Keep It Sexy (KIS Series Book 3) Read online

  Letting go of the bar, I jumped down and made my way to a bench where I kept my water bottle and towel. I wiped off my face as two girls walked by, eyeing my chest. I winked at them just as my music was interrupted by a call. My attention was now on the government owned number displayed on the screen of my phone. I knew exactly who it was. Exhaling, I dropped down to sit on the bench with my elbows on my knees. I answered the phone call.

  “Yeah?”

  “This is the operator with a collection call from Roman Rodriguez. To accept the charges—” I pressed one, cutting off the operator. Soon enough, his deep raspy voice boomed through.

  “I’m surprised you accepted,” he said.

  “Yeah, me too. What do you need, Rome. I already gave Mom money.”

  “Damn, man, can’t I just catch up with my lil’ brother before I get released?”

  “It’s a parole hearing, Rome. You don’t know if you’re getting released, man. But, whatever, what did you want to catch up on?”

  Roman grunted. “Same old impatient Christian, always wanting things on his terms.”

  My jaw clenched as I looked up to the mirror, seeing my irritated expression in the glass.

  “All right then, I’ll get right to the point,” he continued. “I know you’re busy with your little bar. Imma need you when I get out. I have some friends I need to see.”

  I shook my head. “You’re joking, right?”

  “No, little bro, I’m not joking. I’m starting to feel like you’ve forgotten where you’re from, and how you were able to get that little business of yours running.”

  “Yeah, on my own, that’s how. Don’t call me for shit like that, Rome, and then attempt to threaten me. A lot has changed since you went in, big brother. Don’t fucking mistake me for one of your prison bitches again, Roman.” I hung up, knowing if we continued this conversation I’d only make things worse. I stood, pulling my shoulders back in an attempt to release the stress which had collected there in the last two minutes. I flinched when my phone rang in my ear again. But this time I smiled at the caller, my anger instantly evaporating.

  “Hey, Billie.” I was happier than I liked to admit from her unexpected call. I had a great time last night at her small get-together. She seemed to be reserved around everyone else except Jade, Pete, and me. And as much of a live wire as she was at work, when she was in a small setting, she became reclusive.

  After we got back to Jade’s from the excursion to the abandoned house, the others barely noticed we were gone. It wasn’t until Billie had a few more beers in her system when she said something jokingly to Jade about getting flowers from some guy that things got a little tense between them. But by the end of the night, they were acting like nothing was wrong.

  I had examined Billie from afar as she talked to some of the bar regulars who showed up. She was expressive with her hands. When someone spoke to her, her attention was solely on that person, regardless of what the conversation was about. Billie never pretended to be something she wasn’t. She wasn’t trying to find herself because she already knew who she was. She was a breath of fresh air, and she was different. And every time she smiled, even though I didn’t know what she was smiling about, I’d catch myself mirroring her reaction. I left that night wanting more from a woman than I had in a long, long time.

  “Hi, Chris…umm, I’m so sorry, but I have to call off tonight. I came outside this morning…” Her voice cracked just a little, but I wasn’t sure. “To check the numbers on my tires, you know, because I needed to buy new ones and I wasn’t sure on the size. Anyway…my tires were slashed…” She sucked in a breath. My heart fell for her. She loved that bike, and instantly I went into protection mode. “And I don’t want to ask Jade and Pete to take me to work. Jade’s off today and Pete took her to see the new baby elephants at the zoo…and they’re spending the night at a hotel…” She inhaled heavily. Even though I was sad for her, her rambling was fucking adorable.

  “Did you take a breath at all during all that?”

  “Shut up,” she grumbled quietly. I could picture her covering her face with her hand, trying to hide her smile even though she was down.

  “I’ll pick you up. We’ll go to work together.”

  “No, Christian, I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “I’m not taking no for answer, especially since your tires were slashed. I’ll worry about you. Please let me do this for you.”

  She stayed quiet for a beat before she sighed. “Fine, but don’t tell Jade, okay?”

