Rocking Kin (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series Book 3) (11 page)

I wanted to make Jace sweat that night, and I knew Harris would definitely be unable to hide how affected he was once he saw his ‘best friend’ all dressed up. It was slightly amusing to see how much Harris worshiped Lucy, yet how hard he tried to hide how much he really cared.

Guys were so stupid.

As soon as we reached the top of the stairs it seemed like we were surrounded by a horde of guys dressed in varying costumes. Lucy laughed as someone told her she looked hot and pushed her long, straightened hair back from her face. It was crazy that the chick didn’t understand just how beautiful she really was.

Slowly, we made our way toward the bar. We would leave a group of guys only to be surrounded again by a new group, each one a little more daring than the last. Marcus kept his distance, but I could almost feel his tension even from the ten feet that he kept between himself and Lucy.

There were five guys in the newest group who wanted to tell Lucy and me how hot we were. Again Lucy laughed at the compliment, and taking that as a sign that she was flirting with him and wanted more attention, one of the guys took a step closer to her.

“What’s your name, beautiful?” the guy to my left asked as he moved closer to me.

“Holly,” I told him with a smirk. There was no way I was telling this tool my real name. I gave him a tight smile before turning my attention back to Lucy. The guy who was now only a few inches from her was eyeing her chest like it was a Christmas present he was dying to unwrap.

I was about to say something to send the guy and his four friends packing, when Lucy’s new ‘friend’ suddenly paled and stepped back. Turning my head in the direction he’d just glanced in, I realized quickly why he had been ready to tuck his tail and run.

Seeing Harris, Lucy forgot all about the guys calling her ‘hot,’ and hugged him. All five guys silently disappeared and I couldn’t help but laugh at how easily one deadly glare from Harris Cutter had gotten rid of the wimps who had been trying to get into our pants.

“I’ve been looking for you,” Lucy told Harris as she stepped back and did a little twirl, showing off every detail of her costume. “You like?”

From the look in his aquamarine eyes I was pretty sure Harris was about to have an aneurism of his own at the sight of Lucy all dressed up. “How the fuck did you get out of the house in that, Lu?” he demanded. “Jesse Thornton is going to kill me dead if he finds out you’re dressed like that in my club.”

Lucy grinned and hugged him again. His arms tightened around her and I saw him close his eyes as he breathed her in. “Kin helped me sneak out. As far as Daddy knows I’m dressed like a nun.” She pulled back, still grinning up at him. “Please, can we sit down? I hate these damn boots. My feet are killing me.”

Harris looked relieved that she wanted to sit down. He took her hand and held on tight as he led us to a leather couch in a back corner. My excitement for the night drained when I saw Jace was already sitting there.

Great.

I knew I would have to deal with him that night, but I’d thought he would be off finding a hookup and I wouldn’t have to see too much of him. As we grew closer I saw Jace’s eyes narrow when they skimmed over me, and I felt each touch of his eyes like a physical caress.

Harris took his place on the couch and pulled Lucy down beside him. Reaching for the zipper of her boots and pulling them off, he pulled her feet onto his lap and started rubbing her arches. The first moan of pleasure that left Lucy’s lips nearly killed him. I saw the look that crossed his face and knew it was taking everything in the poor dude not to kiss her then and there.

I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t. Was he scared of messing up their friendship?

Or was he scared of Jesse Thornton?

Either were good reasons
not
to touch Lucy, especially when the latter could get the dude ugly dead. Still, I knew that if he wanted Lucy he needed to man up and just tell her or he was going to lose her. Lucy might not talk about how she felt for Harris, but she couldn’t hide it from a blind man—let alone me. If Harris cared, Lucy cared just as much if not more. I was pretty sure they were both in love with each other and, while I was happy for them, it was kind of like a kick to the chest to see them together and happy.

I’d had that once. I’d had a guy look at me like I was his everything, like I made it easier for him to fucking breathe. I’d had the soft touches and the whispers in my ear. I’d had the passion and the love.

And he’d walked away from me when I’d needed him most. Like it had been the easiest thing for him to do.

