Loving War Read online

  “Hitting the good stuff, Tria?” he asks, but he doesn’t wait on my response before coming to stand behind me. He places a pool stick directly in front of my body before saying, “One game.”

  I shiver when my body refuses to be as strong against him as my mind.

  “I’ll even let you go first,” he adds, making it sound so much dirtier than necessary as his breath coats my ear with a teasing touch.

  Damn him.

  “Fine.” I take the stick away from him, and ignore his hard as hell length against my back before stepping away. “One game. And if you do anything to embarrass me, I’ll break this stick on your balls. Got it?”

  Why am I doing this? Any sane girl who knows Kode as well as I do would run away before he can execute whatever terrible plan of torture he has in mind.

  “Got it,” he says, grinning like he has already won.

  I warily step to the other side of the table, and I do my best to focus on breaking the balls. I strike the white ball hard, but it slowly rolls right instead of into the triangle.

  Crap.

  “Here,” he says, walking around the table to come stand behind me again. Damn. Why is he so hard? “You’re doing it wrong. Let me show you.”

  His body rests over mine as he leans against my back and wraps his arms around me to adjust my hold on the stick. “Like this,” he says against my ear, pressing harder against me. “And then one easy stroke with just the right amount of force will be perfect.”

  I swallow hard. I really don’t like this game.

  The waitress returns with a glass of vodka for me, and I almost run out of the intimate position we’re in before I guzzle it down. I should leave. But I can’t. My twisted mind keeps wanting him to play with me a little more.

  I really need to get laid if I’m fantasizing what it would be like to be bent over a pool table by Kode Sterling.

  Chapter 2

  KODE

  I’m about to explode. Every time I help her line up her next shot, I press my cock as hard against her as I possibly can. Surely she’s felt it by now. She has to be turned on. Doesn’t she?

  I need a CAT scan.

  Maverick and Corbin are still clueless about who I’m with. Apparently they don’t recognize her any better than I did, but they’re staying on the far side of the bar, completely engulfed by the women around them. I’ve ignored the curious looks from Raya and Kade. If I don’t find a way to fuck Tria and get this over with, I might commit myself to the asylum.

  Surely if I fuck her, then I’ll be fine. It’ll be out of my system.

  Tria was always pretty enough, but it was hard to see her as anything other than the enemy because of Rain. Now... I fucked up by not knowing it was her. Had I known right away it was her, then I wouldn’t have fallen into this nonsensical infatuation.

  “Eight ball, corner pocket,” she says, bending over right in front of me.

  I groan as her dress slides up just enough to make me want to slam into her from behind. I want to be buried inside her right now. I can’t do it. It’s Tria. She’s hotter than I’ve ever fucking noticed before, but it’s Tria, damn it.

  “Never gonna happen,” I mutter, reminding myself this is off-limits.

  “Watch me,” she says, thinking I was referring to her shot.

  I step closer, my feet moving of their own accord, and I run my hand over her ass before I realize what I’m doing. I shouldn’t have had so much liquor. It makes me too hands-on.

  She stiffens under my touch, and I give her ass a squeeze, feeling my dick almost try to detach after the extended amount of time it’s been fully erect. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever needed to fuck someone so badly in all my life.

  My emotions and thoughts keep contradicting themselves, making it hard to decipher what the hell I’m actually going to do.

  “I need to go,” she says, putting the pool stick down on the table without attempting her shot.

  She staggers slightly, and I wrap my arms around her to steady her... Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

  “You’re drunk,” I say, waving at the waitress to bring over my tab. “You can’t drive.”

  “I have a hotel room,” she mumbles. “Across the street. I planned ahead.”

  She had to mention a hotel. Damn. And what was she planning for?

  “Don’t tell me you came here to get laid,” I almost growl.

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t. I need to go. Mission not accomplished.”

  Really? She’s not the least bit turned on by me? After all that?

  “I’ll walk you.” I’m a little pissed that she was going to fuck some stranger but not me. At least she knows me.

