“You can stop kissing my ass, you got your muffin.” Her long, curly black hair was tied back, her lips curled up.
“What can I say, I’m a whore for your muffins.”
Addie burst out laughing. “The shit you say.” She tilted her head to the side. “So why do you look like you’re about to fall asleep where you’re standing?”
“I look that bad?”
Her dark brown gaze moved over me, assessing. “You look hot, but you’re also rocking some serious bags under your eyes.” She perked up. “Did a certain cowboy keep you up last night?”
I inwardly cringed. “Har har. Brooks is a gentleman.”
I wished he was the reason I hadn’t slept. If only I could get enthusiastic enough about him to lure him to my bed and bone his brains out.
Addie cackled. “Booooring. There’s always tonight.”
“Okay. I’m going now, you deviant. And for that, I’m not thanking you for the muffin. I will eat it though, because your muffins are the bomb.”
“Yes. Yes, they are,” she said and headed back behind the counter.
I turned around and jolted to a stop.
Leaning against the wall behind me, muscled tattooed arms crossed, worn jeans hugging his long, lean body, looking rougher, harder, than before he left, was Jesse. His gorgeous bright green eyes watched me from under the brim of his ball cap.
I hadn’t seen him since that day a week ago. And I wasn’t prepared to see him again now.
He pushed away from the wall and closed the distance between us, moving in so close I had to tip my head back to hold his gaze.
Heat hit my face, and my heart raced. “What are you doing here, Grifter?” The words were out before I could stop them.
His expression didn’t change, but his body tensed.
“Nice to see you, too, Bambi.”
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. “I take it you found your brother?”
He lifted a brow.
“Dane mentioned you were looking for him.”
“Yeah, I found him.” His nostrils flared. “You’d know that if…” A puff of air escaped him in a humorless kind of laugh. “Whatever.” He looked up. “Adds, coffee, black.”
“Coming up,” my friend called.
He kept his gaze trained forward as if I wasn’t standing right there in front of him.
I needed to get the hell out of there. I tried to step around him as he shifted to the side. I quickly stepped the other way and rushed around him, flustered, angry, hurt.
“Have a good time the other night, Bambi? On your date?”
I stopped in my tracks, my face flaming hotter as I turned back to him.
He was facing me, a smirk curling his lips. “Brooks, right?”
I nodded, unable to speak.
“Nice guy.”
I cleared my throat. Not liking the way he emphasized the word nice, like it was a bad word. “He is.” What else could I say?
He moved close, or more swaggered, and leaned in. I couldn’t move, was trapped by those beautiful green eyes that seemed so out of place on the hard male in front of me.
He took off his hat, turned it around, and put it back on, like I’d seen him do many times. Somehow, he made the simple act utterly sexy. I hated that I still had to fight a shiver when he was this close.
He leaned in some more and his mouth brushed my ear. “He ask permission before he takes your mouth? Before he gets your tits out? Before he goes down on you, Bambi? Is that what a gentleman does?”
I sucked in a startled breath. He was being purposely crude. I wasn’t sure why, but he was trying to hurt me. My confused, traitorous body heated up at his dirty words even as shame burned through me.
“That’s what you wanted, right? A guy to hold your hand and make you feel like a princess. A guy who’d fuck you…sorry, make love to you with the lights off. Who’d apologize when he got carried away and pounded you into the mattress. That’s what you wanted, right, Lila?”
I rocked back, like he’d hit me.
Not long ago, I would have turned and run away. Not anymore.
Anger fired through me as old hurt and humiliation mixed with new. I was done letting him hurt me. With letting anyone hurt me. I straightened my spine and took a step back so that I could see his face, and he could see mine.
I shoved my glasses higher. “At least when I’m in his bed, he knows it’s me. And he certainly doesn’t have any trouble getting it up,” I fired back.
He flinched. It was subtle, but I didn’t miss it.
Lies, all of it. I’d never been in Brooks’s bed. I hadn’t gotten him naked, either, but Jesse didn’t need to know that.
