Taking Johnny: A New-Adult Novel Read online

  TAKING JOHNNY

  A NEW-ADULT NOVEL

  BOOK 3

  BY RACHEL DUNNING

  Genres

  New Adult Romance

  Erotic Romance

  Copyright © 2015 Rachel Dunning.

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  Book Cover Design, Copyright 2015 Rachel Dunning

  First Edition.

  ISBN: 9781311819512

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Rachel Dunning:

  Johnny, #1 Johnny Series

  Losing Johnny, #2 Johnny Series

  Claiming Johnny, #4 Johnny Series

  Finding North, #1 Naïve Mistakes Series

  East Rising, #2 Naïve Mistakes Series

  West-End Boys, #3 Naïve Mistakes Series

  Deep South, #4 Naïve Mistakes Series

  Red-Hot Blues, Standalone Novel

  Like You, #1 Perfectly Flawed Series

  Know Me, #1 Truthful Lies

  Find Me, #2 Truthful Lies

  Need Me, #3 Truthful Lies

  Christmas Comfort, #1 Hot Holidays Series

  Easter Sundae, #2 Hot Holidays Series

  Girl-Nerds Like it Harder, #1 Girl-Nerd Series

  Girl Nerds Like it Faster, #2 Girl-Nerd Series

  Girl-Nerds Like it Deeper, #3 Girl-Nerd Series

  Girl-Nerds Like it Longer, #4 Girl-Nerd Series

  For news of upcoming releases, visit:

  http://racheldunningauthor.blogspot.com

  Or connect with me on Facebook:

  http://bit.ly/RachelDunning

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  BOOK FOUR

  ALSO BY RACHEL DUNNING

  FOREWORD

  -1-

  This book is not meant to be read on its own. If you haven’t yet read books one and two, you should probably do that now.

  Book One: Johnny

  Book Two: Losing Johnny

  Both books should be available wherever you purchased this one.

  -2-

  This is an Erotic New Adult Romance. It should only be read by people who are seventeen or older.

  PROLOGUE

  -1-

  My name is Johnny. And this is my story.

  CHAPTER ONE

  -1-

  Sunday night, Aug 23

  I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip his cock off and feed it to him slowly. I wanted to vent off a year’s worth of rage and lay into him until his heart oozed out of his chest and blood gurgled from his mouth.

  I wanted to blame him. I wanted him to be the reason for how my life had turned south and hit the shit-pit ever since I’d flown the coop and set up shop in Portugal. Away from her.

  Away from Cat.

  But most of all, I just wanted to fuck—him—up.

  I arrived in a storm of fury. If my skin had been green I’d be the hulk. Thunder was already there, standing tall and angry. Angrier than me. Right, because from what I’d heard, this guy was practically Cat’s new father. And if I’d heard of my daughter’s boyfriend getting his dick sucked by some bimbo, I’d wanna kill the fucker as well.

  Which is what we were doing.

  I wasn’t thinking, wasn’t breathing, wasn’t calculating. The war had taken over me.

  Just before I walked into the apartment building, Thunder put his arm to stop me. A hard arm. Powerful. The dude was more than twice my age but I had no doubt I’d be mince if I fucked with him. With cold blue eyes he glared at me, said, “Chill. It’s not gonna be like that, OK?”

  I didn’t want to agree, but I had to. He was probably right. Murder, first degree. Not good. Not good at all.

  I started to think again.

  I started to feel rational again.

  And I didn’t like it.

  So I rushed up the grimy gray stairs to the his floor, banged on the door.

  And saw him.

  The guy who’d been fucking my girl for the last one or three months. “My” girl. No. Not true. But men don’t think like that.

  I went for him. Jumped over the counter and flew mid-air in a frenzied fit, all my might and power cocked into muscles I’d been pumping for twelve months.

  And just before I landed on him...

  ...I felt the hardest, thickest, baddest thwack to my face I’d ever encountered. And I spun backwards, an elegant arc of graceful blood spewing from my lips up onto the ceiling, over my eye, and then onto the ground below me.

  And then the floor came up to meet me. And I heard the crack of my skull against it.

  Brazilian jiu-jitsu, no doubt.

  But that was the only smack he’d get on me. Before Tiago could land another, Thunder was on him.

  Thunder was on him bad.

  Thunder was on him so hard that I had to pull him back. His elbow hit my jaw and teeth while I grappled to pull him away from the bloody mass of red that lay on the ground now, begging, pleading for mercy.

  Thunder’s roar echoed like, well, thunder as he thudded and pumped his fists and elbows and forehead and knees and boot-tips into Tiago’s face, stomach, groin...

  “YOU MOTHER—FUCKING BASTARD!” he bellowed.

  “Thunder! Stop! Stop, bro! STOP!”

  But he didn’t. He kept hitting, kept murdering.

  Tiago, below him, could only whimper by now. Arms up, elbows covering his face. Red, just splotches of red as his body jumped listlessly in response to each crunch of Thunder’s mighty boot.

  “Thunder, stop! STOP!”

