The Red Scot (A Curvy Girls Club Novel Book 1) Read online

  They walked in silence, both feeling a bit awkward. Payton noticed the hungry stares that women gave him as they passed by. She also saw the equally baffled looks they gave her, wondering why he was with her. Bradyn didn’t seem to notice any of it. He appeared to be content walking along beside her.

  They made their way to the front door of Beer & Pong. Bradyn opened the door for her and Payton walked inside of the relatively dark establishment. TVs lined every wall in the bar. A wooden counter with bar stools under it took up many of the walls. A large square bar sat in the middle with TVs hanging around the perimeter with gamers gazing up at them as they played a variety of video games. They high-fived each other and drank beers and hard liquor concoctions in between turns. Other parts of the bar were furnished with dark leather couches and coffee tables for drinks and food and console controllers, all in front of more televisions. It was truly an adult gamer’s paradise. Payton tried to contain the smile that wanted to spread across her face.

  “Does this pass the test?” Bradyn asked.

  “What test?” Payton furrowed her brow in question.

  “The cool points test,” Bradyn teased and a huge beautiful smile spread across his face.

  The smile lit up his naturally stern looking face. It literally made Payton’s breath hitch in her throat. The smile even reached his eyes, causing the pale blue color to dance and sparkle with delight. And the skin around his eyes crinkled, making his face appear more handsome than she had ever seen it.

  It was that smile that eased Payton’s final doubts. It sent a welcoming warmth through her middle that set free a battalion of butterflies in her gut. Her skin tingled with awareness and she felt goosebumps rise across her skin. Her heart pounded out a steady tattoo.

  Payton let her full, genuine smile break free. “You have certainly accumulated quite a few cool points for finding this place.”

  Is this what it feels like?! Deep, mutual attraction? No wonder the girls are always swooning over this man or that man. I feel like I could do backflips. Calm down, don’t get too ahead of yourself. The last time you had a crush on a guy, you ended up in his backseat and nearly raped.

  She tried to school her features as he led her over to the bar. Bradyn bought her a vodka/Red Bull and himself a beer, after asking her what she wanted.

  “So what do ye want to play? Something newer?” Bradyn looked down at her.

  “How about something older. I’m kind of a purist when it comes to video games. Sometimes I miss the good ol’ days.” Payton answered honestly.

  “So what did ye have in mind?” Bradyn smiled at her and then glanced at the incredible list of video games the bar had.

  “How about Street Fighter II?” Payton raised a challenging eyebrow. “I’d never be able to beat you in a real fight, but I bet I can annihilate you in a video game.”

  “Oh!” Bradyn burst out. “Where did the shy lass disappear te?”

  “This is my wheelhouse. The only place where I have confidence and comfortable with it too,” Payton said proudly.

  “That’s a shame,” Bradyn remarked as he raised his hand to her face. He stroked a single digit down the side of Payton’s face and she suddenly found it hard to breathe. “As much as I adore yer shyness an’ awkwardness, this side of ye is…let’s just say verra appealing. Ye should try to come outta yer shell more often.”

  The very shyness that he was talking about decided to make a reappearance. Payton looked away from him and moved her face from his searing touch.

  “I’m still a work in progress,” Payton said softly.

  “Aren’t we all,” Bradyn replied just as quietly under his breath.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Bradyn walked Payton over to one of the vacant couches after borrowing the video game she’d chosen. They had only been at the bar a few minutes and he was already having one of the best times with a female companion he’d ever had. He sensed that his lovely ‘date’ was relaxing and becoming at ease with him as the minutes passed. Finally!

  “So who are ye going to be?” He asked as they settled in and began to choose their characters.

  “Chun-Li, of course.” Payton tried to contain a secret smile.

  “Why Chun-Li?”

  “Because she’s the first ever female character in a fighting game. And I always play with the female characters of any fighting game. Besides, her Lightning Kick is everything!” She said with excitement.

