by Jo Raven
“You told me about Blake’s threats. I knew he might come after me.”
I let that sink in as Rafe opens the car door, and we bundle Micah in. I didn’t fail him completely. I kept him alive.
I turn my face up and smile in the rain.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MICAH
Lying on my bed, finally warm and dry, the blood washed off my face, I convince myself I’m alive. Safe. I hurt all over, though, and as I wait for the painkillers to kick in, I gaze at Ev who’s on the phone, pacing right outside my bedroom.
Damn, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found her kneeling by my side on the sidewalk. She keeps coming back for me, checking I’m all right.
Isn’t this what family does? What home is? This girl has a heart big as the world and for some reason she seems fond of me. She said…
She said she loves me. I poke the memory gently, afraid I’ll change it. She did say those words. My ears were ringing pretty badly at the time, but I’m sure she said it…
I think.
She’s talking to her brother, Joel. Her eyes flash with anger and then satisfaction, and she waves a hand in the air. Catching snatches of their conversation, I try to piece together what happened tonight and what else Blake The Asshole has done.
Fuck-ass bitch wronged my girl. He hurt her, staged an accident and broke her leg, landed her in hospital. Made her suffer.
Screw waiting for the painkillers to act. I sit up, and my ribs fucking burn. The pain blinds me for a moment, and I pant, waiting for my eyes to clear.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Rafe shoves me back unceremoniously, and I fall onto my pillow with a gasp. “What do you need?”
“To break Blake’s neck.”
Rafe grins at me. He’s still in his jacket. He didn’t even bother to take it off. “I see. Feeling better already?”
“He hurt her.” The words are like nails in my mouth.
“He’ll get what he deserves. Don’t worry about it.” His eyes go cold. “Now rest. We didn’t get you home, so you could go chasing that bastard.”
Ev comes inside before I can try getting up a second time. Without a word, she comes and sits by my side. She takes my hand and studies my bandaged knuckles.
Anger chokes me but her touch is soothing, her skin warm on mine.
“Joel, my brother, taped Blake’s confession on his phone,” Ev says. “I’m pressing assault charges. He will go to jail.”
That sounds like a good plan, but Rafe chuckles.
“That fucker isn’t going to jail,” he says. “How rich did you say his parents are?”
“Pretty rich,” Ev says with a wince. “They own hotels and restaurants.”
“Right. Well, if they care at all about their business, they’ll pay good money to prove him innocent, and money can get you anything you need.”
My fingers curls into a fist under Ev’s hand. Her eyes are wide, and I fucking hate the fear flickering in their depths.
“One more reason for me to bust his chops,” I growl.
“Calm down, cowboy. I’ve got this.” Rafe’s gaze is distant. “Nobody fucks with the Damage Boyz. I’ll take care of it.”
“How?” Ev asks.
“I’ve got connections. The asshat won’t bother any of you again.”
“You’ll kill him?” Ev’s eyes have gone rounder than before.
Rafe goes pale. “I don’t kill people. I don’t…” He sucks a deep breath. I wonder why he looks so shaken. “I’ll only make sure the jury and judge aren’t paid off at his trial. Let justice do the rest.”
Doesn’t sound good enough to me. Bastard deserves to have his balls chopped off and fed to him, but Rafe sends me a warning look, and I curse under my breath. I won’t let him down. If Zane is my god, Rafe is my fucking commander.
But if Blake comes anywhere near Seth or Ev again…
“I’ll be on my way now.” Rafe glances at me and nods. “Will you be okay for now, man?”
“Yeah, fine,” I bite out.
“Evangeline says she’s staying in case you need anything.”
“He means a doctor,” she says darkly. “Can I just call—?”
“No doctors. I’m okay.” I really am. That bastard who jumped me was an amateur. Rafe and Zane trained us well in self-defense. I bet he limped home in a much worse state than me. “It’s just my ribs. Nothing they can do about it anyway.”
“Those painkillers any good?” Rafe asks.
Taking stock, I realize they are. “Yeah.” The pain is muted, and as I relax a little, the world seems to slow. I take a deep breath, surprised my ribs aren’t killing me, and some of the tension seeps out of me.
“Only the best for you.” Rafe grins wolfishly, winks at Ev and leaves.
Somehow I don’t think he’s talking about the painkillers anymore, and that’s fine with me. I drag Ev down for a kiss before the door even closes and she kisses me back, smiling against my lips.
“So you’re staying?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” She sighs. “You keep saying you’re fine, so maybe you don’t need me.”
I’m not prepared for the sudden panic that hits me. “Please, Ev.”
She shakes her head, then laughs. “Are you kidding me? Of course I’m staying. As if I’d move from your side after what happened. Besides.” She’s quiet for a few moments. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
I resist the urge to clutch her to me, bruised ribs and all, make sure she won’t go. She’s here and I have to finally believe she’ll stay around.
Only the best for me. The strongest drugs. The most loyal friends.
The sexiest, prettiest, bravest… The absolute best girl in the whole fucking world.
My girl.
***
“Someone here to see you,” Seth says, appearing at my bedroom door and leaning on the frame.
