Tamryn smiled in the darkness; his voice was her favorite sound in the world. She lifted her head and gasped.
Jake filled the small hallway, naked from head to toe.
All oxygen disappeared from the tight space. The apron fell from her hands, and the robe slipped off her arm, falling to the floor.
Desire slammed into her body, pooling with a heat so intense she thought she’d fall over if she dared to move. She swallowed, blinking as her eyes focused in on the man standing before her.
Shadows didn’t hide the hard edges of his muscles; they framed those lines, magnifying each dip and curve of his physique. His pecs were strongly defined, but his abs, good God, his abs. Two rigid lines formed an arrow south to part of this man she never thought she’d see. Her eyes widened and the breath she drew was ragged, this forbidden image of the man she loved searing itself into her brain.
Tamryn licked her lips, butterflies quivering in her belly, warmth pooling deep, her legs weakening further. She ached for him in more ways than one, and more fiercely than ever before. He was so close, too close, close enough to touch. Tamryn’s fingers twitched.
If she just reached out her hand, she was close enough to—
Jake cleared his throat, and she raised her gaze, meeting his eyes. Eyebrows bunched together, as stunned by this moment as she was, he watched her with an intensity she’d never seen from him before. The hunger in his eyes was so palpable her knees weakened. She’d only ever dreamed of being on the receiving end of that desire.
Tamryn’s mouth dropped open on a soft gasp, then the heavy rise and fall of Jake’s chest pulled her attention downward again. Focusing only briefly on the smooth skin of his chest, she dropped her gaze further and her pulse sped as his cock twitched, hardening before her very eyes.
She took a step forward before she could think better of it.
“TB,” he whispered, the name so soft on his tongue she barely heard it.
Pulse racing—had she been too bold?—she flicked her eyes back to his face, but his focus was on her chest, his lips slightly parted. She looked down at her bra, the soft blush-colored lace leaving nothing to the imagination, her nipples taut against the sheer fabric.
She inhaled a breath, held it, and looked up at him once more.
Jake searched her eyes, then ran his tongue over his bottom lip, nearly dropping her to her knees with that languid motion.
All she had to do was take one more step forward. One tiny step. And then she could climb this man like a tree. She licked her lips, her pulse thundering in her ears.
What did she have to lose?
Just one step, that’s all it would take. Tamryn dared a quick glance; he was fully erect now, his shaft thick, ready. Her fingers twitched as need filled her. Breath heavy and heart pounding, she lifted her hand—
A door creaked open down the hall and Tamryn dropped her hand to her side.
He shook his head, his brows furrowed.
“Jake, honey, did you get lost on your way to the kitchen?”
Tamryn raced back into her room, shutting the door behind her. Gennie.
Gennie. Gennie. Gennie.
What was Tamryn going to do, fuck him in the hallway when Gennie had just had her turn minutes before? She closed her eyes and slid down the door, releasing a stream of frustrated tears down her cheeks.
When Jake’s door closed down the hall, Tamryn slammed her head back against the door with a soft thud, wishing the action would slam some sense into her lust-filled brain. “What the hell was that?”
She swiped at the tears, then stared at her empty bedroom, heat still pulsating through her veins, and the ache of need between her legs almost unbearable. How could she be so heartbroken and so damn horny all at once?
She needed to talk to her best friend. She grabbed her cell and started to dial Luce’s number, then looked at the time. It was the butt crack of dawn, and no time to call a friend in the middle of exam week at Columbia. “Ugh,” Tamryn groaned, pushing up off the floor. “I need a drink.”
Jake was off limits. At least for the time being.
But were things about to change? She’d seen something in his eyes, felt it in the air between them. He’d gotten hard. If Gennie hadn’t been there, Tamryn had been one second away from wrapping her fingers around—
“Dammit.” She shook her head, frustration heating her chest as she tiptoed from the room. One step into the hallway and she froze, ice splashing over her like a fucking waterfall.
The unmistakable sound of wood hitting wall thundered out from Jake’s room, his door still wide open. Every time he pounded into Gennie, the headboard crashed against the wall.
