BLACK CRIMSON (Fairy Tale Quartet #4)

12. Brick

12

Brick

“Oh my God,” the redhead before me bellowed in frustration, making me want to kiss the ever-loving f**k out of her.

Which was...unlike me. There were so many other places on a woman I typically liked to focus my attention more. Mouth-to-mouth contact was never high on the list. And yet I wanted her soft, red lips with a craving that gnawed at my core.

“Stop. Just stop with all the ridiculous s****l innuendos,” she spat, “and be serious for once. What did you tell my grandmother in order to get her to let you in?”

I grinned, loving how easy it was to set her off. She was such a fiery, passionate woman, and nothing beat having all that hot, intense emotion aimed at me.

“What do you think I told her?” I felt the need to taunt.

She growled. “I don’t know; that’s why I’m asking. You didn’t tell her that we were—that you and I were—” She flushed, unable to say the actual words. Then she leaned in and murmured, “Did you?”

I shook my head, feigning confusion. “That we were what?”

This time, the sound she made was more like a hiss before she pointed at me and threatened, “I’m a hot second from kicking you in the knee; I swear. Just tell me what you said to her and why you’re here, already?”

Stepping close, I shifted my face nearer to hers. “Oh, you know exactly why I’m here, Mayhem.”

She looked up, her brown eyes a little concerned. “Because of the offer I made you earlier?”

“Because of the blackmail,” I corrected. “And I don’t take blackmail well. In fact…” Lifting my brows, I added, “You are aware who my mother is, right?”

She frowned, confused. “Who isn’t aware of who your mother is?” Then she shrugged and shook her head. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Okay, that wasn’t the response she was supposed to give me. She was supposed to swallow meekly and cower with the threat that I was the son of a murderer, heir to a lying, thieving, honest-to-God bad person. But she didn’t seem to be connecting the dots like everyone else on the planet always did.

So I felt the need to clarify, “She’s in prison right now for having both my father and stepfather killed, just because she didn’t need either of them in her life anymore. And they’re not the only ones.”

“Yeah...” Camille drew out the word slowly before blinking repeatedly. “I just told you; I know all that already. So what?”

Wow, she really wasn’t catching on, was she?

I narrowly refrained from rolling my eyes as I explained this even more clearly to her. “Then what makes you think I’m nothing like her and that I’ll just step aside and scratch my balls like a clueless dumbass when some redheaded little pixie threatens my entire existence?”

She cringed, but it seemed more like a guilty cringe, not the intimidated, oh-s**t-he’s-going-to-kill-my-grandma cringe I was going for.

So I added, “Why would you even be surprised that I’d go out of my way to find out where the most important person in your world lays her head each night?”

I polished off the question by stepping in just a little closer to finish big with an intimidating loom.

Except the damn woman merely blinked up at me once before she snorted and then burst out laughing.

My brow knit. What the hell? “I don’t see how that’s funny,” I muttered.

“It’s not. Really. But oh my God.” She held her stomach and doubled over, then grabbed my arm to help her straighten herself again. “Did you really just threaten my grandmother if I didn’t drop the whole Black Crimson issue?”

I arched an eyebrow. “And if I did?”

She blurted out another giggle and slapped a hand over her mouth before shaking her head and lifting one finger to assure me she’d stop soon, though it took her a lot longer than soon to calm herself enough to say, “It’s just hard to imagine the man who wrote only love can drive out the hate in two-foot-tall letters is even capable of hurting a seventy-eight-year-old grandma.” And she giggled some more before announcing, “So I call bullshit.”

My jaw went slack as I glanced around the room and then focused on her again. “You call bullshit?”

“Yeah.” She lifted her chin boldly. “I do. Like all the bullshit. Like you’re so full of s**t that it’s turned your eyes brown.”

I snorted out an incredulous sniff. “Newsflash, Mayhem. My eyes have always been brown.”

“No, they haven’t.”

She was stealing the upper hand from me, and I didn’t like it. I was used to being the only one in a conversation with the clever comebacks. But she was keeping up, and it was throwing me off my game. Not to mention the little detail that she fully believed I was a good guy.

That was particularly…unsettling.

Only Hayden and Kaity, plus now Gabby, seemed to think I had a decent bone in my body. For little Miss Camy to have so much faith in me was…

Well, I didn’t know how to handle it, so I found myself just staring at her as she went on about my f*****g eye color.

“They’re usually a lighter, golden brown. More of an orange-red-yellow really. Like a deep citrine. But now they’re just flat bullshit brown.”

God, I didn’t know what to do with her intense scrutiny of my eyes either. It was causing this strange pressure to bloat in my chest, which was overwhelming and slightly uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t a fan. She needed to stop seeing so much of me.

