Jaded Hearts (Loaded Replay #1)

by Harper Sloan

  I shut off the water and reach out for a towel before turning to speak. “I can’t help it, you know.” Then I lower my voice and look up at him through hooded eyes. “I can still feel you. Deep inside my body, I still feel you.”

  “Shit,” he hisses.

  “I don’t ever want to know what it feels like not to feel the ache of you deep inside me.”

  “Goddamn.” His eyes close tightly, and I watch as he brings his hand up to adjust himself. “You’re going to be my undoing, Wren.”

  “Same goes, hubby.”

  Getting control of himself, he does that manly juggle thing they do with their fingers against their crotch before straightening. I make a mental note to ask him what that actually does. Seems to me, it wouldn’t be comfortable for your sensitive parts to be jiggled like that, but I don’t have a dick, so I wouldn’t know.

  “Get dressed, babe. The guys and Dyllan got back a while ago, and I’ve had a hard time keeping them out for the last two hours.”

  Walking into my huge closet, I walk to the underwear drawer and pull on a bright red thong before grabbing the matching bra and dropping the towel. Chance groans deep in his chest, but I ignore him. I pull on some of my exercise shorts and one of our tour t-shirts before walking past him. It seemed safer to make sure I was dressed with him this close instead of answering him right away.

  “Why would they be trying to get in here?”

  I look in the mirror, pulling the brush through my hair, and wait for him to answer. If I’m not mistaken, he looks a little sheepish, but I shrug it off and drop the brush down.

  “You aren’t … quiet.” Chance holds my gaze in the mirror, but I turn and frown at him, not understanding. “I think there was some concern for your well-being from a few people.”

  “Tell me you’re kidding.” I gasp in shock.

  “Dead serious.”

  “You’re telling me that they all heard us having sex?”

  He nods and has the nerve to twitch those devil lips of his into a small smirk.

  “This is not funny,” I spit out.

  He attempts to hold it in, but that small smirk grows.

  “You can’t kill my brain into forgetting to be embarrassed here.”

  “What are you talking about?” He laughs, that stupid smile already working its dark magic.

  “Brain-dead buzz isn’t going to make me forget that we had an audience.”

  He winces, and I cock my head at him. “Chance?”

  “Not everyone saw, so it wasn’t really an audience.”

  “Not everyone saw what?” I scream.

  “And I turned you before they saw much,” he adds.

  “Tell me you’re joking.”

  He steps closer. “Do you think I want anyone else seeing you like that?”

  The seriousness of his tone ebbs some of my panic, and I focus on him. “I’m guessing no?”

  He steps even closer, wrapping his arms around my body to pull me to him. “That would be a hell no. You’re beautiful, Wren, but when your pussy is soaking my cock while you scream out your release, you’re so stunning it makes my chest feel too small for my heart. So yeah … it’s a definite hell no.”

  “I’ll work on being quieter,” I utter breathily, his words melting me.

  “That would be appreciated.” He kisses the tip of my nose and turns with his hand holding mine to walk out of the sanctuary of my bedroom.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” I snap at Wes, tossing my pizza crust at him. He snags it off the table before stuffing it into his mouth, still scowling. “Weston Davenport, seriously, I’ll cut off your balls.”

  He opens his mouth to speak, but the loud thump of a body smacking against the hardwood floor interrupts our showdown. I jump in my seat and twist to see what caused the sound.

  Jamison pulls himself off the floor, water dripping from his clothing to form a large puddle at his feet. He doesn’t even give the audience he’s attracted a single notice. He shakes his head, water droplets flying from his hair, and then starts peeling off his clothes.

  That drained the shock out of a few of us.

  “What the fuck, man!” Luke bellows, making Jamison look up while he continues to yanks his jeans down his legs.

  “What the fuck, what, man?” he asks back almost like he’s actually confused that we would be stunned by him standing in the middle of the kitchen, completely naked, and soaking wet. To be fair, though, I don’t know why anything Jamison does shocks us anymore.

