Between Riley and now this shit, I feel like a bomb waiting to go off.

Growling out, I throw my tattoo gun across the room, looking up when the door flies open to Blaine standing there, drunk as shit and barely able to stand up without the help of the wall.

“Dude, the next room is overflowing with booze and fucking pussy and you’re in here, jerking off or some shit.”

I run my tongue over my teeth, while rubbing a hand through my messy hair. He’s got a fucking point.

“Or did you already fuck that hot ass chick you left with?” He raises a brow when I don’t respond. “Shiiit . . . I may just need to test her out.”

His words cause my anger to build up even more. “Try fucking her and I’ll shoot you in your pathetic dick.”

Blaine throws his hands up and laughs, while falling across the wall. He grabs his dick. “This shit is royalty, baby. So shut the hell up and get out here.”

He disappears around the corner when a few girls walk by, calling for us. For being drunk and barely able to walk, I’m impressed with his ability to move so damn fast when it comes to willing pussy.

Standing up, I turn off the light and spend the rest of my night drowning in cheap whiskey and pussy.

Fuck everything . . . and fuck her, because I want to. Bad . . .

I’VE SPENT THE LAST THREE days apologizing to Madison every chance that I get. Apparently, Jax hasn’t contacted her since that night and she has no idea if she is ever welcome back at his parties. Well hell . . . I never wanted that. All I wanted was to pee and now my best friend hates me.

I hold up a slice of strawberry cheesecake: her favorite. “Someone looks like they could use some dessert.” I wave it in front of her face as she glowers at me. It’s a Tuesday night and we are both sitting around like two twenty-two-year-old losers with no work tomorrow morning. “Mmm . . . extra strawberry sauce just how you like it. A cute guy even handled it before me. He may have even stuck his sexy finger in it a bit. You know you want to eat it.”

After a couple of minutes, she finally yanks it out of my hand and practically shoves the whole thing into her mouth before flipping me the bird with both hands. “I ate ou,” she mutters with her mouth full.

I lean in closer and place my hand to my ear. “What was that, babe? I can’t hear you. Did you say . . . yummy, thanks for the cheesecake; you’re the best fucking friend in the world?”

She shakes her head but cracks a smile, showing off her cheesecake filled teeth.

I wait for her to finish chewing before I apologize. Again. “For the twentieth time, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin your night and get you kicked out. I mean it. I was about two seconds away from peeing my pants.” I hand her a bottle of water to wash down her dessert. “And if it makes you feel any better, I almost peed my pants when I saw his friend, hanging upside down in the dark like some supersized half human bat or some shit.”

Madison spits out a mouthful of water as she erupts in laughter. “Holy crap! You poor thing. If you had peed, I would have stopped being your friend. Just saying. I would’ve had no choice.”

I punch her arm playfully. “Shut up. You’re horrible.”

We both allow for a couple more minutes of just enjoying a good laugh, before she changes the mood and gets all serious. “So tell me.” She sits up straight, preparing herself for a story. I knew she would ask sooner or later. “What did this friend look like? Is he some weirdo, like The Hills Have Eyes looking dude or what? Did he have bubbles and puss coming out of his neck and shit? Is that why he stayed downstairs, probably jerking off in the dark basement? Spill.”

My heart speeds up at just the mention of Royal. The truth is, I haven’t gotten that dark look in his eyes out of my head since that first night, and I can’t deny the fact that the way he almost made my knees buckle still has me shaken to my core. There’s so much I want to ask; to know, but it’s such a weird situation that I wouldn’t even know where to start. He’s my boyfriend’s brother for crying out loud. A part of me wants to go to the bar to get that tattoo and the other part is telling me maybe I should just stay away and pretend we never met.

I clear my throat and stand up from the couch. My mouth suddenly feels dry and I can’t help my raging heartbeat. She’s going to think that I’m either crazy or lying my ass off, but here goes . . .”He’s undeniably gorgeous, Madi. No joke. You think Jax is the sexiest man to walk this earth? Well Royal blows him right out of the water. And yeah, that’s his damn name: Royal. Tell me that isn’t sexy. He seriously stunned me speechless and I couldn’t take my eyes away. Not even for a second. I still feel like a complete fool for the way I stared at him with my mouth gaping open; not to mention that I got stuck with him the other night.”

She jumps up from the couch and stands in front of me, trying to call me out on bullshit. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back your ass up a bit. You were with him the other night. I thought you were with Colton’s brother?”

I nod my head and swallow. Here it goes again . . .”I was. Royal is Colton’s brother. Strange, I know.” I take a deep breath. “I was going to tell you but didn’t want you flipping out over Jax. He was there, but I hardly got to talk to him.”

She fixes her ponytail and throws it over her shoulder, clearing her throat. She looks as if she wants to call me out again and jump down my throat, but instead, settles on hearing more. “How is anyone more gorgeous than Jax? I mean look at him. He’s barely human! He can have any girl he wants with just a flash of his smile, and don’t think that I’m not mad that you kept all that from me for three damn days. We’ll talk about that later though.”

Thank fucking goodness . . .

“I have looked at Jax and you’re right; he’s gorgeous. Too gorgeous,” I admit. I reach into the fridge for a water and pull the cap off. “But Royal isn’t just sexy. He’s dark, tempting, and breathtaking. Imagine this: blonde hair, shaved at the sides, but long in the middle, falling to one side, and a thick, long stubble covering smooth, full lips.”

I close my eyes and picture his defined jaw; so perfect and masculine. “His body was like every woman’s wet dream: tall, muscular, sweaty, and covered in ink. Don’t even get me started on those pale gray eyes. I can’t get them out of my head. He’s beautiful, Madi. No lie. Stunning even. Colton doesn’t even hold a candle to his brother. I don’t get how they can be so . . . different.”

We’re both just standing there in silence for a moment, taking it in, before Madison’s phone goes off, scaring us both. She gives me a quick look before walking over to the kitchen, toward her phone. “I need to see this guy to believe it. It makes no sense that a man that sexy would be hiding out. Too bad I’ll probably never get invited back. Jax was freaking out that night.”

She picks up her phone and her snarl turns to a smirk as she starts typing really fast and hard. “I take that back. Jax just invited us to some bar called, Savage & Ink. He said they’re doing tattoos all night and we should hang out. I’m so damn happy that I just went from wanting to slap you, to wanting to kiss you.” She points her phone at me. “So don’t disappoint me again. I’ll forgive you . . . for now.” She smiles.

My heart jumps to my throat in a moment of excitement, but then I remember that Royal wanted to tattoo me. I’m not sure I’m ready for this.

“I don’t know. It was a long day at the salon and I’m kind of tired.” I take another drink of my water and start heading to my room, not interested anymore. I’m still not even talking to Colton. It would be weird to hang out with his brother. “You can go. Just lock the door on the way out please.”