One Night of Scandal (10 page)

She collapsed on top of him, her firm breasts crushed against his chest. Reed’s arms wrapped around her and stroked her back while she came down from the orgasmic high.

“You doing okay?” His voice was rusty thanks to his dry mouth.

Darcy responded with a sated mumble, her hair tickling his chin and bringing the sweet smell of her shampoo to his nostrils. He inhaled deeply, memorizing her scent, the way she felt in his arms.

The guilt he’d felt when he’d first entered her apartment didn’t surface again. He was so content lying there with her, amazed that it was actually happening. He’d wanted this for so long. Long enough that his expectations could’ve easily been thwarted, the reality a disappointing contrast to his fantasies, but it was every bit as good as he’d imagined. No, it was
better
than he’d imagined.

Darcy gently eased herself off him. Her hair cascaded over one shoulder, so long that it covered her nipples.

He reached up and pushed those strawberry blond waves aside, his thumb and forefinger closing over one pink nipple to give it a teasing pinch. Immediately, heat flared in her eyes. She glanced down, sighing when she noticed that his cock was still semi-hard.

“Don’t tell me you’re ready to go again.”

Reed grinned in challenge. “Don’t tell me you’re not.”

“Dude, I’m a woman. Multiple orgasms, remember? I can go all night.”

Damned if he didn’t like the sound of that.

But her teasing expression quickly transformed into one of regret. “Actually, I can’t. It must be one o’clock by now, which means I have to go to bed. My workdays start at eight in the morning.”

“Right.” Disappointment tightened his chest. He often forgot that not everybody started work at six p.m. like he did.

“Tomorrow is our last self-defense class,” she reminded him.

“I know.” He hesitated. “Maybe we can grab dinner afterward? You know, build our strength before all the wild sex we’re gonna have.”

She seemed equally hesitant. “I’m totally on board for the wild sex part. But, um, I’m not sure going out to dinner is a good idea.”

Reed searched her face. “Why not?”

She proceeded to do that cute lip-biting thing again, an indisputable omen that he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

“I think…” Darcy sighed. “I think we both need to be clear about what this is.”

“You wanted a fling. It’s a fling.” He couldn’t stop the edge that crept into his voice.

“Yes, but we need to establish what each of us considers a fling.” She nervously toyed with a strand of hair before tucking it behind her ear. “I don’t want anything serious.”

Reed bit his tongue before he could call bullshit.

But…
bullshit
.

Darcy Grant had
serious
written all over her, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Hell, she’d started referring to AJ as her “boyfriend” after two measly weeks of dating.

No, she didn’t want anything serious with
him
.

That’s
what she’d really meant.

The notion made his gut clench.

“So you’re saying there’s no chance this will ever turn into a relationship?” he asked carefully, trying to mask his unhappiness.

“I don’t see how it can,” she confessed. “We’re so different. And…well…I’ll just say it. You’re not really my type.”

Annoyance streaked through him. “I get it. I’m good enough to screw, but not good enough to date?”

“It’s not about being good enough,” Darcy protested, misery etched into her face. “It’s just…you really don’t seem like a guy who’s interested in relationships.”

“You hardly know me,” he said stiffly. “That’s a rather big assumption to make, don’t you think?”

“How many relationships have you been in?” she shot back. “And I don’t mean flings or affairs or any other arrangements that revolve around sex. I’m talking about serious, long-term relationships. Commitments.”

He supposed he could’ve lied, but he found it difficult to lie to Darcy. “Not a lot.”

“How many?”

“None,” he admitted.

Her forehead wrinkled. “None? Really? I figured you’d at least say one. What’s the longest you’ve ever dated someone?”

“Never more than a month.”

She nodded, as if it was just what she’d expected to hear. Although her expression didn’t convey disapproval, he sensed it radiating from her body.

Reed could have elaborated. Explained how during his fighting days he’d been too immature to even think about commitment, too lazy to put in the effort required to make a relationship work. Or that lately, relationships hadn’t interested him because he hadn’t found anyone he truly clicked with.

But what was the point? She obviously had her own preconceived notions about his player status, but he suspected that even if he’d been living like a monk, Darcy Grant would still find him unworthy of the coveted boyfriend status. He was just a punk from Southie, a far cry from perfect, saintly guys like AJ, who clearly made up Darcy’s “type.”

Enough with the self-pity
.

The angry voice in his head gave him pause. Yeah, he definitely needed to stop all this internal wallowing. He might’ve been a punk for most of his life, but damn it, he was trying to walk a different path now.

AJ had told him to prove to Darcy that he wasn’t a screw-up anymore—evidently it was time to start proving.

