Addicted (Outlaws Book 2) (9 page)

“Kick ’im in the balls!” one of the girls on Jamie’s team shouted.

When he trapped her in another armlock, Jamie proved she wasn’t above taking her teammate’s suggestion. Her knee flew up and connected with his groin. Lennox barked out a curse, the jolt of pain causing him to slam his fist into her abdomen. She flew back, her eyes blazing at him.

“Fucking dick!” she yelled.

Ignoring the pain shooting through his testicles, he flashed a cocky grin. A moment later, Rylan whistled again.

“End of Round One!”

Rylan and Pike promptly bent their heads together to confer before declaring Jamie the winner of that bout.

Lennox rolled his eyes when she stuck out her tongue at him. Little brat.

The second round was more of the same. They each got in a few good blows, until one costly error gave Lennox the upper hand. His sharp uppercut made her stumble, and the nanosecond in which she lost her balance allowed him to kick her legs from under her and send her tumbling to the ground. A second later, Lennox was on top of her, his thighs on either side of her torso, his forearm against her slender throat. He didn’t exert enough pressure to squeeze her windpipe, but the dominant pose made it clear that he could.

“Tapping out?” he teased.

“No.” Sweat beaded on her forehead as she tried to shove him off her. She batted at him with her fists, but he had her pinned solidly to the ground.

The cheers and whistles from his teammates faded away. All he could focus on was Jamie’s beautiful face, the way her perfect mouth twisted in frustration as she realized she couldn’t overpower him. He became aware of her thigh muscles quivering beneath the weight of his lower body, the way her breasts heaved as her breathing grew labored. He felt himself hardening but didn’t bother disguising the response by shifting his hips. He just let her feel every hard inch of him.

Her blue eyes widened. “Lennox…” Soft and questioning.

He realized he was still staring at her, allowing all his naked hunger for her to show in his eyes. The knowledge that he wasn’t strong enough to mask his lust spurred him to push his forearm deeper into her throat.

“Tap out,” he growled.

Something akin to disappointment flickered in her eyes. Then her arm came out and she tapped her palm on the pavement.

His team roared. Hers booed.

Lennox was unsteady getting to his feet. As Rylan gleefully announced,
“Winner!”
Lennox held out his hand to Jamie, his heart beating erratically.

Her mystified gaze searched his face as she took his hand so he could help her up. She didn’t look pissed that he’d won the fight.

Truth be told, he didn’t feel as if he’d won a damn thing. He felt as if he’d lost.

“Nice job,” Jamie murmured, and something in her tone brought a squeeze of pain to his heart.

She walked over to her teammates without a backward glance. The defeat lodged in his chest only thickened.

Shit. Maybe he needed to follow her lead. Keep avoiding her. Keep pretending that the other night had never happened. He might have screwed up by opening the sex door, but there was an easy fix for that. All he had to do was slam the door shut, lock it up, and throw away the key.

And… he spared a rueful glance at his crotch… it was probably best if he got laid tonight.

“I need to sit down before my ankles explode.” Bethany’s massive belly bobbed as she awkwardly lowered herself onto the couch next to Jamie, who instantly moved over to make room for the pregnant woman.

Smiling, she glanced at Bethany’s bare ankles, which did look a tad swollen. “Aw, sweetie. You need to stop working at the restaurant. You’re on your feet too much.”

“My feet? You should see my feet,” Bethany retorted. “God knows I can’t, but I’m told my toes look like sausages.” She sighed. “I hate being fat.”

Jamie leaned in to kiss her cheek. “You are not fat. You’re beautiful.”

“Sorry, but the music’s too loud. All I heard was
you’re
and
fat
.” Bethany blinked innocently, which made Jamie laugh.

The music was kind of loud, though. And the rec hall was
packed
. Nearly every Foxworth resident was at the party Rylan was throwing to celebrate the successful first day of the tournament. Jamie had to hand it to him – the idea to turn the training into a competition had really done the trick. Instead of complaining, everyone was teeming with excitement now. She’d even seen half a dozen teenagers in the courtyard earlier practicing their knife-throwing techniques.

