“Yes. And what do you do?” he asked her as he couldn’t take his eyes off the emerald pools hers were.
“I go to college in Amherst at the University of Massachusetts. I’m studying animal biology.” She glanced to the side of him as one of her old boyfriends from high school came through the door, smiling at her. She shook her head to let him know she was busy and he took the hint when he looked at the man she was sitting with.
“How old are you, Jess?” Griff asked, then waved at the waitress, gesturing for two more beers.
“I turned 21 last month. And you?” she asked and took the beer that was placed in front of her. “Thanks, Bonnie.”
“I’m 30,” Griff said, then took a drink.
When she looked kind of freaked out by his age, he frowned as she said, “Damn!”
“It’s no big deal,” he argued.
“For you, maybe. For me … well, damn!” She took another drink of the beer then set the mug down on the small round table that had more than a few names chiseled into its dark surface. Then she reminded herself that the man who sat across from her wasn’t going to be in town for long, so she shouldn’t be worried about their age difference. It wasn’t like he was asking her to marry him or anything. “Yeah, it’s not a big deal, Griff. Sorry for overreacting about that.”
He nodded and felt the tiniest bit of relief. “So how about that? We both are in fields where animals are involved. That’s kind of cool, huh?”
“I guess so. What is it you do with the cattle?” she asked him as she noticed his eyes were a mixture of greens and blues with touches of browns in them too. “You have really cool eyes, Griff. They’re kind of freaking awesome, you know?”
“Thanks,” he said, then reached out to stroke her cheek. “Your eyes happen to be my favorite color. You’re a real knockout, baby.”
“So are you, if we’re telling the truth here,” she said, then found herself sighing as his touch was kind of melting her heart a bit.
Everyone was getting along so well; the men were pretty pumped about their chances to score. A little more time and they’d have the women right where they wanted them.
On the way to a no-tell motel!
Chapter 6
Finding all their women retreating to the bathroom at the same time, the men took advantage of being left alone and congregated at the bar to learn how each was doing. They all took seats, and the bartender asked if they wanted anything to drink, to which all told him, no.
“We’re getting close to the wire here boys,” Ethan said. The bartender turned to leave them alone. “I think I nearly have Kel right where I want her.” The bartender stopped and found a spot on the bar that urgently needed to be cleaned. Plus, he could listen in on the conversation that involved his cousins.
“Jess is putty in my hands. I’m sure to win this bet, my friends,” Griffin boasted.
“Cait’s been taking me with her eyes for the last hour,” Phoenix said. “I got this one in the bag. Hang it up, guys. I’ll have her screwed in the cab.”
The bartender’s ears were on fire. Were they talking about some kind of bet they’d made about screwing his cousins?
“That Kel is a feisty one, but I can see it in her eyes. One more drink and she’ll be coming with me wherever I tell her to,” Ethan added. “Get ready to pay up, men. I think I know when a woman is into me, and Kel is into me bigtime!”
“First one to get the deed done has to post the time on the others’ phones with a text,” Phoenix said. “It’s obvious we’re all going to get some tail tonight. But it’s who gets it first that matters. So the plan is set, and all we have to do is see who gets their girl to give it up first.”
The bartender hurried away to let his cousins know what the men had planned for them. He was pretty sure not one of them really was going to be going home with any of those men anyway. They were good girls, after all. But he felt compelled to let them know about the bet.
Slipping into the ladies’ room where he’d seen them go, he covered his eyes and called out, “Kel, Cait, and Jess Flannigan, are you all still in here?”
“What the hell are you doing in here, Marty?” Kel shouted at him.
“I have news you three need to know,” he told her.
“Let’s go to the back office,” Kel said as she grabbed their cousin by the arm, tugging him with her as they all left the ladies’ restroom. “You can uncover your eyes now, Marty.”
He pulled his hand away from his eyes and looked Kel in hers as they went into the small back office where no one was. “Those men you three girls are talking to have a bet. A terrible bet.”
“About what?” Jess asked as she leaned on the old desk that was dusty from no use. She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting to hear what her cousin had to say.
“About sex and you three and who can get who to give it to him first,” he said quickly.
All three women’s jaws dropped. Kel went red in the face. Cait went pink, and Jess went pale as she whispered, “No. Griff seems so sweet!”
“Mine too,” Cait said with an air of disbelief. “Phoenix seemed so genuine. So real. And he didn’t say a thing about wanting that from me.”
“They all think they have you all in the bag. It’s not a matter of who will get laid; it’s a matter of who will get laid first. They’re all that confident that you three will be giving them what they all want. And it’s all to win a stupid bet.” Marty gave them all nods of his head as he shook his finger at them. “You three must’ve been putting out some signs that you’d be picking up what they were putting down. If you get my drift?”
“I was more flirty than usual,” Cait said. “But only because Phoenix looks like a demigod from a time long ago when people rode around shirtless on the backs of wild stallions in the middle of tall grass the color of sand.”
“Dear Lord,” Kel said as she rolled her eyes. “You’ve been sniffing the glue again, haven’t ya, Cait?”
With a slap to her sister’s arm, Cait retorted, “I was five. Will you ever let me forget that?”
