Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew, #1)

by Caroline Peckham

This book is dedicated to JJ’s condoms. Big, thick, long and wide, Ribbed and studded with spermacide. Strawberry, bannana, peaches and cream, One tossed in a bush, another in a stream. Trojan, Durex, SKYN and Crown, Rip it open and go to town. Double wrapped or ultra thin. Pick your poison and enjoy within.

I used to think my life might just have been perfect. The Harlequin boys and me. One big, happy, unconventional, marginally fucked up family. Maverick told me once that all four of them were in love with me. He said one day I'd have to choose between them and that would be the end of it all. Our happiness dashed to pieces by me choosing one of them and rejecting the others.

They could never know how much they’d hurt me that night ten years ago. How shattered my heart still was and how keenly that pain still found me when I thought about them. And over the years, that hurt hadn’t dulled a scrap. So it might just be time for me to pay them back for it.

Big girls don't cry and all that jazz. Or maybe broken girls didn't feel. And dead girls didn't hurt.

Side note: Egbert was not my name. Obviously. I liked coming up with the most ridiculous escort names I could get away with. Like Egbert Dickington. Or Roger McWickly. And my personal favourite Sandy Balls.

“Well if I’m not getting my dick wet tonight, you guys are gonna have to listen to copious amounts of porn when we get home. I’m feeling me some dub-con anime followed by a spectacular cream pie, you guys in?” I offered. “Why do you always invite us to your porn parties?” Chase tsked. “Why do you guys always say no?”

“You gotta let him stretch his little penguin wings,” I joked, smirking and Fox rolled his eyes at me, but his mouth twitched at the corner. “Penguin’s don’t fly,” he muttered and I snorted. “They do if you throw ‘em hard enough.”

"JJ Brooks, let me out of here right now!" I screamed as I kicked and thrashed. "Yeah, yeah, I will do soon," he replied. "Now quit your yelling or I won't be bringing the dog with us." I fell silent at that, rage spilling through my veins as my hands balled into fists and I glared in the general direction of his voice. "Get my board too," I demanded. "And I want my fucking hat back."

“Anyways, this has been so much fun,” she said girlishly, ducking out from under Chase’s arm and dancing past JJ as he tried to catch her. She made it to the sliding door as JJ moved to block the only other exit and she spun around to look at us, warning us off with her eyes as me and Chase took a step toward her too. “But I’m gonna go and do something even more fun than hanging out with you guys. Like letting that murderous seagull peck my eyes out before ramming a surfboard up my own ass. Ciao!”

“You’re not going anywhere, hummingbird,” I growled, using the nickname I’d once given her, the same reason I had a hummingbird with gold tipped wings tattooed on the inside of my left forearm. It held power, that name. And her throat bobbed as I pinned her in my eyes, cracking her façade for half a heartbeat. I leaned in near to her face, my heart pounding and my chest heaving at how close I’d almost come to losing her again. “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.”

“Careful, Foxy, it looks like you’re about to bust a vein over wittle old me,” she taunted. “Wouldn’t want it to seem like you missed me or anything.” “Missed you?” I spat, stalking toward her, gripping her shirt in my fist and yanking her closer so the little dog was pressed between us where it started growling. “Those words are a fucking mockery of what I went through when we lost you. What we all went through.” “Poor lost boys, how hard it must have been for you all to forget about me. It wasn’t that hard for me by the way, I thought you were called Badger when I arrived until JJ used your real name.”

"Wind your neck in, Badger," she said, fucking mocking me. "Because I'm not giving you shit. Oh, except this..." She held the dog in one hand then reached into her denim shorts' pocket, rummaging around in it for a second while the three of us waited, curious as fuck to see what she had hidden in there. A beat later, she took her hand out and flipped me her middle finger.

"I don't know why the hell you want me here, but I'm not your property so you can keep your paws to yourself." "Is it a price issue?" Chase asked as he dropped down into the sun lounger I'd just vacated. "Because I'm good for the money if you wanna warm my bed while you're here. Once your face heals up of course. I'm not buying damaged pussy." Fox whirled on him in the blink of an eye, grabbing the edge of the sun lounger and flipping it up so that Chase was thrown into the pool with a cry of outrage. The huge splash drenched the front of my legs and I took a step back in alarm as Fox stalked towards the edge of the pool and grabbed a fistful of Chase's curly dark hair as he surfaced. "You call her a whore again and I'll break your fucking nose,"

"I'll give you whatever you want. You don't need to earn money," he said in a low growl and I arched an eyebrow at him. "Why?" I asked. "Because you're one of us. What's mine is yours." I scoffed lightly. "No thanks."

