Chapter 21
I Want to Break Free
As I lie on my bed, the song “I Want to Know What Love Is” plays in my ears while I paint my nails a pretty lavender color.
Every day I’m here, it feels as though life just gets more complicated.
At the clinic this afternoon, Ricky helped me out with the morning-after pill and the normal birth control pill from now on.
He has also slotted me in with one of the female doctors for next week to get my STD check done again.
Problem one solved. Problem two—the three men invading my head and my personal space—isn’t so easy to resolve.
How on earth did I get tangled up with the three of them so quickly?
My earphones being pulled off my head breaks me from my trance, and I glare over my shoulder at whoever the perpetrator is. Asher grins back at me, all dimples and cheeky as hell. What’s he doing here?
“Hey there, little princess, did you miss me?” He places the headphones up to his ear, pulling an unimpressed face as he listens to what song is blaring through.
“No,” I snip back, rolling from my stomach to sitting, snatching my headphones back.
He smirks, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Don’t lie. I brought you snacks and dessert.” He holds up the paper bag in his hands as if to prove it.
I tilt my head, assessing him. He looks more casual tonight in black jeans and a T-shirt, his inked arms on display in a way that makes him look even more fine than he does in a suit. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“Got the night off, just like you.” He grins back at me in a way that tells me it’s no coincidence.
“Shouldn’t you be off chasing after girls then?” I don’t know why I say it but knowing he’s a massive player has me a little jealous, and part of me wants to see it firsthand as a deterrent. A warning to stay the hell away from him.
He sits beside me on my bed, close enough that I can feel the warmth radiating from his body.
“The only girl I want to hang with is right here, and that is as strange for me as it is you.” He pulls a tub of vanilla ice cream out of the bag, followed by a bottle of whiskey.
“See, I have dessert.” Then he pulls out a couple of bags of popcorn and some M my favorites are eighties dance films.”
“Don’t tell Jagger you said the eighties is old. That’s his era.” He laughs like he thinks it’s hilarious, but he must not be much younger than Jagger. “And I don’t really care what we watch. I’m here for the company, not the movie.”
“So fucking smooth, asshole,” Cruz snips from his place in the doorway, looking the two of us over with interest. “Next you will be offering her a foot rub or a back massage just to entice her out of her room.”
“Are those things on offer, Ash?” I smirk at him all flirty, to rile Cruz up more than anything.
His grin widens. “I’ll give you anything you want if you come hang with us for the night.”
“Anything, hey?” I tap a finger to my lips as I think about it. There are so many things I want from this forbidden man that I’m sure my thoughts alone are a crime. But there is no way in hell I will voice them.
“Anything.” He wiggles his brows playfully, and I know his mind is more in the gutter than mine.
“A back rub sounds nice. I reckon every muscle in my body is sore after all those dance lessons this week.” I look between them. Cruz’s tick of annoyance that I’m flirting back with Ash is damn obvious. “The kicker will be, do I really want to eat whatever Jagger is making us?”
Cruz laughs at my comment. “Jagger might be an asshole, but he has talent in the kitchen.”
“Like anything he cooks is fucking gold. Trust us on that, princess.”
I glance between the two of them, not sure if they are bullshitting me or not.
But the faint waft of something tomato and garlicky tells me that what they are saying might just be true.
And that fascinates me more than Asher turning up here on his night off with treats. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“Does that mean you’re joining us?” Cruz grins, way too happy about it.
“I guess I have nothing better to do.” I sigh heavily, slumping back against my pillows.
Asher’s eyes narrow as he looks at Cruz. “What did you guys do to her today? She’s all Sloane-like.”
Cruz’s lips form a thin line. “Maybe you should ask Sloane about what she said to her when they were on their little girly shopping trip. She has hardly talked to either of us since.”
I toss one of the fluffy cushions on the bed in his direction. “Or you should ask Jagger and Cruz what they might have done to contribute to my mood toward them? Take some responsibility for your actions, Cruz,” I snip back at him. How dare he blame the new tension between us on his sister.
