by Lexi Ryan
He never struck me as the kind of guy who would cheat.
I wipe my hands on my pink sheets turned paint rags and climb down the ladder. “Does he need a cup of sugar?”
She lifts a brow but doesn’t argue with my suggestion. “I’ll be here when you want to talk about it.”
“Talk about what?” My smile is so plastic you could make Barbies with it. I push past her and find my way to the living room, where Sam is standing, looking out the window with his hands shoved into his pockets.
He’s in a simple white T-shirt and jeans, but he’s so gorgeous it hurts to look at him. Sometimes it’s nice to want things you can’t have, and sometimes the want is so deep that it’s a flame tearing through your heart.
“Hey, Sam!” I call, keeping my Barbie smile in place.
He turns, and I wait for his eyes to skim over me in my too-short cut-offs and tank, but they don’t. In fact, he’s looking at me, but I can tell he’s not seeing me at all. “Can we talk?”
“Sure! Let me slip on some shoes.” I don’t want to leave with him, but I’m so ashamed of the position I’ve put myself in, the heartbreak I brought on myself, that I don’t want Hanna to witness this conversation either.
I slip on my flip-flops and grab my hoodie from the hook by the door, then lead him outside. We walk for a bit without talking, just breathing in the cool, late-autumn air and trying to figure out where we fit with each other now. Or at least, that’s what I’m doing.
“I know we said it was just one night,” he begins.
I can’t handle hearing more, so I butt in before he can speak again. “No strings, no attachments, no expectations. You’re not here because you’ve changed your mind on me, are you?”
He stops walking and blinks at me. “I . . .” He shakes his head then swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “A friend gave me some news this morning, and I wondered if I could take you out. Talk to you about it.”
His tongue down her throat sure made it seem like she was more than a friend. “I’m kind of busy.” My heart trips on the tangle of emotions in my chest, but I’m determined to get through this with my pride intact. I’ve been rejected by Sam before. I can’t handle being rejected again. “No expectations, Sam. But that has to go both ways. I don’t want this to be all awkward now.”
He cocks his head, studying me. “You’re special, Rowdy. Sometimes I get the feeling you don’t actually know that.”
Don’t do this. Don’t say nice things that make me want to love you. “I’m just a girl who needed a good lay. Thanks for that.”
He flinches. Sam Bradshaw actually flinches at my rough words. Inside, I’m flinching too. “I don’t even know what to make of you.”
I shrug. “Do you really need to know?” Oh, fuck. Tears burn the back of my throat and I can’t let them out. Not here while he can see. “Can you do me a favor? Don’t tell anyone about our little . . . indiscretion? I’d like to keep it our secret. I don’t want people getting the wrong idea about me.”
“Who would I tell?”
One more time with the plastic smile. This is it, I promise myself. Just one more minute smiling, and you’re out of here. “It was sweet of you to come by, but you don’t need to worry about me.”
I give a little wave, turn, and walk away, and I feel his eyes on me with every step.
“Rowdy,” he calls when I’m nearly to the door. I turn to face him but don’t trust myself to talk. He jogs to the porch and a takes a deep breath. “Her name’s Asia. I thought it was over, but things might get . . . serious.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I . . .” He shrugs. “I wanted you to hear it from me first.”
“Good night, Sam.”
When I get back into the house, Hanna’s on the couch, her legs curled under her, her laptop perched on the coffee table. “Is Sam okay?”
“Yeah, he’s fine. He just wanted to talk to me about Max.” Hanna’s whole body flinches at the mention of her unrequited love, and I hate myself a little more than usual for bringing up his name. “Nothing like that,” I say. “Just trying to get me to join the gym to support Max. As if, right?”
Hanna’s eyes go a little hazy, and I know I’ve thrown her off the trail of my troubles for a couple of minutes.
“I’m going to go finish painting.”
Back in my room, a four-by-four patch of pink wall stares at me. Suddenly, I regret everything—pretending I was okay with Sam, painting my room, going to his house last night . . . the whole damn weekend.
I rush to the bathroom and turn on the shower, wiping the tears from my face as fast as they fall. I’m not sure what makes me grab my phone, but I text Connor.