  “I think what Luke here is trying to convey to you is that he would appreciate it if you would cover up your little pecker,” Dyllan says in a monotone voice, not even looking up from the magazine she’s been thumbing through for the last half hour.

  I swing my eyes from her back to Jamison to see him looking at my best friend in horror before glancing down at his dick. Naturally, I follow his lead too. I challenge you to find a woman out there who wouldn’t look when there’s a man unabashed in his nudity flashing everyone his dangly bits right in front of her. It doesn’t matter that Jamison and I are as close as siblings would be; bottom line, he isn’t my brother, so the laws of naked penis viewing do not apply.

  “My dick isn’t little!” Jamison yells, turning his head to look down at himself from another angle then snapping his head up to spear her with a glare of outrage. “Take it back, Dyll! Take it back now.”

  “It’s okay, Jami. There is no need to get upset about it now that everyone knows. They make pills and pumps for that problem now.” She continues to wind him up with little effort.

  His face gets red. Or I should say redder. “You didn’t think it was little when you were begging me to fuck you harder.”

  Dyllan throws her magazine down onto the table, looking up without a hint of embarrassment or shame, and gives him her full attention. She studies him for a second—head to toe—before smirking one hell of an evil little smirk. “Of course, I didn’t tell you then. I was too busy begging for you to go harder so I could actually feel something.”

  The men around the table snicker to themselves, but I’m too interested in how this will play out. I make a mental note to make her tell me everything. I hadn’t had a chance to make her talk after her whole ‘they look at you different’ pep talk the other night, but now, after this, you bet your ass I’m going to make time for that talk.

  Chance’s arms come around my body, pulling me across the bench seat to his side. My attention still bouncing back and forth between Dyllan and Jamison, I’m completely fascinated. This is better than must-see TV.

  “Stop looking at him naked,” Chance murmurs in my ear, slightly playful but definitely serious.

  I snort. Yeah, right. Fat chance of that happening.

  “Take it back,” Jamison demands, apparently having enough of trying to kill her with his eyes.

  “Get over yourself,” Dyllan titters, and with one more look at Jamison’s dick, she turns back to the magazine, her bored expression back.

  Jesus, she’s either one hell of an actor, Jamison sucked in bed, or he did something to earn this treatment from her. My guess is the former. It’s more likely that Jamison was being a total douchebag than him sucking in bed, and I can’t think of a single person who would be unaffected by seeing him naked. He’s built with muscles so defined he looks like he could be made of stone, tattooed, tall as hell, and has model-perfect looks. He’s cocky as hell for a reason when it comes to women, after all.

  Jamison mutters under his breath, and I turn back from my silent attempt at trying to catch Dyllan’s attention to look at him. I’m not sure what I expected, but seeing him pet himself—down there—while mumbling under his breath damn sure wasn’t it. My eyes track his fingers as they lightly brush up and down the length of himself before quickly diverting my attention, not wanting to agitate Chance any more than I already have. However, I wasn’t quick enough because before I could look away, I notice that Dyllan is full of shit.

  Jamison has a monster betw
een his legs.

  Turning in my seat, I do my best to ignore the blond giant still mumbling behind me, and I pick up a new slice of pizza, pretending that the last five minutes didn’t happen.

  There have been some close calls over the years, living in such close proximity to these guys and their constant ‘extracurricular activities,’ but this was the first time I had ever seen his junk. I’ve walked in on one of them naked more time than I can count, but they were always covered up with a towel or a woman, so I was spared.

  Now that I’m over the shock of seeing Jamison’s junk for the first time, I’m not sure if I should high five Dyllan or go bleach my eyes.

  I settle with taking a bite of my pizza instead. After all, I’ve worked up an appetite today.

  I pick up my phone at the same time I hear Jamison move, but I don’t look away from the small screen. Instead, I open my email and scroll through the last few days.

  “I need a new phone,” Jamison says with a huff from across the table, addressing anyone who cares to listen to him. Completely unfazed by the past fifteen minutes, he tosses his still wet and very fried phone on the table with a loud clatter before grabbing a slice of pizza.

