Lethal Temptations (Tempted #5) Read Online Free Page A

card, forming another line before I bent my head, pressing my index finger to the nostril I used to rip the first line and snorted the second.
    I lifted my head, stumbled back as the door opened and I turned my head, lifting my hands to push the hair away from my eyes as they locked with Lacey’s.
    Shit.
    I didn’t need this now, another fucking temptation I wasn’t strong enough to beat. I shook my head, wishing she’d disappear, but she was there, staring at me with innocence radiating from her dark eyes. She looked at me like I was some goddamn mythical warrior.
    “Your old man ain’t here, go home,” I clipped, peeling my eyes off of her as I walked around the bar, sniffling from the coke and itching for a drink. I pulled a bottle of whiskey from the shelf before reaching for a glass and filling it with the amber liquid. I placed the bottle on top of the bar and lifted the glass to my lips, knocking back the liquid in three gulps.
    I set the empty glass down and she was in front of me, her eyes bored into mine and as much as I wanted to look away I couldn’t.
    “Lace, I’m not in the mood, so why don’t you go on and tell me what you need that way you can get the fuck out of here,” I slurred, watching as her eyes widened at the tone I took with her.
    Fuck.
    I ran my fingers roughly through my hair, teetering on the edge of insanity, hating the way she was looking at me.
    Quit looking at me like I’m something when I’m nothing.
    “What’s the matter, Lace? You didn’t know your favorite Knight got down like this?” I sneered.
    “Oh, I knew,” she quickly said, pulling out one of the stools before she took a seat.
    Great, she was sticking around.
    “I never saw it firsthand before is all,” she added, softly as her teeth dug into her bottom lip and continued staring at me.
    I leaned over the bar, so she could get a better look at me and see how truly fucked I was. I wanted to scare her, to make her run the fuck away from me before I lost the little control I was hanging onto.
    “Get out of here Lace, run the fuck away and don’t turn back,” I warned her, leaning back and refilled my glass.
    “I have nowhere else to go,” she whispered.
    Her broken voice and the words she uttered forced me to look back at her and through my hazed eyes I noticed the pain in hers. Lacey was the girl who lit up a room with her smile but, staring at her now, seeing how tortured her eyes were, made me wonder if the smile was a mask. And then Jack’s voice worked its way inside my head, reminding me that today was Jack Jr.’s birthday and he went off on a mission to wallow in his own misery.
    “If Lacey comes around or calls…”
    “Shit,” I mumbled. “Buying her an ice cream cone and pretending the world is a giant playground don’t work no more for her.”
    He smiled proudly. “Girl’s all grown up.”
    “Yeah,” I whispered.
    God or whoever the fuck was responsible, made it real fucking hard for me to ignore Lacey had grown up. He gave her a fucking body that made you want to drop to your knees and worship. Jack would’ve shot me dead if he knew the thoughts that sometimes ran through my head or the way I couldn’t help but look at her.
    She was fucking beautiful.
    And sweet, so goddamn sweet.
    Fucking lethal was what she was.
    Wasn’t that what I was looking for?
    “Your pretty little face doesn’t belong here,” I grunted, reaching across the bar to tuck a strand of her brown hair behind her ear.
    I was jonesing.
          Not for drugs, not even alcohol.
    I was jonesing for her.
    For Lace.
    I snapped my hand back, tore my eyes from her as I walked around the bar, taking a seat next to her. She lifted my glass to her lips and took a sip, cringing immediately.
    “How do you drink that?” She asked in between coughing, shoving the glass back at me.
    “Why the sad eyes?”
    “Do you always answer a question with a question?”
    “Cut the shit,” I clipped, reaching out for her again, this