Denying The Bad Boy (Tattooed and Pierced #2) (14 page)

“Come on, how about a little morning fun?” She moved
her hand down her concave belly and started playing with herself. Alex made a
grunt of impatience and pointed toward the door.

“No. I told you I have shit to do.”

Her lips flattened, and she pushed herself up,
completely unconcerned about her nudity.

“What kind of guy turns down sex?”

“The same kind of guy that brings
random chicks home to fuck.”
He was being a prick, but he was
hung over, pissed at himself for what he had done with this girl, and even more
pissed that he disrespected Mary the way he had. No amount of reasoning could
make him feel differently on the latter. He had pushed her away to make her see
what a douche he was, but he still felt like a prick.

“What kind of girl do you think I am?” Her voice was
outraged.

“The kind that goes home with a
random guy to fuck.”
He used the same phrase on her as he
had on himself. They were the same, no matter which way they looked at it. He
felt like throwing up, and he wanted her out of his house so he could do it in
fucking peace. He really didn’t have anything to do today, well, not anymore.
After pushing Mary away he didn’t have tutoring today, and aside from maybe
going to the gym to work out the toxins from his body, he was going to sit his
ass on the couch and do absolutely nothing. No studying. No football. No Mary.
He had practice Monday, and although he wasn’t playing in games until he got
his grades up, his still worked out with his teammates.

“You are such a bastard.” Her anger was tangible,
but he wasn’t in the mood for it. He scrubbed a hand over his face again,
needing a shave as bad as he needed a shower.

God, he had a fucking headache. He rubbed his
temples, just needing her to leave.

He heard her mumbling profanities about his manhood
under her breath, but he didn’t say anything because she was right. “Fuck you,
Alex.”

He lifted his hand, and thanked whoever had helped
him out that she was finally leaving. The sound of her wrenching the bedroom
door shut, and then her angry, loud footsteps proceeded her slamming of the
front door. Seconds later her tires squealing out of his driveway had him
breathing out in relief. He sat on the edge of the bed and rested his forehead
in his hand. He needed a gallon of water and some ibuprofen. There was a knock
on the door, but he didn’t bother looking up.

“Yeah?”
His
voice was muffled, but whoever was on the other side heard him because the door
creaked open.

“You like look shit run over twice.” Racer’s voice
was amused, which further pissed off Alex. He lifted his hand and flipped him
off. Racer chuckled. The smell of meat had Alex’s stomach roiling.

“Fuck off, Adam.” Alex mouth watered with the threat
of spewing up whatever was left in his stomach, but he swallowed roughly and
forced himself to keep it down. “What time is it anyway?”

 
“It’s after
one, fucker. I made some burgers if you want.”

Alex clenched his teeth at the foul words. Just the
thought of food had him ready to puke.

Damn he had slept half the day away, although he had
no clue what time they had gotten home.

“Dude, please. Shut the fuck up about the food.”

Racer chuckled again. “Well, I can make you some
eggs, you know with the really runny centers. Or I can get you some slightly
undercooked sausage, you know, to help settle your stomach.”

Alex grabbed a pillow and chucked it at Racer.

“Fuck you, Adam.”

Nausea slammed into him, and Racer laughed loudly
before darting out of the room. Alex stood and quickly walked to the bathroom,
threw open the lid, and puked until he started dry heaving. Well, shit, he
couldn’t remember the last time he had thrown up.

He flushed the toilet and stood, bracing himself on
the edge of the sink. When he glanced at himself in the mirror he winced at how
nasty he looked. Dark circles under his eyes, his hair standing up every which
way, and the five o’clock shadow from hell. His mouth tasted stale, and every
part of his body ached. He had really fucked things up with her, but it had
been for the best, because her wanting him was not only like a dream fucking
come true, but also bad news. In the end he would hurt her, because that was
what he was good at doing. Hell, he already had hurt her.

****

Mary knew this was a bad idea as soon as she made up
her mind, and that feeling of dread continued to grow when she got in her car,
drove to Alex’s house, and now stood at his front door waiting for someone to
answer. Her heart thundered hard in her chest, and her mouth had gone dry. Her anger
still simmered below the surface, and her damn arousal was making its way
through her body. The front door swung open, and she was struck speechless when
she saw it was Alex in nothing but a pair of loose, low hanging
sweats,
and a towel slung over his wide, muscular shoulders.
There was that dark, delicious ink that started on his right arm and wound its
way over his shoulder and disappeared to his back. She knew that the wide
expanse of his back held those intricately dark lines that swirled, twisted, and
were sharp in contrast to his golden, hairless skin.

“Mary? What are you doing here?” She snapped her
eyes to his and felt her cheeks heat. No doubt he just caught her checking him
out. The way his jaw clenched, and the dark look that crossed his face had her
nervousness leaving and anger replacing it. This had been a bad idea, but she
was here now, and she would make her intentions perfectly clear. He leaned
against the door frame and crossed his arms over his chest. There wasn’t an
ounce of fat on him, and the way his abdomen clenched, showing off his
six-pack, and the way his biceps bulged had instant heat pooling between her
legs.

Don’t
get caught up by the pretty, sparkly things, Mary.

“I’m going to be perfectly honest. I am only here
because I need you to still go with me to my sister’s wedding. If you weren’t
my last resort I would have been happy to never see you again. The truth is I
don’t know any other males that don’t have a girlfriend, or who I would even
think would entertain the idea of going with me.” Some of what she said was a lie,
but not quite, and of course she wouldn’t tell him that. He ground his teeth,
but other than that he gave no outward reaction. “You’re a dick, plain and
simple, and I don’t want anything from you aside from being my date. I’ll still
tutor you as long as you agree to go with me.”

