Convict: A Bad Boy Romance (33 page)

The beach is getting dark and the breeze is coming in off the water. Stone takes my hand gently and starts leading me back toward the path, away from the graffiti and the water.

Before we start climbing, I stop and look up at him.

“You know I love you the way you are, right?” I ask. “I love
you
, not some ideal version of you I’ve invented.”

“I know,” he says softly.

“It’s okay that you’re fucked up,” I say. “Everyone is, and I’d still rather be with you than anyone else.”

We kiss again.

“Good,” he says. “You ready to muddle through life together?”

I laugh and squeeze his hand.

“I can’t wait,” I say.

We walk back up to the car, his shoes squishing faintly the whole way.

(
O
r keep turning
pages to read
Loaded
and
Betting on Wolves
.)

S
ome fairy tales
start
after
midnight.

The crown prince and I have nothing in common.

He's a rugged, battle-hardened soldier who spent four years in an elite military unit. I met the King and Queen for the first time wearing leggings and a sweatshirt.

But there's the way he looks at me, eyes blazing with hunger. Like he knows
every
dirty thought I've had about him - and he
likes
them.

I don't know how long I can resist.

Get it now on Amazon, or FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

J
ackson Cody
nearly ruined my life.

I was dumb, drunk, and eighteen. He was a rodeo star with a smile that could melt steel, and I was
this
close to giving him everything.

I learned my lesson, grew up, and moved on. Now I’ve got my first
huge
assignment as a photographer, and if I play it right, this rodeo shoot could make my whole career.

There’s just one problem, and it’s got spurs, boots, and hazel eyes.

Get it now on Amazon, or free with Kindle Unlimited!

N
orth Star Shifters

Shifter Country Bears

Shifter Country Wolves

Copper Mesa Eagles

I
love writing sexy
, alpha men and the headstrong women they fall for.

My weaknesses include: beards, whiskey, nice abs with treasure trails, sarcasm, cats, prowess in the kitchen, prowess in the bedroom, forearm tattoos, and gummi bears.

I live in California with my very own sexy, bearded, whiskey-loving husband and two hell-raising cats.

• roxienoir
  

“
C
ome on
,” the brunette says to her friend. “You wanna do a body shot?”

I grin and lean back in the leather booth. The music from the club below is pumping up through the floor, making the soles of my feet vibrate as the blond pretends she’s not sure about doing shots off her friend in front of me.

She’s sure. She wants to. They
always
do.

“Go ahead,” I say. “Live a little. Bottle’s on the table.”

The brunette looks over at me, her plump red lips pursing, and lifts the Patrón off the table, along with a shot glass, then makes a show of pouring it out.

“Where should I put it?” she asks me, her voice low and slow. The glass hovers over her barely-covered cleavage, but then she moves it to one shoulder. “Here?”

“Lower,” I say.

She balances it on a collarbone, swishing her hair out of the way.

“Here?”

“Lower,” I say again, my eyes on her firm, round breasts, her nipples obvious through the tight dress she’s wearing.

“Here?” she asks, finally nestling the shot glass between them.

“Perfect,” I say, and my voice comes out as a throaty growl.

The blond looks at me again with that faux-shy blink, then puts her hands behind her back, presses her face between her friend’s tits, and does the shot with practiced ease.

“Mmm,” she says. She licks her lips slowly, looking at me from the corner of her eye. “That was delicious.”

The brunette is backed up against the table in front of me, and now the blond presses herself into the other girl, biting her lip and looking her up and down.

“Can I get a taste of
you?
” she says, stroking the other girl’s hip.

“With
him
watching?” the brunette says, with the same pretend modesty.

The blond kisses the brunette, open-mouthed, lots of tongue. She slides her hand down the brunette’s breast and tweaks her nipple.

I’m halfway hard already.

The brunette moans theatrically, and I grin. I know when a show’s being put on for my benefit.

“Do I get to have a little fun?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.

The brunette opens her mouth to answer me, but there’s a racket on the stairs to the VIP area and she turns her head.

Someone is
bellowing
over there. It sounds like a fucking animal’s gotten loose.

The blond looks over, alarm on her face, and a drunk guy charges up the stairs and throws himself past the bouncers, practically roaring.

“Whore!” he shouts, pointing at her.

He’s a total meathead, almost steroid-level jacked. His face is bright red and the veins are popping out of his forehead, like a cartoon or some shit.

“You fucking
slut
, I knew I’d find you up here —”

“Dylan, please,” the blond says, her hands out in front of her.

I’m already out of my seat and heading toward this asshole. My brass knuckles are heavy in my pocket but I’m not gonna need them.

Guys like this go down
easy.