  Again, he didn’t.

  Until she screamed.

  It was the scream of death, of pity, of sorrow.

  Of love.

  She still loved this guy. Despite what he just did to her, she still loved him.

  And it pierced my heart harder than Thunder’s muscles had almost pierced Tiago’s lungs.

  Cat.

  I turned to face her, way in the back, beyond the kitchen, at the entrance. I only caught her gaze briefly, the paleness of her face, before she went gray with the nauseating feeling that...maybe...he was dead.

  Her look was a mixture of pain and fear and...lividness. A hatred so deep for what Thunder and I had just done that I knew, I knew, this would change everything.

  And, still in this moment, this pause amongst the maelstrom, my mind locked on her beauty, the blue of her eyes, the dark chestnut of her dyed hair. The small nose.

  Those breasts.

  Her small body.

  And behind her, shocked, teary, Nicole. Red-haired, auburn eyed. Pale, freckled, hot as a fuckin water nymph. The only other girl I’ve ever cared for. A girl I’ve admittedly never loved—and could never love—like I once loved Cat, but with whom sexual sparks of heated p
assion fly like nothing on earth, catching on tinder and setting forests aflame. A girl to whom I confessed...I wanted. And who I know wants me.

  A girl with whom I imagined the sex would light up a city.

  Cat’s best friend.

  And a problem.

  But then the moment is gone, and we’re back in the apartment, and Tiago’s murmuring in pain behind me.

  And Cat’s charging, running, ripping through the ether of the room with venom in her eyes.

  And her screams...

  Oh, God, her screams. So painful. So—fucking—unbelievably painful.

  Why? Why did I do this? Why did I do this!

  “Tiago! NO! NO! What—” Cat hurtles past me, kneeing me mistakenly in the groin. Leans over her loved one. Looks up at Thunder.

  At Thunder.

  And the giant breaks apart.

  “Why?” she says to him, tears falling from her eyes like gunfire, landing on the carpeted floor in a mush of wetness.

  Thunder, the monster, the giant, is shattered. I see it in his eyes, how the bravado has left him. His fists unclench. His mouth opens, just slightly, wanting to apologize.

  “Why?” she howls again.

  Every word, every question—it’s a razor to our necks, a spear to our hearts. We did wrong. We did completely wrong.

  “Call an ambulance! Call a fuckin ambulance!” the beauty screams. She grabs her love by the arms, pulls him up, rests her head on his bloody chest.

  I get up from the ground, look up at Nic. She’s on the phone with 911, nods at me. She’s not emotional about this, not like Cat. She senses the major fuck-up that it is. Major fuck-up, but she’s not hysterical. She doesn’t love Tiago, probably hates him as much as I do for what he did to Cat. So she’ll be there for her friend, but she knows, she knows, she and I have business to deal with.

  Sparks.

  Lightning.

  Desire.

  And a major fuckin problem.

  “Get out!” Cat screams at Thunder. “Get out!” The three of us step out into the hallway, and when we do, Thunder and I are rammed to the ground by charging NYPD.

  -2-

  The blonde who’d been doing Tiago was in the bedroom. So were Tiago’s two roommates, Erik and François—in their own room. They’d long since dialed the cops.

  Thunder and I had been sitting ducks.

  -3-

  Turns out Thunder Cunningham has a bit of a rap. Sitting at the precinct, I was treated like royalty compared to him. I heard grunts and moans from behind a door where he was being questioned. The cops know a guy like him isn’t gonna lawyer up. So they take liberties. He was in there for thirty minutes. When he comes out, his left eye is swollen, so is his lip. And blood is trickling down his nostril. What I don’t get, is that one of the pigs is tapping him on the shoulder like they’re old pals.

  But then I do get it. Because I see a younger guy, a cop, behind them both, scrunched up on the floor like no one’s business. Weeping. Wailing. It seems Thunder gave it as good as he got it.

  “Let’s go, kid,” he says to me, like I’m his son or something.

  It’s three in the morning when we get outside. Thunder’s about to offer me a ride on his hog...when I see her. Red hair, fire in her eyes, skin like the moon. Nicole.

  Nic.

  Nic Fermann.

  I’m hot for her. I’ve been hot for her for months, actually. When she came by earlier tonight (or last night), after she and Cat had had a fight, it was all I could do to not stick my hand between her legs and feel that slick heat over my thumb as I explored her depths.

  It was all I could do...

  But I didn’t. And not because Cat and me have history. But because I want Nic to make this decision on her own. And besides, I don’t love her. It’s the sad fuckin truth of it. But I don’t.

  And I can’t do that to her. Because I know she might not love me back, but she feels something for me. Something strong.

  I walk down the precinct steps with Thunder on my side, walking to the girl down below like some film noir scene. Her eyes are wide with fear. I’m thinking of Tiago, how Thunder pulverized him. How he seemed almost dead when...

  Nic says nothing at first when I get to her. Then she sees Thunder’s battered face. Her hand goes to her mouth as a slight gasp escapes her. “Thun—”

  He stops her. “You should see the other guy,” he says.

