Bad Boy (An Indecent Proposal) (3 page)

The moment
the door closed I grabbed the phone from the nightstand and dialed the one
number I knew I could call day and night.

“You’ve no
idea what I’m going to do today.” I sighed into the phone as I let myself fall
backward onto the bed, my head sinking into the soft pillow.

“What?”
Jude’s voice echoed down the line.

“Come on.
Have a guess. It’s not like there are a million possibilities.”

“You got
the letters and now you’re reading them?”

“No.” My
laughter died in my throat as my mood plummeted to a new low. “I don’t have
them yet.”

Did she
have
to mention the letters?

Suddenly I
wasn’t sure I wanted to tell her.

Jude might
be my best friend, but did I want her to meddle with my affairs when my life
was already turned upside down?

Hell, no.

Knowing
her, she’d probably try to sort out my life for me the moment she found out
that Chase and I had broken up, in which case all chaos would break loose. But
if I kept my personal problems from her, she’d hold it against me forever, and
it might cost me our friendship. Did I really want to lose her?

“Laurie,
you’d better tell me,” Jude said, her tone leaving no room for discussion. “Do
you have any idea how worried I am? Chase has been calling me all day with some
bullshit about you disappearing on him. He wants to know where you are, and
I’ve no idea what to tell him.”

“He wants
to know, doesn’t he?”

The fucking
bastard!

I felt like
punching the wall. I had to tread carefully before Chase turned Jude against me
like an old, gossipy lady eager to cause trouble and destroy our long
friendship. Suddenly, I had the vision of being alone, with nobody to talk to
at two a.m. Who was going to be my next two a.m. best friend?

“Yeah,”
Jude continued. “He had to convince me not to call the cops. Imagine how
that
made me worry, but he wouldn’t tell
me what happened.”

“He’s such
a concerned friend, our Chase, isn’t he?” I said, dryly.

“Wait, are
you being sarcastic?”

I grimaced.
Nothing ever escaped Jude. “Maybe.”

There was a
short silence.

When she
spoke again, her voice was soft. “What’s going on?”

My throat
constricted, and unshed tears gathered in my eyes. The knowledge that I had let
myself develop feelings for him made me angry. I jumped up from the bed and
reached the minibar in a few hasty strides. I didn’t care if I owed money for
the rest of my life. I needed something. Anything to numb down the anger
bubbling below the surface.

My eyes
fell on the small bottles of alcohol—just what I needed. I unscrewed a
bottle of Tequila and lifted it to my lips. The smell was strong, unpleasant,
but it didn’t matter.

I wanted to
get drunk. Better drunk than a sobbing mess. I took a few gulps of the burning
liquid, wincing at the burning aftertaste it left in my throat. My stomach
growled in protest, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in a whole day. I eyed the
four chips packets, sure that each one would cost me more than my usual weekly
shopping.

Then again,
for once I didn’t care.

I grabbed
one, then slumped down on the floor, my back pressed against the minibar, and
tore it open.

“I’m going
broke. Real broke, that’s what’s happening,” I mumbled and stuffed a few chips
into my mouth, savoring the taste.

“No, what
happened between you and Chase?” Jude said.

Hearing his
name made me cringe. In fact, every fiber of my body was so tense, I could
barely stifle the urge to run for the most secluded place I could find so I’d
never have to hear it again. “We…we broke it off,” I said.

There was
silence on the other end of the line.

“Jude?” I
asked, warily. Was she still on? Had she mentally quit our friendship? Because
as much as I liked Jude, I had to admit that she had kind of seemed a little
too invested in my fake relationship with Chase. At times she had even reminded
me of a mother hen watching over her young, or an eighteenth century matriarch
trying to marry off her elder duckling of a daughter.

“You did
what?” Jude asked carefully, as if she wasn’t sure she had heard me right.

The sudden
iciness in her voice didn’t escape me.

Think
matriarch and all.

“Chase and
I broke it off,” I said with more confidence than I felt. I wasn’t afraid of
Jude per se; she just had this irritating ability to make me feel bad for
things I shouldn’t have felt bad about…not least because usually they were none
of her business.

“You two
did
not
break it off,” Jude said
slowly.

Which was
kind of true, literally speaking.

Not Chase
but
I
broke it off, booked a flight,
and then I hit the shops right before I boarded a plane, but there was no need
to go into specifics.

The thing
about specifics is, they always include too much information.

“We’re
done.” I cleared my throat. “You now, over and done with. Finito.”

I strained
to think of other great words I knew to convey the end of my relationship in
the hope that fancy vocabulary would help Jude understand just how much I
meant.

“But…”
Jude’s voice broke off. I rolled my eyes inwardly. She was shocked, which was
sort of rendering her monosyllabic. In fact, she sounded aghast. I had never
seen her so lost for words. “You were married for less than twenty-four hours.”

“Yes.” I
drew out the word, patiently.

Oh, my god.

She was so
right. I couldn’t even hold down a fake relationship. I couldn’t even commit to
caring for a pet. When I’d volunteered as a pet sitter as a means of earning a
bit of money during college, the stupid dog ran off. Needless to say, I didn’t
get the job. Nor the next one.

For some
reason, that little embarrassing event reminded me of my love life. Just swap Chase
for the dog and me running away instead of him, and voila.

“Things
were going so well,” Jude wailed. She sounded like she was in mourning.

“Yes.” I
nodded, even though she couldn’t see me.

“And you
still have an agreement?”

Uh-huh. Was
that the slightest hint of hope in her voice? The denial was back. I couldn’t
let that happen.

