Hard & Reckless (Club Reckless Book 1)

by Victoria Ashley

  Before Stefan can respond, I rush off to the back, ready to get as far away from up here as I can.

  Everything upstairs screams trouble for my ass.

  Just as I’m opening the door to the game room downstairs, I hear shouting from above, letting me know a fight has either broken out or will shortly be breaking out.

  “Fucking shit. Stefan better not be getting his ass kicked already.”

  Slamming the door shut, I run up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  Once I reach the top, I push my way through the crowd, shouting for people to get out of my way, so I can break up the fight.

  Relief washes through me when I see that it’s not Stefan. He may be an asshole, but he’s sort of family. I’d feel like shit, not being around to stop him from getting his ass kicked.

  I’ve seen him in a fight before and trust me, he fights like he looks: pretty.

  Rushing over to the bigger of the two guys, I pull him away from the guy on the floor, slamming him down at my feet.

  “Fuck,” he chokes out, while trying to see who just took him down to his back.

  I hold him down by his neck, looking up right as Rowdy appears out of nowhere to grab the other guy and restrain him.

  Getting the big dude back up to his feet, I wrap my arm around his neck from behind, and start pushing him toward the exit door.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” he yells at me. “Get off me, prick.”

  Holding him tighter, I lean down by his ear and growl. “Don’t fight me, because trust me, I won’t be as easy as your little friend was. I will knock you on your ass and trust me, you won’t be getting back up for a while.”

  I fight to restrain him, but get distracted by Brooke watching me as I pass by her and Karson.

  She’s watching me hard, as if she’s either impressed or turned on by seeing me overpower such a big guy.

  It’s completely fucking distracting, trying to figure out what’s running through her head right now.

  Locking my eyes with hers, I seem to focus on her, instead of keeping my arm firm around the guy’s neck.

  He takes my arm loosening, as his opportunity to push my arm away and swing at me.

  That has me turning away from Brooke and grabbing the guy by the neck, slamming him back down to the ground.

  I hear him release a hard breath this time, before he starts coughing and fighting to catch his breath.

  Smirking, I get down in his face and squeeze his throat. “Better luck, next time, buddy. Now get the fuck up.”

  I release his throat and grab onto his shirt and jeans, pulling him back up to his feet, and dragging him toward the door.

  Rowdy already has someone driving his guy out of the parking lot, so he meets me at the door, handling him from there.

  Breathing heavily, I walk back into the club, stopping to roll up my sleeves and undo a few buttons to cool off.

  As I’m making my way through the crowd, Stefan passes me, stopping first, to let me know to handle any asshole who even talks to Abby, the same way I handled that douche.

  Right after he walks away, his girl rushes over to me, hanging on my ass as if she’s turned on by what I just did.

  And of course, Brooke’s eyes land on me right as she wraps her arm around my neck and pulls me against her, rubbing her body against mine.

  There’s no mistaking the hurt and jealously on Brooke’s face, right before she turns away and slams back her drink, emptying it.

  Just fucking great . . .

  Making sure not to be too rough with Abby, I push her away from me and remove her arm from around my neck. “Can’t. I have work to do.”

  “Oh . . . come on.” Smiling, she runs her finger down my chest and abs, before looping it into the front of my belt and pulling on me again. “Stefan doesn’t dance. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind if you danced with me instead. There’s no harm in an innocent dance.”

  I hear Cole speaking into the earpiece again, attempting to get my attention, so I yank her hand away, getting angry now.

  Between Brooke probably thinking I’m into Abby and Cole rushing my ass to get downstairs, I’m close to losing my shit and going off on the next person who pisses me off.

  “I’ll be downstairs. Get a drink from the bar and tell Violet it’s on me.”

  I take off, making my way back downstairs before she can attempt to grab me again.

  Cole is waiting by the door when I open it, giving me a pissed off look. “What the hell, man. I’ve had to piss for over thirty minutes now.”

