Losers: Part I (Losers, #1)

by Harley Laroux

To the losers, the freaks, and the outcasts. Keep chasing sunrises.

Manson would wait for you in the dark and you’d never see him coming; while Lucas would come in broad daylight, smash your windows out, and set your house on fire.

dribble of blood that streaked from his busted lip.

Then his eyes fell on me and his lips parted to give me a wide, bloody smile.

It was feral — a beast’s grin. Wild, reckless and, finally, victorious.

His hands were dirty from working at the shop, streaked with oil and grime.

If a guy couldn’t play with my masochism as enthusiastically as he played with my pleasure, then I didn’t want it. There simply wasn’t a nice way to tell your mother that you wanted a guy who could spank you as well as he could fuck. A man who was as comfortable with whips and chains as he was at candlelit dinners. Someone who wasn’t afraid to take control but wasn’t going to make the relationship feel like a cage.

but you might make a believer out of me.”

Lucas had more issues than Playboy magazine.

I’d love to have a brat impaled on both hands.”

“I love you.” His voice was rough with exhaustion, a drunken smile on his face as he floated through the afterglow. “I love you, too.” I gathered him closer, holding him tight against my chest for a few moments to catch our breath

I spotted the sleek purple Mustang in the lead, violet-colored neon glowing from its undercarriage,

A white Nissan 350Z cruised behind him,

But fuck all that. I’d embrace sin and launch myself straight into hell if it meant not having to live under someone else’s arbitrary rules for my life.

She was a challenge, and God, I loved a challenge.

Manson had his pills, his therapy, his meditation and all that shit, but there was still something dark in him that would never quite go away. Something born because it had to be, and alive because nothing could kill it. That thing, that monster inside him, had gotten a taste of Jess and nothing else could satiate it.

“I guess there’s no harm in a little conversation,” Lucas finally said. The corner of his mouth twitched in something like a half smile, and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Lucas smiling wasn’t a good thing; it wasn’t because he was thinking happy thoughts.

Lucas snatched the bottle from my hands, set it against his molars, and popped the cap off with his teeth before offering it back to me.

“Why don’t you be a good girl, Jess?

“Is it really that hard to give an inch, Jess?” “Yeah, Jess.” Jason meandered closer beside me, sipping his beer. “Can’t even give an inch when Manson gave you eight?”

“Tell me how many of the dicks on your list were pierced, then?”

“I’d suggest backing the fuck up,” Jason said, his voice low.

“I’m not afraid of a little blood.”

The pain wasn’t even as bad as a papercut, so why did it feel like it sliced so deep?

He took my finger into his mouth and sucked it clean.

She was here for Lucas. Oh, hell no. Hell fucking no.

her eyes the same dark green color of an oak tree’s leaves in the middle of summer.

I didn’t know what exactly she was doing, but she’d staked her claim like a pro. I didn’t let anyone but the boys sit in this car, but fuck, I could make an exception. Jess could sit her ass on my goddamn face if she wanted.

Lucas burst out laughing, genuinely something I never thought I’d hear. “Fucking money shift, asshole!” he yelled, glancing back in the rearview mirror.

“You need someone to punish you properly, fuck you good, and care about you enough not to let you hang out with friends who will stab you in the back the first chance they get.”

But you leave your hand on her another goddamn second and I’m going to break every one of your fucking fingers before Vince puts a bullet in your skull.”

I’d pay money to see her punch him in the face, but I needed her out of harm’s way.

“Would you stop squirming? Do I need to tie you down?”

“You better be careful looking at me like that,”

“Leave?” Vincent said. “No, no, no, Jess, you’re not leaving. We need to have a little chat.”

“Punish me, if that’s what you want to do. I’ll take it. I deserve it.”

“We’ll make you cry. We’ll make it hurt.” Behind him, Jason fixed me with a cold stare. “And we’ll enjoy every goddamn second.”

“How is the little slut going to make this up to us?”

“I think I’d like to see her beg. What do you think, boys?”

“I’d enjoy that,” he said, his fingers digging into my neck. “I think I’d like to see her begging for mercy.” “I’ll give her one minute until she’s wailing like a baby,” Jason said.

“Where do you think you’re going? He told you to come, so get your ass over there.”

“I should beat your ass black and blue,” he said, his words pouring liquid heat into my veins. “Oh, she’ll be getting a spanking,” Manson said. “Why don’t you start her off?”

I didn’t want a swat; I wanted a fully-fledged, bent over, legs kicking, doubting-my-own-endurance spanking.

“Would I prefer to take you up to my attic and string you up from the ceiling? Absolutely. But I guess that will have to wait until the next time you throw a goddamn tantrum.”

“This is what happens to bad girls,”

“Open up. Take it.”

“When you call to your God, you’d better look at him,”

“I’ll bend you back over so fast it’ll make you dizzy.”

“You’re calm and he’s…not…but I think you help him be. He looks at you like he wants to listen, and I didn’t think Lucas wanted to listen to anybody, so…yeah, it makes sense.”

“All right. I think I’ll go to bed and have some real nightmares as opposed to this shit.