So I leaned in until our noses were nearly touching. “Oh, those? Those are my irritated eyes because you’re starting to piss me off right now, and I want nothing more than to bend you over that table and just angry f**k the hell out of you.”

Because she really wasn’t supposed to laugh while I was pretending to threaten her grandmother. Or believe in me like my family did. Or notice my f*****g eyes like that.

With a long, drawn-out sigh, she set her hands on her hips and shook her head at me sadly. “s*x talk is, like, the only weapon you have, isn’t it?”

Utterly flabbergasted that nothing I was saying seemed to have any kind of discouraging, frightening impact on her, I spiked a hand through my hair and growled, “What?”

“Run into a strange woman on the sidewalk and want to make her smile? Flatter her with flirty, sexy talk. Want to charm an old grandma? Flirt with her too. Want to intimidate someone or make them uncomfortable? Bring up s*x. Need to distract someone from a serious issue? Throw out more s*x talk. It is literally the only reaction you have in your arsenal of comebacks, isn’t it?”

“Well, strangling you sounds pretty appealing to me at the moment,” I muttered, beyond disgusted that my plan wasn’t working, “if you need me to branch out on my proclivities.”

“No,” she murmured softly and shook her head sympathetically, as if she felt sorry for me. “You’re not going to hurt me. You’re not going to hurt Gran. You’re not going to hurt anyone. It’s just not in your nature.”

Rising to the challenge, I flashed my teeth and crowded into her space just enough to force her to back up and actually get her to widen her eyes. “You sure about that, Mayhem? Maybe your spray-painting idol wouldn’t hurt anyone. But I’m not Black Crimson. I’m the son of a f*****g murderer.”

Her pupils dilated. But not in fear. Chin tipping up as her breathing escalated, she told me with all certainty, “I’m sure you’re not a dangerous person. Because you’re also the big brother of Miss Sunshine herself, and Kaitlynn adores the very ground you walk on. You’re not going to hurt us.”

“f*****g hell,” I breathed, unable to stop staring into her eyes. I should’ve known she’d throw Kaity in my face.

But she wasn’t supposed to react like this. How was I going to intimidate her into leaving me alone if she called my damn bluff and then called me out on everything else, too?

And s*x was not the only weapon in my arsenal, dammit.

It was just the only thing on my mind when she was around.

I knew I needed to prove to her just how good I wasn’t, so I could finally spook her into backing down, but a majority of me was just too impressed by how ballsy she was. I really dug her bravery.

“You’re something else, do you know that?” I murmured, my gaze falling to her mouth. Her lips looked so soft and plump. I wanted to press my own to them and thrust my tongue deep.

Which freaked me out because…

Again, with the kissing urge? Something was seriously malfunctioning in me.

Before I realized what I was doing, I’d lifted my hand to her ginger locks and caught a few strands to gently run them through my fingers. “What the hell is it about your mouth,” I whispered in confusion, “that I can’t seem to resist it?”

My face started to tip down toward hers, intent to capture her lips with my own.

But all she did was back away and roll her eyes. “There you go again,” she accused, tossing out a hand. “Trying to distract me with more flirting.”

Except—no—this time, she’d been the one who’d distracted me. I’d had no control over what I’d just done.

I straightened and blinked, momentarily mortified that I’d been sucked into an emotionally involved moment that obviously only I had felt.

Concealing it with a careless shrug, I forced my limbs to relax as I sent her a lazy smile. “On the contrary, I’d be happy if you kept on discussing the topic and telling me how good and honorable and amazing you think I am. Hell, you can even mention my nice ass and eyes and my undeniably irresistible s*x appeal if you want to. Go right ahead.”

“You are so freaking incorrigible,” she charged on a prim and proper scowl.

“Am I?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Incorrigible must be your kryptonite, then, because your eyes light up like it’s Christmas morning whenever I incorrige you.”

“Incorrige isn’t a word,” she muttered on an irritated huff.

“And yet your eyes are still gleaming like you want me.”

A flush stained her cheeks, even as she cried, “They most certainly are not.”

I pointed, grinning like crazy. “Then why are you blushing so hard right now?”

“Oh my God.” She threw up her hands and spun away to walk a few steps across the room, gaining some space between us before she whirled back. “Here’s the deal. If you give me an exclusive interview about Black Crimson, I’ll keep your identity private. No one will ever have to know it’s you. How about that?”

“No deal,” I spat back. “Because one: I’m not Black Crimson. And two: even if I were, it’s still too crappy of a deal to accept. If that vandal gave you an exclusive, even with his identity fully protected, you’d get famous, while he got…?” I shook my head, confused. “What, nothing? I’m not seeing any benefits for him in this situation.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “You’d get the satisfaction of sharing your story, that’s what you’d get.”

