Drunk Dial (Hard Core #1) (Hard Core Series) (2 page)

God, he was gorgeous. At six two, two twenty, he was in the heavyweight class. He had a few scars, but none marring that perfect face. The colorful tattoos decorating his arms and back were sexy, but nothing could distract me from those piercing blue eyes.

“Okay, your turn,” he said.

Shit. Now I had to send him a pic of me. I’d worn a tight black tank and drawstring shorts to bed. I didn’t have on a lick of makeup and my long black hair probably looked like a rat’s nest, but what the hell? If he saw me at my worst and still wanted to hook-up, he’d be stoked when he saw me done up. If he bailed after seeing me sans makeup, it was his loss.

Still, I fluffed my hair a little and ran my tongue across my teeth before adjusting the neck line of my tank. My tits were my best asset, or so I’d been told. Might as well put the girls to work for me.

I snapped the pic and sent it before I could change my mind. “Sent it,” I muttered and held my breath while I waited for his reaction. I heard his phone ding and wanted to crawl under the bed and hide in case he thought I was hideous.

“Holy shit,” he whispered. “Is that really you?”

“No, I snuck into my roommate’s room and made her pose for me.” Dumbass.

I never fished for compliments, since I’d adopted the belief it was none of my business what anyone thought of me, but for some reason, I cared what he thought. And I hated that.

“Now you’ve gotta go out with me. You can’t tease me like that and just say no.”

“How am I teasing you?” Okay, now I was fishing.

“Let’s just say the face matches the voice. And if the lower half of that body is anything like the upper half, I need to see more. A lot more.”

“Don’t you have a girlfriend or something?”

I probably should have asked that sooner. I could have sworn I saw him at a fight with some blonde hanging off his arm a few months ago. Of course, she could have been his flavor of the week for all I knew. Fighters were usually pretty private about their personal lives. They didn’t want to give their opponent any way to get inside their head.

“Not anymore. She cheated on me.”

“Oh. Too bad?” I couldn’t believe any woman would be stupid enough to cheat on him. Not only was he sexy, but he was at the top of his game professionally. He’d earned a couple hundred grand for his last fight alone, if there was any truth to the article I’d read.

“Not really. I was done with her. Besides, if I was still with her, I wouldn’t have called you.”

“True.” I didn’t know if I should track the girl down to thank her or to demand she tell me what was wrong with the man who seemed too perfect to be trustworthy.

“So you said you’re working for your brother tomorrow night?”

“Yeah.”

“What time do you get off?”

“When the place closes.” My brother couldn’t keep decent staff. But I didn’t mind filling in when someone quit. I needed the money, since the kickboxing club where I worked still paid me hourly and couldn’t guarantee a certain number of hours each week.

“You said you teach kickboxing too? Where?”

I’d already told him a lot more about myself than I intended to. “A girl has to have some secrets, big guy. I gotta get some sleep now. Long day tomorrow.”

“You mean you have to go to work during the day and at night? Shit, I’m sorry, Lace. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have kept you on the phone.”

“No worries.” At least the headache was almost gone. “If you really want to make it up to me, you can get me tickets to the Bradshaw-Lincoln fight next month.”

“I’ll do one better. I’ll take you myself.”

I was tempted to say, “Hell, yeah,” but I figured I should at least meet the guy first. “We’ll see. Night, York.”

“Wait.”

“What?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow night,” he said.

“I told you I have to work—”

“I know what you said. But I’ll still see you tomorrow night.”

He didn’t ask where I worked, but he’d find it if he wanted to see me badly enough. If he didn’t, oh well.

“Whatever you say.” I knew better than to get my hopes up. That only led to disappointment.

York

“I can’t believe you’re gonna hunt down some chick you drunk dialed last night, man. That’s some weird shit.”

Who the hell was my kid brother to talk? He’d done some pretty weird shit himself.

“Take a look at that and tell me you wouldn’t hunt her down.” I flashed him the pic Lacy had sent me.

“Fuck, she’s hot,” Wes said, lunging for my phone. He swiped his finger across the screen to make sure I didn’t have any more pictures of her before he handed it back to me.

“Told you.”