"We just wanna make sure you're alright." I rolled my eyes at that false sentiment. "Better late than never, hey?" "It's not like that," he protested. "We couldn't find you Rogue. You were meant to stay in Fairfax and you ran."

"Child locks, sweetheart. We can't have you running off on us when we've only just found you,"

"Fuck me, rainbow child, I really hope you didn't expect this look to turn Fox off of you because I can assure you, you’ve failed spectacularly. You make me wanna find out what the rainbow tastes like,"

"Why angel wings?" he asked in a low voice, his lips almost brushing my ear with the closeness of him. "I liked the idea of someone having my back, even when I knew I was all alone,"

"Leave me alone, J!" I shouted. "I just need it in my mouth. Let me put the foot long in my mouth. Stop trying to sandwich block me!"

"Tell me you're not mine again," he growled gripping my chin between his strong fingers and forcing me to meet his gaze, like he thought I couldn’t possibly deny it now. "Dead girls don't belong to anyone, Fox," I hissed, my heart pounding and thrashing with too fucking much of everything which I refused to try and process. "Dead girls don't even have a heart to offer out."

"You never used to be the kind of girl to run from her problems," Fox called after me, his voice echoing in the underground space. "Well that's just something else you don't know about me anymore," I called back. "Because running away is my fucking specialty these days." And you were the one who got me into the trend.

“If you wanted in on our meetings, hummingbird, then you’d have to swear in to the Harlequins. Which obviously you aren’t allowed to do,” Fox warned her and she rolled her eyes. “Good,” Rogue agreed. “I’d rather take the pistol you keep hidden under your coffee table and blow my brains out than join your gang.”

"What I did?" she scoffed. "You were the ones who forced me to run." "You were the one who kept running," I snapped, my voice echoing off of the walls and she just glared at me with venom in her eyes. "You're the worst thing that ever happened to us, ghost," I said through my teeth. "And mark my fucking words, I'm not going to let you happen to us again."

"But you're looking a little tense, sweetheart. Do you want a bit of help relaxing?" JJ let his gaze dip to my chest and it wasn't hard to pick up on what he was offering. "I'm pretty sure I can't afford you," I replied coolly, refusing to show so much as a hint of interest in his offer. "First time is on the house," he replied smoothly. "Besides, I work so damn much I hardly ever get to fuck anyone I really want to."

"Do you feel sorry for me, Rogue?" he teased, stepping closer and dropping his mouth to my ear. "Because you can make me feel better about my lot in life if you wanna let me eat you out before we go and join the party."

"Chill out, man, we're just dancing," JJ said, but his hands slid from my body all the same and he took a step back. "Besides, this is Rogue. We've been waiting a long time to see which one of us she'd pick. I think it's only fair that she gets a chance to see-" "The last time I checked this was my crew," Fox snarled. "My house. My gang. My money. And my girl. Don't go thinking that just because I love you, you don't have to play by the fucking rules JJ. You know exactly who you're fucking with right now. So either back the fuck off or I'll make you."

"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."

“Welcome to Rejects Park,” Lyla announced as she saw what I was looking at. “Where the people no one wants gather to feel a little less alone.”

"You think you really hate me that much?" he taunted, finding my hand and pushing the knife he held into my grip. I watched him in fear as he turned the blade in our combined grip and pressed it against his throat before removing his hand and just staring down at me. "So do it, then. Take your vengeance and rid the world of a monster while you're at it. 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."

"You know, it's all well and good you claiming to be so concerned for me now. But when I really needed the four of you, I was all alone," I said just as we pulled up at the club. "And it doesn't really matter how much you try and convince me you want me back now, because everything we used to have is gone. It's broken beyond repair. Maverick is gone and Chase doesn't even want me back, Fox seems to think he owns me and you..." "What about me?" he asked. "You seem to think we can just start right back up where we left off. Maybe add a bit of sex to the games we used to play. And sometimes I let myself forget for a few moments because it really is tempting to let you do that. But then I remember the nights I slept rough, the men who abused me, the times I went hungry and I just...don't even think I'm the girl I used to be anymore. In fact, I know I'm not. And I don't want to be either. So stop treating me like you know me, because you have no idea what it took to bring me back here, and you never will."