  Bradyn loved how her face brightened talking about something she loved. He’d seen a glimpse of it a few times when she was going over the gym website. But she was really in her element now. Her large, dark eyes sparkled with mischief behind her glasses as she selected her fighter. Bradyn looked through the characters he vaguely remembered as a kid and smiled before he selected the perfect one.

  He looked over at Payton and saw her eyes dance with laughter and watched as she squeezed her lips together to keep from laughing. He’d chosen Blanka the huge, green monster with red hair to fight against her character.

  “You would choose him.”

  “Weel, ye did say ye dinna like Red Giants. So here’s yer chance to beat one up,” Bradyn smirked.

  “You suck!”

  “What?! I’m just trying to be accommodating,” he chuckled, unable to keep a straight face.

  They started playing in earnest when they got their laughter under control. Bradyn quickly came to the conclusion that Payton had every right to be cocky about this particular video game. Her thumbs flew over the controller. She even did the whole –thumb and forefinger pressed together while rubbing them with lightning speed over the A and B buttons– move. Bradyn didn’t even get in one good punch before her character was kicking the shit out of his. Literally. Lightning kicks. Upside-down kicks. Whatever. The first round ended within minutes.

  “Weel, that was embarrassing,” Bradyn chuckled to himself.

  Payton’s answering grin was enough to make the loss totally worth it.

  “I told you,” she shrugged nonchalantly. As if ass kicking was just an everyday occurrence.

  “True.” Bradyn paused, trying to think of what he wanted to talk about next. While he had her here and her undivided attention, he wanted to take advantage of it. He wanted to know everything about her. “So, are ye from San Francisco?”

  “No, I’m from Chicago.” She answered easily.

  “Did ye move here with yer family?”

  “No. I came out for college and my parents and baby sister are still there.”

  “Do ye get to see them often?

  “Kind of. Usually during the major holidays.”

  “Payton is an interesting name. Is it a family name?”

  She rolled her eyes and chuckled before answering. “No. I was born the year after the Bears won the Superbowl. My dad loves them so much that he named me after Walter Payton. I hate football, by the way.

  “I hope he dinna name yer sister Walter.” Bradyn cringed.

  “No, but close. He named her Micah, for Mike Singletary. Also a player for the eighty-five Bears team.” Payton sighed in obvious frustration.

  “So I take it yer Da loves football?” Bradyn tried to ask with a straight face.

  “That’s the understatement of the century.” Payton laughed softly. “He used to try to force me to watch it and get into it. He doesn’t anymore.”

  “Why?”

  “Um…nothing worth talking about.” Payton skirted around the subject.

  Bradyn was curious but decided to let it go for another time. If he was lucky enough to get another time. Though he was a relatively intelligent man and he was starting to piece together what had happened to Payton to make her so skittish around men. He wished that he could take away her fears and her obvious pain and absorb it within himself. And maybe he could if she’d give him the chance.

  “What about you?” Payton pulled him from his deep thoughts.

  “What about me?”

  “Is your family still in Scotland? Do you have
siblings?” She asked as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

  “Aye, they’re still in Scotland. They’d never leave. At least no’ fer good. And I do have siblings. Two younger sisters.” Bradyn smiled thinking of his family.

  “Does your whole family have red hair like you?” Payton asked, smiling bashfully at the mention of his hair color.

  “No. No’ all of us are red giants,” Bradyn smirked.

  “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

  “Nope.” He grinned as he pulled out his wallet and reached inside for a faded and creased photo.

  He handed the picture to Payton for her to look at. It was a photograph of his mother, father, two sisters and himself. His mother had stunning red waves and his father had jet-black hair. Bradyn and his youngest sister had gotten the auburn hair and fairer coloring of their mother. And his middle sister had gotten the black hair and slightly darker skin tone of their father. All of them had blue eyes. Two different shades, though. Dark or pale.

  “They’re beautiful.” Payton smiled at the picture and then glanced at him.

