“I gave it to her,” Nevada blurted out.
“What?” Vyr raged.
“I said…I…gave it to her?” Nevada’s voice grew smaller with each word.
“You gave my address to a stripper? Because that’s what she is, right? Cinnamon is a stripper name.”
“Plus, you went to the strip club two weeks ago and saw her there,” Nox said helpfully. “I followed you.”
Vyr blasted a tiny fireball into the fireplace that set the logs there to blazing. “Why do you follow me everywhere?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, asswipe. I follow Torren, too. And Nevada most of all. Because I’m bored! And you’re my crew, and I think we’re supposed to do that. Follow each other around.”
“Your friendship is weird,” Torren grumbled. God dangit, now he would have to talk to this girl and tell her to leave before Vyr lost his shit and Changed into the mother-freaking out-of-control Red Dragon. They were supposed to be keeping the alpha of the Sons of Beasts calm, not stressed. Nox was literally the worst man for that job.
“Vyr, you go to strip clubs?” Nevada asked.
“She’s coming this way!” Nox said, jumping on the leather couch against the window and spilling his beer.
“Careful!” Vyr yelled. “And what? Are you judging me, Nevada? It’s a strip club. I’m a dude.”
“Did you see Cinnamon’s purple, sparkly nipple tassels?” she asked without missing a beat.
Vyr clenched his fists on his thighs and emitted a low, dangerous rumble. “They were red when I went.”
“With sparkles?” Nox asked from where he was still standing on the couch. “I thought she would be wearing her stripper boots but she’s dressed regular.”
“Yes, they had sparkles,” Vyr muttered.
“What the hell?” Torren asked. “Has everyone seen this girl but me?” When he shoved Nox out of the way, his beer spilled all over the floor. Vyr yelled. Nox laughed. And Torren nearly choked on air at the hot little number sashaying her way up the stairs to the front door. Skintight jeans hugging her curves, a red sweater that was hiked up just enough to show a thin strip of bare skin on her hip, black snow boots to match her mittens and winter hat. She had auburn hair that she’d gathered into a messy bun just underneath her right ear, and her makeup and lipstick were dark. She had a nose piercing, just a little sparkle on her cute little nose.
“Did you say purple…tassels?” he asked dumbly, imagining her out of that little sweater. Crap, it had been too long since he’d had sex.
“I carved the hot dogs into penis shapes to make her more comfortable,” Nevada announced.
Torren was getting another headache. And a boner. Which was confusing. But suddenly he understood what Nox was talking about when he said his dick was confused. Huh. Maybe he did understand his language sometimes.
He needed to get this girl out of Vyr’s Mountains as soon as possible. Another rumble rattled up his throat.
Steady, HavoK.
She’s not for you.
No one is.
Chapter Four
This was the fanciest house Candace had ever laid eyes on. Even the door knocker was a dragon head with a huge ring through its nose. Creepy and cool all at once.
Maybe she should’ve worn the purple sweater. That one was looser and more modest, if Torren was looking for something like that. But then he wouldn’t have sent his friend to find him some steady sex if he needed a girl to bring home to Momma Kong.
The red was fine, plus it matched her lipstick. Everything was good.
To steady herself, she blew out three quick breathes that froze in front of her face. With a shaking hand, she knocked three times with her mitten-clad knuckles. On the fourth, the door swung open, and one very pissed-off red-haired giant stood there, taking up the entire door frame.
“My house, my land, my mountains, my territory. Fuck off.”
He looked familiar. “Do…” She frowned and angled her face to take in his features better. “Do I know you?”
“No one does. Are you hard of hearing?”
“Enough,” a deep, rumbling voice sounded from behind the behemoth. But as the red-haired man stepped to the side, Candace blinked hard and arched her neck all the way back to look at the literal giant behind the first. Oh. My. God. Torren was the size of a redwood and was as broad as a building. He rested both giant hands on each side of the doorframe and resembled the sexiest letter T she’d ever laid eyes on. His shredded arms flexed with the motion. He wore a black T-shirt in the dead of winter like the cold didn’t bother him at all. Right across his muscular chest was the word HavoK with a skull logo in white. Damn. He was owning the name the public gave him. Interesting. Both his arms were covered in tattoos to his knuckles. More ink showed from under the collar of his shirt and up his neck. He had a short black scruff on his chiseled jaw, and his eyes were the color of spring grass. It was such a light color, and glowing slightly. Must’ve been his animal color, but why was he riled up? She only got gold eyes if she was really upset, and she had good control over her animal. She could keep her human eye color if she really wanted. His hair was shaved on the sides and longer on top. It was a mess, as if he’d run his hands through it back and forth, but it was a sexy mess. It looked like he’d just rolled out of bed and didn’t care about fixing it perfectly. Hotboy. Those glowing green eyes dipped down, down, down her body, pausing briefly at her little knockers and her slim hips, then with a single, slow blink, he lifted that sexy gaze back to hers. Her heart was hammering against her chest so hard he must’ve heard it. Bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum. Heat flooded her cheeks and her breath quickened. What was he doing to her?
When he parted those full lips, she felt like she just might pitch forward and melt against him. This man was pure seduction.
His eyes said, “Stay,” but his inhuman voice said, “Fuck off.”
“I…” The rest of that sentence got stuck in her throat, so Candace swallowed hard to get rid of the cotton mouth and tried again. “I was invited.”
“You ain’t a damn vampire. Invites don’t count for as much as you think they do.”
Rude man. She’d always been attracted to rude men though, so his surliness wasn’t going to work like he wanted.
“Move, you beastly man,” Nevada said, shoving him hard. The titan didn’t move a single inch, so Nevada had to duck under his arm. “You boys are being so horrid right now!”
“I’m not!” a man called from behind the two giants blocking the door. “BJ points! We could make that a thing you know. Good behavior gets points? We could make a star chart. I’m being good so I get like four thousand BJ points.”
“God dammit, Nox,” Vyr said. “Shut up!”
“You would get negative four thousand BJ points, Beer,” the man responded.
“If you call me Beer one more time—”
“Eat me!” Nox yelled.