Duke’s Daring Bookworm (Untamed Rascals #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

F rigid bitch . I didn’t know what hurt worse, those words or the cactus cosplaying as the tag in my dress. Many dates had hurled them at me. I should be numb to it by now.

I should just give up.

“Another.” I held up my empty glass and waved it toward the bartender as I groped at the back of my dress with my other hand, trying to move the tag digging into me.

The cherry martini tasted like Sunday afternoons with my mom spent watching sappy romance movies while eating ice cream. It felt like home and safety.

I needed that comfort now. Frankie, my roommate and self-appointed driver, was an hour away, I still hadn’t eaten, and that goddamn tag threatened to put me in a straitjacket. The bartender poured another drink. He didn’t talk this time.

Great.

I even drove the bartender away .

Don’t cry.

Tears leaked down my face anyway, ruining the make-up I spent an hour trying to get just right. I even watched several how-to videos trying to be better, prettier, maybe—I drank half the drink in front of me in one gulp to stop the tears.

“Lily?” a familiar masculine voice asked from the vicinity of the hostess stand.

“Duke!” I tried to stand and walk over to him, except I forgot about my heels. One hooked onto the foot rail and I toppled into the seat next to me.

“Whoa there,” Duke said from right next to me as he reached to help me sit up. He moved so fast. He must have flown over here from the hostess stand. Is that a billionaire superpower? Can they fly? I looked down at his shoes to make sure they hadn’t turned into rockets.

“No, Lily, my shoes aren’t rockets.” He laughed low and soft, the sound sliding along my skin and sinking into every part of me.

“Can you read minds?” I asked, in awe of his abilities.

“No, you asked that out loud. How much have you had to drink?” His hand gripped my waist, helping me stand, and warm tingles raced up and down my spine.

“Only three. Well, most of three. Some of three.” When did counting become so hard? “Definitely all of one and two. It tastes like ice cream sundaes with my mom. Do you remember those? They are so yummy. I want more.”

I turned around to finish my drink but went too fast and fell back against Duke’s chest. He reached around me and pushed the delightful red drink away from us while wrapping his arm around me and pulling me away from the bar.

“No more drinks for you, lightweight. Besides, I thought you didn’t even like alcohol.” We headed to the door, and I leaned against Duke’s side while he helped me walk. I’m not sure how he walked on the floor while it moved so much. Maybe the Marines taught him that particular skill.

“I like that alcohol, and besides, I wanted to look cool and collected after my date left in the middle of the meal. I told him I didn’t want to eat the salad he ordered for me, and then he yelled at me and said all women loved salads.

The jerk. The wait staff even said so. They said, ‘some men are complete assholes.’ Not you, though.

You’re only half an asshole some of the time.

And never at all to me.” I poked his nose and then tripped on a crack in the sidewalk.

Good thing Duke still had his arm around me.

“You’re the only one in the world that thinks that.” The valet did a double take when we walked up but took Duke’s ticket and ran off to get his car. I wondered which one he drove tonight.

“Oh shoot. I have to call Frankie and tell her that she can go watch the stars for aliens.” I fumbled around in my purse until I found my phone, but it slipped through my fingers like water. “Oops.”

“Here, lean against this pole. I’ll get your phone.” Duke laughed at me.

Instead of handing my phone back to me, he held it up to my face to unlock the phone and then called Frankie himself. I heard her laughing over the phone.

Duke slipped my phone into my purse when he finished and then helped me off the pole and into his orange Bronco, an almost exact replica of the one he inherited from his mom—and then drove into a wall when we were teenagers.

“It’s the pumpkin!” I exclaimed.

I named it this. The orange color made it easy. As his best friend, it was my duty to make sure he knew how ridiculous it looked.

“Where is my fairy godmother? Oh right, that’s you.” I bopped him on the nose again.

I used to worry that my teasing would be too much, and we wouldn’t be friends anymore. It was what always happened. I never knew the right things to say or do.

Not with Duke. Whenever I brought it up, he pulled me into a sideways hug, rubbed my hair, and said, ‘that’s never going to happen, Lil. You’re the only one that can tolerate me for more than twenty minutes.’

I knew that wasn’t true, he had his brothers from the Marines, but it made me feel a little better when he said it.

The world spun, but I felt good and boneless as Duke helped me into the pumpkin.