  “Okay. I’ll be there soon.” I started to hang up, but then heard her squeak.

  “Wait, I don’t start until two. It’s too early.”

  “Didn’t you just say you were alone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And that your tires were slashed?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll be there soon. Don’t argue with me.” I hung up before she could argue with me. A few seconds later, she sent me a text message with an angry emoticon.

  You’re lucky you’re my boss. I don’t do well with men ordering me around.

  Jade’s house was fifteen minutes away from the gym. When I got there, I didn’t see Billie’s bike in the driveway. Worried, I hurried to the front door and rang the doorbell. She opened the door right away and relief flooded me. She stood in front of me with hair wet from the shower, her strawberry shampoo a bold scent around her. She wore a loose pale pink t-shirt and gray sweat pants that hugged her thighs and flared past her knees. I hoped it hugged her ass in the same way.

  “Why didn’t you text me to tell me you were here?” she said, opening the door wider to invite me inside.

  “Because I was raised to come to the door when you pick up a lady.” I tapped her nose before walking inside. I winced as I walked past her; I was rank, and I knew it. I’d worked out hard today and needed a shower desperately.

  “I’m sorry. Were you busy when I called?” She hurried to stand in front of me, studying my appearance. “Oh God, you were, weren’t you? That’s why you’re all sweating and disheveled. You were with someone. Oh, shit, I’m so, so, so sorry, Chris, I—”

  I put my finger on her lips to stop her from talking. And regretted it instantly. I felt my cock harden slightly as my finger pressed against the softness of her lips. Good going, Christian.

  “I was at the gym, silly girl. I wasn’t fucking anyone.”

  Billie sucked in a short tiny breath before her small fingers wrapped around mine and pulled my hand down. Her stare traveled from my arms up my chest, lingering on my exposed skin. I had left the gym in a hurry so I just threw my hoodie over my bare chest; it wasn’t zipped all the way up. She moved on and stared at my neck. Her eyes flared when my Adam’s apple bobbed under her inspection. I was burning up inside. She was creating a fever inside of me I wasn’t used to. Billie’s eyes flicked to my lips and then to my eyes and around my eyebrows. Fuck. I couldn’t stay put anymore. I stepped closer to her, but she stepped back and I chuckled.

  “Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” I whispered. Billie laughed nervously before stepping back some more.

  “But then you’ll break my phone with your ugly mug.” She winced with a small grin. I laughed.

  “That’s the best you got?”

  “Well, you’re distracting me…and you’re sweaty…and wearing sweats. I…oh God, I just said that out loud, didn’t I?” She covered her face and groaned. “I sound like an idiot. I sound like you.”

  I laughed. “Well, I’m glad you find me attractive.”

  Her head snapped up, and she dropped her hands from her face. “I never said I liked you, or that I find you attractive.”

  My eyebrow cocked. In a challenging gesture, I stepped closer to her.

  “You mean if I pressed you up against the wall right now and kissed you, you’d stop me?”

  Billie’s eyes widened. The expression on her face felt like a punch to my gut. She was disappointed. “You’d kiss me, and then what? We’d
have sex and I’d be another Hannah, right? Another girl to add to the collection. Wait, maybe I’m different? I’m special, but the uniqueness about me would expire and you’d get bored. So you would cheat on me and make no effort to hide it because you’d be too much of a pussy to end it.”

  She turned around in a hurry, and walked into the kitchen before heading down a flight of stairs. What the fuck just happened? I wasn’t sure, but I felt like a dick for playing around like that with her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Billie

  I’m such a spaz. I go from being flirty with him to biting off his head. But it was entirely his fault; I didn’t feel like myself around him. I felt like I was being unraveled and exposed in some way. I stormed out of the living room and basically ran down the stairs. I needed a moment to find my bearings and figure out whatever it was that just happened.

