Troublemaker: Rascals: Book Five

by McCoy, Katie

  “You OK?” Chase asked. “You look a little overheated.”

  “I’m fine,” I said gruffly, but once he was back behind the bar, I went outside to try to cool down.

  It was cold enough to freeze my balls off, but it did very little to cool my ardor. Fuck. It was all because of that kiss. Knowing what Hayley felt like, knowing what she tasted like, had me on edge. Because it was one thing lusting after a fantasy. It was entirely something else to get a taste of that fantasy and to discover it was even better than I could have imagined.

  After a few moments in the cold, I headed back in, determined to do whatever I could to push Hayley out of my mind.

  Luckily, the bar was full of beautiful women. Any of them could serve as a necessary distraction.

  And it had been a while. I’d been so focused on working and raising the money to pay for the gym that my sex life had taken a back seat. I needed to find a woman and forget about Hayley. Forget about what I couldn’t have.

  I gestured for Chase to get another beer when a gorgeous redhead sat down next to me. She couldn’t have been more of an opposite to Hayley. Her long, leggy form would fit nicely against me, and the smile she gave me indicated that she wouldn’t be opposed to some attention.

  “What are you drinking?” she asked, leaning in close enough that I could smell her perfume.

  “Guinness,” I said, more gruffly than I intended.

  Because even though she was beautiful and inviting, the scent of her perfume, a rich, almost cloying aroma, had me thinking about the sweet, delicate scent that always seemed to hover around Hayley.

  I wanted to slam my head into the bar. What. Was. Wrong. With. Me?

  If the redhead noticed my mental dilemma, she didn’t show it. Instead, she sidled up closer to me.

  “Want to buy me a drink?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said.

  Not exactly the most enthusiastic response, but she didn’t seem to care. I ordered another drink for her, and she thanked me by putting her hand on my leg.

  “Ooh, you’re strong,” she commented, her long fingernails digging into my thigh.

  I didn’t mind aggressive women. They knew what they wanted, and when they wanted me, well, who was I to object?

  No doubt if Hayley ever learned of the way I fantasized about her—all the dirty, wicked things I wanted to do with her—she would run screaming in the other direction. Because Hayley was the kind of girl who deserved someone who could be gentle with her. And none of my sexual preferences involved gentleness.

  Naw. In my opinion, sex should be intense and wicked and a little bit dangerous. OK, maybe more than a little bit.

  And the redhead was looking at me like she was looking for a bit of danger. A little bit of trouble.

  But I couldn’t bring myself to muster up the interest. There was only one woman on my mind.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I promised I’d help out in the back.”

  And then I fled. Like a fucking teenager. Like a goddamn pussy.

  I went to the backroom and leaned my forehead against the wall, wondering if anyone would mind if I just put my head through it.

  “Dude.” Emerson joined me. “I don’t think I’ve see a guy choke that bad since Sawyer almost let Gabi get away.”

  I glared at him. “I didn’t fucking choke,” I told him. “I just wasn’t interested.”

  His eyebrows rose.

  “Not interested? Since when do you turn down gorgeous women who are obviously looking for a good time?”

  “Since tonight,” I nearly growled at him. “Since I’m not in the fucking mood.”

  He clapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about. Happens to all of us.”

  I gritted my teeth. “I. Didn’t. Choke.”

  He wasn’t even listening. “I mean, it had to happen eventually. The way that beautiful women always throw themselves at you, when all you’re doing is sitting at the bar looking like a very annoyed James Dean, that must get old after a while. Must be hard for you.”

  “Fuck you,” I glared.

  He just grinned back at me. “Do you want me to let you know when she’s left and it’s safe for you to go back to the bar?”

  I stared at the wall again, this time wondering if I could put Emerson’s head through it as well.

  Then his phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket, looking at the number with a frown.

  “Hayley,” he answered. “What’s up? Thought you were out with your secret boyfriend tonight.”

