Lola: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 8)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Yeah, well that makes two of us,” she snarked back.

  “In Lindsey’s defense,” I said. Ice shot me a glare. “You did invite her to stay with you.”

  “I didn’t invite her to come boss me around. The damn woman doesn’t shut up.”

  “Look, I ran a B&B. It always had to look nice. Now I’m staying with you and you just throw shit anywhere. You live like a pig. I can’t take it!”

  “Then go stay somewhere else,” Ice growled.

  “I would, but someone came and destroyed my place, or have you forgotten already?” She huffed in irritation and sank down on the other bar stool. “I can’t wait for the insurance money to pay out.”

  “When will that be exactly?” Ice said.

  “I don’t know. Would you like the number for my insurance agent?” she said sweetly. “Maybe you can explain to them why they should cover the damages when my house was used as a test subject for the fire department when it was a business that wasn’t doing so well in a small town. They tend to look at the owner when arson is involved.”

  “Still bickering, huh?” Sinner said as he walked up to the table. He was followed by Burg and his girlfriend, Meghan.

  “I need a fucking bullet to the head,” Ice mumbled.

  “Not as much as I want to put one there,” Lindsey retorted.

  “Damn,” Sinner grinned. “If you’re not fucking her, you should be. Hate sex is definitely worth it.”

  Ice glared at Lindsey, who glared right back.

  “Am I missing something here?” Meghan asked.

  “This is Lindsey. We picked her up while you were out of town. Her house had an…accident,” Burg said.

  “Accident?” Lindsey snorted and shook her head. “If that was an accident then I’m Chewbacca.”

  “Who’s Chewbacca?” Meghan asked.

  “Star Wars?” Burg said, pulling Meghan into him.

  “Sorry, I never got into that movie.”

  “How could you not watch that? It’s a classic,” Burg said, mystified that Meghan hadn’t watched that.

  “It’s just not my kind of movie.”

  “God forbid a woman not have the same taste in movies as a man.” Lindsey held her hand to her chest as if she was horrified. “You know, I can’t watch a movie at John’s house unless it has something to do with explosions, war, or trashy women. I miss being in my own house where I could watch what I wanted when I wanted.”

  “Believe me, I want that too,” Ice grumbled.

  “Well, I would be there if it wasn’t for you. This is all your fault.”

  Meghan stretched an arm across the table, breaking up the tension with a forced smile. “I’m Meghan, by the way. I’m guessing you didn’t come here willingly?”

  “Not at all. But I didn’t have a choice when this one,” she jerked her thumb at Ice, “dragged me out of my business unconscious.”

  “I should have left you there. I wouldn’t have so many fucking headaches.”

  “Are they always like this?” Ryan asked.

  “Yeah, this is pretty normal,” I answered.

  “Why were you unconscious?” Meghan asked.

  “Oh, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds,” Ice rolled his eyes. “She saw a little blood and she passed out.”

  “A little blood?” Lindsey shrieked. “There were two men bleeding out on the floor of my business.”

  “Hey, I told you to leave.” Ice pointed a finger at Lindsey and she knocked it away.

  “Guys!” I finally shouted above them. “Not that this isn’t entertaining, but Ryan and I are here to hang out together.”

  “Yeah, that’s why we came over,” Sinner said. “We saw you and decided to come hang out.”

  “No, we want to hang out alone,” I stressed.

  “But…we always hang out together,” Sinner said in confusion.

  “What Lola’s trying to say,” Ryan interjected, “is that we’re on a date. Sort of.”

  “Sort of?” Burg asked.

  “How do you ‘sort of’ have a date?” Meghan asked.

  “Well, we didn’t exactly define it,” I said.

  “Like, he didn’t ask you out on a date?” Lindsey asked. “Not that I’m judging.” She raised her hands and stiffened. “I don’t know you guys and I don’t mean to interfere, but usually you know when it’s a date.”

  “Not always,” Meghan muttered. “There are coffee dates and there are real dates. Whoever invented the coffee date is an idiot. It’s just a way for a guy to take you out for less money and get to know you before actually spending money on you.”

  “It goes both ways,” Ryan said. “What if you went out with a guy that was a complete idiot? The date is going bad and you can’t get away because you’re required by social niceties to sit down and finish the meal. Bet you’d be wanting a coffee date then.”

  “When was the last time you had a coffee date?” I laughed.

  “It’s been a few years, but I remember taking advantage of it when I was on the fence about a woman.”

  “You never took me on a coffee date,” I said smugly.

  “As I recall, we didn’t exactly do the whole dating thing first.” His eyes heated and trailed down my body until he hit the table, but I could tell he was thinking of some of our more fun times getting to know each other.

  “Maybe that’s what you two need,” Sinner grinned at Ice. “You need to take her out on a date.”

  “And why would I do that? I already know that she’s a pain in my ass.”

  “Just look at Hunter and Lucy,” Sinner said. “They couldn’t stand each other unless they were fucking.”

  “What’s your point?” Ice sneered.

  “My point is that maybe you two need to fuck it out.”

  “Wow, that’s so romantic,” Lindsey said, placing her hand on her chest and looking at Ice dreamily. “I’ve always wanted a guy to not date me, but fuck it out of me.”

