Chapter 5 Carmen #3
I take a sip of gin again. “I don’t understand. If you want a girl, why not head out onto the Strip and find one the normal way?”
Skipper gets there before Vex. “Things here can get complicated. You have to understand, the world of Venom Vultures is a dangerous world to be in, especially for outsiders. At the auction, we have a deal. We have one night with a girl if we bid high enough, and then we go our separate ways…” Skipper’s eyes trail over my half-naked body.
Why am I getting the urge to cut the straps and flash them?
The thought alone sends a burning heat between my legs.
A vibrator couldn’t give me this.
Men might suck ass and disappear as soon as they have what they want, but that doesn’t mean I’m not sexually attracted.
All of a sudden, I find myself reunited with my best and last one-night stand, wet through my sequin panties in a motorcycle club one random Friday night.
Waiting on the other side of sex is millions of dollars.
Why does this sound too good to be true?
Skipper’s ocean-blue eyes feel like they’re scoring through my skull. I rip my eyes away from his face before I become completely hypnotized, and focus on something else—a faded compass tattoo on Carter’s arm.
Before I have time to ask him what it means, I catch him staring at me.
The last time I met Carter Trescott, he didn’t have tattoos. I saw him naked. And he had zero.
Now, he has many. They’re scattered all the way up his arm, designs disappearing under his clothes. I look away, afraid that I’m gonna start picturing him naked.
The problem with me is that I always seem to go for the bad ones. The hot, emotionally unavailable men who are always too in love with their looks.
“What kinda trouble are you in?” Carter asks.
“Excuse me?”
“Maybe we can help.”
If he wants to pry into my life, he can do a Google search.
If he still uses the internet. I don’t see any computers here.
I take another sip of gin and wonder why Carter decided to sell his business. Lots of things aren’t adding up at the moment. It’s why I should probably get my ass out of here. Now.
Except, there’s no voice inside me telling me I need to do a runner.
I sip the gin again, each sip even more delicious than the last. The men in front of me are becoming harder to resist too.
“You should be proud of what you did up there,” Carter says suddenly.
Proud? Is he kidding? I was running around on stage half-naked like a woman possessed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Most women are too scared to fight when they realize what they walked into. Though, even if you had been fully clothed, your actions still wouldn’t have made a difference.”
I note the beer in Carter’s giant hands and wonder if his words are being influenced by alcohol. “I don’t understand.”
“Somebody still would’ve picked you.”
I toss him another questioning look.
“Beautiful women aren’t beautiful just because they’re half-naked. They’re beautiful period, no matter what they wear.”
The alcohol has definitely reached Carter’s head. Self-made millionaires like Carter Trescott don’t toss words around like “beautiful” for fun.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“I know we barely know each other, but I had to get you out of there.”
His grave face says it all. Maybe Serena was only touching on the surface earlier when she was telling me about Conrad.
“What happens if you’re bought by an O’Neill?” I ask.
Skipper downs the rest of his drink. “It’s best not to talk about that.”
Carter lifts his eyebrows, a pensive look on his face. “How did you hear about the auction?”
“Conrad approached me in a parking lot.”
“And you…agreed to attend?”
Carter can continue looking at me like I’m brain-dead, but what other fucking choice did I have? He should be grateful that I’m doing this for his son.
The one he doesn’t even know exists.
“Do you wanna talk about how I ended up at the auction, or do you wanna talk about our arrangement?”
I survey each of them, trying to keep my heart rate at bay.
It’s impossible.
“Arrangement?” Carter seems surprised.
“Come on, we might as well forget the small talk. We all know why I’m here.”
Carter’s face turns hard again, jaw clenched into a beautiful right angle.
“I think we should be more direct with one another and say what it is we all want. Let’s start with you.” I eye all three of them. “I’m here because you want to fuck me.”
“No.”
Carter couldn’t have said that any faster, even if he tried.
I sit forward and fold my arms over my chest. I’d be offended if he wasn’t such a fucking sleaze. “No?”
Vex and Skipper also side with me. Skipper says, “What’s the big deal, man? You slept with her once. You can do it again.”
Carter sighs. “You two can have some fun of your own. I want nothing to do with this.”
I’ve experienced some wild things in my life. My chest sinking at Carter refusing to sleep with me is one of them.
I wish I knew the reason why.
“I’m not opening that can of worms again” is all he says before sulking off to the bar.
I watch him go and wonder if the man really has come to his senses.