Sure, I understood why he’d done it. And sure, I agreed that he should have followed his dreams. I hadn’t wanted him to give them up for me. To have even asked him to do that would have been selfish and proved to him that I was too immature to take our relationship seriously.

I’d just wanted to mean a little more to him than anything else, and have him there to hold my hand when I buried my mother.

Now, I had to sit beside him on a leather couch like none of that had happened.

Yeah. Sure. I could do that.

Not.

Jace shifted and turned so his back was in the corner of the couch and he was half turned toward me. His left hand went along the back of the couch and I felt one of his fingers stroke over my hair. “I haven’t seen you in here much lately.”

“I had better things to do,” I lied and pulled my phone out of one of the side pockets of my cop utility belt. I brought up my messages, saw that I had missed a few from both Angie and Caleb and turned my full attention to returning them.

I was missing the twins like crazy. Talking to them and Carter every day was bittersweet. I needed to hear their voices, to share what was going on in their day-to-day lives, but it hurt every time I got off the phone with them. My entire body ached from the pain when I had to end a call. The goodbyes felt just as raw now as they had when I’d left them waving at me outside the airport as I’d gotten on the plane that had taken me three thousand miles away from them.

“I’ll have a ginger ale, please.”

My head shot up at Lucy’s voice and I realized a waitress was standing beside Harris. “Beer,” he told the girl.

“Right, boss, I’ll get it for you.” Her gaze went past me and straight to Jace. The look on her face told me that she had most likely been a hookup at some point.

Was she a regular?

Ugh. Stop it, Kin. You don’t care.

You aren’t supposed to care.

I fucking cared.

“Same, Wendy,” he told her without giving her a second glance.

Disappointment shadowed her eyes as she turned them on me, and then they grew cooler. “And you?”

I nearly rolled my eyes. Really? She was jealous of me? I wanted to laugh but just smirked instead. I figured smirking was safer than jumping up and scratching up her pretty face. Right? “I can get my own drink when I get thirsty, thanks.”

Lucy turned her head to me as the waitress walked away. “I thought you were thirsty?”

I shrugged. “From the frostbite I nearly got from Jace’s castoff, I’m pretty sure she would’ve spit in it. I’ll just take a drink of yours.”

Brown eyes widened. “If she did that, Harris would fire her on the spot.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m good for now.” I gave her a sassy wink that had her grin returning and I turned my attention back to my phone.

Jace shifted beside me, his fingers wrapping around a few strands of my hair that were on the back of the couch. “She isn’t a castoff,” he muttered.

I shrugged but didn’t look up from my phone, pretending like I didn’t care. “Sure she isn’t.”

“Kin, I swear on Kassa’s life, I don’t hook up with chicks that work at the club.”

I lifted my eyes then. Kassa was the most important person in Jace’s life. He would kill for her, so I knew that he wouldn’t swear on her life for a lie. “Okay,” I told him. “But she wants to be a castoff. Maybe you should take her up on the offer.”

“Maybe you should start returning my calls and texts,” he shot back, leaning closer. “I just want to talk, Kin.”

“I don’t think we have anything to talk about,” I assured him. “It’s all in the past now, anyway. I’ve moved on from it.” Lie. Such a huge lie. “I’m pretty sure you’ve already moved on, too. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself.”

His strong jaw clenched. “I don’t want to move on. I want you.”

My heart stuttered in my chest, but I forced my face to remain impassive. “You had me, Jace. Our story is already over, minus the happy-ever-after. I’m okay with that. Since you were the one who walked away without a backward glance, you should be okay with it too.”

The fingers he’d tangled in my hair tightened, tugging my head back ever so slightly so I was forced to meet his gaze head on. “I’ve looked back a million times, baby. Each and every day I’ve thought about you, hated myself for leaving you the way I did. Don’t think it was easy for me, Kin, because it sure as hell wasn’t.”

Lifting my hand, I pulled my hair free from his grasp and stood. “I’m thirsty after all,” I told Lucy. “I’ll be back.”