  “You know, I never know what you’re thinking,” he said. “I thought I was good at reading people, but with you…I never know. So do me a favor, Billie, and honestly tell me what’s going on in your head. Because it seemed like we were playing around. If I made you uncomfortable, I’m really sorry.”

  I hadn’t even heard him come down the stairs. I covered my face and mumbled into my hands, embarrassed.

  “Billie, I can’t hear you when you cover your face like that.” He chuckled, moving me so I was no longer facing him. He reached over to pull my hands down and wrapped his fingers around my wrists. I didn’t want him to let go and he wasn’t pulling away.

  “It was fine, I…I had an emotional moment, I guess.” Christen pulled me to sit on the bed. His thigh pressed against mine. Whether it was done intentionally or not, I wasn’t going to move.

  “I’m not gonna lie, Billie, I like you.” It sounded like it hurt for him to say it.

  “It’s my prickly personality, isn’t it?” I replied, trying to lighten the mood. Christian chuckled softly before turning his body to face me. I met his eyes just in time to see the regret and need inside of them. His stare turned my stomach upside down and all I wanted to do was climb on his lap.

  “Actually, it’s your voice…it does something to me.” He leaned in, placing his hand on the bed to stabilize himself. I could smell the warmth of his body and the faintness of his laundry detergent. I leaned in closer. “I feel like tearing the skin off my chest so I can breathe better around you.” His eyes flickered to mine, and I couldn’t see and hear his words without jumping him so I closed my eyes. “I want to kiss you so badly…but I won’t.” I felt a cold sharp stab on my chest, but kept my eyes closed. “We don’t really know each other, you have trust issues, and I’m not ready to take on something more than…what I’m used to.” I opened my eyes as he pressed his forehead against mine. “Okay? We good?” he asked. I inhaled, taking in a rather large breath.

  “Yeah, we’re good.”

  No, we’re not good. Just kiss me, damn it, fuck being an adult about this. I prayed he could see it in my eyes. But he didn’t.

  “And to make things clear, you could never be a Hannah.” With gentleness, he kissed my cheek.

  ***

  We were in his black gargantuan SUV, which he called Big Bertha. Christian asked how my dinner went with my family last night, and if I thought my brothers had anything to do with my tires being slashed. I told him I wasn’t sure. He could tell I wasn’t going to say much even if I knew who did it. Truly, I didn’t know who had done it, and I couldn’t figure out the reasoning behind why LCD would have.

  “Are you hungry?” Christian asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

  “A little,” I replied, looking out the window.

  “Great, because I’m starving.” The way he said it gave me the shivers, but I refused to look at him. He chuckled as he turned into a diner a couple of blocks away from Blush. Once he parked, we jumped out of Big Bertha and walked to the front door of the restaurant. Before reaching it, Christian planted his hands on my hips from behind and whispered in my ear.

  “They have the best pancakes here.”

  My eyes fluttered shut from his closeness, but strangely it also irked me. He was teasing me on purpose. I whipped around and pinched the skin on his chest, hoping I’d grasped his nipple. When he hissed and jerked away, I let go, feeling victorious.

  “Open the door, gentleman,” I said, waiting for him at the door with my hands crossed over my chest. Christian rubbed his pec with an amused frown and opened the door. As soon as we stepped inside, the hostess smiled hello before looking down to grab the menus. When she did, I felt a smack on my ass. With a gasp, my eyes widened to the size of bowling balls. Christian’s hand lingered on my behind before giving me a gentle squeeze.

  “You touched me, now I get to touch you,” he whispered against the back of my neck before gliding his hand across my ass. Just as the hostess snapped her attention to us, his touch was gone. No one was any wiser to the groping session that had just occurred.

  “Coming? Bil,” he said, showing off his damn dimples. He and the hostess waited on me. I narrowed my eyes at him as he moved aside, letting me step in front of him. Yeah, some gentleman.

  “You know you’re going to lose at whatever game you decided we’re playing,” I said once we were seated and reading our menus. Christian lowered his with one eyebrow lifted.

  “That I started?”

