Page 10 of Stone Cold Bad (Stone Brothers #1)

EIGHT

JADE

A fter a quick trip to the local pharmacy to replace the birth control pills that had been lost with the backpack, something I needed so that my periods wouldn’t go haywire, among other reasons, Colt drove me along the coastal highway.

There was something he’d wanted to show me.

Whatever it was it had him grinning like a little boy, which, for a man like him was completely inconsistent and adorable.

Jagged black rocks dotted most of the coastline, leaving only a few stretches of sand that could be used by people for fishing or surfing or whatever suited their fancy.

But for the most part, the beaches were inhabited by birds.

Farther out, the rocks were safe havens and rest stops for sea lions.

“You’ve lived here your whole life?” I asked.

“Yep. My dad was a fisherman.”

“So, you and your brothers are keeping up the family business?”

He nodded. “Something like that.” He reached forward and switched the music.

I remembered vaguely that as I’d climbed onboard their trawler the nets looked almost pristine, as if they’d hardly been used. From the look on his face, it was obvious this wasn’t a topic he wanted to discuss.

“Exactly where are you taking me?”

He turned off the highway and the truck jostled from side to side as we rolled along an unpaved road.

He pulled up in front of a run-down but cool little beach cottage.

Long, thin weeds covered the front yard, and they swayed in perfect unison in the ocean breeze.

There were tools and ladders piled on the splintery porch lining the entire front of the house.

There were patches of bald spots on the shingled roof.

Two of the crust covered multi-paned windows had been replaced by brand new ones, and some of the rotted wood siding had been replaced by unpainted, new wood.

I looked over at him. “Is it yours?”

“Yeah. It’ll probably take me until I’m ninety to get it fixed up, but I figure it’ll be a nice place to die by then.”

We climbed out of the car. The sun was beaming down on the cottage adding some sparkle to its heavily weathered facade. “It’s fantastic, Colt. It looks like you’re doing a great job fixing it up.”

We walked up the porch steps.

“Step over those two planks,” Colt said. “They’re loose.”

We stepped inside. The walls were covered in faded floral wallpaper that was slowly peeling away.

The wood floors creaked with age as we walked into the tiny front room.

There was a small pile of vintage, quaint-looking furniture piled in a corner of the space.

Someone, most likely Colt, had wrapped a few sheets around the pile to protect it.

“It belonged to this really cool old lady who always smelled like cinnamon and spoke with a Scottish accent. Everyone called her Noddy, but I’m not sure why.

She was a widow, and she lived out here alone.

Her family almost never came to see her.

I guess they were far away in Scotland or something.

” He walked over and picked up a plate from a box.

It was one of those old fashioned hand painted porcelain plates you’d seen in an antique shop.

Colt smiled weakly at the plate. “My brothers and I would come here sometimes.” His voice was low as if he was thinking back to that time.

“Whenever we needed to be away from my dad, we’d get on our bikes and ride over here.

Noddy always had oatmeal cookies on this plate.

Homemade ones too. None of that store-bought shit.

It was weird. She always had them fresh baked like she knew we were coming.

” He put the plate down. “She knew what it was like for us. Everyone knew, but Noddy was the only one who made a point of noticing. The rest of the town was scared to death of my dad, but she wasn’t.

Even reported him once to child services, but we just ended up in different foster homes.

As bad as we had it, it was still better when we were together.

” He looked around. “Never felt homesick in my life until Noddy died and they boarded up this place. After a long legal fight between her family members, it finally went on the market. By then, it had weathered away to this pile of wood, but I didn’t care. I’d saved up enough to buy it.”

“I’ll bet Noddy would be happy to know it ended up in your care.”

“Like to think so.” He led me back outside, and we sat on the porch steps. “What about you? How’d you end up with that prick?”

I rarely talked about my past, but there was something about the way those pale green eyes looked at me that made me want to spill my heart out.

“Never knew my mom. She left my dad when I was little. But he wasn’t really a dad.

