Game (Gentry Boys #3) Read online

  I poked around in the shopping bag he’d stowed under the table. “What’d you get?”

  “Costumes,” he said happily. “Although the selection was somewhat limited.”

  “Really? You mean on the day of Halloween there are not many costumes to choose from?”

  He nodded seriously. “Yeah. Who would have thought?” Then he gave me one of his enchanting Chase grins and I had to kiss him again.

  When our cranky waitress brought our food I slid over to a different chair. I peered more carefully into the bag. It held a short red dress with a feather boa and a black pinstripe suit. The bag also held a pair of toy guns.

  “Are we masquerading as hooker and pimp?” I asked as he tore into his chicken sandwich.

  “Bonnie and Clyde,” he said proudly after he swallowed.

  “I don’t have as much history crammed into my head as you do but weren’t they a pair of heartless murderers who were eventually shot to death?”

  “Yes. Didn’t I tell you the selection was limited? It was either homicidal figures in American history or a matching pair of morph suits.”

  “Well then, I guess you chose well.”

  Chase touched my knee under the table. “Plus I keep picturing you in that short red dress while I tie you to my bed post with that feather boa.”

  “The boa doesn’t look sturdy enough for that.”

  “I’ll double knot it.”

  Chase was intent on hitting Mill Avenue when it got dark out. We headed back to my apartment to change. It was Truly’s night off so she was home when we got there. Unfortunately, Creed was there too.

  He said hello but seemed equally uncomfortable. I noticed he was watching Chase carefully and remembered that Truly had said he felt bad about their argument. And even though Chase hadn’t specified, that had to be the reason he was so grim last night.

  The three of us stood around awkwardly as Truly finished getting ready. Chase stared at the floor with his hands jammed in his pockets. Creed stared out the window with his hands also jammed in his pockets.

  “So what are you guys doing tonight?” I asked Creed, just to thaw the tension in the room.

  He gave me the barest hint of a smile and glanced at his brother. “Don’t know. Whatever the lady wants is what we’ll do.”

  “The lady just wants to be in your arms,” Truly said as she walked into the room. She was absolutely stunning in a black satin dress with a tight bodice and flared skirt.

  Creed stared. “Where’d you get that?”

  Truly winked at me. “This lil’ thing?” she asked, twirling around in her black heels to show her shapely legs. “Why, I just whipped this up on my machine this week. You like it, Creedence?”

  “Yeah,” he said and I could practically see him drooling. She smiled up at him when she got close and he circled his arms around her waist, reaching lower to unabashedly grab her ass. The Gentry brothers sure as hell weren’t shy.

  “Creed,” she scolded but she laughed and didn’t move away.

  “Hey,” I whispered before she ran out the door, “can I borrow some of your makeup?”

  “Help yourself,” she shrugged, then looked past me. “Bye, Chase.”

  Chase glanced at his brother and they exchanged a long look. “Happy Halloween,” he said.

  Creed lingered for a few seconds like he wanted to say something else, or maybe was hoping Chase would, but then he just exhaled noisily and followed Truly out.

  “You want to talk about it?” I asked Chase when the door closed.

  “Nope,” he said immediately. Then he dumped the contents of the costume bag on the floor. “I want to have some fun.”

  I changed in the bathroom so I could have access to Truly’s makeup. ‘Less is more’ was always my mother’s rule when it came to cosmetics but it was a night for dressing up, for acting, for pretending. I felt sexy as I rolled the red dress over my body. It was indeed short. Last week, with Truly’s help, I’d finally broken down and invested in a pair of heels. I was still getting used to them. As I fluffed my curly hair and applied a generous amount of red lipstick, I started to feel like I really had left all my old insecurities behind. I had Chase to thank for that.

  When I opened the door to the bathroom I burst out laughing. Chase was standing in the middle of the living room with his pants around his ankles and trying to close the cheap pinstripe fabric around his muscular torso.

  “It doesn’t fit,” he complained and then his eyes widened as he took me in. I twirled the feather boa seductively.