A whimper escaped Tamryn’s lips, so she slammed her hand to her mouth. He’d been looking at her that way in the hall, hungry eyes and desire heating the space between them to near boiling, then wasted no time jumping back into Gennie. He hadn’t been attracted to her—she’d just interrupted them.
What a fool she was!
Tamryn ducked to grab her robe from the hallway floor, then didn’t slow down until she was safe inside The Bar, skidding to a stop just beyond the kitchen doors and letting out a roar of frustration.
Reed stood behind the bar, prepping the citrus fruit for tomorrow. He looked up in surprise, then his gaze fell to her torso, eyes wide when he finally looked back up at her face.
The muffled swish of the doors as they swung back and forth seemed magnified in the heavy silence.
He set the knife down, then crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re practically naked.”
Tamryn tugged her robe closed, tying the belt around her waist. Shaking her head, she shrugged. “I thought you left?”
He waved toward her clothes—or lack thereof. “Obviously.”
“I’m sorry, I”—she struggled to push Jake’s nakedness out of her mind, while also searching for words to explain what just happened, why she was here—“It’s almost four in the morning.”
Reed frowned. “Figured I’d prep then crash on your couch.”
“I thought you left after our ride.”
Reed nodded slowly. “So you’ve said. What’s wrong?”
“I had to get out of there.”
He frowned, then pushed the cutting board aside, reaching instead for a bottle of Patrón and a shot glass. “Feeling guilty about our little joyride?”
“What?” Tamryn shook her head. “Not at all.” She glanced past the swinging doors to the hallway that led out back.
“Oh. That bad, huh?”
Her eyes widened. “That bad.” Tamryn slid onto a barstool. “You know, yeah. It was that bad. Make me one of those. I don’t think beer is enough to cleanse this night from my brain.”
Reed raised his eyebrows, pausing mid-pour. “Don’t you have some muffins to make tonight?”
She shrugged.
“And, wasn’t it just you who noted what ungodly hour of the morning it is?’
Another shrug. “I bake better when I’m drunk?” She smiled.
“I’m supposed to accept that as a response?”
Tamryn laughed. “Well, you can either pour it for me or make me pour it myself, but either way, that tequila will be in my belly, and only one option doesn’t make you look like an asshole.”
Reed’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. “Easy there, killer.”
Tamryn motioned for him to hurry up and pour. “And let’s be honest, drunk is when I come up with my best recipes.”
Reed hooted as he finished the pour and passed the glass to Tamryn. “Like ‘Whiskey Maple Surprise’?”
“Yeah, well, that one wasn’t supposed to take off.” Tamryn blushed. “I mean, I kind of made it as a joke.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You put whiskey and bacon in a muffin. Of course he loved it.” Shaking his head, Reed poured himself a matching shot of tequila, then lifted it into the air. “Here’s to loving those two”—he dipped his head toward Jake’s house—“for whatever that’s worth.”
&nbs
p; Tamryn snorted and raised her glass in salute. “Amen to that.”
“Early mornin’ shit tankin’?”
“Did you just invent a thing?”
Reed winked. “When it comes to drinking, Randy’s not the only guy with experience.”
Tamryn brought her glass to Reed’s with a clink. “To shit tankin’.”
Jake gripped Gennie’s hips, slamming into her as if doing so would erase the way he’d just looked at Colby’s little sister. With each thrust, he tried to memorize the tightness of Gennie’s pussy, the bounce of her breasts, the way her mouth formed that perfect ‘o’, but all he could see was TB, burned into his brain, her pert nipples pressing against their lace prison, begging him to run his thumbs over them, then his teeth, then—
Ah, fuck.
He grunted as Gennie pushed her ass back harder against his wild thrusts, taking everything he could give, even as wildly as he fucked her.
With each cry of pleasure she made, he pounded harder into her, chased by the image of TB and all the things he wanted to do to her—almost did to her—right there in that dark hallway. Unable to escape his horrific thoughts, he sank deeper into Gennie.
