Reckless

by Stella Rhys

  There, I thought, figuring that would get the message across that I didn’t have any interest. A Cali girl in New York still owned every inch of my mind and that wasn’t going to change.

  Ever.

  “You gonna let me come in?” AJ teased as I brought my roving stare back up from her lips to those big, brown eyes I missed so much.

  I nodded.

  “As long as you remember what tends to happen when we close the door behind us.”

  She smirked. “I know. And trust me, I’m prepared.”

  I grinned as I pulled her inside and once the door was closed, I pressed her up against it, hearing her purse fall to the floor as she wrapped her arms around my neck and let me kiss her like I’d been dreaming of doing every day for the past two months apart.

  She moaned as my hands squeezed all over her body, but when she tore away, she was laughing. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing here?”

  I blinked. “Honestly, didn’t occur to me,” I said so earnestly it made her giggle.

  But once I got myself together, and once she gave herself a look around my apartment, I went ahead and asked. “What changed your mind?”

  Standing in front of my floor-to-ceiling window, looking that much more like an angel with the blue sky behind her, she looked at me. “You mean about seeing each other?”

  “Yes.”

  She wet her lips as I came close. “I talked to someone who made me realize I could never actually leave you.”

  I laughed. “Holland?”

  She shook her head. “The other one.”

  I paused. Then squinted. “Cole?”

  She nodded, making my heart beat a little faster, and with a soft smile, she told me all about the game in Pawtucket. Her conversation with Cole.

  What he said about me.

  I was so stunned I didn’t know what to say. I tried to dial back my excitement, my hope that this could mean something. That somehow, AJ had done it again. Bridged the gap between me and my sibling.

  Take it easy, asshole. Don’t get carried away, I told myself.

  But then she took something out of her purse and as soon as she handed it to me, I knew what it was. Hell, I’d picked it out sixteen years ago, before Dad and I mailed it over to Cole. I took one look all the videos in the camera roll before I set the box back down and cupped AJ’s face in my hands.

  She broke into that big, beautiful smile of hers just before I pressed a kiss to her lips, and this time, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Two months wasn’t a long time but without her, it was an eternity, and now that I had her in my arms again, I wasn’t letting go.

  “I thought I could try,” AJ breathed hastily between kisses as I hoisted her up in my arms and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I thought I could turn it off, but I couldn’t. I don’t know how to stop thinking about you, Adam. Or loving you or wanting you. It’s not something I can do.”

  “Me neither,” I murmured, my lips still locked on hers as I carried her into the bedroom and laid her on top of my bed.

  There we go.

  Maybe this bed’s not so bad after all.

  In fact, with our clothes strewn on the floor, the whole place felt like home already.

  “God, you don’t know how much I missed this,” AJ whispered once our bodies were flush against each other again. Heart against heart. Skin against skin.

  “I think I have an idea,” I laughed as she wrapped her legs around me. “Promise me we won’t even try it again.” I savored the sound of her little moan as I sank myself inside her. “I told you once and I meant it. I can’t live without you, AJ. Not even for a fucking second,” I murmured, rocking into her, already losing myself inside her. “Promise me you’re mine forever.”

  Her lips curved against mine as she answered.

  “I promise.”

  Epilogue

  AJ

  Eighteen Months Later

  I blinked awake to find myself staring out a vaguely familiar window. It looked like the one in our bedroom, but it wasn’t the right view.

  Because… this is not your apartment, I realized with a weak snort.

  It was the building I lived in, but it wasn’t our unit. It was Holland and Iain’s.

  We’d all crashed here after a night of partying that was honestly enough partying to last me several lifetimes. And I didn’t even drink that much. I was just exhausted from the sheer madness of the celebration.

  After missing the mark last year, the New York Empires had just won their third World Series in four seasons, and though we were always happy when our clients did well, it couldn’t have been a more personal win for Adam and me.

  We had watched from the very front row behind home plate last night—me and Adam, Holland and Iain, and Iain’s friend Evie Maddox, plus her baby Kai. We were cheering on the Empires, but in particular, Iain’s client Drew Maddox, and our clients Sean Knox and Cole Ridnour.

  Our family at Thorn Sports.

  Drew had won Game 1 and 6, and Knox had pitched a gem of a Game 7. The bad news was that the 1-0 lead he left the game with in the eighth inning was promptly lost when his relief gave up three quick runs.

  The good news, of course, was that the next inning, it was Cole who came up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs.

  The crowd had roared for their new fan favorite—the underdog who was a no-name minor-leaguer included in last season’s trade that brought Sean Knox to the Empires. No one had expected much of him, and admittedly, he’d struggled his first several weeks.

  But then the two-game hitting streak became three, then four, then five. By the end of his first season with the Empires, he’d earned himself a starting spot batting ninth.

  By this season, however, he’d found himself batting fifth, which was what brought him to plate in the absolute nick of time.

  “God,” I laughed to myself, testing out my scratchy voice as I rolled onto my back in the guest bed.