  I could only hear the soft, indelible murmur of her voice on the other end of the line, but even that was enough to make me hard. Goddammit.

  Emerson nodded, his mouth in a tight line. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Drop a pin where you are and someone will come and get you.”

  He hung up and ran a hand through his hair.

  “Fuck,” he said.

  “What’s wrong?” I immediately balled my hands into fists thinking that something had happened between Hayley and her goddamn secret boyfriend.

  “Hayley got a flat,” he said.

  “Can’t she just change the tire herself?”

  Emerson gave me a look. “Have you met my sister? And my family for that matter? Can you imagine anyone teaching her how to change a tire?”

  It was a fair point.

  “Did she call triple A?” I asked.

  Emerson nodded. “They’re crazy busy right now, so it might take a couple of hours for them to reach her.” He sighed. “I was supposed to meet Alex tonight. She just finished a big case, and we were planning on celebrating.” He looked at me. “I don’t suppose you’re doing anything right now.”

  He knew I wasn’t.

  “I would owe you,” Emerson said, and something in his eyes made it clear that he really, really didn’t want to cancel his plans with Alex.

  I let out a slow breath.

  “Where is she?”

  He gave me the address, outside the city, and I frowned.

  “What is she doing in that neighborhood?” I asked.

  Emerson shrugged. “She wouldn’t say. I think it’s the secret boyfriend.”

  My jaw clenched. I didn’t know what was worse—the possibility that I’d show up and some guy would be there with her, or that he had abandoned her in a shitty part of town. Either way, I left the bar in a bad mood and it only got worse the closer I got to her location.

  When I arrived, she was standing on the side of the highway, struggling ineffectually with the tire.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as I got out of my car.

  She startled. “You,” she said.

  “Me,” I responded before kneeling down to look at the offending tire.

  It was, unsurprisingly, extremely flat.

  “Where’s your spare?” I asked.

  “On the back left,” she said with a guilty shrug. “I forgot to get it replaced, but the tow should be here in a bit.”

  “I can drive you home,” I told her, knowing that I was tempting fate by putting myself in a small, enclosed space with her.

  “What happened to Emerson?” she wanted to know.

  “He had big plans with Alex,” I said. “Called in a favor.”

  Hayley nodded. She had obviously been out in the cold for a while, because the tip of her nose and her cheeks were red. Just like the first time we’d met.

  “The tow will take care of your car,” I told her gruffly. “Let’s get you home.”

  For a moment I thought she would argue, but instead, she got her bag out of the car and hopped into mine.

  No sign of the secret boyfriend. I clenched my fist, thinking that if I ever found out who this guy was, I’d beat the living crap out of him for abandoning Hayley on the side of the highway like that.

  We got on the road, the car full with an uncomfortable, tense silence.

  “Turn here,” Hayley directed me.

  It wasn’t the usual way to get to her apartment—a place I h
ad been a few times for the various smaller parties she liked to throw—but I followed her instructions, heading to the downtown core. It was a busy night, people out at bars and restaurants, despite the cold.

  “Pull over here,” she finally said, pointing to a crowded area.

  “This isn’t your apartment,” I noticed, pulling up behind a brightly painted truck.

  “I’m buying you dinner,” she declared. “As a thank you for picking me up.”

  I wanted to refuse the offer but just then my stomach growled, and my excuse of “I’m not hungry” would have been laughed at. So, I got out of the car and followed her to the line of food trucks parked along the street.

  “What do you want?” she asked brightly. “They’ve got everything.”

  She looked so pretty, the lights from the trucks reflecting in her eyes and making her pale skin glow. Everything about her was precious and delicate and fucking hot as hell. The dual desires to protect and ravish her warred inside of me.

  I ended up choosing the Thai street food truck, gruffly thanking her for the food. She got the same and we moved back to my car to eat inside where I could blast the heat. I tried to eat as quickly as I could. Finally, after what seemed like ages, she was done. I was about to pull away from the curb when she pulled out her phone.