  “Yeah, you.”

  “I didn’t start this, you did.”

  “Um, wasn’t your hand all over my ass, not even five minutes ago?” I pointed at the front door with my thumb. Christian leaned forward.

  “Didn’t you eye-fuck me back at Jade’s house? Or was I imagining that? Oh, and didn’t you say I was distracting you with my sweat and—”

  “I don’t lose, Christian.” I cut him off, not needing the reminder of how ridiculous I sounded. “When it comes to games, I always win. It’s what I do.” I slowly moved closer to him. I parted my mouth slightly then glanced down at his lips with hooded eyes before my tongue darted. I drew it back in, along my bottom lip. When I noticed his breath became shallow I sat back in my chair and continued to read my menu. “I think I’ll get some pancakes.” He groaned a little before going back to his menu.

  “I think you may be the devil in disguise, chiquita.”

  “You know, I hate nicknames.” I glared, the corner of my lips threatening to curve up into a smile.

  “Billie’s a nickname, and that’s what you go as.”

  “No, Billie’s my name.”

  Christian lifted his head, tilting it to the side. “You forget I have your records. I know all your personal information, Syb—”

  “Say it and I’ll stab you with this butter knife.” I gritted my teeth.

  “Calm down there, feisty pants.” He wasn’t afraid of me; he chuckled, looking at me like I was crazy. I narrowed my eyes at him when he went back to reading his menu. Good-looking bastard.

  “Stop glaring at me and choose what you’re going to eat,” he said without looking up. I rolled my eyes and did what I was told. Bossy good-looking bastard.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Christian

  After loading up on some breakfast I took Billie back to my apartment to shower and relax before we went into work. She had asked if she might use my laptop so she could order some tires while I took a shower. Of course I said it was fine, and when I was done I purposefully came out of the bathroom with just a towel around my waist.

  “Hey, I have a hook up at a tire place if you want to check them out,” I said as I rounded the wall of the small hallway into the living room. Billie’s concentrated face looked up from the laptop. Her attentiveness instantly evaporated. I wasn’t sure what I was doing and why I started this little game with her. She wasn’t stupid and she knew that I got the ball rolling when I placed my hands on her hips outside of the diner. I couldn’t help myself, though. Since the night we both worked together and I had her body against mine when we danced, I was finding excuses to touch her. This game was going to ma
ke that a lot easier. Billie blinked, setting the laptop on the coffee table in front of her.

  “I should leave.” She grabbed her jacket and bag off the floor.

  That was not what I was expecting her to say. Shit. I rushed to get to her, forgetting I had to keep a grip around my towel. I threw my hands out to stop her and when I did, it fell to the floor.

  “No, Billie, I’m sorry—” I started to say when I felt the coldness hit my now uncovered area. Billie stopped dead in her tracks, frozen, like me. The only things that moved were her eyes. And boy did she get an eyeful. They started slowly from my chest and kept going down…until she sharply sucked in some air.

  “You’re…naked.”

  “Not on purpose,” I rushed to say as I covered my package with both hands. “Le…let me grab my towel.” I was stuttering, suddenly nervous and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like this was the first time I’d been naked in front of a woman, but it felt new in front of Billie. Abruptly, I turned around to grab the towel, which was a few feet away from me. Once it was wrapped around me securely, I turned back to her but couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I didn’t mean for my towel to fall. Honest.”

  “But you did intentionally come out here in it, right?”

  I watched her moving closer to me.

  “I thought you didn’t want this with me?” she said. Finally, I looked into her eyes.

  “I don’t, I do. Fuck, I don’t know, Billie.” I slumped down on the nearest armrest, tightening my hold on my towel. She stepped between my thighs and placed her cold hands on my shoulders. I hissed from her touch and how close she was to me. I shouldn’t have, but I gripped her hips and brought her closer. The air around us became palpable. Billie’s stare flicked to my lips and back up to my eyes. Her pink tongue darted out to wet her lips before she spoke.