Slade stops in the doorway and spanks my ass. “Promise?”
“Promise,” I say as he puts me down. He stabilizes me on my feet and I leave my hands on his chest a moment longer than necessary. “There’s just one tiny little catch.”
His eyes narrow as he steps into me. “And what’s that?”
A wide grin takes over and I feel my cheeks squishing up into my eyes. “I get to take your truck for a joyride first.”
He shakes his head. “No. No fucking way.”
I shrug a shoulder and let out a heavy sigh. “And here I was thinking that you wanted to make it up to me.”
“Fuck,” he groans as Damian laughs. “If you fucking break her…”
“What? You’ll spank me?”
“I’ll do more than fucking spank you.”
“Oh,” Damian cuts in, still laughing. “I’ll spank you if he won’t.”
Slade shoots a sharp glare at his best friend and two minutes later, I’m sitting in the driver’s seat, sliding the chair all the way forward and starting this beast up.
After quickly realizing that Slade’s Dodge RAM is way too much car for me to handle, I bring it to a stop outside the public basketball courts and laugh as Slade lets out a breath of relief. Damian digs around in the backseat and finds a ball and before I know it, we’re making our way across the park.
There are still a few people here but being 6 pm on a Saturday evening, most of the families have left to organize dinner, leaving behind all the teenagers who are getting ready to spend their night fucking around.
I get myself set up at the park bench that Maze and I had smoked at while listening to the familiar sounds of the boys running up and down the court with the ball.
I get distracted by their movements and after watching Slade dunk the ball, inspiration hits and I start sketching.
I’m just about done my outline when voices have my head snapping up from my work. Night has fallen so all I see are shadows moving but as they get closer, I recognize Roman Westbrock’s nasty tone and instantly find myself on my feet.
There are four of them there and they’re coming at Damian and Slade as though they’re ready to cause trouble. The boys are instantly ready and for some reason, I’m not surprised.
The muscles in Slade’s arms ripple as the basketball is forgotten and rolls off toward the opposite end of the court. I race forward.
I push myself in front of Slade, not understanding why I feel so damn protective of these two morons. My presence surprises Roman and he comes to an immediate stop. “Well, if it isn’t my girl,” he smiles wide, forcing a low growl out of Slade. “You haven’t been returning my texts.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demand, passing over his comments as he’s lying. I haven’t gotten one text from him since that day he picked me up from school. This is all just a ploy to get under Slade’s skin and from the tension rolling off him in waves, it’s clearly working.
Roman scoffs and looks over my shoulder at his arch nemesis. “Fucked over anyone’s sister lately?”
“I sure fucking have,” he says, his voice low and terrifying making me realize that the tone he always took with me was absolutely nothing. He wasn’t even trying with me, this right here, this is the real Slade Cruz that people fear, the one who could have grown men begging for mercy. It gives me chills yet I find it so damn sexy. “I moved on from your trashy one pretty fucking quick. She wasn’t worth sticking around for.”
Rage flashes in Roman’s eyes and I watch as his hands ball into fists. “I think you should walk away,” I tell him as a warning. I’ve never seen Slade and Damian in action before, but I’m sure as hell that the four of these losers don’t stand a chance. Judging by the solid rock of a man behind me compared to the guy in front who still seems so much like a boy, Slade and Damian will have these guys in tears within three seconds.
Roman’s eyes narrow on me, seeing the warning in my eyes and clearly thinking that I’m underestimating them. He steps toward me and I move back, not out of fear but purely because I don’t want to be anywhere near him.
I press my back up against Slade’s strong chest. His hand falls to my hip and any other time, I’d say he just wanted to touch me but this is more, this is Slade preparing to tear me out of the way for when shit inevitably goes south.
“I heard some rumors about you last night,” Roman says with an ugly darkness in his eyes, making it clear that he’s still salty about the fact that I refused to be his little inside man. “It seems you’re a real fucking horny slut. I should have fucked you when I had the chance.”