by J. L. Beck
That’s when a flash catches my eye.
I open the door, the scent of fresh-cut grass licking my nose, and, in the distance where Cole and War’s cottage sits, I watch the men.
War’s wearing dark denim, black or navy, with a white collared shirt. Cole’s dressed similarly, always the twins. They slide inside the 4 x 4, and spin a U in the gravel driveway, kicking up dust in their trail as they head toward town.
The cleaner falls from my hand, clattering against the floor. I’ve fallen just as hard for them. In truth, I’ve been avoiding them all week as well. Running, hiding from the ones who love me most. Hiding from my fears and the repercussions I’ve been warned about.
I didn’t come across the states to go home to Virginia a virgin. Or to return to the life I’ve created in Virginia without knowing for sure if we could make this work.
Friday night just got a lot more daring, but I’m up for the challenge, and am pulling out all the stops—or at least I’m pulling out the little black dress and the fuck-me heels sitting in my closet and waiting for me all week. This is my town, my people, too. What could go wrong?
Chapter Eight
Cole
The cold brew slides down my throat too easily. I pick at the label as I scan BJ’s Pub. Balls crack, glasses clink, and laughter crams the tight quarters jumping with the rhythm of country twang from the big band jamming on the small stage. I didn’t want to come tonight, not when I'm consumed with being with the one person I can’t be with. Maddie.
But hell if I’ll spend Friday night watching some dumbass show on television, knowing Maddie’s across the property and off-limits. We haven’t spoken to her all week, which in the long run, is probably for the best. The distraction of the band, the booze, and the familiar faces would normally fill the emptiness of any other week, but a hollowness I can’t seem to drink away fills me tonight.
“Grab us a booth in the back. I’ll get another pitcher of beer.” I sling the words over my shoulder at Warren.
It was his idea to come out as another way to avoid Maddie. When you can’t fix your problems, run from them, right?
“What can I get ya, Cole?” Morgan the bartender and ex-girlfriend to Warren purrs, sliding me a shot on the house that I down within seconds.
The whiskey burn warms my belly as I take in her fake tan, painted-on face, and perfectly straight white teeth. She’s looking at me as if I’m the next item on her menu.
No, thank you, I almost say aloud.
“Thanks for the shot. Just a pitcher of beer please,” I grit out, twisting around so I don’t have to see her face anymore.
As soon as I do, I regret it, noticing the busty blonde as soon as she walks through the door. Melissa Goodwin. Fuck. I grip the beer bottle harder, wishing I was with Maddie instead of in this stuffy bar. Hell, my twin and I are way over our heads, and we both know it.
“Cole!” Melissa squeals with excitement right as Morgan places two frosted glasses and a pitcher of beer on the bar, the contents sloshing over the sides.
I place a twenty next to the pitcher. The desire to hightail it across the pub before Melissa reaches me is all consuming, and I start off in the direction of Warren, who is giving me the most impatient look ever.
“Wait, where are you going?” High heels clack against the floor right behind me.
I don’t stop to figure out what Melissa wants. I learned long ago she was nothing but more trouble than she’s worth, and of course, she isn’t Maddie.
“What’s she doing here?”
Warren grumbles under his breath as I set the pitcher with a couple frosted glass mugs on the table. I shrug because honestly, I have no idea.
“I’ve missed you- Coley!”
Her high-pitched squeal was never one I grew accustomed to, and the longer she sticks around, knowing she’s uninvited, the more I wonder what I ever found interesting in her.
Melissa lands her well-manicured hand against my shoulder, forcing me to spin around and face her. It’s been five years since I last saw her, so why the hell is she here, acting like she never cheated on me? A woman I’ve never seen before slides into the booth next to Warren. His disapproval and frustration is thick and syrupy, saturating my mood.
“What’s up, Melissa?” I force a smile, one hand wrapped around my beer, the other in the front pocket of my wranglers.
“Long time, huh? I’ve missed you.” She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip as she eyes me up and down, just as Morgan does.