I snorted. “Except I don’t give a f**k about sharing my story.”

“Yes, you do,” she countered, pointing at me as her eyes lit over the fact that I’d basically just admitted who I was. Eagerly, she shifted closer. “Everyone wants to share their accomplishments with the world.”

“Not about this, I don’t.”

“I’ll make sure it hits the front page,” she crooned with a teasing grin that made my d**k throb with need.

Damn, even the way her mouth curved was more than I could take.

I glanced away to control the insatiable urge, only to turn back and shake my head. “Come on, Mayhem. You’re going to have to sweeten the pot more than that.”

Frowning out an exasperated grumble, she said, “I don't know what you’re getting at here, Carmichael? But if you’re suggesting that I should have s*x with you in order to—”

“Yes. Always,” I said immediately. “I’m always, one hundred percent suggesting that you should have s*x with me. But I’ve been warned away from you, remember? So no, I’m not at all saying I’ll give you an interview if you’d just f**k me. Because if I had permission, I already would’ve had you multiple times without having to agree to any damn interview.”

“Wow.” She shook her head and sniffed bitterly. “You certainly think highly of yourself, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “Why not? No one else ever has, so I figured someone needed to.”

She blinked, thrown by that statement. When a flicker of unsure sympathy glinted in her eyes, my gut clenched. The last thing I wanted from her was any kind of pity. So I snapped my fingers once in front of her eyes like I was some kind of a hypnotist drawing her out of her trance.

With another startled sweep of her lashes, she seemed to return to her own cognition, and she promptly scowled at me. “So what do you really want?” she demanded, back to normal again. “Money?”

I shrugged. “Sorry. Already got more of that than I need.”

She stepped close. “Then what”—She paused significantly to flash her teeth—“do you want?”

God, I wanted to spend a month inside her.

When she looked up into my eyes, it felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t remember ever feeling such a dizzying loss of control in the presence of anyone like this before.

It was only because she was forbidden to me, I decided.

But still…

This seemed a bit extreme.

I was certain I’d been told the word no before. I was Lana Price’s son so, of course, I had. She had liked to deny me things just for the shits and giggles of it. But I couldn’t recall getting told no whenever the situation involved a woman I wanted to f**k.

Huh. Was I honestly so pampered that being warned away from one simple female affected me like this? I couldn’t even think past my yearning to strip her naked.

Damn, I had issues.

“You want to know what I really want?” I told her. “Fine. I want you to convince me why it would be the best thing to do.” Leaning in, I finished with, “For the world.”

She pulled back to blink at me in surprise. “You need an altruistic reason?”

Hell, yes, I needed an altruistic reason. This whole crusade was about healing pain.

I mean, yeah, in the beginning, I’d started my tagging ways for myself, to fight off the dark, selfish, bitter things in my life that seemed to be suffocating me from the inside out. It’d been a cathartic way to shed the anger I’d had at Isaac for not saving me from Lana all those years before.

But then, after all the positive, uplifting feedback I’d seen come from it, I started doing it to embrace the light and find my way to a better place, while taking as many people to that place with me as I could carry. So no way in f*****g hell did I want anything but more therapeutic comfort and encouragement to come from my work.

Besides, I was confident little Miss Determined would never come up with an altruistic reason, so I simply nodded. “Mm-hmm.”

“Fine.” Eyes flashing with a fiery triumph, she crossed her arms over her chest and smirked.

“You inspire this entire town,” she started. “It doesn’t matter what walk of life a person comes from, there’s always some problem and trial in their day that they have to overcome. And when they look up and see your artwork and those quotes you paint, they can walk away with a little more energy in their step. Without fail. It’s as if you’ve somehow lightened the load and emboldened them, letting them know we all have common problems, no matter the shade of them, and we can make it through this. You save lives from emotional darkness, and with that kind of power, it’s basically become your responsibility to give us a little bit about who you are and why you’ve taken on this torch in the first place.”

Her chest heaved after her impassioned speech, and her breathing was a little more ragged, while her eyes had taken on this darkened glitter that told me she truly, honestly believed what she’d just spewed more than she believed anything in her life.

It was intimidating, frankly. This woman thought I was some kind of beacon of light that uplifted lost and wayward souls. And yes, that had eventually become the goal, but to see that I’d actually accomplished it with her—

It scared the s**t out of me. I suddenly never wanted her to know that I’d only ever started this because I had felt lost.

Giving a small shake of my head, I murmured, “No deal.”

Her shoulders sagged as she exhaled roughly. “You can’t really mean that,” she pleaded.

