Irresistible Rogue, page 12
Her cheeks had turned that screaming pink color that one fair night had meant she was thrilled about me and lately seemed to mean she wanted me dead.
“You never gave me the chance to decide if I wanted to sleep with my stepbrother!” she exploded quietly. “You took away my choice about it!”
Was that what she’d been telling herself for four years?
“Bullshit. You’re mad because you enjoyed it.”
She spun away. “Ugh.” She grabbed her hair in fists and squeezed, like it was either that or claw my eyes out.
I studied those fists. Her tight shoulders.
Her delicious, round ass.
Really, I could sympathize. I mean if that was really what she believed about me for four fucking years, then I really was the monster she seemed to have decided that I was.
I’d been accused of many things, and many of those things I’d been guilty of. I was no saint.
But I wasn’t that monster.
“My father’s name was Hunter. That’s what I was told.”
She turned around, but said nothing.
“No one seems to know who he really was. He’s a mystery. I just throw it out there sometimes when I don’t want to give out my real name.”
She stared at me. But she still didn’t say anything.
“So, I guess your rabid wolf and swamp troll theory is shot. Although… he could’ve been a wolf called Hunter. From what I hear, my mom really was a swamp troll.”
She regarded me in silence for a long moment.
“Self-deprecating humor will not win you points here,” she said. But at least she’d calmed down. She wasn’t shouting anymore.
Then she sat down on one of the lounge chairs, two over from me.
“That’s why your last name is different from theirs. Madrigal was her last name, right?” She spoke without looking at me.
“I think it was meant to be respectful. Like an ‘in case his mother ever comes back for him’ scenario.” She didn’t come back. The police could never find her, either, so maybe she changed her name. But by the time I was in high school and standing out in hockey, everyone knew me as Shane Madrigal. It was the name on the back of my jersey. Why change it at that point?
Making me an Ellis wouldn’t magically make me feel any more a part of this family.
Jolie ate a little bite of her berries and whipped cream, then kind of scowled like the idea of eating was making her sick. She stuck her spoon back into it and just sat there, holding it in her lap, perched at the foot of her lounge chair with her back to me.
“Tell me something. Why would I pretend I didn’t know who you were when I did, and then have sex with you just to upset you when you found out?”
“Because you don’t want this wedding to happen! Because you have something against my mom! Or your dad! Or the whole family, for all I know!”
Yeah. So, clearly she wasn’t giving up on her whole monster theory.
I sighed. “So, then… Fuck it. Let’s do it again.”
Her head whipped around to me. “What?”
“The damage is done, right? You’ve already fucked your stepbrother and enjoyed it.”
Her mouth fell open.
“You already have to live with the dirty secret. Your mom would already hate it if she found out, right?”
“What the fuck are you saying right now?” she whispered.
“Jacob would hate it, too. He’d hate it even more if we did it again. But either way, we can’t change that it already happened. They’ll already freak if they find out, right? So, why not just do it again?”
Jolie blinked at me, spluttering a little as she searched for words. “You’re not seriously trying to get in my pants right now.”
“Maybe I am.”
“Why?!?”
“Because doing shit that pisses off my family is a beloved pastime of mine,” I told her honestly.
And, honestly, the more I was around her the more I was convinced that fucking her again would be extremely enjoyable.
So why not.
She shook her head in slow-mo, utterly astonished. “You are straight up demented. ”
“You were happy to do something that pissed off your mom the first time I met you. Picking up a guy in a bar when you were supposed to be going to her engagement party…”
“That was before I knew the guy was going to be my stepbrother!”
I held her gaze, willing her to remember that night. Before she found out who I was… she had to remember how much she’d enjoyed it, right? It wasn’t easy to forget.
I’d fucking tried.
“Think about it,” I told her.
She stared back at me, a mess of responses fighting over her features. Revulsion. Disbelief.
Curiosity?
Memories…
Maybe she was thinking about it. Her cheeks were flaming pink again.
“You could really have a worse offer, Jolie.”
She shook her head in disbelief again. “Let me see. Your offer is to have sex with me to upset our parents?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“No. Straight up no. That’s twisted.”
I gave her a slow, twisted smile. “I don’t see a problem.”
“That’s because, as usual, you are the fucking problem, Shane.”
She got up, scooped a spoonful of whipped cream from her dish—and splatted it on my chest. Then she walked out.
Chapter Nine
Jolie
“You want me to fuck Shane Madrigal!?!”
My beautiful twin cousins, seated across from me in the limo, gave each other a look. There was Dani, the ruthlessly self-interested, contentedly single one and there was Danica, the kind, caring, happily married and generally much saner one who would hopefully save me right now.
Because the shit that just came out of Dani’s mouth was shocking, even for her.
After I’d decorated Shane with whipped cream and left him in the pool house this morning, I’d left my cousins lounging by the pool, angrily gobbled down my berry breakfast, then got the hell out of that house and went to kill time at a nearby café until Mom came to pick me up in one of Jacob’s many luxury cars with his driver.
