Apartment 2B (24 page)

Hesitantly, I fumbled for the switch. My eyes froze in horror at the scene before
me. A naked girl—with really big boobs—was bouncing on MY naked Brayden.
What?
I was having trouble processing how a naked girl was with MY fiancé.

Everything went in slow motion at that point. The girl jumped up, scrambling for clothes.
Brayden asked me what I was doing there while covering himself with the blanket. I
was backing out of the room, tears wickedly streaming. He called after me as I ran
away. The man had effectively smashed my heart to pieces.

The trip back to my room was a blur. Once I burst through our door, I met Pepper’s
eyes. She instantly held her arms open to me, and I ran into them.

“Brayden is a bastard,” she whispered, stroking my hair, knowing without words what
had happened. My life was ruined. This happy girl would no longer ever be happy.

A dark two weeks…

I can’t breathe. My heart actually physically hurts. How is this even possible? I
thought they were joking when they talked about broken hearts.

But they weren’t lying. This shit hurt! How will I make it without him? I love him.
But he ruined everything when he slept with that bitch. God, I hate him. I miss him.

For two days now, I just lie here, thinking about what would have happened had I not
walked in. Would we still be getting married? Nothing can bring me out of this terrible
place. Pepper tries, but she can’t even begin to even touch the depths of where I
am now.

School doesn’t matter. Food sucks. Hygiene? What’s that? She keeps threatening to
call my mom but all I hear is “blah, blah, blah”. Whatever.

He keeps texting me, but how can I begin to ever even talk to him? I’m afraid if I
see him that I’ll just run right to his arms, hoping he’ll make it all better. But
I know deep down that isn’t right. If he did it once, he’ll probably do it again.
God, my heart hurts so fucking bad!

I guess I’ll just cry myself to sleep…again.

Present

“Come on, Andi! I don’t have all day. Some of us have been ready for hours,” Pepper
called to me from the living room. Of course she’d been ready for hours. She was wearing
jeans and a sweater for crying out loud, and it probably took two minutes to readjust
her bun.

“Perfection takes time,” I told Olive, who was sitting on my bed while I applied the
last of my makeup. “You sure you don’t want to go with us, hon?” I asked, turning
to look at her. Olive was our new friend. She was a gorgeous black girl with legs
that went on for miles. Her hair was smooth as silk and her eyes were the palest orbs
that contrasted vividly against her chocolate skin.

Olive moved in with us about a month ago. She somehow managed to escape an extremely
abusive relationship but had nowhere to go. When I found her crying at the café one
day, I took her under my wing, praying Pepper would be okay with it. Of course Pepper
fell in love with the leggy chocolate goddess as well, and she’d been living with
us ever since.

Olive got modeling gigs left and right because she was perfection personified. But
her fears of her ex sometimes cripple her socially.
A lot of times.
Like tonight, she was adamantly shaking her head to my offer. She had a fear that
she might run into Drake and he’d drag her away from us, never to be seen again. It
always gave me the shivers to think about what he must have done to her to make her
so afraid. And the fact that she refused to ever let us see her without being fully
clothed made me wonder if he’d done something to her body. Just the thought made me
sick to my stomach.

The modeling jobs she took were mostly for magazines. She absolutely refused to do
any live modeling at shows even though that would have been the best way for her to
get noticed by more well-known agents. Olive gave us money when she got paid on these
jobs, but we never asked her for any. We just wanted our girl safe with us.

I didn’t make much money at the café so Pepper was our breadwinner. Well, if you call
having a monthly trust fund “breadwinning” then she was definitely it. Her dad was
a high-powered attorney there in the city and didn’t want his little girl to hurt
for anything. We lived in a sweet little apartment and didn’t hurt for much either
thanks to Pepper being “Daddy’s Little Girl.” Oh, and she played the part so well.
The girl could be downright bitchy, but when—Daddy—was around, her voice was as sweet
as sugar.