As soon as I was out of sight of the other three, I closed my eyes and sucked in a few deep breaths. He didn’t get to say things like that. That wasn’t fair. Jace St. Charles shouldn’t still have the power to slice me open with just a few words and leave me bleeding to death from the gaping wound. That he still could, that my heart was still racing after hearing words it had longed to hear for so damn long, only pissed me off.

I marched over to the bar. The place was overcrowded with a mixture of people in and out of costume. I pushed my way between a guy in a suit and some dude dressed like Dracula. I felt both of them eyeing me, but ignored them as Nate turned from handing over a beer to a sexy angel at the end of the bar.

There had been people waiting longer, but as soon as he saw me he set a glass of ginger ale in front of me. I wished it were a shot of tequila or Jameson, but I took the glass gratefully and took a thirsty swallow before reaching into one of my cop belt pockets and pulling out a tip for him. Nate knew I was with Lucy and he never made us pay for drinks. Harris probably would have lost his shit if the bartender did.

Nate took the five I offered, tossed it into the jar behind the bar that was already overflowing with tips, then turned back to face me. Leaning his arms on the bar-top, he let his eyes drift over me for a moment. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the way he looked at me. It was nice to have a guy look at me with that mixture of lust and appreciation, but without being all creepy about it.

If only Nate could make me feel half of what Jace did, I thought with a sigh as I leaned forward until there were only a few inches between us. “Hi,” I murmured. “Nice costume.”

He was dressed like a male stripper with just a pair of dress pants on and a bowtie around his neck. Which explained why his tip jar was overflowing even more than normal with large bills that would probably pay his rent for three months. Who wouldn’t willingly hand over a fifty or a hundred to see what Nate hid under his shirt? All those yummy muscles flexing as he moved around was enough to get anyone’s heart rate up.

He smirked. “Back at ya, babe.”

I blew out a frustrated breath and shook my head at the sexy bartender. “If only, Nate. If only.”

Nate winked. “Again, babe. Back at ya.” He tapped me on the nose with a long finger and then headed off to fill more orders.

I stood there, drinking my ginger ale until it was nearly half gone, continuing to ignore the two creeps I was standing between. I wasn’t interested, not even a little. I was off guys forever.

Nate refilled my glass before I returned to Lucy. Instead of sitting between her and Jace, I asked Marcus to pull a chair over for me and I ignored Jace for the rest of the night. By the time we left, I was exhausted from working so hard to ignore him, but Lucy was smiling so the night wasn’t a complete loss.

By the time I got back to my father’s house it was after midnight, but I wasn’t expecting anyone to be there. The house was dark as I made my way upstairs and pulled off my clothes before climbing under the covers. I should wash my face and brush my teeth, but I just wanted to stay under the blankets and hide.

My phone chimed with an incoming text and I reluctantly reached for it. The message was still lighting up the screen when I looked down at it.

Miss you!

I felt tears burn my eyes as I opened up the messenger and sent back a quick reply.
Miss you too, Ang. Love you.

I started to put the phone on my nightstand when it chimed again. Dashing my tears away with my fingertips, I glanced at it again.

I’m sorry.

More tears blurred my vision as I turned the phone off and put it into the top drawer of the nightstand without replying to Jace’s message. He was sorry. I got that. He’d told me plenty of times in his many messages and texts.

It didn’t make my hurt and the lingering pain any better. Why couldn’t he realize that?

Chapter 10

Jace

Kassa didn’t come out for Thanksgiving. It was something that had both me and Gray in a piss-poor mood. I’d been looking forward to seeing my little sister, but she had a bad stomach virus and couldn’t make the trip. Gray, who I was sure was looking forward to having my sister around just as much as I was—if not more—had gotten quiet during the week of Thanksgiving and hadn’t been himself during that entire time.

Between that and the scene I’d had with Lucy Thornton the week before at First Bass, I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. Didn’t want to see them. Didn’t want to so much as hear them fucking breathe.

Lucy hadn’t been happy with me when I’d started chatting up one of the loyal Tainted Knight groupies that we’d gotten from the first week we’d worked at First Bass. Honestly, I hadn’t been too happy with me either. Fucking hell, I’d just wanted a sign from Kin that she wasn’t turning into some damn robot.