Provoking the Enemy Read online

  “But this town is exactly that, isn’t it?” he challenged. “You guys are a bunch of runaway teenagers with too much money and no consequences.”

  I straightened to my full five-foot-four-inches. “You don’t know shit about any of us,” I spewed. “You have no clue who we are, what we’ve done, or what we’re capable of doing.”

  He leaned his beautiful face down towards mine. “And you have no idea who I am, what I’ve done, or what I’m capable of doing, Kit.”

  I hated how weak my curiosity was. I wanted to ask him why he was calling me Kit, but I didn’t. I fucking refused to ask. Oh, I knew there was a distinct reason he was calling me that, but I’ll be damned if I asked. Asking would imply that I cared, and the last thing I wanted to do was care about anything this jackass said or did. He looked exactly to be around my age, and he was fucking my mother.

  In the real word, if we were poor, people would give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was love. However, with my mother being as wealthy as she was, he looked exactly as what people would assume him to be; a boy-toy with a sugar momma.

  I narrowed my eyes and did my best to let him see just how serious I was. “Look, frankly, I don’t give a shit what you think of me or the people of Sands Cove. I just care what you’re doing in my goddamn backyard when I sure as hell didn’t invite you.”

  His amber eyes searched my face before resting on my eyes. “You might not have invited me,” he rasped out. “But that’s okay, because your mother sure did.” Even though I already knew he was sharing my mother’s bed, hearing him admit it was like a kick to my stomach. I hated that his statement was able to get a physical reaction out of me. I hated that I cared. But a lot of that was due to the fact that I hated my mother and anything that had to do with her.

  I was about to tell him to go eat a dick when the sound of the deck’s sliding glass door opened. I turned around to see my mother and Greg walking across the desk and yard towards me and the stranger.

  Anger still simmering on the surface, I was surprised to see Greg, and I knew I was about to be blindsided by something. But knowing my mother, it was also quite possible she was making these guys share her. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  When they reached us, my mom’s face was all plastic smiles. “Oh, great,” she gushed. “You guys have met already.” She turned towards me and her next words were like bombs exploding all over my carefully constructed prison. “Ava, I’d like you to meet Greg’s son, Ace. He’ll be staying here through the summer.”

  Chapter 2

  Ace~

  I might have been the only one paying attention, but I didn’t miss how Ava’s entire body tensed at her mother’s announcement. I had heard all about Ava Hill from my father when he was trying to convince me that spending my final summer before college in Sands Cove wasn’t akin to living in the Seventh Circle of Hell. But he had failed to tell me she was hotter than any girl had the right to be. But then again, him describing her as hot would have come off as pervy, so there’s that.

  There wasn’t any particular reason I had been hanging out by the pool, but after a few aimless wanderings, I had felt my skin prickle and I felt the sensation of someone watching me. I hadn’t had a tour of the house yet, so I hadn’t been sure how I knew where to look up, but the second I had, my body had been on full alert.

  When I had glanced up towards the upstairs windows, I hadn’t been shocked to see someone looking down at me. I had immediately known who she was, and while I hadn’t been able to make out detailed features, I could see she was a blonde with a body of a Hustler centerfold. The light behind her had illuminated every fucking curve. While I couldn’t make out her exact clothing, I knew all she had been wearing was a simple t-shirt and a pair of shorts.

  What I hadn’t been prepared for was what she looked like up close.

  When she had come striding out of the house and across the deck and lawn to stand in front of me, I knew immediately she was Ava Hill. She looked exactly like Elise, except a hotter, younger, and more vibrant version.

  Ava’s long blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but I could tell it was a true blonde shade. It wasn’t that awful bottled yellow color, or that pale white blonde. It was a perfect shade in between, and it was hung down her back straight as an arrow. She had big, cornflower blue eyes with lashes thick and made up. Her blonde brows were plucked to arched perfection, and I noticed that one sat a little higher than the other. She had a pert nose, with high rosy cheekbones, and while it was an all-around beautiful face, the thing that stood out the most were her lips. They were thick, full, and slathered in lipstick so shiny, her lips looked like fresh blood.