“Missed me? Really? I find that hard to believe.” I take a long pull from my beer, wishing it was Maddie’s lips I was kissing, her delicious pussy that’s pure and eager for me to lap and—
Fuck, I’ve gotta get over her. We’ll never have her as our own.
“Oh, I have missed you…” Melissa drops her hand down to my cock, gripping me by the front of my jeans as she kneels on the bench seat.
Under normal circumstances, I’d have been taking her to the bathroom and screwing her brains out by now, but I’m not normal anymore.
Not since… I shake my head, trying to change my thoughts. “How… How have you been?” I stumble, and Melissa smiles, I’m assuming because she thinks I’m turned on, even though my dick’s sucked up to damn near my asshole.
“Good….” She rubs her tits against my chest, her lips inches from mine.
Fuck, her scent of smoke and vodka causes my belly to convulse. There’s a lanyard hanging from her neck, giving her backstage access to the band. Just like Melissa to work backdoor deals, but tonight she won’t be working me. “Melissa, I’m actually waiting for—”
“And I’m here, Coley.” She slips in next to me. “And I’d be even better if you were inside me.” She hiccups.
Bile rises in my throat. Even worse, I can hear the other chick asking Warren if he’s got a girlfriend.
He pierces me with his stare, and I know exactly how he’s feeling, which is why I attempt to lie to Melissa again. “That’s great and all, but…”
Melissa presses her lips against mine, her hand still firm against the front of my jeans, gripping my cock before I can finish what I’m saying. She’s trying to climb me like a tree when I hear the gasp of an all-too-familiar voice.
I push Melissa away, fear raining down on me like acid.
Maddie’s in four-inch heels. Legs for days reach up mid-thigh to where her black dress molds over her precious curves.
Curves I should be caressing again instead of avoiding like I’ve done all week. What the fuck is wrong with me? With us? I’ve gotta fight for this relationship, as foreign as dreaming for someone to call mine—ours—seems if I’m to reach the next level. “Maddie, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Melissa staggers across the peanut-hull-covered floor when I push her off the seat. “It most certainly is, Coley.”
“Coley?” Maddie croaks, her voice cracking as she goes rigid. “This is what you do instead of being with me?” She pins her stare on Warren. “And you, Warren? I thought...that we…”
Knots fill my stomach, as soon as I absorb the shock in Maddie’s eyes and her quivering chin. I never want to be the cause of her discomfort, but that’s exactly what I’ve done. “Maddie, sugar, I want you here, with me. With us.”
“With us?” Maddie murmurs.
Melissa whirls around, facing Maddie, and pops out her hip. “Don’t be naive, Maddie. If Cole wanted you here, you’d be here. It’s not like he’s going to fuck you or anything. You’re practically his little sister. And Warren? You think he’s going home alone? Plus, are you even old enough to be in this bar?”
As soon as I see the pain flicker in Maddie’s eyes, I lose it. The stress from hiding my feelings for Maddie takes over. No way in hell am I puking my guts out in front of Maddie, either.
In seconds, I’m running to the bathroom, barely containing the vomit rising in my throat. Because that’s what the Pierces do. They hide their shit, or at least, I do, believing I’m not good enough for anyone like Mad
die.
Except I want to be man enough for her. Only her. I catch my image in the restroom mirror, knowing that guy who's staring back at me is ready to risk everything for the woman he loves.
Hurting Maddie was never my intention, but now I wonder if we’ve taken things too far, if we’ve already broken her heart.
Chapter Nine
Maddie
“Maddie, wait up. Let me explain...”
War’s voice slams into the back of me as I’m hightailing it toward my car, parked so far out in the back-forty the distance might as well be a mile.
Little good it does me to increase my speed in these ridiculous shoes when I’m more comfortable in my flats, and the fact War’s stomping boots behind me and will catch me in a hot minute. But I don’t want to face the truths that everyone keeps spelling out for me.
I’m younger and inexperienced. I’m a joke for thinking I could please these men whose tastes can’t be satisfied by the most beautiful women in the bar.
“Come on, Maddie...”