I reached for a piece of the pizza my brother had ordered. I’d be glad when the painters were finished at his place so he could get the hell out of mine. In spite of the fact that he liked to keep in shape, he ate garbage all the time and was a bad influence on me. Thankfully I wasn’t in training right now, so I could afford to indulge a little. I just didn’t want to develop any bad habits that would make me soft in the ring.

“I’m coming with you,” he said. “I gotta see her for myself.”

I scowled at him. I didn’t need a wingman when I met Lacy, especially since my brother and most of my friends were pigs who wouldn’t hesitate to make a play for her the second I turned my back. Wes thought that just because he was a fitness model, whose pretty face was plastered in magazines across the country, every woman he met wanted him. Sadly, most did, but I somehow knew he wouldn’t be Lacy’s type.

“Just remember she’s mine.” I wasn’t usually territorial with women and I sure as hell didn’t have a right to stake my claim on one I’d never met, but I needed to put my brother on notice or he’d think she was fair game.

“Why don’t we let the lady decide for herself which one of us she wants?”

“Keep talkin’ like that, and you can pack up your shit and get out of my house.”

Wes grinned. “You’d throw your own brother out in the street because of some chick you’ve never even met?”

“Yeah.” And I didn’t want to analyze what that said about me. “So consider yourself warned, asshole.”

Wes tipped his beer back, a smile playing on his lips. “This is gonna be fun.”

“Fuck off.”

“Where does she work?”

“Don’t know yet.” Admitting she hadn’t been willing to tell me where she worked made me sound like a loser, but if he planned to tag along, he’d find out soon enough. “All I know is she’s a bartender at her brother’s club on Ventura.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to find her,” Wes said. “There are only a few there.”

“Yeah.” I pretended to watch sports highlights while I fought the urge to pick up my phone again so I could catch a glimpse of that beautiful face. I’d already looked at it too many times, and I was starting to creep myself out. She was just a girl. A girl with bright green eyes, full lips, perfect little white teeth, big tits… fuck, I had to stop this or I was gonna go crazy.

“What else do you know about her?” Wes asked, his eyes fixed on the TV screen.

I still hadn’t told him the best part. “She’s into fighting, believe it or not.”

“Ah, man, don’t tell me she’s a ring rat.”

“No. Definitely not.” A ring rat would never have talked to me the way she did. They were all too eager to please and do anything I asked. They sure as hell didn’t tell me they weren’t into relationships before refusing to tell me where they worked.

“How do you know?” Wes asked, looking wary.

Sure, I’d been burned by my ex, but that didn’t mean I was a sucker for any pretty face and rockin’ bod. I could tell a gold digger or ring rat from a mile away. “She’s a kickboxer. Teaches, in fact.” To me, that was the hottest thing about her.

I’d started out wrestling before I got into kickboxing about ten years ago. That led me to study various forms of martial arts before settling on karate and later jiu-jitsu. Seeing a woman take down a man twice her size was sexier than big tits or a tight ass any day. I always took care of my woman, but I liked knowing she could take care of herself if I wasn’t there to protect her. Not that Lacy was
my
woman or anything. Not yet anyway.

Wes let the air seep between his teeth. “Nothin’ better than that to get a girl ripped.”

“I know.” One of the unisex gyms I’d trained at years ago had a kickboxing class for women, and they had better bodies than most of the fitness models and female bodybuilders I’d dated over the years.

“You sure she doesn’t have a boyfriend?” Wes asked. “Hot little piece like that, workin’ in a bar, she must have guys coming on to her all the time.”

That was the part that concerned me the most—her occupation. I was a selfish SOB who hated to share. The thought of some filthy drunk bastard ogling the woman sharing my bed didn’t sit well. And Lacy would be sharing my bed. I had no doubt about that.

“She said something about an ex.” One who hadn’t been man enough to keep her satisfied.

“Ugh.” Wes made a face while he reached for the remote. “You don’t wanna be the rebound fuck. She’ll start crying about how it was a mistake and she still loves the other guy and wants him back. Who the hell wants to hear that shit?”

I was confident Lacy wouldn’t have any regrets after sleeping with me, but just to appease my brother, I said, “I got the feeling she dumped him, not the other way around.”