  “Thank ye,” Bradyn said proudly, then began pointing to each of his family members. “That’s my Ma and Da, Samuel and Ella. That’s my middle sister Molly, and my baby sister Evie.”

  “How old were you in this photo?”

  “Oh, about twenty, I’d say.” Bradyn leaned back against the couch. “A few years before I came here.”

  Payton turned slightly to look back at him, looking at him coyly from behind her glasses. Bradyn knew that she didn’t realize her appeal. That her shy looks were sexy as hell.

  “You weren’t so…uh…muscular then,” she stammered.

  “Ye really have a problem with muscles, don’t ye?” Bradyn asked, keeping his voice in a teasing tone.

  “Do you miss Scotland?” Payton asked, completely avoiding the question.

  Bradyn let her slide…for now.

  “Aye. I do. But I’ve made this my home now and I am happy here. And I like how the weather is cooler and foggier here in San Francisco. Just like home. Luckily, I also have enough money to visit whenever I can.” He smiled fondly, thinking of home. “And you? Do ye miss Chicago?”

  “I don’t miss the winters. I miss my family, kind of. I’ve always felt out of place…everywhere. Even at home with my family.” Payton sighed. “It wasn’t until I met Royal, Mia, and Kennedy that I felt that I belonged somewhere. So I don’t see myself ever leaving San Francisco or them.”

  “When did ye meet them?”

  “My freshman year of college.”

  Payton got a faraway look in her eyes that seemed a little forlorn and a little wistful. Bradyn had no idea why her memories of meeting her friends would evoke a look of sadness and happiness at the same time. He reached out a hand to take hers. Her skin felt like satin against the calloused pads of his fingers. She shivered at his touch and Bradyn smiled, knowing that her trembles had turned from bad to good. He knew they were good because she didn’t even attempt to pull away from his touch.

  Bradyn slowly sat forward, not wanting to scare her away. Payton’s large, coffee brown eyes widened as he came closer. He raised his hand to her smooth ebony cheek. Bradyn lightly brushed back a tendril of hair that laid against her temple and cheek. Her lips popped open as she tried to catch her breath. Her pink tongue darted out to wet her chocolaty, Cupid’s bow shaped lips. Bradyn’s eyes focused on her lush lips and he felt himself lean closer, craving a taste of her beautiful mouth.

  A hand rose up between them to push her glasses back up onto her nose and she quickly turned away. Effectively shutting him down without saying a word. Godsblood this woman is harder te crack than a bag o’ nuts!

  Bradyn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He’d been fantasizing about kissing her and doing any number of delightful things to her body for weeks now. Yet, it didn’t look like he was going to be getting any closer to doing those things in the near future.

  “L-Let’s play another round.” Payton’s voice quivered slightly.

  “Ye’ll only beat me, but why not?”

  Bradyn picked up his controller, accepting the fact that he would not be getting the chance to taste her lips this night. Instead, he settled in for a night of drinks and games.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Spill it,” Kennedy said to Payton.

  It was their regular Saturday lunch date at Raw. They hadn’t even settled in at their table yet before the curious redhead was ready to hear what had happened between Payton and Bradyn the night before.

  “Spill what?” Payton asked innocently.

  Mia gave her a look. “Don’t act like you’re dumb, because we know better. So you might as well spill the frijoles before we force it out of you.”

  Payton knew Mia would, so she spoke quickly. “There’s nothing to tell. We went to the coolest place I’ve been to in a long time. It had every video game console, from Atari to PS4. And oh my God, the games. They had thousands of-” Payton stopped mid-sentence when she saw their looks of impatience. “Sorry, I digress. Anyway, we just talked. I destroyed him several times playing Street Fighter. It was… Fun.”

  “That’s it?” Royal asked, looking at her suspiciously.

  “I mean, I think at one point, he almost kissed me. But I turned away.”

  “Aww…Payton!” Kennedy groaned with disappointment. “You should’ve let him kiss you!”