” I rubbed my boot over the sand on the bottom step.

“He wasn’t abusive or anything like that.

He was just this other person living in the same apartment.

He rarely paid attention to what I was doing because he just didn’t care.

When I was sixteen, I walked past him with a backpack full of my things.

He never even looked up from the television.

I walked out the door and never went back.

Of course, the harsh reality of being homeless hit pretty fast. I met Ray at a burger stand.

He was handsome and charming and, most importantly, he could give me shelter and food.

And attention. All of a sudden I wasn’t just some invisible person walking around an apartment with a dad who refused to acknowledge my existence.

Ray showered me with that attention I craved.

For awhile, I was convinced I loved him.

Booze and drugs took away the few good traits he had. ”

Colt stood up and I followed.

“I’ve never run from Ray before,” I said, “but I’m pretty sure he’ll come looking for me.”

Colt took my hand and led me back to the truck. “Figured that much. And I’m looking forward as hell to that day,” he said darkly.

“No. The last thing I want is to cause trouble for you and your brothers. I’ll stick around here long enough to make some money and then I’ll move on. He’ll have a harder time finding me if I keep moving.”

He stopped when we got to the truck. He stepped closer.

My body was wedged between him and the truck.

I hadn’t realized how cool the ocean breeze was until his body heat surrounded me.

He reached up and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

“So you’re just going to keep moving from place to place to avoid that asshole? ”

“I think that’ll be best. I don’t want to cause you any trouble.”

There it was again, that slight smile that left a crease on the side of his mouth. “Darlin’ it’s too late. I’ve been in trouble since the second you used me as camouflage in that dark hallway.”

His hand moved down along my cheek and back to my breasts.

He slipped his hand under my shirt and smoothed his palm over the skin of my stomach and up to my naked breasts.

I took a deep breath and swayed backward against the truck.

His eyes turned that silvery gray color, that glossy shade that always seemed to appear when he was touching me, which he was doing now with every bit the same mastery as the night before.

I stood by helplessly, knowing I should be ducking away from his touch but unable to do so. I just didn’t have the willpower to deny him. He was that good.

“Colt.” His name came out on a ragged whisper.

“Shh, I know. I’m not going to try anything. I just want to touch you.” His fingers teased and pinched my nipples into tight buds. “Is this making your pussy wet, baby?” He continued to play with my nipples, and I pushed them harder against his touch.

“Yes,” I answered.

He shoved his thigh between my legs. A wide open jeep with music blaring from its speakers rolled off onto the unpaved road leading to the cottage.

A could of dust kicked up around it, but I could still see the two girls sitting in the front seat.

Colt still hadn’t pulled his hand from my shirt as they rolled over the long weeds and stopped in front of the house.

The girl in the passenger seat, an extremely pretty brunette dressed only in a tiny bikini, grabbed the top of the windshield and pulled herself to standing. She looked at me before turning her attention to Colt. Even then, he kept his hand under my shirt. I pulled out of his reach.

The driver turned down the music. “We thought we might find you here, Colt. Jen and I are headed to Cooper’s Cove for a swim and stuff . You should come.” She made it clear the invitation was just for Colt.

“Yeah? You know how much I like stuff . I might head over there in awhile.”

The girl made a point of sneering at me before sitting back down. The jeep spun around and rumbled off through the same cloud of dust.

“I’ve got to get home,” I said. “Amy is going to take me to talk to her boss, and you don’t want to miss your swim,” I said it briskly, as if it didn’t bother me in the slightest that he was going to the beach to do stuff with two pretty girls.

Of course, it did bother me, and I wanted to kick myself for that.

It wasn’t like I didn’t know exactly what kind of guy Colt was, a guy who took pride in fucking a lot of girls.

I needed to get that notion tucked firmly in my mind.

Just like Amy and I had talked about this morning, guys like the Stone brothers were not worth the headache .

. . or heartache, for that matter. And more heartache was the one damn thing I didn’t need.

I climbed into the truck and barely said a word the entire ride home.