CALLIE (The Naughty Ones Book 1) (7 page)

“What? I like you. You’re hot and funny. That’s a combo with a punch.”

“Yeah? I think that sorta got lost in freaking translation when you not only bailed on me, but had your minion toss me out of the room before I even wiped the sleep from my eyes. You know what it’s like having to do the walk when you’re so hungover your eyes are pounding? Consider that coupled with the four hags I call sisters and you get a taste of what that morning was like for me.”

“Jesus,” he mutters, running a hand through his slightly long black hair and pinning me with eyes that shine with regret. “I don’t remember any of it. I woke up in my apartment with a hangover from hell and sex dick, Callie. Trust me, it scared the shit out of me, too. I didn’t know who I’d slept with, her name, or even where I’d been. All I had to go on was the vague memory of toffee-colored hair and the smell of honeysuckle.”

Dammit. Now how can I be mad at him when he probably almost dropped a ball thinking he’d banged some skank who could have given him a little going away gift, like herpes?

I feel myself soften a little and eye him dolefully.

“Fine. No hard feelings for what happened. I still hate you for the fat comment, though. What an ass.”

Can you really define what sheepish looks like when the man I question is also grinning like a loon?

“I’ll take it. Now let’s talk future goals. How do you feel about a spring wedding?”

Going with the Flow (Until You Crash Head-First Down a Waterfall)

Jack

The one thing I’ve always had in spades is confidence and determination. It’s gotten me where I am today and ensured that no matter what shit life throws at me, I can usually handle it without too much of a problem.

How I got where I am right now, though…

Let’s just say that for once in my life, I’m going to take the advice that my grampa Jack has given me. I’m going to just go with the freaking flow. I have no choice, so it’s not as if I’m happy about this shit, but you have a pregnant woman cleaning your clock to the tune of a black eye and a busted lip and you judge me then.

To say that Callie Landry was not happy about my views on the need for marriage and commitment is putting it mildly. I got out of that apartment by the skin of my teeth and just barely saved my balls from winding up around her neck.

And not in a good way, though now that I think about it, having my balls around her neck may not be a bad thing, if it means something else gets to be in her mouth.

That thought restarts the naughty daydreams I’ve been avoiding, and by the time I’ve run the gamut of getting my mouth between her legs and seeing if that honeysuckle scent originates from the source…

I’ve been hard for fucking days just thinking about how hot and tight she’ll be with all those hormones coursing through her.

“Jesus. Stop already, Jack. I’m about to eat here and you’re making sex noises at the table? People are starting to stare,” Freddie growls, taking another drink.

We’re at lunch, waiting on Woody to join us for a planning, storm-attack session that has to work before my parents snap their leashes and come raining down on both me and Callie.

Trust me, getting a phone call in the middle of the night from Gramps because some little gossip dropped the baby bomb on Mom was not pleasant, and knowing my crazy-ass family they’ll scare the poor woman away before I’ve had a chance to tag and bag that shit.

Knowing it was Callie under me in the vague dreams I’m still having only makes my dick harder. And knowing she’s now ripe with my seed and irrevocably joined to me has me wild with the need to not only mark my territory again, but mark her so any and all other swinging dicks will know exactly who she belongs to.

I’m a man and men mark their shit. As far as I’m concerned, she is mine and she made that call when she let me into her body without protection and allowed me to load her full of me.

Christ, there goes my dick again.

“Shut up, Cage. You aren’t any better yourself. Last I hear, you were on Luci and running hard. What gives?”

I really do not need one of my bonehead friends messing with one of the women Callie considers her sisters. She’ll blame that shit on me and be stink-eyeing me again. Right now I need sugar, not vinegar.

              “She’s got a wedding album, man. A fucking book the size of a sofa with the whole day planned out.”

“So?”

I see no problems there. If a guy can do a girl without making his needs and motivations clear, he can take the heat. I have never given a woman the idea that I want more, have always been very upfront and honest about my intentions. Till Callie.

We freaking belong together.

“So? Dude, I was thinking friends with benefits or a quick one, two maybe, but she’s got her eye on a ring.”