  Chase dropped the pieces of his costume on the floor and started to make his way over, only slightly hampered by the way his pants were bunched around his legs. One glance at his boxers told me how much he appreciated the way I looked. I let him back me into the nearest wall and push my dress up over my hips.

  “Don’t mess up my damn makeup,” I warned as he started to get aggressive.

  Chase yanked my panties down. “Leave these off tonight. And I’m gonna mess up a lot of things.” He backed away a few inches, smiling ruefully. “But not right now. Right now I’m taking you out and showing you off. I’ll glare daggers at any man who dares to glance at you but you know what? It’ll get me harder all the time and then, when I can’t stand it another minute, I’ll fuck the living hell out of your sweet pussy.”

  I still couldn’t believe some of the filthy language that came out of Chase’s mouth. Nor could I quite believe what it did to me. I was so ready and I wanted him right then, but I loved the idea of getting him so excited he broke.

  He wasn’t wearing a shirt and I ran my hands over his chest, over the small scar on his lower abdomen and up to the words tattooed across his upper chest. Vivo pro hodie. Live for today.

  “Every day,” I whispered.

  Love me every day. Fuck me every day. Do it all.

  Chase nodded like he knew what I meant even if I hadn’t said it all out loud. He pulled one strap of the dress over my shoulder and pushed his thumb into my bra, feeling the hard nipple. His voice was coarse with feeling. “You’re my fantasy, Steph. You know that?”

  We teased each other a little while longer and then left, taking my Buick. Mill Avenue was beyond crowded. We had to park near A Mountain, a small butte that overlooked ASU and sported a gigantic painted A on the side. The bars were all packed to the point of being uncomfortable so we leaned against a nice brick building at the end of the street. Sometimes we made out. Sometimes we just watched people pass. The costumes were running somewhat themed. The boys were trying to look silly and the girls were trying to look sexy. My heels started bothering me so I slipped them off and let Chase give me a piggyback ride back to my car.

  “Let’s go trick or treating,” he said, starting the engine.

  “Is that really a euphemism for a sex game?”

  “It can be,” he said, absently reaching under my dress to stroke me briefly, or maybe to remind me that I wasn’t wearing panties.

  After we crawled through the downtown Tempe traffic I examined my heels with distaste. “I don’t get the appeal,” I admitted. “I haven’t worn shit like this since high school and I’m out of practice. They just seem like medieval torture devices.”

  “Well don’t torture yourself on my account,” Chase laughed. “I like you just fine in your sloppy sneakers.”

  “You’re sweet,” I told him, suddenly in a serious mood as I reached over and touched his cheek.

  “You’re mine,” he said with utter sincerity, pulling the car into a parking spot close to his apartment.

  We pretended to be trick-or-treaters and Saylor answered the door with a bowl full of candy. She pouted a little when she saw it was just us instead of a bevy of cute children dressed like Disney characters.

  “What are you thinking?” Chase asked as he grabbed a Three Musketeers bar. “There’s nothing but college kids around here, Say. Not real kids.”

  Saylor shrugged moodily. She was dressed in a long black gown and cape. I guessed that
the plastic fangs in her mouth made her a vampire.

  “BAH!” Chase screamed as Cord rounded the corner. “Now there’s something scary!”

  “Why’s that, junior?” Cord challenged, pushing his hand into Saylor’s candy bowl and hunting around until he found a bag of M&M’s. He tore open the bag with a smile. “You mean because I can beat the shit out of you with one hand tied behind my back?”

  Chase looked like he was aiming to head butt his brother while Cord circled him and I started feeling like I was in the middle of a National Geographic scene. Saylor took my arm and led me to the living room.

  “Boys,” she sighed as the Battle of the Gentrys began in the hallway. “Don’t worry, those two will knock each other around a little but they’ll come out laughing.”

  Saylor motioned for me to sit beside her on the couch. The wall shook behind us as one of the brothers body slammed the other.

  “Get your fat head off my balls!” Cord shouted.

