Dangerous Games (10 page)

I turned toward the three men, and watched as Finn and Brandon gave their car keys to two of Richard’s buddies.

“The product will be replaced by your money as usual. After that, I suggest you guys all stay around for a couple of drinks, at least until most of their Oxyballs have worn off, and they’re making enough sense to go home without running either one of you two in a ditch.”

The rest of the night was spent in Richard’s elaborate club where Finn and I got to dance the night away but the adrenaline still rushed through my veins. We didn’t get a chance to talk until we settled in our own private booth next to the one Brandon, Fiona, Dylan, and some vacuous blonde he’d picked up along the way were sharing.

I sipped on an ultra-dry martini while Finn nursed a bottle of Guinness since he had to drive back to Boston that night. My eyes wandered to his face only because we were within kissing distance. I could see the shades of his five o’clock shadow but since he was fairer haired, I felt it more than saw it. His crystal blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm and sexual energy.

“For some reason I thought drug running was so scary but with you, it just seems normal, a simple transaction,” I finally said before our lips found one another’s.

Finn was a terrific kisser and when his tongue prodded my lips open and the sweet yet bitter aftertaste of Guinness left its mark in my mouth, it was so much easier to go a little bit further than we had intended to do. He pulled me closer and his hands found my bare back before one of his hands settled over my firm breast and squeezed gently.

I pulled away then though his hand didn’t move away from my breast. I shivered uncontrollably and found myself imagining so many scenarios between us I felt naughty just thinking about them.

“Actually, Rich is a very cool customer. I like dealing with him but some of the others…it’s not this smooth. It also doesn’t help that Dylan can’t seem to stay sober. I knew it was only a matter of time before he barred him from coming to anymore drops. The only thing that Rich is paranoid about are people with itchy trigger fingers, and he has an issue with druggies.

“You see, his mother was a crack head and he grew up similar to Brandon…only difference is his mother was black and his father was some Frenchman she fucked while he was passing through Haiti. He was born here in America, and thus considered an ‘anchor’ baby but she stayed sober enough to accomplish getting her citizenship, and then everything went to hell in a hand basket so to speak.”

Finn swigged from his Guinness and continued, “A lot of us haven’t had the easiest of lives, and that’s why Dylan’s insipid excuses about why he can’t stay sober fall on deaf ears. You guys had grandparents’ who loved and worshipped you. A lot of us didn’t even have that. I grew up not knowing who my father was…just that he was some Yank my mom had a few fun nights in the sheets with. How do you think that makes me feel? Do you think it makes it easier knowing he’s a pureblood Irishman—whatever that is supposed to mean when you think about the sheer amount of times Ireland has been conquered, and the various tribes of people who have raped and pillaged our country?”

“Agreed but I’m still struggling with why you didn’t want me to come.” I looked down at his gorgeous, naturally pink lips because it was easier to concentrate on his mouth than those eyes that never lied.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Finn tilted his head toward mine and looked deeply into my eyes. I couldn’t break contact, not even if I wanted to. “I’m not worried about you taking care of yourself because I know you too well. I was afraid you would become addicted to the adrenaline rush. Babe, I know you—already you like it too much. That could become an issue.”

I smiled before I kissed him again. “You’re right…I do.”

F
inn could barely hide how hard it was to be around Evie and not want to devour her alive. He had tried every trick in the book to stay away from her or at least not allow himself to become attached emotionally yet again but it was too late.

She’d managed to get under his skin and although he knew better, after the successful run and Richard’s approval of her accompaniment before he eighty-sixed Fiona and Dylan didn’t help his whole issue. They had returned early in the morning and after another couple of drinks, they’d crawled in the same bed and decided to spend the night in each other’s arms.

Unfortunately, all that meant was Evie had wore a cute red camisole with a matching pair of boy shorts, and he wore a pair of boxers. To be honest, he preferred to sleep naked in his own bed, and boxer-briefs were only fit to wear underneath his pants.

She stretched out next to him and revealed her toned lightly-tanned stomach. “So, what did you think? I know you were jazzed at the club but now the adrenaline has worn off, what is on that busy little mind of yours?”