“Who the fuck are you?” he says, looking me up and down. “Fuck off, you cholo motherfuck—”

I hit him right in the nose, the
crunch
of cartilage satisfying under my knuckles.

He reels backward, stumbling. Blood spurts out and onto his ugly shirt, and for a second he just looks confused.

Then he looks mad again, and I swear to god his face turns
purple
.

I do my best not to smile, but I don’t think it works. This guy might go to a boxing gym once a week, but I grew up in the roughest neighborhood in East L.A.

He doesn’t stand a fucking
chance
.

“Mother
fucker
!” he shouts and charges toward me, coming in heavy with a wide right hook.

I dodge. When he swings past me he throws himself off balance, just enough for me to come in close and hit him as hard as I can in the solar plexus, right beneath his rib cage.

He goes over like a domino. The whole thing took maybe thirty seconds.

I hope I haven’t killed him or something, but I’m not quite concerned enough to check. I look at the knuckles on my right hand, flexing them.

Bruised, but I missed his teeth. I’m not bleeding.

At last the guy heaves a breath. He sounds like a goddamn dying fish, and security closes in around him.

“Are you okay?” the blond asks breathlessly.

Her fingertips brush the back of my knuckles as she presses her body against me.

Right,
I think.
The girls.

Nothing turns a woman on quite like beating up her ex.
This
kind of woman, at least.

“That’s why they call him the Scorpion,” the brunette says, keeping her voice low. She’s on my other side, and I can feel her heat on my body.

“He’s fast and
lethal
,” the brunette goes on, one pert nipple sliding along my bicep. I look down at them, and the erection I lost during the fight comes back in full force.

The blond looks at me, and this time her uncertainty is real. She wasn’t sure I
was
the Scorpion, and she’s
really
not sure that her friend was supposed to say it out loud.

I’m dangerous, after all.

“I’m fine,” I say.

I slide my hands down their bodies until I’ve got one cupping each ass, and I give them a slight squeeze.

“Now, where were we?”

A couple of the guys are looking my way, making sure that I’m good, but they see that I’ve got two girls, shrug, and look away again.

Just another night out with the Scorpion.

The girls exchange glances, and then the brunette folds herself into my semi-private booth, tugging me and the blond with her.

“I think we were here,” the blond says.

I’ve got one kneeling on either side of me, and they kiss again. I reach up and pull their tops down, watching their tits bounce out.

They’re either drunk or horny enough that they don’t care this is happening in semi-public. I reach up and squeeze the full, round globes.

Definitely fake, but that just makes me harder. I
like
the kind of woman who’ll get surgery just to turn me on a little more.

One of them moans with a high-pitched whimper, and then they uncouple, both looking at me, their lips swollen and heavy.

The blond pushes her face close to mine, biting her lip.

“There’s something I want to do,” she whispers.

“What might that be?” I ask, my voice low and gravelly.

I lace my hands behind my head and don’t even bother to look at her face, just her perky fake tits.

She slithers to the floor, until she’s kneeling, tits still out. Then she runs the palm of her hand over my erection.

A surprised look crosses her face, and she’s not faking this one either.

It’s a
wait, seriously?
look.

An
I’m not totally sure I’m prepared for this
look.

Let’s just say I’m used to seeing it by now. After all, there’s another reason I’ve got my nickname.

A scorpion’s got a
big
appendage that packs a
hell
of a wallop.

Still sitting next to me, the brunette reaches over and caresses my clothed cock as well, her eyes hungry.

I lean back a little, grinning. This night’s going even better than I anticipated.

Then, out of nowhere: my fucking boss’s voice.

“Alejandro.”

Goddamn it
, I think, and close my eyes for a moment, hoping that maybe I’m hearing things.

When I open them both girls are bright red, staring up at Manny.

He’s short and squat. He has the worst fashion sense I’ve ever seen a human have. Right now he’s wearing socks, sandals, plaid shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt that couldn’t be louder if it had a megaphone.

He’s also one of the most dangerous men in Los Angeles.

“Any chance this can wait?” I ask.

“Sorry,” he says, his gaze flicking to the girls and back to me. “I promise it’s important.”

The girls look at each other. Then they pull their dresses back up, and I stand.

“Give me a few minutes,” I growl at them. “Don’t go anywhere.”

I follow Manny toward the office at the back of the club.

“How many kids you got now?” he asks, half-joking.

“Can’t get someone pregnant through the mouth,” I say.

He snorts, unlocking the office door. It’s a nice office, with a wide mahogany desk and a massive one-way mirror, the whole nightclub visible on the other side.

When he shuts the door, the pumping music behind us vanishes to a hum, and he gestures at a leather chair in front of the desk, before collapsing into the matching one behind it.