I didn’t like seeing her disappointed, but no way was I telling her my true story now.

Steeling myself against those big, begging, brown eyes, I reached past her and took a cookie off the plate that had been left on the coffee table. “Tell Gran thanks for these, will you?”

And I turned away, biting into it as I walked out the door.

I’d already polished off the snack and was dusting off my fingers so I could pull my phone from my back pocket by the time I reached the stairwell.

Pausing, I punched in a quick message to two people, and then I began to jog down the steps.

BRICK: That’s it. I’m going to need you two to recant the request you made for me to keep my d**k out of Camille Blanchette. Pronto.I didn’t even make it to the landing on the third floor before I got my first response from my sister-in-law.

GABBY: Wow. Tell a person they can’t have something, and suddenly that’s all they want. BRICK: That’s not why.With a wave of my hand, I muttered, “Not mostly why, anyway,” just as Kaity’s reply came through.

KAITY: Brick, it’s been over a week since you didn’t even meet her at the party, and you’re STILL thinking about her. I think her forbidden factor is EXACTLY why.I rolled my eyes and sighed.

GABBY: Which means stay away from her, bud.Damn, they were persistent with this, weren’t they? Well, I wasn’t too worried. If they truly loved me, they’d give in.

BRICK: But you guys don’t understand.After sending that, I kept typing, biting down on my bottom lip and trying to explain the only way I knew how.

BRICK: I HAVE to f**k this woman. If I don’t get her out of my system, I’m going to go crazy. KAITY: No, you won’t. BRICK: Will too. GABBY: Dude. If you want it out of your system, then give yourself a hand job.Oh, so they were going to go there, huh? Well, I could argue that point. Easily.

BRICK: I have! About a dozen of them now. And I still want HER. This isn’t going to go away until I get my curiosity appeased. So just one night. That’s all I’m asking for. And then I’ll leave her alone forever. I swear.Silence followed my plea. I took that as a good sign. I mean, at least they weren’t automatically naysaying me, anymore. That was progress. My foot was in the door.

And if I was talented at anything, it was wiggling the rest of me into any place I wanted after I got my foot solidly jammed in the opening of a situation.

I reached the first floor and was already out on the street by the time Gabby answered.

GABBY: Wow. If it’s really that big of a deal to you, then why are you even asking for our permission?Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Nudge, nudge, nudge. I had them right where I wanted them now. Grinning, I dropped the big bomb, and I laid it on thick, too.

BRICK: Because for some f****d-up reason, I actually value your opinions of me. I keep my circle of important people small, yet you two made the cut. So, congratulations. Now tell me you’re not going to hate me if I trip and fall and accidentally dip my c**k in your friend until we both have at least three orgasms each. Because I’m really not sure if I can stay away from her.There. If either of them could tell me that odious N-word now, then they never really cared about me at all.

GABBY: Um… That sounds extreme for someone you’ve never even talked to.Shit. Now I was going to have to fess up if I really wanted them to agree to this.

BRICK: Okay, fine. Small confession. I DID talk to her. Outside your place. After the party. We were both heading home and just, you know, bumped into each other.When no one responded to that fast enough for my peace of mind, I added another text.

BRICK: It was magical. KAITY: Oh my God. You like her! You really LIKE Camille. Don’t you? Holy wow, this changes everything.I slowed to a stop and cringed. Well, f**k. Maybe I took it too far. Now, they were going to start thinking in terms of permanence and commitment. Time for a little backpedaling.

BRICK: No. Don’t do that. Don’t put sappy emotional s**t on this. She’s...interesting, maybe, but this is still purely about s*x and getting my rocks off. End of story. GABBY: Then why can’t you just chase after someone new if it’s only about s*x? BRICK: Because…Because it wasn’t only about getting my rocks off; it was about getting them off with that specific woman who challenged and entertained me. I liked her. Except I couldn’t admit that to these two, or they’d get ideas. Instead, I just stalled, feeling lost and supremely worried that they’d never see eye-to-eye with me on this very important topic.

But then my new sister-in-law answered.

GABBY: How about this? If Camille comes on to you and instigates something, we won’t hold it against you and accuse you of using our friend. But YOU cannot be the seducer. KAITY: Yeah, I could agree to those terms too. We won’t get upset with you for having s*x with our friend if SHE is the one who initiates it.Holy s**t. Had they really just agreed to—

Yes!

Yes, they had.

And that was it. I was all the way through the doorway and inside their hallowed Permission Hall, exactly where I wanted to be.

Grinning out my triumph, I typed back one last message.

BRICK: Sold! You guys are the absolute best. I want you to know that. Best sisters ever. GABBY: Hell yes, we are. KAITY: And don’t forget it. Especially on my birthday.