The Wild Ones (The Wild Ones #1)(28)
Author: M. Leighton

We all laugh. Trick looks at me and rolls his eyes. “Don’t believe a word he says.”

“I’m not even playin’! I’ve got the acoustic in my trunk. Play something and see if panties don’t drop. Just not these panties,” he says, hugging Jenna playfully. “Hers, you can have.” He grins at me and winks.

Rusty really is an adorable guy. And pretty hot, too. Jenna has a good eye. His hair is a dark red and his eyes are bright blue. They pop in his face. He’s got a great physique and his grin is contagious. In my opinion, though, his best feature is his personality. Of course, I’m a little biased, though.

I look at Trick, who is watching me. A bit of a smile still lingers on his perfect lips. “Do you want to hear me play? I promise your panties are safe.”

All warnings instantly forgotten, I think to myself that I don’t want my panties to be safe from him. I want him to tear them off. With his teeth!

Just the thought of that makes me blush. His smile widens again. “You’re really gonna have to quit doing that.”

“That’s it. I’m getting my guitar. Maybe I can speed things along a little for you two.”

“Ignore him,” Trick says quickly.

The funny thing is, Trick seems more determined to keep me at arm’s length than I do. And that’s so backward! I should be the one reminding us both that I have a boyfriend. But I’m not. What’s worse is that I have no desire to remember.

I’m gonna have to do something about that. It’s so wrong!

Rusty comes back with his guitar. He takes it out of the case and hands it to Trick with a pick.

“Show ‘em what you got, Trick.” Rusty sits in one of the four chairs and pulls Jenna onto his lap. “I’m keeping this one close just in case it works on her, too.” He winks at Jenna and she giggles. She’s eating it up.

Trick takes a chair and I choose the one across from him. He puts the leather strap over his shoulder and settles the instrument across his body. He plucks the strings a few times to make sure it’s in tune, makes a couple of adjustments and then starts picking out notes.

My father is a fan of classic rock, so it doesn’t take long for me to recognize what he’s playing. He hums along at first, his voice adding depth to the acoustic sounds. And then he starts singing. I become every bit as mesmerized as Rusty promised I would.

The song is “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton. His voice is perfect for it—a little scratchy and gruff, hauntingly soft and sexy.

After the first few lines, he looks up at me, singing every word and playing every note as if I’m the only person in the room. His eyes never leave mine.

I barely notice when Jenna and Rusty get up and walk away. My only thought is Please don’t let him stop playing!

When he strums the last note, we sit and stare at each other in complete silence for what feels like a short forever. His lips are curved the tiniest bit, but there’s something so sad and melancholy about his expression, it gives me a pang somewhere around the vicinity of my heart. I can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking.

He doesn’t leave me wondering long.

“Tonight was a mistake.”

Of all the things I don’t expect to hear, that has to be way up near the top of the list. And I’m confused by it.

“Why? I think it seems like they’re getting along fine.”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it.”

I suppose I do. I just didn’t want to think that’s what he meant.

“Why? We’re not doing anything wrong.”

“You shouldn’t even be here. You have a boyfriend.”

I’m instantly irritated. And defensive. And hurt.

“Me? Well what about you? Who was that girl you were snuggled up to at Lucky’s the other night? She certainly didn’t look like just a friend!”

To my utter distress, I feel tears sting the backs of my eyes like pinpricks of humiliation.

Trick laughs, a short bitter kind of laugh that almost says “ha!”

“She was…heh, she was not nearly enough. That’s who she was.”

“Not nearly enough for what?”

Trick’s eyes burn holes into mine. I think at first he’s not going to answer me. And when he does, I almost wish he hadn’t.

“Not nearly enough to make me stop thinking about you.”

I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t know what to say to any of it, partly because it’s true. I do have a boyfriend and I shouldn’t be here.

But I want to be. More than I want to be anywhere else.

As if on cue, as if he somehow picked the very worst (or very best) time in the history of the world to call, my phone rings. I dig it out of my pocket and see Brent’s face dominating the lighted screen.

I look at Trick. He looks at me. Now I know why his smile seemed sad and bitter.

“Go,” he says, tipping his head toward the house.

Not knowing what to say or what to do, I get up and walk away, clicking the talk button as I go.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX – Trick

I feel like shit. I never would’ve thought it would be that hard to watch Cami walk away like she did. But it was. God, it was!

I sat there for at least ten minutes after she left, just to make sure she wasn’t coming back. When it became obvious she wasn’t, I left Rusty’s guitar on one of the chairs and headed for Sooty’s hidden stash of “painkiller”. His tastes are limited and all I could find was bourbon, but it did the trick. All I wanted it to do was drown Cami from my thoughts and I knew any form of alcohol could accomplish that if I drank enough of it.

In the last year, it seems the thing I was constantly trying to drown out was my bitterness at having to leave school to work at a thankless job. That and anger at my father for leaving us the way he did. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get over that.

But the last few times I’ve sought solace in the bottom of a bottle has been because of a red-headed devil that seems bound and determined to torture me.

The bad thing about bourbon, at least for me, is that the hangover is absolute hell. All morning, my head has suffered with every thump of the horses, every bright ray of sunshine and every plaguing thought of Cami.

I hear a familiar voice and look up the small hill at the main house. It irritates me that I hope to see Cami walking toward the stable and that I’m disappointed when I see she’s not.

You’ll never learn, will you?

Instead, she’s walking around the pool. She’s wearing a bikini, but her bottom half is wrapped in some sort of skirt-type thing. Of course, she looks edible in it. She looks edible in everything.