Her name’s Asia. That’s all I know.
Then I climb into the shower, lean against the wall, and let the hot spray wash away my foolish hopes and all my naïve beliefs that I might be something special to him.
Epilogue
Sam
Two Years Later…
Her date is at least fifteen years older than her and could probably find steady work as a stunt double for Smokey the Bear.
Not that I care. I definitely don’t care who Liz Thompson is sleeping with.
She laughs at something Smokey says and then excuses herself and heads to the restroom, her tight ass swinging with every step.
“You’re staring,” Max says.
I bring my attention back to my table and find William and Max both studying me. Max is smirking. Asshole. “I’m not staring at anything.”
“You were definitely staring,” Will says. “And before you were staring at her, you were giving her date the I’m-going-to-hang-you-by-your-balls-over-a-pit-of-vipers look.”
“Don’t give him a hard time,” Max says. “That’s a completely normal reaction to have when you catch someone out with your wife . . . but wait. She’s not your wife, is she? Or your girlfriend even? Huh.”
Will smirks. “Can’t tell by the way he’s looking at her.”
I lean back in the booth. “You’re both assholes.”
“You could just ask her out,” Max suggests.
“I’ll pass,” I say, but the words come out as a growl, revealing too much. I clear my throat. “Excuse me.”
I head back toward the bathrooms with a half-cocked plan to corner her and make her talk to me. But about what? We haven’t talked since last summer—out of respect for my sister Della, I’ve kept my distance. The last thing my pregnant sister needs is to see her big brother making nice with the woman who nearly tore her world apart.
When I reach the back hallway, I spot Liz and my steps slow. Smokey the Bear must have snuck back here to meet her when I wasn’t looking. He’s shoving his tongue down her throat and feeling her up. Jesus. Couldn’t they at least go somewhere private?
Smokey goes in for another kiss, and Liz turns her head to the side. “Sorry,” she says. “I don’t have sex on the first date. Ever.”
I grunt and watch for a minute, wondering if he’s going to buy the shit she’s shoveling.
“Want me to take it slow, baby?” her date asks. “I can take it slow. With me, you’ll want it to last all night.”
“Listen, Ha—”
“If you’d excuse me,” I say, interrupting. I can’t stomach much more of this.
Liz narrows those pretty blue eyes at me and lifts her chin. “Did you need something?”
“Restroom.” I point behind her.
She blushes prettily. Everything Liz does is pretty. The way she drinks a beer is pretty, the way she nuzzles her pillow in her sleep, the way she kisses her way down my stomach before . . .
Fuck that. I skim my eyes over her date. If that’s what Liz wants, she can have it. There’s no reason for me to stand in her way. I attempt a smile. “You two kids have fun.”
I push into the bathroom and let the water run hot in the sink as I stare at myself in the mirror. “You don’t need her, Bradshaw,” I mutter at my reflection, and my stomach knots at
the words. I may not need her, but I want her—a want that’s so intoxicating, so potent, it masquerades as need. I want her. I miss her. But none of that matters because I can’t forgive her.
THE END
This is the end of Liz and Sam’s prequel, but it’s not the end of them. I hope you’ll follow their story in the Reckless and Real series, beginning with Something Reckless and concluding in Something Real (March 2015).
If you would like to be notified when I release a new book, please sign up for my newsletter.
Other Titles by Lexi Ryan
The New Hope Series
Unbreak Me
Stolen Wishes (A Wish I May prequel novella)
Wish I May
* * *
Here and Now (A New Hope Series)
Lost in Me
Fall to You
All for This
* * *
Reckless and Real (A New Hope Series)
Something Wild (A Reckless and Real prequel novella)
Something Reckless
Something Real (Coming March 2015)
* * *
Hot Contemporary Romance
Text Appeal
Accidental Sex Goddess
* * *
Decadence Creek Stories and Novellas
Just One Night
Just the Way You Are
About the Author
A former college English professor, Lexi Ryan now writes full time from her home in rural Indiana. She loves to hear from readers!
@writerlexiryan
LexiRyanAuthor
www.lexiryan.com
[email protected]