We’d picked up Aunt Madeleine and drove up to Whistler for the final walk-through of the wedding venue. Mom had harassed the staff with questions and we’d given them our final guest headcount—which I had to fudge slightly, since I still didn’t have Shane’s RSVP.
We’d then had lunch and headed back to town, mission accomplished.
However, as soon as they’d dropped me off at Dani’s apartment, where I was supposed to meet up with my cousins to go for dinner, I found out that the guys were throwing a bachelor party for Jacob tonight.
Because apparently after Shane had emerged from the pool house to find my beautiful cousins lounging by the pool, he’d sat his ass down to chat with them and told them so.
And I basically flipped out that the ladies weren’t throwing a bachelorette party for my mom, and that I hadn’t even thought of organizing one.
According to her maid of honor, Aunt Mireille, whom I’d then gotten on the phone, Mom didn’t want one.
So, I promptly hired a limo and rallied my twin cousins into it.
We were now on our way to pick up Mom and her sisters and take them out on the town, because no way was Jacob getting a bachelor party and Mom wasn’t getting a bachelorette. What year was this anyway?
Now that Dani and Danica and I were alone for the first time since this morning and they also had champagne in hand, they’d promptly demanded to know what the deal was with me and Shane in the pool house today. And since I didn’t want their dirty minds to go all jumping to the wrong conclusions—especially Dani’s; hers was extra dirty—I’d told them about the disgusting “offer” Shane had made me.
“You should definitely fuck him,” Dani repeated, confirming that I had actually heard her right.
I gaped in shock and looked to Danica for help.
“Don’t listen to her,” Danica said easily. “You should definitely not fuck him. You shouldn’t ‘fuck’ anyone. Not until you’re in a loving, committed—”
“Oh, stop,” Dani interjected. “She’s not seventeen anymore, Danica. Our little baby cousin has grown up. She should fuck whoever she wants to. And Shane Madrigal is dirty and hot and single, and he made the first move. What more do you need? Just go for it.”
“I’m… but…” I stuttered.
“He’s got a hot body,” Dani informed us, as if we hadn’t noticed that this morning, when we saw him in his underwear. “I saw him in a wet swimsuit at Margot and Jacob’s one time and he’s definitely packing some heat.”
“That’s not really helping,” Danica said.
“Are you referring to his dick?!” I demanded.
“Yes, Jolie,” Dani said calmly. “I’m referring to his dick.”
“Our parents are getting married! We’re like… step siblings!”
“Don’t make it sound so pervy. You’re both adults. It’s not wrong.”
“It’s not right, either.”
“Would you or would you not fuck him if he rolled up to you when you were horny and alone one night, and no one saw you together, and he said, ‘Jolie, let’s fuck’?”
I promptly started to sweat. “Pour me a champagne, please.”
Dani started happily pouring me a glass.
After almost hurling and then falling on my ass last night in front of Shane and his “date” and my boob popping out, and then my bed spinning for half the night while I heard their laughter and those ass slapping sounds in my head, I never would’ve thought I’d want to drink again. But go figure. Here I was.
Lady Gaga, “Summerboy,” was playing, because that was literally one of a few musical artists Danica and Dani could actually agree on. And the song was just supporting Dani’s argument for her, as she thrust the champagne at me and I took a tentative sip. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do when you went away for the summer: just enjoy a summer fling? Screw some hot guy and just leave it at that?
Not when he’s your stepbrother.
And a bonafide swamp troll.
“See,” said Dani, when I still didn’t answer her question. “Told you so. You’re only fighting it because you don’t want to give it up to him.”
“Uh, yeah. That’s exactly why a woman says no.”
“I’m not talking about your pussy. I’m talking about your power. You don’t want to say yes to Shane because you loathe him for embarrassing you—”
“That’s not—”
“You asked for my advice.” Did I? “So hear me out. Shane hurt your feelings. You can admit it or not but all three of us sitting here know it.” She gave Danica an accusing look.
Danica just shook her head.
“You think he’s nasty and mean,” Dani pressed on when Danica didn’t jump in to support her argument, “because he kissed you just to try to embarrass you when you found out who he was. He played you. You were kinda feeling him—hence the kiss—so it wounded you a little. And you don’t want to say yes now and let him win.”
“So then she shouldn’t say yes,” Danica said firmly.
“Why would I want to give him any power or let him win or let him get laid—just to try to upset our parents, by the way—if I don’t even like him?”
“It’s not about him. You need to get that out of your head.” Dani sipped her champagne and stared at me like that was crystal clear.
“Then what the hell is it about?”
“You, obviously.”
“Uh-huh. And him. Doing sex stuff.”
“Exactly. You need to stop waiting on your elusive unicorn to appear in a cloud of glitter and just get some D.”
I gasped. “How dare you bring my unicorn into this!”
Dani rolled her eyes. “Yes. An invisible man who may or may not exist. Let’s wait around to fuck him while our pussy grows cobwebs.”
“Do not. Ridicule. The unicorn,” I warned her, because that shit was sacrosanct with me.
She knew this.
I mean, I was a girl who grew up without a father. My deadbeat dad and his general lack of giving any fucks about me had basically ensured that I’d created a happily-ever-after fantasy for myself about men from a young age. Because I needed it for my own mental well-being.
