Prick Tease (Tangled Desires Book 1) (2 page)

Stumbling along in the dark, I shift the weight of my bag from shoulder to shoulder for what feels like forever. A couple of owls close by keep hooting, and while I know the chances of running into an axe murderer are pretty slim, each time they hoot, I shiver. A slow roar starts, getting louder the closer it gets until it’s blocking out the sound of those damn owls. Even the chirping racket of the cicadas are drowned out underneath the heavy echo of the engine. I glance around and squint, shading my eyes with my hand to cut the glare of the singular headlight.

The man on the bike puts a boot on the ground as he slides up next to me and flips the visor on his helmet. Slate gray eyes are the only part of his face I can see. He’s almost familiar in a way. Or at least he seems friendly. But what would I know? I thought Henley was a nice guy and look how that turned out.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”

“I’m fine. It’s a nice night for a walk.” Not that I’m adverse to help. It’s just now that my eyes have adjusted to the shift in light I’m getting an overall impression of the man and he’s massive. Wide, thick shoulders outline a brick wall of a chest and burly arms. I glance around him to see if he’s carrying an axe or a shovel across his back because it wouldn’t take much for him to murder me and get rid of the body out here. For the second time tonight I wish I had called my brother to let him know I was coming.

“I’m not going to hurt you, ma’am. Do you need help with your car? I’m assuming that’s yours back there on the side of the road.” He glances back in the direction we’ve come from. “I can take a look and see if I can get you back on the road.”

I wish.
“I blew a tire, unfortunately.”

His gaze dances for a minute. “Well that’s an easy fix. I can talk you through it while I change it over, so if you ever get stuck again…”

“Really? Just because I’m a woman stuck on the side of the road because my car blew a tire, you assume I can’t change it myself?” I roll my eyes, which probably isn’t the right reaction since he’s only trying to help me, but I grew up with three brothers, pretty much four if you counted Mace’s best friend who never went home. I know a fair bit more than most women do about ‘man’s work.’

“If it had been that simple I would have done it. I took my spare tire out to make a quick trip today. I didn’t plan to end up all the way out here.” I gesture around us.

“I didn’t mean to offend you.”

I kind of slump when he says that. I’m exhausted and hungry, and I’ve had about as much as I can take. Getting fired up at him is nearly the only thing I can do to avoid sinking into a heap and giving in to a good
poor me
sob. “Sorry, it’s been a long day.”

“Well, since I can’t help with your car, maybe you’ll let me give you a ride somewhere?”

I glance at the spot behind him on the bike. I used to ride with my brothers all the time when we were growing up, but the dirt bikes they rode were nothing like this beast. “I’m going to Reverence, but could you drop me off in Carlton? I’ll get my brother Tom to pick me up from there.”

His gray eyes widen, and he simply stares at me for a beat. It’s almost disconcerting the way he feels so familiar while he’s taking me all in with such a slow appraisal. “Actually, I’m heading to Reverence myself.” He lifts the helmet over his face and holds it out for me to take.

Now I’m the one staring. No wonder his eyes seemed so familiar. I’ve seen them a million times in my dreams, and a billion more while I was growing up. My life flashes before my eyes and for a moment I forget to breathe while memories swamp me, and not all of them are good.

Razer freaking Bennington.
My middle brother Mace’s best friend. The guy I’d considered a brother in his own right for the first fourteen years of my life.
Good Lord, it’s really him.

His lopsided grin grows with each second I stand there, frozen, speechless, my mouth hanging wide open while I stare at him. I thought I’d sunk as low as I could. I really did believe things couldn’t get worse. Clearly my ovaries don’t remember what happened last time I saw him. It must be chemical. That’s the only excuse for the way my insides light up like a Christmas tree under his gaze. 

“Come on, Little Bit. Take the damn helmet and let’s get you home.” He turns it around in his large hands and shoves it down over my head before securing the chinstrap. “Tom know you’re coming?”

“No.” I mutter as he pulls me onto the bike behind him. I’m severely tempted to tackle him, to throw him to the ground and smack him upside the head– or jump his bones, I’m not sure which.