"But you didn't reach me!" she yelled, rising from her seat and her dog leapt up with a bark of fright. "You never came. At least Maverick tried."

"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."

"You wanna see if I can make you come before he comes back to look again?" JJ whispered. "Oh my god, J, no," I laughed, rolling towards him and slapping his arm to tell him off. JJ caught my wrist and pinned it to the pillow above my head, leaning down towards me and making my breath catch as he gave me a look designed to set panties on fire. Not that I was wearing any, which was clearly a good thing as the smoke alarms would have brought Fox running right back up here. "You’re right," he agreed wistfully. "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.”

"Why the skull?" he asked, shifting his hand so his fingers slid around my thigh and I huffed as I batted him off. "Because I'm dead inside," I murmured which sadly, really was the reason I'd gotten it. "Since when?" "You know the answer to that,"

"For the record," he growled, his hand moving from my hip to my waistband as he pushed his fingers beneath it right below my naval. "If you got me between your thighs you'd be wetter than you are right now and you wouldn't be faking a damn thing."

"Do you know who the fuck you're talking to?" Chase demanded as he stalked closer to her. "I'm a fucking Harlequin. Which means that mutt is a Harlequin too. So guess what, you drown him and I'll be coming to collect that debt from you in blood. And I won't make it quick either. I'll sneak into your house at night and cut your boyfriend’s throat so that you can watch him bleed out and then I'll play pin cushion with your ugly ass. Do you know what that means?" The woman shook her head as she tried to back away, her whole body trembling with fear. "It's a game where I see how many holes I can stick in a person before they bleed out on me. You know, like you’re a pin cushion. My current record is seventy four, but I think if I take my time with you, I could hit triple figures,"

There was some pretty carefully disguised tracking software installed on the device which probably explained why the phone was out of the box. I almost hit delete on it before getting a better idea. 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.

"Yeah well, dirty talk is my second language," I said with a shrug. "Sadly they don't teach it on Duo Lingo, but I'm a self taught master. If you ever want some lessons, give me a shout."

"So you just do it for fun?" Adam asked Texas curiously. "Yeah, when you realise hot pussy will pay for good dick, you'll also realise you might as well spend all your free time fucking for cash."

She’ll know I’m not a kid anymore by the end of the night. It’s time I put my demons to rest.

I opened the door for her and she frowned at me like she wasn’t used to that while I smirked. “Don’t go getting any ideas about me being a gentleman.” “Oh, I wasn’t. I’m trying to work out your angle.” She moved smoothly into the seat and I shut the door, heading around and dropping into the driver’s seat. “Alright, I’ll come clean.” I turned to her, giving her a serious expression. “There’s an alien living up my butt called Al who makes me do weird shit sometimes.”

“Because your first time should be-” “Special?” I scoffed. “Yeah, and there’s a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and Santa Claus exists.”

"As much as those stories made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, Badger," I growled as I backed away from him. "You forgot the most important one of all. When we were sixteen, you pushed me down in the mud and told me I was nobody. You looked me in the eyes and tore my fucking heart from my chest and let that motherfucker drag me away like I was nothing at all to you and never had been. So you can keep your bullshit declarations. I don't want them. And the girl who might have cared to listen has been dead a long damn time."

"If you don't like being treated like a dog, Foxy boy, then maybe stop treating me like one, ‘kay?"

“I want what Fox wants,” he said, moving close so that he could run his knuckles down the side of my face, the ink there seeming to stain my skin with heat I had no intention of feeling. “But don’t go thinking I’m sweet on you, beautiful. I want you sweating and panting beneath me. I want you broken and begging and crying because you want it so much that you hate yourself for it. I want to take you and use you and ruin you and then lay you back at his feet and laugh in his face when I do it.”

“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.”

"First of all, I think you should know that I'm celibate," I began, my gaze raking over his body slowly before I licked my lips. "I'm waiting for marriage, the white dress, Cinderella carriage, the lot." "Fine," Fox replied, not even blinking as he set the empty coffee mug down. "Then I'll book a church and have you pinned beneath me in a white dress by the weekend."

"Is that why you fuck girls without a condom?" I sneered, pushing off of his chest to climb back out of his lap, but he dug his fingers into my thighs to stop me. "Not girls. Just you. When we come together, I want to feel every single piece of it. I want your hot pussy tight around my aching cock and for there to be nothing in this world left to divide us,"