  “Got slowed down by Stefan stopping in,” I say annoyed. “Sorry, man.”

  He walks past me and begins making his way upstairs.

  As much as I hate the idea of him touching Brooke, I figure she’s probably here to see him anyway. He might as well know.

  “Brooke and Karson are upstairs in section B.”

  Cole stops walking and turns around to look at me. Worry flashes in his eyes for a quick second, before he just nods and walks away.

  Fuck this night. I’m so damn pissed at myself right now, that all I want to do is throw my fist through a wall.

  So much for getting back at Cole. All I did was fuck myself up . . .

  Brooke

  SEEING THAT GIRL PUT HER hands all over Jameson and rub her body against him as if he was hers to touch, made me want to pull her away from him.

  A pang of jealousy had me squeezing my glass tightly and finishing off the rest of my drink in a hurry, before I could even consider doing something so ridiculous.

  I admit, I’ve never felt so strong of a jealousy in my entire life. Not even when girls used to flirt with Jeremy, back when we were dating, did I feel what I’m feeling right this second.

  Not even close.

  The bad thing is, Jameson isn’t even mine to be jealous over. I have absolutely no right to be upset right now. But when I saw that hot blonde put her hands on him, my heartbeat sped up, beating so hard I could hear it in my ears and my stomach twisted into knots.

  I don’t know why it was so unexpected, seeing him with someone else. He’s free to be with anyone he wants. We aren’t together, but doesn’t mean it made seeing him with another woman hurt any less.

  It’s an image I want to erase from my mind as soon as possible and forget I ever saw it.

  “What the hell is wrong with me?” I push past Karson and make my way over to the bar to order another drink.

  I’m not thinking straight. I shouldn’t be as upset as I am and I shouldn’t want to slam back another drink to forget Jameson all together, but apparently, my heart isn’t getting the memo.

  It’s still beating out of my chest this very second, imagining him taking her home and giving her what he gave me just last week.

  His hands and tongue on her body as he takes her to his bed and has sex with her, making her moan in all the ways he made me moan.

  The thought makes me want to scream.

  I feel Karson come up behind me and place her hand on my arm to get my attention, right as the bartender pushes my much needed drink in front of me.

  “Are you okay? I haven’t seen you this red and worked up in a long time.”

  Ignoring Karson’s question, I grab for some cash and attempt to give it to the bartender, but she shakes her head and pushes my hand away. “Apparently, your money isn’t needed here. Enjoy.” With that, she winks and rushes off to help someone else.

  For some reason, I have a feeling my free drinks here, are due to Jameson. All that does is gives me more reason to think about him.

  Thinking about him needs to stop.

  “I’m so damn screwed.”

  “Are you going to talk to me or are you going to have this conversation with yourself, Brooke?”

  I take a huge drink of my cocktail and finally turn around to face Karson, prepared to let it all spill. There’s no point in even trying to hide it from her anymore. Besides, I’m pretty sure she’s figured it out by now.

  She’
s been my best friend for as long as I can remember. She’s always the first to know how and what I’m feeling.

  “I think I’m falling for Jameson,” I breathe out. “I can’t stop thinking about him. I just can’t and I feel stupid for feeling this way, when he clearly doesn’t feel the same. What kind of girl goes and falls for the best friend of the guy she’s talking to? I’m a bitch.”

  I begin pushing my way through the room, eager to get some air. Being in this club, has me feeling as if I’m suffocating. I can’t breathe and I’m pretty sure you can see sweat trickling down my forehead by now. I need to get away.

  Far away from Jameson and far away from Cole, before he realizes I’m here and catches on to my little breakdown.

  “I know I shouldn’t be feeling this way about him, but I can’t help it, Karson. I should be thinking about Cole. I should be wondering where he is, but I’m not. Cole is who I should want to be with.”

  “And that’s fine,” Karson says, while stopping me from walking out the door. “It’s okay to feel for someone other than Cole. Just because you liked him first, doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be with him. You and Cole never set up any kind of rules or even discussed making it exclusive. You need to calm down and breathe.”