Reese was bound to be happy about this. By the time Rylan and Pike were done, the woman would have a highly trained army at her disposal.

“Heard you and Lennox got into it today,” Bethany said curiously.

“Not really. It was just a training exercise.”

“You sure? Arch said it looked pretty intense.”

Jamie didn’t remember seeing Bethany’s man at the fight. Or around town, for that matter. Arch was one of the men who didn’t require any training. He was already as lethal as they came, and was usually assigned to the watchtower at the back gate.

“It was nothing,” Jamie insisted. “Really.” If by nothing she meant
he was on top of me and hard as a rock.

God, he’d been impossibly hard. And he hadn’t even tried to hide it. Which was only all the more confusing. Lennox was sending so many mixed signals her head was spinning. He seemed determined to push her away, while at the same time desperate to pull her closer.

But it didn’t matter. Any sexual involvement between them was not a good idea, especially now that she’d witnessed the kind of damage it could cause. All they’d done the other night was orgasm in the same vicinity and it had led to days of awkwardness. She didn’t even want to imagine what would happen to their friendship if they actually had sex.

“If you say so.” Bethany sounded unconvinced, but she was smart enough not to push the issue. Instead she chewed on her bottom lip for a second, then said, “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Ask away.”

“Hudson…” Bethany trailed off.

Jamie’s guard instantly shot up. “What about her?”

“I didn’t get a chance to spend any time with her when she and Con were here, but I overhead Reese and Sloan talking the other night.” Bethany frowned. “Is it true she’s Dominik’s sister?”

Jamie hesitated. Then nodded.

Which clearly wasn’t the desired response, because Bethany’s mouth instantly curled into a sneer.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Jamie said hastily. “Believe me, I wasn’t thrilled about it either when I found out, but Hudson isn’t like the others in the city. She’s not out to get us.”

“But her brother is.”

“He might not be.” Jamie still wasn’t convinced of that herself, but she felt she owed it to Hudson to come to her defense. Connor’s woman had been nothing but kind to her. “Hudson and Dominik’s father used to be in charge of the Enforcers. Did you know that?”

Bethany shook her head. “I’m not too knowledgeable about their military hierarchy.”

“There’s not much to know. Each colony has a commander who calls the shots, and a head Enforcer who leads the men on the field. Hudson’s father was the commander, but after he died, Ferris took over. Since then, the rules have changed. More colony sweeps, increased violence.” Jamie shrugged. “According to Hudson, Dominik isn’t happy with all the changes. Supposedly he’s trying to fix that.”

Bethany looked doubtful, and Jamie didn’t blame her one bit. “Really? Because the colony sweeps are still going strong.”

“I don’t know what he’s doing or what his plan is,” Jamie admitted. “But for what it’s worth, he did help Hudson escape from the Enforcer compound. When he had the opportunity to kill Connor, he let him go instead. And he even gave Hudson a satellite phone she can use to contact him. She sent him her coordinates, and so far he’s been keeping the sweeps away from her location.”

“Lucky her,” Bethany said bitterly. “Because he sure as hell isn’t keeping any of those assholes away from
here
. Did Reese tell you what happened with Nestor last month? How that dickhead was waving his gun around like a madman, demanding Reese give him Sara?”

Jamie stiffened. “Sara?”

“He wanted to take her on their colony sweep so she could ‘service’ him and his men. Fucking pervert was lucky Gideon was at the farm that day —”

“Gideon?”

“Sara’s father. Gid would have strangled the man with his bare hands. Sloan stepped up, though.” Disgust colored Bethany’s tone. “The Enforcers are monsters. I honestly can’t believe that Dominik, their
leader
, is any different.”

Neither could Jamie, but she was willing to give Hudson the benefit of the doubt. For now, anyway.

“Why do you ladies look so serious?” came Arch’s deep voice.

