Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 603(@200wpm)___ 482(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 603(@200wpm)___ 482(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
“It got me warm, so it reminded me of you.”
Could he hear an actual smile in her throaty voice? Or was he imagining it?
Either way, her confession made him grin. “Gonna take it as a compliment then.”
There was a pause and he could hear her soft breathing. However, he could also hear someone snoring. That reminded him she was sharing a tight space with three fucking men right now.
He was as thrilled about that as Sig had been.
“Why’d you call me?” she whispered, most likely not to wake up her bandmates.
“Wanted to hear your voice in my ear. Like your heaters, it makes me warm.” He stared up at the ceiling and shoved his hand down his boxers again, cupping his balls and giving them a slight squeeze. “Where are you?”
“In bed.”
Dodge barked out a laugh since she was back to being difficult. “You know what I meant.”
“In Virginia.”
Every time she acted like a brat he got the urge to spank her, but he wasn’t sure she’d be into it. One thing he was sure of was that he’d like to find out. He hoped he got that opportunity. “How soon can you get back here?”
Another hesitation, then, “I scored us a gig in Richmond. If I can’t find any more around here after that, we’re continuing south.”
That wasn’t going to work. “When’s your gig?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“After your gig, you need to come back north.” He made sure his tone didn’t make it sound like a suggestion. This wasn’t going to turn into a debate.
More silence answered him.
After a few moments he pulled his phone away to make sure she hadn’t hung up. He pressed the phone back to his ear and, if he listened hard enough, he could hear the snoring again. “Got somethin’ better to give you than those heaters.”
A soft snort filled his ear.
“Not that.” He slid his fingers up and down his hard length. He thumbed a slick drop of precum off the tip. “Okay, ain’t gonna lie… Maybe that, too. But no, it ain’t my carrot I’m danglin’ for you to come back.” To me and my bed, he added silently.
“I hate carrots.”
“You might not hate this one.”
“How about you just tell me instead of playing this game.”
“Ain’t playin’ no game, Syn. I don’t fuckin’ play games. Games are for boys. Been a long time since I’ve been a boy.”
“Then tell me about this golden carrot.”
It was far from golden. In fact, it was tarnished and dented. “Your brother.”
Silence filled the hundreds of miles between them, then a whispered, “Sig?”
“Yeah. Well, I didn’t actually find him. More like figured out who he was… Or is.” He pursed his lips for a second. “He’s my brother, too.”
“What?” burst from her. Probably loud enough to wake her bandmates.
Dodge winced at what might be a mistaken assumption. “Club brother,” he corrected quickly.
“He’s… How long has he been your club brother?”
“About three years or so.”
Suddenly the phone sounded muffled and he couldn’t figure out what she was doing. “Syn?” No answer. “Yo. Syn!”
What the fuck?
The background noise changed. He could actually hear traffic through the phone now. “Syn!” he shouted.
“I’m here,” she hissed. “I had to step outside. I’m trying not to freak out.”
“‘Cause you’re excited?”
“No, because you knew my brother and didn’t say shit to me when I mentioned him.”
“I wasn’t sure—”
“How many fucking people have that first name?” she yelled into the phone.
If her yelling at him didn’t make his palm itch, he didn’t know what would. He kept his tone level when he answered, “Don’t know that answer but it has to be more than one.”
She growled. It wasn’t supposed to be sexy, but, fuck him, it was. “He was right there in Manning Grove and we left?”
Fuck. So much for him expecting her to be happy to find her brother. But then he should’ve known she wasn’t a typical ray of sunshine. Her personality reminded him more of a stormy winter night than a clear summer day.
“Let me explain somethin’ to you before I fuckin’ regret tellin’ you where your brother is… Listen carefully. My first loyalty’s to my brotherhood. Had no fuckin’ clue that my brother’s the same as yours. You didn’t know his fuckin’ last name and I wasn’t assumin’ shit. So, I wanted to ask him first to be certain. If you don’t think that’s reasonable…” He sucked on his teeth and pulled his hand from his boxers since he had lost his hard-on. “You know what? Don’t give a fuck if you think that was reasonable or not. Didn’t want to give you false hope if they weren’t one and the same. I asked for your fuckin’ number, you were the one who refused to give it to me.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me that’s why you wanted it?”
“‘Cause it wasn’t the only reason. It might’ve been part of the reason but not the whole fuckin’ thing.”