Evie rolled toward him and her wavy blonde hair touched his shoulder and felt like woven pieces of silk. “Seriously, I loved it. Sometimes I wonder if my mother really lied about my father, and he wasn’t some Irish rogue from here. Perhaps a first love in Boston she forgot to tell me and my so-called Dad about? You know, like the two of us? I don’t share anything in common with either one of my parents, and this is the most alive I have felt in forever. I hate college and the only reason why I am going to attend Boston University this autumn is for Amaani’s sake.”

Her steel blue eyes were hypnotic, and he found himself lost in them like a bad romance novel but just looking at her face so close to his drove him crazy. If he didn’t have self-control, he would have definitely made love to her by now. Unfortunately, the longer he waited, the harder it became not to get a hard-on in her presence.

It wasn’t like he had a piece on the side he could go to.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. There was Fiona’s best friend, Chloe, but the fact was he felt different when Evie was in his vicinity. The man-whore disappeared and all the sudden, he couldn’t get it up for anyone other than his first love.

Perhaps it had something to do with them being so unfinished. She was taken from him but now that she was an adult, she could make her own decisions, and her mother couldn’t say shit. That was a refreshing thought. If Evie really wanted to be with him then they could be.

“Let’s get married,” Finn said out of the blue.

Evie laughed out loud as she dug into his top drawer and pulled out a baggie of coke and a forty-milligram tablet of Oxycontin. “What are you? High?”

“No but it looks like that’s what you’re planning on doing. Do you want me to do it?” he inquired.

Morally and ethically, Finn hated drugs and thought they were deplorable. The government was doing him a favor by keeping them illegal because he’d made a small fortune, and invested most of it in bricks and mortar once his Cayman Island and Swiss accounts were starting to get too full to stock.

This whole drug-running operation wasn’t new. He, Brandon and Dylan had been in business for the past two years, and even with paying the Irish gangsters that allowed them to operate, not to mention the contacts they’d earned through them, they still did very good business.

However, like most humans, he was a walking contradiction. He wasn’t anywhere near as far gone as Dylan due to his drug-addict girlfriend, but he certainly wasn’t as strait-laced as Brandon either. He knew when and where to do drugs—like now that he and Evie were both at home and relaxing before they drifted to sleep. He would never get drunk or high before a drop. That was just stupid and bad business sense.

Finn took the drug paraphernalia from Evie and used his shot glass to crush the Oxycontin before he mixed it equally with powdered cocaine. An Oxyball—similar to a speedball except instead of heroin, Oxycontin was used—could be snorted, smoked or injected. That was usually the order of use and how a user progressed.

Carmelita snorted them in front of Dylan but he had witnessed her smoking them when she thought no one was around. The smell alone gave it away. Soon, she would progress to the needle because smoking it was just nasty all the way around. No one wanted to suffer from “rotten-teeth” syndrome, and plus the human body had so many hidden veins. Most women started at the toes and progressed to the clit if they were trying to hide it.

It was crazy how much information Finn knew about drugs but he also knew Evie wasn’t a drug addict. Like most young people, she liked to get high but she didn’t
need
it to function. He would rather she got high around him than with her friends in L.A. where he had absolutely no control over what she did.

Finn used his credit card to mix and then made four neat, straight lines. “We’ll divide. I don’t want you doing all that. Plus we are drinking JD so that has dulled our senses as it is. The last thing I need is you OD’ing. In fact, only snort a half a line starting out.”

Evie sat up in bed and chuckled. “Why Finbar Reilly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were worried about my well being.”

“I am. Please…say yes to the marriage thing because I am not kidding. I want you to be my wife and the mother of my children.”

She snorted half her line before she handed the mirror back to Finn and the rolled up twenty-dollar bill. He snorted his whole line and set the mirror on the bedside table.

“Finn, I turn twenty in, like, a week. What the hell would you do with me, and how do you know I am the ‘one?’ We’re too young to get married, and just live foot loose and fancy free.”

“I’m twenty-four and I know what I want. I want you. I have always desired you with every bone in my body. The thought of your delicious skin pressed against mine drives me wild but I have too much respect to take anything from you that you weren’t willing to give,” he replied in a voice filled with passion.

This wasn’t the drugs talking, this was him, and he knew she understood this as well.

Evie placed her perfectly manicured hands on his face, and pulled him in for a kiss. It started off soft and breezy but the moment his tongue pushed between her butter-soft lips, their kiss turned passionate.

She was the first to pull away and end their lip-lock. “I know you are ready, baby. This is my way of telling you I am not ready yet. I don’t know what I am doing in college, and my mother is head over heels with a man who is barely ten years older than me come next week.”

