Fix You: Bash and Olivia, Book 2 of 3 (McDaniels Brothers) (3 page)

I hadn’t told him about the private attorney, but now hardly seemed like the time. He felt beholden over the four grand, and I didn’t want to add to that. If we had a little more time together, time that was less emotionally charged, maybe I’d get him to see how crucial getting the right lawyer was to his future.

“I promise not to make any moves on you,” I said, holding up three fingers in a solemn oath, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. “Surely you can use a friend right now?”

His eyes went soft and I could tell he was about to say no, probably thinking it was the kindest thing to do. To put poor Olivia out of her misery and not lead her on. But then he surprised me.

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I could.”

I worked up another smile, but this time it was easier as the knot in my stomach loosened just a little.

Friends.

It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was more than I deserved, and I’d take it.

Chapter Three

Bash

I stared out at the rapidly darkening sky through the window of Olivia’s silver Fiat convertible, the sleek little ride reminding me yet again of all the reasons we were terrible for each other. It smelled like lilac candles and new leather, and I smelled like jail.

I’d told her we could be friends, but that was bullshit. As pissed off as I was when I thought she’d blown me off altogether, nothing had changed for me as far as she was concerned, and friendship wasn’t an option. There was no way I could be around her for any stretch of time without picturing her naked body moving under mine. Remembering her legs wrapped around my neck, the soft skin of her thighs on my face. Replaying the way her voice caught on a gasp when she came.

I shifted in my seat, stretching my legs as far as I could, which wasn’t far enough.

How could I fit in her world? I barely fit in her fucking car.

“You can move the seat back if you want. It’s the little button on the door.”

She sounded cheerful, but it was a phony kind of cheer. The kind that reminded me of that cheap gold garland my mother used to wrap around the living room lamp the few times she’d remembered Christmas. And just like my mother, Olivia was putting up a front. That was okay. So was I. The McDaniels boys might not be good for much, but we were good at a few things. Fucking, fighting, and fronting, and Olivia had gotten to experience all three in the span of less than two weeks.

And look how well that’s turning out for everyone involved.

I leaned back and closed my eyes, hoping she wouldn’t keep trying to talk to me. I’d spent the better part of three days acting, and I didn’t know how much longer I could manage playing cool. She must have gotten the hint, because she turned on the radio, which made the rest of the ride bearable.

Five minutes later, she pulled into the parking lot of the gym and I straightened in my seat. Once I’d gotten over the shock of seeing her and moved past my own anger that she hadn’t come to visit me, I’d realized what an emotionally fragile state she was in. I couldn’t bring myself to walk away then, but I was only putting off the inevitable. We’d started off our relationship with a raft of shit between us, and it was piling higher with every passing day.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she whispered miserably, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the wheel tighter before letting it go and popping the car into park. “I can feel it…you pulling away.”

I shifted my gaze and focused on the dashboard, fighting the urge put my arms around her and comfort her. “Liv, I—”

“I don’t blame you. I’m not mad if you just want to be rid of me, I get that. But don’t pull away for my sake.” The seat squeaked as she unbuckled her seat belt and turned to face me. “Everybody wants to protect me all the time. My parents are about to lose everything and they won’t tell me why or how. You just spent the last three days in jail and are facing hard time, but instead of letting me help you, you’re trying to shield me.”

She reached out and grabbed a handful of my T-shirt in her fist, yanking until I met her gaze. “If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Say you don’t want me around and that it’s really because things are too complicated. Say you’ll be better off without me. But don’t lie to me. I don’t need you to be my hero this time, Bash. I’m not a kid. Maybe I was blind and maybe I was stupid before, but my eyes are wide-open now, and all I want to do is be there for you like you were for me when I needed you.”

Her words and the bare emotion on her face were enough to make my guts hurt. I circled her slim wrist in my fingers, feeling the strong, steady beat of her pulse. “You’re not getting it.” I wanted to be mad…to keep that buffer between us, but I couldn’t work up the steam. All I felt was sad. “We’re right back where we started, except now I have even less to offer you. The prospects I had before are shaky at best, and I could be a convicted felon this time next month.”

