don’t you think you better lay off the ice cream?” Angie suggested with a little smile as Brett cast her a dark look.
“I might have to paddle you for suggesting that I might lose,” Brett grumbled with mock outrage. “I could wipe the floor with those two pussies Hailey’s fallen for with only one leg and a beer belly hanging down to my knee. If I can’t, then I don’t deserve to be called a marine.”
Angie smiled, oddly warmed by his outrageous confidence. Warmed and enticed, which was just why she slid to the edge of her seat and into the heady heat of his body before responding.
“It’s not those pussies you have to watch out for, stud,” Angie murmured as pressed in slightly, allowing the hard tips of her breasts to brush against her arm as her feet touched the floor. She shot him her best sultry look and matched it with a husky tone. “And if you can’t keep up with me, then you don’t deserve to be called a Cattleman.”
With that, she turned and started across the room. On cue, Brett came following after her.
Chapter 9
Mike stepped back and checked himself out in the mirror. He was looking good, completely recovered from that morning. His slacks were clean, pressed, and matched the crisp cut of his shirt. He’d debated over a tie, not sure what the etiquette was anymore. It had been a long time since he’d gone on an actual date.
Over the past several years, most of the women he’d spent time with had been marines. They hadn’t dated. They’d done things more entertaining than going to dinner. Things like what he’d almost done with Angie that morning. The minute that thought popped into his head, he crushed it.
He would not give in to those thoughts or the dangerous places they led him, kind of like the alcohol last night. Mike had heard enough tales that day from the men he knew to know that he and Angie had engaged in a drinking competition. He hadn’t won. Mike didn’t even know what to think about that, and he wasn’t going to get hung up on his failures.
So, Angie had won the first round? So what? Tonight was his chance to get revenge and hopefully prove his point. She was better off without him. Actually that should have been obvious to the woman this morning, but instead of being outraged that he’d planned to use her to drain the wake-up wood, she’d been begging for it…begging for it in the ass.
Once again, Mike refused to let that thought lead him astray. Instead, he forced himself to focus on the moment at hand. He had dinner plans. He had an official date with a brunette sure to make Angie fall over with jealousy. More than just having a large set of breasts and an ass a man could bounce a quarter off of, she was also a pre-med student, meaning she was smart. Smart and hot…Mike scowled as he tried to remember her name.
It was something like Stacy, but that didn’t feel right. It didn’t matter, and that went to prove what kind of bastard he was. Soon Angie would know the truth because Mike planned to flaunt whatever her name was in Angie’s face.
She deserved it.
Hell, she and Brett had been flirting up a storm ever since the two of them had returned from the club. They’d been laughing and teasing each other and making plans to veg out for the night. God help him, for the first time ever, Mike had been jealous of his own brother.
He wanted to be the one having fun.
He’d tried to have a little. He’d gloated over the fact that he had to get ready for his date, but Angie had simply smiled and strutted past him. She didn’t believe him. Well, she’d learn the truth soon enough. Mike glanced at his watch and frowned. Stacy…
Tracy?
Definitely not Casey.
What the hell was her name again?
The chime of the doorbell assured him it was too late to figure it out. He’d call her honey or darlin’ or something like that. Women ate that shit up. Shooting his reflection one last look, Mike headed out into the living room where Brett and Angie were hunkered down, watching some reality show that sounded like chickens squawking at each other.
Thankfully they muted it as he strutted past, both lifting their gazes toward the door as they waited for him to open it. Before he could, the doorbell rang again, and again, and again, and was mid-ring as he finally threw it open to find…Stacy? No. Tracy. Oh God, he really couldn’t remember.
What Mike did remember was that she’d looked better that afternoon. She certainly had been dressed better. Mike couldn’t help but scowl a
s he took in the circus costume the brunette was wearing. It looked like plastic beach balls encased her boobs, making her large rack look more vulgar than enticing.
Hell, he’d worry that if he grabbed one it might honk at him or shoot a spray of water in his face. That thought had him biting back a snicker as he took in the rest of her outfit. There wasn’t a single color in the rainbow that she wasn’t wearing or hadn’t painted on her face. It looked as if a three-year-old had assaulted her with a box of crayons.