  “I’ll get a Lyft from here,” she said. “You’ve done more than enough.”

  “I don’t mind,” I told her, but she had already ordered a car.

  “They’ll be here in five minutes,” she said.

  I nodded, drumming my fingers along the wheel.

  “Thanks again for picking me up,” Hayley told me, flushing a little.

  “Thanks for the food,” I responded.

  My entire body felt tense, like I was moments away from jumping out of my skin. Or jumping Hayley. Which was definitely not an option.

  Then Hayley’s phone chirped.

  “Looks like my ride is almost here,” she said, but didn’t move to get out of the car.

  Instead, she stared at me.

  “What?” I asked, the tension leading to annoyance.

  Then, without warning, she leaned forward and kissed me. At first, it was just the softest of touches, just her silky-smooth lips against mine. Then she kissed me harder, her hands burrowing into my hair, her tongue sliding into my mouth. It was hot. It was so fucking hot and I couldn’t help but respond in kind, pushing back against her, dragging my tongue against her bottom lip. I wanted to devour her.

  But before the kiss could go any further, before I could fist my hands in her hair and push her back against the seat, she pulled away.

  “There,” she said, breathing heavily. “Now we’re even.”

  Then, without another word, she got out of the car and slammed the door behind her.

  Well, fuck. How was I supposed to keep ignoring her now?

  8

  Hayley

  The thrill from my second kiss with Dante took almost a week to wear off, and even so, I couldn’t help having a bit of a spring in my step when I headed to meet Alex for lunch near Rascals.

  It was hard not to feel good. Not only had the kiss been hot as hell, but I was pretty sure that Dante had enjoyed it just as much as I had. The way he had taken charge of the kiss—how he had thrust his tongue in my mouth as if he wanted to eat me up, well, that had been pretty fucking hot. It had taken all my willpower to pull away from him at the moment, when all I wanted was for him to yank me into the back seat and have his wicked way with me. I spent the whole rest of the evening aching for him. And if the bulge I’d noticed in his jeans was any indication, he had been just as turned on as well.

  The thought of getting that kind of reaction from someone as stoic as Dante gave me a thrill. He wanted me. Even if he wasn’t about to admit it out loud, the physical evidence had been enough encouragement for me. There was something there—something between us. Something hot and dangerous and sexy as fuck.

  But the whole thing had been worth it just for the shocked expression on his face when I pulled away. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried—and I hadn’t. The whole thing had been an impulse. The intention had been to find someone else to get over Dante, to wipe that first kiss from my memory, but when he had shown up on the ride of the road—my actual knight in shining armor—I figured that fate was trying to tell me something.

  Whatever was going on between me and Dante was something I needed to pursue. Because the chemistry between us was off the charts—hot like I’d never experienced before—and it seemed that fate was telling me to grab that chemistry by the front of his shirt and not let go until we were both satisfied.

  Just the thought of that—of Dante satisfying me—made my entire body heat up.

  “Wow,” Alex commented when I walked into the restaurant. “You look like you’re walking on air. Secret boyfriend?” she asked with a wink.

  I paused for a moment, which was a mistake.

  Instantly, her eyes lit up and she leaned forward.

  “So there is someone, isn’t there?”

  I knew I couldn’t be specific, knew that if I told Alex it was Dante I was kissing and fantasizing about, that it would eventually get back to Emerson, and that was the last thing I needed right now. Because I knew that Dante had been hardwired since we first met to think of me as Emerson’s little sister and, by proxy, the little sister of that entire circle of friends. It had always been a little annoying, having five extremely protective older brothers, but I didn’t mind it as much with my actual brother and Chase, Liam, and Sawyer. I wasn’t interested in any of them, and had never been. Plus, now they were all happily coupled up, so they were even more off limits.

  That didn’t bother me.