  My first thought had been how fun it would be to mess up that red lipstick.

  My second thought was who wore lipstick when they were at home, and that shade, no less?

  And then she lit into me, and I almost laughed. Good ol’ Greg nor Elise had bothered to tell her we were here, so they could drop me off before they headed off to wherever it was they fucking lived their lives.

  “What do you mean, he’ll be staying here throughout the summer?” Ava asked. “Are you trying to tell me you guys are…are going to reside here all summer long?”

  Interesting.

  Elise plastered on her fake smile and tittered, “Oh, no Ava.” She glanced up at my dad before facing Ava again. “We’re only here for a couple of weeks. You know I don’t like Sands Cove in the summer. We just needed to drop Ace off and get him comfortable.”

  Drop Ace off. As if I were some troublesome baggage, which I supposed I was.

  “What do you mean, drop him off?” she asked, anger and resentment dripping from every syllable. Ava made no attempts to hide the contempt she had for her mother. “What’s he doing here?”

  My father stepped in, no doubt trying to calm the hellcat in front of him. That had been my first thought after she opened her mouth to me. She was a hellcat for sure, and since I thought calling her a pussycat would make her murderous, I opted for Kit, like kitty cat. “Ace’s…uh, mother and I thought Sands Cove would be a good influence on him before he heads off to college,” my dad explained. “And your mother thought it’d be a good thing for you to have some company in the house for a change.”

  I watched Ava plant her hands on those curvy hips of hers and spew, “If she’s so concerned with me living in this house all alone, then maybe she should live here with me, instead of gallivanting all over the world, ya think? Maybe, oh, I don’t know…be an actual mother.”

  “Ava!” Elise snapped. “That is enough. What will Ace think of your bratty behavior?”

  Ava laughed, and it wasn’t a pretty, lyrical laugh either. “You think I give a shit what a complete stranger thinks of me? I don’t even care what you think of me. So, what makes you think I care about whatever impression Greg’s son has of me?”

  Greg’s son?

  Even though she wasn’t looking at me, I smirked at her refusal to say my name. But I’d be willing to bet my left nut that my name falling off her lips sounded like fucking Heaven. She might hate my presence here, but there was no denying the girl made my dick hard.

  Elise’s pretty face was turning red, and I was excited to see how this was going to play out. “That’s enough, Ava,” she hissed. “Ace is going to spend the summer here, and that’s that. Greg and I will do our best to get him settled in these next two weeks, but I expect you to make him feel comfortable and welcomed this summer while we’re gone.”

  Before Ava could comment, Dad chimed in. “Ava, I would greatly appreciate it if you could help Ace out while he’s here. I-we understand how intrusive it might feel to suddenly be rooming with a complete stranger, but I’m hoping, over time, you guys will manage to be able to get along for the duration of the summer.”

  I couldn’t help but be impressed when she spared my dad no mercy. “If you care so much how your son is getting along before you ship him off to college, why don’t you stick around for the summer and s
pend time with him instead of pawning him off on me?”

  My dad’s face took on an ugly pink hue as Elise stepped to Ava. “I said that’s enough! You do not make the rules in this house, young lady. Ace is staying here, and we are going to remain long enough for him to settle in, but we need to get back to our lives, Ava. You know? The life where we make your car, this house, and your money possible?”

  My dad tuned to face me and the look on his face was enough to let me know he was placing the blame in all of this on me. If I hadn’t fucked up back home, this would never be happening. “And I expect you to behave yourself and not cause any problems for Ava, Ace. You need to be grateful for her help.”

  I snorted.

  Help? Ava Hill was more likely to poison me than help me solely based on the fact that I was Greg’s son and Greg was dating her mother. Her hatred for her mother was so palpable, Ava would hate anything, or anyone, associated with her mother, in any way.