“That’s the thing.” She yanked her wrist away and glared at me, eyes blazing. “I don’t care. I don’t care about anything but making sure you’re okay right now. Stop protecting me. Forget about what you think everyone else needs, and take what
you
need for once, Bash.”

For half a minute the car was silent except for the sound of our shared harsh breathing. There was a war going on inside of me. A throw-down cage fight between the Bash I wanted to be—the one who was stronger than his weak-willed father, and more noble than his self-centered mother—and the Bash who was a product of rotten genes and one too many disappointments…a guy whose first instinct was to take because he knew that was the only way you got anything.

My brain, exhausted from all the racking, just cut out completely. Like a switch was flipped, and pure, uninhibited instinct roared to the surface, obliterating everything in its path. My snarled “fuck it” should have scared her, but she didn’t pull away when I reached for her and hauled her over the console separating us. Our knees banged together and I gripped her hips, lifting her until she straddled me. There wasn’t enough room for both of us, and I didn’t give a single shit.

I smashed her closer, wrapped my fist in her long, wavy hair, and dragged her face toward mine. The blood roared in my head louder than a white-water river, but I still heard her whimper when our mouths collided. I didn’t hold back. I couldn’t. She was real and there and in front of me and I wanted to drench myself in her. To let her sweetness wash away the grit and the grime on my soul until I felt clean again.

Slanting my mouth over hers, I kissed her like I had something to say and had one chance to say it. Her nails dug into my shoulders and she hung on for dear life, meeting every thrust of my tongue with one of her own. When I ground her against the rock-hard bulge in my jeans, she groaned and rolled her hips in time.

Take what you need, Bash.

I kept my mouth locked on hers and grabbed the sides of her satiny blouse, tearing it open with one swift jerk. Buttons pinged off the window and rained on the seats.

She drew back, panting. “What if someone sees us?”

If that was meant to deter me it was an epic fail, because now that she was upright, her lace-covered breasts were in my face just inches from my lips.

With a flick of my thumb and forefinger, I unclasped the front catch of her bra and her tits spilled forward, bare and beautiful. I swooped in like a starving man, closing my teeth over one stiff nipple before turning my head to taste the other. Her gasps were like music that I never wanted to end, and I was lost. Finesse went out the window, leaving behind something so raw and real, it was a physical ache. I worked one hand between us, grinding the heel of my palm between her thighs, the need to make her come more imperative than my next breath.

“Oh, God, Bash, I—” Words gave way to mindless murmurs as she rocked against me, and my balls went tight at the sound.

She was close already, so fucking close I could taste it. I sucked her nipple hard, drawing it deep into my mouth, flicking the tip with my tongue. She clutched my head to her breast like it was her only lifeline as she quaked above me, hips bouncing faster and faster. The friction of her pelvic bone pressing my hand rhythmically against my cock along with the crazy-sexy sounds she was making was getting it done. I could feel the hot, thick liquid pooling in my groin, prepping for launch.

A second later, she cried out, her thighs gripping mine as she came. Heart hammering, I lifted my head so I could watch her face. Eyes closed, head back, lips parted, breasts bouncing…she looked like a fucking goddess, and I lost it.

I sank my hand into her hair with a growl and pulled her down to me, mashing my lips against hers as the spasms tore through me, rocking me to the core. I held her that way until we both stopped twitching.

I might’ve held her longer, but a familiar metallic taste registered in my sex-fogged brain.

I jerked back, staring up at her. Her eyes were wide and unfocused, her mouth puffy and swollen as a drop of blood welled up on her bottom lip.

My stomach clenched in horror. “Jesus, Liv, did I hurt you?” I wiped the droplet away with the tip of my thumb and winced when I saw a small cut beneath it.

“Don’t say it,” she said, covering my mouth with her hand. “Don’t say you’re sorry. I’m not and I couldn’t take it if you were.” She slumped forward and held on to me tight. “But my foot is falling asleep.”

