The Very Naughty List

26. Hailey

26

HAILEY

The car pulls into The Old Oak parking lot before I’m ready to get out. Hell, I don’t even know if I’m actually going to be able to stand up when the time comes. I’m shaking from the orgasm, feeling flustered and unsteady.

“Looks like the place is hoppin’ tonight,” Lucas comments as Sebastian cuts the engine, surveying the crowded parking lot. “Hopefully we can get our usual table.”

The fact that he’s talking about tables and not about bloody murder makes it clear he has no idea what just happened, but my heart is still slamming hard against my ribs at the idea of how easily we could’ve gotten caught.

I glare over at Reid, who just arches a challenging brow at me as he slides across the seat and gets out of the car. Dammit, he’s so fucking bossy and confident—and even though I secretly love it, there’s no chance in hell that I’ll ever admit that to him.

Thankfully, Nick comes around to open my door and takes my hand, helping to steady me as I step out. Sitting that close to us in the backseat means that he knows exactly what just happened, and he’s doing his best to help me keep it under wraps. His calloused hands are rough against mine as he gives my hand a small squeeze, and the desire burning in his gaze is almost enough to make me come on the spot.

“You good?” he murmurs, his voice low.

“Yeah.” I swallow, glancing across the car to where Reid is standing. “Reid was just… making a point.”

Reid’s gaze locks with mine, and he reaches down to subtly adjust himself. A surge of satisfaction rises inside me at the strained look that passes over his face—at least he was torturing himself even more than he was torturing me.

Nick chuckles as Sebastian slams the driver’s side door next to us. “A point, huh? He seems to have made it well.”

“Yeah.” I clear my throat, hoping the blush on my cheeks will be mistaken for a flush from the cold. “He did.”

“Come on!” Lucas slams his own door and jerks his chin toward the bar. “Let’s get inside. I’m sure it’s getting crowded.”

Sure enough, it’s packed in The Old Oak, and there aren’t many available tables or seats at the bar when we enter the crowded space.

“I’ll go get us some drinks. Bar service will be faster than waiting at a table. You guys find us a spot.” Sebastian takes off toward the bar on a mission to hunt us all down some cocktails.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I say, raising my voice to be heard over the music. It will do me some good to splash cold water on my face, and I still need another minute to fully recover from the orgasm.

My brother nods, and he and the other guys head off to find us a table. I take my time in the restroom, gathering my scattered composure and sliding some gloss over my lips. Once I feel like I look a little less flushed and freshly fucked, I slip out of the ladies’ room.

“Hailey? Hailey Bennett, is that you?”

I turn at the sound of my name to see a man emerging from the men’s bathroom. He looks familiar, and I frown a little as I try to place him.

“Do you remember me?” He grins. “Ken Hayward. We had biology together junior year.”

“Oh. Of course! How have you been?

“I’m good. Wow, I didn’t know you were back in town. I thought I heard through the grapevine that you were living out in LA now.”

I dread thinking about what else this guy from my school days has heard. I feel like my reputation in Chestnut Hill is the stuff of legends—but not the good kind of legend.

“Yeah, I’m back home to see my family for a while.”

“Nice, nice.” He nods, stepping a little closer to me as we move out of the way of a few people heading to the bathrooms. “So what were you doing out in LA? Modeling?”

“Oh, no. I was?—”

My words break off as the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. A second later, Ken glances over my shoulder, his eyes widening slightly. When I follow his gaze, I see the three Cooper triplets wearing identical expressions, standing nearly shoulder to shoulder in the hallway behind us. They glower so hard at Ken that he doesn’t even bother to say goodbye to me. He just slips back into the bathroom, probably to avoid having to try to squeeze past them to get to the rest of the bar.

I huff a laugh, putting my hands on my hips as I turn to face the three men. “Honestly, you’re just as bad now as you were back when I was in high school.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? We always had your back in high school.” Reid isn’t wrong, but that’s not what I meant.

“Yeah, and you also always scared off practically any guy who wanted to date me. Even an innocent exchange like this one, a bit of harmless flirting, and you guys practically jumped down the throat of any man that looked at or spoke to me.”

“It’s not our fault.” Sebastian smirks. “None of those clowns were good enough for you.”

But Nick isn’t laughing. He steps closer, his large body looming over mine in the hallway as he boxes me in against the wall.

“We’re going to be even worse now,” he warns in a low voice. “Because now I know just how good it feels to be buried inside your sweet pussy. And I’m not in the mood to share with anyone but my brothers.”

Holy shit . The bartender is gonna have to come mop me up off the floor, because I think I’m about to melt into a damn puddle.

Nick steps back, sliding his hand into mine and tugging me away from the wall. He leads me over to rejoin his brothers, and as we all head back through the crowded bar, Reid leans over and murmurs in my ear, “Nick is right. If you get to be jealous, then so do we. And I don’t like anyone’s hands on you but ours.”

I swallow hard, remembering how his hand wasn’t just on me during the car ride over here. It was inside me.

Fuck, I’m never gonna make it to the end of the night .

These men have already made me come three times, but despite that, I’m in a state of such high arousal that I feel like I’m a walking piece of tinder, just waiting to catch flame.

