LUST: A Bad Boy and Amish Girl Romance (The Brody Bunch Book 2) (6 page)

“God, yes!” I moaned a little too recklessly; a little too loud. “Fuck, Ash—don’t stop!”

Digging his thumbs into my hips, Ash enthusiastically obeyed my command, thrashing his head as he endeavored to sample every inch of my wet, wanting vulva.

My breath escaped me. “Shit… I’m gonna come…”

This did not deter him, and I slapped him on the back, hard, as I made good on my promise, seizing and squeezing his head between my thighs as he made me buck and writhe on his gifted, gorgeous mouth.

The lights above us blurred, morphing into orange-yellow halos as ecstasy swam through me, making my whole body tremble. Shuddering bursts played down my vertebrae as though someone had struck them like the keys of a xylophone, a resonance that only fueled the fire burning in my core. Ash made me hold myself up then, my legs over his shoulders as he tore open a condom and rolled it down his cock. I panted, trying to catch my breath enough to make some flippant, yet sexy remark—but before I could, I felt his fingers digging into my waist and pulling me from him.

“What—” I began, but trailed off into a yelp as Ash peeled me off his face and practically dropped me onto his jutting cock.

I hissed as a deep, delicious stab of pain pounded through me, the result of Ash violently bottoming out in my pussy. Then I rolled my hips and dug my nails into his jacket, matching his frenzied strokes, doing my best not to cry out his name as he held me by my ass and pummeled into me mercilessly.

Harder,
I wanted to say—only because I knew guys liked that kind of thing—but I remained speechless. I really didn’t think Ash could fuck me any more brutally than he was right now, but part of me wondered, and that made me all the wetter.

“Goddamn, Hannah,” he groaned into my ear, widening his stance so he could bury himself up to his balls inside me. I wailed. I couldn’t help it. It was just too good. “You’re so fucking tight. You feel so fucking good!”

I could tell by the strain in his voice he was close. At this pace, that was hardly a surprise—not to mention he’d been hard since we left the apartment. Maybe even before that. I was reeling from the force of his thrusts, biting his shoulder to stifle my delight at being penetrated so damn deeply. It was like Ash was fucking parts of me no one ever had before, and while I wanted it to last, I knew it couldn’t. Not here. Not like this.

With a strangled moan, Ash pulled my hips to his one last time and filled the condom. I gasped and squirmed. Even through the latex, I could feel his cock throbbing, pumping the sheath full of hot, desperate come. My writhing only served to incense him, and biting his lip, Ash gave me a few more short strokes of pleasure before he pulled out, setting me on my feet.

My thighs ached. My knees threatened to knock together. I was soaking wet, completely used. At least this time my panties remained intact, though judging by my state of affairs, they’d be clinging to me until I got home.

I slid my jeans up my body as Ash tied the condom closed. I could feel that my cheeks were red, and I got the impression my hair might have been a little wild. “Fuck. I think maybe I could get used to this.”

He grinned at me, tossing all evidence of our fucking into a nearby waste bin. Without even looking at it, I could tell it was full of cigarette butts. “Careful, love. Someone might think you wanna date me.”

I laughed and buttoned my jeans, closing the distance between us so I could kiss him. “Oh,” I murmured against his swollen lips—the ones that tasted vaguely of me, “we’re
definitely
not dating.”

Ash pulled away and looked down at me. “You say that like it’s absurd.”

I raised my brows. What was he getting all sensitive on me for? “Well, isn’t it?” I asked him. “Come on, Ash. You’re a player. I could never, you know…
date
a guy like you.” I helped him zip up his pants, then started working on his belt. “Fucking you is fine. Better than fine. It’s phenomenal. But catching feelings for you?” I secured his buckle. “I don’t think so.”

When I looked up at him again, the expression on his face was not at all what I expected. There was a tightness to his mouth, a furrow between his brows, and a slight wrinkle to his nose that looked to me like he was… hurt. Like I’d wounded him somehow. I fumbled for an apology, or at least another dose of humor to diffuse the tension between us, but I was too startled by his reaction to come up with anything good.

In a hushed tone, Ash eventually broke the silence. “I’m not a player,” he said. “I don’t go around breaking women’s hearts.”