  I roll my eyes when the voice in my head starts sounding like an annoying bitch instead of a badass guy.

  “I can walk myself,” she says, pushing away from me.

  Fine. If she doesn’t even want me to walk her out, then who am I to argue? She’s a grown woman.

  When she staggers all the way to the door, my jaw clenches. She’s not fit to cross a street alone. Some guy winks at a group of his buddies when he spots her, and he ducks out the door behind her, making his intentions clear.

  Oh hell no.

  I take quick strides, ignoring Maverick when he yells for me, and I burst through the doors to see the guy laughing as he steadies her.

  “I’ve got you, sweetheart,” he says, chuckling. “Where’re you headed? I’ll help you.”

  Like hell.

  “I’ve got her,” I interrupt, knocking his hands off her as I wrap my arm around her waist.

  “The fuck you do,” he snarls, acting like I’m stealing easy prey from his jaws.

  “Kode,” Tria purrs, smiling as she pulls at my shirt. “Take me to my room.”

  From the pool table to here, she’s finally making sense. Good.

  The guy rolls his eyes, but he walks away, sulking. I start crossing the street with her safely tucked under my arm, but I’m staggering almost as badly as she is.

  We both laugh when we take a diagonal route by mistake, and she clutches me tighter once we reach the sidewalk. I smirk when she takes off her heels and holds them in one hand.

  “So much better,” she groans, and then she tugs at my jacket. “Come in with me.”

  I smile as she tugs me harder. “I’ll walk you to your room.”

  Her vixen’s grin only makes my already aching cock hurt that much more. But I can’t fuck her now. Not now that she’s this drunk. It’s as though walking outside made the alcohol catch up with her. Hate it when that shit happens.

  We step into the elevator, and she presses the button for the fifth floor. I notice she doesn’t have a purse. It’s not like her dress has pockets. Where’s her key?

  She staggers into me, and in my already drunken state, I stumble into the wall. “Mmm,” she says, making me laugh as she rubs up against me.

  The doors open, and I start steering her off the elevator. “Which room?” I ask, trying not to act affected when she continues to tug at my shirt and backs against a door.

  “This one.”

  I tilt my head, ready to ask where her key is, when she reaches into her bra with her free hand. My eyes dart down—of course—and I get a peek at her erect nipples behind the lacy bra. That’s like putting a steak in front of a starving man.

  I groan as I lose all my ability to hold back, and I lower my head while pushing her dress and bra down in unison to allow way for my mouth to close over the hard little nub.

  She moans when she feels it, and she pulls me to her, tangling her fingers in my hair when she drops her shoes to the floor. That thin thread of sanity I had snaps, my morality collapses into a pile of rubble, and I lift her into the air before pressing her hard against the door.

  I jerk the key out of her hand and blindly fumble with it, never moving my mouth away from her breast until the door opens. After I kick her shoes inside, we stumble into the room, and I lose my hold on her nipple, but her mout
h is on mine before I can go for it again.

  Her greedy tongue sweeps in and my knees try to buckle. I’ve been kissed by many girls, but this is more than a kiss. It’s as though Tria is unleashing years of pent-up desire on me, and imprinting herself on me with each hungry stroke of her tongue.

  The door slowly shuts on its own as we start tearing the place apart. She actually rips my shirt off as her legs clamp around my waist, and I start unzipping the back of the dress that has been fucking with my head all night.

  Everything around me becomes forgotten. The sounds echoing through the room are raw and desperate, both of us seeking all we can get from the other before the illusion is shattered and we have to return to reality.

  “You’d better have a condom,” she says against my lips, making me smile.

  If she’s sober enough to think about protection, then she’s sober enough for us to do this. God knows I can’t stop now.

  “I’ve got plenty.”

  Her kiss resumes—an almost violent and punishing kiss that has my eyes trying to roll back in my head. I hold her to me for a second longer before I put her down, quickly removing and discarding her dress.

