Takedown Teague (Caged #1)(31)

I offered her my hand and quickly made my way around the cage. I nudged past Gary, who winked at me as we went by, and I led Erin down the ramp to the locker room.

As soon as we were inside, I slipped the lock through the ring in the metal plate on the door, turned, and grabbed Erin by the waist. I lifted her easily and spun us both around before pressing her back against the door and covering her mouth with mine.

She pressed her hands against my stomach and then slipped them lower to the buttons of my jeans. I reached my hands inside the back of her shirt where I found and released the clasp of her bra. Our tongues tangled together in her mouth, and she moaned as she pressed her crotch up against mine.

She tasted like lipstick.

Her hair didn’t feel right. Too smooth. Too straight.

She didn’t smell right, either. The scent of chemically induced roses or whatever made my nose sting.

Her hand found its way inside my boxers.

Her mouth stopped moving.

“Everything okay?” she said quietly.

“Yeah,” I said quickly. “Fine…just, um…here—”

I shifted her a little, bringing her legs around my waist and grinding against her a bit.

Nothing.

“Maybe I’m a little drunk,” I shrugged.

“You’ve had two beers,” she reminded me.

I swallowed and then started kissing up the side of her neck. She wrapped her hands in my hair and tugged at it a bit.

I didn’t like it.

“Don’t,” I mumbled. I reached up behind my head and pulled her hand down to my shoulder instead.

She looked at me with disbelief in her eyes, and I slowly lowered her to the ground. I moved in to kiss her again, but she brought up her hand and placed it against the center of my chest, holding me off.

I remembered how another hand felt against my chest, and I liked that one better.

Erin let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Look, Liam, you are totally hot, but I’m not one to pursue a guy who obviously”—her eyes darted down and then back up again—“isn’t into me. So, let’s not make a big deal out of it, okay?”

“I just…I never…”

“Shush,” she said as she placed her cheap, plastic, fake nails across my lips. “If I had to guess, there’s someone else you would much rather have in here with you right now. I can deal with that. Maybe you need to deal with it yourself, hmm?”

With that, she reached behind her back to re-hook her bra, lifted the lock on the door, placed it in my palm, and left.

Taking a couple of steps backwards, I plopped myself down on the bench by the lockers and dropped my head into my hands. I had no f*cking clue what just happened. I had never, never had any issues with my cock standing straight and tall for any woman I had even the slightest interest in f*cking. Never, ever, ever, not even once.

Well, once now.

I leaned back against the cool metal for a moment, sighed disgustedly at myself, and then started buttoning up my pants. I dug my hands around in my hair while I wondered what the hell was wrong with me. Even strung out, I could still get it up. Couldn’t come most of the time, but performing was never an issue. Maybe Katie’s crazy was contagious or something.

With nothing better to do, I left early and hung around outside of Fin’s for an hour until Tria was done with her shift. She was pretty tired after hauling greasy food around for hours and didn’t have a lot to say on the way home.

If I really thought about it, I would have to admit that she’d been somewhat uncommunicative since we had the little heart to heart on her couch the other night, and I hoped I hadn’t pushed her too much. She didn’t seem like she was mad at me, more like she was introspective.

I was distracted myself, thinking about what Erin had said to me and wondering just how close to the truth she might have been. It made me wonder about the whole big brother thing and if I should maybe consider turning that around. I mean, we obviously weren’t related and had only known each other for about a month and a half. Considering she had a thing with a guy she actually grew up with, maybe she wouldn’t have an issue reconsidering the sibling status we had established.

Say that shit ten times fast.

We were halfway back, and I realized we hadn’t said two words to each other.

“Everything okay tonight?” I asked.

“Hmm?” Tria cocked her head to the side to look at me. “Oh, um…it was fine, I guess. Nothing very exciting.”

“No crazy diners tonight?”

“Not really,” she said. “There was one who sent his food back three times, but that’s not very exciting.”

“He didn’t like it?”

“Guess not.”

That was about the extent I was getting out of her for conversation, and it was starting to tick me off a little. This was my favorite part of the day, and she wasn’t at all cooperative about it. That, coupled with the generally shitty way my night had gone, was making me pretty pissy.

“What’s up with you?” I demanded.

“What?” she asked, startling slightly.

“Talk to me or something!” I was practically growling at the poor girl. I sounded ridiculous, and I didn’t care. “Tell me more about screwing around with your siblings or something.”

Yeah, that crossed a line.