Page 19 of Renegade

She licked her bottom lip—lips that had been injected with god-knew-what until they were perfectly pouty. I wouldn’t mind seeing them wrapped around my cock. She widened her eyes as if she read my thoughts. “I might be. Are you free, officer?”

I cleared the machine before she even finished talking and hopped down. “For you, Darlin’? I just might have some time to kill.”

“See? Aren’t you glad you came out tonight?” I slapped David on the back and took a long swig from the bottle of Guinness in my hand.

It was an unseasonably warm January night, so I decided we should hang out on the patio at Nick’s.

He looked between me and two of the guys he worked with. “Yeah, I’m not sure that this was ‘unmissable’ as you so eloquently put it—and what the fuck is going on with your eye?”

I reached up and patted the puffiness before grinning. “Well, it turns out that Little Miss‘Aren’t you going to frisk me’from the gym was very much married. Her husband got off early—ensuring that I didn’t get off at all.”

David’s two work buddies cracked up while he shook his head. “Mike, again? Jesus, put a leash on your damn dick. You should’ve stuck with Sadie, she was good for you.”

He didn’t get it. Being with Sadie had been a nightmare—she was constantly breaking down over Patrick’s disappearance and wanting to talk about it. Frustrated, I’d turned to someone who knew the whole story—my father. David was out because he’d made me swear to never bring up that night again.

I was desperate for advice and, in his own twisted way, my father knew just what to say. He bluntly told me that women were good for keeping a bed warm, but that they demanded something a man could never give—monogamy. He’d gripped my shoulder and told me that men like us would never be content to live with our balls in a vice.

I’d wanted to write the whole thing off as bullshit, but he had a point. I’d been happiest when I was inside of Sadie; any other time though, she drove me up a fucking wall. Breaking up with her had been a good decision. Now, I kept girls around long enough to keep my dick happy before sending them on their merry way.

It was a good arrangement for all parties.

I took another swig of beer. “Yeah. You might be right on the leash thing; I’ll probably need a muzzle as well. He’s a vicious son-of-a-bitch.” Everyone laughed and I continued, “As for Sadie, I could only watch her pine after Patrick Roy for so long before I decided to cut my losses and move on. Hard to compete with a dead guy, don’t you think, David?”

His face paled at the mention of Patrick’s name, but before he could respond, a flash of blonde appeared near him.

“Oh, head’s up,” I called out as the blonde and her drink fell into David’s arms. He didn’t even seem to be aware of the fact that she’d doused him in some fruity cocktail as he knelt down and freed her foot from the deck.

“Are you okay?”

The pint-sized blonde kept her head down and stammered, “I-I-I’m fine. Thank you.” Then she looked up and froze. Yeah, he had that effect on women.

Bastard.

He flashed her a big smile. “I think the only casualty was your drink, which I’m now wearing.”

David’s buddy, Pete, looked to me for answers and I shrugged. He wasn’t normally that talkative with people he didn’t know. In all honesty, he was kind of a grumpy asshole most of the time.

The blonde’s eyes drifted down his body and I shook my head. She was brazen to be eye-fucking him with a bunch of his buddies at the table.

She shook her head and muttered, “I’m so sorry about your shirt and for falling on you. I’ll let you get back to your evening. Again, I’m really sorry,” before turning to walk away.

I was all set to dive back into our conversation when he reached out and grabbed her hand. “Wait, at least let me buy you another,” he lifted his shirt up and smelled it, “Malibuand pineapple?”

Holy shit. He was into her.

She smiled again. “Shouldn’t I be buying you a drink?”

At that, he stood up and put his hand on her back. “Beautiful women should never have to buy drinks.” She walked towards the bar and he turned back to us. “Don’t wait up, fellas.”

Pete and Eddie raised their eyebrows and then went back to their pitcher of beer. Not me though. I couldn’t recall one instance in the last thirteen years where David would’ve chosen to go off with some woman, abandoning boy’s night.

Me?I pulled shit like that all the fucking time. Not him though. In the past, when I’d asked him why he didn’t put himself out there more, he’d laughed and told me that he didn’t want to waste time with the wrong woman.

It had sounded like that psychobabble bullshit they spoon fed us at church camp growing up. I didn’t want to think of him as naïve, but my old man had cheated on my mom almost the entire time they’d been together. Who was to say that David’s old man hadn’t done the very same thing? He might’ve just been better at it. Hell, even Grey hadn’t seemed like the faithful type.

I watched as David and the blonde came back out onto the patio, choosing to sit as far away from our table as possible. I decided that I could sit and watch the two of them for a few more hours or I could go. I was tired anyway—dealing with Vanessa’s husband hadn’t been in my plans for the day.

It was Vanessa, right?

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