Free Revelry (Taint #1) by Carmen Jenner Page B

giving Cat away, booze, Chinese food, and more booze. “What did I tell you today?”
    “About your ex.”
    Realisation dawns. “Oh, you mean my ex fucking our stripper roommate? No, this has absolutely nothing to do with that and everything to do with feeling limmeratered … librarated ... liberated,” I say slowly, and then I give a little “yay” with my hands up in the air when I finally get the word to come out right.
    “Jesus, Ryan, the girl wants to get naked in front of us and gyrate on a fucking pole. Why are you ruining this for everyone?” Levi asks.
    “Because I’m not an arsehole like you.”
    “Nope. That’s not true, you’re totally an arsehole,” I say to Cooper, who frowns at me, his arms folded across a broad and very nicely muscled chest. “I really don’t like you, even though that face is so pretty—it’s sooooooo pretty … But all this”—I wave my hand up and down, encompassing his body—“I really don’t like this.”
    The boys laugh, all except Cooper. He just scowls down at me. I take my fingers and poke at his frowny mouth, making happy and sad Cooper faces.
    “Wait, Red, you lived with a stripper?” Levi asks. “Holy shit, please tell me you took showers together?”
    “Nope.” I move out around Coop and grasp the pole with both hands and, leaning back until the whole world is upside down, I say, “I’m betting she bathed naked with Brad though.”
    “Who’s Brad?”
    “Her ex,” Cooper says, and I could kiss him because I don’t have to say the things I don’t want to say: the scumbag that cheated on me, or the man whom I loved and gave five years of my life to and who destroyed me with one single fucking head job.
    The music changes and the chunky guitar riff to Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” floods the room. I close my eyes and swing my hips to the beat, forgetting Cooper Ryan and the rest of them. I don’t have extensions, or fake tits, or a long, lithe bronzed body like that home-wrecking whore did. It’s entirely possible my legs and bikini line are furrier than Elmo, but damn it, I can be just as sexy as she was. I can be hot, and I can dance on a pole and get men hard.
    I lean against the pole and grab the hem of my shirt, shimmying my hips in time with the music. I pull the shirt free and toss it off towards the couch. It lands on Levi’s lap and he bunches it up, bringing it up to his nose and sniffing hard.
    “Holy—” Leif begins.
    “Fuck,” Levi finishes.
    And then Cooper stands in front of me. He glowers down, I glare back, but I see the heat in his gaze and I know that neither of us are fooling anyone. There’s chemistry between us, too much chemistry for two people who dislike one another so much. Still, given half the chance I’d bang his brains out. I wrap my hand around the pole, and swing off of it, the way I used to swing off street signs when I was a kid.
    “Ali,” Cooper says, his voice louder than the others, and angry. So, so angry. His hands are on my skin, and he’s attempting to cover me.
    “Hey, get your hands off my boobs, mister.” I smack his hands away and he grunts. So I may have forgotten that I wasn’t wearing a bra. I mean, it’s not like I planned to get the boobs out, but they are certainly out now. Before I realise what he’s planning to do, Cooper bends down and wraps his arms around the backs of my knees, then he throws me over his fucking shoulder.
    I scream and pound my fists into his back, and I repress the urge to vomit as he carries me into a room and shuts the door. When he finally sets me on my feet, the room spins. I’m pressed against the door, and Cooper is penning me in. His bright blue-grey eyes stare down into mine. We seem to just stare at one another for a beat, and this crazy idea swims through my head that I should kiss him.
    Kiss him? Are you fucking crazy? We hate this guy. He’s an arrogant, conceited butt-munch. In fact, you could probably replace Zed’s pole with the