“For the love of all that’s holy. Ethan looks like a Viking king. And I was falling for his bullshit because of it,” Kel said. “Well, I should’ve known better. No man with those fantastic looks and that build who tells a woman he could really take charge of her if he so desired is looking for a girl like me. What a fool I feel like!”
Jess mumbled, “Griff’s the cowboy I never knew I wanted. He’s the Marlboro man mixed with Brad Pitt from that movie where he cut off a bear’s finger and wore it around his neck. So perfectly, wonderful, kind, sweet.”
“And full of shit!” Kel shouted. “We have to get even with the bastards. I say we all act as if we’re set on going to some filthy motels with them all, then pull a fast one on them. Are you with me, girls?”
Jess held her hand out, then Cait put hers on top, and Kel placed hers on top of theirs. “These men like to play games, sisters. They have no idea who they’ve chosen to play them with, have they?”
“They have not!” Cait chimed in.
“We’re going to make them cry like little bitches!” Jess added, earning herself frowns from her older sisters.
“Cry?” Kel asked. “Why do you always have to take it to that level? We’re not going to hurt them. I doubt the heartless asses could even be hurt. We’re merely going to screw with their libidos and leave them with balls as blue as Neptune’s hair. That’s what we’re going to do. It’ll be fun.”
“You’re a scoundrel when you want to be, Kel,” Cait told her. “I’m with you. We have to make out hardcore to get them to believe we’re all in. Then, BAM! We’ll disappear. I love it!”
“Me too,” Jess agreed. “At least I’ll get to see what it’s like to kiss Griff before I have to annihilate him.”
“But remember,” Kel cautioned them all. “Don’t get too into it. We can’t let any one of them win this awful bet they have going. No matter what. It’s our pride at stake.”
“The
dreaded Flannigan pride,” Cait said. “Oh, to lose that would be a shame, wouldn’t it now?”
Cait was the wildcard. Both Jess and Kel knew that. “I’ll make sure to keep an eye on her,” Kel told Jess. “And you try to do that too. If we have to wrestle her out the back door, then we will. None of us will go down.”
“I’m with you, sis,” Jess said, then eyed Cait. “Keep your wits about you, Cait. This will spread through town like wildfire if any of us gives into these rats. And you’re not over the scandal of getting caught with Richard Dupree, kissing in the back of the school bus when you were in middle school.”
“Shut up!” Cait shouted. “Is there a thing I do that doesn’t get written into the Ashby history books? Come on. I’m not going to give into Phoenix. Even though I want to. I want to so badly. But I too have Flannigan pride coursing through my blood that’s as red as any of yours is!”
“Good!” Kel said. “Then let’s get to pretending the same way these lotharios are.”
The three followed Marty out of the office and waited to let him get back to the bar, where they saw their men talking and laughing as if they were so smart and funny and about to pull one over on them all.
Their blood began to boil as they watched the men clink their refilled beer mugs that Marty had filled for them. A toast was made, but they couldn’t hear the words they’d said. It was obvious it was about bedding them and how easy it was going to be to get into their pants.
Even Cait began to get pissed instead of horny for the hot guy who wanted to use her then dump her off like a bag of trash. She’d teach Phoenix Nelson what it meant to want someone so bad and then get blown out of the water when it didn’t happen.
Jess watched the golden curls bounce around Griffin’s wide shoulders. Shoulders she knew she’d love to run her hands over, then hang onto his huge biceps as he pummeled her into a mattress. But he’d get none of that sweet action now that he was found out to be a gambling monster who liked to use women for his sinister habit.
It was Kel who was feeling the worst pain. It was she who had been left fragile when her fiancé of two years suddenly changed his mind and moved away to New York where he married a tall runway model only a couple of months after breaking up with her and taking her one karat diamond engagement ring away from her.
Kelli Flannigan stood there watching Ethan Southern, the one man she’d given the smidgeon of a chance to in the last year, as he laughed it up with his cohorts. His olive-green eyes had danced when he spoke to her, making her think he was being truthful.
He’d gone so far as to ask her about love and kids for the love of Heaven. How could he have done such a cruel thing? How could he have said they’d have beautiful children?
Kel was about to kiss a man for the first time since her devastating breakup with Robert Finnegan. More than a year had passed since her lips had felt another’s. Could she handle it? Could she stop herself from giving in to the man she thought her body would fit like a glove?
With a deep sigh, she admitted to her sisters, “Joking aside, girls. If you see me looking at that man with stars in my eyes, grab me up and take me away from him. He could be my one weakness. He’s so completely what I’ve always wanted in a man. He’s a real man. Or so I thought he was, anyway. Just don’t let me fall for him and his pile of shit. Please. I don’t think I could take losing him if I ever fell all the way in.”
“Not to worry, sis,” Jess said, then put her arm around her oldest sister, knowing all too well the mentally fragile state she was in. After her fiancé dumped her unexpectedly, Jess had held Kellie that first week each night as Kel cried herself to sleep.
The three had each other’s backs, and the men had no idea what was in store for them.
“Let the games begin,” Kel said, then the three put on smiles and made their way to their men.
