“Dude”—Brody groans as if he might be sick—“as if downtown Jepson weren’t bad enough, we needed a strip? The chapel is the icing on the tacky cake. Stay away from that place, wouldyou?”
“I should have gone into divorce law,” I growl as we cross the street. “I’d be raking in a fortune right aboutnow.”
The Dungeon itself is pumping full of screaming women all begging for more from the gods on stage slowly shaking their banana hammocks as if offering up a snack, and I pause, taking in the scene while Brody slings an arm around my shoulders leading me quickly down the hall with an arrow pointing to theclub.
“Sorry, girl, but I’d hate for you to scar yourself for life. I saw the way the one on the end was eyeingyou.”
“Really?” I crane my neck in that direction. “Whichend?”
“Never you mind.” He pulls us deeper as we descend the stairwell and the world opens up to thrashing hands and loud, deafening music that seems to have two frenetic beats. Girls in sequined bras and short skirts litter the place as if it were a dress code, and it takes me a moment to realize those are the waitresses. I’m quick to purchase the drink of the night, Between the Sheets—a rum and brandy delight that makes my head spin as soon as I down my first and quickly pick up asecond.
“Slow down!” Brody shouts over the music, but I’m quick to gyrate my hips into his as I knock back the next one. Rum burns twice as nice as vodka, and right about now I’ve got quite the concoction brewing in my stomach. I pull Brody deeper into the crowd, and heresists.
“I’m starting to think this is a bad idea.” That boyishness I’ve always loved about him shines through, and I fight the urge to jump up on my toes and plant a kiss on hislips.
“I’m starting to think I should take your keys away so we can have some real fun.” I reach into his jeans and melt as my hand hits the warmth of the thin fabric next to his boxers. I pull the keys out and dangle them a moment before sinking them between the girls, deep in my bra for safekeeping. I shove my drink into his hand, and he offers up that lopsided grin that makes every last hairless part of mequiver.
That grin glides right off his face as quick as it came. “No. I’m not having any fun tonight, and neither areyou.”
“Ha!” I bark right into his face before snatching my drink back and diving deeper into the club, swinging my hips in a thicket of bodies so close that I might accidentally turn in my V-card while stomping my heelstonight.
Brody Wolf isn’t up for having any fun with me. Same song, different day. It’s always been that way betweenus.
I let out a whoop before downing the rest of the nasty toxic brew in myhand.
And it will always be that way betweenus.
Brody and I will find ourselves in plenty of places as life plods along, but between the sheets most likely isn’t one of them. There’s no point in letting him in on the fact I didn’t get fired. I quit. I didn’t come back to Hollow Brook for my sweet niece. I came back forhim.
Brody will never see me as anything but Levi and Chip’s little sister—worse than that—hislittlesister.
I snatch another drink from a sparkly boobed waitress and send it down thehatch.
Little does Brody know I fell on the sword of love a long, long time ago, and as evidenced by tonight—it ain’t no bed ofroses.
Brody
Raven Masterson isa walking work of art, with that longravenblack hair I’d love to bury my face in, those long bronzed legs I’d love to have wrapped around my back, and those pouty red lips that spell nothing but trouble. I have a few places on my person singled out just for them. Yes, Raven looks every bit like hell on heels, and too bad for me because she’s exactly that. Growing up at the Masterson house, I never saw Raven that way. But slowly, over time, she grew to be a beauty queen, and it was then I knew I needed to keep my distance. I missed the hell out of her while she was working, though. That ad agency swept her to every ritzy locale the globe has to offer, and I’d live vicariously through the steady stream of texts she sent me. Of course, they were group texts along with her brothers because that’s essentially what I am to her. Abrother.
I fold my arms over my chest as I watch her whooping it up with about ten different guys from afar. The beefed-up wrestler moving in on her from behind looks as if he’s about to take a bite out of her neck, and just as I’m about to bolt over, she dodges the caninebullet.
“Geez,” I pant as I crane my neck to get a better look at the situation. I know for a fact Levi is going to be pissed if he finds out I let Raven swim in that sea of sweaty balls. Hell, I’m pissed atmyself.
“You want a beer?” A smiling waitress holds out a cold one, and dammit, if I don’t need it. Hell, maybe Raven is right and this is an Uber kind ofnight.
“Sure.” I hand her five bucks and trade her for the icy deluge I pour down my throat. I knock back a fourth of it and growl as I come up for air. Raven is still bopping up and down like she just don’t care—and she doesn’t. Not about me anyway, not in thatway.
It was funny that she asked about falling on the sword back in my truck. Long before Levi fell for Low—hell, before either he or Chip fell for Meredith, I fell for Raven. Stupid crush. Nothing more. She was dancing one night, much like she is right now—only it was with me at a New Year’s Eve party at Levi’s place. Things were getting wild. I would have sworn she was into me that night. But much like tonight she was tanked and I wassober.
I down the rest of my beer and wave a waitress over and buy another. I drink and Raven dances. That’s how the rest of this night evolves until the waitress convinces me to try my hand at something called a Tomahawk shot, and I knock back six or seven—hell, it might have been twelve. All I know is I’m not feeling so charitable with those boys running their nut sacks over my girl—my little sister. Fuck it, my girl—and I head onover.
“Brody, my man!” Raven bounces her bottom into my crotch three times hard, and had I been able to walk a straight line, I would have sprung right into her by now. “Come here.” She wags her finger at me, while flicking her hair on top of her head until it looks as if it’s smothering her. And I head over without hesitation. My hips glide right along with hers as we sway to the music, getting drunk, getting high off the night, off the shitty, shitty music that I will hear into my last decade of life—it is so damn loud I can feel it commandeering my heartbeat. But my heart isn’t beating for the shit music. Nope. It’s beating for this girl right here. Her pretty face so dangerously close to mine. For a moment I see Levi there dancing, laughing, ready to rip my balls off. I give a few hard blinks, and it’s right back to Raven. So luscious. A realwoman. I don’t see a little sister. Hell, I don’t feel about Raven the way I do about my own little sister, Colby. Not anymore. Not if I’m honest. In fact, I wish I never met Raven until tonight. I wish I never met Levi or Chip. I’d take her right off this dance floor and find the nearest bathroom stall to make her mine. Yeah, I’m real romantic likethat.
“What are you thinking?” she howls with laughter into my face, her body falling over mine as we do the drunk manshuffle.
“I’m thinking you’re too damn beautiful to be here.” I point to my crotch when I sayhere, and even in this out-of-my-mind, chemically altered state, I realize that was a boneheadedmove.
“Oh?” She bites her lips as she hops up and down on me, her chest grazing mine like two soft pillows, and suddenly the only thing I want to do is sink my head down her sweater and take a nap. “You like what you see, bad boy?” She tickles me under the chin and trips over herfeet.
