Page 9 of Twisted Lies 3
The truth of her words made my stomach plummet.
I twirled my glass. “What happens if I do and things get really weird with our business relationship?”
Jade raised her eyebrow. “Cross that bridge when you get there. Are you going to have sex with him?”
“Yes,” slipped out. “I mean no,” I snapped. But my sex-deprived body yelled,Hells yes!
“Yes?” Jade pursed her lips. “No?” She pulled on a strand of my hair. “Which is it?”
I scowled at her defiantly. “It’s complicated.”
I drained what was left in my glass before motioning the bartender over. I didn’t even have to ask. He already had two drinks in his hands. He expertly removed the empty glasses before pushing fresh drinks within our fingertips’ reach. I took a sip. It was a gin gimlet with just the right amount of tart and tangy. It was quite refreshing and delicious.
Jade regarded me, wide-eyed, over her glass. “Hmm . . . complicated. So what you’re really saying is if you’d met him under different circumstances, you would?” She popped another appetizer into her mouth while examining me like a specimen under a microscope.
My eye twitched. “Why are we even talking about this?” I grabbed another appetizer.
She leaned closer. “Why are you getting so agitated?”
My eyes narrowed. “I didn’t intend for any of this shit to happen. I had a pretty damn good plan.” I always lived my life by well-conceived plans. It kept things . . . well, orderly. “Take the money from the secret investor, complete my collection, get it into the retailers, work that bad boy until I made a profit, and give the investor back the money.” I chewed my bottom lip. “Now I feel totally stuck, because without him and his money, my collection will never see the light of day.” I didn’t have to add that my obligation to Core had been adding up, sending me further and further into his debt.
Core was the spider, and I was the fly caught in his web. My gut twisted—and not in the I’m-scared way. It was more like the I’m-fucking-turned-on way. That was how sick and demented I was.
Jade squealed dramatically. “Oh shit! Your eyes just dilated.” She pointed at me. “Admit it. His bad-boy swagger has your lady bits all in a quiver.”
My lips pressed together in a slight grimace. “I’m not confirming or denying.”
We both knew I loved bad boys, and I had a habit of attracting and collecting them like Ken dolls. It was a gift and a curse. Thus far, the mysterious and eccentric Core McKay was the baddest boy I’d encountered. Yet there was so much I didn’t really know about him, except for what the gossip hags whispered about—that he’d built his billion-dollar empire through drug trafficking, money laundering, and prostitution, and that was only to mention a few of the criminally speculated trades.
Jade started loudly humming the “Bad Boys” song.
“I’m not doing another bad boy ever.” I took a large gulp of my drink. “Remember Kyle?”
Jade narrowed her eyes into slits. “Are you kidding me? Core and Kyle seem nothing alike. Core is alpha-delicious. Kyle is a cheating prick.” Her eyes softened. “Sin, you’ve got to get over Kyle.”
My brows came together in a puzzled frown. “I have.”
Jade stared.
“It’s true. Seeing Kyle again at Bigsby’s gala was not the heart-stopping train wreck I’d dreaded for years. I felt absolutely nothing—no pitter-patter of my heart, no I-wish-he-were-mine-again angst. Shit, I said a silent thankful prayer to the universe that the conceited, egotistical douchebag was someone else’s problem.”
“All of that might be true, but every man you’ve met after him has paid the price for the Kyle clusterfuck.”
She was right. For so many years, I had allowed my bitter past with Kyle to steal my chances for a normal relationship with every single guy I met after him.
“That’s the truth. But what’s even more pathetic is that Kyle was never even worth the heartache.” I shrugged. “But I was young and naïve. Catching him cheating in such a fucked-up manner tainted my notion of trust and relationships.” I cringed just thinking about the night of happiness that had turned into dust the minute I pushed open his bedroom door.
Kyle stood with his designer jeans gathered around his ankles while his cock was being fondled by some chick with perfectly smooth, highlighted blond hair that fell across her shoulders like a gorgeous curtain.
I froze, shocked, with my mouth gaping open, as if it were some sort of mirage. I watched as the chick glided up with too much sway in her narrow hips. Then she gave me a smug look before sauntering out of the bedroom, and it felt like a dagger to the heart.
“Kyle? How could you do this to me?” I rasped, unchecked tears streaming down my cheeks. “I love you.” My voice hitched.
His face turned into a mask of hate that shocked me to my very core. “Love?” He huffed out an arctic laugh. “Sin, this isn’t love. It never was, and it never will be.”
I flinched like a punch had been launched to my gut. “If this isn’t love, then tell me, what the hell is it?” I stared at him with narrowed eyes, feeling my heart ice over inch by inch.
“What do you want from me? I haven’t promised you anything, Sin,” he sneered while unhurriedly buckling his belt.
