Bad Boy Romance: Nick (Romantic Suspense Alpha Male Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Contemporary Short Stories) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 2) (60 page)

****

“I thought you told me that you
didn’t get involved with Jace Dillinger!”

The following morning, Natalia
had woken up to a killer headache and an angry call from her mother. She had
barely managed to burrow out from the sheets and comforter, choking out a
‘hello’ into the phone, before her mother’s voice shrieked in her ear.

“Mom,” Natalia groaned,
pressing the heel of her palm into one of her eyes. “We have got to teach you
to stop shouting on the phone. Besides, why does it matter?”

“Stop being cheeky with me,
Natalia! I heard about your little make-out session from Cecilia Warren!”

Who??

“Apparently, you two made quite
the spectacular show for the rest of your class!”

“Again, why does it matter?” It
probably wasn’t a fantastic idea to have asked that at the moment, and Natalia
realized that the second her mother began another assault of words on her
already exhausted brain. Fantastic. So not only did she let that moron kiss
her, but the entire town probably knew about it by now. Just wonderful.

With a pained sigh, Natalia
pulled the phone away from her ear to give herself some respite from her
mother’s rant. The relief was almost instantaneous and despite her desire to
hang up, Natalia could only glare at the screen of her phone, watching the
seconds tick by as her mother went on and on.

She began to doze off when she
caught something her mother said, yanking wakefulness through her system like
ice water. Pressing the phone back over her ear, Natalia intervened in her
mother’s monologue.

“Wait—what? What about Nathan?
You mentioned Nathan?”

“Were you not paying attention
at all, Natalia?” her mother shot back. “Nathan’s here! Archibald called us to
say he’d appeared at the pub last night!”

“When—where is he now, did Arty
tell you that?” Natalia stressed, already pushing herself to her feet in a
frantic search for her shoes. “Come on, Mom, what else did he tell you?”

“Well, he didn’t tell me much,
but he said he was worried! He mentioned that Nathan had been asking around for
information of Davis Jordan—“

Oh no.

“—But that boy hasn’t been back
since that incident at the gas station. It makes no sense why your brother
would want to find
him
instead of stopping by to greet his parents! It’s
as if I mean nothing to my children anymore—“

Last night. Nathan had arrived
yesterday… and suddenly Jace’s words came back to her full force.
He knows
my brother is here… he probably knows why.

With a final and hurried
farewell to her mother, Natalia ended the phone call, tugging a few pain pills
from her bag and tossing them into her mouth before rushing out of her room.
She had to go find her brother. She needed to know why he was back here; she
could only hope it wouldn’t spell trouble.

****

The reunion between the two
siblings had been nothing like Natalia had hoped for. She had all but sprinted
toward the pub, hoping that she might find a sign, or maybe find Arty waiting
for her to tell her about Nathan’s whereabouts. Instead, when she managed to
push her way through the doors of the pub, she found the most unlikely sight.

The pub was empty, save three
people there, and the place was in such disarray; a bar fight could be the only
logical explanation for it. There were tipped tables and upturned chairs;
broken glass glittered over the ground, but it was not enough to distract
Natalia from seeing her brother’s face glancing up at her through a
bloodstained napkin stuffed up his nose. She recognized the familiar tousled
black hair and the shape of his slumped shoulders as easily as she could
recognize her own and the years that had passed between them suddenly
disappeared—just for a moment—like a wisp of smoke.

Sitting on an opposing chair
sat none other than Jace Dillinger, nursing a split lip with a bag of frozen
peas, his own dark hair stuck up, framing his face dangerously. His green eyes
had widened in surprise upon landing on Natalia. Arty stood between them, huge
arms crossed, acting as a wall between the two wounded men.

Natalia didn’t care much for
the others, taking several steps toward her brother’s hunched figure
automatically. She stopped when his brows furrowed, and she remembered exactly
what had transpired; the wall of distance returned.

“G’morning, Natalia,” Arty said
somberly.

“What the hell happened?” she
asked, ignoring Arty’s greeting.

“These two dumbasses,” Arty
grunted, aiming a sharp glare at the two men, “started a ludicrous fight here a
few hours ago. Nearly called the cops on the two of ‘em, but managed to get
them to sit their asses down.”

Natalia threw her brother a
different glare this time, irritated that his temper still hadn’t changed. “
Why?
”

“Nice to see you too, Nat.”
Nathan spoke finally, his voice sounding partially muffled through the napkins
stuffed up his nostrils.

