1. Max

I signaledto the bartender for another round. At this point, he didn’t even need me to raise two fingers. Hell, anytime he saw my glass empty, he knew I needed another. He also knew when to cut me off, which was about closing time.

I nodded my appreciation and took a drink of my whiskey, savoring the rich flavor. Usually, I went for the cheap stuff. With as much as I drank, I couldn’t afford to get the good stuff every night, but today was different.

Today was a day to get drunk off my ass and take the prettiest girl in the bar home. And it had nothing to do with family, work, or personal issues. It was Tuesday, and there was no fucking better reason to drink the good stuff than the mere fact that it was a Tuesday.

“I gotta ask,” Edu said, sliding onto the stool beside me. “What the hell is your secret?”

Ignoring him, I took another drink. At some point, these guys took it upon themselves to try and draw me into their inner circle, to try and make me one of them. Fuck if I knew why. I didn’t pay attention in meetings, I never spoke to anyone unless absolutely necessary, and every time someone invited me to some family bullshit, that was a big fucking no.

In fact, there wasn’t a goddamn thing about any of these guys that made me want to get all chummy with them. There were two kinds of people in this world. There were the people who needed someone—who believed no man was an island and all that bullshit. Then, there were the other kind of people—the men who really just wanted to be left alone.

I was the latter.

I was the good-time guy who liked to drink and party—mostly on my own or with a friendly female companion or two. I didn’t give a shit about a whole lot, and I definitely didn’t talk with other guys in bars. What was the point? I wasn’t here for them. I was here for me—to get rip-roaring drunk and go home with a nice piece of ass.

But for some unknown reason, something glitched in my brain right as I was taking a drink and I actually turned to Edu and talked to him. “My secret to what?”

“You go home with a different woman every night. They eye-fuck you the whole time you’re here, and I’ve never seen you have a conversation with any of them. Is there something you say to them?”

I swallowed the rest of my drink and set the glass on the bar top, waiting for my refill. “Nope.”

“That’s it?”

I turned and raised an eyebrow at him. He was lucky he’d gotten that much out of me.

“So, you’re saying there’s no trick to it. No code word you use or—what the hell?” he muttered, then stood, glaring at Scottie. “I said no fucking eighties music tonight!”

Huffing, he sat down. “Can you believe this shit? Every time he comes in here with Quinn, he makes us suffer through this shit.”

Again, there must have been a glitch in my brain. “Who’s Quinn?”

Edu’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “His wife. How do you not know that? They’re in here all the time, especially since Quinn took that field office job.”

I slowly spun in my seat, letting my gaze wander over the women in the crowd. Only one woman was dancing with Scottie. “I think I hit on her.”

“Seriously?”

“Pretty sure. Of course, I was drunk, so I can’t be too sure.”

I turned and went back to my drink.

“Well, that explains why he hates you so much.”

The reason he hated me was because I replaced him. And if I hit on his wife, that might have had some small part to play also, but I was guessing it was mostly about the whole pilot thing.

Mike refilled my drink, smirking at Edu trying to make friends with me. Mike never tried to talk to me, and it was pretty fucking clear he wasn’t the type of bartender who chatted with his patrons.

Edu continued to talk my ear off. I didn’t listen or even pretend to give a fuck about what he was saying. I drank my whiskey, and when Mike nodded that he was cutting me off, I spun on my stool, waiting for the world to right itself again, then scanned the eligible women left standing.

“Are you going for it?” Edu said excitedly. “Man, it’s like watching Superman in action.”

Ignoring him, I shoved away from the bar and sauntered over to a blonde with just a little too much bleach in her hair, and grabbed her around the waist. “Ready to go home?”

She blushed as her chin dipped slightly in acquiescence. I guided her away from the douche she was talking to and out the door.

“You drunk?”

“Not even a little.”

“Good,” I said, tossing her the keys. “You can drive.”

“Oh, your truck?” she actually sounded nervous, which I thought was cute, but not cute enough to give more than a second of thought.

“It’s just like riding a man, baby. Hold on for the ride and hit the gas.”

Whatever I said must have done the trick because she eagerly got into the driver’s side. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if anything I said made sense, but it worked and that was all that mattered. I half-assed my directions back to OPS, ignoring her when she asked what exactly I did. I wasn’t going home with her to learn her life story or to tell her mine. All I wanted was a good time between the sheets.

“Here,” I motioned to the main house.

“Wow,” she looked up in wonder. “It’s huge.”

“That’s what they all say about me.”

“Seriously, this is yours?”

“It’s what I call home,” I said as I stumbled out of the truck. Drunk or not, I could still give her a good time. I never had a problem getting it up—unless I was blackout drunk, and that rarely happened. That I could remember.

She interlaced her arm with mine, giggling as we walked up the steps. I fucking hated when they giggled. It was like they thought something special was going on here. Some men would say I should be more upfront and honest about what was happening. But it was pretty fucking obvious. I didn’t even ask her name before taking her home.

I strode into the house, pulling her up the stairs and bypassing all the guys hanging out. Even though a lot of them had their own houses now, this was like a frat house to them.

“Who are all those guys?”

“Just guys I work with.”

At the top of the stairs, I turned left and pulled her into my bedroom, slamming the door behind me, then shoving her up against the door. “Spread your legs, baby. I’m about to take you for a ride.”

I groanedinto my pillow as someone pounded on my door. “Go away!” I shouted, not ready for the day to begin.