TO BE CONTINUED..
This book will be published around Mid April.
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SHIVER SERIES
By Michelle Love
When billionaire art dealer, Sam Levy, meets gorgeous young artist Isabel Flynn, his life is turned upside down. The incredible sexual attraction between them is only matched by their emotional connection – they both fall hard and fast for the other. But outside their little bubble of happiness, they both have people in their lives who wish them harm, and when Isa’s first exhibition is vandalized and the gallery burned to the ground, they must face up to the fact that dark forces are at work which could destroy their love forever…
Chapter 1
LOVE ME
Afterwards, Sam would think back about how it all started and how he had found her. After all of the love, the laughter, the tears, the terror, the blood. The loss. After all of that, how it began came down to a simple matter of whether to turn left… or right.
It was that rare thing – a cloudless Fall day. Above Seattle, Mt Rainier painted itself onto the skyline; the calm waters of the Bay swishing gently on the wooden piers and pillars. Tourists and locals intermingling; panhandlers ducking the sharp eyes of local cops.
Samuel Levy sat on one of the benches on Pier 39, people-watching, breathing in the smell of the water and of the restaurants along the waterfront. He watched the ferryboats leaving their moorings and drifting lazily, churning up the water of Elliot Bay in their wake.
He envied their sedate passage, the excitement of travel, delivering people and tourists to the many islands of Puget Sound.
He, however, had back-to-back meetings, most of them nothing to do with his actual job, his passion: art. Accountants, business managers… Sam sighed. The minutiae of running his own business. The dull stuff, the thing he had been trying to avoid all week.
He glanced up at the mountain again. It always seemed to him that it wasn’t real, that it had been painted onto the Seattle Skyline as an afterthought. Beautiful.
Sam took a swig of bottled water. Nah. Nope. No. He’d blow off the meetings; it was too gorgeous a day to waste in airless meeting rooms, losing the will to live. He could go do tourist stuff – although since falling in love with the place a few years back, he’d already done most of it. He could catch a ferryboat out to one of the islands to go and see old friends or to check out new local artists.
He stood up, still trying to decide. Left to the city, right along the waterfront to the ferry terminal.
Left or right?
Ten minutes later, he was on one of the ferryboats on his way to Bainbridge Island. He pulled his cell-phone from his pocket and scrolled through his contacts and dialed.
‘Eagle Harbor Gallery.’
Sam recognized her voice immediately. Zoe Marshall, retired art professor, gallery owner.
‘Zoe, it’s Sam.’
There was a long pause. ‘Samuel Alexander Levy, where the hell have you been? It’s about damn time you called me!’
Sam laughed; Zoe was only a few years older than his thirty-eight, but she always made him feel like an errant schoolboy, in the best way.
‘I can do you one better than that; I’m on my way to you now.’
Zoe squealed excitedly. ‘Your timing is perfect. Seb’s home from college, he’ll be so delighted to see you. Isa will be here later too, it is about time you two met.’
There was a distinct tone to her voice when she said the young woman’s name and Sam grinned.
‘Zo’, what are you up to?’
‘Nothing.’ She was all innocence. ‘Anyways, you’ll stay for dinner, yes?’
He agreed and saying goodbye to his friend, ended the call. He laughed to himself. Zoe never changed; she was always trying to fix him up.
Sam had known Seb, Zoe’s teenage son, from when he’d been a child (his father hadn’t stuck around long after Zoe fell pregnant) but he’d never met Isa – Isabel – Zoe’s de facto daughter. He knew she was an Art major, that Zoe had taken her in. Sam shook his head; he couldn’t remember the rest of her story now. He knew she was an artist, that Zoe and Seb adored her and that she was kind of reclusive. After Casey, his now thankfully ex-wife, Sam knew he wasn’t about get involved with another artist, but it would be good to meet someone so special to his old friends.
Zoe screeched across the gallery floor, a whirlwind of multi-colored scarves and enveloped him in a perfumed hug. His six-five dwarfed the African-American woman, despite her breakneck designer heels. Her round face, with its soft lines and sparkling brown eyes, beamed up at him. Sam laughed at her exuberance and hugged her tightly.
‘Hey shorty, it’s been too long.’
Zoe drew back from the hug and tried to look disapproving. ‘And whose fault is that, you big lug?’ She squinted at him and touched the salt-and-pepper hair at his temples. ‘That wasn’t there the last time we saw you – in fact; I seem to remember you were fresh out of diapers…’
‘Yeah, yeah, keep on exaggerating. Some of us have work to do. We can’t go gallivanting around pretending to be professors.’
Sam ducked to avoid the swipe she aimed at him, then covered his ears mockingly as she screeched ‘Seb!’ towards the back of the gallery.
Sam briefly wondered where the mysterious Isabel was but then was assailed again by the young man who came bounding through the door, his wide smile already ear-splitting.
‘Dude!’
Sam hugged him. Seb was nearly as tall as he was now, but gangly. All loose limbs and energy. His long dark dreads were tied back neatly, his t-shirt artfully torn to reveal a hard athlete’s body. Sam suddenly felt old and told him so. Zoe rolled her eyes.
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