“Look, I’m just trying to spare us from all the messy stuff that comes when people try to make things more serious than they are,” Darcy said softly. “I think the best way for this to work is if it’s a sex-only thing. No dinners or movie dates or heavy conversations about heavy topics.” Her gaze probed his face. “Are you okay with that? Because if you’re not, there’s no point in going forward.”

Was he okay with that?

Not fucking likely.

But he also wasn’t an idiot. If he so much as hinted that he wanted something more, he knew she’d shut this fling down faster than a health inspector at a restaurant with a roach problem.

Maybe he and Darcy had a future, maybe they didn’t. But he’d be damned if he didn’t give himself the opportunity to find out.

So like an obedient schoolboy, he nodded and said, “Sounds good to me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

He didn’t miss the flicker of relief in her eyes. “Okay…well, good, then.” She slid off the couch, distracting him with her naked body and the perfectly round ass she flashed as she bent over to pick up her clothes. “I’d offer to let you crash here, but I think sleepovers should be added to our
no
list.”

“Naah, I get it. It’s cool.” Reed hopped to his feet, unfazed by his own nudity, then gave an exaggerated stretch because he knew damn well that it caused every muscle on his chest to flex.

As expected, Darcy’s eyes glazed over as she stared at his body.

At least he had that going for him. The woman was wildly attracted to him, which was a damn good start.

As for her
no
list?

Well, he just happened to be a man who enjoyed a good challenge—and he had every intention of chipping away at Darcy’s reluctance until he turned every last
no
into an eager, resounding
yes
.

Chapter Ten

The following evening, Darcy walked into Sin through the staff entrance she’d used dozens of times before when she’d visited AJ at work. Tonight, she was still there to see him, except this was the first time they’d be seeing each other as dreaded Ex-Boyfriend and Ex-Girlfriend.

She had steeled herself for what was bound to be an intensely awkward conversation, so when she entered his office and was greeted by a warm smile, her surprise was genuine.

“Hey, Darce.” AJ rose from his desk chair and wasted no time striding toward her. The hug he gave her was sweet and familiar, and she found herself sinking into his embrace.

No matter how uneventful their sex life had been, she’d always loved AJ’s hugs. He had a way of making her feel safe and protected, and she was glad to see that the warmth between them still existed even though they were no longer dating.

“Hey. How are you doing?” She pulled back to meet his eyes, her question laced with more than one meaning.

His green eyes glimmered knowingly. “Do you mean how am I doing with the breakup, or how am I doing with the fact that you’re hooking up with my best friend?”

She winced. “AJ—”

He interrupted with a laugh. “I’m just being a brat, Darce. I’m fine on both counts.”

“But
why
?” she couldn’t help but blurt out. “Shouldn’t you be yelling at me? I mean, most guys would
not
be cool about their ex-girlfriend turning around and sleeping with one of their closest friends. Which means you’re either a saint, or a total dumbass.”

“I’d wager a little bit of both.”

AJ cast her the boyish grin that had charmed her off her feet the day they’d met when he’d approached her at a coffeehouse in Beacon Hill and informed her that she had the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen. They’d had coffee that day, dinner the following night, and within a week they were seeing each other exclusively. AJ was so damn easy to talk to, and so attentive to everyone else’s needs, often sacrificing his own to make another person happy.

And now he was doing it again, stepping aside while she and Reed…did their thing, for lack of a better phrase.

“Honestly?” AJ said ruefully. “I can’t say I was surprised when Reed told me what happened. He’s usually good at keeping his cards close to the vest, but he did a pretty shitty job hiding that he had a thing for you. It was wicked obvious.”

She blinked in surprise. “It was? Why didn’t you ever tell me you thought that?”

“Because you were my girlfriend,
dumbass
.” He rolled his eyes. “And at the time I still thought we might have something special. The last thing I wanted to do was plant the idea in your head and then watch you dump me for Reed.”

“I never would have done that,” she said firmly.

“I know. I just didn’t want to risk it.” He shrugged. “But like my mom always says, the universe has a plan, and obviously it wanted you and Reed to get together.”

“We’re not together, per se. We’re…” Her cheeks heated up. “I’m not really sure what we are. I honestly don’t think it will go anywhere, though.”

She figured it was wiser not to tell him that she knew for
certain
it wouldn’t go anywhere—she planned on making sure of that. Taking her mother’s advice, Darcy had plainly laid out the ground rules to Reed, and she was going to adhere to each and every one.

AJ obviously disagreed. “I think it will go somewhere, Darce. You and Reed make sense together in ways that you and I never did. I think it’s the way you challenge him, and the excitement… That’s what fuels a relationship. That’s what we didn’t have.”

She smiled sadly. “But we had other things. Good things.”

