Chapter 5 #2
“You’ll break your teeth if you do that too often.” Shaking my head, I pour myself a coffee from the pot that Sabrina manages to always keep full and hot.
“Did I hear that beautiful mouth talking about breaking teeth?” And enter Grinder.
He stops dead in the entrance, the sound of an oof from Boner coming from behind him.
“What the fuck, man? Why’d you stop?” Boner walks around him and straight for the refrigerator.
“How could I not with my two favorite people in the same room?” Grinder bites his bottom lip, his eyes focusing on me, then the new girl, and back again, like he can’t decide who he wants to ogle first. Because that’s what it is.
Ogling. He undresses each of us with his lust-filled ice-blue eyes, and as much as I want to love the attention, I can’t.
He probably has another ten people waiting in the bar room that he wants to set up a fuck train with, and I am not about to be his first course of many.
“Is he trying to fuck you too?” The woman whispers loudly in my direction with a knowing grin. She isn’t trying to be conspicuous, more like making a point to Grinder that she sees him.
“Yup.” I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m pretty sure I like her. The fact that she clearly hasn’t been swayed by him yet puts her high in my book. He’s pretty hard to resist. I would know.
“Cool. So is any of that spotted dick up for grabs yet or is it for a special occasion?” She changes the subject quicker than Mac on one of her ramble sessions.
“My dick’s up for grabs, but it definitely isn’t spotted.” Grinder takes two of the bottles out of the bag beside the new girl, then swipes the bottle opener I was still holding. He passes one to Boner, who still has his head in the refrigerator and takes it without looking.
“Mac’s gonna kick both of your asses if you touch the food before…” Nope, I’m stopping right there. It’s still a secret.
“Before Sledge’s surprise birthday party?” Boner’s mumble is almost too quiet to know if I heard him right.
“How the fuck do you know?” Grinder looks affronted when Boner finally surfaces again, his mouth now full of cheese chunks. Yeah, his ass is getting fried because I know for a fact those are for the party.
“Mac told me at the race last night. How the fuck do you know? She told me it was a secret.”
“Mac told me before the race.” Grinder’s smug grin shouldn’t be so damn hot, but alas, it is.
“I’m just gonna butt in here, who’s Sledge? Is that like his road name thing? And his birthday is today?” The woman downs her beer before slamming it down and swinging her legs, her palms now cupping the edge of the counter. “Ooh, is the spotted dick his birthday cake? Is it his favorite?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?” I lean back against the cupboards behind me, cupping my mug of coffee in my hands.
The way she looks at me with a tight, awkward face, like a toddler that’s just been caught eating too much chocolate, makes me laugh and almost forget how close Grinder is standing to me now.
“Pah-kah, here, seems to have a lot of questions and no answers.” He leans in and sniffs my neck. I should move or shove him away, but the way my heart thuds makes that impossible. “You smell good today, like freshly baked cookies.”
He stands straight again and I clear my throat. “It’s the birthday cake Mac and I made.”
“Nah. That’s all you.” He leans in for another sniff. “Mmm. I would never get enough of eating you all up.”
“Why is that so hot?” Parker puffs out a breath of air.
“It’s the Grinder effect.” Mac chooses now to break the strange tension as she enters the kitchen with her hands full of more party decorations from the trunk of my car.
“Aleko and Bear are still looking for Sledge, but they have a lead. Gryffin is having a nap upstairs with Mom. Athena, Paxton, and Vanessa have made a start on blowing up balloons in the bar room, and Sabrina will be along with some of the Khunts in the next five minutes to get the food ready. So chop chop, mother truckers, we have a party to decorate.” If her hands weren’t full, I know she’d be clapping them to get us all moving.
“Yes, Mistress.” Grinder stands to attention and salutes.
“No, Grinder. Just no. Never say that to me again.” Mac glares at him and shakes her head. “If you’re lucky, my best friend might let you fuck him later. Now, out. Come on. Shoop shoop.”
“Baby, shoop shoop…”
“Baby, shoop shoop…”
Grinder and Parker burst into laughter after they both finish the song lyric Mac inadvertently began.
The glare my best friend gives Grinder to get his ass moving is one of her best. She’s become very mother hen to all of the brothers since Gryffin came along, and ensuring Sledge has a great birthday is her current top priority.
“Okay, okay. I’m coming…” With a dramatic flair only Grinder possesses, he pauses and takes his time looking me up and down.
I feel it from the very tips of my toes to the top of my head.
The electricity flying through the air makes my dick twitch, but my response is to lift my chin and give him a defiant, bored stare.
Then he moves his gaze over Parker and, surprisingly, I don’t feel the same kind of jealousy as when he’s with the Khunts or club hangarounds.
“Although I’d come a lot quicker with one of you two riding my dick.
Like a pubescent teenager, in fact.” He wags his brows and grins, his icy eyes, only made blue because of his long, dark lashes, narrowing into half-moons.
Sometimes I wish that my morals weren’t quite so high. I wish I could be the fuck and chuck guy, but apparently I’ve outgrown that stage of my life.
“Is he like that with everyone?” Parker’s new question comes once the other three have left the room.
I don’t need to think about the answer to that. “Yeah, mostly.” The intensity feels like it’s ramped up by a thousand notches when it’s aimed at me, though.
“This Sledge dude, does he have a family? Partner? Kids? And why doesn’t anyone seem concerned that he’s missing?
” Again with the topic switch. She’s fidgeting, too, always moving, her eyes darting around the room and taking it all in.
With my basic medical skills and mental health training, I’d go as far as saying Parker has ADHD.
“Why the interest in Sledge if you haven’t met him?”
“I don’t know why, but I feel like you won’t blab and I’m bursting to tell someone.” Jumping down from the counter, she sidles up close and tiptoes, motioning for me to bend so she can whisper into my ear.
The words that follow make me glad I’m here to witness how this is going to go down.
Someone is in for a surprise.