  “But Cole cares about me.” I take a deep breath and slowly release it, while fighting to gather my thoughts. Cole has been making it very clear lately he’s beginning to fall for me and it’s been scaring the shit out of me for some reason. “I care about him too, but . . . something with Jameson feels different. With Cole, I didn’t care if he wasn’t interested in attachments in the beginning. I was okay with the idea of it never turning into anything permanent. Why does it hurt to think I’ll never get a chance to touch or kiss Jameson again? Why does the idea of him being with another girl kill me?”

  Karson is just about to open her mouth to speak, when Cole approaches us from the side, looking tired and out of breath as if he’s been fighting his way over to find me.

  He flashes me a grateful smile and pulls me against him for a kiss.

  His mouth is soft and warm, making it easy to fall into him, but I can’t seem to get lost in his kiss like I did in the beginning.

  All I keep thinking about is how it felt when Jameson used to kiss me like this.

  He must notice my uneasiness, because he pulls away and runs his hand through my hair, looking concerned. “I missed you today. Was hoping you’d stop in so I could see you.”

  I force a smile and try my best to pretend I’m not thinking about his friend. I just hope I can pull it off.

  “Karson surprised me by coming here after my shift,” I explain. “My plan was to just see you after you got off tonight.”

  I can feel his heart hammering inside his chest as he rubs his thumb over my bottom lip and smiles. “I’ll still come over tonight. Maybe I’ll just crash at your apartment and we can get breakfast in the morning.”

  Guilt rushes through me at the realization that making plans with Cole isn’t what I want or need right now. The thought of him sleeping in my bed has me trying to come up with an excuse to tell him no.

  How am I supposed to lay next to Cole, when all I can think about is Jameson?

  I close my eyes and lean my face into his touch, trying to come up with the words I need right now.

  He’s been so gentle and caring lately, that I hate to give him any reason to be upset.

  “Sorry, big guy. Tonight, is a girl’s only slumber party. That’s why we’re here now,” Karson says, surprising me. “Get your few minutes in and say goodnight, babe.”

  Cole smiles down at me, before leaning in and pressing his lips against mine again. “Sounds like you have a fun night ahead of you.”

  My eyes meet his caring ones and a genuine smile takes over as he pulls me against him and wraps his hands into the back of my hair. It’s almost enough to make me stop thinking about Jameson, but it only works for a split second.

  It’s going to take a lot more than I thought to make me forget about how it felt to be with him.

  “Things with Karson are always entertaining.” I catch Karson grinning at me from my peripheral vision. “Are you stuck downstairs again tonight?”

  He nods his head. “Yeah. Jameson is holding down my spot right now . . .” he trails off as if he’s trying to figure out if he should say what he’s thinking. “He’s the one that told me you were here. Were you guys spending time together before he came down to get me? He looked pretty uptight about something?”

  “No.” The word stings, reminding me of how harsh it felt when he just ignored me. “He didn’t even say hi.”

  Relief washes over Cole’s face, before he begins massaging my cheekbone with his thumb. “I should get back downstairs. It’s probably best if you stay away from Jameson for now. Just until the events of last week isn’t so fresh in our minds. Okay?”

  Tell me about it. It feels as if it just happened yesterday and everything about that night is still hitting me hard.

  “Yeah . . . I agree.”

  “Good.” Leaning in, he gently pulls my bottom lip between his teeth, giving me a soft nibble, before sweeping his tongue over the spot he just bit.

  I can feel him smile against my mouth, before he crushes his lips to mine, pulling me as close to him as humanly possible.

  He’s kissing me as if he doesn’t want to let me go. It’s enough to have me wrapping my arms around his neck and getting lost in the moment.

  It’s when the moment is over that I open my eyes to see Jameson talking to the blonde chick, while staring hard in our direction.

  The intensity of his stare has my heart going crazy in my chest.

