The Wrangler (The Yacht Club #2)

Chapter 23

Twenty-Three

Blake

“Well, that was awkward.” I’ve never seen Alex deliberately be rude, but leaving SJ on the stage like that was brutal. Tyler’s doing a great job of managing the crowd, but Alex was the demo I wanted to see.

“What now?” Reed glances around, still acting like a cat with tape on his feet—not sure where to settle.

Eliot and Cade flank Graci. I can’t believe she came. And in that dress. The woman is hotter than a sun flare in scrubs. In the tiny black dress with a zipper that runs top to bottom down the front of her body, she is total temptation. The guys haven’t taken their eyes off her. Looks like they might invite her to a private room. Good for them. Except once again, I’ll be left on the sidelines.

“Graci, would you like a drink?” Cade asks, clasping her hand to get her complete focus. He’s the most emotional of all of us. Well, Eliot, Cade, Reed, and me. The original Four Winds Security. I’m still not sure how Pierce fits in. Cool dude. Helpful, but there is no fifth wind. Unless everyone has figured out I’m never going to be the same. Can’t exactly soar in a wheelchair. Maybe Pierce is here to replace me.

“Club soda, with lime?” Graci’s soft tone barely carries over the background music.

“Of course,” Cade replies.

“I’ll go with you,” Pierce says, following Cade to the bar.

I’d love to roll away, but the guys will make a big deal of trailing me and Graci will fuss. I slump down and scowl. Back in the day, we’d be figuring out how to get Graci in bed with us. All of us. The four of us. Instead of dancing around, awkward as ass, not knowing how to move as a team. And that’s on me. I’m the fucking problem. The variable in the equation that no longer works. I’m the bug in the code. “You guys should fuck her.”

“What? Who?” Eliot asks as if it wasn’t on his mind.

“You, Cade, Reed, and Pierce should invite Graci back to a private room. That is why you invited her here. Isn’t it. I get that I’m in a wheelchair. I’ve lost the use of my legs but I haven’t fucking lost my mind.”

“When did you get so damn surly?” Reed asks. “And why Graci? And Pierce?” He crosses his arms. “Found someone to fill my shoes, El?”

Eliot snaps his focus from me to Reed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve been stuck in St. Louis. Come out here and Pierce is hanging around, playing errand boy. But then he’s here on opening night. Does he have a bedroom in the condo? Do I?”

“You can bunk with me at the rehab. My mouth still works.” I can’t resist fucking with them both. And I’ve missed Reed and sex.

“Nobody is bunking at rehab. And yes, I’d like Pierce to stay with us. But only if we all agree.”

Reed turns his back on Eliot. “You used me.”

“I did not.” Eliot goes to him, a hand on Reed’s shoulder. “I relied on you to take care of us while Blake recovers. And you did. You always do. Why in hell would you think you could be replaced? Same goes for you.” Eliot glares back at me. “Why in the world would you think we want to replace either of you?”

It’s nice lip service, but I’m never walking again. My contribution to the business is still possible on some level, but being anyone’s lover—that ship has sailed. Proven by the fact none of them has made any kind of move on me in a year. I can’t even masturbate since my dick doesn’t get hard.

Cade, Pierce, and Graci return. Her lips on the straw sipping her drink is enough to push me into some very dirty thoughts. Me eating her out while she sucks off one of the guys and gets fucked by two more. Still have one too many players in the scenario. Reed’s right, we don’t fit together the same way. But then my mind puts Pierce on his knees, sucking me. The tingle that trails down my back is a shadow of what I once felt, but fuck it feels good to have that much.

“I want to show you something.” Eliot directs his words to the entire group, but his gaze lands on me.

Your dick? “Sure.”

“I can hang out here,” Graci says.

“No, you’re coming too.” Eliot turns for the elevator. Guess there’s no argument. But I still wait to see what she’s going to do.

“Guess we’re going,” she says to me.

I shrug. What do I care where we go?

She bends down and asks, “Can I drive?”

She can do whatever the fuck she wants to me as long as she stays so close I can smell the cinnamon tease of her skin and feel her breath on my neck. “Sure.”

“Hold this?” She hands me her glass and I take it. I’d like to hold her anything. Her everything. Use my mouth over her entire body until she’s screaming and quaking under me, over me, beside me. I don’t care about the position. That’s her job to get me where she wants me. If she’d let me, it would be my job to make her come morning, noon, and night.

