Unlovely Things (Love By Design Book 2) Read online

  I didn't want to talk about how I felt like our friendship was taking a backseat since she nailed Hunter. Taylor Jane deserved to be happy and I was only ruining it with my jealously over a friend who was now her fiancé and soon to be husband. I knew she was going to question my hesitation of her marrying Hunter, part of me knew I was losing my best friend to her best friend and I had not been handling things well. Demon didn’t help the situation and I was quickly becoming a bitter old hag.

  “I know you've been distant with me.” That had been glaringly obvious and I felt guilty. She continued speaking and I paused putting my makeup on. “I know things have been different, but I don't love you any less. I just made room in my heart for more that includes Hunter.” We both stood still watching each other in the mirror and our eye caught filling up with tears. Our makeup would be a hot mess before the night was over at this point. Her words hurt but Taylor Jane wasn't cruel, it was the truth. The truth I couldn't handle right then.

  “Can we talk about this?” she said a pleading look crossed her face. I nodded and let her continue talking while I grabbed my lipstick and slicked it over my lips. “I want things to be okay again. I asked you to be my maid of honor because you’re the closest thing I have to a sister. That's why we're here in Vegas. I feel like I'm losing you.” Her lips trembled as much as mine did and I interrupted her sad speech.

  “You’ve been my best friends since we were five years old, we used to braid each other's hair and paint each other’s nails and now I feel like I'm not going to have that again.”

  This time she interrupts me. “Kristen you're not going to get rid of me that easily just because Hunter is in my life doesn't mean you exit. You will always be a part of me. You will always be a part of our lives. Who else is going to be the godmother of our future children?”

  “Yeah you're right, you would never get rid of me. Besides, I have all kinds of bad habits to teach your kids.” We laughed bumping shoulders and hugging.

  “So we’re okay now?” Pulling out of the hug my bestie looked at me seriously.

  “I’ll be honest, TJ. I’m going to have my moments adjusting, but I love you too much to let a little dick stand between us.” We laugh-snorted.

  Leaning in she whispered, “It’s not little.” She joked seriously as her face suffused with a deep pink blush. I did a mini fist pump in my head. You go girl!

  We would be okay, more than okay.

  Lia emerged from the second bathroom turning on the music system in the room. A song by John Legend filled the speakers and the two of us started singing his song with the lyrics, all of me, loves all of you. Our hairbrushes became microphones and we shared the stage in the concert of our minds.

  Taylor got this new look and I knew this wasn't about her and Hunter anymore. She flipped the table on me. “Are you ever going to tell me what’s between you and Damien?” A deep breath wouldn’t let the betrayal subside. Sure it had been years but I wasn’t over it any more than before.

  “Do we have to talk about him?” No amount of grousing and complaints would get her to back off. Taylor had a bone and she would drag this out to the bitter end. “He has been the bane of my existence since seventh-grade.”

  “True.” she said. “But you've never told me why. Is there any other reason?” I took a drink swallowing the burn of alcohol down my throat. I never wanted to talk about that, or the bad decisions I made after.

  Taylor took my drink from me and downed the rest like a champ telling me, “I suppose you could have any reason, but is that fair to him? He has been there for you through a lot of things and yet you keep pushing him away and none of us can understand why–least of all Hunter who knows him like I know you.”

  I let the words fall from my numb lips, “He broke my trust Taylor. That’s something that I can't forgive. I don’t know how, don’t know that I can. I know that he's been trying to be nice. I know that it's been confusing to everyone in our circle.” I wasn’t blind, just stubborn.

  “I just can't.”

  Taylor looked at me and moved a lock of her hair behind her ears as she licked her lips and spoke again, “If you can't be kind Kristin, let him go.”

  My best friend was right, but I couldn't get to that place where I let him go and we were out of each other’s lives. I tried to give that to him. I tried to give it to myself, but that didn't work. Demon was my other half of a twisted up yin and yang.