The ginger-haired giant approached the sofa and perched on the edge of it. At six-seven and close to three hundred pounds, the man was imposing as hell, but his expression conveyed nothing but tenderness as he leaned in to stroke Bethany’s huge belly.

The sight made Jamie’s heart ache. Nobody had ever looked at her like that before. Like she were the sun and moon and everything in between.

“I was telling Jamie about Nestor,” Bethany admitted.

Arch’s green eyes hardened. “Fucking bastard. Sloan should have killed him.”

“The Enforcers would have opened fire if he’d done anything more than knock Nestor out,” Bethany said firmly. Arch’s hand was still on her stomach, and she covered it with her own. “Sloan did the right thing.”

“Strongly disagree.”

As the couple began to bicker about what Sloan should or shouldn’t have done, Jamie raised her whiskey glass to her lips and took a long swig. The alcohol burned her belly, slowed the flow of her blood. She was already a little drunk, but not drunk enough.

If she was going to officially exorcise her attraction to Lennox, she needed to be much, much drunker.

She glanced around the room, her gaze sweeping over the rowdy group of men standing around the pool table. The couples in various stages of undress. The sexual escapades being conducted in the shadowy corners of the room. She spotted Rylan leaning against the wall, a bottle in one hand, his blue eyes fixed on the door. She got the grating feeling he was waiting for Reese.

She shifted her gaze in search of Lennox and found him in the back corner. He was sitting in an overstuffed chair, and he wasn’t alone – there was a dark-haired woman in his lap, nibbling on his neck and playing with his hair. Lennox had a hand on her hip, and he was slowly grazing his fingers over the strip of pale flesh where her shirt rode up from the waistband of her jeans.

“Who’s that?” Jamie nodded in the direction of the woman and gulped some more whiskey.

Bethany followed her gaze. “Oh, that’s Cassie. You’ve met her before.”

Right, she had. The brunette worked in the laundry room; Jamie remembered handing off her sheets and pillowcases to Cassie during her last visit.

“She doesn’t usually come to parties.” Arch grinned when he noticed where Lennox’s hand had disappeared.

Almost immediately, Cassie’s spine arched erotically as Lennox fondled her breasts under her shirt.

Jamie experienced an unfamiliar prickle in her chest. Shit. Was that jealousy?

“I guess Len used his powers of persuasion to get her here,” Arch remarked.

The man was persuasive, all right. Jamie would never forget the sound of his deep voice commanding her to come on Beckett’s fingers.

As an ache formed between her legs, she tore her gaze off her best friend and shifted it back to Rylan. Fuck it, she decided. Sitting here with Bethany and Arch was nice and all, but she was too wound up. She needed some action. She needed an orgasm that would rock her body so hard she forgot her own name.

Setting her jaw, she reached for the bottle on the table and poured another glass of whiskey. Bethany watched with a wide grin as Jamie chugged the contents of the glass in one gulp.

“Easy, darling,” Arch murmured.

But she didn’t want easy. She wanted hard. A good, hard dicking that would clear her mind of Lennox.

Jamie waggled her eyebrows at the couple. “Sorry, guys, but I’m abandoning you now. I see something I want.”

She was a little unsteady getting to her feet. Crap. Maybe chugging that whiskey was a mistake. Reese’s booze was much stronger than the stuff back at Connor’s camp.

Leaving Bethany and Arch on the couch, she made her way to Rylan, whose gaze zeroed in on her cleavage as she approached. She’d worn a skintight red minidress tonight, the one that Lennox teased her was nothing but a rag. Probably true, considering that it barely covered her breasts and thighs. She’d paired the dress with high heels that made her legs look a lot longer than they were, and the appreciation she saw in Rylan’s eyes made her happy about her wardrobe choice.

“Hey.”

Rylan set his bottle on the little ledge behind him. “Hey,” he answered in a husky voice.

That was the only exchange of conversation she allowed before looping her arms around his corded neck and kissing the living shit out of him.

