Page 159 of Filthy Lovin Heroes

Three more years of stress later I left the big city, degree in hand, and happy to put the bitter winters of Chicago behind me.

Now I’m back. It didn’t take much for my parents and brother to convince me to come home. I was growing tired of the big city anyway. Savannah had a charm about it that drew its people back no matter where in the world they went. The swaying willows, loving people who made the town special and just the low-key vibe in the air.

“You should see Diesel. He can take care of that for you. He’s the best in town.”

Shocked, I paused, books in hand again.

Diesel Montgomery.

Dominant. Alpha. Male to the core.

My pussy clenched from a swirl of dirty, heated memories.

I had not heard that name in years. My brother’s best friend.

Or used to be. I didn’t know anymore and that ticked me off. I’d lost all contact with my home life while I was away. Now that I think about it, Caleb hadn’t mentioned Diesel in years. My heart skipped an odd rhythm all the same, and a warmth of memories rushed over me.

Diesel was the guy I secretly crushed on all senior year of high school and the man who taught me how to French kiss one hot summer night down by the beach.

Mmm...that man. Older than me by what had to be eight years. Nah. He was a year older than my brother Caleb, so that made him upward of twelve years my senior. But on that man—damn—age didn’t matter. He was a mountain of a man and carried himself like he could take on the world for anyone who needed him.

Then I went away to college and I was pretty sure he forgot all about the infatuated girl that hung on his every word.

I tried to act nonchalant. “He’s still around? I thought he would have moved out West or something with his talent by now. You haven’t exactly mentioned him to me in forever.”

“He did. So did his brother, Brick.” My brother paused and scratched a hand over his scruff. “He came back after a bout of bad luck though. You know how it goes.”

Diesel was the exact opposite of his identical twin brother in all but character. Where you could trust Diesel to have your back, Brick took after their father and was a snake in the grass.

“Yep. Bad luck and I go way back.” I didn’t write home about it but sophomore year I lost three roommates and had to carry the extra weight of rent alone, got booted when I couldn’t make those payments only to end up sleeping in an acquaintance’s laundry room for a year. Good times.

“Well anyway, Dad said he would be by later on with the other shelves and also said he had something else for you, too. A couch he pulled out of the attic.”

That brought a smile to my face. “Great. I was thinking I needed one more. Do you know if Momma will be by with the curtains?”

“She said as much. Look, I gotta go. Be good and all that.”

I turn to put more books on the shelves and call out, “Yeah, yeah. Hey, maybe I will go and see Diesel. It would be nice to catch up.”

“The hell you will. I didn’t bring you home to get tied up with another loser like him.”

I swiveled around to see my dad standing in the door, red-faced, holding one end of a couch while my uncle held the other.

I smirked at my dad, brows pulled down in confusion. “Why the hell not?”

I never did get my answer. Just a lot of shoulder shrugs and head shakes.

So I went looking for my own.

Two

Kaila

I came three times last night and I would wager why I didn’t sleep a wink. Not even a cold shower doused the heated thoughts of one tattoo artist that checked all the bad boy boxes for me.

How could I sleep when every time I closed my eyes images of Diesel popped into my head? It didn’t take much to recall his dark eyes, the way his hair always looked mussed or that he gave me my first kiss.

Or the feel of his steel length of his arousal teasing my clit until my toes curled.

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