A spark shoots through me as he wraps my arms around his waist and squeezes my fingers. The one I managed to slam in the door still throbs painfully. “Ouch.”

He lifts my hand in front of his face, studies the slightly swollen and dented digit. “In the wars, Little Bit?”

“It’s been one of those days.”

“Need me to kiss your owie better?” He chuckles as he presses his lips to my finger for the briefest of seconds, and I cringe under his ministrations even while my lungs seem to squeeze tight. Then he laces my fingers together like a seatbelt, patting my hand. “Have you been on a motorcycle lately? You remember to hold on, right?”

It’s been what? Six? Seven years since I last set eyes on Razer Bennington. Seven years with absolutely no contact. Seven years since I made a complete and utter fool of myself over him. What the hell is he doing back in Reverence? “I’ve got it.”

His body is hard underneath my fingers, all ridged muscle and heat. He’s not as lean as I remember him. He’s grown into his skin, broader and wider and much more a man than he was when he left to join the marines with Mace. Henley works out every day, and he’s never been this muscular.

Oh crap! Henley’s idea of working out is probably lying on his back while some wannabe porn star does all the work. I squeeze my eyes shut, and rest my forehead against Razer’s back. How long until I have to deal with the fallout?

“It’s not that bad is it? It’s just a tire.” He pats my hand.

“Yeah. Just a tire.”
And a scandal, and the one man in the world I never expected to see again, all on the same day. No big deal.

The bike roars again and then we’re eating up the blacktop while I hold on for dear life, wondering why he’s home and how long it will be until he takes off again. It shouldn’t matter, but we’d once been close. He’d been like another brother to me. He’d practically lived at our house, and he’d been the one who really got on my case. Until I’d turned fourteen. Then I’d stopped thinking of him as a brother.

He still smells so damn good. His scent is more decadent than chocolate, and that’s saying something since if I even smell chocolate, my mouth waters. From the moment that tiny glimmer of aroma hits my nostrils, my taste buds dance, and all I can think about is that first bite of yummy goodness and the way it melts against my tongue. And if I don’t get it, it becomes all I can think about. That was the effect Razer had on me back then. Back before he cut me out of his life because I took things too far.

My mouth waters as if I’m Pavlov’s dog and someone just rang the dinner bell. But I’m not interested in rehashing the past. I don’t really care why Razer’s back in Reverence, or whether any of my letters ever reached him, or if he regrets cutting me out of his life. Or if he ever thinks about that night the way I do. I’m only here long enough to get my head together. A few days at most.

Street lights cut through the darkness as we edge into Reverence. Up ahead the center of town sprawls out with its low-rise offices and restaurant sector. Not quite home but almost there. Razer doesn’t need directions. He seems to know where Tom lives, which makes me wonder how often the two of them keep in contact, since Tom only moved a few months ago.

I haven’t even been to his house yet. Tom always comes to visit me, instead, and Rush and Mace are too far spread to catch up more than once a year. I have so much going on with House to Haven that I barely have any free time anyway. Besides, there are things I prefer to forget. Boys with gray eyes and lopsided smiles, for example. I suck in my cheeks at that thought. Boys with gray eyes apparently grow up into hulking men.

For years I’d avoided coming home because of him. Not the real him, since he was off who knows where to defend our country, but the shadow of him, of that last trip he and Mace made on my sixteenth birthday.

Even after that I’d sent letters. Apologies. I just wanted it to go back to the way it had been before. Having four older brothers instead of the three my parents gave me. Having him yell at me for sneaking out of the house, or even to hear him call me Little Bit again, though I’d outgrown the nickname years ago. I’d sent so many letters, until I finally got the point. He had no interest in staying in touch with his friend’s little sister. I kept writing for a while, even after I stopped sending them. Those letters are tucked away in a shoebox at the back of my wardrobe. I keep meaning to throw them away. 

He pulls into Tom’s driveway, and I’m still so caught up in my memories that it takes him clearing his throat for me to notice we’ve arrived. I slide off the bike and shiver. It won’t be long before I’ll have to admit my life is falling down around me. I can never keep secrets from Tom.