“Once again, so? Look, fuck face, the woman is a keeper and you knew that the moment you looked at her. Don’t go getting cold balls now just because you’re scared of a little commitment.”

What a dick. What I wouldn’t give to have my Callie breathing wedding bells down my neck right now. It galls me, clear to my egotistical soul, that for once in my life instead of fending off a woman and telling her the score, I’m scrambling to catch her while she flips me the bird.

Freddie’s throat bobs with a swallow and I watch him go pale just as Woody sidles over and falls into a chair, raising his hand for the server to bring him his usual midweek drink.

“What are we talking about, gents?”

Woody’s green eyes are curious as I sit back and grin at Freddie, giving him the floor. One thing we all know about Brentwood Jones is that he does not cotton to treating woman with anything less than awed adoration.

The man loves all females, of every shape, size, and race. While he’s not any less of a hound dog than the rest of us, he never, ever treats a woman without respect. I’ve met women he’s slept with and cut loose and each and every single one of them still coos over his ass and gushes with affection.

I think Woody has a superpower that he acquired from being raised by six older sisters and a lunatic parents.

Freddie pulls at his tie and loosens the top button of his shirt before leaning back and throwing Woody a pleading look.

“Luci, man. She’s gone all nuts on me. We were doing great a week into our…our acquaintance, and then all of a sudden she starts eyeing the prize, man.”

Woody’s drink arrives, along with the steak and potato I ordered earlier, and we all dig in before he desides to speak.

“One thing, Fred. You don’t hurt her. If you can’t take the heat, you tell her that it’s
you
who’s fucked up and walk. Don’t string her along and make her feel like she’s too blame for your shit. I like Luci and the rest of Callie’s girls. They’re good people.”

I took this one with me when I bearded the lion’s den and went to meet Elsa Landry and the other lunatics that make up Callie’s family. To say that Woody was right at home between all those women and the two queens who are her fathers is an understatement.

The fool had them fawning all over his ass in seconds flat while I was left to dodge Elsa’s cane and snide set-downs before she understood that I was in this for the win.

“I like her too, Wood, but I just started seeing her and…shit, she wants more.”

Freddie is not one for commitment. The man has huge trust issues that none of us quite understand, even after years of friendship, but he’s not a bad guy. A flirt and a dog, but harmless.

Most women understand who and what he is from the outset, but I saw Luci’s reaction to him in the kitchen weeks ago, and I knew she’d been hooked by the bad boy’s smile.

There isn’t a chance in hell that she will come out of this without getting hurt, and I hate that. I like Luci, too. She’s sweet and smart and she’s in my corner.

“Fine. Just stay away from her then. Now on to more important, pressing matters. Callie’s being a pain in the ass.”

Woody snorts and pushes his empty plate away as the server refreshes our drinks.

“Can you blame her? Dude, I would have nailed you in the nuts if I were her. The fact that you’re relatively unscathed thus far is a miracle.”

“It wasn’t my fault! I would never have allowed that shit to happen to her if I’d woken up beside her. Fuck, Wood, have you seen the woman? If I’d been there the morning after, I’d have tied her to the Goddamn bed and kept her there till she agreed to be mine.”

I know a good thing when I see it, hence my fucked-up attitude when I saw her and thought she was someone else’s.

“Jack, you’ve steadily insulted the woman since you ‘met’ and just about let her know each and every flaw she possesses. Call me stupid, but that did not scream
I want you
.”

“I get nervous around her!”

I turn into the least suave man on earth when I really want to impress a woman. Fucking A. It galls that I have zero game when it comes to her, but I just can’t seem to help myself. When I try to pay her a compliment, it’s like my brain goes nuts and what ends up coming out of my mouth is the exact opposite of what I meant to say.

Just yesterday I called her and wanted to tell her that I want her. What came out was more along the lines of “I always get what I want, even if it’s you.”

Jesus.

I got a screech and dial tone for that shit and another night of jacking off.

“Nervous? You?” Freddie laughs, his eyes round with mockery.

I have never been nervous or unsure of anything in my life. Call it the result of always being top dog and wanted by anyone who gets within my orbit.  Can’t help that shit. My parents gave me fantastic genes to work with and I happen to work hard for everything else.

