Bradford Brawler (Bradford Bastard 2)

Riley looks across at Tanner and the blank expression in his eyes makes me wonder if he’s been smoking something. “Do what?” he murmurs before raising his hand, a joint resting between his fingers, confirming my suspicions.

Arizona’s eyes bug out of her head, her midnight lake dancing coming to an immediate stop as she gapes back at Jax, looking all too uncomfortable, even more so when Jax starts stumbling over his words. “I, ummm, ahh …” he stands, cautiously looking at Arizona. “You’re in love with me?”

“It’s not my turn, Mr. I’m an open book, ask me anything.”

“Uhhhmmmmmmm.”

“THROW HIM IN THE LAKE,” Riley shouts.

Jax’s eyes bug out of his head as Riley barrels toward him, flying straight past Arizona and submerging both of them in the serene water, wicked laughter tearing out of Riley. He stands and faces the rest of us, giving an extravagant curtsey, and we applaud his efforts, all while Jax just sits in the lake, water rushing off him as he stares up at Arizona, never looking so confused in his life.

“Alright,” Arizona says. “Someone else go before this shit ruins my night.”

“Okay, I got one,” Tanner says, an odd amusement in his tone that makes my blood run cold. Everyone glances his way, but I keep my stare locked on the fire, feeling his heated gaze shifting to my face. What the hell could he possibly have to ask? “Brielle Ashford, truth or get thrown in the lake,” he starts, reminding me of the rules of the game. “I love every inch of your body, and when I say every inch, I mean every fucking inch—”

“Stop being gross. Just ask the question,” Addison calls out, shuffling even closer to Hudson.

Tanner smirks and his fingers gently brush over my skin. “I’ve been holding my tongue for a long time, not wanting to ask in case it’s something awful or just outright embarrassing, but you’ve got one very particular scar—”

I feel the blood drain from my face. “Oh, no.”

“On that sweet little meat curtain of yours.”

“Meat curtain?” I laugh.

“Meat curtain, hot box, the squeeze machine. Whatever you wanna call it, babe, but the question still stands, what the fuck happened? Every time I go down on you, I feel it on my tongue, and it just gets me thinking. Don’t get me wrong, it adds to the excitement and the mystery that is Brielle Ashford, but not knowing what happened to those pretty little lips of yours is killing me.”

My cheeks flame as Addison shakes her head and stands. “Nope. Tell me I didn’t just hear about your experience going down on your girlfriend?”

Tanner scoffs and a smirk stretches across his face. “If you’re not careful, I’ll be forced to tell you about the time I fucked her on my bike.”

“Well?” Ilaria says, reaching for another drink and cracking the top before leaning back and putting her feet up on Jax’s vacated seat. “Let’s hear it. What happened to the lady garden?”

I close my eyes and take a huge swig of my drink, feeling my cheeks flaming even hotter. “Hot wax,” I admit, feeling the embarrassment washing through me. “I tried it myself, slathered that shit everywhere, and when I tried to tear it off, half my lip came with it.”

“NOOOOOOOOO,” Chanel gasps, her hands dropping between her legs as though she can feel my pain. “What happened?”

“My brother heard me scream and barged in to find me spread eagle on the ground in pools of my own blood,” I admit, breaking my one solemn vow to never repeat this story. “He took me to the ER, and they had to heat up the wax with a hair dryer to get rid of it, then I ended up with something like thirteen stitches.”

“No fucking way,” Ilaria says, staring at me wide eyed. “Can I see?”

“You wanna see?” I laugh, certain she’s fucking with me.

“Me too,” Arizona calls out as Jax’s head perks up. “Wait, we get to see Brielle’s cooter?”

“No one is seeing my cooter,” I announce, though to be completely honest, if the girls wanted to see, I’m down with showing off my scar. But only if the guys aren’t around.

Addison clears her throat, looking as though she’s about to shit herself. “I have a confession,” she says, spitting the words out as though it’s some kind of race. All eyes turn toward her, brows arched with curiosity, waiting for her to go on. “I’ll spill my confession if we get to see the cooter.”

“What?” I rush out.

Addison shrugs her shoulders. “I’m curious. I wanna see what a torn-off lip looks like.”

“It was only half torn off, but okay. If it’s a good confession, I’ll show my cooter, but only to the girls.”

“What?” Tanner spits as Jax’s face falls.

“Let’s hear it,” I tell her.

Addison lets out a shaky breath before nervously glancing at Hudson who looks apprehensive, though clearly doesn’t know what the hell this is about. Not knowing where to look, Addison stares directly toward the campfire, her fingers fidgeting nervously. “Umm … so, the day I woke from my coma, there was about half an hour beforehand where I was semi-conscious and could hear what was going on around me.” Addison pauses as Hudson’s whole body stiffens, his stare awkwardly locking onto the fire as well.