Page 1 of Diamond Desire

One Year Before Sapphire Met The Guys

The Diamond Grove convenience store was almost entirely empty as I pulled up to the litter covered, concrete parking lot, leaving a terribly singing Price in the passenger seat of my car so I could grab a few cases of shitty beer for later on. I wasn’t drinking, on account of racing tonight, but the others would, and we were all on a bit of a beer kick lately thanks to the summer being so damn warm and chilled out. It was kind of fun to relax after a long day of backbreaking manual labour with a cool beer or two, and it wasn’t like we had much else to do.

Like Price, who had taken up singing along to all the horrid early two thousands music he enjoyed listening to, as though he could even carry a tune. And yeah, I was all for people singing when they wanted to, just not around me. My head my pounding from the sounds of tools and general mechanic shop nonsense, and I needed a break of silence for a while.

I needed something other than the monotony of the day to day bullshit that started becoming a buzz in my brain that no amount of silence could fix.

With a hum of only mild boredom and tiredness, I strolled into the store, dirty white sneakers squeaking on the sticky patterned linoleum, and headed for the aisle I wanted. I’d been inside more times than I could count so was well aware of the location of the beer and could avoid having to traipse down every aisle, looking at the same products, like my mom did whenever I’d been forced into shopping with her.

But as I wandered down the middle I suddenly made a sharp turn when I remembered Price insisted I owed him a snack because I had stolen his precious sour sweets the night before. I wanted to pay my debt with a bar of chocolate or something for him to eat before he had a tantrum and stole something of mine back, which was a real possibility because he was a petty bitch when it came to his treats. And sure, I had no issues with sharing, but if I went to get something tasty and discovered Price had stolen it, I would have tried to fight him and I wasn’t entirely sure I could beat his ass.

I’d try, but fuck me, he was amachine.

With a too big yawn I turned the corner, eyes instantly being drawn to the left side when – even though it was wrong of me to perv and have such thoughts – I spotted a woman bent over scouring the shelves for something with hands down the best ass I had ever seen. She was thick and curvy; her body sculpted by her tight clothes. And the teenage boy part of my brain took over for a moment as I stared at her, on her hands and knees in such a way she was practically begging for someone to slap and fuck and all other filthy things that I would have done in a heartbeat if she so much as hinted at letting me.

It was a long shot. She would be out of my league. But I was all for giving it a try.

“Mother fucking bitch. Where are they?”She began swearing in Spanish, her dark tan hands shoving items out of her way as she desperately searched for something.

It wasn’t my business – it wasn’t my job to get involved to see what she was doing and if her face was as nice as the rest of her. But I had never been a mature adult who controlled his urges to do dumb shit. Usually I had the desire to be a dick, but right now I was fighting the need to be extra nice and I had no control over it.

I took a few steps toward her, clearing my throat. “Do you need help with something?”

The woman instantly stopped rooting through the products and got back up right, spinning around to face me. And just like that, all possibility of me walking out of the store and continuing my normal day vanished. Like a statue I was froze to the spot, unable to do a damn thing as I stared into a pair of scary, pretty, blue eyes that were the best thing about her perfectly done up face. I reckoned if she smiled at me, that would be even better, but so far, she was pouting and looked one wrong move away from losing her temper.

I fuckinglovedangry girls. Not in a bad way, like I wanted to end up in a shitty, toxic relationship. But I enjoyed women who had a temper just strong enough to make me work every day for the rest of our lives to make her happy. The sort of attitude that belonged to a woman who knew she was a thousand times better than me, and deserved everything in life, and refused to settle for less.

That was what I wanted. That spark of determination and intolerance to bullshit. And that was what I desperately hoped the stranger would give me as I tried to convince her to at least go on a single date with me. Before she moved on to better and brighter things than some low-level gangster idiot whose only use in life was knowing how to drive well.

Again, I wasn’t trying to be a creep. But she was easily the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and it was hard not to get a little star struck, even if it was entirely unlike me to do such a thing. Or even go for a woman that was wearing the most hideous bright pink wig – it looked like the colour of rainbows and sunshine and on any other person would not have been for me.

On her, it only made her even better, which was entirely ridiculous.

“I need chocolate.” She huffed with a sultry voice laced with a pretty accent that I instantly wanted to hear more of. “A specific brand that this store has seem to sell out.” She grinned at me, batting her long dark lashes. “Would you know if there are any in the back?”

Smirking, I moved closer to her, figuring honesty was the best policy, even if I would have happily robbed the place to give her what she wanted.

“I don’t work here. I just thought you were hot and wanted to be nice.”

She burst out laughing and though I wasn’t usually a simp, the sound of it made me want to offer to get on my knees for her and do anything she wanted just so she would do it again.

Fuck me, I was sounding like Price. I needed to get laid or something. That was probably what was wrong with me and why I was acting in such a ridiculous way.

“What’s your name?” I asked softly, trying to keep our conversation going as I stepped a little closer to her, enough that I could catch the scent of her delicious citrusy perfume and spot the excessive amount of diamond rings she wore. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

It wasn’t like I knew everyone in Diamond Grove, but you better have believed I would have remembered her.

She pursed her full lips, sizing me up with a look in her eye that made me shiver. “Why?”

“Again, you’re pretty.” I wasn’t trying to be gross, but seriously… holy shit.

“Yeah, I am, aren’t I?” she snickered, the caution in her stare dissipating a little. “You can call me Diamond if you want to. Who are you?”

I didn’t know why, but the way she hesitated on the name told me she was lying and though I couldn’t figure out why someone would lie about their name, I teased her about it, anyway.

“Is that your real name, Diamond?” My body moved closer again, unable to stop wanting to be in her orbit. “You can call me James.”

It was my middle name so hardly that much of a lie and if she was telling tales, then why couldn’t I? Games were always fun, especially the ones I wanted to play with her.