Something soft trailed over my back in a gentle caress that was way too familiar. Not familiar in that I knew the touch, but familiar as in she thought she could touch me like that. But it was early, so I ignored her.

“Max!” The door swung open and the woman beside me jerked upright, taking my sheet with her.

“Who are you?”

“Edu.”

“You can’t just come in here! Who do you think you are? Max, tell him!”

I rolled over, my hand searching for the warmth of my sheet as I peeled my eyes open. “What?”

“Tell him he can’t barge in here! Tell him who I am!”

I squinted at her, trying to remember where I knew her from. Was I at the bar last night? Must have been. With smeared mascara and the slutty black bra, I doubt I would have picked her up at the supermarket. Not that I even knew where the supermarket was.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Ugh!” she screamed, shattering my eardrums. Getting up from the bed, she ripped the sheets away, taking everything with her, including the blanket that had just barely been hanging onto the foot of the bed. Even my pillow went flying. “Please tell me this is some really big misunderstanding,” she said calmly. “You must have hit your head or…or…gotten amnesia.”

“While I was sleeping?” I asked, finding it hilarious that she actually thought there was a misunderstanding. “Lady, not to be rude?—”

“Oh, I think we’re way past that,” Edu grinned, rocking back on his heels.

“Did you need something?” I glared at him.

“Just a meeting. It can keep.”

“How about you leave me alone?”

“Nah, this is more fun.”

I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t sure why he thought it was fun. Frankly, I was a little annoyed over the dramatics. Women came home with me all the time, then acted so insulted when I didn’t want to know their names or numbers.

“Okay, this is not happening,” the woman said, fanning her face as she tried not to cry. “I did not walk away from a perfectly nice man last night to come home with a disgusting pig who doesn’t even remember my name!”

I looked around my room. I wasn’t that disgusting. Sure, my clothes were on the floor and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done laundry. Oh, and the used cigars were piling up in the ashtrays, but other than that?—

“Did you tell me your name?” I asked.

Screaming under her breath, she picked up my boot and launched it right at my face. It hit me square in the nose and knocked me right out of bed and on my ass on the floor.

“Christ! What the hell was that for?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, her nostrils flaring in disgust. “You know, it’s men like you that give real gentlemen a bad name.”

“Me?” I said incredulously. “Lady, if I remember correctly, you didn’t even ask my name when you left the bar with me!”

“Are you slut shaming me?”

I stared at her, then nodded like an idiot. “Yeah!”

“Ooh,” Edu hissed. “I wouldn’t have gone there.”

The woman stomped around the foot of the bed and I slowly got to my feet in all my naked glory. No matter what this woman said or did, she had the time of her life last night, and now she wanted her revenge because I didn’t tell her how amazing she was and ask for her number.

“You know, I rocked your world last night.”

My head slowly bobbed up and down. “If I remembered anything after dragging you out of that bar, I’m sure I’d agree with you.”

A tiny vein throbbed in her forehead right before she thrust her knee into my nuts. I bent over, puking all over the floor and her feet as pain speared me like a wild boar. She jumped back with a shriek, hopping around on one foot as Edu laughed his ass off.

“You’re all a bunch of Neanderthals!” she cried. “I can’t believe I came back here with you! And now I have puke on me!”

I looked up at her through slitted eyes as I stayed hunched over to protect the goods. “Well, you did knee me in the balls. And I’m pretty sure I’m still half drunk. You sort of had it coming.”

And there was that vein throbbing again. I tucked in just in time, but as it turns out, that wasn’t the head she was going for. The bone of her knee slammed into my eye, sending me flying into the nightstand. My ashtray fell on my head, then shattered on the floor.

Out of all the women I’d brought home since I moved to Kansas, she was by far the most vengeful. I wouldn’t be surprised if all my tires were flat when I finally left the house.

“I am a good woman,” she huffed as she stomped around the room. “I did not deserve to be treated like this. And all for one night in bed with…with…you!” She stomped over and slammed her foot into my side, then hopped on one foot, screaming about how I broke her toe. “You bastard!”

“You kicked me!” I shouted. “Edu, a little help!”

He chuckled, shaking his head at me. “Yeah, I’m gonna stay over here.”

The woman ran out of the room, leaving me on the floor in pain. Groaning, I rolled over, then spotted a cigar that wasn’t completely used up and grabbed the lighter on the floor beside it.

“A woman just kicked the shit out of you and you’re smoking a cigar?” Edu laughed.

I shrugged. “It’s still good.”

“You need a psychiatrist.”

Shaking my head, I laid back on the ground and stared at the ceiling. “Nope, what I need is a drink.”

“I think drinking is what got you into this mess.”

“Wrong again. I was perfectly happy in the Caribbean. Then you guys showed up and ruined all my fun.”

“Yeah, it was us. Not the people you pissed off or the woman you dragged back here last night without bothering to find out her name.”

“She didn’t seem too worried about it when I brought her home.”

“Doesn’t matter now. You’re already beat to hell. Team meeting in ten.”

I nodded, then fumbled around until I found my sunglasses on the nightstand and slipped them over my eyes. If I was going to make it through this meeting, I’d need at least a few shots of vodka and a huge breakfast. Or at the very least, my pink shirt.

But since none of those things were likely to be within arm’s reach, I’d just have to sleep through the meeting and have the guys fill me in later.