Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(11)

“Just going to the mall,” he said without looking me in the eye.

“What for?”

Chase shrugged. “There’s an aquarium there I want to go see.”

“What are you talking about? There’s not an aquarium at the mall.”

“There is,” he insisted with a grin as he started backing away toward the exit. “There is an aquarium at the mall and I’m going there for research purposes.”

“Whatever,” I muttered. “Don’t get bitten by a shark.”

“I won’t. Not today. What are you getting up to? You working?”

I scratched my head. Chase and I often worked security for sporting events at the university. “I don’t know. What day is it?”

“Friday.”

“Then no. Tomorrow I’m supposed to work the first football game.”

Chase nodded. He jerked a thumb to the closed bedroom door. “Be nice to her, okay?”

“I’ll work on it.”

Once Chase was gone the apartment was unbearably silent. After hunting around in the kitchen for something to eat I found a loaf of bread that hadn’t turned green yet. I pushed a few pieces in the toaster. We were out of butter so I ate them plain.

Saylor hadn’t come out of her room. I stood in the hallway for a few minutes, wishing I knew what the hell to say to her. I liked Saylor. I really did. She was a sweet girl who had made my brother incredibly happy. We grew up in the same town for crying out loud and we should have had plenty to talk about.

Maybe that was my problem.

Talking wasn’t really my thing, especially when it came to women. There had been a number of them who had tried to fasten themselves to me on a more permanent basis but I was never interested. It wasn’t their fault. It just wasn’t the way I was built.

I sighed and backed into the living room. I wasn’t tired at all anymore. Actually I was wishing I was still in bed with Truly, doing something other than sleeping. My dick was instantly at attention as my mind recalled the sight of her in that black lacy underwear hiding under her dress. Fuck, she had just about killed me with that thing. I hadn’t been that close to coming right in my pants for years. She was definitely something special and I wasn’t going to be sorry about last night no matter how pissed Saylor decided to be about it. In fact, I’d be happy to give it another go if Truly could get over her obvious casual sex guilt.

If she did it once she’ll do it again.

That might be true. How many times had she come on my hand, around my dick and in my mouth? She’d loved every damn dirty minute.

Since I couldn’t go anywhere with those thoughts right now I breathed deep until the boner subsided. When I was in control again I spied my guitar in the corner behind the couch. I grabbed it and sank into the couch with a sigh. That thing had gotten me through more rough moments than I cared to count. I’d scored it at a pawn shop in Emblem the summer before my senior year of high school. I had never taken lessons but learned to tune it and play basic chords on my own. The boys had always begged me to do something with my voice but I couldn’t imagine getting up on a stage with lights shining on my head and a bunch of dickheads in the audience waiting for me to f*ck up.

As my fingers idled along the strings a wave of peace washed over me. Most of the time I walked around feeling wired and edgy, as if the smallest push would send me into darkness. When I drank too much it took over my whole head and all I could see was a face I’d do anything to forget. I didn’t think of him as my father. As far as I was concerned the three of us had never had a father. But in the moments when that cocksucker broke through anyway, grinning like a true villain, I had murder in me.

As I started playing I began singing the first song in my head. I lost myself in the music instead.

I’d forgotten there was anyone else even home until I let go of the last note. I looked up to see Saylor standing quietly nearby.

“Your namesake,” she said, smiling faintly.

I’d been singing Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Long as I Can See the Light’. I knew their whole catalog by heart.

I put the guitar down as Saylor came around and sat on the couch. She played with a piece of her hair and seemed to be thinking.

“Sorry about earlier,” I said.

“I know,” she answered. “And I shouldn’t get into your business. It’s just, I don’t have many friends. I like Truly. I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

“You think I’d hurt her?”

She looked at me frankly. “I’m not sure you can help it, Creed.”

“It was just one night, Saylor. That’s all it’s gonna be. If you have to know, she didn’t seem too eager to have me hanging around longer than necessary.”

Saylor coughed once. “I feel kind of bad. I’m the one who pushed her out the door and told her to have a good time.”

I leaned back into the couch. “She did. She had a great time.”

Say laughed through her nose. She looked at me for a long moment and then her gaze fell on the tattoo scripted across my chest. “You think that’ll ever change?”

I looked down. The tattoo read ‘Concedo nulli’. Translation: ‘Yield to no one’.

“Doubt it,” I answered honestly.

I heard a buzzing noise and Say pulled her phone out of her pocket. She glanced at the screen and then looked quickly at me. I could guess who was calling.