War’s voice is laced with raw concern, and it stops me in my tracks when his voice cracks. He’s more like me than Cole in the sensitivity department. At least that’s what I believed until Cole turned ashen and bolted for the men’s room. Maybe we’ve all been hiding our feelings longer than I’ve imagined.
But as War approaches, he’s taking a chance at exposing us, considering the parking area packed with cars and guests straggle into tonight’s gig.
Guess I need to face him, so I do.
War locks his molten stare on mine as if he’s planning on fucking me right here in the parking lot.
Heat flares through my core, and I inhale a quick breath at the thought because in his eyes I see desperation I haven’t seen before, reminding me he’s a hell of a lot older and way more experienced than I am.
He grips my shoulders, hauling me upward, and crushes his mouth against mine. “It’s been too fucking long since I tasted you, come all over your fuckable lips. I want to bury my seed inside you, Maddie. It’s what I’ve always wanted. What Cole has wanted. To make you ours. We shouldn’t have stayed away all week when our time together is too short. That was a coward’s move, and I’m no fucking coward. Even now, it’s killing me to have you so close without claiming your tight pussy as mine, as ours. I can’t.”
He lifts me, wrapping my legs around his hips, and marches us back toward the bar, grinding his hard cock against my sensitive wedge.
“I won’t waste another chance to claim you.”
Truth glimmers in his misty eyes, and I want to blame it on the alcohol. It would be safer, I suppose, to kiss him and blame his hunger for me on anything but what we have together. “That’s not how I saw it in the bar.”
“We fucking love you, Maddie. Don’t you get that? Can’t you see we could lose everything? That this shit is as real as it gets? And I’m trying to hold out but failing?”
A crack of light in the night sky above releases spits of rain that start out small but increase as if War’s controlling the weather as he’s tightening his grip on my hair, my waist until I’m panting and wet, but not from the rain. He’s as crazed as I’ve seen him when Spartan bucks him off. I take a deep breath and gaze up at him, his heated breath wafting his sweet scent across my cheeks. “And you’re both worth the risks to me. I know we can have what we want, if we believe in dreams.”
His mouth consumes mine again, and the delicate taste is a mixture of orange citrus and beer. A deep need I can’t deny him or myself, even if I should, overwhelms me. “I don’t care about anything else, if I have you and Cole.”
He stabs my curls with thick fingers, tugging my head back and soliciting a hiss from me as he sucks my neck, right over my jumping pulse.
“It’s what I want to hear, babe. But give me a chance to reverse the fucked-up week I’ve had. We’ve had.”
I check out the bar front, wondering what Cole’s doing inside and why he hasn’t come out after me—could be he’s actually worshiping the porcelain god, which is strange, considering I’ve seen the man hold down more liquor than a keg. The only time Cole ever gets sick is when he’s angry or upset. “Is Cole okay?”
“He will be if you come back with me and hang with us, shoot some pool…” He brushes his lips against mine, takes my bottom lip into his mouth, and slides his hand down to my ass, squeezing.
I hum against his lips. He feels so warm and good in my arms that I want to stay planted right here under the fall of rain, like one huge shower. I release a mixture of tension and pleasure from his expert touch I’ve been craving and denying myself this past week, which is quickly snatched away by the vision of Melissa. She’d been pressed against Cole similar to the way I am with War, and Cole didn’t seem too bothered by her until he’d heard me behind him. “What about Melissa? What if Cole’s still interested in her?”
War blows a breath, like he’s revisiting an old wound. Maybe I’m nosing where I don’t belong.
“Melissa meant something to Cole once, but not any longer.” He lifts my chin when I glance down. “Even then, Cole never cared for her in the same way he cares about you.”
The men are older, more experienced. They’d had lives before me and developed relationships. Melissa is their age, one of their classmates, Cole’s high school senior ball date. Those two have a deep history, and Cole’s dating background didn’t ever include me. At least I hadn’t realized until now. I take a deep breath. “If Melissa didn’t mean anything to Cole, he’d be here kissing me instead of you, wouldn’t he?”
War opens his mouth, and then closes it.