  “What exactly is he trying to fuck out of you?” Meghan asked.

  “I don’t know. Anger? Like I would actually suddenly like him if he was good in bed, which I’m not so sure he would be. He’s probably selfish.”

  “If you had me inside you, there wouldn’t be any question in your mind if I was good or not,” Ice said confidently.

  “You’re right. I can tell from looking at you that I should definitely walk away before I get involved in that train wreck.”

  Ice’s eyes turned lethal and Lindsey looked smug.

  “Again, not that we don’t find all this fascinating,” I interjected. “But-”

  “Shit.” Sinner picked up his phone, worrying his lip.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “It’s Cara. She hasn’t been feeling well.”

  “Did she get the flu or something?” Meghan asked.

  “No,” Sinner grinned, but it faded quickly. “Oh, God.” Sinner slumped against the table. “She’s pregnant.”

  Burg slapped Sinner on the back, jolting him forward. “That’s great, man. Congratulations.”

  “Dude, you are so fucked,” Ice shook his head.

  “Nice,” Lindsey sneered at him.

  “You don’t look so good, Sinner. You doing okay there?” I smirked.

  “She’s…and we’re…I think I might be sick.”

  “Is that the reaction you had when you found out you were going to be a dad?” I asked Ryan.

  “No, not at all. I called James by the wrong name for the first night and then told him to go grab some beer.”

  “You did not,” I said in shock.

  He nodded and smiled. “Pretty much. I was freaking out just a little.”

  “What am I gonna do?” Sinner groaned as he thumped his head on the table. “This is so bad. I’m not ready to be a father. I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies.”

  “What?” Burg asked, obviously confused by Sinner’s sudden womanly southern accent.

  “Cara made me watch Gone With The Wind last night. Sh
it,” he said in sudden realization. “Do you think she was trying to tell me last night?”

  “That’s the way I would do it, because men are so good at subtle hints,” I rolled my eyes.

  “You have to go back with me.” Sinner grabbed my hand tightly and pleaded.

  “Why would I go back with you.”

  “Because you’re a woman.”

  “Keen observation. What’s your point?”

  “You have the same parts.”

  “Again, very studious of you.”

  “Come on. Can’t you talk to her? You know, woman to woman.”

  “Maybe if I had a child or a single maternal bone in my body. I’m more likely to tell her congratulations, you fucked up your life.”

  “Yes! Good. That’d be perfect.” Sinner sighed in relief.

  “I was joking. Your wife is pregnant. Be happy. There’s gonna be a little Sinner running around causing trouble. Hey, maybe it’ll be a boy and he’ll marry Caitlin. Then you’ll be permanently fixed to Cap for the rest of your life,” I grinned.

  “No,” he shook his head. “It’ll be a girl.”

  “Yeah, that’s worse,” Ryan said. “Believe me, I’ve had the sex talk with James and that was awkward enough. I don’t think I’d want to have it with a girl.”

  “I’m so fucked,” Sinner groaned. “This can’t be happening.” He perked up suddenly and looked at Meghan. “You have a kid.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Sinner pulled his phone back out and looked at it. “Shit. She’s still waiting for me to say something.”

  “You haven’t said anything yet?” Burg said in shock.

  “Well, I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”

  “I’m pretty sure not saying anything is just as bad as saying the wrong thing,” Ryan laughed.

  “Meghan,” Sinner pleaded. “Please, come home with me. You have a child. You can explain things to her.”

  “Explain what? She’s already pregnant. She knows what happened,” Meghan said slowly.

  “You know, that we’ll get through this. Together,” Sinner implored.

  “You make it sound like she was diagnosed with a terminal illness,” Ryan laughed.

  “This is the rest of my life. Isn’t that terminal?”

  “Look, it’s really not that bad. Once you figure out that the baby doesn’t know any more shit than you do, it’s not so intimidating. You’re lucky. I got one that could already talk back.”

  “How do you know so much about babies?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Most of my friends have kids. I was there for all of them. Not that I had to do the day to day stuff, but I had to hold a screaming child a few times.”

  “So you can help!” Sinner said in earnest.

  “No,” Ryan smiled. “First, I don’t know Cara. I’ve met her before, but I don’t her well enough to give her baby advice, even if I did have experience with one.”

  “Why don’t you talk to Lillian? You know, Cara’s sister-in-law?” I suggested.

  “Yes, that’s good! Lillian is great with babies,” Sinner said as he snapped his fingers. “You’re a genius.” He leaned forward and gave me a hard kiss on the lips that I immediately pulled back from. “Shit. Sorry about that. Guess I got a little excited. Please don’t tell Cara.”

  “Believe me, I wouldn’t tell anyone about this if they swore they saw it on video.”

  “Alright, I gotta go pick up a woman to deal with my woman so that I don’t become a woman.” He paused and thought about that, then shook his head and left.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  As we left the bar, I felt a little uncomfortable with what we had talked about earlier with Sinner and felt that I needed to clarify some things with Ryan. I just didn’t know how to bring it up. It was awkward, especially considering that we had started out just fucking. This was never supposed to be more, but it somehow turned into something much more serious than that. If things kept moving forward, it was better if we had this conversation before we were both too invested.