I barely managed a halfhearted chuckle when a sharp rap on the partly fogged window made us both jerk back in surprise.

“Finish it up or take it inside. This is a business,” Matty snapped through the glass, sparing a withering glare for Olivia before striding toward the gym entrance.

She clutched the sides of her shirt tightly over her chest and scrambled off me. Dusk had come and gone and, coupled with the condensation, he probably hadn’t seen much, but she was understandably mortified.

She settled back into her own seat, pressing a hand to her cheek. “Like he didn’t hate me enough,” she muttered, shaking her head.

“He’s just being an asshole. And doesn’t know you well enough to hate you, anyway,” I said, regret coming too hard and too fast for me to focus on sounding convincing.

Fact was, Matty had a high capacity for hate. It didn’t take much these days. After years of forgiving our parents for everything from forgetting our birthdays to forgetting to come home, my mother had finally broken the camel’s back when she’d left for good after our father died.

Reid had been the youngest and handled it the best. I went into full-on denial and had pathetic reunion fantasies for a solid two years before it sank in. But Matty? He fucking hated her guts from the second she walked out. By the time social services picked us up after we missed school for the fifth day in a row, he couldn’t even work up a single tear.

Nowadays, he was friendly and charming on the outside but trusted no one except me and Reid. Everyone else, he held at arm’s length, and they were one wrong move away from nabbing a spot his eternal shit list. At this point, Olivia was close to the top. He very definitely blamed her for everything that happened, and seeing me with her tonight obviously added fuel to the fire, but that didn’t give him the right to humiliate her.

He was going to give me major shit when I walked in, but not before I reamed his ass for that little stunt.

“You should go in and talk to him,” Olivia said, running a hand through her mussed hair. “I’m fine, really.”

Part of me wanted to use the out. Especially now that I’d taken her up on her offer, not even giving a second thought to consequences or how she would feel when it was all over and nothing had changed.

“Don’t say anything, okay?” she said without looking at me. “Go home. Sleep in your bed, have a good meal, and then don’t think about any of this for a few days. When you’re ready, we’ll talk. I have a couple other things I wanted to tell you, but now’s not the time. Can I call you later in the week?”

I reached for the door handle, grimacing when I remembered that I had come in my pants like a fourteen-year-old and had a mess to contend with. “Yeah. I’ll be here. I’ve got to take advantage of the time to train while I have it.”

She bit her lip and nodded.

I opened the door and climbed out of the car, wishing I could invite her up and fall asleep with her next to me. “Thanks for bailing me out, Liv. I really appreciate it,” I said, and closed the door behind me.

I heard her pull away as I opened the gym door, but I didn’t look back. I was too busy staring down my younger brother Reid as he scowled at me from the foyer.

Matty was standing behind him, twin lines of fury bracketing his mouth. “You ever think about calling somebody to let them know you’re out of jail, or is that too much to ask?”

Shit.

I pinched my eyes closed and nodded, some of the anger draining out of me. I’d been so caught up in Olivia from the second I saw her standing in the parking lot, I hadn’t even considered the fact that my brothers were worrying themselves sick every second I spent behind bars. I could’ve saved them an hour of pain and they would have been thrilled to have me home. Instead, they were both practically shaking with fury and I knew I’d hurt Matty’s feelings. I was batting a thousand today.

Reid raked a hand through his short dark hair and blew out a sigh. “Look, that was a dick move but I’m not going to ruin your night by raking you over the coals about it. Or her.” He jerked his head toward the parking lot. “But I want to go on record as saying that I agree with Matty. I don’t think it’s smart to see her.”

Reid was a major pain in the ass at times, but he was also the most forgiving. I should’ve taken the olive branch. Instead I shoved my way past both of them, half hoping Matty would test me. Maybe going a few rounds would take the edge off.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call. That was wrong. But I’m a grown-ass man, and I’m going to do what I’m going to do as far as Olivia is concerned,” I said, making my way into the wide-open space of the main gym floor. The place was empty, and I headed straight through to the apartment stairs with both my brothers tailing me.