“Okay, War. I realize Cole may be sick. But he and Melissa had something once. Maybe they can get it back again.” I shrug, trying my hardest not to sound upset picturing Cole happy with someone else.
War pulls back, the hunger in his eyes fading a bit. “He doesn’t want her, Maddie. Only time and proving we both want you will help repair the damage tonight’s caused.” He tosses his head over his shoulder. “Come on inside with me, with us? We want to explore where this thing between us will go.”
I don’t own them. We fooled around once, and that doesn’t mean we’re together, I remind myself, but I follow him back, darting my gaze to him as he saunters toward the pub. “So what about Melissa and that other girl sitting with you?”
“Melissa had it bad for Cole once, but he’s just a game to her. Cole’s no longer into games, so he’s not into her. But she’s tenacious. If she thinks you want Cole, she’s going to up her game, and she’s a mean bitch. So stay away from her,” War warns, slowing up when he spots the woman who was sitting next to him heading outside, her arm linked with some other guy.
I’m not blind to the fact he’s checking her out. “So who’s the girl you’re with? You fuck her, too?” My words rush out, as if my lips have a mind of their own, and I wish I could take them back because War shoots me a glare, and I’m not ignorant to the hurt in his gaze.
“No. Fuck, no. She’s some skank who thinks I’m a tool she can take home to deliver the big O. Maddie, you know me better than that.”
He’s right. And the info about what the woman wanted from him would have gained from me nothing more than a shoulder pump and smirk from if it were anyone else capturing the woman’s attentions. But it’s War.
And he’s mine.
Caution jitters through me. Clearly, Melissa struck a chord, pointing out our age difference and my lack of experience, which seriously sucks that I’ve spent the last decade buried so deep in my studies I’ve kept myself from dating and am as easily rattled as a teenager fighting over a Sadie Hawking’s dance partner. Am I ready for the truth? No, but I have to be if I want a future with them. “Is that what happens when you both go out?”
“At one time, maybe.” War rakes his fingers through his damp hair. “But we’re not into shallow hookups anymore. We both want something lasting, something real. Grounded. Like…”
Me. He doesn’t say the word, but it hovers
in the space between us like a wish. War threads his fingers through my hair, tightening his grip almost to the point of pain, causing a shudder of need to rip through me. What if he’s telling the truth? I have to be sure, don’t I? “What would Melissa do if she found out we were all together? I mean, what’s the worst she’s done?”
War’s eyes pierce mine as he speaks. “Melissa thinks she owns Cole. She’s done horrible things to his exes. One girl almost killed herself because of Melissa’s antics.” War pauses.
He can’t actually be telling the truth. A woman like Melissa could never have that kind of power over another person, could she? “How could someone like Melissa make someone do that?”
War glances away.
Clearly, he doesn’t want to tell me what happened, but I need to know. I need to know what I’m up against by claiming Cole and War. Especially, if Melissa is a danger to us. “Please… Please tell me, War…” I plead, cupping him by the cheeks, feeling the primal need roll off him.
“She’s bullied people, little one, ruined their lives, and ran them out of town. She can turn your world upside down with the flick of her forked tongue.”
I nibble on my bottom lip, understanding exactly what he’s saying. Abuse doesn’t need to be physical violence; emotional is just as damaging. Even though I don’t want to believe what War is telling me, I know otherwise. He’s dead serious. With my hands cupping his face, I place a soft kiss against his lips, letting him set the pace. A smile tugs at my lips as a groan of pleasure erupts from his throat. I’ll never let her hurt us, I vow. “I still want you. No rumors or hate crimes are going to keep me away, not my desire, not my need to have you take me along with Cole. Not your past. Not the future. Not Melissa.”
“Fuck…” He blows a breath, smoothing back his rain-soaked hair again. “Let’s get you inside where we can warm you up properly. Have some fun, then figure out what the rest of the night entails.”
I don’t want to stop kissing him, but I don’t want to roll over the problem that’s waiting inside for me. I shimmy from his grip, sliding my body slowly against his ripped abs and hard-on I’m wanting to suck off in the middle of BJ’s. I chuckle.