Page 25 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

Layla’s brows pulled together in a frown, puckering the delicate skin between her eyes. “What does that even mean?”

“She didn’t want to work for all the shit she wanted. She felt like it was beneath her, and I didn’t agree. My family has money from my Gram’s side.” God, even after all these years, saying that made me cringe. “A lot of money. For some reason, the rest of my family has always felt like that meant they are better than everyone else. They don’t work for it, they don’t earn it, but they sure as hell like to flaunt it.

“I was never like that. Neither were my grandparents. I moved in with them when I was twelve, and they taught me what it meant to earn what I had, so the money I got from them has been sitting in a trust all these years. The only time I ever touched it was to take out what I needed to get my business off the ground.

“But Leah was more like the rest of my family than I’d been willing to admit. It didn’t bother her that I had a job, but she hated that I worked with my hands. Even though the company was my own, she thought what I did to earn a living was tooblue collar,” I said, emphasizing the words to drive my point home. “It was embarrassing to her that her man did manual labor for a living. But what was worse was that I wouldn’t just drop a cool grand on a purse or a pair of shoes or a new blouse whenever she wanted. She had a taste for the finer things in life, and when I say finer things, I mean the shit that not even people with money would cough up the cash for. When I proposed, she actually bitched that the ring I gave her wasn’t big enough.

“I told her that if she wanted something extravagant like that, she needed to get a job and save up for it. I had no problem paying the bills, covering the rent, buying the groceries, shit like that. But I drew the line at living like the rest of my family did.” I paused just long enough to look around the restaurant for our waiter. When he spotted me, I lifted my empty glass, giving it a little shake so he knew I wanted a refill. I felt like I was going to need it after this.

“She wasn’t down with that. So she found a guy who would give her everything she wanted without making her lift a finger.”

That frown still marred Layla’s brow once I finished, and I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes.

Silence lapsed between us, enveloping our table for a solid minute before she finally spoke. “And you saw me in my expensive car and designer clothes and, what? Just assumed I was exactly like your ex?”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “Like I said, it wasn’t about you. It was my own shit.”

She leaned forward, folding her forearms one over the other, and braced them against the table, her eyes burning with fire as her expression morphed into a glare. “Yeah. No shit. Way to jump to conclusions, jackass.”

“Layla—”

“I’ll have you know, everything I have, all thatfancy shit,” she said sarcastically, “I paid for myself. I didn’t expect anyone else to give it to me. I worked my ass off for it. Every dime I have, I earned. I never tried to set myself up with a sugar daddy to take care of me. I grew up with a whole hell of a lot less than nothing, and I knew I wanted more than that. But I also knew that the only way to get it was to work for it. I never took handouts. Not once—”

Reaching across the table, I grabbed her hand and held it in both of mine. “I know, sweetheart,” I rasped, my throat suddenly feeling thick. “And I’m so fucking sorry I judged you like that.”

That seemed to take a bit of the wind out of her sails, but I was too focused on the way her hand felt in mine. Christ, the woman had the softest skin I’d ever touched, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was even softer in other places. Unable to help myself, I dragged the pad of my thumb across the pulse point at her wrist. It started to flutter frantically, so I did it again, getting a rush at the way she pulled in a deep breath at my caress.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated on a quiet murmur. “I was an asshole, and I was wrong. It won’t happen again.”

She pulled in an inhale through her nose, her eyelids fluttering. Whatever the hell I was feeling in that very moment, she was feeling too, and that knowledge flooded my bloodstream with a heady rush of adrenaline.

Leaning in closer, I pulled her hand toward me so she had no choice but to move in with it. “Say you forgive me, princess.” I needed to hear it. I needed her to forgive me, because I felt like I was quickly losing control.

She blinked, almost like she was forcing herself out of the fog that was suddenly surrounding us. Clearing her throat, she pulled her hand from mine and clasped it with the other, folding them into her lap as the apples of her cheeks started to glow pink in the flickering candlelight.

“Uh, yeah. Sure. Of course. You’re totally forgiven,” she rambled, the pink in her cheeks turning darker by the second and making a smile tug at my lips. She seemed to have gotten a grip on herself after that, and pinned that glare back to her face. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’ll give pretty much everyone a second chance, but that’s where I max out. There are no thirds.”

“You have my word,” I promised with a bright smile. Damn, this woman was something else. How the fuck had I never seen that before? “So does this mean we’re calling a truce?”

Her gaze was scrutinizing as she took the time to form her answer. “Sounds like it. Although, I have to admit, I’ll miss the constant battles.” She lips tugged upward, her smile brilliant. “Some of them were pretty fun.”

As twisted as it may have seemed to someone on the outside, I totally got where she was coming from. Trying to find a way to one-up her latest assault was...energizing. I’d felt more alive pushing Layla’s buttons than I had in all the years I’d been with Leah. The woman kept me on my toes, and until that very moment, I hadn’t realized there’d been a part of me all along that really enjoyed it.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll manage to piss each other off in no time.”

The giggle that bubbled from her throat just then sounded like wind chimes. “Very true.” She extended her hand across the table. “So...friends, then? At least for the time being.”

Pushing down the rush of disappointment that washed through me at that, I clasped her hand in mine and gave it a shake. “Friends,” I agreed, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of my head shouting its protest.

12

Layla

After three and a half hours flew by, the date officially came to an end, and it surprised the hell out of me to discover that I was actually a little bummed about it. Turned out, Jude Kingsley wasn’t who I thought he was. There was a hardness to him, no denying that, but there was another side I hadn’t seen until tonight.

When the check came, and he paid without giving me any crap about it, I was... sad. I went from desperately trying to get out of there when I discovered who my date was to wishing we could somehow pluck out a few extra hours. I really enjoyed his company. Who’d have thought? He was smart and funny and charming, and when he smiled and laughed, he was downright sexy. The man was an absolute catch, and his ex-fiancée was a freaking idiot.

But as fun as it had been to flirt with him and have him flirt back, I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell of anything else happening between us. He’d admitted that he was wrong about me, that he’d made a snap judgment, but I knew that, in spite of his sincere apology, he’d always compare me to his bitch of an ex, no matter how hard he tried not to. His opinion of me would forever be colored. It was something I was all too familiar with, something I had dealt with a million times in my life.

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