  “Are you still naked?” I hoot, unable to keep a straight face any longer.

  Wes is next to him but quickly slides down on the bench, avoiding looking in his direction. Luke and Chance aren’t even trying to keep their laughter to themselves. And Dyllan, the big fat liar, is still ignoring him in favor of her magazine.

  “Yeah. I’m hungry.” Jamison gives me a look that screams his confusion; like it’s weird that I would even question him.

  “Why exactly is it that you’re naked again?” Luke wheezes through a laugh.

  “Fell into the pool. I didn’t want to eat wet. So, here I am, naked.”

  I toss my head back and laugh. “So you thought it would be better to eat naked and wet?”

  Jamison shrugs. God, Jamison logic. There really is nothing else like it.

  “How did you fall into the pool?” Wes asks incredulously, still not willing to look at him.

  Jamison stares at my brother, and his eyes narrow. “I didn’t fall, asshole. I walked. It’s not my fault that the pool was in the way.”

  Wiping the tears from my eyes, I gasp through my hilarity, trying to catch my breath. “In the way? It’s always been in the same spot. What the hell are you talking about?”

  Jamison looks offended that I would defend the pool and not him. “It was in the way, Wren, because I was trying to catch a motherfucking Pokémon, but the fucker poofed off even though I fed it those stupid berries and used my big balls! And then the little bastard tricked me into forgetting I was standing next to the pool with his little ‘mon-man magic’ until I was sucking in a lungful of chlorine.”

  Silence.

  You could hear a pin drop, I’m sure.

  Not a single person makes a peep. Hell, I’m not even sure anyone is breathing. Even Dyllan is now looking at Jamison like he’s lost his mind.

  “I was three Pikachu candies away from evolving that fucker, too!” he yells; as if that would make it sound a little less ludicrous.

  My jaw drops.

  “You’re serious?” I gasp.

  His narrowed eyes snap in my direction. “I would never joke about a Pikachu, Wrenlee Davenport. How dare you.” He grabs the whole box of pizza, stands from the table with his cock dangling in all our faces, and stomps out of the room.

  Silence ticks on until Chance clears his throat. “Did that just happen?”

  It takes us all about a second before we’re all laughing so hard we have tears rolling down our faces.

  “Oh, my God. I swear you never know what’s going to come out of that man’s mouth,” I wheeze through my laughter.

  “I need to look on Amazon and see if I can find some Pokémon stuff,” Wes mumbles with a few chuckles.

  “Why on earth would you do that?” Dyllan questions him.

  “I told him the last time he wouldn’t cover his shit up that I was tired of him waving his dick around. Clearly, he’s upset over whatever the Pokémon did to him. You know Jamison; he won’t forget how they wronged him. I bet when he gets a new phone that he’ll boycott that stupid app just out of spite. I’m going to make sure and pay him back for shoving his dick in our faces by shoving those fuckers down his throat.”

  “You’re weird, big brother.” At my voice, Wes turns to me and glares. “What?” I snap.

  “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you two,” he replies, pointing his half-eaten slice back and forth between Chance and me.

  “Jesus, Wes. Not this again. Don’t you think it’s embarrassing enough for me to know … well, what I know.”

  “Embarrassing enough? For you?” he sputters.

  Dyllan snorts, magazine forgotten. “Girlfriend, you were so loud, it sounded like you had hooked yourself up to some housewide sound system. Even if we hadn’t rushed in there to make sure you were okay and gotten an eyeful of you playing rodeo queen and bucking bull, your activities wouldn’t have been missed.”

  “Would you shut up,” I hiss, narrowing my eyes at her.

  “Call it like I see it.” She holds her hands up in surrender and smiles.

  “We should probably look into getting some sound-canceling headphones for the bus,” Luke tells my brother, making Wes gag on the bite he had just taken.

  “Oh, my God.” I turn to look at Chance. “Kill me, please?” He doesn’t even look embarrassed at all. He’s just watching the four of us with some weird contentment on his face.