“Yep,
but—” I heaved a sigh, considering my words.

Technically,
Chase and I still had an agreement, but not the kind she thought we had.

It wasn’t a
mutual agreement, a wibbly-wobbly, friendshippy kind of thing with a ‘nice’ guy
who was willing to help out a girl in need. What Chase and I had was a
contract, a legal binding one with the whole lawyer and court crap hovering
over my head, with terms and all that shit. I had been stupid enough to sign
the darn thing, agreeing to stay married to the jerk for one full year and have
sex with him in exchange for helping me get my mom’s letters. The sex he got,
meaning I was off the hook. As to the married part?

I groaned.

That one
would backfire big time. I couldn’t divorce that bad boy for the next twelve
months—unless Chase agreed to it, which I doubted, given that he had more
hidden intentions and probably more backup plans than the FBI.

My eyes
fell on all the energy packed food in the minibar.

Maybe, if I
got real fat, real fast, maybe he’d be so concerned about his reputation that
he’d divorce me in a heartbeat.

The thought
pleased me so much, I pushed a whole handful of chips into my mouth.

I needed to
fatten up this goose, and the sooner I started, the better.

Heck, I’d
stop shaving my legs, too, and look up on Google habits that would make him beg
me to cancel our agreement.

“So let me
sum up,” Jude said slowly, her mind obviously still processing the big news.
“You are married, you have an agreement, and things are going well.”

Ah, the
bliss of denial.

“Were,” I
corrected with my mouth full. “They
were
going well, Jude. All in the past. Thou shall not live in the past.”

“I don’t
understand, Laurie,” Jude said, taken aback.
 
“If things are going well and you still
have an agreement, why would you break it off?”

God, she
definitely didn’t get the ‘past’ part.

I shrugged.
“It’s complicated. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“So what?
All things are complicated, especially relationships. You don’t give up on
them, just because the road ahead is a bit bumpy. That’s the beauty of
challenges—you
overcome
them.”

I cringed
at her choice of words as I pushed another handful of chips into my mouth. “I
know, but trust me, this one isn’t worth saving. Besides, in all your wisdom
you forget that one tiny detail: Chase and I were never in a relationship.” I
trailed off to let my words sink in, feeling stupid that I even had to explain
the situation. “You know this is a fake marriage, right, Jude?”

“Of course
I do.” Her voice came out all shrill and defensive.

“So, why
exactly do you care?” I asked.

And why
exactly did I care?

Because you like him more than he likes you.
More than you’d ever admit to anyone.

“Why?” Jude
asked, jolting me out of my thoughts.

“Why what?”
I asked, confused. “Why it’s a fake marriage?” I began to massage my temples.
We were definitely losing focus here, and that was the last thing I needed. “We
hired him, remember?”

“No.” Jude
drew out the word. “Why did you break it off?”

Oh, for
crying out loud.

Why
wouldn’t she just drop it?

“Because
we’re not a suitable match.” I shrugged again. “Because he’s an asshole? Need I
go on?”

“No, I know
you. You’re not telling me everything.” Her words rendered me silent.
“Something must have happened between you two. Come to think of it, Chase
sounded upset. Just like you’re upset now.”

I snorted.

“I’m not
up—” I stopped mid-sentence. Oh wait! Did she just say Chase was upset?
“Was he crying or what?”

No idea
why, but the thought of Chase crying over me brought on a hysterical fit. I
couldn’t imagine a stone cold god like him shedding a single tear over any
woman, and certainly not over me. Except maybe the kind where he was bent
forward, slapping his knees, laughing hysterically over my stupidity.

“I’m
serious, Laurie,” Jude said annoyed. “I could tell.”

“Of course
you could.” I tossed the empty chips wrapping aside and grabbed another one.

Holy shit
, I thought, as I tore it open and peered
inside.

There were
like five chips in there.

Talk about
charging airport prices for half a fried potato.

Was that
even legal?

But then,
was it even legal for Chase to be that hot? Whoever updated the dictionary
should also include a section for guys like Chase with the description: hot and
dangerous bad boys who liked to melt your panties and toy with your heart only
to discard of it the moment they owned it.

“Are you
listening?” Jude’s voice penetrated my thoughts. I rolled my eyes.

“My dear,”
I adopted a dramatic, old lady’s tone. “Don’t trust with your eyes. Look deep
into the heart and you will see who he really is. Boys will be boys, but Chase
Wright? He’s a whole other level kind of trouble.” I cleared my throat. “He’s
an actor, Jude. Remember? I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that Chase is upset.
And trust me when I say, neither am I. You know why? Because I don’t give a
crap about this arrogant bastard or the bullshit he’s trying to pull on you.”

Or me.

“I don’t
get it, Laurie,” Jude said, baffled. “You were so happy yesterday. You both
were. Something changed. I know it did. I could hear it the moment he called
me. It sounded like…”

“Like
what?” I snapped, annoyed, and tossed the second empty bag of chips aside. My
stomach growled, so I grabbed a candy bar from the minibar, then tucked my legs
under me to make myself more comfortable.

“Like you
finally got rid of your V-card,” Jude said slowly.

Was that
triumph in her voice?

Shoot me.

Here I was
trying to tell her what a jerk Chase had been, and her first thought was that I
had sex with him.

My jaw
dropped as I stared at the phone speechless.

“Right?”
Her tone conveyed hope. “That’s what happened? Right, Laurie?” I was so stunned
I couldn’t reply while Jude continued, “I know first times can suck, because
mine sure did, but there’s no reason to hide or punish him. It’s perfectly
normal to feel dirty.”