Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew, #1)

by Caroline Peckham

If eating pussy was an Olympic sport, I’d be a gold medallist.

I’d been free in this town. A girl who knew the tides, always had sand between her toes and four boys at her side who were a perfect balance of dark and light.

She was the girl who’d gotten away.

It didn’t matter if a whole lifetime stood between the last moment I’d seen her and this moment of her return. Nothing changed my desire to protect her. From everything and everyone who sought to hurt her. I will make them pay.

A deep and unnerving possessiveness filled me over her. A claim I’d laid on her ten years ago awakening in me once more, but it wasn’t some kid’s dream anymore, it was a man’s demanding desire. One that burned inside me like a flame growing rapidly into an inferno.

“I used to spend a lot of time thinking about what I’d do if you ever came back, Rogue. And the long and short of it is, baby, that I’m never letting you get away again.”

She'd been in my dreams since I was eight years old. And she'd laid claim to my soul long before then. Now she was back, I was finally going to do what that little boy had never been able to. I was going to make her mine. And I was never going to let her go.

Because no one hurt Rogue Easton and got away with it. That had once been a cardinal fucking sin in Sunset Cove, and as far as I was concerned, it still was.

We’d all loved that girl once, and the mark she’d left on us was everlasting. It was just a fact of life now. Even if she hated us and would gladly watch us burn for her, we’d drag her enemies into the flames as we went.

I was in asshole mode. And when I was in asshole mode, people tended to end up bloody. When Chase was in asshole mode, they tended to end up dead. And when Fox was in asshole mode, they tended to end up obliterated. All in all, someone’s fate wasn’t looking pretty tonight.

Fox stalked back to the fridge, grabbed a protein shake out of the door and started shaking it so vigorously that I was surprised the top didn't fly off. "I hope that's not the way you jerk off," I said lightly, biting down on a fluffy forkful of pancake as he glared at me. "Though if your poor cock is always having to put up with that treatment, I guess it could explain why you go around looking half constipated all the time."

HAHAHAHAH

"Calling you pretty was a bad move. It doesn't even begin to encompass the way you look, hummingbird."

"You and me have been written in the stars for a long fucking time, Rogue. I know you used to feel it too. We're inevitable. Always have been, always will be."

“She’s mine. And if her presence upsets you, then you don’t have to stay here, Chase. But she is staying either way.”

Losing her wasn’t optional. I wouldn’t sleep until I found her. She’d walked back into my life and hell if I was going to let her run from me again. She might have hated me, but I didn’t give a fuck.

I just needed Rogue Easton in my home, in my life. She had to stay here or I’d fucking break. And I will not break for her again.

she’d awoken a beast in me who was nothing but a feral creature with one, single need. And that need was her. I couldn’t fight that part of me any more than I could cut off my own head.

So I was going to find her, bring her home and make her mine. I didn’t care what price I had to pay for that. Rogue Easton was not getting away a second time.

She’d owned my heart this entire time and it didn’t matter if it was just a bloody lump of meat that had been carved up by a butcher because of her absence. It was still beating, so it was still hers. And even after it stopped it would remain hers until it was nothing but ash in her palm.

My heart only beats for you anyway so if you want to carve it from my chest then you can. It's yours whatever way you want it."

"We're like the tide and the shore, hummingbird," Fox said in a low voice, leaning down to brush the words against my lips. "No matter how far the tide retreats, it can never stop itself from coming back for more."

But I do know that the moment I saw you back here, my heart leapt right up into my throat and I swore to myself I'd never let you go again. The bond we have can't ever be undone. Ride or die doesn't come close. We're more than family, more than anything tangible. Our fucking spirits are entwined. So you can keep trying to run and we're gonna keep coming to catch you when you do until one day, you realise you're right where you're supposed to be."

Back then, we all would have done anything for each other, but for her we would have fought the devil himself and placed his head at her feet.

