CALLIE (The Naughty Ones Book 1) Read online

  According to Jack, he claimed me and put his mark on me. I wanted to snort and make a joke of it, but his stony face and those burning grey eyes very quickly convinced me that he was more than a little serious.

  “So? Body?”

  Hmm, what to reveal? It’s burning a hole in my tongue to tell them all about that piercing. Lord, the piercing.

  Oh who am I kidding? It was the man who worked that piercing and I know it. Such skill.

  “He’s got this big red-and-black dragon thing from his left shoulder where it meets his neck all the way across his pec. It’s so hot. I spent like ten minutes just licking it. Who knew a tattoo could be that hot?”

  “Me. I totally knew that,” Indie yells across the table, showing off her own tats with a smile.

  For a small blonde, she sure is mean looking and wickedly sexy with all that ink.

  “I hate you bitches so much right now,” Luci whines, dropping whatever it is she’s doing to stalk over and sulk across the counter. “I loooove Freddie. I mean, like, very much love the stupid ass and he’s not returning my calls. And here you are looking all fat and fucking sexy and you’re getting good sex and I love your eyes and I’m heartbroken,” she wails, making us all ooh and aaah in sympathy.

  She’s never been a committer, not even when we were little and her mom asked if she wanted a Ken doll for her Barbie. Luci’s reply was ultra-feminist and snide. “She don’t need no man to mess with her home and use her up like an old dishrag, Mommy. She’s an independent free spirit with too much life to live.”

  Now those may have been Gruffy’s words, mind you, but Luci has been that way since childhood to the point we all just despaired of her ever finding true love.

  So imagine our surprise when Indie showed up here one day with Luci’s dirty little secret. The Wedding Album.

  I thought she was going to expire from embarrassment when she caught us leafing through it and saw some of the seriously whack stuff she wants for her big day. I was shocked when I realized that hard, smack-talking, relationship-hopping Luci was just looking for her Mister Right all along and wouldn’t settle.

  Poor baby.

  “Aw, Luce, babe, you’ll find the one,” I croon, trying to comfort her.

  “He is the one! He’s the one. He’s the one,” she cries, slapping the counter so hard I see her handprint of sweat linger for a good four seconds before it fades away. “I knew it the moment I saw him and then we…we made love.”

  “Gross, Luce. Sex, it’s sex,” Indie yells, cracking up at her own words. Percy joins in.

  Idiots.

  “We made love. Sweet passionate love,” she screams.

  I can hear the waitstaff outside snickering as they clean the equipment but I ignore it as she starts sniffling again and shaking a finger at us all.

  “He is mine. I gave it all up to him and then he goes and does this. Well I’ll show him. I’ll show him that, that taking something so precious means something.”

  It may be time to call in Gruffy before she does something that could get her in an orange jumpsuit and cheap sneaks.

  “Luci, you need to calm down a little and stop thinking about it so emotionally, babe. Maybe Freddie is just scared and needs some time to process this great love,” I say, wincing inwardly when her head shoots up and her look of hope hits ten on the Richter scale.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I think you’re right. He just loves me so much he needs time to understand that we belong together. Thanks, Cal!”

  And off she goes like the truly psychotic cutie she is, humming Queen under her breath.

  “Shit. That is not going to end well for anyone involved if he’s moved on already. I see many dead bunnies in our future if that happens,” Percy mutters, eyeing Luci with a shudder.

  “Naw, we just have to bright side this shit. We can serve bunny stew to our clients and tell them it’s game or something. Easy-peasy. Now then, back to the dick. You were telling us all about his technique.”

  “I was not, you pervert.”

  “Glad to hear it, baby, since it creeps me out to think about these four knowing what I look like under my skivvies.”

  The sound of his voice makes me grin and I turn with a smile as the others start hooting and making kissy noises. Even Dot. Where’s all her shy reserve gone, dammit?

  “I’m not snitching on your hunk of love, Jack. They’d all kill themselves if they knew I was the one with the winning dick.”

