The Sweet Addiction Series Collection: Sweet Addiction, Sweet Possession & Sweet Obsession (30 page)

Joey immediately backs up. “Fuck that. What the fuck did I do?”

Ian looks at Reese who quickly steps forward, holding his hands out to me. I step in and slap him hard, harder than I’ve slapped him before and yelp as my hand begins to sting. “Shit.” I shake my hand and feel Reese grab it, looking at it as his reddened cheek glares at me.
That looks like it hurts. Good.

“Jesus,” Ian says and Joey muffles a laugh. The redhead pops into my mind and so does the image of her sitting on the park bench last weekend. “Oh, my God. I knew that bitch was psychotic.” I yank my hand out of Reese’s as he begins to rub it.

“What are you talking about?” he asks.

“Juls and I saw that whore staring at you guys while you played basketball on Sunday. It was really fucking weird.” My eyes flick from Ian to Reese and I see a small smile pull at Reese’s lips. “What the hell are you smiling at? You
do
realize I have another hand to slap the shit out of you with, right?”

“You were watching our game?”

Oh, damn it.
“No,” I snarl and his smile widens. I hear a muffled laugh from Ian. “Maybe. That’s not the point. She was staring at you guys and it was really fucking creepy.” I grit my teeth. “That stupid bitch. She better pray I never see her face again, otherwise I’m going to break it.” I know my face is blood red and see all three men smiling at me in amusement. “Shut up,” I snap and turn at the sound of the shop door opening. I freeze as Justin steps into the bakery and possibly also into the room he will die in.

“Fuck,” Joey and I say in unison as Reese moves quickly, grabbing me with one arm and pulling me behind him.

“What the
fuck
are you doing here?” he blasts as my eyes stay glued on Justin. He looks fucked up, seriously fucked up. Eyes are swollen, his nose is jacked up, and he has a massive cut in the corner of his mouth. I briefly feel sorry for him until I remember his hands on me last week. His mouth is hanging open and his eyes widen at the sight of Reese. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting him to be here.

“I told you to stay the fuck away from her!” Reese shouts, loud enough that I think the glass window rattles.

Ian moves to stand between the two men. “Justin, this isn’t the best time, man,” he says as he keeps his hand on Reese’s heaving chest.

This is not what I need right now and I’m angry enough to deal with this asshole myself. I move quickly out from behind Reese and step in front of Justin, feeling Ian’s body tense. “I suggest you leave now before I cut your dick off and feed it to you.” His eyes widen as he backs up slightly. I step closer and close the gap. “I’d say I’d make you choke on it, but let’s be serious, that thing never once satisfied me.” My eyes flick quickly to his crotch before I smirk back in his face.

“HA!” Joey laughs behind me and I want to turn around and high-five him, but I don’t. I just watch my ex shrink a few inches in front of me.

“Jesus Christ. I just wanted to apologize for what I did, Dylan. I’m sorry, okay?” His eyes flick to Reese. “Really fucking sorry.”

My body relaxes a bit and I nod once before flicking my eyes to the door. “Good, now get the fuck out.”

“Whatever.” He turns sharply and leaves the shop and I force all the air out of my lungs.
Fuck, I feel like I need a drink.

“Shit, Dylan. Remind me never to cross you. You’re a bit terrifying.” Ian laughs behind me as I spin to see two very amused expressions and one that isn’t so amused.

Reese looks a right mix of angry and apprehensive. “I need to get back to work, but we need to talk about this.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Talk about what? That one of your twenty hook ups sent me pictures of her making you come? Nah, I’m good.” I push past him and feel his hand on my arm, spinning me back around.

“We
will
fucking talk about this,” he growls and puts the box under his arm before he pulls me in and kisses me forcefully on the lips. I hear a soft moan in my throat and try to swallow it down.
Damn it, stupid body. Stay angry with me
. He pulls away and turns toward the door. “Let’s go, Ian.”

Joey and I stand in the middle of the shop and watch as the two hot CPAs walk out the door and pile into the white Range Rover parked out front.

The rest of the day goes by without a hitch. No more obscene deliveries and no more mangled ex-boyfriends coming in with overdue apologies. This day started out so great and turned awful within a matter of minutes. I’m miserable and bitchy and Joey is paying for it because he’s the only person I can yell at right now. I’d never call Reese at work and cuss him out, no matter how pissed off I am at him. I’m much more of a show up and barge into his office type of girl. But I won’t do that today either because I really don’t want to see him. The man is hard to stay mad at in person, and right now, I need to stay mad. Juls is wrapping up with a bride all day, dealing with last minute wedding preparations, so she’s off limits too. So my poor assistant has been dealing with my mood swings, and they have been a doozy.