“Fuck you, Nate!” Natalia
snarled, fists clenching at her sides. “You don’t get to act nonchalant after
all these years. Not even one phone call?! I understand why you’d avoid Mom and
Dad, but I didn’t realize I’d been so unimportant to you that I’d be cast in
the same list!”

“I had my reasons, Nat.” Nathan
replied, giving her a half-shrug. “I didn’t owe you or Mom and Dad any
explanations.”

“Asshole,” she hissed finally
taking those final steps toward her brother. She saw Arty give a start toward
her, probably worried she would do something drastic. She wanted to hit him,
punch him in his stupid nose for causing her this anguish, but Jace had done
that already and all she could stomach to do was to fall to her knees and crush
her twin against her chest in a bone-snapping embrace. She felt his arms wrap
around her just as quickly, and she nearly broke down when she felt him wheeze
against her. “Why do you always have to be such an asshole?”

“Sorry…” he muttered softly
against her ear. Tears burned down her cheeks as she clenched her fingers into
his jacket. “I wanted to say hi when I saw you yesterday.”

Natalia pulled away, searching
Nathan’s face with surprise. “You—what?”

“I
did
want to tell you
that I knew something about your brother,” Jace piped in, earning their
attention. “See, I’m not so bad.”

Nathan’s face contorted into a
violent expression, his gray eyes black with ire as he pointed a finger at the
man. “You have no right to talk to her,
Dillinger.
Not after that shit
stunt you pulled last night. Thanks to you, the entire town is convinced she’s
one of your whores now!”

Jace let out a bitter laugh,
“You know, I would believe your ‘brotherly over-protection’ if you hadn’t been
gone for eight years.”

“
Eat
shit
, you
bastard!” Nathan shouted, pushing past his sister to lunge for the dark-haired
man. Arty slammed a broad hand over Nathan’s shoulder, shoving him back in his
seat.

“Nathan, will you fucking stop
for five seconds?” Natalia snapped, earning her a shocked stare from her
brother. “Jesus, why do you people care so much about what this town thinks?”

“Wait—Nat,” Nathan gasped, his
eyes honing on her with an accusatory stare. “What the hell? Did you
want
this asshole to kiss you?”

“She sure didn’t hate it,” Jace
answered. Natalia shot him a fierce glare, he smirked at her in response. When
she looked back at her brother, she was rubbing her temple with a hand.

“Why does it matter whether or
not he kissed me?” she turned back toward her brother. “I thought we’d gotten
past all this when we left this place.”

“I guess we haven’t,” Nathan
replied coldly and when Natalia looked at her brother, there was nothing but
disdain in his eyes. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”

Everything froze between the
two siblings. They had once been two halves of the same whole. She had been
able to feel what he felt as easy as it was to breathe. Time had passed and
changed things, yes, but she knew their bond hadn’t really changed all that
much. Natalia didn’t have to answer for her brother to know the truth. After a
short eternity of connected gazes, Nathan broke away first, looking betrayed
and angry. All Natalia could do was stare at him in anguish.

Minutes later, Nathan pulled
himself up from his chair and pulled out a wad of cash from his back pocket
before slapping it on his seat. “This should cover the damages, Arty,” he
muttered before walking off, brushing past Natalia with a series of footsteps
that made her feel cold.

“Where you going, Kid?” Arty
asked with a sigh.

“My parents’ place,” he replied
with a grunt, the swing of the door screeched through the uncomfortable
silence. “I’ve got some business with my old man.” And with that, the door
slammed shut.

Natalia felt her chin fall to
her chest, tears raining from her eyes as she felt her brother’s absence choke
the feeling of loneliness against her throat. She flinched when she felt a warm
and coarse hand wrap around hers; when Natalia looked up, she saw Jace peering
down at her with a look of thinly veiled remorse.

“Sorry about that,” he
apologized softly. For a moment, Natalia wanted to slap him, push him away,
shout at him for ruining everything, but she couldn’t bear heading back to a
cold hotel room where she would entertain her isolation any longer. Clenching
her teeth, Natalia succumbed to his touch, her fingers tightening around his as
she huffed out sobs through her chest. “Come on… let’s get you out of here.”

She had been well known as the
Ice Queen of Riverdale High and people had steered clear, but all Natalia
really ever wanted was someone warm to understand her. With a tug of hands,
Natalia allowed Jace Dillinger to pull her out of Arty’s pub, the ice around
her heart cracking so painfully, she couldn’t help but want to sink away.