  ****

  We met the guys in the downstairs lobby. Everything in Vegas glittered, from the millions of twinkling lights to the specks of gold dust in the tile floors. Lia and I managed to dress Taylor in a short gold dress that accentuated her legs in strappy gold heels that gave her an extra four inches of height. I made her wear a ‘Bride to Be’ sash and crown while Lia and I had ones that read ‘Bridal Party’ rounding out our trio.

  Poor girl wobbled on her heels but we made it downstairs to meet the guys. Hunter wrapped his hands around her waist immediately and pulled her in for an earthquake shattering kiss.

  Whit followed suit by grabbing Lia who wore a navy silk halter top, no bra of course. I cursed her cute perky handful breasts as he let his hands roam her back before settling just about her ass. He gave her a peck on the forehead and seemed to be looking around the hotel lobby. You would think he was glaring at every male in the place who might have been looking at Lia’s legs. He was such a sucker and cradle robber it was cute to see him get a little crazy.

  I stood in between my brother and Demon looking them up and down. “Well boys, I guess we’re the awkward wheels left out. Huh?”

  “Not if Chase swings my way,” Demon joked making his eyelashes flutter. His boyish good looks irritated me like the secondhand smoke from the sidewalk pretty, but liable to slowly suffocate me.

  My brother, clearly annoyed cracked the knuckles on his strong hands, capable ones that held me together when Demon had broken me long ago. Chase lifted me up and defended my honor even when the taint was of my own doing.

  “Back off Hart. I used to kick your ass on the football field.” And he still could with a bum knee a decade later although Damien looked like he’d been bulking up more so recently.

  “You wouldn’t dare old man.” I tried stepping between them but Damien picked me up and moved me behind him like I was nothing. They got into each other’s faces and I felt forced to step between them again. Family and foe were clashing and suddenly I felt like I was the center of some unwanted attention as both couples, previously engrossed in each other turned to watch our public squabble with wide curious eyes. Taylor would have questions later and I didn’t want to talk about this.

  “Hey, that’s enough. Seriously.” I pushed them apart making sure I was firmly in between them. Eyes glinted and I sensed something else under the surface was between them. This would only escalate if I didn’t get them to stop.

  He grabbed my arm a little roughly and lifted it up for Damien to see in the harsh light.

  “Oww you big bear!” I tried slapping Chase away but he was unmoving.

  “This is what’s between us.” Chase growled.

  Damien plucked me from his grasp catching me to take a long look at the black plastic covering both my arms. “What the hell is this?”

  “Nothing. Stop.” I tried to shoo them off me again but it was a lost cause because Damien pulled the plastic tape back making me wince. Gone was the surgical scar that marred my forearm from the screws that had protruded through the skin when I broke it years ago.

  “What the fuck, Kristen?” Chase grabbed my arm back and I felt like a yo-yo between them until I pushed them both back.

  “Guys.” Taylor stepped forward until Hunter wrapped his arms around her middle and eyeballed Damien who backed down.

  “Chase, please don’t. Not here.” I whisper hushed my brother who glared. I would ask him later what the fuck his problem was because I was big girl who could handle my own, especially Damien. Right now we needed to get back to our charges and their bachelor
/bachelorette weekend festivities without having the night ruined. An old broken arm was water under the bridge as far as I was concerned. The real estate of my skin had been re-mastered into something new and I felt too good to let either my brother or… Damien ruin it for me.

  “What did you do?” Chase asked looking bewildered at the mottled skin now inked and slightly swollen.

  Lia pushed forward taking the rest of the plastic off my arms showing them, as we were making one big spectacle. “She got a tattoo. We went to this awesome place by the airport and this guy Jasper totally did it. I got one too, wanna see?”

  Lia was ready to drop her pants when Whit whisked her away grumbling. “Lia… what am I going to do with you?” Whit bemoaned taking her away as I heard Hunter ask in the background for the tattoo parlor location.

  “What is it?” Chase turned my arm looking.