  “You children might only be teenagers, but you’re legally both grown adults,” Elise added. “We expect you to act accordingly and do your best to make this transition run smoothly.”

  Since Ava wasn’t in the mood for fallacies, I decided to go with honesty, too. “And what problems could I cause for dear, sweet Ava, Dad? Think I’m going to cut off the heads to her Barbies?”

  His jaw clenched, and I knew he was trying to disguise his disgust of me. See, I looked like my mother, and that was something I knew Greggy-Boy hated. “I expect you to behave like a civilized human being, Ace.”

  “Do you even know what one of those is?” I asked, and I could swear I heard a small chuckle next to me. “I mean, I know they don’t exist in your mirrors.”

  The sophisticated, all-mighty, Greg McIntire’s composure slipped a bit as he stepped towards me. “You better watch how you talk to me, son. I’m not your mother.”

  I rocked back on my heels. “You’re right,” I agreed. “My mother stuck around and tried to raise me best she could on a broken heart.”

  Dad scoffed. “If that were the case, you wouldn’t be here, now, would you?”

  “That’s enough,” Elise announced again. “You two will get along, and that’s the end of it.”

  And then, Ava went and did something that I both cursed and reveled in. Cursed, because I knew she was only doing it to piss off her mom. Reveled, because Ava Hill was smokin’ hot.

  She saddled up to me, and placing one hand on my chest, she rubbed her huge-natural, by the way-tits all over my left arm, as she looked at our parents. “Don’t worry, Mother, Greg,” she sing-songed. “I’ll do my best to make sure Ace is welcomed in our home.”

  I reached down, grabbed a handful of her ass in my hand, and squeezed. Looking at our parents, I smirked, “Oh, yeah. We’re going to get along just fine, Dad.”

  Elise stormed towards us, and grabbing Ava by her arm, snatched her out of our embrace. “That’s enough of that,” she screeched like a banshee. “We know what you both are doing, and it’s not going to work.”

  “Are you going to send us to our rooms like eight-year-olds? Maybe take away our crayons?” I deadpanned.

  My dad puffed out his chest, and I don’t know who he thought he was fooling with that little show of bravado, but it wasn’t us. “We’ll discuss this later when you two are capable of exercising some maturity.”

  “Let’s go, Greg,” Elise announced, and Ava and I stood silent as we watched them both head into the house.

  A few seconds later, Ava looked up at me, and said, in those pretty painted lips of hers, “You ever grab my ass again, and I will fucking kill you.”

  Chapter 3

  Ava~

  Greg’s son.

  He was Greg’s son, who would be staying the summer in Sands Cove, and no one had bothered to give me a heads up about it.

  I was that inconsequential that no one felt it necessary to inform me that a guy-a complete stranger-would be living in the same house that I did. It wasn’t anything that I had needed to know. Never mind that he might be a creep, or worse, a rapist. But then again, Elise didn’t concern herself with such things.

  I was supposed to live in this house with him and make sure he was settling in comfortably. I was supposed to welcome him because his dad would be too busy living whatever life it was that he lived with my mother. I had to laugh. I didn’t even know what it was that Greg did for a living. That’s how much of a non-issue he was in my life. All I knew was that he dated my mother, and he was lasting longer than most.

  Well, I supposed, now, I knew that he had a son.

  Ace McIntire.

  What a fucking name to go with that face and body, and what a body it was. You could tell the guy was in shape from just looking at him, but when I had plastered myself against his body to irritate my mom, I was able to feel just how in shape he was. He had felt all solid muscle. And those goddamn eyes of his.

  Fuck me.

  His dark brown hair and brown eyebrows just made those puppies stand out more, and I couldn’t help but think of a lion’s flowing mane when I took in the color of his eyes. They were the most stunning pair of eyes I’d ever seen, and I’ve seen some beautiful gazes before.