  The kiss I get for that gem curls my toes and I enjoy the heck out of this newfound feeling of…

  Well I have feelings of more than like. That’s all I’m saying.

  I enjoy it till he pulls back and grins at me before bending and saying hello to the kid like he’s taken to doing. Long drawn-out conversations of do’s and don’ts.

  My favorite was this morning at around five when I woke to catch him pleading with JJ—Jack Junior, according to him—to please not decimate Mommy’s vagina when he made his entrance.

  I almost cracked up at that one and listened in awe as he started telling him all the things we were going to do as a family.

  Turned me to a near sobbing pathetic pool of mush, that did. Stupid idiot is way too cute for my liking.

  “Hey, Jack?”

  No Luci, please don’t, I beg silently, groaning inwardly when she bounds over like a little puppy with hope and dreams shining in her green eyes.

  “Luci?”

  “Um, could you maybe do me a favor please, Jack?” she asks.

  I hear Percy groan and Indie’s curse is ear tingling when Jack swallows and nods, his eyes going soft with sympathy. I should know better than to doubt my Luce, though. We’re survivors of our families, Gruffy’s little she-devils. The five chicks who make priests tremble in fear when we grace their hallowed doorsteps.

  “Could you please give this letter to Freddie and tell him I said thanks for the mediocre cherry-popping session, but I’m totally going to explore my options.”

  Jack is silent for a second, and then he’s hugging her to death and laughing his ass off.

  “Oh Luci, I will most definitely deliver that message word for word and tell Woody, too. Man oh man, honey, you just made my fucking century. I can’t wait to see his face. Wait. Popping? He…?”

  I’m horrified, too. Trust me. I was of the school of thought that getting it over with was the way to go, and even Dot’s been around the block once or twice.

  Luci keeping that stuff on hold for her Prince Charming while fooling us all over the years… Shit, she must actually love Freddie.

  “Thanks, Jack, I knew I could count on you. So, who’s up for a night out? I feel the need to spread some Luci love, girls.”

  The look I give Jack makes him chuckle and I see him sigh and nod eventually, giving me the green light. Not that I need permission or anything, but I am in a pseudo relationship with the man and I am pregnant with his baby.

  “I’m in.”

  “Let’s go dick fishing.”

  Oh Indie.

  “I’m wailing for a railing!” Percy yells, taking the deranged to a whole ‘nother level.

  Good Lord I am so lucky Jack’s from a crazy family too, or things would always be awkward. Instead he’s smiling at their antics and looking at Dot expectantly.

  “Dotty? You okay?”

  She’s a little quiet, nothing out of the ordinary, but then I look at her eyes and she looks so sad it hurts me.

  “I can’t, guys. Sorry. I, uh, I have plans already.”

  We never hide things from each other. Unless it’s bound to be super embarrassing or something painful that we just can’t share.

  “Plans? What plans? You don’t have plans that don’t include us, Dorethea Summer, and you know this. What gives?” Indie demands, her eyes narrowing.

  I see Dot’s face take on a mulish expression and we all share a shocked looked when she tells Indie to mind her own business and walks out the back with a sniff.

  “Well shit. When did she morph into
a human being and lose the Luna Lovegood mantle?”

  My shrug is all the answer I can give and I shake my head. Whatever Dot has going on may not be good. I won’t pry like we usually do, and I won’t help the others ambush her. I just hope she comes to me when she needs me, because swear to God if anyone hurts my Dotty they’ll find out why Sabrina Dormer has teeth scars on her left cheek, and why she still crosses the road when she sees me coming.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Don’t Go Into the Light, Carol Anne (Cue Creepy Little Lady Voice)

  Callie

  I hate clubs. The noise and claustrophobic feeling I always get makes me ansty and desperate to flee, yet here I am, sitting on Jack’s lap while the three girls I love to hate and hate to love do shots and start going wild to get on the dance floor.

  Indie looks fierce in a short skirt, biker boots, and a black tank that shows off her ink and still makes her look feminine, while Luci has gone total skank in a black mini dress and do-me heels.