  He looks just about as jealous and pissed off as I felt when I first saw him with the blonde chick he’s now with, again.

  Apparently, she is here for him since she’s still practically on his ass.

  “I thought Jameson was downstairs?” I question in a shaky voice.

  Cole releases his grip on me to turn behind him. “Rev showed up a second ago and took over downstairs. Looks like we’ll both be upstairs now for the rest of the night.”

  This is the first time I’ve been in the same room with them since that night. If it felt like I was suffocating before, I’m definitely drowning, barely able to breathe now.

  “Oh . . .” is all I can manage as Jameson looks me over, taking me in as I stand here, still pressed against Cole’s body. “I think me and Karson are about to take off and start our girl’s night. It’s already getting late and . . .”

  “We have a TV show to binge watch,” Karson jumps in. “About sexy vampires and werewolves. There’s twenty-three episodes a season so we need to jump in.” Karson flashes Cole a smile and pulls me away from him. “Like now.”

  “Alright . . .” Cole looks amused as Karson wraps her arm in mine. “You ladies enjoy your vampires and werewolves then.”

  I try my hardest not to look back over in Jameson’s direction, but I can’t help but want to see if he’s still with blondie.

  He is and the idea of leaving him here with her makes my chest ache.

  “I’ll text you tomorrow after work.” I pull my eyes away from Jameson, and set them back on Cole, before he can figure out I’m staring at his friend like a fool. “Gotta go before Karson drags me out of here.”

  Before Cole can manage to say anything, Karson is dragging me away and out the door.

  Rowdy is standing there with his clipboard, but quickly looks our direction when Karson screams, “Holy shit!”

  “Both the boys upstairs now?” Rowdy questions, while setting his clipboard down and pulling a joint from his pocket.

  “Yup.” Karson watches as Rowdy lights up his joint and passes it to me.

  “You need this. It’ll help you relax.” He turns back to Karson and flashes her a sexy smile. “Just hurry to your car before Mason chews my ass out and accuses me of smoking at the door again.”

  Ignoring them both, I walk away and quickly t
ake a few hits, hoping like hell Rowdy is right.

  Relaxing is what I desperately need to do at the moment.

  Why the hell did I get myself into this mess . . .

  Jameson

  SEEING BROOKE KISS COLE HURT like hell and made me want to rip his fucking head off.

  I can’t keep my thoughts straight and telling myself that backing off is the right thing to do, doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.

  All I want to do is show up at her house, throw her against the wall and put my mouth and hands all over her.

  I want to erase Cole’s touch from her and make sure mine is the only one she feels.

  There’s only one thing I can do to distract myself from doing that now that the night is over and Stefan finally picked up his girl, freeing me up.

  “Hey, man.” Cole comes jogging across the parking lot, right as I straddle my bike. It’s taking a lot for me not to want to kill him. “I’m heading to Rowdy’s to drink and chill. You coming?”

  “Nah . . .” I slide my helmet on and start my bike. “I need some air. I’ll just catch you guys tomorrow.”

  “Yup,” Cole says stiffly, while backing away. “Have fun, brother.”

  From the coldness in Cole’s voice, I’m guessing he assumes getting some air involves Brooke.

  Lucky for him, it doesn’t.

  I’ve been working on a little something for the last week to keep my ass distracted.

  What happens when I’m done could be a good thing or a bad thing.

  I guess we’ll see . . .

  Brooke

  ROWDY’S JOINT WORKED FOR ALL of twenty minutes, before I was back to torturing myself with thoughts of Jameson.

  It’s already past three in the morning and all I can manage to do is toss and turn, driving myself crazy with numerous thoughts.

  My conversation with Jameson has been running through my head for the last hour though, making me think about my mother and her house now.

  I blame Rowdy for making me think even deeper than I already was to begin with.

  Sitting up from bed, I reach for the jeans I took off and slip them back on, before jumping up and reaching for my jacket.