Fox shot him a look that should have killed him on the spot, but Luke only smiled back in challenge.
Hot guys fighting over her? This shit never happened.
She gave Fox a cheeky grin. “You scared you won’t find it?”
Grumbling, he let his head fall back to rest against the back of the couch.
“Take the bet so you can fuck her and be done with this,” Atlas said.
“Fine,” he finally answered. “You have a deal.”
She stuck out her hand and they shook. Keeping her in his grasp, he pulled her close. “I hope you know what you’re getting into, little girl,” he whispered.
Inside, she smiled at what he didn’t know. Either way the bet ended, she won.
Chapter 4
“What the hell is with your brother tonight, Atlas?” Jimmy chuckled and handed fresh beer across the table to both Carlos and Luke. “Not that I’m complaining. I’m more than willing to take his money, but he usually doesn’t make it this easy. If I was a moral man, it might make me feel dirty.”
Fox glared at their mechanic friends. Jimmy’s head mechanic, Carlos, was snickering. Either Atlas had already told him what was going on, or he thought Jimmy insinuating that he wasn’t a pervert was funny.
“Oh, it’s not his fault,” Atlas said, shoveling a handful of peanuts into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully, amusement lurking behind the smirk that was so much like Fox’s own. His brother liked peace more than he liked making fun of people, so he knew when to shut his mouth. It’d made him easy to grow up with.
Luke, on the other hand, was always a damn comedian. “He has this hot little piece of ass chasing him around, and she has his fucking number. I think it’s been so long he doesn’t remember what to do with a girl. Luke and I keep offering to keep her warm while he pulls his head out of his ass, but for some reason he doesn’t like the idea.”
Fox took a drink of his beer, using the bottle to hide his expression. Both his brother and cousin had made it quite clear that if he decided not to pursue Addison they’d do their best to get her into their own beds. It pissed him off like nothing else ever had, and it seriously pissed him off that it pissed him off.
This wasn’t high school, and they weren’t children. There was no way his brother or his cousin would stab him in the back by trying to lure her away, but knowing they were interested made him feel out of control and territorial.
First of all, she wasn’t his property. And second of all, he didn’t know if he wanted her to be. She was hellion. Did he want even his life to be quite that . . . interesting? She was sneaky, and she didn’t fucking listen. If she wasn’t careful she was going to end up getting seriously hurt, and that idea really bothered him.
“She’s hot. So what? Like any of you guys have trouble picking up?” Carlos laughed, then chugged back half of his beer. “There are always women hanging off of you at
the club—it’s not like this is a small town, so there are a lot of women to choose from. Your deal, Jimmy.”
The garage owner dealt the next hand. The customary toothpick that stuck out from between his teeth bobbed as he rearranged his cards, and his bald head gleamed in the light from the overhead lamp, like he’d waxed it special for poker night. “I’ve never seen the three of you with hard-ons for the same girl. What’s the deal with this one?”
How the hell was he supposed to answer that? How could he explain it in a way Jimmy would understand? The man was into high-maintenance leggy blondes, with big tits. He’d never get why Addison was so irresistible. He’d have to meet her, and even then, he might not find she had the same appeal.
She seemed all sweet and innocent with those big blue eyes of hers, and the long brown hair. But it was like taking that girl next door, and making her a hundred times sexier because of how she stood and cocked her head, and in the way her lips parted slightly when she listened to someone talk. Then she was secretly this badass car thief who was kinky as fuck, and yet seemed to find his advances shocking even though she welcomed his attention. And she kept challenging him, taunting him, as though what she really wanted was for him to take her in hand and show her who was boss. How could a dominant man not get distracted by a hot contradiction like Addison?
Remembering the way she whimpered for him as she melted into submissive headspace, he shifted in his seat. Fuck, she’d been so ready for him last night, but the others had cock-blocked him by insisting they all walk her to her car.
Tomorrow morning he had to get to work on finding the damn device she’d planted on his vehicle. He’d looked everywhere obvious, and a few places that weren’t so obvious. It was time to get invasive.
At some point in the next couple of days he had to deliver a Maserati GT convertible too. He couldn’t let this girl affect the job.
Luke cracked open his beer and pushed the front of his dark Mohawk back from his eyes. “I’m telling you, if you don’t want her I’ll fight Atlas for her. The only reason I’m not chasing her now is because she seems to prefer you, for some strange reason. You’ve made punching her in the face work for you.”
“You punched a woman in the face?” Jimmy looked fucking pissed, and so did Carlos.
“Yeah, I thought she was one of Marcel’s boys. She was stealing my mark out from under my nose and had a big sweatshirt on with the hood pulled up. I thought Marcel sent someone to fuck with me.” They were still glaring. “I pulled my punch at the last minute.” It sounded lame even to his own ears but it was too late to go back and change that moment in time. “Yeah, I feel the same way about it that you do.”
The tension eased and Jimmy shook his head and pushed a bowl of pretzels his way. “Crazy.”
Carlos slid half of his poker chips into the center of the table, looking very smug about the cards in his hand. “If I so much as raised a hand to Julia, she’d kick my ass, and then her father and brothers would show up at the door and stomp my head in.”
They all laughed. The others probably had as hard a time as Fox picturing the very prim Englishwoman doing such a thing, not to mention the fact that her relations were all reportedly on the skinny side and lived an ocean away.