Chapter Two

Claire

“What? Is it Christmas?” Tom breaks into a grin as he fills the doorway, his mastiff Lucky winding in front of his legs, her tail thumping. “My little sister and the prodigal brother all in one hit. Must be my lucky day.”

“Nice security system.” Raze nods at the small camera I hadn’t noticed tucked away under the edge of the porch.

“Yeah, well I don’t want bastards like you sneaking up on me.” Tom holds open the security door, but makes no effort to get out of the way. Instead Lucky bounds out and jumps up, landing her paws on my shoulders and sending me careening backward into Razer.

“It’s just not your day is it?” He chuckles, his chiselled arms bracketing me for a moment before he rights me on my feet.

No. It’s definitely not my day. Razer freaking Bennington has had his hands all over me, and any belief I’d had that I could decide not to be attracted to him has flown out the window. “Come on, Tommy. Let us in.” I try to brush past him, but he grabs me up and lifts me off my feet, squeezing me until I almost can’t breathe.

I push at his shoulders half-heartedly. “Put me down, you oaf.”

With a chuckle he drops me to my feet and clasps Razer’s hand. “Good to see you in the flesh for a change.”

“You too.”

I glance from one to the other. I should have figured they’d kept in touch. That it was just me Razer had a problem with. “Do you have any lemonade, Tommy?”

“Sure, Little Bit.” As he leads the way to the kitchen, Razer’s keenly observing our surroundings, his head swivelling as he checks out Tom’s pad. Must be an almost automatic thing for him after years as a marine.

The house is far more spacious than I expected, but set up in true bachelorhood fashion. Photographs of fighters line the walls, and the gloves Tom used to wear when he’d been boxing competitively hang from a nail in the wall. But the kitchen is state of the art, decked out in honey colored cabinets and white countertops with a double range taking up the center of the island. “Nice place.”

“So who’s the lucky lady?” Razer whistles.

“What?” Tom tosses a beer at Razer’s head, which he plucks out of the air like he’s a baseball player, not a marine.

With a grin, he twists the lid off and pinches it in half before dropping it on the counter. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble for someone who doesn’t cook. Plus there’s a whole lot of windows along the east side. What, four bedrooms, or three and a study? This isn’t a bachelor pad.”

“It’s a house, dickhead, and who says I don’t cook? It’s been a long time since you’ve been around. I thought you were coming tomorrow?”

“Well, it’s a good thing I got here early, since Little Bit got stuck on the side of the road.” Razer sheds his leather jacket and tosses it over the back of a chair at the oak dining table.

Tom pours half a beer into a glass and tops it off with lemonade before pushing it in front of me with a raised eyebrow. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until next month.”

I glance at Razer who swigs from his beer nonchalantly and then studies the label. “This is a good brew.”

“Yeah. I made it myself.” Tom’s keen gaze holds mine, even as he speaks out the side of his mouth. “Everything okay? What’s going on?”

No. Not really.
“Nothing. I just thought I’d come visit for a couple days.”

My voice must wobble, because Razer clears his throat. “I need to make a phone call. Can you excuse me for a minute?”

Tom and I both nod in unison. I watch him prowl out of the room, his cell already in his hand. His muscular shoulders are outlined clearly through his tight shirt, now that he’s taken his jacket off.

“So what’s really going on?” Tom leans over the counter and gathers up my fingers. I dart a glance at the one I hurt earlier. It’s already looking better. But my other finger, the one that’s supposed to have a ring on it, the one Tom is staring at, doesn’t even feel naked. He’s always been intuitive, instinctual. He’s always been able to drag my secrets out. He’s the only one of my brothers who knows I had a crush on Razer. Though I never did tell him the full story. “What happened with Henley?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I wander over to the range and fiddle with the knobs. “This is some pretty impressive equipment.”

“You’re stalling.” He crosses his arms. “Tell me the problem.”

“There’s no problem. We decided to go our separate ways,” I mumble.

“Right.” He shoves off the counter and grips my shoulders. “If you don’t spit it out I’m going to go find Henley and beat it out of him, since I’m pretty sure he’s done something to deserve a pounding.”

“Not everything can be solved with violence.” I stick my tongue out, but tears prick my eyes again.

“True. But it sure can make you feel better.”

I chuckle. “Maybe.”