  “Angel wings.” Damien said with a sort of reverence that made my tummy flutter unexpectedly. “Beautiful angel wings.” He repeated fingers slowly tracing the black scrolls of ink between shades of soft watercolor shading.

  “I can’t believe this.”

  “What, that you don’t have control over your sister who is an adult?” Damien growled back surprising all of us with his defense of me.

  “I still have it.” My brother husked himself away from the group leaving the hotel with us to follow or be left behind. He was being protective but this was another layer to our relationship unexpected.

  “Of course you do, Calloway. Of course you do.” Demon called out after him while Chase merely lifted his hand up in the air, his middle finger saluting.

  I chastised them both as a shiver ran through me. “Boys.”

  Demon leaned in to me as we watched Chase stalk out, his shorts clearly in a tight wad. “Well, I see where you learned your one finger salute, Pebbles.” His fingers grazed over the fresh ink a second time and I pulled back feeling the spark between us grow.

  I looked up to his eyes feeling myself sinking into them. Damien was deeper than I previously thought and I wasn’t ready to fall. I smiled a half smirk, “Stuff it, Demon Hart.” I walked away with my head held as high as I could get it without tripping over my high heeled toes because I knew he was watching my ass sway down the sidewalk after the girls. A glance over my shoulder and I saw him smile back shaking his head chastising me.

  21

  Damien

  “I think the trip was a success.” Kristen watched Hunter and Taylor walk off holding hands. Her eyes narrowed while a smile hinted in her cheeks. She must have worked out whatever it was that upset her because their happiness finally made her happy. That made me… well it made me something, but I didn’t have her so I wasn’t happy–yet.

  “Yeah? So we did good, Pebbles?” She turned to look at me her nose scrunching. Her hand slipped into mine and I pulled her close.

  “I think so.” I tell her tugging toward the open bar.

  “Are we leaving them on their own?” Glancing around the floor, I saw Whit and Lia slow dancing in a corner and Chase was knocking back drinks checking his phone.

  “Don’t you think the couple deserves some alone time?” I nudged her while ordering two of what we had been drinking before.

  “I don’t want to sound like a jealous brat, but you know our time with them is going to be different.” She knocked back the first drink and I follow suit.

  “When are you not a brat?” I teased earning me a side eye as she slowly licks her lips.

  “Fair assessment if we’re talking recently.”

  Changing the subject I bring her arms up turning them to see her new ink up close. “What prompted these?”

  Kristen shrugged and murmurs, “I wanted something different. New.”

  “I like them.”

  Snorting she looked over at her brother who was watching the game on the bar’s flat screen. “Chase doesn’t.”

  “Does his opinion matter? It’s your body.”

  “He was there when it happened. When I came home.”

  “When you broke your arm.”

  “Yes. He called Taylor’s mom when our mom couldn’t be bothered to leave the office.”

  “Pebbles, I’m sorry.” I am so sorry she didn’t have her mother there. “Where was your dad?”

  She chuckled sadly. “Working, coaching, busy. It doesn’t matter now.”

  “I wish it was different.”

  “Yeah, well, it wasn’t, but I’m over it.” She slammed back the second drink wiping her mouth over her lips. “You wanna get out of here?”

  “Okay.” I think she’s trying to run from something. “Go where?” We have suites at the Bellagio but at some point our party is going to come back and she knows this.

  “Chickening out Demon?”

  “No ma’am, lead the way.” Kristen grabbed her little girly purse and dragged me out toward the lobby of the hotel. Before I know what’s happening she slapping a credit card on the counter asking for a room. She signed her name and grabbed the keycard from the clerk pulling me to the elevators.

  We get inside having exchanged no words between us. The elevator takes us to the seventh floor, nothing extravagant but my dick doesn’t care. I care though. I care that she’s doing this for the right reasons because I’m willing to take whatever she’s willing to give me.

  “Room 712 sounds good to me.” She inserted the key card and I hold the door closed for a second, my hands resting on her hips.