  “Yeah, that will never happen,” he answers.

  “This is mortifying. We’re never having sex again. Not until you figure out how to mute me. Even then, we might not even have sex unless it’s from inside an impenetrable vault or something.”

  Chance hardens his eyes. “That will definitely never happen either.”

  “Chance,” I hiss through my teeth. “They all saw us!”

  “Then they need to learn how to knock.”

  “Wait a minute,” Luke interrupts our argument. “Are you two together for real now or something? Or are you just fucking?”

  “Luke!” I shout, totally horrified.

  “What? Seriously, Wren, get over it. So you were having sex. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’ve walked in on us more times than I can even count. Why is it different now?”

  I huff and cross my arms over my chest. Not having anything logical to answer him with aside from just because it was me and not them, I stick with my killer bitch glare instead.

  “Are you still going to be in charge of her security?” Luke continues his questioning, ignoring my attitude.

  “Of course, he is!”

  “No, I’m not.”

  Chance and I speak at the same time, and I almost fall out of my seat in my rush to look at him.

  “What do you mean you’re not? Are you leaving?” My words are rapid fire with a slight panic in my voice.

  Something flashes behind his eyes, but he takes his time answering my questions. He stands, swings one leg over the bench, and then settles back down. His hands tag my arms, and he slides me into the spot between his spread legs. His hands don’t leave my biceps, making lazy sweeps of his thumbs against my skin while he searches my rattled stare.

  “Are we not unioning?” His husky whisper eases some of the worry that had invaded my body.

  “We did, yeah.”

  “Did we not agree to give this a go?”

  I nod, woodenly. His lips twitch, and I feel myself starting to relax as that brain-dead buzz swirls around inside me.

  “We wouldn’t have made it past deciding to take that gamble together if I hadn’t been sure we were doing this right. I don’t do things halfway, Wrenlee, but I also do my best never to set myself up for failure. Our attraction was strong as hell before I had said one word to you. I think you know why I had tried to hold back, but I knew then that if something ever happened between us
, I wouldn’t ever want anything to taint that. You might have just given me you wholly, but I gave you me the day I met you.”

  I frown, pretty sure I get what he’s trying to say, but I want to be clear. “What are you talking about?”

  “I called my boss. I told him to refund your brother his deposit, cancel the hours logged, and to take me off the books for this job and any others indefinitely. He understood why without any issues, and I ended that call by asking him to grant me a leave of absence until further notice.”

  “You … so you are leaving? Wha … a refund?” I sputter, even more confused.

  “No, fuck no. I’m not going anywhere.” He adjusts us, framing my face, and just like that, I feel like we’re the only two people in the world. “I took a leave from the company in order to stay here until we decide what comes next. As for the refund, I wouldn’t feel right accepting money to keep you safe, not when I have a vested interest in your safety. Fuck, Wren, don’t you get it? My happiness depends on you staying safe. Even when we had just met, I felt that way. But now, I know my mind was driving me to do what my heart hadn’t realized yet. And when it did, I took care of things.”

  Dyllan sighs, but I only have eyes for Chance.

  “When did you do this, Chance? I’ve been with you all day.”

  I don’t have any trouble understanding the look on his face now. He actually looks a little uncomfortable.

  “I can answer that,” Wes butts in, drawing my notice.

  “I would rather hear it from Chance himself,” I tell him with an arch to my brow before looking away and back to Chance.

  “A while ago,” Chance evades.

  “Meaning?” I ask, not willing to let this go. Not when I have a feeling the answer holds a whole lot of importance.

  Chance exhales, and his hold on my arms tightens slightly. Not uncomfortable. His hold more to reassure I’m not going anywhere than an actual effort to hold me in place.

  “The day we landed in LA and became not husband and wife.”

  I gasp. His glances across the table briefly, the smallest movement, but I catch it and look over to see Wes nod. That would mean … “You knew!” I scream, pointing my finger in Wes’s face.