  Fuck me. Tria in lace isn’t something I was prepared for. A thong? I’m never going to last. Not after being hard for this long.

  She reaches her hand in my pants, and delicate fingers take a firm grip on my cock, stroke it, and make me stumble again when my knees falter. Damn. She’s going to make me fuck up and come too early if she keeps this up.

  I lift her to be on the dining table in her massive suite. Her girly panting makes me hurry my motions as I fumble for a condom. She gets to work pushing my pants down while I tear open the condom, and I roll her thong down, desperate to be buried inside her the way I’ve fantasized about being all night long.

  I rip the pack open with my teeth, but she takes the condom from me and rolls it on like I’m taking too long. The slightest touch of her hands on my cock has me counting to ten, trying my damnedest not to embarrass myself.

  The second it’s secure, she spreads her legs and jerks me to her. A low growl comes from my throat as I grip her to me, my eyes roll back as I sink in, and I almost come then and there when she moans in delight.

  I was really hoping she wouldn’t feel this damn good. Fuck. It’s like a hot, wet, velvet heaven is encasing me, squeezing me like a gentle vice.

  I start moving slowly, doing what I can to last long enough for her to find her release first, but it’s never going to happen. Not after the way she’s had me worked up all night.

  “Kode,” she murmurs, pushing back.

  Fuck. She’s changing her mind now? Damn it.

  “Yeah?” I mutter, going down to kiss her neck, praying she doesn’t stop me just yet.

  “We hate each other,” she says, tilting her head to give me a better angle, and I take advantage. I also push back inside her, making her breath catch when our bases meet and rub together.

  “So?” I ask, knowing where she’s going with this, but praying I’m wrong.

  “So fuck me like you hate me, already.”

  Damn. If I didn’t hate her, I think that would have made me fall in love. That’s really not going to help me last long.

  I pull out of her and flip her over, pressing her against the table, and I slam into her from behind before she has time to register my actions.

  “So much better,” she moans as I ram into her again, and that’s all I can take.

  Fucking three strokes later and I’ve humiliated myself by getting off so damn quickly.

  “No,” she groans, pressing back on me, begging me to keep going.

  “Five minutes is all I need, and then I’ll fuck you like I hate you all night,” I say against her ear, enjoying the chills that rise on her soft skin.

  “You’d better.”

  Chapter 3

  TRIA

  Shit. It wasn’t a dream. Kode Sterling is still in my bed, proving all my wild fantasies from the night before weren’t just incredible dreams. Even the devil sleeps, apparently.

  His arms are closed around me—a parody of a lover’s embrace—and his blonde hair looks even blonder in the room full of early-morning sunshine. His evenly tanned skin, along with that hair, gives him the appearance of a laidback surfer, instead of a Sterling mogul. And that body… No man should have a body like that to match a face like his. It’s just not fair to the rest of the world.

  He looks so peaceful, and if everything I remember is real, then he’s probably exhausted.

  No. No. No. This can’t be happening.

  Groaning internally, I rush to the bathroom to pull on my robe. After stepping over all the carnage, I quietly slip into the bathroom in search of a few answers. I gasp when I see the trashcan. One, two, three, four... five condoms? Oh damn. This is bad. So, so bad.

  How do I face him now? Maybe he was too drunk to remember it was me. Surely he was.

  Since I’m in a straight panic and have no idea what to say or do, I decide to shower. Maybe he’ll just leave while I’m in there. Perhaps he’ll think it was some random girl and not the object of his hatred. I have nothing in there that would tell him it was me... unless he finds my purse.

  The water blasts free from the showerhead, and I stay under it, praying it cleanses me completely from the devil’s touch that I can’t seem to stop thinking about. He’s my enemy—has been for years. One night of amazingly hot sex doesn’t change that fact.

  I swear it’s the longest shower I’ve ever taken, and if he’s still in my bed, I might just scream. I steady my breath, clutch my towel, and push through the door to find an empty room.