****

The second time Natalia found
herself in Jace’s apartment, she was sober and more emotionally vulnerable than
she could have handled any other time. To her surprise, Jace had led her to a
chair and brought her a tall glass of cool water and a box of tissues. He had
remained silent the entire time, giving her space as she wiped away stray tears
and waited for the churning in her stomach to disappear. Several times, her phone
went off, her mother’s number blinking urgently on the screen while Natalia
stared at it vacantly.

After the fifth time it went
off, she was surprised when Jace reached for the gadget and pressed the power
button. With a flick of his thumb, the phone faded to a dark screen and doused
them both in a swift silence that felt strangely liberating for Natalia. When
he set it back down on the table, Natalia couldn’t hide beneath his soft gaze,
the way the corner of his lip quirked gently.

“Why are you doing this?” she
asked him suddenly.

He pursed his lips for a
moment, “I think it goes without saying.”

“No,” Natalia denied. “Tell
me….
please
.”

He gave her a strange look; one
that she couldn’t read. “You know, I’ve known you since elementary school. We
were in a few of the same classes for a couple years. You never looked at me;
you never really cared. But I would watch you as you studied, and I couldn’t
help but wonder why you never cared, when literally everyone else wouldn’t
leave me alone.”

He paused for a moment, lifting
a hand to rub at the muscles of his neck. The movement was entrancing and made
Natalia’s mouth dry up.

“When we got to high school, I
did everything I could to get you to notice me. I messed around with lots of
girls, but you never even blinked in my direction. You weirded me out, Natalia.
And it drove me insane. Then we graduated, and you disappeared for years and I
sort of just stuck around here. I got a few odd jobs, fooled around a little
more, and even had a girlfriend for almost a year...but nothing seemed to be
enough. Then you showed up, and when I saw you, you still had that uncaring
look on your face; I honestly felt ridiculously excited. I was a nervous wreck
when you agreed to come here, God knows why. I figured, hell, I’ll get in and
get out—get that fill and move on with my life. But then you got on top of me
and when I felt you, I realized exactly how deep in shit I was.”

“What do you mean?”

Jace grinned at her, and even
with a split lip he looked like he was carved from marble or granite stone.
Beautiful, untouchable, and completely desirable. “I want you, Nat. I want you
more than anything I’ve ever needed before.”

Then he was reaching toward her
chin, lifting her face to meet her wide eyed gaze with one of intent and
desire. She knew better than to fall for his words, than to listen to a single
thing he said, but something inside her was taught, reverberating like a string
with every little touch he cast on her. He made music erupt in her skin, and it
had been unlike anything she had ever felt before. Curious and aching, Natalia
allowed Jace to press his mouth over hers, and the familiar heat that exploded
in her body yesterday reappeared with a brilliant vengeance.

Throwing caution to the wind,
Natalia pushed herself to the tips of her toes, closing the distance between
their figures and wrapping her arms tight around his neck and shoulders. Jace
responded in kind, parting his lips against hers, letting her in to taste that
strange, yet intoxicating flavor she found herself addicted to. His hands
drifted around her waist, dragging down her back and around the flare of her
hips.

The touch sparked her hips to
grind against his, forcing Jace to part from their kiss with a sharp hiss.
“H-hey, you sure you…?” he trailed off when Natalia tipped her chin to
recapture his mouth between her teeth. She gave him a soft moan, pulling at him
to lead her back to his bedroom.

Jace shuddered beneath her
fingertips, dragging his broad hands down to her thighs before hooking them
under her knees. Natalia gave a little bounce at his insistence, wrapping her
legs around his waist as he peppered her mouth with kisses. They stumbled a
couple of times, and she felt him smile against her mouth when they pushed into
his room. When they fell upon the bed, Natalia could feel the heat in her body
shoot down to her core and she knew he could see it reflected in her
half-lidded gaze.

Their movements weren’t as
urgent as their first time together. Jace took his time peeling her clothes
off. His hips bucked against hers with more deliberate grazes that left her
gasping against his neck and reaching to dig her hands into his hair. When his
tongue found the edge of her collarbone, Natalia had found she could no longer
deal with his slow pace. She shoved him off, tackling him down to the bed
before sealing her mouth over his once more, noting how he moaned when she
straddled him.

