Fight for Me (8 page)

I saw her turn my way in my peripheral vision but continued to ignore her. “Huh? I find it coincidental that your most precious possession was given to you by—”

“Lexi,” I barked, cutting her off. “You don’t want to take this any further.” I turned my irritated gaze at her, and she hesitated for a few seconds but finally gave in, so I turned back to the road.

The car was my grandfather’s before it was ever David’s. I loved it since I was about eight. David did give it to me, but I didn’t need Lexi to try to dig some deeper meaning into the fact that I loved this car. I put a lot of work into it, changed it, and made it mine. I didn’t even see David anymore when I look at this car, but Lexi was trying to throw him back into the equation.

We drove the rest of the way in silence. I wouldn’t call the neighborhood I lived in seedy, but the difference was apparent as we left it behind for the Northern California beach community where Alexis lived.

The drive took thirty minutes. I pulled into the long, wraparound driveway in front of the modern stucco mansion. This was the second time this week I’d pulled up to the house I vowed to stay away from years ago.

“Give me five minutes.” She jumped out of the car and ran up the short staircase. I was glad she didn’t invite me in because I didn’t want to go back in there.

I glanced back at the house and grimaced at the memory it brought back. At first, the place was like a second home to me. I didn’t understand back then what David’s relationship with the pretty, red-headed widow was. He explained they were old friends from college, and I bought it. That was until two years later when I found out the truth.

It had been hard. I’d spent two years hanging out with Alec and Alexis, and then I had to cut them off. The day I found David pressed intimately against Vanessa, hours after he’d left my mother’s bed, had been shocking. On the ride back home, I told him he needed to tell Mom or I would. At seventeen, I knew how fucked up the whole thing was, but I wasn’t prepared for David to walk out on us.

The first couple of weeks after David left my mother were horrible. Mom refused to take anything from David, and even though she made a good living as a nurse, we couldn’t afford to maintain the lifestyle we had. We moved from our bungalow into a small apartment. She thought the move would wipe David’s memory from our lives, but that was easier said than done. She made me promise to stay away from the Coles, and I did.

There were nights when she’d get depressed. In the morning, she’d try to cover up her puffy eyes from a night of crying with makeup. One night, five weeks after David left, I walked in on her curled up on the bathroom floor, crying. She let me console her for a few minutes, but then she got really angry. Maybe she was angry because I’d seen her at her lowest point. She decided she wanted to confront David. She tried to get me to stay behind, but there was no way I’d let her leave alone when she was so distraught.

That night, I waited at the bottom of the stairs of this house as Mom rang the bell, tapping her foot impatiently. When David opened the door, I saw the panic in his eyes even from where I stood. He stepped out of the house, quietly pulling the door shut behind him. He was trying to keep his new life separate from the old one by shutting that wooden barrier.

“What are you doing here, Julia?”
His voice was whisper soft, as not to alert anyone on the other side of our presence. He was treating us like we were being outrageous and out of line, when he was the one who had betrayed us. It pissed me off how he seemed ashamed of us. The same man who had taken care of me when I was sick, taught me to throw my first punch. He’d cheered me on, standing ringside like he had everything he needed in life. It seemed that man was a lie. He’d brought me to this house many times under false pretenses, and I never saw through his guise.

“I want to talk to her,” my mother
seethed.

“No, no, no.” David grabbed
Mom’s arm and led her down the stairway. He stopped in front of me and tried to hand her off like she never meant anything to him. “Take your mother home, Ry.”

He looked
me in the eye, and I saw it. There was pure panic in them. He’d do anything to get rid of us and not disrupt his new family.

“Please, Ry. This isn’t a good time. Take her home.”

“Fuck you.” The words sounded ragged between my gritted teeth. It took everything in me not to throw my fist and level him. Even at seventeen, I knew I could’ve taken him, but I couldn’t bring myself to strike the man who once was the most important person in my life. I never broke eye contact, so I noticed when he flinched as if my words burned.

“Ryder.” He began, but I never let him finish telling me more excuses.