  “So…”

  “Yeah,” he huffed out a laugh.

  “About earlier,”

  “The baby stuff?”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly.

  “You don’t want kids,” he said matter of factly.

  “Not really. What about you?”

  We got to his truck and he pushed me up against the door, caging my body in with his. “I always wanted a family. I have James and if there were more, I’d be over the fucking moon, but James is enough.”

  “Are you sure? Because I don’t know what’s happening between us and I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

  “Is that what we’re doing?” he whispered, running his fingertips along my neck.

  “I don’t know,” I said breathlessly. “I know that I really like you and I like spending time with your son, but I don’t know that I want any kids of my own.”

  He stared into my eyes, looking for something. I couldn’t help but stare back at him, wondering what he was thinking, wishing he would just say it and put me out of my misery. “After Cassie died, I was pretty sure that I would never want any kind of relationship ever again. Now that I’ve got you, it’s changed my life and I don’t want to fuck that up. So, if you’re wondering if we should break things off now, I say fuck it. Because life’s too short. I’m okay with not having any more kids. And if we stay together and you change your mind, then we’ll talk about it. I’d rather have you right now than worry about reproducing.”

  I swallowed hard and breathed in his intoxicating scent. It was enough to make my mind blank and my knees go weak. “That’s a good plan.”

  When he kissed me, it was hard and intruding. An acceptance that we were going to do this and there was no going back now. Everything that I was, I was giving to him and I would take all his memories and pain along with him because that’s who he was. Every ounce of me was wrapped up in him and it would be forever because I had just given this man more than I thought I ever could. I had given him my heart.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Ryan

  “CAN WE GET started?” I asked impatiently.

  “Got a hot date with Lola?” Logan asked.

  “No, James is going to be home in a few hours. I would really hate to tell his grandparents that I was late because I was practicing a stripper routine.”

  We were at the Reed Security training center. Sebastian had suggested we meet there to go over our routine because nobody would be in.

  “Before we get started, I have a little part of our costumes. I ordered them online and they came yesterday,” Logan said excitedly, walking over to a box and bringing it over. He opened the box and we all shook our heads.

  “No. There’s no fucking way I’m wearing that,” Drew said.

  I picked one up out of the box and cringed. They were red boxer briefs with a yellow fire hose coming out of the front. It was at least sixteen inches long. “How the hell are we supposed to dance with this sticking out the front?”

  “You guys, we’re supposed to be strippers. Come on,” Logan said. “Have some fun.”

  “I’m not wearing that. I’d rather wear a thong than that.” Cole tossed it back in the box and glared at Logan.

  “Seriously? None of you think this is awesome?”

  “That’s fucked up, is what it is,” Drew pointed at the offending underwear.

  Logan frowned and closed up the box. “Man, I really thought this would be awesome. Seductive.”

  “That’s about as seductive as wearing granny panties on the stage,” Jack said.

  “Alright, alright. Let’s get going on this,” Sebastian said. “It’s bad enough that we have to do this in the first place, let alone get together and practice.”

  The music started and we all walked out in a line, just like they did in the movies. Logan was the only one that was really getting into it. He was thrusting his hips and shaking his ass while the rest of us were just going through the m
otions.

  We came to the part where we were supposed to slowly pull off the suspenders from the turnout gear, but it was hard to imagine what it was like without the actual costume.

  “This is stupid. How are we supposed to practice when we don’t have the actual costumes?” Sean asked.

  “At the price of the rentals, you can use your imagination,” Cole said.

  “Drew, you’re not even fucking trying,” Logan groaned. “You have to roll your hips more.”

  “I am fucking rolling my hips,” Drew snapped.

  “No, look.” Logan walked over to Drew, standing behind him and placed his hands on his hips, lining up the front of his body with the back of Drew’s. “Just follow the roll of my hips.” Logan started moving his hips, grinding his body against Drew’s. Drew stood stock still, his nostrils flaring in anger.

  “If you don’t remove your cock from my ass, I’m gonna fucking make sure Cece will never have sex with you again.”

  Logan backed up, hands in the air. “Geez. Everyone’s so touchy around here. It’s not like I was trying to cop a feel or anything. I just want you to loosen up and flow with the music.”

  “I can guarantee-damn-tee that I won’t be loosening up if you press your cock against my ass,” Drew growled.

  “Let’s take it from the top,” Jack said. “I’d like this day to be over as quickly as possible.”

  The music played and we went through the routine again, still just as stale as the last time. “Guys, I hate to agree with Logan, but the girls are going to think we look like idiots if we do this,” I sighed.

  “Who gives a shit?” Drew asked. “I didn’t want to do this anyway.”

  “He only cares because he wants to impress Lola,” Sebastian smirked.

  “I’m with Logan,” Cole admitted. “We look like shit right now. Look, we’re all a bunch of good looking guys. We all take care of our bodies. What does it say if we’re up on stage and we can’t even impress our women?”

  “Do you need to impress Alex?” Sean grinned. “Things not going so well in the bedroom?”