Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Did you want to talk or something?” she asked.
I turned around. Monroe had plopped down on the moss-covered trunk, one leg kicked up.
“What?” Taking a seat beside her, I pulled a cigarette from my pocket and lit it. Instead of focusing on her, I focused on the smoke billowing over the creek, my leg bouncing.
“You came over to my trailer…”
“Yeah. And?” I was good with girls. Great at talking their panties off. This shit...I glanced at Monroe out of the corner of my eye. Yeah, I was shit at whatever the hell this was.
“We can go back.” She dropped her boot to the ground.
I didn’t want to go back. But I had no idea how to keep her here. I honestly had no idea who she really was. “When’s your birthday?” I said, then took another drag.
“August twentieth. Why?”
Another pull from the cigarette. A shrug of my shoulder, my gaze still aimed at the water. I had never felt so stupid in my life.
She snorted. “I thought you were supposed to be good at this.”
I chucked the half-smoked cigarette into the water, watching it careen over the rocks. “I don’t talk to girls, Roe. What the hell am I supposed to ask you?”
“How do you not talk to girls? There’s a different one crying in the bathroom over you each week.”
I had never promised a single girl a thing, never given a hint that I cared. And it wasn’t like I didn’t have a reputation; why would a girl waste her time crying over me? “What the hell is wrong with girls?”
“I know, right? You practically have asshole stamped on your forehead. The truth might ruin your chances.” A small laugh bubbled past her lips. “Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”
That comment made me turn to look at her. A slight smile played at her lips, and I couldn’t help but think about kissing her, but I wasn’t sure how to do that if I wasn’t trying to fuck her. Monroe thought I wasn’t an asshole, and while that was cute, it was dangerous for both her and me. “I’m not a nice guy, Roe.”
“A bad guy wouldn’t bother with the warning.”
“And a good guy wouldn’t have girls crying over him, would he?”
She traced her finger over a groove in the log. “They wanted a bad boy…” Her gaze met mine. “You gave them exactly what they asked for.”
And that was where she was wrong. Those girls wanted a bad boy they could fix. They wanted a guy that would be good for them. And that wasn’t me. I would never be good for anyone.
The wind kicked up for a second, blowing through the tree limbs and letting the last rays of dimming sunlight through. A sliver of golden light touched her face, and damn, if it didn’t make her look beautiful.
“You should know, Monroe. Girls don’t really want a bad guy.” I grabbed a pebble from the ground and pushed to my feet, skipping the rock across the creek. “They only want one they can fix.”
“I didn’t realize you were broken.” Monroe stepped beside me, studying me like she wanted to pick apart my layers, one at a time, and that made me uneasy. “You’re really not bad, Zepp.”
Her gaze fell to my mouth, and fingers brushed my jaw. Then she pressed her lips to my cheek—To. My. Cheek—before she turned away, heading back down the path to the trailer park.
I felt like a deer in headlights, confused as fuck and ready for the damn car to just run me over.
* * *
Never in my life would I have thought I would be standing at a movie theatre concession stand on a Thursday night while Wolf bought a tub of buttered popcorn and a soda for some chick he’d already banged.
Yet here we were. The aroma of burned popcorn and rich-girl perfume wafted around me.
The cookie-cutter, private school girl I’d been forced to accompany shifted closer, brushing her arm against mine. “I want some popcorn.”
I waved toward the counter. “Well, go fucking get some. No one’s stopping you.” I may have been forced into this shit nightmare, but I wasn’t dropping a penny on anything but my stupid movie ticket.
A deep pout shaped her lips. That look may have worked on her rich daddy. Too bad, Samantha, that crap didn’t work on me.
“You gonna get some popcorn or what?”
Wolf turned away from the counter, cramming a handful of popcorn into his mouth while he laughed.
Samantha didn’t get popcorn, but she did whine to her friend about it on the way into the theatre.
Wolf made his way up the dimly lit stairs, settling into a seat on the back row and kicking his sneakers up onto the chair in front of him. His date sat beside him, all smiles. I went down one of the aisles a few rows in front of them, then flopped into a seat, hoping Samantha would keep going. But she didn’t.