Just not women. Or love.

Holy hell. Did I just say the
L
word?

              I realize what it is about her that’s got me hooked. She must be the first woman ever, besides my mother, who hasn’t fallen all over herself to snag me.

What has my balls drawing tight and tormenting my dick is her quiet disdain and lack of interest. Amazing.

“Shit. I need an in, guys. I need it now before she gets it into her head that I’m not worth the light of day,” I mutter, ignoring the smirks they throw at me.

“You’re already screwed then, man. Callie’s smart. I bet she already thinks you’re a dickwad.”

Go with the flow.

Fuck that. I think it may be time to dam the river and take back control.

***

Callie

“Stop it, Gruffy.”

I’m going to hell for the murderous thoughts I’m having about my gran right now and I know it. I don’t think even confession and a hundred Hail Marys will get my ass out of the fire when I start picturing my woolly-haired tormentor hanging by her toes from my third-floor apartment window.

              “No, you stop it. The boy is from good stock, you dunderheaded shrew. He made one mistake, the exact one you made, and he’s trying to make it up to you and all you can do is yell at the poor lamb.”

I hate them all as I shove on a pair of flats and try in vain to smooth down my dress where it keeps gathering around my butterball belly. God, I’m getting huge and it’s only the fifth freaking month of this travesty. If I hadn’t have seen the scans and had the doctor count toes, fingers, and heads, I would have thought the baby was a two-headed demon like his dad.

He’s growing fast, and the things that is doing to my body are not okay. “I will not get stretch marks,” I keep mumbling to myself.

The boobs aren’t doing great, either. My nipples have morphed from pretty pink to a shade I will not name. Son of a bitch.

              Now here I am, and I’m expecting the father of my baby and his whole clan for lunch and a day of getting to know each other.

This is what I have to look forward to for at least the next three to four hours. And things are already hard for me. He calls me and says the most horrible things that make me mad and laugh at the same time.

Yesterday’s nugget of pure gold was when he tried to tell me how sorry he is for being such a dick and how he’d really like to spend some time with me to get to know me. What came out was “I’m sorry, but you know, I need to know what to expect from your half of the gene pool. Just in case.”

I don’t think he even realized he was insulting my ancestry or me, really, but that’s what I heard. I slammed the phone down in his ear and laughed my ass off for the next ten minutes while Dot giggled and gave me a pouty face for poor Jackie.

              “Gruffy, I’m not trying to be unreasonable here, you know. I just need some time is all. And a plan. The man told me without so much as a please that we should get married.”

“So?”

              “Soooo, I don’t want to be just another responsibility, Gruffy. I want someone to look at me and want me for me, not because we both got bombed and messed up with protection. This baby is a gift, I freely admit that, but if I’d been smarter I would have kept it in my pants and thought about the consequences instead of getting into a place where the father of my baby is just doing his duty. Jack isn’t a bad guy.”

She laughs her fool head off and shakes her head.

“The boy is a bloody looker and the full package, but he’s shite with his mouth.”

I beg to differ.

“I’ve never seen a man so set on winning a woman while putting his foot so far into his mouth it tickles his bagpipes and yet I just adore that about him.”

Huh. Funnily enough, me too.

“So, lunch. What possessed you, Gruff? And don’t give me that shit about building bridges again. You’re full of shit if you think I don’t know you’re trying to matchmake.”

“Love, I never once said I wasn’t. Now haud yer weesht and let’s go to bloody church before those little creatures come a knocking. I fear for their lives every time they step foot in the Lord’s house.”

That’s a hoot and I’m giggling as I open the door and see Gruffy tense.

“Bloody ‘ell and Satan’s baws.”

“Hey, Gruffy!”

“Where ya going without your girls?”

“Oh did you see the new priest yet? Ginny from down the road texted me and apparently he’s ten kinds of fine ass. Oh give me some of that cracker and holy water,
Padre
,” Percy coos, turning my giggle into a fit of howling laughter.

Poor Gruffy looks ready to keel over as they each grab an elbow and Percy starts strategizing about turning a man of the cloth to the dark side. Demons.