He’d fuck away thoughts of fucking TB if it took all night and half of tomorrow. Dangerous, disrespectful thoughts about the girl he was supposed to be protecting, not lusting after. Gennie was good. Gennie was safe. Gennie was someone he could be with. No strings, no past or future.
Anger and confusion pulsed through him as his dick twitched with release, flooding Gennie as guilt gripped his chest, his heart.
How dare he look at TB that way?
He roared, clenching his eyes closed with one final thrust, but it was TB’s face behind his eyelids, TB’s body curving beneath his.
“I know, baby,” Gennie panted, flush against the bed. “That was amazing. You’re really something tonight.”
Yeah, he was something.
A right fine piece of shit.
Chapter
Five
Tamryn didn’t remember when they’d moved their ‘pity party for two’ to the empty space attached to the bar, but here they were, Reed splayed out on an old plaid blanket they’d found, and Tamryn rambling a million miles a minute about her plan. She’d never told anyone her ideas, least of all Jake’s best friend, but, apparently, tequila made this girl’s filter come off.
Speaking of which.
She plopped down on her knees beside Reed and held out her empty glass. At some point, she’d begun using a pint as a shot glass. Reed filled it to about a third of the way, sloshing a bit over the side as he poured. No wonder she was trashed.
He put the bottle to his lips and took a long pull of the liquid fire. No wonder he was trashed.
“We’re going to pay for this tomorrow,” Tamryn said, a hiccup breaking tomorrow into too many syllables.
“Today. And I have to open.” Reed shrugged, raising the tequila bottle to clink it against her glass. “I like your plan.” Reed scanned the interior. “I can picture it.”
Tamryn sat down and stretched her legs out alongside Reed’s, smiling widely and looking around the room. “You can, right? I mean, I know I can, but you can too now, so I know it’s a good plan. Because we both can see it, so it’s a good plan.” She took a sip of her tequila and grimaced as the liquid burned her throat. “It’s a good plan, right? I mean, I think it’s a good plan, but…” She gazed out into the open space, eyes glazing over. She smacked her lips together. “We need limes. This is supposed to get better as you drink it but that’s not happening.”
Tamryn tried to stand, but wobbled, and Reed reached out to steady her. Just as blitzed as she was, he pulled her down instead of helping her up, and she landed in a heap on top of him, tequila drenching both of their chests.
Eyes wide, Tamryn looked at the mess she made, then snorted, breaking into a fit of laughter and rolling off of Reed.
He sat up, looked down at his short-sleeved plaid shirt, then glared at Tamryn, lips twitching on a grin. “Look what you did, you little jerk!”
“Did you just quote Home Alone?” Tamryn pressed her lips together, fighting back the laughter.
Reed tossed his head back on a laugh as he unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, then ran his hands over his still-wet chest. “I smell like a bar.”
Tamryn snorted. “Me too.” She untied her belt, then unwrapped and discarded her robe to the floor. She froze, realizing her mistake. Looking back up at Reed, her cheeks flushed with heat.
All amusement had left Reed’s face, those familiar eyes seeing so much more than just her exposed body beneath too-thin lace, peering deeper into her soul than she’d like.
“You’re beautiful.”
She shook her head and looked away, reaching for her robe.
“Look at me.” Reed reached over, placing his finger and thumb on her chin and lifting her face up.
Reluctantly, she looked up into his hazely eyes.
“He’s a fool.”
Tamryn smiled. “So is Gennie.” She dropped her gaze, focusing away from the intensity in Reed’s eyes to his pecs, and the way they stood out against his chest in the soft glow of the lantern’s amber light. She tilted her head. Tormented by a desperate thirst for Jake that would never be quenched, an ache that remained even after she’d tried to obliterate it with alcohol, and fueled by far too much tequila, she reached up and ran her fingers over Reed’s chest, then trailed them down the ridges of his abdomen.
Reed’s skin trembled beneath her fingers and he sucked in a breath. He pushed up onto his knees, ready to leave, but didn’t make that final step and rise to his feet.
Tamryn looked up, but his eyes were squeezed shut. “Look at me,” she breathed, repeating his words back to him.