Asher stands and gets up in Cruz’s face. “Bro, what did you do?”
“Don’t act like you didn’t know about it. We just booked her a doctor’s appointment down at Ricky’s clinic, and now she’s got her panties in a twist with us for overstepping boundaries or some shit.”
I sit up taller, my hands flying to my hips. “Asher. You knew about it as well?”
He shrugs his shoulders, but his eyes betray a sense of remorse. “Sorry, little princess, just trying to look out for you.”
I stand in a rush. They have ruined any chance of me relaxing tonight.
“What the hell? Did you all have some Stryker brothers’ clubhouse meeting about me?
Let me see how it might have gone. We all want to screw her, so let’s make sure she’s on birth control?
Yeah, you were all looking out for me and not your dicks.
” I pull my headphones back on, anger coursing through me.
How stupid do they think I am? I know their types, they have been thinking about nothing but sex since they met me.
Asher comes to stand in front of me, getting in my way so I can’t miss him, then Cruz joins him, his arms crossed over his chest, both of them blocking my way so I can’t leave my room. Not sure where I was going anyway, but away from them was the plan.
“What?” I snap back, shoving my headphones off.
Cruz cracks his neck in a way that makes him look like a total psycho. “What do you mean, we all want to screw you?”
Now it’s my turn to smile maliciously. I knew something they didn’t.
I huff out a sarcastic laugh. “Is big bro keeping secrets from you two? Here I was thinking you were all in this together, trying to set up an orgy or something.” I don’t know where the last part comes from—maybe my deep dark fantasies—but I can’t stop the words from slipping free.
And my imagination runs wild at the thought of all three of them at once.
Cruz’s hand comes to my chin, forcing me to look up so I’m staring deep into his eyes. “Don’t play games, darlin’. What do you know?”
I look over his shoulder to Asher. I’m almost one hundred percent sure I’m right about this, and if I play my cards right, I will have the truth tonight.
Sloane might not have been able to tell me, but I reckon Asher just might if I push him.
“Are you one of the managers at the club who can see what VIPs book out what private suites?”
Asher’s eyes narrow as a deep furrow forms on his forehead. “Yeah,” he says, his voice sounding uncertain.
I smile cheekily, just knowing this will work. “I spent the last two nights in room five. With some mystery guy… Wonder who he was.” I flick my hair over my shoulder as I say the last part, just because messing with these two is kind of fun. Especially after what they did to me today.
“You did what?” Cruz growls out, turning his full focus on me. I flinch at his tone. “You’re not going back to work at The Raven’s Nest. You promised me only dancing.” I can feel the anger vibrating off him. He’s scary like this, erratic and crazy.
But my attention is on Asher, who is madly searching his phone.
He clearly finds what he’s looking for, judging by the way his eyes rise to meet mine, all wide and furious, a look of confusion on his attractive face.
“What in the actual fuck, Jagger!” He storms past us and out of the room.
“You tell us to stay away from her so you can have her for yourself.”
Genius, Daisy. I return my attention back to Cruz. “Whoops.” But there is the confirmation I needed. Jagger really was the mystery man blowing my mind.
Cruz’s lips curl up at the sides; his smile is savage. “You’re in so much fucking trouble.” He takes a step closer to me, and I take another step back.
“Calm the fuck down, Ash, you’re just pissed because you need to get laid,” Jagger barks back at him. “Go down the club and find something to bury your dick in like normal. Problem solved.” He’s such an ass, because I’m sure that comment was for me as much as it was for Asher.
Even though Cruz is demanding my attention by the way he’s holding me, I tune into what the other two are saying, desperate to hear Ash’s response to his brother.
“I don’t want any other pussy, and you fucking know it,” he growls, angrier than I have ever heard him. That’s when I make out what sounds like a fist slamming into a kitchen cupboard.
I can’t help but jump at the loud bang. I guess I expected Cruz to be pissed, but not Asher. He’s so easy-going about everything else.