Fire & Ice (The Locklaine Boys #1) (3 page)

Because, in his eyes, there was no way I’d ever be good enough for Pepper O’Malley. And the fact that I fucked her even though I knew it was forbidden would only prove his point.

That particular night was a constant source of lust and guilt all at the same time. Lust because Pepper was, hands-down, the best I’d ever had. And guilt because I’d betrayed my best friend. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that there was a special place in Hell for me when my time finally came.

Just as I was about to open my mouth and respond with some smartass remark I felt something brush across the fabric of my shirt sleeve softly. “Hi,” a soft feminine voice spoke just loud enough to be heard over the music.

I turned my head to take in the stunning brunette who’d just wrapped herself around my arm, making sure I felt her large, fake tits pressing against me. I let out a defeated sigh when my poor dick didn’t even so much as twitch.

“Remember me?” she purred, batting her eyelashes and running her tongue along her painted lips seductively.

It really was such a shame. Everything about the chick was my type. Hot, ready, and willing. I wasn’t a difficult guy to please. But ever since my impromptu trip to Wyoming with Rowan, Navie, and Pepper a few months ago, I couldn’t get my damned cock to cooperate! All it wanted was Pepper. I got hard every time I saw her. Hell, just
thinking
about the pain-in-the-ass woman made my pants uncomfortably tight. But if it was anyone else, no matter how beautiful, I got nothing.

I gave the chick on my arm my most charming smile. “Sorry, sweetheart, it’s been a long week. Can’t say I do.”

“That’s okay,” she grinned, trailing her fingernail along the buttons of my shirt until she hit my belt buckle. “I’d be more than happy to refresh your memory.”

A few months ago, I’d have jumped at her offer. I would’ve dragged her off to the closest secluded corner of the club—never one to waste time with such formalities as getting to know a woman—and fucked her senseless before heading home for the night, sated and alone.

But now… well, now the offer holds absolutely zero appeal.

Maybe I caught some sort of mountain bug in Wyoming or some shit, kind of like a tapeworm or something.

Note to self: make an appointment with a doctor on Monday.

“That’s a tempting offer, honey,” I offered, not having a fucking clue what her name was, “and it kills me to turn it down—”

“Then don’t,” she interrupted. “I’ll make it worth your while,” she giggled.

I tried to will my dick to cooperate. I even shot up a prayer to God for a little help—looking back, that might not have been the best idea—but still, nothing.

“I’m gonna have to pass,” I told her gently, trying my best to ignore the shocked faces of my cousins and best friend. No doubt, I was going to get some serious shit for this.

“Oh, come on,” she tried to coax playfully, but the combination of my misbehaving dick and my insatiable desire for a certain red-headed she-devil only made the woman’s light pushing more annoying.

“Damn woman! No means no!” I snapped, a little too aggressively if my friends’ hysterical laughter was anything to go on. “I’m not in the mood, so just back off!”

With a bewildered expression, she teetered back on her sky-high heels. “You’re not in the mood?” she asked, dumfounded.

“That’s what I just said, isn’t it?”

“
You’re
not in the mood?”

I felt my agitation growing the longer she stood in front of me. “Repeating it won’t change the outcome, sweetheart.”

“But… you’re
always
in the mood!” she declared. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you’ve banged at
least
three of my friends! You never turn down no-strings sex. It’s what you’re
known
for.”

Jesus Christ, when you manage to gain a reputation known far and wide in a place as populated as fucking
Manhattan
, you know there’s a goddamned problem. The picture the chick drew of me wasn’t so appealing. It wasn’t like I was afraid of commitment. I wasn’t! Honest. I just hadn’t found a woman who held my interests long enough to even consider the possibility. And the one woman in particular who was taking up all my head space was so off limits she might as well have been surrounded by an electrical fence wrapped in razor wire.

So I liked sex, sue me. What I
didn’t
like was some chick with rock-hard plastic tits in my shit because I’m not in the mood. For Christ’s sake! Could no one see I was
sick?

Turning my full attention to the woman who managed to get on my bad side by no fault of her own, I narrowed my eyes, wiping away all signs of the playful mask I wore on nights I was looking to hook up. “Well, seeing as my reputation is so popular, it can’t have escaped your attention that I don’t double dip. Once I’ve had pussy, I don’t go back. No exceptions.”

Her over-glossed lips curled into a grin I’d seen a million times. It screamed of possession and the naïve belief that she could be
the one
to tame me. “Bet I could change your mind,” she said confidently.

My head was pounding and my night out with the guys had officially gone down the toilet. Rolling my eyes on a sigh, I informed her, “Wouldn’t be the first woman to think that and I doubt you’ll be the last. And just like the rest of them, you’d be wrong. I’m sure there’s some guy out there who’d cream his shorts for a shot at you, but I’m not one of ‘em, so I’d suggest you stop wasting your time and effort on me and start looking for
that
guy.”

“You’re an asshole,” she sneered.

I was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and wanted nothing more than to call it a night and wash my hands of the entire fucked up situation. I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration as I muttered, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“And you’re bad in bed!”

Okay, now I could handle a pissed off woman, but what I couldn’t handle was a bold-faced liar. “I said tell me something I didn’t know. I didn’t say make up ridiculous lies.”

“Go fuck yourself!” she shouted before turning and storming off.

“This is all your fault, you son of a bitch,” I mumbled to my soft dick before turning back to our high top table.

“Wow,” Richard laughed. “Smooth, man. Got the ladies eating right out of your hand, don’t you?”