As humorous as Mike found that thought, his good mood faded with the realization that he was going to have to be seen with her. While he didn’t care about most people’s opinions, there were two sitting behind him that counted a whole lot. Both Angie and Brett were clearly fighting back the giggles as they rose up to greet his date.
“Hey, honey, you look…colorful.” He couldn’t bring himself to say good or smile with any sincerity, not that it much mattered.
The woman not only had the audacity to scowl up at him, she snapped at him in a waspish tone only a longtime girlfriend should ever use on a man. “That took long enough. You going to leave a woman standing out here all night? I could be assaulted, or bitten. Who knows what’s lurking in the bushes! Well? Are you going to invite me in or spend the whole night staring at my breasts? Oh, never mind, I’ll invite myself in, and you can stare at my ass instead.” That was just what the woman did, shoving past Mike without missing a single beat.
“Hello, there. I’m Gracie.” She paused to snort and wipe her nose along her arm before extending her hand toward Brett. “And you are clearly Mikey’s twin. Rhett, right?”
“Brett.” Brett eyed her hand and shook it quickly, wiping his own against his jeans discreetly as Gracie prattled on.
“Yes, of course, I’m sorry. It’s just that I had this dog named Rhett when I was a kid. Oh, he was so sweet but incontinent. He left these stains all over the hardwood floors, and don’t you know that my mother always blames me, telling people they’re my stains, and I tell her, mother, if you say it like that, people will think I peed on the floor, and really, how gross do you think I am?”
Gracie paused as if she expected a response, but Angie and Brett clearly didn’t know what the hell to say to that. They stood there silently glancing between each other as if they expected the other to save them. Of course, Gracie didn’t stay silent for long.
“I’m Gracie,” she repeated as she stuck her hand out toward Angie, who shook it reluctantly. “And you must be Hailey, the sister.”
“I’m—”
“I heard all about you today.” Gracie waved away Angie before she could correct her. “And let me tell you, for the record, I think your brother is right. Men shouldn’t be tying women up. That is just backward, honey. We got the pussies, we got the power, and they should bow down to it, am I not right?”
“You are on the money,” Angie agreed with a snicker, casting a smirk right over Gracie’s shoulder at Mike.
His plan was blowing up all over him. He couldn’t get Gracie out the door fast enough. Neither could he get her to shut the hell up. It wasn’t until halfway through the dinner, as she actually lifted up her plate and licked it clean, that it dawned on him that he might have just been set up. There was only one way to find out.
“And so I said to her—”
“Enough.”
Mike didn’t raise his voice or snap that word at her, but it still carried the weight of his years as a commander and cut straight through her act, causing Gracie to still for a second before regaining her balance and her role.
“Excuse me? That is—”
“I’m the new Master of Ceremonies out at the club,” Mike warned her, taking a big gamble that he knew just what was really going on here. Of course, if he was wrong, he’d sound crazy, but it wasn’t like Gracie was all that sane.
“I don’t—”
“And you won’t,” he assured her as he cut her off again, leaning forward and dropping his tone to a dangerous whisper. “I’ll make sure that you never again participate in any club events. Understand, Gracie?”
The brunette hesitated and broke into a big smile. “I was wondering when you’d catch a clue.”
“And I’m wondering who set me up.” Mike leaned back, certain now that he had the upper hand. “And I’m assuming it was Angie.”
Gracie didn’t respond to that but just grinned. There was something about the glint in her eyes, though, that warned him things were not that simple. Others had been involved.
“Who?” He didn’t clarify that at all, knowing she understood him perfectly.
Gracie didn’t even try to pretend as though she didn’t. Neither did she tell him. Instead, she simply shrugged and offered him a clue that left no doubt over where the Davis brothers’ loyalty truly lay.
“Let’s just say the orders come from higher up.”
“You’re lying.” Mike stiffened up in his seat, honestly shocked by that admission. “They’d never betray me like that.”
“Old lovers versus old friends, loyalties sometimes get messy, and let’s face it, you haven’t been around much.”