“We had friendship.” With a smile of his own, he tweaked a strand of her hair before taking a step back. “Don’t get me wrong, friendship is important too. But it can’t be all there is.”

He was right, but his quiet assertion still evoked a pang of sorrow. AJ Walsh was a standup guy. Sweet, funny, kind, supportive. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with him? He was the perfect man, for Pete’s sake, and if the
perfect man
wasn’t enough for her, then
who was
?

There was a knock on the door, and then Reed sauntered into the office. “Hey, man, do you—” He stopped short when he spotted Darcy. “Oh. Hi. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Uh. Yeah. I decided to stop by tonight instead of tomorrow. My friend Shannon has this improv show she wants me to go to tomorrow night, so I’ll be busy…doing that…” She trailed off, her discomfort rising steadily.

It was so frickin’ weird to share the same space as AJ and Reed, especially since she’d been in bed with the latter mere hours ago. The two of them had gone to her place after wrapping up the last self-defense class at her school, and just as she’d come to expect, the sex had been ridiculously awesome.

Now that Reed was five feet away from her, desire returned in full force, slamming into her like a sledgehammer. He was in all black again, wearing one of those tight T-shirts that hugged his broad chest, and pants just snug enough to outline his long, muscular legs.

And boy, it was
so
wrong to even acknowledge how sexy he was with AJ standing right beside her. A pretzel of guilt knotted around her insides as she looked from one man to the other.

“The improv thing sounds fun,” Reed said lightly.

She fidgeted with the strap of her purse. “Yeah. Um. Should be a good time.”

A brief silence fell over the room, broken up after a few seconds by AJ’s exasperated sigh.

“Okay, I’ll admit it—this is wicked awkward,” he announced. “But you guys don’t have to pretend you don’t know each other. We’re all adults here. I’m sure eventually things will go back to normal. Well, a new kind of normal, but normal all the same.”

AJ was…extraordinary. Darcy couldn’t think of another word to describe him at the moment. The man possessed the most uncanny ability to put everyone around him at ease.

Darcy leaned in and brushed a quick kiss on his clean-shaven cheek. “You’re right. I’m sure we’ll reach that normal point again. But I actually should get going. I don’t want to bug you guys at work.”

“I’ll walk you downstairs,” Reed said gruffly. He glanced at his friend. “I’ll be back in a minute. Need to talk to you about that new liquor supplier.”

“Sounds good,” AJ replied as he headed back to his desk.

Darcy and Reed left the office, Reed pausing to close the door behind them. The second they stepped into the corridor, a swell of muffled music from the club below met Darcy’s ears, and the floor beneath her feet vibrated from the rhythmic bass line.

Neither of them spoke as they walked toward the staircase at the very end of the hall. The stairs overlooked a part of the club’s main floor, and the music got even louder as they got closer.

Just before Darcy’s foot hit the top step, Reed grabbed her hand and yanked her toward him.

His mouth crashed down on hers in a blistering kiss. Gasping, she flung her arms around his neck to steady herself and hungrily kissed him back. Their tongues tangled in a greedy duel, the heat of Reed’s lips and his addictive taste snaking its way into her system until he was all she could see, hear, and feel.

Every time he kissed her felt like the first time. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to the visceral burst of lust that erupted inside her whenever their lips met.

God, why couldn’t she have found that level of passion with AJ? She suddenly had to wonder if that kind of relationship was even possible, the kind that combined all the wonderful things she’d had with AJ with the sheer passion she felt with Reed.

Reed’s blue eyes glittered as he pulled back. “I wish you were naked right now.”

Darcy’s heart pounded as loud and fast as the dance beat blasting up at them. “Me, too.”

“You sure I can’t convince you to wait up for me tonight so I can see you after we close?” He slanted his head enticingly.

She shook hers. “There’s no way I’ll be able to stay up until three or four. It’s only eight o’clock now and I’m pretty much ready for bed. Besides, I have some errands to run tomorrow morning.”

He stuck out his chin, glum. “I hate weekends. By the time I leave this place, the whole world is asleep.”

“How about this? Come over tomorrow night,” she suggested. “I’ll drink a ton of coffee during the day. That way I’ll be wired and awake by the time you get there, and then we can sleep in because I have nothing to do on Sunday.”

She realized what she’d done the second she finished talking—she’d invited him to spend the night at her place.

From the way his entire face brightened, he knew it too.

Crap. One day into their fling and she was already breaking one of the cardinal rules.

“Okay, I should get going,” she told him. “I—” A flash of light in the corner of her eye had her turning her head, and when her brain registered what she’d glimpsed, her jaw dropped. She peered at the shadowy space dozens of feet below them, the strobe lighting making it incredibly difficult to see, but she was certain she hadn’t imagined it. “Oh my God, Reed.”