We ride the elevator up and trail the guys out of the restaurant. It’s a beautiful, crisp mountain night. The air is alive with the scent of trees and earth, nothing like the institutional air I’ve been breathing for the past year. It cools some of my anger. Is it even anger? More like righteous indignation at everything that was stolen from me last year. Some days, I wonder why I bothered to live. Less since I met Graci, but I’m still angry. Maybe more so since I met her and can’t have her. Not only because of the dick sitch, but because she’s my physical therapist. There are lines we can’t cross.

“Where are going Eliot?” I ask.

“You’ll see, Grumpy.”

I scowl, but it’s wasted on his back. Finally, we get to the finished four story building that holds the condos. The upper floor sold out nearly instantly, according to Tyler. He an Amy are managing the housing part of the resort, sales and rentals. The demand is huge. I’ll get my investment back easily, with a huge return. Graci guides me up the ramp to the sliding doors that open automatically. The hallways are tiled in what looks like hardwood panels. The place is elegant. Amy has great taste.

“Here we are,” Eliot stops at a door on the ground floor. “You want to do the honors?”

Graci takes her drink. I roll myself forward, and place my palm on the sensor, part of the security system I selected. The panel turns green and the door swings open. The guys step back and let me roll through first into a huge open concept living space. As I enter, the lights come on and I see a huge U-shaped sofa fills the living area with a wall mounted TV bigger than the windows. There’s even a gas fireplace. In my past life, this would be the place we would all get together and let what happens between us happen. Well here or the bedroom. But no one has touched me like that in a year.

“Dim,” Eliot says behind me and the light brightness decreases. “Everything is either voice activated or at an accessible height.”

His words hit me like a gut punch. They don’t believe I’ll ever be out of this chair. Air backs up in my lungs. The urge to destroy something or someone rises to a point I can hardly resist. I fucking hate my life.

Graci’s fingertips graze my shoulder and I exhale. “Show me your room?”

If only that was the invitation my mind twists it to be. “Where’s my room?”

Eliot points at another door. “Through there.”

The sensor works exactly like the front door, and the door swings open. “Why the internal security?”

“Fire safety. Still two units in the plans.”

Cade, Pierce, and Reed have disappeared to the back hall, so it’s Graci and me who enter the second part of the condo. The kitchen is smaller, lower. Chair height. I should be thrilled with the mods they put in for me. Instead, I’m sick. The living room is setup like a workout room. Like a physical therapy space, I amend, as I take in the details.

“Nice,” Graci says, setting her glass on the kitchen counter.

“Another place for you to torture me.”

“Someone. I’ll be four hours away.”

Is it wishful thinking, or does her voice sound kind of wistful. “Let’s find my bedroom.”

There are two, both with bathrooms attached. It’s clear mine is the bigger one based on the roll-in shower. “They thought of everything.”

Graci steps into the shower under a rain head I hadn’t noticed at first. She mimes washing her hair, her body moving to an internal sinuous beat. Naked. My brain supplies an image of her, wet, without clothes. I roll forward. We both fit in the space. She smiles and my dick twitches.

Holy fuck.

It was tiny. No stuffy, but it twitched.

“So Graci, you staying the night with us?” Eliot’s deep sexy baritone echoes in the tiled space.

I didn’t see him come in and he’s trailed by the rest of the guys. Graci is blocked inside the shower because I’m in the entrance. I don’t move. She’s mine.

No. She’s not.

And I’ve never had a problem with sharing before.

Who am I?

I roll out of the shower, pushing Eliot and the guys back. She steps out, and takes my hand. Hers trembles slightly in my grip. There’s nothing forcing her to stay. She could have a hotel booked, or a room at the resort for all I know. But the idea of waking up to her. Her sleeping in my bed. Her allowing us to make her feel extraordinary all night long. There are four gorgeous men inviting her to stay. And me. She could have fun with them. I could at least watch. She hasn’t said a word.

I glance up. Her deep brown eyes meet mine. “What do you want to do, Graci?”

She lifts her chin, checks out the guys and returns to me. Sadder now. “I can’t. I have to go.”

I release her hand. The guys part, giving her an aisle of escape. She darts through them like she’s running a gauntlet. A hollowness settles in my chest.

Eliot follows her out, but the rest of the guys are staring at me with varying shades of pity.

“Get the fuck out of my room. I need some sleep.” I don’t recognize my own voice, but I’m fine when they depart. I don’t need them up my ass. Literally or figuratively. And I don’t need Graci, offering me attention out of pity.