  Dante bothered me. He had always bothered me. The way he teased me and called me “princess” and always treated me like a spoiled rich kid. It was easy and comfortable to be annoyed with him. But now that annoyance was mixed with something else. Something much more intense.

  I wanted to kill him, but I also wanted to kiss him.

  His kiss had opened floodgates I hadn’t even realized were there. Or maybe I had and done my level best to ignore. Because he was Dante. The guy whose only long-term commitment seemed to be his silent partnership in the bar. I wanted to get married and have a family someday and well, as attractive as Dante was, I knew that was something we’d never agree on. He was a loner and seemed to like it that way.

  Still, I wanted him, and I was tired of letting my life happen to me. I wanted to make things happen. I wanted to make Dante happen.

  But how? I didn’t have that much experience with guys and even less experience with guys like Dante. Embarrassingly enough, my parents were usually the way I got dates these days, and those guys were the polar opposite of Dante. Guys like Mike who were nice and well connected, and well, a little boring.

  Dante was not boring. Not for a moment. And he certainly wouldn’t be boring in the bedroom.

  I got a little shiver thinking about it.

  And realized that Alex was still staring at me, waiting for a response.

  “There is kind of a secret boyfriend thing,” I confessed.

  She let out a whoop of victory. “I knew it,” she said. “Emerson thought I was imagining things, but I knew I wasn’t. I knew something was different about the way you were acting,” she smiled at me. “So, who is he?”

  I gave her a look.

  “Right, right,” she held up her hands. “Guess we’re still in the ‘secret’ phase.”

  “It’s just really new,” I said apologetically. “And you know how protective Emerson can get about the guys I date.”

  Alex nodded. “I do remember the half-hour interrogation he gave Mike the first time we met him.”

  I sighed, remembering that as well. It had been miserable and awkward as Emerson grilled Mike about his “intentions” towards me. As if I was some ignorant virgin about to be set upon by a raving sex fiend.

  I could only imagine how that
whole thing would go down if Emerson knew it was Dante I was interested in. No doubt that interrogation would just be a bare-knuckle brawl between the two of them, and I loved my brother, but there was no way he’d win in a fight against Dante. The man was ripped.

  Just the thought of having his extremely well-built body to myself made me sigh.

  “Whoa,” Alex said, sitting back. “Looks like you’ve got it bad.”

  I winced. “Am I that obvious?” I asked.

  She smiled. “Only to a friend,” she told me. “So, even though you can’t tell me who the guy is, can you tell me about what’s happening between you two?”

  I paused, chewing at my bottom lip. “It’s complicated,” I said, trying to figure out how to talk about it without revealing too much information.

  Alex cracked her knuckles. “Let’s uncomplicate it, then.”

  I laughed. It would be nice to get some advice on the situation because after that kiss, I wasn’t sure what to do.

  “He’s a little hard to read,” I said slowly. “He made the first move, but now, it’s like he doesn’t want to be near me at all.”

  Alex looked thoughtful. “Maybe he’s worried about getting too close?”

  I snorted. Dante? Getting close to someone?

  “He’s not that kind of guy,” I said. “He’s not the relationship type.”

  Alex raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know you were interested in those kinds of guys.”

  “I’m not usually,” I confessed. “But . . . I don’t know. Maybe I need something different right now. Something fun and casual.”

  “I know what that’s like,” Alex said. “Those guys definitely have their benefits.”

  Oh, I had a pretty good idea of what the benefits would be with Dante. And my body was aching with the anticipation of it all. I just didn’t know how to take it to the next level. Which is what I told Alex.

  “I feel like the ball is in his court now,” I said. “But I don’t know if he’ll take the chance.”

  “So don’t wait for him to,” Alex told me. “Take charge of the situation. Take control.”

  The thought of taking control of Dante gave me another shiver. And if the kiss the other night was any indication, he would take that control and flip it on its head. Which is what I wanted. I wanted a man that was going to take charge, but I had to make it clear that I wanted him to take that next step.