His eyes hardened, now chips of ice boring into me.
I stared back, breathing hard.
“Um…your coffee,” Addie said to Grifter.
He sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, yanked some cash from his pocket, handed it to her, then snatched his drink and strode out.
Addie turned to me, mouth hanging open.
“Don’t ask,” I said, voice shaking along with the rest of me.
“Oh, I’m asking.”
“Adds…”
“Drinks tonight.”
“I’m not sure…”
“It’s Friday, no work tomorrow. After what I just witnessed, I’d say we’re in serious need of a girls’ night.”
I loved my girls, I did. But talking about this wasn’t something I wanted to do. But Addie was already on her phone rounding up the troops.
Crap.
Looked like we were having a girls’ night tonight.
Chapter Five
Jesse
I strode away, cursing myself. Lila had just handed me my ass. I’d been a giant dick to her, and she’d cut me off at the knees. I deserved it. I did. But I was jealous as shit and there’d been no holding it in.
The thought of Brooks-fucking-Jackson sticking his micro penis anywhere near Lila made me want to punch something, preferably him.
He’d had Lila under him.
He knew the sounds she made when she came, the way her pussy tasted, the color of her sweet little nipples when she was turned on.
He got to talk to her, tease her, make her laugh. He got to have those big brown eyes looking at him like he’d hung the motherfucking stars. She’d looked at me like that once. And she’d seen me. More than anyone else ever had.
I hadn’t been ready for her to see all of me. I hadn’t wanted her anywhere near Trip. And I sure as hell didn’t want her near my psychotic old man.
I curled my fingers into a tight fist.
I hated this. It fucking sucked. Yes, I sounded like a whiny, little bitch. But I didn’t give a shit. She should be mine. She should still be mine.
I shoved the door open to Rocktown Ink and was hit by a wall of sound as I walked in. Music thumped through the speakers and Dane was at the counter, head bobbing as he sketched in his pad.
“Yo.”
Nothing.
I flicked his ear. “Yo.”
Dane lifted his head, scowling, then smiled wide and cheesy and turned down the tunes.
“Hey! I was listening to that!” Trix yelled from somewhere in the shop.
“Riff’s here!” Dane called back.
“So? Turn my damn music back up,” she hollered.
Huh. I was starting to think Trix wasn’t my biggest fan.
The curtain to Cal’s room snapped open and he scowled. “Would you all stop fucking yelling,” he yelled.
His gaze slid to me, and he gave me a chin lift. I gave him one back, then he shut himself back in with his client, and the buzz of tattoo machines started back up along with the music.
Dane came around the counter now, pulling me in, thumping my back.
“At least someone’s happy to see me,” I muttered.
“Who’ve you been pissing off?”
Lila chose that moment to walk past the window, and I couldn’t stop my gaze from following her. She was wearing
one of her clingy skirts, hugging her hips and thighs, and a white shirt with tiny purple spots all over it. She looked sexy as fuck and cute as a button. Dane’s gaze followed mine, catching sight of her as well as she speed-walked by with her head down.
She looked upset.
Fuck.
“What did you say to her?”
I scowled. “Nothing.”
My friend crossed his arms. “You gave her shit about Brooks.”
The asshole knew me too well. Probably because we were so much alike. Dane would have done the exact same thing before he locked Everly down. “Brooks is a prick.”
“You had your chance and you blew it.”
I scowled. “I was going away for months, what the fuck was I supposed to do?”
Dane gave me a look that said I was a dumbass. “Ask her if she wanted to wait? Do the long-distance thing? Anything but what you did.”
I flipped him off. I didn’t want to talk about Lila anymore, or my reasons for ending it. “I didn’t come here to be insulted…speaking of, why the hell am I here?” I quirked a brow.
Dane had asked me to come into the shop next time I was in town. Today was that day. I did the Black Stone-to-Rocktown ride regularly. But I’d come back sooner than I’d planned. And there was no point bullshitting myself why. I’d wanted to catch a glimpse of Lila.
