The UN Series Complete Box Set (9 page)

Angel turns around, and I catch a glimpse of a heart tattoo on the back of her neck, right below her hair line. It’s a half heart outlined in black. She didn’t come off as the type of girl to have a tattoo.

“Hey, Angel?” She turns around, looking like she wants me to stop calling her that.
Not going to happen.

“What?” she snaps.

I smile. She looks so hot when she’s pissed off. “I see you have a tattoo on the back of your neck. What’s the meaning behind it?”

She takes a deep breath as her eyes drop to the floor for a moment before returning to mine. “It’s for my dad.” She turns and walks out from behind the bar and heads to the back.

What just happened here?

I turn my eyes from Angel’s back over to Holly. She leans in and whispers, “He passed away,” like it’s not allowed to be said out loud.

Fuck.

I feel like such a jack ass. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I wonder if her mother is dead as well. I know nothing about her.
I want to know everything about her past.

I take a drink of my beer as Angel comes out from the back, carrying a case of beer.

“I’ll be right back.” Getting out of my seat, I follow her across the dance floor and over to the smaller back bar behind the pool tables. I feel the need to apologize about the tattoo comment.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She places the box on the floor and starts pulling a beer out one at a time, putting them into the small fridge.

“I just wanted to apologize. I’m truly sorry.” Does she not know she is the only woman I have ever said sorry to? And if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it fifty times to her.

Her shirt rides up, giving me a perfect shot at the two dimples on her lower back, and I have to readjust my pants. Fuck, no one has ever turned me on like she does. I feel like a horny teenager back in high school.

“No biggie. You didn’t know.”

I’m starting to get mad. “Why won’t you let me apologize? What I said obviously upset you.” I fist my hands at my sides. This woman is driving me nuts.

She stands and turns around as she folds up the now empty beer box, in a rough manner. As if she is getting pissed as well. Her frustration
almost
makes me smile.

“Fine! Thanks for the apology.” She walks past me, but stops to turn back to me.

“Slade,” she sighs, running a hand through her long ponytail. I have to lean up against the bar to keep from falling over, hearing her saying my name like that.

She looks to the floor for a second, then up to me. “Thanks.” She gives a little laugh like she can’t believe she’s really thanking me for something. “Thanks for last night.” She swallows. “For the drinks, and for making sure I made it home all right.” She looks up at me, and I can see how hard it was for her to thank me.

I give her a small smile. “No need to thank me, Angel.” I would have done anything for her last night. I would do anything for her right now just to hear her say my name again. I get myself put back together then head back to my seat.

“You ready to go, Josh?”

I have a ton of work to get done. My work schedule is pretty full for the next couple of weeks, and I might as well end this on a good note. She might start screaming at me if I stay much longer.

*****

SAMANTHA

The following Tuesday, I head over to the Long’s residence. I can’t stay very long today though. I have some errands to run, but I just wanted to come by and say hello and see what they are up to.

Over the past month, I have gotten to know Micah and Slade’s parents. Their dad, Mark, is always working; running the firm takes a lot of his time. Vivian doesn’t work. So when she’s not out having a shopping day with her girlfriends, we come over and have girl time. Plus, she likes to drink wine just as much as we do.

I pull up in the circle drive of their beautiful Victorian house that sits on ten acres. I walk up to the door and ring the doorbell. Vivian answers with a smile on her face.

“Hello, darling,” she greets me sweetly.

“Hello.” I say entering the house as she shuts the door behind me. It reminds me of a little castle with its double stained glass doors, huge arch in the entry, and a massive chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It’s full of little trinkets and gorgeous paintings. Vivian was an art major in college. She has her paintings displayed all over their house.

I follow Vivian to the kitchen. She pulls out a bottle of wine from the stainless steel fridge and fills her glass. Holly is sitting behind the breakfast bar.

“How is your day?” Vivian asks while giving me a shining smile. She’s beautiful. Her long blonde hair hangs straight down her back, and her warm amber eyes always seem to sparkle. She’s tall like her boys, and she is very lean. She spends a lot of time running. She once told me it’s how she stayed sane in a house with three boys. And I’ve never seen the woman with a frown on her face.

“It’s great. How is yours?”

“Very good,” she replies before taking a drink of her wine.

I look over to Holly, and she gives me a smile that makes me want to cringe. She’s planning something. I usually end up hating whatever she has planned for me.

“Wine?” Vivian asks, already grabbing me a glass.

“No thanks, I’ll have a glass of tea, though.” I have to work tonight and still have a few errands to run once I leave here.

“Holly filled me in on the current events of this week.” Vivian’s brows scrunch, handing me my tea. “Are you
sure
you don’t want a glass of wine?”

“Yeah.” I smile at her. Her eyes move over to Holly and then back to me. She tilts her head to the side, and one side of her lip turns up in an amused smile.

“What?” I ask, looking to Holly then back to Vivian.

“Well, I was just thinking… Holly told me that you met Slade this past weekend and it didn’t go so well.” She leans down and puts her elbows on her kitchen island.

I’m rethinking the tea because I’m going to need an entire bottle of wine if we’re having a Slade conversation.

“No.” I look down at my hands. What can I possibly say?

Hey, I met your son just as he was about to get it on with a girl in the bathroom. A girl that I wanted to be me. Oh, and I consider him sex on a stick. Then I let it bother me so much that I went and consumed enough alcohol to pass out in his arms. All the while, I was mean to him.