Mainly because the memory of the amazing night and morning I had with Reese keeps filtering into the memory of the photos I received. And I get it; it’s not his fault the photos were sent to me. He obviously didn’t send them. But he allowed them to be taken and had to have known they could possibly be leaked or shown to somebody. I’ve never let anyone take pictures of me like that or taken ones of myself and sent them to anybody. So why did he let her do it? Did she mean something to him? Was she special in some way or did he allow all of his hook ups to take pictures of him like that? That thought makes me want to drink myself into tomorrow. And then there’s the quantity that I received. There had to be at least twelve different shots of him having an orgasm. Twelve separate times they fucked and she made him come. Were there more than that? Did she only send me the best images? His words from our shower together run through me.
I don’t usually fuck my flings repeatedly.
So she obviously wasn’t a fling. She was more than that to him. Just like me. Maybe she got too clingy and that’s why he ended things with her. She was the girl he wasn’t really serious with before the wedding. And he’s not really serious with me. How am I any different than her?

“Cupcake, you all right?” Joey asks as I put the finishing touches on the cake for the Brown/Tucker wedding. Even though my mind has been elsewhere, I’m still able to put together a beautiful, four-tiered, white chocolate creation with sugared Gerber daisies cascading down the side. “Dylan?”

I step back and admire my work. “I’m fine. Come look at this, will you?” Joey shuffles back into the kitchen and I hear his reaction, causing me to smile. I turn and see his adoring expression. “Looks pretty good, right?”

He moves next to me and puts his arm around my shoulder, pulling me against him. “Gorgeous. You never cease to amaze me, cupcake.” He plants a quick kiss into my hair as my phone beeps. Somehow, even though I had hurled it with all my strength against my wall earlier, it managed to survive the assault. I reach quickly into my pocket after wiping my hands off on my apron.

Reese: I need to see you tonight.

I show it to Joey. “Well, you knew that was coming; the boy is persistent.” He leans in and checks out the flowers. “What are you going to do?”

I stare at his message before I answer. “I don’t know. I think I need a night with my two best friends and no boys. Can that happen?” He smiles and pulls his phone out, quickly messing with it. I’ll deal with Reese tomorrow when we both attend Billy and Joey’s party.

His phone beeps and he turns toward me. “Juls is in, cupcake. No boys.” I nod and smile weakly as I reply to Reese.

Me: I can’t tonight. I need some time to think.

Joey walks back up front while I await his response. It doesn’t take long.

Reese: Don’t pull away from me.

He guts me with his words, the same words from last night. Is he
that
worried I’ll end this? Or he is just worried I won’t give him the opportunity to explain the situation. I type quickly.

Me: I’m not. I just think I need some space. You have no idea what this feels like for me.

I go to press send, but don’t, my thumb hovering over the button.
Shit. Do I really want space from him?
Hitting the back button, I shorten the message before I send it.

Me: I’m not.

Joey drives us to Juls’ house after we close up shop and make a quick liquor store run. There is no way in hell I’m not drinking tonight. I’m actually surprised I didn’t dive into the vodka bottle that’s been in my freezer for months at some point today. But I’d never drink at work, no matter how hurt or pissed off I was. Reese hasn’t sent me any more messages or tried to call, which I’m grateful for. But it also surprises me. He is so damned persistent about everything that I half expected him to barge into the shop before closing, throw me over his shoulder, and take me home with him so we could fuck, talk, and fuck some more. And I hate that a chunk of me wishes he would have. But tonight isn’t about boys. It’s about spending time with my two best friends, laughing and hanging out like we did before the three of us fell fast and hard for members of the Chicago man candy club.

Joey parks outside Juls’ building and we walk inside together. She lives in Hyde Park, which is about fifteen minutes from the bakery, in a two bedroom apartment. She’s lived here since graduation, and it occurs to me as we walk up the flight of stairs to the second floor that she will only be living here for a few more months. She will surely move in with Ian after the wedding, and the thought of her not living in this place that holds so many of our memories saddens me. I sigh and catch Joey’s attention as we step out onto the floor.

“Come on, cupcake, we’re here to have fun, not sulk.” I follow him to Juls’ door and he opens it without knocking, in true Joey form. Once he’s been to your house, he feels like he lives there along with you.

“I’m not sulking. I’ll just miss this place once Juls moves in with Ian.” We spot her in the kitchen opening a bottle of wine and she beams at us. “Do you remember that time we threw that eighties party here and you dressed up like Vanilla Ice?” He blushes at my memory as we plop down in front of the television on the floor.

Juls walks over with three wine glasses and hands them out. “That was fucking hilarious. You knew the entire rap from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” she says. I giggle into my glass and take a few large sips.

“Christ, I will never live that shit down. Thank God no one took any video of that mess.”

“That party was insane,” Juls says behind her glass. “Dyl, remember how pissed off you got at Justin because he was the only person here
not
dressed up?”

I nod and picture the memory, rolling my eyes at it and taking a sip. “What an asshole. He spent the entire party bitching about the music selections. It was a fucking
eighties
party. What did he expect?”

Joey laughs around his glass. “I think he expected you to just leave with him and not have an amazing time. But you have never been that girl, cupcake, and he should have known that. What a waste he was.” Juls and I mumble in agreement.

“A waste that ended up getting
exactly
what he deserved. Prick,” she adds, tossing us each a pillow so we can sprawl out on the floor. “Are we going to talk about the pictures, sweets?”

“No,” I quickly reply.

Joey rolls onto his side. “You can’t be mad about girls he’s fucked before you. That’s not fair. He didn’t even know you when those pictures were taken.”