  “Pebbles are you sure this is what you want? I’m happy to wait until we get home to sort this out.” She backs her ass up into my groin and groaned holding back.

  “Demon.” A moaned whisper from her lips says my name, and her ass wiggles rubbing me through my jeans.

  “Damn it; stop wiggling so I can think clearly. I’m trying to do the hard thing here because it’s the right thing.” Her head falls back and I speak mostly into her sweet smelling hair.

  “You said ‘the hard thing’ that’s cute.” She snort giggles and went back to opening the door ignoring me. I can’t have sex with her like this no matter how much she turns me on. It’s not right.

  I shut the door behind me and Kristen reached back to lock it trapping me inside. I kept backing up but she’s good at stalking me around the hotel room. I tell her, “You’re drunk. We’re not doing this.”

  “Oh fuck, Damien. I don’t want you to be noble. That’s for guys like Hunter and my brother.”

  “I’m not sure what’s changed your whiplash of moods, woman?”

  “Evan.” She said twirling in the room to the window shutting the drapes to leave us in darkness.

  My teeth grind together. The last thing I want to do is hear about that fuck-face when Kristen is right here in front of me tearing her dress off her body and walking toward me on wobbling legs like a baby deer wearing black satin and lace.

  “Kristen, Jesus, no.” I’m against the wall when she touched me. Her fingers trailed up my chest to wrap around my neck and lean in with a sad frown.

  “I’m not with him anymore. It’s over between him and I.” My arms relent their stiffness and I wrapped them around her holding her.

  I don’t have the words to say anything nice because I’m glad they’re not together but I’m upset that she feels hurt, feels something related to him.

  “If we do this, are you going to turn around tomorrow and rip my heart out running back to him?” I hit my head back against the wall letting the pain snap me back to reality.

  “No. He doesn’t want me like that and I never loved him that way.”

  “Funny way of showing it Pebbles.” I said still not mollified.

  “Hey, stop it.” She slapped my chest bunching my t-shirt in her small fist.

  “Getting rough are we?”

  “You know what I like.” She’s right. I’ve always known and I flip her around lifting her up in my arms pinning her to the wall.

  “My Pebbles needs something, doesn’t she?” I bite her neck sucking on the skin li
fting her up to rub against me.

  “I need you. I always need you.” Her voice breaks on a shattered cry as I line up her center to my straining dick pressing her against the denim fabric.

  “I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.” Our lips meet kissing and I take what she gives and I give her exactly what she needs in return. One hand finds purchase behind my neck, her nails scraping the back of my head and hair tugging none too gently. I like the sharp spark of pain. Her other arm rose up, the black ink of her tattoo wings surround me. Scrolls of lines that have meaning to both of us morph into a strange blanket of comfort in the moment.

  My dark angel has finally come home to rest her weary body in my shelter.

  I work my belt loose and get my jeans down half my legs. If I have to walk anywhere I’m liable to trip and fall trapped in cotton. Pumping against Kristen and the wall we both grunt and gasp with each touch of skin between us. I work my boxers down freeing my cock to rub it between her satin and lace clad pussy lips.

  “I want these off you.” I tugged the fabric.

  “No time.” She husked between kisses.

  I rip the fabric and her legs bounce up closing the distance between us. My swollen rod pressed against her wet core inching the tip inside as I rock into her.

  “I don’t have a condom.” I hadn’t planned on this and I regret not being a better Boy Scout.

  “Don’t care.” Breathless she shifted her legs wider wrapped around me and I slipped inside another inch. Her walls clamped down squeezing me and my eyes threatened to roll back it felt so good having her.

  “I’ll pull out.” I promised weakly. There a hundred good reasons why we shouldn’t be doing this.

  Her head straitens to rest her forehead against mine when she spoke, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” She bucked her hips lodging my dick down to the root inside her throwing her head back moaning. She wanted this as much as I did but I still wanted to protect her. Hate and love were a fine line and often the same passionate emotion.