He responded eagerly, groaning into her mouth as his big hands captured her covered breasts. When his tongue slipped through her parted lips, she tasted the alcohol on it, along with the heady flavor of his arousal.

“Christ. You feel good.” Rylan rubbed his lower body against hers. Then, before she could blink, he hauled her up and cupped her ass, pressing her back into the wall. Jamie wrapped her legs around his waist, her breath hitching when he started grinding his clothed erection against her core.

Heavy-lidded blue eyes raked over her flushed face, and he rocked his hips harder, his erection thickening. Damn it, she didn’t want to be teased. She wanted him
in
her. She needed him to stoke the fire that had been consuming her ever since Lennox ignited that first spark the other night.

Her hands clawed at his zipper. He reached down to help her out, and they were a second away from undoing his pants when Rylan froze. Then his head turned sharply toward the door.

As Jamie peered over his shoulder, the arousal inside her fizzled like a candle in the rain. Reese had entered the room. Wonderful.

The redhead didn’t glance their way. In fact, she seemed oblivious to their presence as she went to talk to Beckett. Rylan, however, was wholly tuned in to
her
presence. So much so that his breathing, which had been labored seconds before, was calm and even now. His heart, which had been hammering against Jamie’s breasts, was now beating steadily.

She felt him withdraw from her before he’d even set her on her feet. The absent expression he wore made her want to scream.

“Sorry, gorgeous,” he murmured regretfully. “We’re gonna have to finish this later.”

The soft kiss he brushed over her cheek didn’t even begin to soothe the sting of rejection. She gaped at his retreating back as he headed over to Reese. Whatever he whispered in the redhead’s ear caused her to stiffen, but Reese didn’t object when he led her to the door.

Jamie’s cheeks burned as she watched the two of them leave the rec hall. Whether Rylan had whisked Reese away for sexual reasons didn’t matter. He couldn’t have made his intentions clearer if he’d spray-painted them on the walls – he wanted Reese. His priority was Reese.

He doesn’t care about you
.

Jamie had never felt more pathetic in her life as the bitter truth sank in. Rylan didn’t have feelings for her. He was attracted to her. He enjoyed screwing her. But he would never be able to give her what she really wanted.

The realization should have devastated her. In fact, she stood there for five whole seconds, waiting for tears to prick her eyelids. They didn’t.

She was embarrassed, yes. Hurt, maybe a little. But devastated? No.

Still, the hurt and embarrassment weren’t exactly welcome, but she squared her shoulders and forced Rylan’s rejection to roll off her back. She didn’t need him. She could snap her fingers and another man would appear like an apparition, begging to make her feel good. Well, maybe not Lennox. Lennox was too busy making someone else feel good.

For some inexplicable reason, the burn of humiliation Rylan had evoked didn’t sting as much as the thought of Lennox and Cassie fucking in the corner.

Jamie shook her head. She didn’t need that drama in her life either.

What she needed was another glass of whiskey.

Rylan felt like a total ass for deserting Jamie so abruptly. He liked the woman a helluva lot. She made him laugh, and
damn
, she turned him on like nobody’s business. His cock was still rock-hard, his body yelling at him for depriving it of the release it craved.

But right now there were matters far more important than sex. For the first time since he’d arrived in Foxworth, Reese was alone. Yep, her ever-present shadow, Sloan, was nowhere to be seen.

Rylan would be damned if he passed up on such a golden opportunity.

As they stepped outside, he was immediately hit by a gust of cool air. The late summer they’d been enjoying had finally decided to abandon them. All the trees lining Main Street now boasted leaves that were turning various shades of red, orange, and brown. The air was crisper. The sky cloudier.

Fall was Rylan’s least favorite season, mostly because it led to winter. And winter in the free land? Fucking sucked. Though it was definitely more tolerable now that he lived in a camp with working fireplaces and a generator. Before that, he’d spent his winters shivering his balls off. Sometimes he’d been lucky enough to find a place with a working generator, but that was a luxury, not a given.