“Someone, huh? Where is she?” Strange how just thinking of Ev makes my heart race.
“How do you know it’s a she?”
“Screw you, man. I swear, if you left her out in the rain…”
I try to see past him but he blocks the whole opening. It’s been a week since the attack, and the bruises on his face have faded to blue-green. The stitches still mar his jaw, a line of dark cross-hatching. He moves stiffly, but all said and done, he got off easy.
Voices. A female and a male voice, coming from the living room. Ev and a guy. Who is he?
Seth turns and beckons, and a tall, muscled guy fills my door.
“So which one of you is Micah?” he demands, glancing from me to Seth and back.
“Joel…” Ev appears behind him and tugs on his sleeve. “Stop it.”
“I’m your big brother. Whoever touched my sister will pay for it.”
Ev rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”
I get up from the bed, trying to keep my face neutral. My ribs send blinding jabs of pain through me, but I ignore them. “I’m Micah. Got a problem with that?”
Joel looks me up and down, eyes narrowed. “Depends.”
Now I can see some similarity with Ev, but not much. The guy is big-boned and more muscled than me. Ev is slender and graceful and goddamn pretty.
“Depends on what?” I’m as tall as he, and we are at eye level. I don’t have to fake the glare I’m giving him. He may be the brother of my girl, but he’s standing between us right now and all I want is to grab Ev and crush her to me. It’s been a long day without her.
“On whether you’ll swear to look out for her and protect her.”
“Joey!” Ev sounds horrified.
I don’t see any problem with that. “I swear.”
“Will you respect her and belong only to her?”
“You can count on it.”
“Will you…” He sighs and rubs a hand over his mouth. “Will you make her happy?”
I nod. “I’ll do my best.”
For her. For Ev.
“Good.” He grabs my hand and shakes
it once. “Then I’m pleased to meet you, Micah. I made a mistake with Ev’s ex-boyfriend. I misjudged him. I guess I should trust her judgment better, and she told me good things about you.”
She gives me a smile, and I grin. “She told me a few things about you, too.”
Now he looks worried. “Don’t believe a single word. It’s all lies.”
Ev sticks her tongue out at him, and he snorts.
“I’ll leave you to your own devices, then.” Joel nods at Seth on his way out. “Glad to see you both on your feet.”
Ev is looking at me, golden eyes soft with happiness. Her sweater is long but tight, hugging the slight curves of her body. I take the few steps that separate us and slip my arms around her. She fits perfectly against my body, and when she tilts up her face I think I can gaze at her forever.
The sound of a throat being cleared breaks through my trance.
“I’m off to work,” Seth says, hands in his pants’ pockets. He looks amused. “Be good.”
“We are good,” Ev says.
“Good to each other,” he intones and laughs as he leaves the room.
Now where were we? Oh yeah. I look down at Ev’s upturned face, her hooded eyes, her parted lips, and all I can think of is taking her right there, against the wall, sinking into her and fucking her hard and fast. Her breasts press against my chest and she’s soft, so soft. A jolt goes through me and a certain part of me appreciates her softness by hardening.
That certain part throbs when she shifts, rubbing against me, and I walk her backward until she hits the bed. Her mouth opens in a soundless cry as she falls, and then I’m on top of her, kissing her again. Can’t get enough of her taste. Can’t get enough of her.
“I love you, Ev,” I whisper, and she gives me a brilliant smile, her eyes glistening as if she’s about to cry.
“Love you, too, Micah Owens,” she says, and I have to kiss the lips that say those words.
Her hands slip under my clothes, tracing the knobs of my spine, then tug urgently on the hem to get it off me. She feels it, too. It’s been a few days since we had some time alone as she was busy moving into her new apartment, and memory fails when it comes to her.
She’s just so pretty. I uncover her bit by bit, taking off her sweater, her blouse, her bra, her pants, her panties—all that silky skin and delicious curves. I lick my way down to her breasts, tease her nipples, then lick lower to her cute belly button and lower still, parting her legs with my hand.
“Micah…” She pants, looking down at me as I lick slowly along her seam, and I stop to grin at her before I focus on making her come.
It doesn’t take long. A few flicks of my tongue on her swollen clit, two fingers pressing inside her, and she cries out, writhing on the bed, her head thrown back.
Goddamn. It’s so exciting I almost come right then and there, her taste on my mouth, her cry in my ears, her hot body arching up to mine.
Before I lose my last shred of control, I grab for the condoms and roll one on quickly. My hands are shaking. My dick is throbbing madly. I press into her.
She moans and wraps her arms around me, pulling me down. My ribs ache, but I ignore them in favor of kissing her. I enter her in one slow thrust—soft, tight, hot, perfect—and keep kissing her as I start to move.
It’s so good it’s like a drug. I attempt to take it slow, but she lifts a shapely leg around my hip, taking me deeper, and hell, who needs slow? I pound into her, and we’re still kissing, a desperate battle of tongues and lips and teeth as the pressure crests and breaks. I gasp and slam harder inside her, my whole body bucking with the pleasure. It’s like dying and coming back to life.