“No. Fuck you and your new family. You think you can just drive up onto this fancy hill and forget about the people you left behind. You were never the
man I thought you were.”

I took
Mom’s hand and pulled her back toward the car, despite her hollering for Vanessa to come out. I put Mom in the passenger side and took her keys.

David watched
us with his hands in his pockets and a forlorn look on his face. As I pulled around the circular driveway, I saw Vanessa step out the door. She put her hand on David’s arm, and he looked over his shoulder at her. Right before I turned out of the driveway, I saw them in the rearview mirror. She pulled him into a hug, trying to relieve him of the pain we apparently caused.

The backdoor to my car opened, pulling me back from a time long ago. Alexis threw a fancy overnight bag into the back seat, then joined me in front. She changed into a tight pair of jeans and an oversized sweatshirt that still managed to accentuate her curves. Her hair was pulled up into a tight ponytail, and she applied something to her lips that made them look plump and pink. I wanted to grab her by the back of her head and press those lips to mine.

She turned her head toward me and smiled like she knew what I was thinking. I didn’t really give a fuck if she knew or not, just as long as her mind was on the same path.

“Are you going to sit there and stare at me all day?”

I stared at her a little longer, and she rolled her eyes and pulled on a pair of sunglasses. I turned the car on and pulled out of the driveway.

Chapter
Twelve

Alexis

Ryder turned into the parking lot of the bar.

“Holy shit.” I breathed the words as my heart clenched. My car was the only one left there. Well… what was left of it.

There was glass everywhere. Whoever did this didn’t even leave an unbroken window or mirror. Red spray paint tainted the flawless pearl varnish of my sporty little Audi R8. My mom had bought it for me on my twenty-first birthday when my dad’s inheritance became mine but still insisted I let her manage it. The car was worth more than some people’s houses, and I nearly died from the sight of its injuries.

I was such a dumbass. Who leaves a luxury car overnight in a bar parking lot? Granted, the bar was upscale and not far from my gated community, but still, I was feeling pretty moronic at the moment. Not to mention heartbroken.

“Who would do this?” The question was more of an outspoken inner thought, but Ryder chimed in anyway.

“Maybe it was that asshole who got in my face last night.”

“Logan?” I looked at the car and back at Ryder. “No, Logan wouldn’t do this. He knows how much I love that car. He wouldn’t hurt me like this.”

He shrugged as if he didn’t believe me, but I was sure. Logan wouldn’t do this.

“We have to call the police,” he said, finally opening his door and stepping out. I followed, but I only got more depressed the closer I got to the car. It was going to be a long day.

~*~*~

After the car incident, filing a report with the cops, and a trip to the garage to see what they could do for my car, I was exhausted. Despite being drained, I couldn’t sleep. Ryder agreed there was no reason we couldn’t sleep in the same bed, but I’d have to behave. Just like when we were kids, Ryder was always interested in every girl but me. When he pulled off his shirt, enticing me with all his inked-out muscles, I was shamelessly tempted to break my promise and make him want me.

Trying to sleep next to him spiked my arousal and managed to evoke a really hot Ryder-induced dream. In the dream, I was exploring his impressive erection. I was stroking him in my hands as he moaned and pleaded for more. I woke up and realized my hand was inappropriately close to
that
part of him. He was wearing gray boxer briefs, but his shape was perfectly outlined through the clingy fabric. My palm was settled on his thigh, fingers brushing against the steely length of him. I glanced at him and thanked God he was still asleep.

Since I was already practically groping him, I just threw propriety to the wind. I mean, I’d waited ten years to touch him intimately. I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to. I may never have another chance to touch him this way. I moved my fingers over the cotton material of his boxer briefs. His morning wood was hard and warm beneath my fingers. It twitched as I carefully glided my fingers down it and over the plump tip. My temperature was getting elevated, my breathing uneven. I was nearly salivating by the time I ran my thumb over the head.

Wait.

Oh my
God.

My thumb rolled over the two small, round pieces jutting out of the head. I went over it again to make sure I wasn’t in some kind of fantasy, but that only confirmed it.