  I had screamed my throat and lungs raw when Cole swung on the first pitch he got last night, lining a go-ahead, bases-clearing triple to cap off the eighth inning comeback that would win the Empires the game.

  And thus the World Series.

  “Guys,” I whispered when I sat up, trying to hold in my laughter as I realized that despite being in their own home and having a glorious master bedroom, Iain and Holland had passed out on the little loveseat in the corner, having stayed up so late talking to Adam and me in the guest room, like it was one giant sleepover.

  Which it pretty much was.

  “Okay, never mind,” I whispered, mostly to entertain myself as I rolled out of bed, on a mission to find my boyfriend.

  His phone wasn’t on the nightstand and his shoes weren’t anywhere in sight, so he was clearly up and about. I just had to figure out where.

  I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I walked down the hall and past the guest bedroom, where Knox was passed out with his girlfriend, with the TV still on and playing reruns of last night’s World Series coverage on ESPN.

  Adam had turned every TV in the house to the coverage once we got in last night, and six hours later, it continued to play softly on all the screens. It was on in the empty kitchen as I got downstairs, craning my neck to look out at the living room, where Cole was passed out alone, which meant Brad was up and off somewhere too, since last I’d checked, he’d passed out there.

  That’s probably where Adam is, I thought just as my bleary eyes squinted at Cole’s head of thick, black hair. “Interesting,” I snorted when I realized that someone had gelled his hair into a fauxhawk. Probably Holland.

  It was about a year ago in this very apartment that Adam finally told Holland the truth. It was the four of us sitting in the living room, and there was obviously no shortage of shock or tears, but more than anything, there was love, understanding and relief like no other. It was the night of answers that Holland had wanted her whole life, and it set off a chain of events that included Brad’s divorce from Jeannie and Holland’s int
roduction to Heidi and Cole.

  “Wait, so he’s my half-brother too? Oh, he’s not. Wait, is he? How does this work?” a still-tearful Holland had asked, making us all crack up that emotional night she found out about Cole. We tried to tell her she did not technically have another brother, but she wouldn’t listen. “No, he is, he’s my brother. I have two brothers and no one can tell me otherwise, thanks,” she had declared.

  And as it turned out, she was right.

  They weren’t related by blood, but something about Holland and Cole together made Cole and Adam seem that much more like brothers, since the two younger ones liked to occasionally team up against Adam just to piss him off.

  Of course, I knew he was never actually pissed off. He was elated. The joy I’d seen in him in the past year or so was so clear every day we woke up, and I knew it was because he had all of us now. Me, Holland, Iain. Brad, Heidi, Cole.

  It had taken time. It hadn’t been a completely seamless transition back into brotherhood. But over time, things started falling into place.

  “I don’t know if I’ve processed it yet…”

  I heard the sound of Cole’s voice despite the fact that he was still passed out in front of me.

  “I struggled a long time. Spent most of my career in the minors…”

  I turned around, looking at the TV playing in the kitchen.

  It was Cole’s post-game press conference. I’d seen bits and pieces of it last night, but not this particular part.

  Standing alone in the kitchen, I watched as he wore a World Series Champion cap low over his eyes, which shimmered with pure joy as he grinned through every question.

  “Honestly, besides my teammates, it’s been three people. My mom, Heidi, my brother Adam, and my agent, AJ. Truthfully, I was ready to hang it up a few seasons ago. It was just bad break after bad break. But those three… they’re the reason I’m here. That’s my family. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

  I stared, feeling my lower lip wobble.

  “Seriously?” I said, turning to Cole, as if he weren’t completely passed out. “Little shit,” I whispered, breaking into a huge grin because the jerk hadn’t even told me he’d said all that. Then again, of course he hadn’t. In so many ways, he was still the same Cole I’d met in Pawtucket a year-and-a-half ago. A slightly difficult asshole who was generally somewhere between stoic and surly. But since getting him to the Empires and setting him up with the right training and medical team, he’d started opening up to me. And then slowly, to Adam.

  And since then, things just kept getting better.

  Since the start of this season, we’d pretty much all been inseparable. It was like all these worlds had collided to make this big, beautiful, crazy, happy family. It just fell together beautifully.

  And every day, Adam told me, “It wouldn’t have happened without you.”

  “Where are you?” I whispered as I typed out the same words and texted them to Adam.

  He replied quickly.

  ADAM: Went for a walk. Meet me outside

  Finding my shoes, I quickly slipped outside, going down the elevator and smiling once I got to the lobby, because I could see Adam’s eyes already on me as he waited for me on the sidewalk.

  God, I’m a lucky woman, I thought as I looked him up and down. He’d clearly gone back to our apartment to shower and change, because he, Cole and Knox had been absolute maniacs last night. They’d drank like crazy, wrestled, hugged it out and basically passed out looking like they’d take a few days to get up.

  But Adam looked sharper than ever this morning in his white button-down and jeans, his eyes more alive and vibrant than I’d ever seen them as he watched me cross the sidewalk to give him a good morning kiss.