A beat of silence passed before he answered. “Are
you serious?”

“I guarantee I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.” She
remembered last night, the hurtful way he made her feel, and the way he looked
at her so unapologetically that her heart had twisted. “I want nothing else
from you. This is just a business deal. I’ll help you pass your class, and you
go with me the weekend after next. When everything is said and done we can go
our own ways, without having to ever think about each other again.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time, and with
each passing second she grew more and more uncomfortable. After thinking about
all of this before she left the house, she honestly hadn’t thought about what
she would do if he turned her away. She supposed she could just go dateless and
deal
with Margo and her mom, which was a lot worse
than it sounded. He could appreciate a simple business deal, one that would
benefit both of them, surely.

“I can always ask Adam if he wants to go with you.”
He cocked his eyebrow, and she curled her hands into fists. Oh, she had thought
about Adam, albeit only for a moment. He may be big and muscular, but he was
far too charming and nice, and no doubt would be a perfect gentleman. How sad
was it that Mary wanted the complete opposite when she was around those snobs?

“Adam is too nice. I need a guy that is an asshole,
knows it, and doesn’t care.” The dark look that covered his face had pleasure
filling her. Good. She was glad she got a little reaction out of him. “I’m not
holding a gun to your head. You either will or you won’t, but I’m not going to
stand here all day and wait for you to make up your mind.” Mary was pretty
proud of herself for having a steady voice and not flinching under his
unwavering glare.

“For as smart as I know you are, I am surprised to
see you on my doorstep.”

Why was he acting like this? No, she knew, because
he was a pompous fucker. The Alex she had met just last week, the nice one that
smiled at her genuinely, and spoke softly to her, was not the guy standing in
front of her.

“Are you in or not? I don’t have time for this
shit.”

He lifted a dark brow at her, and the corner of his
mouth twitched. Damn him for still making her want him after the way he acted,
and damn
him
for thinking this was funny. It wasn’t,
and she would make a point that not all women were mindless twits when it came
to him. He stepped away from the door, held it further open for her, and
gestured for her to enter. Mary didn’t look at him as she stepped into the
house and stopped once she was in front of the stairs.

“We can do this in the kitchen.” She turned, looked
at him, and narrowed her eyes when the corner of his mouth twitched again. “You
need to take this seriously. I’m not the one failing a course and having my
football season threatened.”
That had his smirk vanishing and
his jaw clenching.

“You came here, don’t forget that. You need me as
much as I need you.” They were in some kind of stare off for a long while, and
it was only when Adam stepped into the entryway that she looked away.

“Hey, Mary.”
Adam
was all smiles as he stared at her
..
Yeah, he
blatantly checked her out on occasion, but he was a genuine guy, unlike some
guys she knew. “You look nice today.” Mary would have thought that was some
kind of sarcastic stab at her clothing, but there was no asshole-ness coming
from him.

“Thank you.”

She purposefully made sure to dress in the rattiest
jeans and t-shirt she had, ones reserved for cleaning the house. Adam turned
his attention to Alex. “Dude, you’re going to break your teeth if you grind
them any harder.” With that Adam sauntered out the front door, leaving the two
of them alone once more.

“All right, let’s just get this over with.” She
headed into the kitchen and started getting the books and notebook out of her
backpack. Alex came in a few seconds later and went over to the fridge.

“You want something to drink?”

Without looking at him she said, “No, I’m good.”

This was awkward, but she could handle an hour at a
time in his presence. She sat down and focused on the things in front of him.
If she didn’t the smell of him freshly showered, and the sight of his
ridiculously ripped chest with that defined cut V of muscle leading below his
pants, would have her flustered until she couldn’t form a coherent sentence. She
lifted just her eyes when he bent over and reached for something in the fridge.
The sight of his toned back was impressive, especially those muscles right
under his arms, but that wasn’t what had disgust moving through her. Three long
scratch marks lined his lower back, scratch marks that a woman would have given
him when he screwed her. He made his way back to her, pulled out the chair
across from her, and sat down. Mary had lowered her gaze before he knew she had
been staring, and pushed images of exactly what he had done last night out of
her head. It wasn’t her business, and what Alex did, and who he did it with, was
no concern of hers.

“Listen, about last night—”

Oh,
hell no.
No way was he going to apologize for the shit that went down, and what, right
after he fucked some girl, most likely a random one? Honestly she was glad he had
said the things he had to her last night. It reminded her that Alex wasn’t for
her, and never would be. She held her hand up, stopping him from continuing on
with that. Finding all of her strength, and not about to let him smooth things
over as easily as he probably did with a lot of thing, Mary looked him in the
eyes.

“There is no need for apologies, Alex.” His big,
wide chest rose and fell as he inhaled deeply. “I’m here to help you, and
because I need your help in return. Besides, it looks like you had plenty to
occupy your time last night after I left.”

Why
did you say that?
God, she needed to learn to keep her
mouth shut. She lifted her eyes to
him,
saw the
confused expression on his face morph into one of embarrassment, anger, and
what? Was that regret? He cornered her, literally and in the figurative sense.
Growing up she had met a lot of people like him, ones that thought about
themselves, didn’t care what others felt, and had blinders on. Well no more.
They had made an agreement, reached an understanding, and that was it.

“We are using each other, and that is all.” She was
stronger than he gave her credit for. “Now, can we just move past last night,
get this over with, and then we both can forget the other existed?”

He clenched his jaw again and held his hands in
tight fists on top of the table. His whole body grew taut, and his muscles flexed
and bulged beneath his skin. Well good, she was glad she was pissing him off,
because he deserved to be just as angry as she was.