He’s
pierced.

I circled the unmistakable barbell through the hard tip, then glanced back up at him. This time he was looking straight into my eyes with a lazy, hungry gaze.

“What is this?” I asked stupidly. As if molesting him while he slept was no big deal.

“If you don’t know what
that
is, then you shouldn’t have your hand wrapped around it.”

“Not that. Is it pierced?” I whispered it like some great hidden secret.

He chuckled at me, a deep throaty, sexy laugh.

“Why would you do that?”

“If you ever get your way, you’ll find out.”

“My way?”

“You’ve always had a way of getting what you want. With all those looks you were giving me yesterday, you want me. But this is not a good idea, Lexi.”

“I wasn’t giving you looks, and I don’t want you.”

“Yeah?” He lifted a brow and looked down at my hand. “Then why is your hand still on my dick?”

I pulled my hand away but continued to stare at it. I’d heard of guys piercing themselves but never imagined I’d see one.

“How do you fight with…
that
?”

“I don’t. I take it out and switch it out with a smaller one afterward.” He shifted uncomfortably and lifted an eyebrow when he noticed my gaze still locked on that part of him.

“Can I see it? I mean… I just want to—”

“
Fuck no!
” He pulled on the edge on his briefs and said, “This is the only barrier I have between us, and I’m thinking I should keep it.”

“Come on. I’ve never seen one.”

“If you’ve never seen a dick, then you don’t want to see this one. Might scare you off.” He winked and smiled.

“Very funny. I’ve never seen a pierced one.”

His hands were behind his head, his legs crossed. He was splayed out, looking incredibly sexy and smirking at me. “It’s called an apadravya. If you look online, you’ll see plenty examples.”

“Please….” I pouted.

“There it goes. You haven’t changed after all.”

“What?”

“You’re pouting and trying to get your way. If I let you see my dick, then you’ll want to touch it, and then you’ll want to put your mouth on it, and how the fuck am I supposed to say no to that?”

“Ryder.” I pushed my body closer to his, and he tensed, not looking so sure anymore.

“We’re not doing this, Alexis.”

I dipped my head into the curve of his neck and licked the smooth skin there. He turned into a statue. I didn’t think he was even breathing. “You know you want to show me,” I whispered.

He groaned and trembled.
Yeah, this was working.

I moved my hand over the tight muscles of his abdomen. He grabbed my wrist as I traced the edge of his briefs with my fingers. Our gazes locked. His blue eyes flickered with warning. I tried to entice him with a seductive grin. I didn’t remember it being so much fun trying to get my way when I was younger, but I must have gotten better at it, because Ryder’s grip on my wrist loosened. He shifted his hips and pulled his boxer briefs down just enough for his cock to jut out, hard and straining against his abs with a shiny silver barbell with round ends through the head, from the backside to the front.

He was thick, rigid, and velvety soft. It was
stunning
.

My mouth watered from wanting to lick him. I wanted to feel the cool metal and his hot skin against my tongue at the same time. Ryder watched cautiously like the hawk they called him, ready to pounce at my next move.

I knew what he was watching for, and he knew I’d try, so I went for it. I reached out and touched the silver piece of jewelry. I tugged gently on it and his body jolted as if shocked by lightning.

In a blink of an eye, I was on my back with Ryder leaning over me like an animal ready to attack. Gone was the playful light that had been in his eyes minutes ago, replaced by dark desire.

“You want to play dirty? Because that’s the way I like it. You have no idea what you’re asking for.” His hands moved up my side, pulling my shirt up until he cupped my breasts in his palms. He rolled and pulled at the hardened tips. “You want me to fuck you? Is that what you really want, Lexi?”

My moan was smothered when his mouth covered mine and his tongue slipped past my lips. The kiss was hungry and unrestrained. I clasped onto his hair and held his lips captive. I'd wanted to taste him from the second I laid eyes on him. The strong strokes of his tongue against mine were awakening a need in me I hadn't felt before.