“How is your mother’s love life your issue unless you are attracted to your soon-to-be stepfather. Is this the case?” he inquired though he didn’t really want an answer to this question because he was scared the answer would be something he wouldn’t want to hear.

“Um, no, I’m not.” Evie stared at him before she licked her lips suggestively and that movement instantly made his cock twitch. “I don’t even know the fucking guy—I’ve never met him. That’s not why. It doesn’t have anything to do with me having to sow any wild oats either. You’re the one for me—I
know
that—but why can’t we just be committed for a while before we decide to get married. At least wait until I am old enough to drink so I can consume champagne or a cocktail at my own wedding?”

Finn pulled her closer to him and caressed her silky hair. “I am so scared I will lose you and I…am willing to do anything for that not to happen. You shouldn’t have come back here, babe. You should have stayed away because this place is gonna bring you nothing but pain. Me, included. I don’t wanna go steady with you. I want a real commitment, Evie.”

“Well, will you at least give me time to think about it?” she inquired in a quiet voice.

“How much time?” He stood and grabbed his car keys. “I can’t be around you at the moment—I need to get away.”

“Finbar, wait—”

But he didn’t, not when she’d used his Christian name and knew she was dead serious. His heart ached every time he was in her vicinity. She was the most beautiful and passionate woman he’d ever met yet she was too young. She wasn’t ready for anything. Finn had to admit she was mature for her age but not quite as mature as he was. He had no choice and her Hollywood lifestyle had cushioned her against the hardships of life.

She thought she didn’t have wild oats to sow but she wanted to keep her options open, simple as that. They’d made no commitment to one another therefore he was a free agent and that was his attitude when he slipped on a flannel shirt and a matching pair of blue jeans. He couldn’t sleep but he couldn’t just stay here in the same room with the woman who’d broken his heart before. He couldn’t do it anymore and he refused to “hang on” until she figured out what she wanted to do.

Evie surprised him when she came up behind him and pressed her scantily clad body against his back. She kissed his neck and her tongue traced his spine. It was highly seductive, and rid him of his flannel shirt.

“Don’t you dare leave me because I love you, Finn. You’ve always been here for me, and I can’t see that changing under any circumstances. Please, all I want is time. Is that too much to ask?”

She wrapped her arms around his waist before her hands wandered further south. His manhood was hard as a rock and he didn’t want to do anything with her while she was unprotected. There would be no mistakes this time because if she ever got pregnant with his baby again, he would keep his son. Fuck her mother and her career. No one was giving away another one of his babies again as far as he was concerned.

“You’re not on anything yet,” he said as he grabbed her hand and eased it away from his cock.

Evie walked around and slipped silky arms around his neck. “Come on, Finn. We don’t have to fuck to have fun. There is…oral sex, you know. Yes, it’s tricky because there is
nothing
like your large cock inside me afterwards but I can hold out. Can you?”

This was a direct challenge. She was good at them and they both knew it. He leaned in and kissed her beautiful mouth again with fervor and passion. They were both riding the smooth, gentle ocean of an Oxyball, and neither was feeling any pain at the moment. Ah, that is what he needed, to be near her and her soft yet firm and warm body.

Finn allowed his lips to sink lower than her jawbone and licked her neck before he pulled her camisole down to reveal her luscious breasts. They were firm with rosy pink nipples which were made to suck and lick. He grabbed them and held one in each hand. God, they were beautiful, like the rest of her.

It would be hard to just go down on her and not want to proceed any further. Hell, it would be damn near impossible. He glanced over at the mirror with a couple of lines of Oxyball on them. Maybe he should snort a half a line just to calm down and be able to focus more clearly

Evie grabbed his wrists and held them in her own hands though her small hands barely closed around them. “No, Finn. I want you like you are now. Please, help us connect again the way we used to before I left Boston, and everything became a hot mess between the two of us. I am so sorry because every time I see you, I think this is entirely my fault. I should have stood up to my parents and insisted we…” she trailed off while looking down at his hands.

“It’s not, Elvira,” he whispered, using her Christian name. “We both made mistakes but we can’t move on from the past until we forgive ourselves, and I want to be able to do that. I want you to look at me and not see betrayal in your eyes because this is partly my fault. I was the older of the two and I should have done something—”