As a result, I’d devised a sacred ranking system for men.
Swamp trolls were at the bottom, obviously. In fact, that was a new, bottom feeder sub category I’d invented for Shane Madrigal himself. Above that were snakes and pigs. And it went all the way up to much nicer things like sexy wolfish strangers who prowled you at the bar, and up, and up… All the way to the top, where the glorious, rare as hell unicorn reined supreme: that majestic man that any girl, if she was so lucky, might stumble upon at some point in her life. And, you know, live the dream.
“Danica found her unicorn, and you know it,” I reminded her. “And then she found another one. She got two unicorns. So let’s not diss the perfect system.”
“The ‘perfect system’ that will have you living celibate and alone,” Dani said, “still dreaming of some nonexistent hero, while you pass up all your chances for pleasure and your neglected coochie dries up.”
“That is so sad,” I breathed.
“But true. Here’s the deal. Shane’s an MMA fighter, right? He’s strong. Let him fuck that pussy until you see stars. Do it for you.”
I looked helplessly at Danica. “I don’t know how she can detach like that. Like, just think of the sexual act in terms of the pleasure you get and not care about the rest. How do you do that?”
“I don’t,” Danica said.
“It would drive me crazy not knowing what he’s thinking.”
“Who cares what he’s thinking?” Dani said. “I told you, it’s not about him.”
“Of course it’s about him. He gets laid. He sees me naked and stuff. And that shit is forever, Dani. After that, he gets to see me naked anytime he wants… in his memory… until the end of time.” I swallowed. This was sounding way too familiar. “He gets to know how I looked and how I sounded, how I tasted and smelled and all the things, and he gets to lord it over me if he wants to…” Yup. Been there.
“Oh my god,” Dani said. “I just got it. You’re afraid you will see stars and it will be amazing, physically, and he’ll know you love it and you can’t stand that.”
“Uh, yeah!? Like who would want that?”
“You’re focusing on the wrong things.”
I blinked at Danica. “I don’t get her.”
“I know, sweetie. No one does.”
I took a breath, and a sip of my champagne. I wanted out of this conversation. And yet I was grotesquely intrigued by what Dani was saying. I didn’t like lying to my cousins or omitting the truth. But there was no way I was going to admit that I already fucked him. It was embarrassing enough confessing it to my best friend and making her swear to take it to her grave.
I wished Alyssa was here right now. I really needed her to help me out on this. Or maybe change the subject or something. But she was working this evening.
“I’m telling you,” Dani pressed on. “Let him pound that pussy. Make him go down on you first before he gets it. Tell him he has to make you come like five times before he gets to. Bleed him dry for everything you want before he gets his.”
Oh my God. And now she just described it.
That was like, literally what happened that night.
However… it happened because he made it happen. Not because I made him do it.
“And how would I do that?!”
Dani looked at Danica. “Is she kidding?”
“She’s not. She wasn’t born a succubus. We don’t all have an innate talent for bleeding men dry.”
Dani shrugged like that was our loss. “Then let me spell it out for you, Jolie. You have power. It’s between your legs. You may not think so and he may not let you know it, but if he thinks he can have it, he’ll do almost anything you want to get it. And the second you two are alone together and it’s on, and he gets hard, you have control. Take what you want. If he’s a good boy, then he gets to come. And he’ll fucking worship you for it.”
“Huh??”
“Men love a woman who knows what she wants in bed. Confidence. It’s more potent than Viagra. Just ask Aunt Madeleine.”
I stared at my gorgeous, highly confident cousin. “Yeah, well, I don’t have that. I’ve had sex with like seven guys and most of them sucked. I’ve literally never had an orgasm on a man’s…” I lowered my voice, as if the driver could hear us through the closed partition, “on his dick.” Other than Shane’s. “I have a hard enough time getting off with a guy at all. And usually I only do because I shove my hand down there and take care of it myself.”
Dani looked horrified. “Really?”
“Yes. Really. I have no idea how to inspire a man to the kind of pussy pounding you’re talking about. Like, the kind where he fucks me so good I just can’t help coming. Is that really a thing?” I mean, it was. One night. With one guy.
I’d kinda convinced myself it must’ve been a fluke.
You know, to save my sanity.
“I don’t know,” Dani said dryly, “Danica, is it a thing?”
“Um. It’s a thing.”
“How often do Ash and Matt make you come?” Dani demanded, turning on her. “Like without you doing anything to make it happen? Don’t look at me like that. I’m asking for her.” Dani pointed at me.
Danica looked at me. Normally, she didn’t share much about her love life with Dani. She probably told me more details. But since I was such a pathetic mess right now, she admitted, “Often.”
“Like, are you coming on the regular?” Dani pressed. “Are we talking several times a week at least? Male-partner-prompted orgasms?”
“Yeah,” Danica said slowly, her pity for me evident as Dani turned back to me.
“So there you go. And you don’t need two hot rock stars in bed to get there either, believe me. I’ve had total strangers make me come like a fire hydrant exploding.”
“God,” I rasped.