I had.
And I’d fucked it up royally.
I’d envisioned a million different versions of our reunion in my head. None of them had included me acting like a jealous pick or her mocking me for being a soft-cock-loser.
Dane leaned on the counter as Cal walked out, his client behind him.
“Cassy’s pregnant,” Dane said.
I lifted my hands in surrender. “Don’t look at me.”
Cal growled under his breath as he took money from the guy with him. His client walked out and Cal turned to us.
“You back at Bunkers?” Dane’s older brother asked me.
“Not yet.” Bunkers Tattoo and Piercing was Ramblers owned and where I’d worked before I went away. I hadn’t gone back yet. I’d been helping Soph settle in, which had been tough. She was confused and, despite my brother being a violent asshole, heartbroken. She’d just moved out of my place and in with her sister, and I hoped getting away from me, from our family, would be good for her. “Why?”
“Cassy gets bad morning sickness. She was…hospitalized when she was pregnant with Jack. I’m gonna take over the ranch full-time, look after my wife and my boy for a few months at least. We have plenty of work here if you’re interested. And the apartment upstairs is empty.”
Huh.
That, I hadn’t expected.
I hadn’t felt right since I came home. Part of that was worrying about Sofia constantly, making sure she didn’t flip out and run back to Trip. But also, my place didn’t feel the same. I didn’t know what it was, but I was restless. Probably because I’d been on the road for so long?
Whatever it was, maybe working here for a while would be a good thing, for me and for Soph. She’d been leaning on me heavily. Which was fine with me, but she needed to find her new normal and I got the feeling that was hard for her with me around all the time reminding her of Trip. Right now, she was solid with her sister, and Rocktown was still close if she needed me.
And Lila’s here.
That little fact went right in the pros and cons list.
Con: Because she wasn’t mine anymore, and seeing her with someone else would seriously fuck me up.
Pro: Because this was Lila, and I fucking wanted to see her no matter what.
“Yeah, sounds good. I’m in.” I had to be a masochist or dumb as shit to agree to this. I was going with the latter.
“Just like old times, brother,” Dane said.
Dane had lived in Black Stone for a while and finished his apprenticeship with me at Bunkers before he and Eves got together, which is how we’d gotten tight.
I snorted. “Except without all the drinking, fucking, and fighting.”
“I have a girlfriend. I’m not dead,” Dane said. “Eves and I regularly drink and fuck.”
“Showoff.”
Dane smirked.
I glanced at Cal, who was observing us, frowning. “Have no fear, Cal, my man. I’ll be on my best behavior. I swear no besmirching the Rocktown Ink name.”
Dane’s phone beeped, and he checked it.
Cal’s lips twitched, an almost smile. “Glad to hear it. Right, I need to clean up.” He headed back to his room, and I turned back to Dane.
“What’re you doing tonight. Bar?”
“Nah, that was Eves. She’s having her girls over later. I’ve been sent a list of shit to get, and I said I’d be sober driver to take them all home later. I’ll spend my evening banished to the workshop in the garage.”
“That mean Lila will be there?”
“Dude…”
“I’m only thinking about you, all by yourself in the garage. That’s just mean, especially since I’ve been gone so long. I’ll come over, we’ll have some quality bro time.”
“Bro time?” Dane laughed. “Where the hell have you been the last few months?”
“Shut up and get me the keys to my new apartment. I’ll get my shit tomorrow.”
Dane opened the drawer behind the counter and handed me a bundle of keys. “You think you should be trying to talk to her again?”
I pulled off my hat and rubbed a hand over my cropped hair. “Probably not. But I was a dick to her earlier. I’d like the chance to smooth things over.”
Dane gave me an odd look, like the words coming out of my mouth were foreign. How bad was it that he was actually shocked that I gave a shit?
“Fine, but if you upset Lila, Eves will get upset, and I don’t need my woman pissed at me, brother.”
“I’ll be good.”
“You fucking better be.”