  Percy, the woman has her own style and it screams “take me if you dare” at anyone who looks her way. I love them but they’re just plan odd if you ask me.

  By the time I’ve had my third bottle of water I feel like I could water a football field. I gingerly climb off Jack and refuse his help going to the bathroom.

  I’ve already done that once and I will not suffer the humiliation of other women knowing my boyfriend watches me pee while he stands in the doorway and makes conversation.

  The trek there is easier than I expect when a bouncer pops up and personally gets me to the restroom with a grunt and glare at anyone who so much as looks at me.

  Freaking Jack. The man probably owns this place. Have I mentioned he picked it?

  When I pee, I do so with my usual elation and I hear a few giggles when I thank God loudly for letting me preserve my dignity and make it to the toilet.

  “You pregnant or drunk, sweetie?” I hear through the stall door.

  “Pregnant and nuts, hun.” I laugh.

  My loo pal laughs and yells “good luck” before I hear the door close and I wipe and flush with a grin before exiting the stall.

  I go to wash my hands and check my makeup, my mind going a mile a minute as worry for Dot creeps in when I hear a throat clear behind me and look up to see a pretty woman with caramel-colored hair staring back at me expectantly.

  “Hi?”

  She clears her throat again and steps closer, way too close for my liking, when she looks down at my tummy and gets this nasty look on her pretty face.

  “You the liar who’s telling Jack that you were together at the Hyatt?” she spits, her voice low and angry.

  “Whoa, lady, I already took a freaking shower earlier, no need to turn the sprinklers on,” I mutter, swiping at my face.

  The spitter gets back in my face again and I have the urge to lash out at her when she says something that has my entire body freezing and turning ice cold.

  “You know how I know you’re just a fat gold-digging liar, lady? Because he was with me at his house all freaking night till I skipped out on him the next morning to go home. Yeah, you get it now, huh? I heard the rumors. Destiny told me all about the little spectacle the two of you made and how you reeled him in with that bullshit story. I know it’s not true, and what’s more, I heard you and those friends of yours talking about how you don’t know who you fucked in that hotel room. How does it feel knowing you got the wrong guy by lying to him?”

  I can’t talk, can hardly breathe through the absolute pain and dread bombarding me as I take it all in.

  “You…? The two of you were together all night?” I whisper, willing my tears to stay put.

  She laughs nastily and nods, her face going a little soft at the pathetic picture I’m making.

  “Yes. All night. Look, honey, I am truly sorry that your fairy-tale romance is a lie, and I am not too jazzed about having to tell you that your baby will not have a daddy, but I am telling you, Jack can’t be him because he was pounding me like a hammer all night.”

  I feel like I’m falling even though I know for a fact I’m not. I’m still frozen and staring into her eyes. I just feel…numb and empty as she gently squeezes my arm and turns to walk away.

  “Your name,” I manage to get out on a croak before she reaches the door.

  I don’t know why I want her name unless I’m planning to torture myself to death with it, but I need to know suddenly. Maybe because after everything that’s been said and done, I’ve got a new phobia about not knowing names.

  “Lesley Brewster.”

  She leaves without another word and I feel myself crumble as my knees give out and I sink to the floor, my tears now flowing freely even though I can’t seem to make a sound through the constriction in my throat.

  God, oh God, what’s going on with my life?

  The thought of it all being a lie, of going out there and telling Jack that what we thought, what we have built so quickly under the guise of a lie…

  It hurts to know that when I walk out of here I will lose the man I’ve come to feel so much for. I think I love him, as silly as that may sound, and I know that it’s all going to end the minute I tell him the truth.

  I feel so stupid, like the worst type of fraud, and worse, I feel like I’ve just lost the second person in my life that I let myself love without the benefit of many years and a lot of trust building.

  I hardly know Jack and yet I love him already, after only weeks of knowing him.

  “Callie?”

