Tagged & Ashed (The Sterling Shore Series #2) (3 page)

The biggest reason he wants me is to screw with Billy.  That's certainly obvious.  What a dick.

I see Billy and Rene talking, her hand on his arm as she giggles at whatever corny joke he just told her.  A smile invades my face, and then I feel chills covering my body as heat presses against my back.

“Oh, I forgot to mention... he’s talking to an old flame,” Tag murmurs, his breath finding my ear and traveling down my neck, creating a delicious crawl of contradicting and competing emotions.

A medley of divine cologne and shampoo invade my nose.  Damn, he smells so, so, so good.

“He can talk to Rene all he wants.  I’m not a crazy bitch,” I say through a laugh, my nerves hiding in the octaves of my off-pitch chuckles as I step away from his grasp.

“Not the jealous type?” he muses suspiciously.

I can’t help but smile at his agitation.  Apparently he expected me to blow a fuse.

“No, not jealous.  I happen to like Rene.  If Billy wants to talk to her, then he can.  Don’t you have two dates to attend to?  I’m sure they’d be jealous if they found out you’re stalking me.”

I can’t believe how confident I sound right now, despite my throbbing…
everything
.

He grins daringly as his body towers over mine.  He backs me against the side of the house, and then his arm props up over my head as he leans down.

“They can manage to work a party without me.  You, however... You’ll need someone looking out for you out there.  You’re too… you know what? I’ll just lead you around until Bity gets done catching up with Rene.  What do you think?”

“I
think
it’s driving you crazy that
Billy
is all grown up and women find him more interesting than you.”

That’ll shut him up.

He bursts out laughing, and then he leans back away from me while gasping for air as he heaves his laughter out all the louder.

What an arrogant ass.

“That’s priceless.  Billy Prize more interesting than me,” he roars out through his chuckles.

I roll my eyes at the obnoxious jerk, and then I head away from the house to meet the eyes of everyone staring at me.

Too much cleavage, slut.

I should have chosen a more conservative dress.

I look down to Billy, and though he’s waving me over, his eyes tell me to give him more time alone with Rene.

I blow him a kiss, and he offers a lopsided grin before giving me a wink.  Within seconds, Rene’s hand finds his arm, instantly begging for his attention to return to her.

Well I’ll be damned.  He’s right.  Stupid, crazy girl.

If she likes him, then she should just admit it.  Billy deserves to have her after all the years he has spent pining over her.

I head over to the bar, and I huff in distaste as the Twin Bombshell Wonders draw the attention from the hungry eyes of all the men.  I have no idea why Tag is wasting his time chasing me around just because he has beef with Billy, when he has Sexy Thing One and Sexy Thing Two hot and waiting for him.

They giggle as they delight in their drunken dancing, and I prop up to laugh at the humiliating display.

“I swear.  Tag is far too refined and handsome to be escorting such trashy girls around,” Melanie gripes while
shooing
the girls away from the picture table.

Maybe
he’s
the one who hired escorts.

I hear a throat clearing, as Tag reappears, his humor gone when he stares at his foolish betties.

“Shit,” he murmurs under his breath while walking toward Melanie.  “I’ll take care of it.”

“You better, or I will,” she says, almost as if she’s scolding one of her own children.

I grin as his cheeks redden, and I watch as he starts tangling with them to remove their drunken bodies from the eyes of the disapproving.

“They’re too skinny for tequila,” I say with a mocking tone as I raise my glass toward him in a triumphant gloating sort of toast.

He scowls at me and then shrugs.

“Could you give me a hand?”

“Me?” I laugh.  “Not my problem.”

“Ashiara, please help him,” Melanie whines while turning toward me.

Crap.  Should've kept my mouth shut.

He gives me a childish ha-in-your-face smile, and I narrow my eyes at him while going to relieve him of Sexy Thing One.

She collapses almost instantly, her legs giving out, and she laughs hysterically as I wrap her arm around my shoulders, trying to distribute her weight.

“I hate you right now,” I grumble as Tag scoops up Sexy Thing Two with effortless ease.

He lets a laugh escape as I struggle with the girl who looks a lot skinnier than she feels.  I follow him, cursing under my breath, as he makes his way around back for our discreet departure.

“Thanks for this,” he murmurs softly as we find the array of parked vehicles.

“Thank Melanie.  She’s the one making me do this.”

“Oh, I’ll be avoiding Melanie for a while.  She’ll be wanting to kick my ass for this.”

I accidentally laugh, but I quickly try to mask it.  I don’t want to be anything but irritated right now.  Here I am, helping him carry out his intoxicated dates, and I’m still drooling over him.

I should be appalled by such a jerk.  So why am I not?

I know... The drought is screwing with my rationality.  That's what it has to be.

***

Tag

Damn, this girl is heavy when she’s deadweight.  This is the last time I ever bring two dates to a wedding full of single women.  This whole Bity and Ash thing is starting to piss me off.

She’s completely immune to all my charm.  I swear she’s wearing a protective amulet under her dress somewhere - though I have no idea how she could hide anything under that dress.  It hugs her body too perfectly.  I’m sweating for all the wrong reasons, and I can’t remember a girl ever having this sort of affect on me.  It's... irritating.  Very irritating.

She’s adorable, grunting and struggling behind me.  Each time I sneak a peek at her, she gives me her best angry glare.  It just makes her all the hotter, and I feel all the crazier.

Maybe once I fuck her, I’ll shake whatever spell she has put on me.  Perhaps I just hate the fact Bity brought the hottest girl here.

“My car is just over there,” I murmur to break the silence as we walk over the gravel of the extended parking lot.