But then I see him smile at another woman in passing and shove that thought aside.
“What’s up with him?” I ask.
Vex’s response is vague. “I don’t know. It’s been a tough year.”
“Tough how?”
Vex flashes Skipper a look and moves on. “If Carter doesn’t want to join us in the bedroom, that’s his own loss.” He reaches out and offers me his hand.
I accept immediately, desperate to feel his skin against mine.
Skipper grabs my other free hand before I can take another sip of gin. “You don’t need that.”
“I do when I haven’t had a drink for three years.”
Saying that aloud makes me realize that maybe Skipper is right. I chose to be sober three years ago for a reason—I wanted to do what my own mother couldn’t bring herself to do, for the sake of her own child.
I put my days of drinking and hooking up behind me as soon as I realized I was pregnant with Otis, but now I find myself slipping right back into that lifestyle. If I drink too much, I not only risk going back to my old ways. I also risk oversharing.
And these men don’t need to know I have Otis.
I let go of their hands and walk over to the bar to get rid of my glass. When I return, I wrap my arms around Vex. Next thing I know, I’m planting a kiss to the side of his neck.
He stiffens. “Right now? Here?”
“Does that bother you? You were all planning to fuck me collectively anyway. What difference does it make?”
“The difference”—Vex swings around—“is that we have a code. Tonight, you’re ours, not everybody else’s.”
“What about tomorrow?”
It was supposed to be a lighthearted joke, but the two bikers are looking at me like I’ve said something scandalous.
Don’t they like to share?
I shrug. “Just kidding.”
Vex yanks me into his lap and captures my mouth in a hungry kiss.
The kiss is heated, his tongue brushing against mine. In the heat of the moment, I find myself inching closer, my legs widening to straddle his waist. Already, I feel something hard pressing into my thigh.
And just when I thought my pulse couldn’t get any faster…
Another hand enters the action, pulling back my hair with just the right amount of pressure for it to feel pleasurable. It’s Skipper, and he’s peppering kisses along my neck, way too slow and sensual. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a guy taking his time like this before.
Carter and I were over in twenty minutes, but it would appear that his friends like to play slow.
I’m seconds away from ripping off this lingerie when I’m scooped up and thrown over a shoulder. With my head forward, I don’t see much of the clubhouse, but I do catch the incredible bulge popping out of Vex’s pants.
My heartbeat increases even more.
It didn’t used to be this exciting, back when I was twenty-one, following strangers home multiple nights a week. Something about this is different.
Maybe it’s because I’m about to participate in my first ever groupie.
Maybe it’s because both men are smoking hot.
I’m so wet it could be used to solve a drought.
By the time we make it to a room, I don’t know left from right. My body hits a mattress, and I look up to see Vex’s enormous figure handling me, his hands everywhere, gliding up and down my skin.
Skipper joins and mutters something I can’t quite understand because of the Australian accent.
I’m getting impatient. “Are you gonna take off my clothes, or should I?”
“Not so fast,” Vex says. “We’re in no rush.”
“Really?” I prop myself up on the mattress with my elbows. “Then tell me, how long do you plan on being in this state for?” I make a point of staring at his crotch. “It looks uncomfortable.”
“I like a challenge.”
“I don’t.” Skipper tugs on my lingerie strings. Material sheds away from parts of my anatomy I’ve been dying to free since I first set my eyes on them.
The only way this could be made better is if Carter decided to join us. But two is still better than one. I’ve only ever been with one guy at a time, and I’m way too excited to waste time caring about that man when he obviously still gives no shits about me.
“Fuck,” Skipper says as he and Vex stand back and admire my naked body for a moment.
“I know it’s a lot of money, but I’d pay more,” Vex says.
I grab a breast and tease it, meeting Vex’s eyes. “Still wanna take things slow?”
He tenses his jaw, his eyes black.
I see now why he doesn’t want this to be over so fast—it’s a fucking lot of money. They want it to be worth it.
But I’m no hooker. I’m just a woman who became a mother and lost her sex life.
I crawl down the mattress and lock lips with Skipper, our mouths colliding in a hot, fervent mess. It’s sloppy and messy—everything I didn’t realize I fucking needed.
He breaks the kiss and returns to his favorite body part of mine.
But he doesn’t stay at my neck long, journeying down the length of it until he reaches my collarbone. After trailing a few kisses over the area, he progresses to where I need him most.
My nipples.