He said it so earnestly that I almost believed him… right up until I heard a voice from the shadows behind him.

“Really, Ash? What the hell do you call this, then?!”

I watched as Ash’s face blanched. Closing his eyes, he muttered a curse under his breath.

“
O
h
, shit.”

Not the best choice of words. I could only hope they wouldn’t be the ones etched into my tombstone.

As soon as I heard the voice, I knew who it was. I also knew I was a major ass. And I knew exactly why the mention of the fair had sounded so damn familiar to me. I could now place where that nagging sensation was coming from.

Slowly, I turned toward her, a grim smile on my face. “Hey, Tanya,” I said, my stomach plummeting at the sight of her scowl.

Tanya… the girl I was supposed to be meeting here tonight. The one I’d made a promise to before Hannah and I hooked up and made our deal. The girl I’d forgotten all about while looking into Hannah’s eyes.

Would either of them find that sentiment romantic? I was willing to bet not.

And could I blame them? Nope.

“You are such an
asshole!
” Tanya hissed, pushing on my chest. It didn’t do her much good, and part of me wanted to take a step back just to give her the satisfaction of having accomplished something. I could see her baby blue eyes were wet with tears, and not just from anger. Sure, she was furious… but she was also clearly heartbroken.

Now that part wasn’t my fault. I’d made it clear to her what the ground rules were between us. If nobody got attached, then nobody got hurt.

Still… to have completely forgotten her…

I raised my hands in a show of surrender as Tanya came at me again. She was short, probably just north of five feet even, but chock full of spunk. “Easy there, love,” I told her, and instantly regretted it.
Love
was one of those pet names I threw around without any regard for how it might be misconstrued. It was how I referred to Hannah, and as far as she knew, it was a moniker reserved
only
for her. But now I’d shattered that illusion. Now she knew how meaningless the word was.

Only it wasn’t meaningless when I said it to Hannah. I… I cared. Maybe not as much as she deserved, but… don’t we all have to start somewhere?

“You told me to meet you here!” Tanya continued, hitting me with her purse. I flinched; might as well do something to make her feel good about herself. “You told me to wait for you, that we’d check out this little hideaway behind the mirrors and then steam them up together. Why?” She balled her hands into fists at her sides. “So I could see you with
her
?!”

I was about to respond, clumsily, when Hannah butted in. “Not a player, huh?” I looked at her over my shoulder. She was leaning against the wall, arms folded across her chest, a distance in her eyes that hadn’t been there a moment before. At the drop of a hat, she’d refortified the same wall between us that I’d been so desperately trying to tear down. My heart clenched. Goddammit…

“It’s not like that,” I insisted, trying to find my footing between two majorly pissed off women. “Look—she’s not…” I turned to the girl in question. “You’re not my girlfriend. You know that. We’ve talked about this. Repeatedly!”

“And that makes it
okay
?” Tanya sneered. Where Hannah was cold as ice, Tanya was a ball of flame. She was shaking with fury, her beautiful face contorted with the magnitude of her indignation. “We’re not dating, or whatever, so you can just… humiliate me? With… with
her
?!”

The way she spat out the word, it was like even acknowledging Hannah’s existence was insulting. My expression hardened. I should’ve known this was going to be a problem. Tanya and I had enjoyed a “friends with benefits” relationship for months now, which wasn’t something I normally did—I didn’t want to accidentally give anyone false hope. She’d insisted that wouldn’t be an issue. She’d told me, over and over again, that I could go as I pleased. Do as I pleased.
Who
I pleased. But there was always a look in her eyes, a faraway sadness she did her best to cover up. And the last couple weeks, she’d made attempts to get me to commit to something other than a good time. Little things, like going shopping with her or hanging out with her and her friends.
Boyfriend
things.

I had refused every time. And I’d told her why. This just wasn’t our lot. Tanya and I were never meant to be real, honest-to-God lovers.

That didn’t excuse what I’d done just now. But it sure as hell didn’t give her any license to talk to Hannah that way, either.

Before I could intervene, Hannah waved a hand. “Whatever,” she said, stepping around me and heading for the exit. “I’m really not in the mood to deal with your man-whore bullshit, Ash.
Or
your hysterical tramp.”

