Stay Vertical (The Bare Bones MC #2)(31)

“Where am I going to wear this, though?” Emma and I were sitting at an outdoor bistro sipping wine and eating flatbread. It never failed to amaze me what had become popular while I was gone. Kale was the new leafy green. Everything was flatbread this, flatbread that, although it was just pizza. I was wearing the leathers because I couldn’t resist it, but I really didn’t know where I could go with them. “Not to any interviews, that’s for sure. Most engineering companies are traditional as hell, and I’ll probably have to get a job in Flag.”

“Wear them to Lytton’s,” suggested Emma.

She was just irritating me now. “I told you. He doesn’t want to see me. Doesn’t want to have anything to do with Ford, and I guess I remind him of Ford.”

Emma pouted. “But he wants you. And he’s hot.” Emma had stuck around the Cottonwood area after high school, winding up doing admin for the P & E City Hall, so she knew exactly who I was talking about when I told her the story of Ford’s half-brother busting down the doors at the Citadel. “If you’re going to stick around here and hang out with me, I want you to have a hot boyfriend.”

Emma’s boyfriend Paul was an inspector for the Public Works Department. I was actually hoping to get a job with that department. Paul was not hot. He was the sort of little old lady who counted the yogurts in the crisper drawer yet made sure never to eat the last bite of anything to avoid having to walk three feet to put the empty container in the trash. I guess he made a good building inspector, being such an anal retentive, but he sure wasn’t hot.

“I want me to have a hot boyfriend too, Emma.” I stretched with my arms over my head just to sashay the fringes around. “I really feel different in this ensemble. I do feel like a whole new person. Now if I could just start living a whole new life. Look what I gave up.”

Emma wrinkled her nose. “A hole in the ground in Africa?”

She referred to our toilet. Or maybe to the shower. I made a face. “I mean my entire existence, Emma. You wouldn’t believe what a culture shock it is coming back where all the cars zip around and everything is flashy and shiny. Loud, I’m used to. Africans are loud. But I’m not used to the order, the cleanliness, the—”

“Sanitation? Look, June. You think you were just having culture shock when you jumped that hottie’s bones. I don’t think so. I think you were really going for what you wanted for the first time in your life! Being in Africa has changed you, sure. It’s made you bolder, more daring.”

“More brutal,” I muttered, swallowing the last of the wine.

“I think you should just drive back up to Lytton’s house and demand some more pot. And some more nookie.”

“Nookie? Emma, where have you lived the past ten years? Africa?”

“You’re changing the subject. Just drive on up there, get the lay of the land. He’ll let you in.”

“Yeah, so I can run into the whores he’s got lying all around there. No, thanks. I’m not that desperate.” But I was. “There are plenty of pieces of smoking man candy hanging around Ford and Maddy’s house.”

“Don’t they all have old ladies?”

I thought. “Well. Yes, I think so. Turk doesn’t, but I think he hates me for running off with the guy who wanted to take over his business.”

Emma giggled. “You slut.”

“There’s a new guy, a Wild Man, but he does nothing for me. I’m telling you, Emma. I’ve never been as attracted to a man as I am to that half-breed. He’s just sucking up all my thoughts.”

“Among other things. Listen, you have to see this through. If you don’t confront Lytton again, you’re always going to wonder. Did he just blow you off because he was full of hatred for his brother, and he associated you with him? I’m sure it was nothing personal. I’m sure he’d love to see you again, June.”

“Yeah. So I can pass out on his bed again, make him sleep on his own couch.” That’s what had happened, because his associates Tobiah, Helium Head and Crybaby took up the other three bedrooms.

But Emma’s words of encouragement got to me. I wanted to run my tongue over that velvety tribal tat that draped over his shoulder. When he wore that white wifebeater, the stylized eagle ink looked like the top carving in a much taller totem pole, but I’d never seen him shirtless. I had to see him shirtless. I was bold enough to take Emma up on her dare. “But I suppose you’re right. Ingrid does need some more of that excellent pot.”

“And you know how she gets when she’s out of something she needs. Do it, June! Just take a nice drive up there. I’d say I’d come with you, but I don’t think you want me hanging around.”

“No, I do not.” I was gaining confidence. What was the worst that could happen? Lytton would ignore me. Okay, something worse could happen. I could walk in on him receiving a hella blowjob from one of those sluts whose faces looked like a box of melted crayons. Yes, that would be worse. He would glance at me as though I were a flattened worm on the sidewalk, and he’d go back to f*cking that whore’s mouth with his long, juicy cock, and—

“So you’re doing it?”

“I’m doing it. And I’m going to kill you if this turns out badly.”

“I wouldn’t blame you.”