  “How the fuck did your balls get relocated up there?” Chase hollered back.

  A minute later they joined us in the living room, red-faced and laughing.

  “Are you done regressing?” Saylor asked Cord sweetly as he sat on her other side.

  “For now,” he promised her, grinning as he ran a hand over her swollen belly. She removed her fangs and kissed him.

  I felt Chase’s arm around my shoulders and leaned closer to him. He jumped off the couch abruptly, pulled me to my feet and bent me in a classically romantic pose, kissing me hard. I was breathless when he finally released me.

  When I returned to the couch I saw Cord and Saylor were staring at us. I’d already gotten to know Saylor a bit before the wedding but over the past few weeks I’d gotten to know Cord as well. Cordero Gentry was something of a cross between his brothers. He had some of Creed’s solemnity with a dash of Chase’s impulsive silliness. He was completely devoted to Saylor and appeared to be enjoying his new roles as husband and father-to-be.

  “Do you guys need to be alone?” Cord asked, raising a teasing eyebrow in Chase’s direction.

  “You’ll know when we do,” Chase said cheerfully. He knocked on the wall behind him. “The foundation will be shaking tonight,” he boasted.

  “And that’s different from every other night how?” Cord asked.

  “We can stay at Steph’s place again,” Chase said, “although it looked like your brother’s planning on ending up there tonight. I don’t want to get my clothes bloody but if he opens his mouth again I might have to.”

  I heard the edge in his voice and knew he was only half joking. Cord caught on and a shadow crossed his face. Of course, he would have already heard about the tension between Chase and Creed. I was sorry to be the cause of it.

  Saylor cleared her throat. “So Stephanie, Chasyn keeps telling me how much you like to read fantasy.”

  I was honestly surprised. I couldn’t recall ever once discussing books with Chase.

  “I do,” I told her, turning to look at Chase.

  He ran his fingers through my hair absently. “Couldn’t miss seeing the hardcover Tolkien collection lining the shelf above your desk. But Say has a mercenary interest in your reading habits. She’ll probably harass you into being a beta reader for her book.”

  Saylor threw a Hershey bar at Chase. It bounced off his forehead and Cord laughed. Both Truly and Chase had mentioned Saylor was a writer. I would be glad to have the opportunity to read her book. She smiled when I told her so.

  “I’m still editing,” she said, “but the final version will be available soon.”

  Cord stifled a yawn and Chase gave him shit about it, asking why the hell he was exhausted at nine pm.

  “You not getting enough rest, old timer?” he teased.

  “Old timer?” grumbled Cord. “I’m less than a minute older than you, dickhead.”

  “If you and Creedence can refer to me as ‘junior’ then I’m going to take advantage and pile on the geriatric references.”

  Cord yawned for real this time. “Sleep is tough. Bed’s too crowded these days.”

  “We should get a bigger one,” Saylor said, frowning down at her growing stomach.

  “We should get a bigger place,” Cord told her meaningfully and she looked up at him, nodding.

  Chase sighed and I sensed that he didn’t really like the subject. However, it went without saying that once the twins were born it wouldn’t really do for them all to share an apartment anymore.

  I took Chase’s hand. “If we’re staying here tonight I should really run home and get a few things.”

  Chase put his other hand on my thigh and slowly slid it upwards. “You have everything you need,” he said in a husky voice.

  “You’re right,” I whispered, watching his hand climb higher and wanting more. “I have everything I need.”

  Saylor handed me the bowl of candy and stood up. “Do me a favor and answer the door if anyone knocks, just in case.” She jerked her head in Cord’s direction. “I’m going to see what I can do about getting this big boy some rest.”

  “But it’s so early,” Cord complained as he leaned back on the couch, his eyes closed. “Feels wrong to hit the sack at nine freaking pm.”

  Saylor draped herself over the arm of the sofa and ran her hands down Cord’s chest. “How about some motivation?”

  Cord’s eyes flew open and he looked at his wife with interest. “And you always know how to motivate me, baby.”