Lucas waves at us from the table where he’s holding our spots, leaning back as we all take our seats around him. There aren’t quite enough chairs, but Nick solves that problem by tugging me down onto his lap and wrapping an arm around my waist. I swear I can feel a bulge beneath my ass, and it takes every bit of restraint I have not to squirm against him.

Despite the constant distraction of Nick’s proximity—and the way he seems bound and determined to take advantage of the fact that the two of us are technically the ones on a ‘date’ tonight by keeping his hands on me at all times—it’s actually really nice to be out with my brother and the three triplets.

It doesn’t take long before we’re reminiscing about old times, joking and laughing about stupid shit the guys got up to when they were younger, and the different memories we all seem to have of certain events.

I swear that it was Lucas’s idea to sneak onto the Brewer family’s property and rig up a massive slip-and-slide with a tarp, a hose, and some dish soap. He shakes his head and laughs, shooting back that I’m the one who forgot to turn off the hose, accidentally leaving the water running all night and flooding the field. That leads us into reminiscing about the time all five of us made a mini ice skating rink in our backyard, and more stories spiral out from there, leaving us all laughing.

About thirty minutes after our arrival, the noise in the bar dips a little as the music cuts out, and the bartender announces that karaoke night is about to start.

Lucas perks up. “Oh shit. I forgot it’s karaoke night. Hailey! You should sign up to sing!”

“No, thanks.” I shake my head, my heart skipping a beat. “I’m not really in the mood.”

My brother frowns but lets it go. As someone takes the stage to start the first song, I can’t help but watch them, a strange feeling of longing tugging at my chest.

I wish I could do that. I wish it was still easy for me .

As if he can read my thoughts, Nick’s arms tighten around me a little. The others have resumed their conversation around the table, but he ignores them for the moment, tucking my hair behind my ear before murmuring, “Just imagine you’re singing in the shower. Close your eyes and pretend that’s where you are.”

I bite my lower lip, my gaze dropping to the pocked wooden table. I’m torn between fear and an almost bone-deep desire to sing, the two sides of me warring in my head.

“You have such a beautiful voice, songbird,” he whispers. “You don’t have to hide it.”

I look up at him, surprised by his choice of words, and his blue eyes meet mine. He’s still got his arms wrapped around me, his chest solid and warm against my body. I know he won’t make me go up there, but the look of confidence and pride in his face makes me want to be the person he sees when he looks at me.

Someone brave.

Someone talented.

Someone free and uninhibited.

My pulse starts to race faster, but I nod. “Okay.”

Nick smiles, releasing me as I slip off his lap and make my way toward the signup sheet at the bar. I can barely believe I’m doing this, even as I pick out my song and then return to the table to wait for my turn. We keep talking and drinking, but I’m barely aware of any of it anymore, my mind totally focused on what I know is coming.

And then the bartender calls my name, and I feel like I might pass out on the spot.

“You’ve got this,” Sebastian tells me, giving me an encouraging look. Reid echoes that sentiment, and Nick and Lucas chime in too.

Okay. Okay, I’ve got this.

I’m still terrified, but even though my nerves are on fire, Nick’s calm words help to put out the blaze. I guess he has a knack for that, and for encouraging people to be the best versions of themselves. It’s why I know he’s going to be a great fire chief at the station someday.

I make my way up to the small, makeshift stage slowly. The song plays, and I close my eyes and start to sing. I do just what Nick said and pretend that it’s just me, alone in the shower under the running water with the excellent makeshift bathroom acoustics, instead of a crowded bar filled to the brim with people watching and listening to me.

It goes okay at first—but then I make the mistake of opening my eyes.

As soon as I see the audience staring back at me, the words to the song fly right out of my head.

I stop singing mid-verse, holding the microphone in a tight grip as my heart tries to pound its way out of my chest.

Then a voice cuts through the bar, deep and masculine.

It’s Sebastian, and he’s singing.

Reid’s voice joins his brother’s a second later as they pick up where I left off, reminding me of the lyrics. My brother figures out what they’re doing quickly and starts to sing too, and I swear I can even see Nick’s lips moving as he adds his voice.

A few other people in the bar start to belt out the song too, and I laugh, a giddy sort of feeling rushing through me as I gaze out at all of them. They’re all still watching me, but it’s no longer quite as terrifying as it was a moment ago, and I join back in with them as we start the third verse.

My voice picks up strength as I go, and I keep my eyes open as I lose myself in the music again, no longer worry about performing and just enjoying the pure act of singing.

By the time the song ends, my voice is the only one in the bar. Everyone else has gone quiet, and as the last note fades out, there’s a moment of silence.

Then applause breaks out, along with a few whistles and stomping boots.

I don’t even care if they’re applauding my singing or just the fact that I stumbled and didn’t give up. Either way, I’ll take it.

The Cooper triplets and my brother are all on their feet, clapping the loudest, and the looks on their faces make my heart swell. I give a little bow and hand the microphone off to the next person, then scamper back toward the table, feeling almost high from the exhilaration of the moment.

It might not have been the world’s best performance, but I did it.

And I’m so fucking proud of myself.