“I was kind of a bitch to him.” I feel my face start to heat up as I realize what I just said. I look up at her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” Vivian doesn’t cuss. Ever.

“It’s okay. I’m used to hearing that sort of language. Slade got his vocabulary from his father.” She smiles warmly. “I bet he went crazy,” she says rather excitedly.

“What do you mean?” I frown. I remember him being a lot of things, Sexy, annoying, hot, vulgar…

She shrugs. “I just heard that girls fawn over him.”
Oh, I bet they do.

“Well, not me.” I try to sound sure, but the smile Vivian is giving me tells me she’s not buying it.

“You like him.” It’s not a question.

“He left an impression.” More like despise him. So that’s not true. I find him extremely irresistible, and that is what makes me despise him. Big difference.

“This is fantastic!” She starts to clap her hands, but I stop her.

“No, no. I’m not saying it was a good one.”
Although, all I can think about is how my body felt when he held me outside the bar.

I take a drink of my tea, wishing I would have said yes to the wine. I look over to Holly as she speaks.

She shrugs. “He likes you.”

“So? I’m pretty sure he likes every one of the female gender.”

Vivian laughs.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sleeping around. If that is what one wants to do, then that’s their choice. It’s just not something that I do. Although, having sex with Slade is
all
my body has wanted since I first saw him in the bathroom. Can everyone tell how bad my body is craving him? God, I hope not.

“He likes you,” Holly repeats.

“You said that.”

“That’s a good thing.” She smiles as she pops a grape into her mouth and gives me a closed lipped smile.

“Anyway…” I change the subject. “How was Mark’s birthday party?”

“It was great,” Vivian says happily. “Wish you would have been able to make it.” She frowns.

“Me too.” I had wanted to go, but Jax hadn’t. He said that even though I knew them a little, he didn’t know them at all. He was right at the time, so I nicely declined Vivian’s invitation. I don’t know if it was a good thing or not that I didn’t come. That would have been my first time meeting Slade, instead in the bathroom at Larry’s.

“Well you didn’t miss much. Slade was on the phone most of time, and Micah and Holly didn’t stay very long,” Vivian says sadly.

“Yeah, I don’t know what was wrong with him,” Holly says. “He kept telling me he was just tired.”

“He seemed fine when he showed up to Larry’s later that evening,” I point out.

“He did,” she agrees. “They have been working a lot though, that could have been it.”

“Probably,” I say before I finish off my tea. “I’m going to get out of here. I need to run a few errands, then get to the bank before they close.”

“Okay, hon. Glad you came over today.” Vivian walks around the island to give me a hug.

“You filling in for Joey tonight?” Holly asks.

“Yes. I don’t have to go in until nine.” I stand up from my chair.

“Okay, I’ll see you there.” She leans over, giving me a big squeeze.

“I didn’t think you worked tonight.”

“I’m not scheduled, but I’m filling in for Becky. Her daughter is sick.”

They both start to walk me towards the door and I wave goodbye as they close the door behind me.

*****

I walk into my house after running by the bank and grabbing something to eat. I just set my Wendy’s sack down on the kitchen counter when my cell phone rings. I pull it out of my back pocket to see Kitty light up my screen.

I have called Courtney
kitty
since we were kids. She has an obsession for Hello Kitty.

“Hello, pretty kitty,” I say cheerfully.

She laughs. “What are you up to, Sis?”

“I just got home from running a couple of errands. I’m about to eat my lunch then take a nap before I have to get up and get ready for work.” I dig around in my Wendy’s sack to find my straw for my drink.

“Sounds like fun,” she says sarcastically.

“What are you doing?”
Where did I put that straw?

“Nothing, just calling to check on you.” The way she said it made me quit digging around in my Wendy’s sack.

“Why? Is there something you know that I don’t?”

“I’m just checking if you’ve seen sex on a stick since Sunday?”

My shoulders slump and I let out a breath. There is no escaping a Slade conversation today. I think it was a mistake that I told her all about the night I ran into Slade, and then almost kissing him outside the bar. I told her I was pretty sure that was part of a dream, and now she thinks I dream about him every night.

I’ve only dreamed of him a few times. Okay, if I’m being honest with myself, I’ve dreamed of him more than a few times.

“No, I haven’t. And I don’t want to.” I smile in victory as I finally find my straw smashed at the bottom of the sack.

“Yes, you do. You like him. You have never talked about a guy like you talk about Slade.” She laughs.

“That’s because he drives me insane.” I’m getting annoyed with all of these Slade conversations.

“You mean insanely hot and bothered.”

“Court! I don’t want to talk about Slade.” I take a drink of my pop.

“You should just sleep with him,” she says carelessly.

I spit out all the pop that was in my mouth. “What?” I squeal through a fit of coughing while trying to cover my mouth as it dribbles down my chin.

“What was that noise? Are you okay?”

“That was me spitting out all my pop I was about to swallow before you mentioned that absurd idea.” I grab a paper towel and start cleaning up my mess on the counter.

“You
know
you want to,” she argues. “You waited until you were a senior in college before you got physical with someone. And trust me, from everything you’ve told me about your sex life with Jax, it sucked! They are not all like that. I think you should hook up with Slade.”

She cannot be serious.

“So, now that I’m single, I should just start sleeping around with anyone?” I ask sarcastically.

“You want him. Believe me, if all that stuff wasn’t a dream and it really happened, then he wants you just as bad. And guys like him don’t give up. Just give in and have fun.” This is coming from my friend who used to sneak boys in and out of her bedroom window all the time in high school.