“I’m tired, Duke,” I said when he slid into his side of the Bronco. I turned to my side and curled up under my seat belt.

“Yes, well, you are very drunk and that is a side effect,” he said with a smile, his words melting between us like warm honey.

“No, I mean, I’m tired of dating. Men are stupid.”

“That we are.” He laughed, and he looked so handsome when he did. I reached out and placed my hand on his arm, just to feel him near me.

“He ordered for me when I went to the bathroom, and I couldn’t even get this ridiculous tag off, so it wasn’t even worth it. I didn’t want a stupid salad. I’m not a bird. I’m a human that wants chicken nuggets. Will you stop and get me some?”

“Already planning on it. You need something to soak up your drinks.” He pulled into my favorite chicken place a minute later, the smell of fry grease and sugar already wafting to us through the vents, making me salivate.

“You’re awesome.” He wouldn’t be a bad date. Maybe. He would let me eat whatever I wanted, at least.

He ordered the food, and the first chicken nugget tasted like manna from heaven. I moaned around the taste and licked the crumbs off my fingers. Duke choked on his stolen fry when I did, so I passed my drink over to him.

“Careful, you can’t choke and drive.”

“Eat your food.” He stole another fry from me and popped it into his mouth.

“Is this dress too slutty?” I asked after I had finished licking away the remnants of my last chicken nugget.

“What?”

“That’s what Chris said when he picked me up.

‘Isn’t that a bit slutty?’” I did my best Chris impression.

Duke didn’t laugh at it. “I thought it was pretty.” I ran my hand down the soft, stretchy purple fabric pulled tight across my hips.

I didn’t know much about these things, but I felt beautiful in it.

“Is too much of my boobs showing or something?”

He squeezed the steering wheel tight, and I worried my questions bothered him.

“No, Lily. You look amazing.” He sounded gruff when he said this, so I passed him my drink.

“If I asked you to beat him up, would you?”

“Yes.” He didn’t hesitate to answer, and warmth spread through me, knowing that he was on my side.

I giggled at the image of Chris’ fat head turning red as Duke held him in a headlock.

“What’s funny?”

“You would kick his ass so hard.” I took a long draw from my soft drink, the cool liquid sliding down me, waking my body up to its thirst.

“Say the word.” He smiled at me, and everything felt right.

“No, I’d rather forget him.”

“Alright, have I told you yet about the time the guys caught me with my pants down in the middle of a dust storm?”

“What? No. Tell me.” I latched onto this distraction he offered and let the rest of my worries fade away as he told me about how some new guy didn’t secure the top of the latrine, and it blew away with the sand.

“It wasn’t the first time the guys caught me pants-less. Thankfully, I had a good explanation for this one. Still, I got to be Mooney for a month before the next embarrassing thing happened and they let me off the hook.”

I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. Duke always made me laugh like it was his job to do so. I didn’t remember interviewing him for it, but he seemed to be a good fit.

“You’re good at everything, aren’t you?” I asked as he helped me out of the car.

“Just… so good.” I patted his chest and realized he wore his business suit without the tie and had too many buttons undone.

“Oh, no.” I ran my hand along the buttons of his shirt to make sure it was real.

“You were meeting a date there and now you’re stuck with me. ”

My hand slid up his shirt to the opening.

A tiny bit of the large tattoo he had on his chest peeked out, stark black against his tan skin.

I traced the visible lines of it. I knew what it looked like already.

He came home from one of his first tours with it and I had been so surprised that I made him let me inspect it up close to memorize the addition to his skin.

To those that didn’t know him, it seemed meaningless.

Wings sprouting from a rose, the lines falling over each other carelessly.

Just how he wanted people to see him—careless—but I saw his mom in it.

She grew some rare roses while she was still alive.

She didn’t allow anyone to touch them—they were so beautiful.

Duke’s hand came up and stopped mine, holding it still against his chest.

“I’m not done tracing your tattoo,” I protested, but he didn’t move his hand.

He frowned down at me, his gaze intense.

I wanted to trace the wrinkle between his brows and make the frown go away, but he shook his head and got rid of it himself before I even moved my hand. His features softened into a smile.

“I did have a date, but not one that can’t be canceled. I already messaged her to say something came up and I wouldn’t be able to make it.” His arm wrapped around my back, his hand still holding mine against his chest, rising and falling with his gentle breaths.