"I've always wondered if you really were the most beautiful girl I've ever met, or if I'm just biased because I've seen how deep that beauty runs," he said, his voice full of grit and regrets. "And now that I find myself looking at you again, I've realised it doesn't matter if I'm biased. You're everything I've always been missing Rogue. And I'm so sorry about what happened between us. I can only promise you I thought it was the best thing at the time and I've regretted it every single day since."

"I could totally do it, but I'm thinking you're a screamer, so he'd hear us. In that case you'd better run or he's going to flip his lid when he finds you here trying to seduce me.”

Hihihi

and sped out onto the street in Fox's fancy truck and I imagined his face going all red and that sledgehammer finding a hole in the fucking wall when he realised that I was gone again.

Hahaahaa i love her

"You're absolutely not invited to join me, you know?" Chase muttered, but he shifted over all the same. "I never wait around for invitations," I replied dismissively. "I don't make many guest lists. It's been suggested I’m lacking decorum."

If Fox wanted to know where I was at all times, then he could have fun chasing me around town and wondering what the fuck I was up to. Game on asshole. I'm gonna make this fun.

Hahhaahah

It was cliché, but losing her had been like having a limb amputated.

I’d fast learned that earning real cash in this town was only achieved through crime or sex. I’d opted for both, seeing as I was ambitious and all.

"Because I miss you," he said roughly. "I've been missing you for as long as I had you and it fucking hurts, Rogue."

"Because you're mine, hummingbird. And I was never going to let another guy near you.

"Once you stop trying to fight it, you'll see. We fit, Rogue, always have. It's you and me, hummingbird."

"You're not gonna shoot me," he said with all the confidence of some big bad gang banger who believed he was immortal. "You look like some kind of rainbow princess, you clearly don't have the balls to-" I lowered the gun and fired off a shot into his thigh.

Hell yess girl

My days were filled with a sole ambition to eradicate every single Harlequin from the earth, then I’d walk into the arms of death with a smile on my face and my purpose fulfilled.

Telling Rogue that Luther Harlequin was dead hadn’t exactly been the smartest move, considering she was gonna find out we’d lied one way or another.

Omg hes not dead

but since some asshole Shawn Mackenzie had taken over, he’d started fighting to claim territory from us again.

Yep of course

“He’s your brother,” Dad pushed. “We’re fucking family. Harlequins don’t kill Harlequins.”

Chase talked a big game about sending Rogue out of town again, but the way he looked at her when he thought no one was watching told a different story.

“You ever speak about Rogue Easton like that again and I’ll cut your dick off and force feed it to your mother.”

Hihi

I’d accepted that Rogue made me insane a long time ago. My mind was lost and I didn’t care to look for it. Because she was back. And that was all I’d wanted for so long that it’d been hard to remember what it was like before the last ten years had happened.

I was empty without her, soulless.

I’d carve a slice out of the moon if that was what my girl wanted. I’d figure out a way to get it done. She just had to say the word.

“I’d ruin you, baby. I’d prove there’s no other man on earth who can make you feel the way I do. You deserve to be fucking worshipped. I’d show up at your church every day and get down on my knees for you. Every. Fucking. Day.”

“I want anything you have to give me, hummingbird. Fight me, cut me, leave your mark on me. Whatever makes you feel better, but I’m not going anywhere. I’ve laid my claim and you’ll have to summon an army of demons from hell if you want any chance of keeping me away from you.”

I’d craved her touch for too long, and I didn’t care if she wanted to burn me at the fucking stake, I’d still enjoy her fucking company while I went up in flames.

And you are too considering I took blood from you while you were sleeping and had you tested to make sure.

Ffs fox

You’re dating me whether you like it or not.”

Hihi

"How about I back off when your heart stops beating like that around me?" he suggested, sliding his hand from my jaw to press down against my thundering heart which was being a damn traitor again alongside my libido.

"I wanted you so much back then,"