Vodka On The Rocks (The Uncertain Saints Book 3)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Parker grimaced.

  “My brother’s a dumbass,” she muttered under her breath. “I’ll get your TV back for you, but I’m not spending this money on it. I’ll buy you groceries instead.”

  “Hmm,” I said. “Just make sure you get me some cheese squares.”

  “Aspen,” Parker said. “You can’t eat like that when you have no way to workout. You’re gonna get fat.”

  “I’ve got it all planned out,” I said. “I can go all the way to the end of my yard on the back side, and all the way to the sidewalk in the front. It’s exactly five thousand two hundred and eighty feet if I make the loop around seven and a half times.”

  She looked at me.

  “How’d you figure that out?” she asked.

  I shrugged.

  “I got bored this afternoon, and my uncle left that roll thing that measures out distance,” I pointed to the measuring tape that was on the table next to the door.

  She snorted.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll bring you some food back tomorrow. And if my brother doesn’t drop the TV off, I’ll make sure to bring you one.”

  I threw my hands around my best friend.

  “You know I don’t blame you, right?” I asked.

  She sighed.

  “Yes,” she nodded. “But I’m the one who set you up with him in the first place. I thought he’d changed his ways. Had I known he was just going to go back to his cheating and whoring around, I would’ve never given him the permission to date you.”

  I gave her a look.

  “Since when has my boyfr, err…your brother done anything that he was supposed to do?” I asked. “You could’ve told him all day long to stay away from me, but he would’ve inevitably done exactly what he wanted to do in the end.”

  “Well,” she said while heading to the door. “It doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

  I stared at the back of her head. “Parker,” I said. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Stupid?” she said sweetly. “Never.”

  ***

  A banging at my door woke me up.

  I startled, sitting up and dislodging the cat from my feet, effectively pissing him off and justifying the attack he led on my feet not two seconds later.

  “Motherfuck sucker!” I growled, yanking my feet away.

  The cat looked up at me with his adorable mutant eyes.

  “Go fuck yourself, Lucifer,” I growled.

  Lucifer didn’t bother to look innocent anymore, instead he hissed at me.

  “Fucker,” I muttered, getting out of bed as I did.

  Grabbing the robe, which belonged to Danny, and wrapping it around my shoulders, I walked to the front door and peeped out the hole.

  My eyes narrowed as I looked at my ex-boyfriend in despise.

  “What do you want?” I asked him, looking back over my shoulder at the clock above my fire place.

  Three in the morning. Awesome.

  “My sister’s making me bring the TV back, and if you want it inside, I suggest you open the door or I’ll leave it on the front porch. And we both know you won’t be able to move it,” Danny said annoyingly.

  “Just leave it,” I said. “I’ll get Jonah or Downy to move it tomorrow.”

  Danny had the nerve to laugh.

  “Go away,” I growled through the door.

  He did, making sure to take the TV to the very border of my yard first.

  Danny left, but not before he accidentally kicked the TV over, leaving it sprawling in the wet grass just outside of range for my anklet.

  “Son of a bitch,” I growled, yanking open the door in time to see Danny speed off in his stupid nice pickup truck that we’d picked out together. Although it looked worse for wear, causing me to smile.

  I walked down the sidewalk, stopping just at the edge of my yard.

  I stared down at the anklet, lifting my robe out of the way, and tested it.

  The instant my foot went out of range, it started blinking red.

  Then Mrs. Farchild’s words drifted through my brain.

  “You’ll have ten seconds to get back in the safe zone, or a police cruiser will be sent to your house to see why you’ve stepped out of your yard.”

  Grimacing, I moved back inside my yard and stared at the TV.

  It was definitely deliberate.

  “Damn him!” I growled in pure frustration.

  A door opening from across the street had me looking up in time for the new neighbor to come out, a pretty lady latched onto him as he did.

  He gave her one hot, wet kiss, and then lifted his head from the woman’s mouth.

  “G’night,” the man muttered, setting the woman away from him. “Thanks for helping.”

  My brows rose.