Thankfully, I was going to start my new job on Monday and would be able to help Pepper
out more than just buying the groceries. Even though her dad took care of a lot for
us, I still felt guilty about being a total freeloader. Today was my last day at the
café and now we were going to celebrate. It took several months after college of applying
all over the city to finally land a job at Compton Enterprises. The job I really wanted
was to be an architect, but working as an assistant at an architectural firm was a
good foot in the door. Everyone has to start somewhere.

“One day I’ll go with you guys. But it’s just too soon. Please have fun for me. I
have a date with American Idol,” she smiled at me.

“Okay, fine. But I’m holding you to it. Now, how do I look?” I asked her, flipping
my hair over my shoulder.

Ever since the day I found Brayden cheating on me, something in me snapped. Gone was
the blond-haired innocent. Gone was my optimism. My outlook on life and love had been
ruined the moment I saw that girl’s big tits bouncing as she rode my man. He had stolen
it all away from me when he decided to sleep with some bimbo after almost four years
of dating.

Now, I was this hard, jaded woman. Away had gone my conservative ways and I had welcomed
my inner skank. I glanced at my reflection in the full-length mirror on the wall.
My platinum-blond hair was flat-ironed perfectly straight halfway down my back. I
had carefully made up my face, complete with smoky eyes and plump red lips. The dress
I chose to wear was black, tight, and short. Just the way I liked it. The plunging
neckline revealed my adequate cleavage. My red pumps put me up three inches higher
than my five foot seven frame.

“You look beautiful as always, Andi,” Olive genuinely assured, making me smile at
her.

I was in “Man-Killer Mode” as Pepper called it. I’d have them falling at my feet tonight.
One of them would get lucky too. I was on the prowl, and even Pepper wouldn’t be able
to tame me. This Friday night was about to get crazy.

“Thanks, babe. See you in the morning,” I waved to her as I grabbed my clutch and
walked out my bedroom door. Pepper was curled up in the recliner reading a book. “Let’s
go, bitch,” I told her as I shrugged into my coat.

“About time, bitch,” she shot at me, picking up hers from the back of the chair as
she stood up.
Man-Killer Mode: Activated.

(Book 1 in the Vegas Aces Series)

Releasing June 2014

“Bobby!” she screeched, running from me. The poor girl was terrified of bugs, which
only made me want to terrorize her more. Her blond pigtails bounced as she tore off
down the dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust behind her. I would catch her because
I always did. Being two years older and a boy, I could always beat her at everything.
She hated every second of it.

“I told ya not to run, June Bug! You know you ain’t faster than me,” I hollered as
I got closer. When she took a sharp turn off the dirt road and pumped her way into
the field, I momentarily lost the gain I had on her.

“Leave me alone, ya big meanie!” She was slowing, spent from the chase, so I picked
up my speed.

Now, I knew it wasn’t right to hurt a girl, but June ain’t a regular girl. June was
my best friend. We’d been close ever since she and her momma had moved into the trailer
on the edge of our land when she was just six and I was eight. My momma and daddy
had rented it out to make extra money. Four years later and she still hadn’t learned
that she couldn’t outrun me. I was Bobby Acer, fastest boy in school.

“I’m gonna catch you, June, and when I do, I’m gonna shove this bug in your pants
and watch ya scream!” I taunted as I closed in on her.

She was within my reach and I tackled her hard to the ground. Fighting me off wildly,
she scratched and screamed to no avail while I pushed the beetle down into the waistband
of her shorts.

“I hate you, Bobby! Don’t you ever talk to me again!” She was crying now, which had
me feeling a little guilty. Not guilty enough though.

I held her hands down and straddled her so the bug could crawl around and she would
be helpless. Once her tears died down, I realized the fun was over. Looking down at
her, I noticed for the first time that her eyes were as green as the grass underneath
her. Her lips were still quivering and I suddenly had an urge to plant a kiss on them.
The thought of kissing her gave me a boner.
What the heck?

Jumping up from her as fast as I could to hide my erection, I turned and walked back
toward the road, leaving her in the grass behind me.