Shit. She shouldn’t have said that. And I shouldn’t have let her.

This was not deescalating the situation. This was not smoothing things over at all.

Just as I stepped forward to try to put myself between the women, Tanya reached out and grabbed Hannah by the arm, pressing hard with her nails. “Who the
fuck
do you think you’re calling a tramp, bitch?”

Hannah stopped. Just slightly, she inclined her head. Looked at Tanya’s hand on her arm. Then looked in Tanya’s eyes. “You really don’t wanna do that,” she said way too quietly. Too evenly.

I seconded that sentiment. “Tanya, don’t…”

“Fuck you!” Tanya replied. I wasn’t sure who she meant—me or Hannah. Probably both.

She yanked Hannah toward her, digging those sharp nails of hers in deeper to her flesh, and I watched helplessly as Hannah went with the movement, using the momentum Tanya had generated against her. As soon as she was close enough, she grabbed a fistful of Tanya’s hair and jerked, snapping her head back so hard I heard her neck make a sound of protest. Tanya let go and shrieked, but Hannah wasn’t done. Silently, she pulled Tanya out the emergency exit of the funhouse and threw her, face-first, onto the ground so hard she might as well have body-slammed her.

Chills gripped my spine. The whole time, Hannah’s expression had never faltered. Not once. There was no emotion there at all, really. Not even a smirk as she stared at Tanya, sprawled in the dirt. The bouncer in me was impressed that Hannah could handle herself, but the more human part of me was horrified it had come to this.

“Fuck,” I said as the door alarm blared. I stepped around Hannah to help Tanya up, hoping like hell she was all right. The last thing anyone needed was for her to press charges.

“You
whore
!” Tanya raged, clawing the air in the direction of Hannah’s face the moment I helped her to her feet. I circled my arms around her waist and sighed, holding her back. “I’ll kill you, you white trash piece of shit! I’ll rip your fucking eyes out!”

“Goddammit, Tanya!” I hissed, clenching down on her, reminding her that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “That’s enough!”

Hannah shrugged. “If she wants to go, we’ll go,” she said. I shot her a withering look.

“Not helping,” I gritted, but she didn’t seem particularly interested in doing anything to make my life easier right about now.

Worst of all, we were drawing a crowd. Tanya, despite my best efforts, simply would not shut the fuck up. She was still doing her damnedest to make it out of my grasp, flailing and kicking, slashing the air with her nails, and screaming all manner of four-letter words—and then some—at the top of her lungs. I could see a few men were eyeing me pretty hard, like maybe I shouldn’t be holding on to her so tightly, but I knew the moment I eased up Tanya would have an elbow in my face, wrest free from my grip, and Hannah would put her down a second time.

Jesus. What the hell had I done to deserve this?

Oh, right.
I was an asshole.

“Let her go,” someone said next to me, and I looked over to see security had arrived. Or at least, one guy had. His eyes were dark, almost threatening, under the brim of his SECURITY cap.

I frowned. I’d worked a couple fairs myself, and every time, they’d given us a matching shirt to go along with that cap, making us stand out even more. But this guy was wearing a plain, black muscle tank that didn’t have any kind of logo on it at all. Was the carnival dropping their standards?

I almost asked him about it. But Tanya was wriggling incessantly, hissing through her teeth like an angry cat. “You heard him! Let
go
of me!”

With an exasperated sigh, I did exactly as I was told.

Tanya teetered a moment and I reached out to stop her fall, but the security guard got there first. He engulfed her wrist in his massive hand. Jesus, he moved fast—someone with reflexes like that had to be one of us, one of the “muscle for hire” crowd. He glared at me as he set Tanya right and I took a step back, holding up my hands.

“We’re cool,” I told him. “The girls got into it. That’s all.”

The guard’s eyes shifted to where Hannah had been standing mere moments before. When I turned to follow his gaze, I could see that she was gone.

Goddammit, Hannah.
The last thing I’d needed was for her to go disappearing into the crowd. This just wasn’t my day.

Luckily, the security guard seemed sympathetic enough. “Looks like you’ve got a runner. Do I need to track her down too? Make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble?”