No, he hadn’t. Nor did he miss the implication of her words. “Old lovers? You’re not talking about Angie…and the Davis brothers?”
Mike could barely get the words out. He was about to have full-on heart palpitations. They’d slept with his woman, and given they hadn’t fucked her pussy, that could mean only one thing. They’d had that ass. They’d had his Angie!
“Are you going to have a stroke or something?” Gracie’s grin faded into a look of concern as her gaze narrowed on the flush Mike could feel consuming his face.
* * * *
Angie smiled as she watched Brett study her toes intently. They’d vegged out in the living room, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drinking sweet tea as they argued over what to watch. He liked cheesy sci-fi shows. She liked competition reality shows. They’d both won a few rounds, but when the last one had gone to Brett, Angie had gotten up and fetched her pedicure kit.
Strangely enough, Brett had become obsessed with the feminine routine and taken over, first massaging her feet and now painting her nails. Angie had a sense he just might be a toe sucker, which she never would have expected but didn’t object to. What was there to object to?
Men who dug feet liked to massage them, and Angie was always up for a good rubdown. In fact, she was debating how to get his hands from her toes to her shoulders when her phone rang. She glanced over at it sitting on the coffee table, swearing that if it was the club she was quitting. The name flashing on the little phone’s screen, though, couldn’t be ignored.
Frowning, she reached for it, having to twist at the hips as Brett refused to release her foot. He’d already finished with one and was almost done with the second. Clearly, he wasn’t letting go until he was done. Angie didn’t object, just stretched and pulled the phone close enough to pick up.
“Hey, Gracie,” she greeted the other woman without any worry over Brett’s reaction.
He’d deduced that Mike’s date was a setup not two seconds after Mike had hustled the other woman out the door. It had been kind of obvious, which made it all the more amusing that Mike hadn’t figured it out right then and there. She suspected that hadn’t lasted based on Gracie’s greeting
“I just got ditched.”
“What?” Angie frowned as Brett bit down on his bottom lip in a gesture so sexy it made her want to rub her legs together like some damn cricket in heat.
“Your boy figured out the game,” Gracie warned her, sounding more than a bit concerned, but Angie wasn’t disturbed in the slightest.
“Hmm.” She sighed. “It’s about time. You make it all the way through dinner?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Oh.” Angie’s head popped up as she heard a truck pull into the driveway. “I think he’s here. He must have really sped. When did he leave you?”
“Not even five minutes ago, and that’s what I�
�m trying to tell you. You’re in trouble.”
“Trouble? You think I’m about to get spanked?”
Despite the grimness in Gracie’s tone and words, Angie couldn’t help but share a smile with Brett as the sound of the engine cut off and the slam of a truck door followed almost instantly. The heavy pound of footsteps assured her he was tearing down the front path.
“Angie—”
“You know, I never have had my pussy spanked.” Angie directed that comment more at Brett than Gracie. He lifted a brow and shot her a look that assured her he was putting that on his list.
“I think you ought to take this a little more seriously, Angie,” Gracie grumbled. “The man about blew steam right out of his ears.”
She wasn’t lying either. The front door slammed open, and Mike charged in like a bull that had just been hit with a branding iron. Angie couldn’t help but admit she was a little taken aback as he leveled a finger right at her and roared, “You!”
“I see what you mean,” Angie muttered to Gracie as Brett straightened up, his smile fading into a concerned frown.
“What’s wrong, man?”
“She…she…”
Whatever it was, the man couldn’t actually get it said. He was shaking that bad. Angie had a feeling this wasn’t just about Gracie.
“I’m missing something, aren’t I?” She directed that question at Gracie, who answered almost verbatim along with Mike.
“He knows.”
“I know!”
That really didn’t tell her anything. “About?”
“The Davis brothers,” Gracie clued her in while Mike sputtered over the words.
“About? About! You…you and….ah! How could you?”
“I think that’s my cue to let you go,” Gracie murmured, clearly having heard Mike through the phone.
“Night, Gracie.” Angie sighed and closed her phone as Brett’s frowned continued to deepen.
“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded to know, and Angie could tell that Mike was in no condition to answer.