  And because I did my best to keep myself grounded and remain self-aware, I couldn’t lie and say his hand on my ass hadn’t almost made me purr like a cat in heat. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I made it a point to welcome a guy’s hand on my body. I was a self-made teenage slut, and I got it on with just about anyone who could catch my fancy. The only thing that made Ace McIntire off limits was the fact that he was another one of my mother’s ideas forced upon me. I didn’t like it, and by default, didn’t like him.

  Besides, I knew my mom really didn’t care if I fucked Ace. She could walk in on me riding him on the kitchen counter and she wouldn’t bat an eyelash. Hell, there have been many times in my lifetime when she’s made a surprise visit home and has caught me with a boy in my bedroom, so I knew she didn’t really care. She only cared for appearances’ sake. If Greg cared, well then, she cared, too. She would not let me ruin anything she had going with Greg.

  What I found interesting was that up until now, I had always viewed Greg as a nice guy. Granted, I didn’t spend much time with him, but whenever I had, he had always had his best foot forward. Watching him interact with his son had been a real eye opener, and it made me wonder just how nice Greg McIntire really was.

  Of course, I knew nothing about his life, and he could genuinely be a nice guy, but just have some contention with his son. For all I know, Ace could be the one in the wrong here. But something told me that wasn’t the case. Ace gave off a vibe of…realness. He seemed too sure of himself to play games.

  The door to my bedroom swung open, and I should have known.

  Elise came storming in without even bothering to shut the door. But my room was in the tallest winged tower of the house, so I doubted Greg or Ace could hear us arguing from wherever they were. And, yes, my mother was so ostentatious, our house had actual towers.

  “I don’t know what all that shit was about, Ava, but I will not have you embarrassing me in front of Greg and his son!” she yelled.

  Now, here’s the thing about absent parents; they are just that-absent. Their threats fall on deaf ears because they’re not around long enough to see those threats through. Sure, Elise could throw me out since I was technically an adult, but how would that look? And that’s what it all boiled town to with the parents of Sands Cove.

  Appearances.

  Our parents didn’t care of we were degenerates, just as long as no one knew. Your daughter could fuck the entire football team, just so long as she didn’t get pregnant. Your son could snort coke until the cows came home, just so long as he didn’t overdose. Your daughter could drink her weight in alcohol, just so long as she didn’t get a DUI. Your son could rape unwilling females, so long as they were paid off enough to keep their mouths shut.

  That was the parenting motto of the community of Sands Cove. We could
do whatever we wanted, however we wanted, with whoever we wanted, as long as we didn’t end up in serious trouble over it.

  “Better to be embarrassed than blindsided, Mom,” I snapped. “You don’t think it would have been, oh, I don’t know, decent enough of you to call me and tell me you were bringing a stranger here to live with me?”

  “He’s not a stranger,” she argued. “He’s Greg’s son.”

  “Well, he’s a stranger to me,” I pointed out, not that she cared.

  She crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Ava. He’s perfectly safe.”

  I stared at my mom and wondered why I was even bothering. Maybe a part of me still hoped for the day when she’d choose me over men and money, but I knew the reality of our situation. My mother would never choose me. If she hadn’t chosen me when I was nine-years-old and found Boyfriend #5 with his hand up my pajamas, she’d never choose me.

  I had done many things over the years to try to block out those damaging memories, but when I had finally realized that I would never be able to, I had embraced them instead. Peter had done more than just stick his hand up my pajamas when I was young. He had made sure to do enough irreparable damage that I’d never know what it would be like to be normal.

  It had started like every story you’ve ever heard on the subject. It had been little touches here and there. Promises of gifts and games. The day we had become a team and started keeping secrets. The night he had finally touched me between my legs. The night he had wrapped my tiny hand around his grownup cock. The weekend Elise had gone on a girls’ trip and left him to babysit me alone.

  The night he had ripped me in half and had told me not to cry.

  It had gone on for months before he couldn’t control himself anymore and Elise had walked in on him fingering a goddamn crying nine-year-old.