I should have tipped the valet better.  This gravel sucks.  I forgot it was even back here.

“Just so you know, carrying an extra hundred pounds in heels is not too frigging easy to do on gravel,” she snarls out, but I can’t help but laugh.

Her being pissed is only turning me on more.

Vivian or Valorie—w
hichever one she’s supporting—starts giggling as her arms drape around Ash and she bears down with all her weight as she passes out.

I start to laugh, but then I hear a snapping sound and they both slap the gravel as Ash squeals out.

“Fuck,” I blurt out while a valet rushes over.

“Can I help you?” the guy prompts.

“You can get Thing Two off of me,” Ash growls as she lays sprawled out on the ground under the crushing weight of the limp girl.

Yeah... this is going to take one hell of a recovering.

Ash already acts like she hates me.  She probably will now. 
Damn my luck.

The valet grabs… w
hichever one it is I’m holding, and I rush over to scoop the other off Ash as she grumbles and groans under her breath.  Another guy rushes over and takes the deadweight from my arms as I lean down to inspect the ravishing dark-haired girl who is refusing to meet my gaze.

“Your heel broke,” I murmur, as if to myself, while surveying the damage done.

“Gee, you think?” she snaps while pulling the shoe off completely.

Her toes are so fucking cute.  Each one is painted a color to exactly match her dress, and I smirk while bending to pick her up.

“What the hell are you doing?” she sneers while trying to swat me away.

“You’re bleeding and now you're barefoot.  I’m going to carry you back to the house, and then I’m going to clean you up.  It’s the least I can do."

She blinks a couple of times, and then she glances around at the sea of gravel surrounding us.

“Shit,” she exhales while giving in to my request and wrapping her arms around my neck.  “I wouldn’t be bleeding or barefoot if it wasn’t for your overly showy date entourage.  Really?  You had to bring two drunk bimbos?”

Jealous maybe?  Or am I just reading too much into her little tantrum?

Her body feels so good pressed to mine, and my eyes lock with her deep blues that seem to resemble a stormy sky.

I’m almost breathless for the first time ever.  Even worse, I’m speechless.  Where are all my skills when I need them?  My swagger has deserted me.

Her lips part slightly, and her eyes fall to my lips, almost looking longingly at them.  I can’t tell if she wants me to kiss her, or if she’s just fucking with me.  It looks sincere though, so I decide to make my move

A throat clearing interrupts our almost kiss, and I lean back while her head jerks to the front.

“Sorry, Sir, but where would you like us to take these girls?” one of the forgotten valets strains out through exhaustion, still clutching the girl to his chest.

“My car.  It’s right there.  If one of you will-”

“What the hell is going on?” Wren gushes as he sprints toward us.

“Well, a lot actually.  I was about to give them the address to take the girls home.  They don’t live far from here.”

Wren’s eyes narrow as Ash lets a dramatically exasperated chuckle free.

“You’re sending away your dates?” Wren asks.

“Your mom might kick my ass if I don’t,” I say to downplay things.

I really just want a shot with Ash, and she’s not really digging the whole two-date thing.  Some girls would see it as a challenge, and they'd work twice as hard to gain my attention.  I'm positive she's not one of those girls—unfortunately.

“Well, just let me take Ash, and you can drive them back.”

“She’s bleeding.  We both know how you are around blood,” I quickly interject, and he grimaces while damn near leaping backwards.

“Right.  I’ll just go get Bity then,” Wren says with a gagging reaction.

“No,” she murmurs in quick objection, and my smile quirks up.  “Billy is… he’s not too good with blood either.  Just get me to the sidewalk.  I can make it from there,” she murmurs while pointing with her eyes.

I frown.  That’s not why I thought she was objecting.  I thought it was because she was enjoying me being with her.  Her body feels so good in my arms.  I know we almost kissed.

Why doesn’t she want me or Bity around?

“Well, no offense, but if you’re bleeding, I’d rather you were carried.  I don’t want blood in the house because I’ll faint, and that wouldn’t be very masculine,” Wren says to her while chuckling.  "Just make sure to wrap it up,” he says while turning to me.

My eyes trail down her perfectly smooth, glistening legs to the side of her ankle that holds the small slither of blood.  She huffs in distaste, and I restrain a telling smile as my devious wheels begin turning with rapid excitement.

“I have no problem
wrapping it up
,” I say with my enigmatic grin that seems to make her blush.

Apparently she just had a scandalous thought.  Finally!

“Give the boys the address, if you will.  I’ll take care of Ash,” I say to Wren, and he nods while quickly turning away before he catches a glimpse of red.

“Squeamish much?” she huffs under her breath.

I snicker a little too loudly, surprised by my accidental outburst.  I wasn’t expecting her to be funny.  I quickly try to recover, and she lets a genuine smile creep across her face.

“Wren hasn’t ever been able to handle blood.  One sight of it, and he’s out like a light.”

“I can really walk just fine.  My blood is going to be dripping.”

“That’s why he told me to
wrap it up
.”

She blushes fiercely, further proving her earlier thoughts were scandalous when he said that.  She thinks like me.  Oh, I’d love to take a peek inside her pretty little dirty mind right now.

“Ah.  Well, how are you going to wrap it up while you’re carrying me?”
she asks when we reach the backdoor.

I set her down on the bench, and then I slip through the door and rush to a nearby bathroom.  After grabbing the first hand-towel I can find, I nearly sprint back outside to see another guy has already squatted before her and started examining the wound.

Damn it. 
Does she have some pheromone secreting from her that calls men from miles away?

I almost growl under my breath when I see it’s Keith, Melanie's sister’s son.