I glared as I asked, sarcastically, “This coming from the man who hasn’t gotten any since getting divorced?”

“Not true.” Rowan lifted his gin and tonic in the air to catch my attention. “Richie boy hasn’t gotten laid since
before
his divorce. Seeing as he finally discovered that his wife was a soul-sucking vampire he got so scared any time she was around, his balls practically climbed back up into his body.”

Richard turned and punched his brother, and that set off just one of the many fights that had taken place in the last several months since those two mended fences. “Ah! Shit!” Rowan yelled. “Stop pulling my hair!”

The corners of my mouth twitched of their own accord as I fought to keep from laughing. I was pissed and I wanted to stay that way.

“Well,” Dex started, completely ignoring the grown-ass men at his side currently trying to put each other in a headlock. “All I gotta say is I’m glad you and Pepper hate each other.” He laughed before taking a long pull of his beer, oblivious to the fact that he just struck a painful blow. He wasn’t being a dick purposely, just ragging on a friend like we’d always done. But that knowledge didn’t stop the sting. “If I had to worry about her being in your crosshairs I’d probably have a heart attack before I even hit forty.”

And just like always, the reminder that I wasn’t good enough for his baby sis was like salt in a wound. Knowing how Dex saw me didn’t sit well, but I’d made my own bed, so there really wasn’t anyone to blame but myself.

There were times I thought about setting him straight, proving him wrong. I considered telling him about my and Pepper’s
past, but deep down, I knew nothing good would come of that. For one, Dex was right, she
did
hate me. She made that clear any time we were in the same room for the past four years. Secondly, and frankly, the most important reason I had was that it just wasn’t worth the risk.

The bond we had was closer than brothers. Life or death situations, I could count on that man day in and day out to have my back. That trust never wavered. Not once. Dex was a constant while his sister was an unknown. The truth was, me and Pepper together were so volatile there was no way I could put my faith in any kind of relationship between us lasting more than the few months it would take for the sex to finally grow stale. The unknowns just weren’t worth it.

I needed to find a way to get that fiery woman out of my head before I finally jerked off so much the damn thing just fell right off.

I was done. With everything swirling around in my life, from work, to my broken dick and possible fatal illness, to the shit in my head about Pepper, I was bone tired and mind weary. I needed sleep.

I was just about to announce my departure when, not surprisingly, Dex got there first. “All right guys, I’m out.”

“What?” Richard asked. “But we haven’t even been here all that long. You can’t leave yet, man.”

“Sorry, man. I gotta get home to Wendy and Ivy. My little girl hasn’t been sleeping through the night for some reason, and Wendy only agreed to me coming out tonight if I was on baby duty until ten tomorrow.”

“Pussy-whipped,” Rowan ribbed good-naturedly. Giving Dex hell about his domestication was all in good fun. We loved Wendy. And if I was the kind of guy to want kids, his one-year old daughter, Ivy, would be the kind of kid I wanted.

“And you don’t see me complaining, one bit, do you?” Dex chuckled as he flicked his wrist and started for the door.

I took Dex’s departure as my excuse as well and pulled the wallet out of my back pocket, dropping a few bills on the table. “I’m calling it, too. I’m fuckin’ exhausted.”

Rowan quickly followed suit. “I’m with you.”

“Bunch of pussies,” Richard grumbled at the loss of potential wingmen. “Nine months…”

“Nine months what?” I asked when he didn’t continue.

“Haven’t gotten laid in nine fuckin’ months,” he pouted. Seriously, the man was actually
pouting
. “If I don’t see some action soon, I’m pretty sure my balls are gonna shrivel up and fall off. My divorce is
finally
final, that bitch is off my back, I’m not buried in a goddamned case, and can actually breathe long enough to enjoy a night out, and you guys are bailing on me. Weak, man.”

Jesus,
nine months
! And I thought I was suffering. I almost felt sorry for the guy and was considering toughing out another hour or two… until Rowan opened his mouth.

With a laugh, Rowan stated, “Sorry, bro, but the state of your pathetic pecker isn’t my problem. Navie had girls’ night with Pepper at the apartment, so odds are she’s drunk enough to let me do certain things she’s deemed off limits. That trumps you being at risk of growing a vagina.”

Richard dove for his brother and another pathetic wrestling match ensued. “Take it back, you bastard!” Richard grunted as he and Rowan fought for the upper hand.

“Never, dipshit!”

It really was a sad sight, but I could only focus on one thing. “Pepper’s over at your apartment right now?”

Suddenly, I wasn’t so tired after all.

GIRLS’ NIGHT IN MY
ass.

I was pissed. And it had nothing to do with the fact that all I’d done since arriving at Navie and Rowan’s apartment was skim through one bridal magazine after the next, and everything to do with the flaming homo on the couch next to me who decided to crash our little party.

“Girl, I’m telling you, ice white is
so
the way to go!” I glared at Tomas—pronounced
Toe-maas
or you courted bodily harm—hoping I would develop heat vision in the next two seconds so I could melt his skin off.

Usually, I loved Tomas. That was why he was such a good friend and employee, but when it came to wedding planning, he turned into an opinionated bitch from hell.

“Is ice white even a thing?” Navie asked, slurring somewhat due to too much alcohol consumption.

“It wouldn’t look good with her coloring,” I informed in. “And anyway, the big day isn’t until next summer and you’re already acting like a wedding Nazi. Slow your roll, Tommy Boy. You’re taking all the fun out of girls’ night in and killing my buzz,” I chided as I took a massive gulp of my wine, intentionally using the nickname I knew damn good and well he despised.