  My tears are still streaming when I look up at Percy and totally lose my shit. Her arms come around me instantly and I hear her throwing questions at me as I cry out my grief into her throat where I’ve shoved my face.

  “Callie, honey, what’s the matter? Are you sick? In pain? Oh God, is it the little monster? I should go get Jack.”

  “No! No, please don’t. Not yet. I can’t see him yet, Percy,” I plead, crying harder and grabbing on to her for dear life.

  “Callie, you’re starting to scare me. What’s going on? Did someone say you were fat again? You tell me who it was and I will peel her face for you.”

  “It, no, I just, I need to go home please, Percy. I need to get out of here and be alone before I talk to Jack. Please, Percy.”

  She doesn’t like this one bit, I see it in the tightening of her lips and the narrowing of her blue eyes, but she finally nods and whips out her phone.

  “I’m going to call India and have her distract the goon Jack’s got guarding the door and waiting for you. Just hang on a minute and we’ll get you out of here, okay?”

  It feels like hours before she gets a text signalling the all clear, and I feel like I’m stumbling towards a bright light as she drags me out of the club and shoves us both into a cab, giving him the address for her, Indie, and Luci’s apartment.

  I’m almost grateful for the way she just seems to take over, and by the time we get to their place I’m calm enough to feel like I’m not stuck in one place waiting for the train coming through the tunnel to plough into me.

  “What’s going on, Callie?”

  I really do not want to talk right now, but I owe her some explanation, at the very least, for helping me ditch Jack tonight. I feel terrible but talking to him with the way I feel is not a good idea right now. I tend to lash out when I feel raw and he does not deserve that from me.

  “I came out of the toilet stall and there was this woman…she told me, oh God, she told me that there was no way me and Jack were together the night I conceived JJ.”

  The name makes me want to wail and I breathe through a sob as Percy’s eyes narrow and she waits.

  “She told me they were together in his house all night and, and I think she was telling the truth because, because he kept saying that he remembered caramel-colored hair and asked why my hair was lighter than he thought it was and, and he kept saying he woke up in his bed and didn’t know how he got home.”

  I didn’t want to believe at first, but it
all makes a strange sort of sense now. Jack never went upstairs to that room with me because he took that Lesley Brewster chick home and screwed her all night while I was getting it on with some other man I still don’t remember.

  “Oh Jesus.”

  That’s all she can manage as we both fall onto the sofa. What am I going to do?

  ***

  Jack

  I’m still pissed at Callie the next morning as I storm into my office at the brokerage and slam my phone into the desk with a curse. By the time twenty minutes had passed without her coming back, I started to get really worried and went looking for her.

  When I still couldn’t find her, I started panicking and had a whole host of scenarios running through my head from her being hurt to her getting sick.

  I even went a little nuts when it crossed my mind that she may have started cramping or spotting or some shit. Then I really went nuts. By the time I slammed out of the restroom and remembered my phone, the thing was ringing and I had Percy in my ear telling me that Callie wasn’t feeling well and she took her home to rest.

  I was so relieved I fell into the wall beside me and then started making plans to go to her. She’s my woman. I need to always care for her and know she’s okay.

  I got stonewalled right off the bat and no amount of pleading, cursing, or threatening Percy got me anywhere. So instead of cajoling and seducing Callie into coming home with me again like I’d been planning all day, I went home alone to my empty bed where the fucking sheets and pillows smelled like her and made me all the madder.

  “What the fuck is wrong with women?!”

  “Not a damn thing, pal. You just aren’t doing something right, I guess, since they’re the easiest, most loving creatures on the planet.”

  “Fucking spare me that bullshit, Woody,” I snarl when he walks in and falls into a seat across from my desk.

  I ignore the penetrating look he gives me and straighten my tie as my PA, Kimono walks in with a cup of coffee for us both and some files I’ll need for a meeting I have later.

  “Thanks, Kim. Hold all my calls till I tell you differently.”

  She leaves as silently as she arrived and I wait a beat for Woody to start gabbing before I hold up my hand to silence him.