“All right, well, I’m gonna hit the shower before we head out,” he said, getting up.

“Sit your ass down,” I warned. “I’m going first. You always use up all the hot water.”

“Yeah, you go first,” he said, lunging across the couch for my phone when I stood. “Good idea. I’ll just send a quick text to Lacy to let her know I’ll be there—”

“Give me that goddamn thing,” I growled, snatching the phone from him. Maybe I’d bail while he was in the shower. I didn’t trust him not to embarrass us both.

***

An hour later, we were walking into the first club when Wes nudged my arm. “Jackpot, my man.”

Shit. Lacy was even more beautiful in person. She had black hair that fell in soft waves almost hitting her waist, but it was wrapped around her neck, falling down one side to reveal a colorful back piece right above the leather belt tucked through her low-rise jeans. The black tank top with chains threaded through the front, barely covering her ample cleavage, had probably hidden the tattoo when she put it on, but every time she leaned over the bar so a patron could give her a drink order, it rode up.

I weaved through the crowd and stood just behind the row of people circling the bar, waiting to give her their drink order. Another girl was working the other side of the oval-shaped bar, but I couldn’t even tell the color of her hair. All my attention was fixed on Lacy.

A sparkly silver eagle was spreading its wings across the abdomen of her shirt, drawing my eye to her breasts, which were spectacular. It had been a long time since I’d seen a rack like that on such a tiny little thing, unless they were fake. Judging by the way they moved when she reached above her head for a glass, I didn’t think so.

“I need a drink,” Wes said, edging his shoulders between two pretty girls. They smiled, parting for him.

“Slow down,” I said, grabbing the back of his shirt and hauling him back. “The lady’s busy. Give her a minute to get caught up before you start barking orders at her.”

Wes’s lips twitched as he slid a look my way out of the corner of his eye. “What makes you think she wouldn’t wanna serve me first?”

I knew from the way his lips curled that he wasn’t talking about a drink, and hearing him talk about Lacy like that made me want to knock out all of his perfect teeth.

“Go over there and find a table before I beat your sorry ass,” I said, hooking a thumb over my shoulder. “I’ll get us a couple of beers.”

“Sure, man, whatever you say.”

Wes was a pain in the ass who pushed me further than anyone else would ever dare to, but I’d go to the mat for him every time and the son of a bitch knew it.

I waited until the crowd thinned out before I claimed one of the stools the girls had vacated after getting their drinks. I watched her move with confidence, mixing drinks while talking and laughing with customers. I loved her smile, the way those full, pouty lips tipped up just enough to make you wonder if you were the butt of a joke or if she was going to let you in on it.

When our eyes finally connected, I grinned, knowing she was shocked to see me. I knew she thought I was lying about who I was, though I had no idea why someoneI would. Some days I didn’t even want to be me, so I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to pretend to be me.

“York.” She opened and closed her mouth before shaking her head as she laughed. “It really is you.”

“In the flesh.” I leaned over the bar. “You don’t seem as slammed as you were a couple of minutes ago. Can you take a break?”

A tall, good-looking guy with black hair and a half sleeve walked behind the bar. I curled my hand into a fist when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and whispered something in her ear, making her laugh.

“York, this is my brother Ash. He’s a big fan.”

Her brother. Good, I could breathe again. “Nice to meet you,” I said, extending my hand.

“You too, man. I have to admit, I didn’t believe Lace when she told me you called her last night.”

“May have been the best mistake of my life.” I bit my lip as my eyes trailed over her body. Then I remembered her brother was standing right there. If some guy looked at my little sister the way I was looking at her, I’d have no choice but to knock him out. “So you’re into fighting?” I asked Ash.

“Yeah. I’ve been kickboxing for twenty years. Thought about getting into jiu-jitsu too, but this place keeps me too busy, ya know?”

“I can imagine.” The place was packed, and since it was a Thursday night, I could only imagine what a Friday or Saturday would be like. “Nice place.” It wasn’t like some of the dives my buddies dragged me to. Ash had to have dumped a lot of money into his club.

“Thanks, man. I like it.” He laughed. “I used to blow my whole paycheck in places like this, so I figured I’d try being the guy on the other side for a change, collecting the money instead of handing it over.”