Shit, I needed to tell Ethan no more whiskey. It made me a fucking sap.
I heard her cry out into the pillow and I assumed she had reached her release, so I let myself finish as well. With one last shuddering pulse, I fell to the side and closed my eyes while catching my breath.
The feeling that always came after every time I finished began to creep up on me. I didn’t know why I always seemed to forget how it felt—the feeling that I shouldn’t have been with yet another random chick. The sex definitely hadn't been worth it, but when I saw a pretty face and whiskey joined the party, I couldn’t seem to talk myself out of it.
My phone startled me with a resounding ring. With a foggy brain, I tried to decipher what the hell was going on. The blonde chick was lightly snoring next to me. Seriously, whiskey was not allowed on my bar menu anymore—it fucked with my head. I thought that I needed something harder tonight, something to help the memories fade, but all it had done was make my brain muddled and confused. The beep of my phone reminded me that I had a message awaiting my attention.
“Hey, wake up,” I tried to whisper nicely. She stirred and swatted away my hand that was trying to gently rouse her. “Sugar, it’s time to go.”
“Stop, I’m trying to sleep, Ethan,” her voice grumbled.
I pulled the covers off of her naked body and tapped her ass. “Nope, it’s time to move it along. I have things to do.”
She glared up at me from her pillow and slowly pushed up onto her elbow. “You have things to do at...” She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and checked the illuminated screen. “At three-thirty in the morning? No...wake me when it’s at least eight.”
She searched for the covers again and I kicked them off the bed. I knew my phone was still in my pants, but I had to rack my brain to remember where those could be. Standing, I spotted them across the room, close to the bathroom door. I could see the alert light blinking through the dark fabric.
“Quit playing around!” she screeched.
Once my phone was in my hand, I noticed it was from Charlie and immediately put it up to my ear so I could hear his message. He rarely called in the middle of the night, and I shouldn’t have fucking let it go to voicemail. I could hear my late-night visitor huffing and puffing behind me, but her concerns meant nothing to me in that moment.
Charlie’s gruff voice whispered in my ear, causing my whole body to lock up with each word spoken. “Tijuana. Tonight at seven. I got you a spot. Meet up with Mateo. Call me back tomorrow.”
I had been listening to Charlie’s cryptic messages for the past four years, yet I was never prepared for them. I couldn’t predict what kind of news he was going to deliver, and every day I felt as if I were waiting for the one that would knock me in the gut so hard I would never recover. However, this one gave me hope because another day had gone by that he wasn’t calling to tell she was gone…forever.
When I knew I had a job to do, it got my blood pumping. The adrenaline shot through my veins, and I could already feel my feet bouncing. This time, however, insecurities began to float in and out of my head. I should have been training harder since moving to Texas. I should have been perfecting my right hook or strengthening my footwork.
But then I remembered that winning didn’t matter. My presence did. If Charlie got me a spot tonight, that meant he would be there. And if he was there, then maybe it could lead me to her.
“What’s your name again?” I pointed at the girl, who was trying hard to look sexy sprawled out naked on my bed. Any other night, I would have gone another round because obviously I was a glutton for punishment, but it was time I hit the road.
“You’re joking, right?” she yelled, way too damn loud for three in the morning.
“Hush, will you? I don’t need you waking everyone up,” I hissed while throwing on my pants.
“Who the hell are these other people, Ethan?” Her voice was getting extremely loud. “Am I really just another notch on your headboard?” I shrugged my shoulders, because what the hell did she think? She went home with a drunken idiot in the middle of the night and I hadn’t even asked her name. “FUCKING BASTARD!” she screeched.
Almost immediately, I heard the loud wail of a baby cry blast down the hallway. Shit... Her face froze and she gave me a glare that could melt all of Antarctica.
“Please, don’t tell me you have a family,” she growled.
“It’s time to go, sweetheart...” I started to say when my door slammed open, the hinges barely containing the forceful blow. There stood a drowsy-eyed and extremely pissed-off Jace in my doorway. He was only wearing boxers and his chest was heaving as if ready for a fight.
I fucked up. “Dude, I’m so—“
He quickly interrupted my apology. “Do you know how long Audrey and I spent getting Jocelyn down? No, of course you don’t, because you don’t give a fuck!”
“Of course I care, don’t say that. How was I supposed to know she would start screaming like a damn five-year-old?” I pointed to the guilty party still sitting on my bed.
Jace glanced over as if he hadn’t known there was someone else in the room. I knew the instant he realized she was lounging seductively in her birthday suit because he immediately looked away.
“Seriously! You have about ten seconds before Audrey comes down here and kicks your ass. Get dressed and get her out of here,” he growled.
“I think I need to talk to Ethan in private,” my obnoxious visitor addressed Jace, even though he wouldn’t even look in her direction.
Jace threw his head back and laughed, “Oh boy! You have been an asshole tonight. His name is Lane, by the way,” he added, right before he stepped out into the hallway.
I heard her gasp of breath as she scurried off the bed and scooped up her skirt. In a huff, she pulled it up her legs and secured it around her waist.
“Look...” I paused, realizing I still didn’t know the girl’s name. Shit!
“Gemma. My name is Gemma and it seems that yours is Lane. I’m glad we finally introduced ourselves.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance.
“Look Gemma, it was a good time,” I tried to backtrack. I’d been even more of an asshole than usual.
“You’re a riot,” she laughed incredulously and searched for her shirt.
I cleared my throat and hesitantly said, “I think it’s on the stairs.” Where I had ripped it off of her. “Here, just take my shirt,” I tried to say before she walked out the door but she waved me off and strutted out of my room—topless. Fucking great.
“Oh, this must be some kind of joke, Lane Parker!” I heard Audrey shout from the hall. I rushed out and tried to block off a naked Gemma, but she just didn’t seem to care who saw her. “You!” Audrey said to me while holding little Jocelyn. “You wake up the baby that we just spent two hours trying to get down, and now you have her strutting around naked in front of my husband. Jace, so help me God, if I see you even trying to look at her!”
Jace had his back completely facing Gemma now and he held his hands up in surrender. I could tell Audrey was level-ten-pissed-off because she never yelled at either of us. Jace’s eyes burned into me, threatening pain in the near future.
“Please, leave my house,” she said to Gemma without even looking her in the eye.
Gemma descended the staircase and scooped up her shirt. She lazily pulled it over her shoulders and turned to face us. I cringed when I saw her breasts were still exposed, since I had torn all of her buttons off in my haste.