“Yes,” Tanya said. “She was—”

“
No,
” I interrupted her. “She was defending herself.” I lowered my voice a little. “Look, man… I’m a bouncer. I was just trying to get them to calm down. The other girl—she’s fine now. She’s not going to be a problem.” I looked at Tanya, hating the words that would have to come out of my mouth next. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I can say the same for her.”

As true as it was, I hated that I was having Tanya escorted from the premises by security. I hated that I’d caused her pain, and I hated that it had come to this. I’d ruined Hannah’s night, broke Tanya’s heart, and now the best I could do was keep them separated until Tanya came to her senses. She needed to go for a drive. Cool off. I knew, outside of her anger, that she was a reasonable person. But I also knew her well enough to know that if I let this go, she’d just launch herself at Hannah again. She needed time. Distance.

I grabbed my wallet, fishing out a business card. Most bouncers, short-term security personnel, and other “muscle for hire” were independent contractors. It allowed us to set our own hours, choose our own jobs, and stay flexible, which was especially important for the boys in the reserves. But that meant you had to do your own advertising, so to speak, to make sure potential employers knew you existed. My business cards were nothing fancy, but they had my name and number on them, and I figured that’d be good enough for the security guard.

“Here,” I said. “In case you need to bring me in later, have me explain things to your boss.” That usually quieted everybody down, knowing that someone else was willing to take the heat, should push come to shove.

The guard took the card from me. He looked it over before stuffing it into his pocket and giving me a nod. Tanya glared at me from beneath a shock of her blonde hair as he brusquely, but not too harshly, dragged her away from the scene she’d made moments before.

The crowd around us was finally starting to disperse, and that just left me feeling even worse. Now that I was no longer useful, the guilt hit me like a sucker punch. I tried so hard to be the guy everyone wanted, the guy who made everyone feel special. But my interest in Hannah was… abnormal. It wasn’t completely jiving with the rules I’d set for myself and others. And that had made me slip. And now the mask I’d so carefully constructed for myself—the charming guy who could make all your dreams come true, for just one night—was shattered.

I moved through the sea of bodies, parting them easily, scanning the tops of their heads. Hannah’s hair was a beautiful, chocolate brown I reckoned came out of a bottle, but all the same, I’d never seen it worn so perfectly before. I searched diligently for that perfect shade, squinting against the neon all around me, until I caught sight of it again. Hannah had found one of those automatic photo booths and was slipping into it with another girl with spun gold hair.

Beth?

I navigated the competing tides of pedestrian traffic, using the advantage of my stature to clear a path to the booth. But once I got there, I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. So, awkwardly, I knocked on the side of it. “Hannah…?”

She reached out, pulling aside the red velvet curtain between us. The look in her eyes was steely. Hard. “Not now. I’m talking to my sister.”

She moved to close the curtain again and I took her by the arm. “Hannah, wait… Let me just…”

She stopped. Looked at my hand. Then up at me. “You
did
see what I did to Tanya back there. Right?”

I let her go, not because I thought she actually could—or would—hurt me, but because it was painfully obvious she really didn’t want me touching her right now. “Please, let me explain. It’s not as bad as it seems…”

Hannah shrugged. “Seems like you’re a player, Ash. Just like I said. But hey, I’m not mad about that. That’s just you.”

Funny. She sounded mad as hell.

And just like Tanya, I could sense that there was no point in trying to reason with her until her fury had passed.

“At least tell me what’s going on,” I said, much softer now, much less urgent. I was trying to slip back into the persona of the cool, calm, and collected alpha male, but the reality was I didn’t like how thoroughly Hannah withdrew from me. Something was off there. Something I wanted to fix.

“Girl talk,” she snapped, withdrawing into the booth again before I could stop her. “Why don’t you see if you have any other jilted lovers hanging out around here, just waiting in the wings?”

I scrubbed my face with my palms. “I told you, Hannah, it’s not like that. Tanya just…” But she was already talking to Beth again, and in a language I couldn’t even begin to decipher. What was that? German? Latin?

I knocked again on the photo booth. Hard. “Either you come out here and talk to me, or I’m coming in there.”

“…
hou vol,
” Hannah said quietly—I was guessing to Beth—before she pulled the curtain back again and hissed distinctly at me, “Seriously? You won’t fit, you moose. You’ve got shoulders like a goddamn linebacker!”