He opened his eyes and looked down at her. “We can’t do this, Tamryn.”
“Can’t never did nothin’.” She placed her other hand on his stomach, tentative, soft.
Reed grimaced, the muscles of his torso tightening from her touch.
She leaned forward and slid her lips against the skin just above his jeans.
His sharp inhale was audible.
“Why can they do it but we can’t?” She regretted the words almost instantly, the way they made her sound so malicious. She didn’t want to have sex with Reed to spite Jake. And Reed shouldn’t have sex with her to spite Gennie. Both of them were blind, but that didn’t make them bad people.
Still reeling from her encounter with Jake in the hallway, Tamryn’s loins throbbed with lust so heavy it hurt. She ran her fingertips along the waist of Reed’s jeans. Did she even really want to have sex with him? Was this just the tequila? The loneliness? The hunger she couldn’t shake?
She pushed up onto her knees, then sat back on her heels and looked at Reed, really looked at him, not as the guy she’d known her whole life, but as a man kneeling before her half-naked. His body was sun-kissed from all the hours spent working his daddy’s field. His muscles were strong, defined. She slid her hands up around his back, pressing against his shoulders when they tensed beneath her touch. She pushed up further onto her knees, bringing her eyes more level with his, and studied his face. Strong jaw, straight, slightly-pointed nose, laugh lines around his eyes. A light dusting of freckles across his nose, and a week’s worth of blond beard stubble. She fluttered her fingertips across his cheek.
Reed closed his eyes again, shutting her out. “We can’t.”
“We can.” Tamryn’s words made the decision for her while her brain still fought to catch up. She kissed his jaw, and he sucked in a breath. Leaning back to rest on her heels, she waited. Your move.
Reed didn’t budge. “I don’t have drunken one-night stands.”
This was a half-lie. He didn’t have drunken one-night stands anymore; you’d have to be living under a rock not to know he’d lost Gennie back in high school because of a drunken mistake.
Tamryn didn’t dare voice those words, just shook her head. “Me neither.”
/> He opened his eyes and met her gaze, then licked his lips. “Tamryn…I don’t have feelings for you…not like this.”
“Good. Me neither.” She reached behind her and unhooked her bra, then let it slide to the floor.
Reed remained focused on her eyes, but his chest rose and fell with quicker succession.
She reached out and slid her fingers around his hand, studying his face for a response, but all that changed was the quickness of his breath. Slowly, she brought his hand to her chest.
“Tamryn,” he whispered, gently shaking his head. “This is just the tequila.”
“It is.” She pressed his palm into her breast and massaged her hand over his until his fingers moved on their own. He cupped her, gently, delicately, holding on even after she let go. “It’s just tequila, just a man and a woman about to have sex, no strings attached.” The words, though slurred, made sense. What was wrong with a little ‘friends with benefits’ sex? Seemed to work pretty well for Jake. She cringed, then shook the thought away. No Jake.
Reed shook his head, then slid his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, crushing his mouth over hers. She opened up to him as he plunged his tongue inside, kissing her fervently, clearly as desperate as she was to feel, to love, to be loved. He slid his other hand into her hair and held her to his mouth, tasting her with a hunger she knew mimicked her own.
Their feelings for Jake and Gennie aside—no, driven by those feelings—Tamryn kissed Reed like he was the air she needed to breathe. Right now, she’d let him be just that.
He held her close, and she inched her knees closer, pressing against him, reveling in the feel of his erection against her. She’d had sex before, but it felt like ages ago; she’d been waiting for Jake so long. Hoping.
What a fool.
She pushed her hands against Reed’s chest, pushing him back just an inch or two so she could unzip his jeans, careful as she slid the zipper over his erection. Reed didn’t believe in underwear—anyone who knew him knew it—but this fact had never intrigued her quite the way it did now amid her alcohol induced lust.
Her eyes widened as his cock sprang free of his pants, firm and ready. She swallowed the thickness in her throat and looked back up at Reed.
Whiskey Burned (Flawed Heroes Book 2) Page 3