Concern creased his chiseled features. “What’s wrong?”

“I swear I just saw…” She grabbed his hand and started tugging him down the stairs. “I think I know who your dealer is.”

The music drowned out her last words, and Reed looked confused as he raised his voice and shouted, “You want me to feel
who
?”

“No, I know who the
drug dealer
is!” she shouted back.

Clearly he hadn’t heard her again, because he still looked bewildered as she dragged his six-foot frame through the sweaty crowd.

Frustration hit her left and right with each body they had to dodge. She jostled one man, who spun around in annoyance and yelled something she couldn’t make out, but his expression told her it had been nasty. With a hasty “sorry,” she kept going, yanking on Reed’s hand and hurrying all the way to the red curtain on the other side of the dance floor.

It was the same alcove where she and Reed had fooled around for the first time, but at the moment she was too tense to relive the naughty memory. She pointed at the curtain, then pinned Reed with an urgent look. “He’s in there!”

Once again, the music overpowered her words, but Reed seemed to know exactly what she’d meant. His features hardened, broad shoulders stiffer than two-by-fours.

“Wait here.” He stepped in front of her, gently moving her to the side before jerking aside the curtain and bounding into the alcove.

Darcy was too curious not to follow. She ducked in after him, blinking to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. When she spotted the two people huddled there, she gasped. She didn’t recognize the skinny blonde in the tight top, but the man behind the curtain? It wasn’t the Wizard of Oz, nor was it a little man pretending to be the Great and Powerful—it was Jeff, the bouncer she’d seen at the club dozens of times before.

“Son of a bitch.” Reed sounded livid as he laid eyes on his employee, and then, when he glimpsed the small plastic baggie in the beefy man’s hand, he cursed up a blue streak.

Jeff’s face paled. “Reed, it’s not what you—”

“Shut up,” Reed snapped. He turned to glare at the female customer. “Get out of here. Now. Before I call the cops.”

The girl scurried out of the alcove with such speed that Darcy couldn’t help but be impressed.

Once she was gone, Reed directed that icy glare at the bouncer, his tone dripping with disgust as he took a menacing step forward. “Give me the bag, Jeff.”

The other man was shorter than Reed, but had at least fifty pounds on his boss. Reed didn’t seem deterred by that fact. When Jeff didn’t hand over the drugs, Reed’s arm shot out with lightning speed to snatch the baggie.

“Seriously? It was you all along?” Reed spat out. “All this time you were pretending to help us find the dealer, and it was you? You goddamn son of a bitch. Do you realize that Sin could’ve been shut down over this?”

Jeff sputtered out a denial. “It’s not what it looks like. I wasn’t selling those, I swear. That chick is just a friend of mine and we were, uh, gonna get high together.”

Reed’s expression became incredulous. “One, that doesn’t make this any fucking better, admitting you were about to get
high
on the job. And two? Bull-fucking-shit.” He let out an angry curse. “I
vouched
for you! I asked Gage to hire you and this is how you repay me? By putting my job and everyone else’s at risk?”

Reed suddenly looked stricken, sounding so betrayed that Darcy experienced a pang of sympathy. She hadn’t realized he’d been the one to recommend Jeff for the security gig, and she couldn’t imagine how awful he must feel knowing he’d allowed someone like that to work at the club.

With a lethal scowl, Reed clicked the earpiece Darcy hadn’t even noticed he was wearing. “AJ,” he barked. “Call Vinnie. I just found our asshole. And get Gage down here. The alcove near the emergency exit. It’s one of our guys—”

Reed had barely finished his sentence when Jeff the bouncer slash drug dealer lunged at the doorway, trying to make his great escape.

He only made it two steps before Reed’s fist slammed into the side of his face. The bouncer’s head was thrown back from the impact, but rather than cower or surrender, a wild gleam entered his eyes and he went on the attack.

Darcy cried out when the man’s meaty fist flew back at Reed. A sharp thwack and a grunt of pain sliced through the air, both sounds muffled thanks to the music pouring in from the narrow doorway. The alcove was too small to accommodate a violent fistfight, but that was precisely what the confrontation turned into.

Eyes wide, Darcy pressed her back against the wall as the two men came at each other in a blur of punches and jabs and undercuts that made her gasp each time knuckles collided with flesh.

“Reed, stop!” she yelled when he tackled the bouncer and slammed him into the wall.

Her voice temporarily distracted him, and Darcy cursed herself for opening her mouth, because it cost Reed his advantage.

Suddenly
he
was the one pinned to the wall, while Jeff’s thick forearm rammed into his throat and elicited a choking sound from Reed as his windpipe was crushed in the powerful grip.