  Was that code for ‘thanks for sucking my cock?’

  The man’s eyes came to me when the woman went to her car, giggling and waving her shoulder the entire way.

  He watched me, but I turned my eyes down to the TV once again.

  The car finally left, and I sighed, turning around and heading back to my front door.

  “You getting rid of that?” I heard, the man a lot closer this time than he’d been when I started heading back to my car.

  I turned to find him standing in the middle of the street.

  “No, I just got it back. Last time I checked, it worked fine,” I said. “But I can’t get it back in my house.”

  “Why’s it outside in the first place?” he asked.

  I pinched my lips as I glared at the man.

  “Because my ex dropped it off there, knowing damn well I couldn’t get it.”

  “Interesting,” he said. “Do you want me to bring it in?”

  I weighed the benefits of getting the TV in against the fact that he might possibly be a serial killer.

  Knowing damn well I couldn’t live without the TV, I decided to take a chance with my life and said, “Please.”

  The man didn’t even hesitate; instead, I moved out of his way, sweeping my hand in an embellished fashion to get him moving.

  “After you,” I said.

  He picked the TV up as if it weighed nothing, and easily walked up the path and into the house, stopping once he was in the living room.

  “Where do you want it?” he asked.

  I pursed my lips and pointed to where it used to be.

  “It used to be right there, hanging above the mantle, but I think he took the wall mount for it, so you’ll have to just put it on the floor, I guess,” I said, pointing to a blank spot where the recliner I’d bought Danny used to sit.

  His brows furrowed at my mention of him taking the mount, but he placed it on the floor anyway, stepping back once I had.

  “Thank you,” I said softly. “I really appreciate it.”

  Now get out of my house, please. I don’t really want to die.

  He must’ve sensed my thoughts because he headed to the door without another word, not stopping until he was down at the end of my yard standing next to my mailbox.

  “Don’t let him into your house anymore,” he said. “And I’d suggest changing your locks. If you want to get new locks, I’ll put them on for you.”

  I lifted my robe up slightly to show my anklet monitor.

  “No can do, sir. I can’t go out even if I wanted to,” I informed him.

  His eyes went down to my ankle, his gaze being captured by the blinking red dot.

  “You’re on house arrest?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yep.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  There was no way he didn’t know.

  None.

  I’d been the talk of the county; my own brother is a cop.

  There was seriously no way he didn’t know why I was on house arrest, but I decided to tell him anyway.

  Tomorrow.

  Instead of saying goodbye, or even a ‘see you tomorrow’ I closed the door without
another word.

  I couldn’t handle adulting anymore right now.

  Tomorrow would be soon enough.

  Coming Soon Part Two

  I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie

  Book 1 in The I Like Big Dragons Series

  8-17-16

  Chapter 1

  Blythe

  I walked out of the restaurant where I worked and hurried quickly to my apartment, thanking God that I was so close. I didn’t think my legs could take much more.

  My knees were killing me after being on my feet for the past eight hours straight. Not a single break in the whole time I was on shift.

  Thanks, Macy, for not showing up for your shift and making me work both yours and my sections. It was fucking awesome, I thought sourly.

  I entered the building, forgoing the mail seeing as, if I stopped, I wasn’t sure my legs would hold me up anymore.

  I took the one flight of stairs up to my apartment, and had nearly reached my door when a large man came barreling out of the apartment next to mine.

  No, big wasn’t the right word.

  He was huge.

  Big, with beautiful brown hair, a strong jaw, and gorgeous brown eyes. Eyes that actually leaned more towards gold rather than brown.

  His eyes flicked up to me and away just as fast, instead focusing on the man he was dragging out of the apartment with him, kicking and screaming.

  A nearly naked man.

  I flattened myself against the wall, but the shoulders of the large man in his impeccable business suit still brushed my collarbone in the narrow hallway.

  His bare hand brushed the exposed skin of my legs where my shorts ranged on the too-short side of short.

  An electric jolt surged through me, making my back straighten, and my eyes to fasten onto his as he passed.

