Chapter Three

Thanks to our weird twin juju Keagan could sense the war that was waging inside of me.

She lifted a bottle off the bar, uncapped it, and poured a shot. “Here.” She thrust the shot glass into my hands. “Drink this.”

“What is it?”

She twisted the bottle around so we could see the label. “Tequila. Now drink.”

“I hate tequila,” I whined in an effort to delay.

Reaching out, she pinched the underside of my upper arm. That had been her go-to method of making me cooperate for as long as I could remember.

“Stop your bitching and drink.”

I downed the shot, the tequila leaving heat in its wake as it trickled down my throat. I gasped and scrunched up my face in disgust. “Gah! There. Happy now?”

She’d already poured another, thrusting it in my direction. “Again.”

To save my arm from more abuse I quickly complied. It didn’t take long for those two shots to mingle with the vodka I’d had earlier in my otherwise empty belly. I was a lightweight on a good day, so I was feeling nice and floaty in no time at all.

“There you are.”

I spun around at the sound of Maddox’s masculine voice, causing my head to spin. I let out a little giggle, holding my arms out to gain my balance. “Whoa.”

His hands shot out and rested on my hips, causing a shiver that started from my head and ended at my toes. “You good?”

“She’s great,” Keagan chirped happily. “Nothing a little liquid courage couldn’t take care of.” Then, just like that, she disappeared, leaving me to wade through unfamiliar waters all on my own.

“Liquid courage, huh?”

The smile in his voice drew my attention to his face. It was like staring into the sun. It should be illegal for eyes to be so flawlessly blue.

“You could be a model, you know that?” I blurted, the alcohol hitting my system just enough to lower my inhibitions and cause me to say the first thing that popped into my head.

I had to clench my thighs against what his deep, throaty laughter was doing to my body. I’d never been so aroused by just the sound of a chuckle before. “Modeling’s not really my thing, Green Eyes. Although, I’ve done a couple spreads in the past.”

“I bet.” I scanned him from his boots to his dark, messy hair. “I’d pay serious bucks for a life-sized cardboard cutout of you to put in my room.”

He stepped so close I could smell the hint of mint and beer on his breath. Had I been sober, or had it been anyone else, the smell probably would have turned my stomach. But I was drunk, and it was him so… sigh. “Babe, I can do so much better for you than a cardboard cutout.”

My brain thought up things I would never dream of saying out loud, such as, God I want to bang this guy stupid!

All my sexual experiences in my past had been like everything else in my life, carefully thought out and planned. And… boring. So incredibly, mind-numbingly boring. As embarrassing as it was to admit, I hadn’t had an orgasm by anyone other than myself in all my twenty-three years.

But something told me that this guy could rock my world in a matter of minutes. Hell, maybe even seconds.

I’d never been a one-night stand kind of girl before, but that was Keagan’s entire point, right? To step outside of the dull, colorless box I’d lived in my entire life. And the voice in the back of my head was screaming at me that Maddox Sheppard was just the guy to help me with that.

“Oh yeah? And how do you plan on doing that?” I couldn’t believe the voice I’d just heard was my own. It sounded flirty and… suggestive. I hadn’t realized I could even sound like that.

He took another step, coming so close there was barely enough room for light to shine between us. “I’m more into showing than telling,” he whispered into my ear. Then his tongue snaked out, pulling my lobe between his teeth for him to nip.

Sparks shot from my core at the sensation, drenching my panties as I let out a moan and fell against his solid body. Before I could process what was happening, his arm was around my waist and he was leading me through another doorway. The light flicked on, illuminating the space filled with nothing more than a squishy-looking couch and a couple chairs.

The door clicked shut, closing out the loud noise from the party happening just on the other side. In a blink, I was pressed up against the cold metal. Maddox’s lips landed on my neck, placing biting, sucking kisses along the sensitive skin.

“Wh-what are we doing?” I panted, even as I tipped my head to the side to give his mouth better access.

“Proving that the real thing is so much better than a cardboard cutout,” he grunted against my skin, pulling the neckline of my shirt down with his teeth. I whimpered as he licked his way from between my breasts to my collarbone, my body screaming for more.

“I—I’ve never done this before,” I said on a sigh, as my head fell back and my eyes drifted closed. I wasn’t sure why I was talking, but I couldn’t seem to get my mouth to shut the hell up. “I don’t know you,” I continued to ramble. “I shouldn’t be here, but…”

He pulled away long enough to whip my shirt over my head. I didn’t even put up a struggle, lifting my hands to make discarding the clothing that much easier.

His fingers pulled the cups of my bra down, revealing my naked breasts to him, a man I’d only just met. “Oh God,” I cried, as his mouth latched onto my left nipple and sucked. “This is… I’m not…God, this is so crazy. I don’t do stuff like this.”

I almost cried at the loss of Maddox’s mouth when he pulled away from my body. When I opened my eyes and looked into his, the blue almost completely eclipsed by his dilated pupils, I knew I wasn’t leaving this room until he’d touched every part of me.

“Do you want me?” he asked, the lust in his voice giving it a ragged effect. “Right now, right here. Do you want me?”

I swallowed thickly. Suddenly, the most miraculous thing happened. I didn’t know if it was because of the alcohol, or my sister’s earlier encouragement. Maybe it was simply the fact that I was sick and tired of being the good sister, but the switch in my brain that always told me when I was doing something wrong flipped off. I was no longer thinking about the consequences. They could all go straight to Hell.

“Yes.”

That was all it took. That one whispered word from me was all Maddox needed to hear. His lips crashed against mine in a raw, hungry kiss.

My fingers tangled in his hair in an effort to hold on, like I was afraid he’d disappear any second. He returned the gesture with one of his hand hands while the other skated down along my side. Hooking behind my knee, he lifted my leg so it wrapped around his waist. “Keep it there,” he commanded in a voice like gravel. I nodded my compliance as our tongues continued to battle, twisting and tangling together.

The rough pads of his fingertips continued to move up my thigh beneath the skirt Keagan had insisted I wear, until the whispered against the soaked lace of my panties.

“Fuckin’ Christ,” he gritted at the evidence of my arousal, but I as too consumed by the feel of him pushing the material aside to pay attention to anything else. “Yeah, you want me. You’re fuckin’ soaked, Green Eyes.”

My eyelids opened to half-mast to find him grinning at me like a cocky bastard. I gave him the best replica of a glare that I could muster, considering I was already close to coming undone.

He laughed at my expression, his fingers dancing across my slick folds. “Would you look at that. She’s got fire in her after all.”

“Shut up,” I breathed, my chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. “No one—” My words ended on a garbled moan when he shoved two fingers inside me and started pumping in and out.

“What was that?” he asked teasingly. His thumb hit my clit and began circling as he crooked the two digits inside me, rubbing across my G-spot. “What were you saying?”

My hips thrust back and forth, riding his hand. Our lips were just a whisper apart as I groaned. “No one—no one likes an arrogant bastard.”

“The way your pussy’s squeezing my fingers I think it’s safe to say you like me just fine.”

My nails dug into his shoulders as my head fell against the door. “Oh God. Just… just stop talking. I’m so—I’m going to…”

Maddox’s thumb circled faster. His fingers pumped harder. “Give it to me. Let me hear you. I came on a broken scream, clutching onto Maddox like a lifeline as my orgasm crashed over me. “That’s my girl. Now it’s my turn.”