  “How do you wake up looking like this?” he asked me, making me look down at the simple white sundress I had on. It was actually the same one I’d worn a year-and-a-half ago, when I went to surprise him at his very temporary apartment in Stamford.

  “It helps that I didn’t drink much last night,” I said, smiling as I felt our hands find each other and interlock as we started walking naturally toward the water down the block.

  “Did you know your brother gave us a shoutout during his post-game presser last night?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I got about two hundred texts about it,” Adam laughed, reminding me of the fact that most of the people in his life didn’t realize he had a brother until recently.

  “I wasn’t expecting that. I was so surprised when I saw it just now,” I said, compelling Adam to give me a funny look. “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “You still don’t realize, do you?”

  I bit my lip, already feeling a rush of warmth in my cheeks. “What?” I said as we slowed to a stop in front of the river. A smile spread my lips as Adam pulled me close, his blue eyes lit so beautifully under the glow of the morning sun.

  “You’re responsible for all the happiness in my life,” he said, pushing my hair behind my ear, his gaze moving all over my face before it returned with a glint of a smile to my eyes. “You make everything come together and feel right in a way I could’ve never dreamed of, and every day I wake up, I’m so fucking grateful to be holding you. Every morning, I feel it stronger than the last. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, AJ. I just know that I want to spend the rest of my life protecting you and making you proud. Making you as happy as you make me every second I’m with you.”

  He’d already stolen my breath several times over, but then he took a step back, savoring the look of shock I already had on my face before he reached into his back pocket and produced a little velvet box.

  “Oh my God,” I breathed when he opened it and damn near blinded me with the beautiful, absolutely breathtaking diamond inside.

  “Marry me, AJ.”

  All the air left my lungs and I felt tears burst in my eyes as I looked down at the ring then up at this beautiful man who looked at me like I was his whole world.

  “Of course I’ll marry you,” I said before the tears fell, streaming down my cheeks as he broke into that grin that made my knees go weak. I thanked God once he slid the ring on my finger, because as much as I wanted to admire its beauty, I needed to throw my arms around his neck.

  “I love you so much,” I said, my voice cracking through the tears and the kisses.

  “I love you more than I’ll ever be able to say in words,” Adam whispered as he murmured to me between kisses. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, AJ. From now till forever.”

  I repeated his last few words in a whisper as I nodded, my body brimming with all the love and gratitude in the world, because we had always been complete.

  But now we were whole.

  The End

  The Irresistible Series

  Thank you so much for reading Reckless! If you enjoyed Adam and AJ’s story, be sure to check out the rest of the Irresistible Series on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited!

  SWEET SPOT - Lukas and Lia

  BAD BOSS - Julian and Sara

  DIRTY DEEDS - Emmett and Aly

  HOTHEAD - Drew and Evie

  NOW OR NEVER - Iain and Holland

  Turn the page for an excerpt from Now or Never!

  NOW OR NEVER

  He’s ten years older. My brother's best friend.

  And for the next two weeks, he gets to have me in all the ways he’s ever wanted.

  HOLLAND

  The last time I saw him, he still called me kiddo.

  But fast-forward five years and more than a few things have changed.

  He’s still Iain Thorn. He’s still my brother’s best friend and the painfully sexy man I clearly never stopped wanting. But me?

  Apparently, I’ve grown up in more ways than he can resist.

  IAIN

  I’m going to hell for looking at her like this.

  She’s too young for me. Too sweet and naive.

  She has no idea what I would do to her.

  But since the day she
walked back in my life in that tight little dress, I’ve felt myself caving. I said I’d never in my life get involved with Holland Maxwell.

  But since I’m already going to hell, I might as well make it worth it.

  CHAPTER ONE

  IAIN

  Fuck me if that’s her.

  A single upward glance and just like that my night was screwed.

  In an instant, my pulse doubled, and I could feel my jaw ticking tighter and tighter under my palm as I ran my hand over my face, my eyes devouring her body in ways I told myself had strictly to do with the shock.

  Because what the hell was she doing here?

  And for Christ’s sake, what the hell was she wearing?

  My shoulders tensed under my suit and my grip tightened around the lowball of Scotch I suddenly wanted to pound like a shot, because now that I’d looked up—now that I’d seen her—I had a face to match to all the filthy, vulgar shit my clients had spent the past two minutes groaning about, and it wasn’t just any face.

  It was one I’d known since she was only thirteen years old.

  “Jesus fuck. How do we trade our waitress for that Playboy bunny-lookin’ thing?”

  My jaw clenched at Watt’s description.

  It wasn’t far off. In fact, it was surprisingly fucking accurate, but still—I was failing to reconcile what I was seeing with what I was remembering, because the last time I saw her she was a sweet, innocent little thing. This shy little girl wearing a powder blue backpack and braided pigtails—who I made it my job to protect because her own brother had no instinct whatsoever.

  But now… for Christ’s sake, now there was no trace of that shy little girl as she flitted from table to table in a tight little dress, holding a tray of drinks up high and arching her back so taut I wanted to clench my teeth out of my skull.

  “Goddamn, when she bends over in that thing…” Ty growled into his fist.