  His eyes were just as wide, and looking at me like I’d just grabbed his testicles in a one handed grip… which I most certainly did not.

  Not that it wasn’t tempting, but I didn’t think I could work up the energy to have sex with the handsome man, even if my body did yearn for his.

  I started walking away on wobbly legs just as he passed me, ignoring the man he was dragging completely.

  I’d seen the two before, of course.

  The apartment he’d come out of was Macy’s. And the man he was dragging was Farrow, her boyfriend. He’d probably been the reason that Macy hadn’t come into work today, the big bastard.

  The other man I didn’t know the name of appeared to be related to Macy’s boyfriend by the way they were bickering.

  Now I knew his touch set my vagina on fire, and I needed to avoid him at all costs.

  Something I could easily do since it was more than obvious he’d never stoop down to my level. Slumming didn’t even look like it was a word in that man’s vocabulary.

  As I got my door open, though, I looked over my shoulder to see the man’s eyes on me.

  He was staring at me intently.

  I didn’t touch your balls, why are you staring at me like I did something inappropriate? I wondered.

  His smile widened, almost as if he’d heard my thoughts.

  My eyes narrowed on him, and he began to laugh as he started to pull his brother down the flight of stairs by his hair.

  Farrow straightened up and went willingly, walking, because he didn’t want to be drug down them, I’d guessed.

  The man didn’t look like the type to take no for an answer.

  Closing and locking the door, I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the fridge and walked straight to my room, ignoring the large pile of clothes on the floor that I’d yet to pick up from where they’d fallen that morning.

  I hated doing laundry. And it didn’t matter, even if I did. My cat, Teller, a.k.a. Slimeball, would knock them down even if I’d taken the time to fold them.

  My shoes were kicked off in the hallway, and my shorts soon followed.

  My shirt was the last thing to go as I made it into my bedroom.

  I stood by the open window, taking my jewelry off and placing it on the nightstand when I looked up and screamed.

  That was because there was a big fucking dragon sitting in the alley that my window overlooked.

  His head was level with my open window, and his large face turned to look at me in curiosity.

  He was a beautiful gray beast, about the size of a cement truck. He had large red horns protruding from the top of his head, and beautiful red wings folded compactly against his back.

  His red tail flicked like a cat’s, thick and strong. The end barbed with what resembled one of those medieval metal balls with spikes attached to a chain on a stick.

  I reached out in awe, my hands only inches away from the dragon’s nose.

  Then I thought better of it.

  I covered myself even though he was only a dragon, which I was happy I’d done a moment later when the large man dragging his brother walked out the backdoor and straight up to the large dragon.

  His gray eyes flicked up at me, and his lips curved into a sexy grin as he threw his brother at the dragon.

  The dragon caught Farrow with a giant clawed hand, then extended his tail to the other man.

  The man climbed up on the dragon’s back.

  His strong powerful thighs hugged the dragon’s side expertly as he reached for his glasses that were in his front suit pocket.

  He slipped them on over his eyes, smiled slyly at me, and disappeared.

  I gasped in awe.

  I hadn’t realized that they could do that.

  I looked up at the sky, looking for the dragon and its rider, scanning the area for them, but they were gone.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  I’d seen dragons, of course. Everyone had.

  They were beautiful creatures, and very popular around the city. It wasn’t unusual to look up and see one flying through the air.

  Yet, seeing them outside your window was unusual. They didn’t normally set down in the city. It was too busy and closed off for them, or so I’d read.

  Woodenly, I turned and surveyed my room, feeling as if my life had just been changed.

  With nothing else to do, I went to bed, still jittery at seeing the large man and his dragon.

  Mostly though, I thought about the way that single brush of that man’s fingers against my bare legs felt. How hot. How the feeling had gone straight to my core.

  I squelched the feeling in its tracks. I was not doing that man. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He was bad news with a capital NO WAY!

  He’d eat me up and spit me out.

  I was a college student. I was poor. I couldn’t handle a man like him.

  So I went to sleep, dreaming of those golden eyes and wishing things could be different.

  Maybe someday.