  She says nothing again. Warm August wind blows light strands of fiery hair across her brow. I don’t understand this reaction in me. Don’t. All I know is I want to rip her dress open and hear her scream.

  I don’t understand it.

  “How’s he doing?” I ask.

  She hesitates a moment. “He’s alive. Barely.” Her eyes flick to Thunder. He doesn’t apologize.

  “Need a place to stay?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “No. No. I got class in a few hours. I don’t even think I’ll go to bed tonight.”

  She waits, looks at Thunder briefly. He gets the hint. “I’ll go see Alice,” he says. “She’ll probably want to rip me a new one. Johnny...” He extends his hand to me. “Nice meeting you. Gimme a call later and I’ll show you what you can do against that jiu-jitsu crap.”

  I know what to do against it. But I wasn’t thinking earlier. Just reacting. Just...hating. But I say, “Sure.”

  Nicole and I stand looking at each other awhile. Or, more accurately, I’m looking at her. The swell of her generous breasts. The fullness of her red lips. Her skin...

  My cock’s already getting hard, and that’s not good.

  “How’s Cat?” I ask.

  Nic looks up at me with doe eyes. “She’s OK. What the fuck happened, Johnny?”

  So I tell her. I take her over to a place called Bernie’s 24hr Bagels across the street, buy her a coffee. A bagel with cream cheese. When I’m done explaining that Tiago was about to hand my ass to me on a platter, and that Thunder stepped in and unleashed the fury of God onto the kid, her face doesn’t change. It’s as if she’s not even listening to me.

  She looks worried, afraid.

  She looks nervous.

  “Why did you come here, Nicole?”

  Her eyes water up slightly. She looks up at the dude behind the counter, says nothing. “Because... Because I had nowhere else to go. Cat insisted I leave. There was nothing I could do at the hospital. And when I got outside, I realized I had nowhere to go.”

  I extend my hand over the table, grab her fingers tightly. A tear drops calamitously from her eye and crashes against the linoleum table. Her other hand pinches her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she says. “I...”

  I squeeze her hand tighter.

  “She gave me her blessing,” Nicole says. “Cat... She... We were at the hospital. I was holding her. And she said, ‘Go for him. Go for him, Nic. He and I are over. I’m happy for you. Go for him. You have my blessing. And it won’t affect us.’

  “Johnny, I’m scum. I’m scum for being here. I’m scum for doing this. It doesn’t matter that she gives me her blessing. It doesn’t. She’s my best friend. Like my sister. She’s... Johnny, she’s the only fucking person I ever truly loved. Can you believe that?”

  “And yet you came.”

  She nods weakly. “And yet I came. Yes. Here I am.”

  “Why?”

  I wish I could hear her thoughts. I wish.

  She grinds her teeth. Looks out at the dirty New York street. “I don’t know,” she says.

  But I think I know. I think I know why. She’s alone. She always has been alone. She’s been alone since she was twelve. She’s fought love, fought emotion. And now it’s knocking at the door.

  She’s scum? No. I’m the scum. For being here. For leading her on.

  But I want her. I want her badly. I want her almost as badly as I once wanted...

  ...Cat.

  Cat—the girl I couldn’t have. The girl who was involved when I started feeling things for Nicole. The girl who is now...si
ngle.

  And I’m also single.

  And Nicole and I are sitting here together.

  And all I can think about is feeling the sweat of our skin glide across each other as we devour each other.

  And then?

  “C’mon,” I say. “You need some shuteye. Why don’t you sleep in my car?” I lead her to my car and we get in the back seat. I push myself against the door and she rests her head on my chest. Her elbow pushes down on my cock as she lies on me. She’s asleep in an instant. I run my fingers through her hair, lightly, thinking. She smells like perfume, like shampoo, like sweat. I can almost taste the salt of her skin on my tongue. The tang of her center as I once did.

  I grit my teeth.

  And force myself to think of something else.

  CHAPTER TWO

  -1-

  I don’t play the bad-boy part very well. I tried it in Portugal and it ate me up from the inside. Different girls every week when I wasn’t involved. Drinking. Partying.

  I imploded. Nicole kept me afloat.

  I’d love to be that guy who rips a scumbag lover to shreds and then doesn’t care. But I do care. I care about how Cat is feeling. I care about how that scum-fuck is doing. So I call her in the morning. I’m not sure how she’ll take it. I’m not sure if she’ll even wanna hear my voice. But I try.

  “Johnny,” she says on the phone.

  “Cat. How’s...how’s...”

  “He’s...OK. Ruptured spleen. Several broken ribs. What the fuck were you guys thinking, Johnny?”

  I’d be a pussy now if I blamed Thunder. I was as much to blame as he was. “We weren’t. We weren’t thinking, Cat.”

  “This was none of your business, J. How could you...”

  “Cat, you’re right. But I saw red. I was angry. I was...”

  “I’m not your property, J. You have to let me grow up. You have to let me make my own mistakes. You’re not my... You’re not my... Goddamnit, you’re not my father!”