  She smiled. “So let me prove it.”

  Cord was suddenly on his feet and scooting her in the direction of their bedroom. He paused and turned around to give his brother a naughty grin. “And you thought you were gonna make the walls shake.”

  “I still will,” Chase retorted, winking at me.

  I watched Cord and Saylor disappear down the hall together.

  “Damn, they’re perfect,” I said. I meant how they were together. Stunning, loving, blissful.

  “Yes,” Chase agreed with a strange catch in his voice. “They are.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Chase

  The one time in history Cord was ever ragingly furious with me was over Saylor McCann.

  On the day it happened, the Emblem High guidance counselor had pulled me into her office again right after lunch. Her name was Miss Stiraks and her family was an Emblem legacy, just like us Gentrys, but not really like us at all. We were the shit eaters, the bottom feeders. There was no one like us.

  “Chasyn,” she sighed, pursing her lips together and wrinkling the thick bristles sprouting from her chin. “If you get on track now then college might still be a possibility.”

  I stared at her facial hair. What she said didn’t even register with me. College? Who the fuck was she kidding?

  “Here,” she said, handing me a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers and graphs. “Your test scores show what kind of potential you have if only you would pull yourself together and stop raising hell with your brothers.”

  I folded the paper carefully in half. “Thanks, Miss Stiraks,” I said, not thankful at all. “I’ll take this piece of paper home and show it to my folks. Yeah, we’ll all talk about it over dinner and then have a frank and open discussion about my future.”

  Miss Stiraks sighed. She knew what my father was. She knew nothing so idyllic as a Gentry family dinner was on the horizon. And there sure as shit wasn’t going to be any discussion about college or my future. She didn’t really give a damn anyway. Emily Stiraks was doing what the state of Arizona paid her to do.

  I was in a bad mood when I left her office. After shoving the paper Miss Stiraks had given me in the nearest trashcan I decided to make a break for it and head out of the east exit.

  As I rounded the corner I almost mowed down Saylor McCann. Her face was red and her big green eyes were full of pain. Over the last few hours I’d kind of forgotten about her. But this morning she was on my mind a lot because I had a story to tell.

  I’d been thinking about getting i
nto Saylor’s pants for a while, because she was cute and because she’d once said something that pissed me the fuck off. The powers that be had tried to push me into the honors track, where Saylor McCann and all the people like her lived. She sat next to me in pre-calculus while I did my level best to make sure no one in that room learned anything except how goddamn amusing I was. Saylor ignored me until one day as the bell rang she turned in my direction and in the most disdainful way possible said, “What the hell do you get out of it, Chase? Acting like you’re dumber than you are?”

  The other night as Creed, Cord and I were camping out in the desert I brought up an idea that had been stewing ever since then. I could tell just by watching her that she’d never been touched. We made a game out of Saylor McCann’s virginity and I had every intention of winning. Cord won though. I was home the next afternoon when he tackled me out back and dragged me behind the trailer to give out all the dirty details. Creed found us less than a minute later. I knew Cord wasn’t lying because he would never lie to us. He was laughing at first but the longer he talked the quieter his voice became. Finally he kicked at a rock in the dirt and sighed.

  “Hey, this stays between us, okay? It’s done. No reason to let every busybody in Emblem know.”

  Creed shrugged. We both knew that Cord was really only addressing me because Creedence barely found a reason to grunt out a sentence here and there. But I didn’t promise anything. Cord only assumed I had. And because I was still annoyed as hell about being bested, I told an audience in the smoke-filled depths of the first floor boys’ room. Then I whispered the dirt into the ears of a few girls who liked to hear about shit like that. And finally I promptly forgot about it all, until I saw Saylor’s face. She clenched her fists and glared up at me.

  “I hate you,” she choked out. “I hate all three of you.”

  “Saylor,” I started to say but she ran into the girls’ bathroom.

  I stood there for a minute, staring at the closed door and feeling more than a little rotten. When I felt someone watching me I turned around. It was her skinny nerd of a cousin, Brayden.