And she’s right there with me, like always.
***
I hope you have enjoyed MICAH (Damage Control 1). Coming next in the Damage Control series:
JESSE (Damage Control 2)
Curious about who the owners and friends of Damage Control? If you haven’t met the Inked Brotherhood, (ASHER, TYLER, ZANE, DYLAN and RAFE), why not start at the very beginning, with ASHER:
ASHER
(Inked Brotherhood 1)
at Amazon
Where to find Jo Raven’s books:
See New Releases by Jo Raven at Amazon!
About Jo Raven
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jo Raven writes contemporary New Adult romance. She loves sexy bad boys and strong-willed heroines, and divides her time between writing and reading. When not cooking up plots, she putters in her cluttered kitchen and dreams of traveling to India and Japan.
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Table of Contents
Red Hot Alphas
MICAH (DAMAGE CONTROL 1)
by Jo Raven
SOMEBODY TO LOVE
(ROCK STARS IN DISGUISE: TRYP)
by Blair Babylon
HOT PURSUIT
by Olivia Rigal
MEETING MR. STEELE
By Melanie Marchande
MIXED UP
by Sky Corgan
MIDNIGHT MOONLIGHT
by V. J. Chambers
SORORITY SAINT
by Daizie Draper
CROSSED
by Lacey Silks
GET TO ME
by Holly Hood
ELECTRIC BLUE BUTTERFLIES
by Irma Geddon
SWEETEST TEMPTATIONS
by J.C. Valentine
Disclaimers and Copyright Notices
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SOMEBODY TO LOVE
(ROCK STARS IN DISGUISE: TRYP)
by Blair Babylon
SOMEBODY TO LOVE
(ROCK STARS IN DISGUISE: TRYP)
by Blair Babylon
SOMEBODY TO LOVE (ROCK STARS IN DISGUISE: TRYP) © Blair Babylon 2014
Tryp Areleous is a rock star drummer for Killer Valentine, the hottest band on the planet. His life is a whirlwind of liquor, women, and screaming crowds. He’s just turned twenty-one, he’s a millionaire, and his life is perfect, just as long as he never sobers up.
Elfie Tilsi has been a pyrotechnics technician (don’t call her a “roadie,”) with the breaking-out rock band Killer Valentine for two years, ever since she ran away from home. The musicians of Killer Valentine are beginning to crack, mainly from the unrelenting stress and limitless excess of touring. When the band manager tasks her with babysitting the drummer, Tryp, she tries being a little kind to him and quickly discovers that his problems are far deeper than just the rock and roll lifestyle.
When they begin to bond, to fall in love, Tryp opens up to her and, with her encouragement, writes a song, but men arrive and threaten him and the whole band with death and ruin if he ever reveals anything about his past again.
This is a stand-alone novel. The characters are connected to Blair Babylon’s bestselling Rock Stars in Disguise series, but you don’t need to have read any of the others to enjoy this novel.
Pouring Tryp Into Bed
Tryp Areleous’s arm lay heavy on Elfie’s shoulders, and he stumbled beside her as she half-led, half-carried him down the hotel hallway. His long legs tangled as he walked, and he nearly tripped and fell. His other arm flopped by his side as she read the numbers on the doors, 506, 508, and hoped that 514 was right around the corner. His drunken flopping was going to knock her into one of the too-close walls.
“How old are you, Elfie?” Tryp slurred. He was bent nearly in half, resting his forehead on her shoulder. His black curls—big, soft curls—brushed her cheek and tickled her nose, making her want to sneeze.
“I just turned nineteen,” Elfie said. Her broad Texas twang made it sound like she said Ah.
“You’ve been on the road with us for two years.”
“I have a good fake I.
D.” She adjusted his arm, which was surprisingly burly considering how rarely he exercised at the hotel gyms or did any honest work. He never got up before the radio stations called to interview, and then the shows were soon after. Maybe he was still benefitting from the effects of the Utah shock gym that the lead singer had checked them into before that Rolling Stone cover shoot where the band was all naked to the waist and ripped.
Not that Elfie had looked at it.
Not that she was any kind of connoisseur of men’s bodies.
Not that she was even inadvertently copping a feel of his very muscular back, especially his lats, that tapered down to his narrow waist as she dragged his drunk butt back to his hotel room to pour him into bed.
“You were seventeen?” Tryp asked.
He wasn’t too shitfaced to do simple math, astounding, but he was probably too messed up to remember anything she told him right now. Tryp had a lot of blackouts. She said, “I ran away from home. Long story.”
His breath smelled like fresh whiskey, a comforting scent, when he said, “When I was nineteen, I was a millionaire with a gold record.”
“Way to make me feel better about my life, buddy.” Elfie adjusted his arm on her shoulders to hold him up while she frisked him for his wallet and, not finding it because it had probably been stolen by some desperate groupie again, his hotel room keycard. She shoved him up against the wall and found it in his sock. He still had his drumsticks shoved in his back pocket. A long, blond lank of her hair dangled in front of her face, escaped from her tight braid down the back of her head. She shoved it behind her ear.