His hands reached down to her
ass, pushing down as she ground hard against him, making the friction rough and
delicious.

“Jace,” Natalia moaned, feeling
his hands dip past the fabric of her shorts. “I-I want…”

“Yeah?” he replied, rolling
over her once more to pin her to the bed. With several frantic kicks and bucks
of their hips, the last of their clothes were shed, drowning them both in the
sensation of their flesh rubbing together. “Hold on, let me get a condom,” he
muttered, but Natalia refused to release him.

“Forget the condom,” she
huffed, “Just—just do it already!”

“Are you—” he paused, groaning
when she spread her legs wider apart, making him rub against her drenched
folds. “Are you on the pill?”

“YES!” she snapped, impatient
and wanting him to enter her that very moment. Jace let out another groan,
reaching down to rub his fingers against her clit, dragging torturous circles
around the sensitive nub. Natalia gasped out a loud moan, bracing her feet
against the mattress to grind against his touch. In moment, she felt him align
with her entrance, teasing her with mock thrusts that had her biting down hard
on her lip.

“Do you want it?” he asked, and
Natalia let out a whine.

“Uh-huh,” she huffed, feeling
dizzy with desire. She spotted his grin above her and she nearly kicked him.

“I don’t think you do.”

“
Jace!
”

He chuckled, deep and throaty,
“Alright, alright.” He shifted his hips, burying his length between her legs.
They both let out a series of moans, basking in the sensations of filling and
being filled; the sensation of completion. “How can you be so
tight
?” he
groaned.

“Mmm,” Natalia hummed in
pleasure as he began to move. “
Oh—oh, yes. Like that.
” Her moans rose in
pitch as Jace’s fingers blazed fiery trails over her shivering skin. She let
out a particularly loud whimper when his fingers found her perked nipples,
dragging jolt after jolt of electric pleasure through her body. Her legs
wrapped around waist, hips bouncing as he thrust deeper inside of her.

“Faster,” she urged, but Jace
had another plan. Suddenly, he pulled out; when Natalia let out a cry of
protest, she could only yelp when he grabbed her hips and spun her over to her
belly. She pushed herself up to her elbows, gasping as he hovered above her,
lifting her hips up to meet his. She could feel him grinding against her;
Natalia’s back arched when one of his hands trailed down below her belly to
spread her legs out further, his fingers trailing over entrance just as his
cock found its way back inside her.

The new position felt amazing,
and when he pushed her further down, she could feel him thrust as her nipples
rubbed against the sheets beneath. Each touch of his fingers on her folds made
her seize, her muscles tightening and clamping hard before releasing. This
time, he didn’t hesitate to plow into her, driving into her with such force it
was almost impossible to hold back the screams from escaping her throat.

“
Oh! Oh, God—Like that! I’m
so close!”
she heard herself cry, felt her body spasm and flail as he
pistoned his hips against hers. It was incredible. It was amazing.

Suddenly, Natalia’s orgasm
slammed into her with the force of a tidal wave. Her inner walls clamped down
hard over Jace’s cock, milking him and fluttering over his throbbing length
until she was seeing white. He bucked harder, faster, panting wildly in tandem
to the sound of their bodies slapping together until she felt him stutter
against her, his hot release blooming deep within her.

The two lovers collapsed on the
mattress, gasping for air as they waited for the waves of bliss to pass and
leave them sighing gently in each other’s arms. Shifting, she felt Jace’s arms
wrap around her waist, pulling her close to his chest, pressing languid kisses
over her neck. She met his gaze with a half-smile and a caress to his cheek.
She could picture herself really liking him, really liking the curve of his
jaw, the perk of his smug lips. Natalia found herself envisioning something
with Jace different from anything she’d had with anyone before.

“Can I ask you something?” Jace
muttered some time later.

“What is it?”

“Would you…” he trailed off,
cheeks flushing sheepishly—she found the sight to be so heartbreakingly
endearing. “Would you like to stay with me… just a little bit longer?”

There was a strange warmth in
her chest, a strange sensation that made her feel like she could reach out and
grab that picture of happiness between her and Jace. She knew her family would
shout and shake their heads, and Nathan would probably be insanely mad at her
for this, but she had been alone for years, and she was quite tired of the
isolation.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I’d
like that.”

And for the first time in a
long time, Natalia was content, wrapped in a pair of warm arms and a bright
smile.

Who the hell cares what
other people think?

THE
END