“You should watch out,” he says. “They got DNA tests and everything these days.”

“I’ve seen Maury,” I say. “I’m not knocking anybody up.”

That
gets a faint smile out of him, and then he’s all business.

“I need you to go to a wedding,” he says.

Not
what I was expecting.

“A wedding?” I say, frowning.

I’m not really a wedding guy. I mean, I like open bars and horny girls as much as the next guy, but I’ve got a bad habit of getting caught balls-deep in someone else’s girlfriend in the bathroom. That means I’ve
also
got a bad habit of giving out black eyes.

“They found the accountant’s daughter,” Manny says. “And she’s attending a wedding tomorrow night.”

Well, at least that’s good news. Sort of.

“Accountant still missing?”

Manny just nods, looking tired.

About a year ago, we hired a new accountant, a guy with less morals than money, to do the cartel’s books.

Fast forward, and we hear a rumor that he’s had a change of heart. He’s thinking about spilling everything to the feds, and that would be very,
very
bad for us. Naturally, we’d like to convince him otherwise.

Then
he disappeared before we could find him, so we’re doing the next best thing: taking his daughter until he can be convinced to see reason.

“You need me to take her a message?” I ask.

“I need you to take
her
,” Manny says.

I stare at him for a couple of seconds.

“I know I promised you,” he says. He flattens his hands on the desk, and I think about how many guns are
in
that desk. Seven or eight, easy.

“Isn’t this what we’ve got foot soldiers for?” I ask.

I thought I was
done
with this. I thought I’d been promoted
out
of just being muscle for the cartel, the guy who they call when they need damage dealt.

“You’re not wrong,” he says, lacing his fingers together. He’s got three massive rings on each hand, and they catch the dim light.

“This is a delicate situation, Alejandro,” he goes on. He’s the only one besides my mom who ever calls me by my full name.

“This girl’s our last resort. You know we don’t kidnap civilians, at least not in the States, but her dad’s left us no choice. I need someone I can trust doing this for me.”

Flattery will get you everywhere
, I think.

“Also, the wedding is at the Beverly Hills Resort,” he says.

My eyebrows go up, and I let out a low whistle. There’s
expensive
, and then there’s
Beverly Hills Resort wedding
expensive.

“I need to send someone who can blend in,” he says.

“You need someone who doesn’t look Mexican,” I counter.

Most of the guys are full-blooded Latino, but my dad was white, so I’ve got blue eyes and black hair. I can pass as a well-tanned Caucasian guy most of the time.

“I need someone who doesn’t talk like he drove there from Chavez Heights in his El Camino,” he says, calmly. “And I’ve heard that they’ll be serving some
very
good Scotch.”

Why the hell am I arguing?
I think.
When else am I gonna get to go to a million-dollar wedding with top-shelf pussy?

“All right,” I say. “What do I do with the daughter? Hit her on the head and drag her out?”

Manny reaches down and opens a desk drawer. I think he’s smiling a little, but he’s got the best poker face in California.

He places a vial of white powder next to a photograph on top of the desk, and I lean forward to look at them.

“That’s her,” he says. “Tessa Fulbright.”

I don’t say anything for a moment, because I’m just staring at this photo, caught totally off-guard.

Tessa Fulbright is
smoking
hot.

Like
holy shit
hot, walk-across-hot-lava-for-a-chance-at-that hot, and she’s not even my
type
.

The picture was obviously taken from far away, because she’s crossing a street in black pants and a blazer. She’s looking to her left, her auburn hair drifting in front of her face, but I can still tell that she’s got killer green eyes and perfectly plump lips.

“
That’s
Ned’s daughter? The one who’s an architect?” I ask, mostly thinking about those lips wrapped around my dick while she looks up at me with those big green eyes.

I’ve met Ned, briefly. The girl clearly got her looks from her mother.

Manny just nods, then pushes the vial toward me.

“This’ll knock her out,” he says. “Just get some in her drink. She’ll think she’s too drunk, so you play the gentleman and assist her out of the wedding.”

I give Manny a long, hard look. He fucking
knows
how I feel about getting women involved in this shit.

“I don’t drug women,” I say.

“This is an emergency, Alejandro,” he says.

He leans forward over the desk, sincerity beaming from his gentle brown eyes.

“I swear I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

I know perfectly well that it doesn’t make any sense to have some ridiculous sense of chivalry toward women in this business, but I do.

I have to draw the line somewhere, right?

“And I get her to the guy waiting in the SUV?” I say.

“Exactly,” he says. “Then you go back to the wedding and...”

He waves one heavily-ringed hand in the air, and we both know he means
get your dick wet
.

“Do as you like,” Manny says. “She won’t remember you when she wakes up in a safe house.”