I swiped my fingers across my chest. “Cross my heart.”
“That shit only works if you have one,” Dane deadpanned.
Wasn’t that the truth.
I headed upstairs to check out the apartment and figure out how I was going to get Lila to talk to me again.
Lila
“What’s in these again?” Addie said to Quinn as she walked back in with another pitcher of fruity cocktail.
“Coconut rum,” she said and winked. “You know I don’t get to flex my cocktail-making muscles at The Mule often, so as always you’re my guinea pigs.” Quinn was Bull’s wife, and she was a cocktail-making genius.
Eves took a deep sip of hers. “We’re more than happy to oblige.”
“I second that,” I said and held my glass out for Quinn to top off.
“So what’s Brooks up to tonight?” Trix asked, eyes sparking with mischief.
I was between her and Eves on the couch. Quinn and Addie sat across from us on big, comfy chairs, and they all turned to me expectantly.
Don’t make me talk about myself. My stomach squirmed unhappily and I had to fight not to dip my head, to shrink in on myself.
Eves, Quinn, and Trixie knew about my past, but Addie did not. “Um…I’m not sure. We’re just keeping things super casual, you know. We’re just hanging out.”
“Do you like him?” Quinn asked, her gray eyes on me and as always seeing way too much.
I sipped my drink to stall.
Eves nudged me with her elbow. “It’s just us, Ly.”
She was right, of course. I don’t know why I had such a problem with intimacy, even just talking about it. “He’s nice.” I swallowed, suddenly hearing Jesse’s comment about how nice Brooks was echoing through my head. “He’s also hot and funny. Yeah, I like him.” And I did, just not as much as I’d liked a certain jackass biker.
“Is he a good kisser? Because that’s what we all want to know.” Trix lifted a hand when our friends protested weakly. “Oh shut up, you know you wanted to ask.”
I laughed, I couldn’t help it. The disgruntled look on Trix’s face
was too funny. Probably helped that I was more than a little tipsy.
“Yes, I will confirm that Brooks is a good kisser.” But again, despite Brooks’s excellent technique, my heart didn’t race and my palms didn’t sweat like they had when Jesse had kissed me. When Jesse’d pressed his lips to mine, I’d melted. Turned into a puddle.
“I’m glad,” Eves said and pulled me in for a hug. She was as tipsy as me.
“Me too,” Trix said. “I’m glad you’ve moved on from Grifter. You know he’s back?” Trix said, her eyes softening.
“Is that why you two were arguing this morning?” Addie asked. “You used to date?”
Eves frowned. “You were arguing?”
“It wasn’t a big deal,” I said, trying not to squirm. “And we never dated, not really. He was just…”
“Being a giant douchebag,” Addie said.
“Tell him to get lost,” Trix said. “The last thing you needs is him sniffing around, messing with your head again. You know he brought his new girlfriend in to me for some ink? He got me to cover up her ex’s name. Possessive much?”
My mouth went dry and I suddenly felt ill.
Music came from outside.
“Dane’s making a coffee table for me in his workshop,” Eves said, squeezing my hand and thankfully changing the subject.
You knew he had a girlfriend. It changed nothing. There was no reason for what Trix said to hurt. I was over it, I was moving on.
Sure you are.
“Come on, I’m in the mood to dance.” Trix pulled me to my feet.
Drinks in hand, Trix herded us outside to a small bonfire already going in the middle of the yard. Dane did that a lot. He liked to sit out there with Eves in the evening. Eves ran into the garage, where Dane wrapped her in his arms, one hand dropping to her butt to give it a squeeze as he planted a hot and heavy kiss on her.
“Hey! This is girls’ night, no sucking face!” Addie called out.
“Yeah, put it away! Stop rubbing your love under our noses!” Trix called. “Some of us are single, you know!”
“Rubbing your love under our noses?” Quinn screwed up her face as she made the rounds topping off our glasses again.
Addie snickered.
Bad For You (Rocktown Ink Book 4) Page 4