  Thank God.

  But what happens now?

  ***

  TRIA

  “You’re late. You are coming tonight, right?” Rain asks over the phone.

  “I’m coming.”

  I’m not really too thrilled about it. I’ll have to see Kode, and after waking up in a hotel with him yesterday... this could be awkward. No, awkward is too kind of a word for how this will probably play out.

  “Great. How far away are you?”

  I glance up at the enormous house right next to the ocean, staring at the front door that promises a night of problems, especially considering the fact that Kode’s favorite Audi is already here.

  The devil awaits.

  “I’m here now.”

  I hang up as I take my first wary step, moving away from the safety of my car that promises to whisk me away from this certain hell. I knew I’d have to face him sooner or later.

  Each step I take forces more knots to form in my stomach. By the time I make it to the door, I’m ready to double over from the weight of the dread that is festering inside me. But I’m a big girl, so I force myself to act composed and confident, and I walk in, ready to face the worst. That’s a lie; I’m not ready. But I can fake it like a pro.

  Maverick is the first one I see, and he motions toward the living room. “Everyone’s in there. You’ve missed most of the fun.”

  He still hates me. I can see it in his eyes. There was a time when my sister and I had… issues. I never did anything half as vicious as they thought I did, but it’s apparently not good enough. Dane is the only Sterling boy who doesn’t envision my head on a stake.

  I don’t say anything. Maverick leads, I follow, and we make our way toward the living room in heavy, uncomfortable silence. I almost get sick when I see the familiar strands of sandy blonde.

  Kode.

  In his designer suit that fits him too damn well, he looks like royalty. It was a lot easier to not drool before I knew how good he was in bed. Now... shit. I hate this.

  I feel shallow and stupid for even having this twisted attraction to him. He’s the spawn of evil, and I fucked him all too willingly because of his outer-coating. I wish he looked half as hideous on the outside as he is on the inside.

  He looks up from his conversation with Dane, but he merely glances my way before returning his attent
ion to his brother. I’m surprised by the pang of disappointment that strikes.

  That’s exactly what I wanted. So why do I feel like he just slapped me in the face?

  “Finally,” Rain says as she comes to hug me. “I was starting to worry that you weren’t going to make it at all. We’re not far from doing the last toast, and then we’re going to discuss Vegas for next week.”

  Vegas. Crap. I forgot about Vegas. Dane’s engagement gift to Rain is a trip to Vegas with all her friends. I really wish I could go back in time and refuse that offer.

  ***

  KODE

  I’m actually sweating. Dane is talking, but I can’t hear a damn word coming out of his mouth. It was supposed to be a one-night get-it-out-of-my-system fuck, and now I’m fighting incredibly hard not to look her way.

  Christ. Does she have to wear such short dresses?

  My eyes ride up her legs, scandalously peeling off her clothes as I think back to what she looks like in lace and nothing else. She’s oblivious to my appraisal since her attention is focused on Rain.

  “So you’re still good with Vegas?” Dane asks, finally breaking through my thoughts.

  “Vegas,” I murmur, smiling then frowning in a fluent motion. I should be thinking about gambling, drinking, or half-dressed women throwing themselves at me, but all I can think about is having a week where I’m just down the hall from Tria. “Vegas is good.” Vegas is going to be so damn bad.

  When Tria’s eyes meet mine, I try to force a smile of some sort, but my lips don’t cooperate. I’m so fucking confused right now, and it’s pissing me off.

  No. Tria is off-limits. It was one night of insanely hot sex. One night. I can’t go back there. I don’t want to go back there.

  I break the eye contact when she does manage to force a smile. This is the woman I’ve hated for years. She’s Rain’s evil sister. I don’t care if they’ve made up. She was still a bitch to Rain, and Rain is my best friend. End of story. Tria is too good at being a bitch to stay nice for too long. She’ll fuck up with Rain, and my hatred will return.