  “Well, I’m not ready for all that.” Payton raised her chin and sniffed, petulantly.

  “Girl, you’re about to turn thirty in a few months. You better get ready.” Mia order in her usual authoritative tone.

  “We’re all turning thirty this year,” Payton shot back.

  “Yeah, but we’re,” Mia paused to point to herself and the other two, “not virgins.”

  “What’s the big deal anyway?! I’m so sick of talking about sex!” Payton threw her hands up in frustration. A rare outburst of emotion from the normally reserved beauty. “It’s just sex. A man putting his penis in a woman’s vagina. What can be so great about that?”

  Kennedy reached across the table and placed a calming hand over Payton’s.

  “When you put it that way, it does sound like this simple, insignificant thing. But I promise you, it can be the most beautiful and pleasurable thing you’ll ever experience if you’re with the right partner.” Kennedy explained wistfully.

  “I suppose. I just don’t see the appeal.” Payton shrugged.

  “That’s because you need to stop hearing us talk about it and actually do it. It’s the only way, dude. Just jump.” Royal suggested.

  “And please jump soon,” Kennedy pleaded. “Because I hope you know that I’m turning this into a story. The two of you are just too sweet not to write about.”

  “I’m starting to believe that none of you watched those after school specials growing up, about peer pressure.” Payton frowned at them.

  “This is neither high school nor are we talking about drugs. You are twenty-nine, soon to be thirty and we’re talking about sex. And with a man who has been very patient with you and seems to adore you. If we didn’t peer pressure you, you’d stay a virgin the rest of your life. And since I haven’t heard anything about you wanting to join the nunnery, we need to give you a little push so that you can get a little push. Inside your vagina. With a penis.” Mia defended.

  Royal and Kennedy chuckled at Mia’s choice of words. Payton had to admit, Mia certainly had a gift for turning any situation into an opportunity to go straight into the dirtiest gutter possible.

  “You do realize you’re all on a crazy train headed straight to hell, right?” Payton asked.

  Mia smirked, “And I’m the conductor. Choo-Choo motherfucker.”

  Everyone in the restaurant turned to look over at their table as they burst out into peals of laughter.

  “Enough about my underused vagina. What about your well-worn one, Mia?” Payton said after they all calmed down. Kennedy and Royal almos
t spit out their drinks at her joke.

  “I do Kegel exercises when I wake up and before I go to bed. You don’t have to worry, my punany is as tight as an eighteen-year-old virgin’s at Sunday school.” Mia responded haughtily. “And what about my vagina?”

  “Whatever happened to that cute guy at the bar you went home with? You haven’t mentioned anything about him.” Payton asked.

  “Oh, yeah! I forgot about him. I need details to put aside for a future novel.” Kennedy chimed in.

  “There’s nothing to tell,” Mia hedged.

  “Uh oh! That means something bad went down.” Royal rubbed her hands together and leaned forward, ready for a good story. “Now it’s your turn… Spill it.”

  “It was nothing. He was good in bed.” Mia said offhandedly.

  They all knew something was up.

  “So what was the problem? You usually replay your stories with gusto.” Kennedy squinted at her.

  “Well… After we got finished, he kinda got his ass whooped…by his mama.” Mia looked down at her napkin.

  “WHAT?!? They all shouted in unison.

  The other restaurant patrons glanced over at them curiously and the girls cringed and quieted down.

  “What?!” Royal exclaimed under her breath.

  “Oh, it’s no big deal. He just lived with his madre. In the basement.” Mia explained, her voice dripping with disdain.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Kennedy burst out.

  “Nope. I wish I were.”

  “How old was he?” Payton asked.

  “I don’t know. Old enough not to be living in his parents’ basement that looked like a bachelor pad he had no plans of leaving anytime soon.” Mia scowled.

  “And his mom beat him? Payton asked warily.

  “She sure did. With a belt.”

  “Oh my God!” Royal exclaimed, on the verge of another laughing fit.