Infamous: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Novel (7 page)

M
y jaw dropped
and my eyes went comically wide at his admission.

“If you didn’t sleep with her, then why the hell haven’t you said that? Does Lauren know?”

Jared propped himself to lean against my headboard and shrugged, his eyes uncomfortably shifting around the room. “She does not. And I have my reasons for keeping it to myself.”

“Why are you telling me?”

“Because I feel like it,” he said sharply before shaking his head. “I really don’t know. It just... feels like the right thing to do, I guess.”

A thought occurred to me and I narrowed my eyes at him. “If you’re just saying this because you think it’ll make it easier to get into my pants, I—”

“That’s not why I’m telling you,” he interrupted with a wry smile. “I won’t deny that I still want to get between those gorgeous legs of yours, but it has nothing to do with this.”

I studied him for a long moment and when I saw no recognizable signs of dishonestly on his face, I let out a long sigh and asked, “Are you going to give me the full story?”

He considered it for a moment before sliding a hand through his hair and shrugging. “There really isn’t much to tell, but I will if you agree to drop the whole ice-queen persona.” There was a short pause before he added, “And I’d appreciate it if you dropped the whole ‘professional’ bullshit as well. Just act fucking normal.”

I was hesitant to agree to drop the professionalism between us, but I admittedly was way too curious to pass up the chance to hear the full story. I nodded my agreement to his terms and he let out a long sigh.

“I did go to Brittany’s hotel room with the intention of fucking her on the night she claims I knocked her up. We started to fool around—clothes came off and certain parts might have been groped a little— but she was totally fucking hammered and ‘sloppy drunk’ is kind of a boner killer for me. So I put her on the bed and just kept shrugging her off until she finally fell asleep. Then I went back to my own room.”

“And when she woke up naked—”

“I guess she remembers me taking her back to her room, but nothing beyond that. So she’s under the impression that we fucked.”

I slowly shook my head, trying to put together the missing pieces myself and failing miserably. His voice and expression both looked sincere, but it made no sense to me why he wouldn’t have just come out and admitted it when the scandal first arose.

“What reason do you have to keep this a secret? You’re only hurting yourself. If you would have just told Lauren, we could’ve avoided all this drama.”

Jared shook his head and gave me a sad smile. “It might have avoided the DNA tests, but it still would’ve been rough. I knew she was drunk when I took her up there—I just didn’t know
how
drunk until we started messing around. Do you really think that would have gone over well? And how do you think it would have affected Britt? Her reputation would’ve been ruined.”

“Why do you even care? After everything she’s said about you, why in the hell are you worried about
her
reputation?”

“Because I’m pretty sure I know who the real father is and the truth would not only ruin her— it’d destroy him. I’m not going to do that to my brother.”

I knew Jared was an only child, which meant the real father of Brittany’s baby must have been a teammate. But there was still something missing here—a vital piece of information he had left out.

“Does he know it’s his?”

“He slept with her a few times before and after the shit in the hotel room went down with me. He damn well knows it’s his and that’s why he was the first person I talked to when she started slinging accusations. I agreed to take the heat for now, but he knows that once it comes out that I’m not the father—his head’s going to be next on the chopping block. We’re hoping that either something bigger will come up or the press will just lose interest so he can handle it quietly.”

“So in the meantime, he thought it’d be okay to let your reputation suffer,” I said dryly, shaking my head slowly in denial. “Sounds like a real good friend.”

“He just needs time to figure out how he’s going to handle what’ll happen when it comes out. He’s panicking.”

I scoffed and let out a humorless chuckle. “Who wouldn’t be? He’s a father now.”

“He’s also married.” My mouth snapped shut as I stared at him incredulously. “He doesn’t know how to tell her.”

When he paused to give me a chance to respond to that, I tried and failed to keep the malice out of my tone as I said, “There’s not a good way to tell your wife that you cheated on her and fathered a child.”

Jared shook his head. “I agree, but it’s not what I meant. He doesn’t know how to tell his wife that he wants a divorce. For some fucking reason, the moron fell for Brittany. The whole thing is just ridiculous, if you ask me.”

“And yet you let yourself be involved.”

“I owed him a favor,” he said grimly, his tone implying that he wasn’t willing to elaborate. Then he sighed and scrubbed a hand over his jaw as he admitted, “But I didn’t know it would be this bad. I wouldn’t have agreed to take the heat if I had.”

Regardless of my personal opinions about the situation as a whole, I had to admit that learning the truth gave me a whole new respect for Jared. I now knew that he wasn’t the type of guy to take advantage of a severely drunk woman, but he
was
the kind of man who would take the fall for a friend. Two pieces of information that seemed small, but felt rather large.

It just proved to me how little I knew the real Jared. Maybe I had been right all along—there
was
a normal guy under all that persona. Okay, maybe not
normal
, but decent. A good man.

It was just a matter of digging through all the bullshit to find him.

The realization was like a kick to the stomach. Now it would be twelve times harder to get rid of my crush on him and it was made worse by my agreement to just be myself and drop the professionalism between us. I was desperately hoping he was going to continue behaving like he had the past two days because I was terrified of the possibility that I may give in to him if he started up the flirting again.

“Thank you for telling me all that,” I finally said when I realized he was staring at me expectantly. “I appreciate that you trusted me enough to tell me the truth.”

Jared shrugged, trying to coolly play it off. “No big. Least I can do for you agreeing to house me for two weeks.”

“Only ten more days to go,” I swiftly pointed out.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding absentmindedly as his brows knit together in a frown. “You’ll be rid of me before you know it.”

There was an awkward tension lingering in the air, so I stood up and started easing my way toward the open door.

“Well with our new-and-improved truce, the next ten days should be a lot better than the first few. Right?” I asked, laughing nervously as he watched me with narrowed eyes.

“That depends. You going to keep up your end of the deal and drop the professional shit?”

“I said I would.”

Jared swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, shooting a charming smile at me as he walked over to stand beside me.

“Then the rest of our time together should be wonderful.”

Having a wonderful time with him was exactly what I was afraid of.

“
A
pril
.”

“It’s fine. I’m just going to—”

“
April
,” I drawled, dragging out her name while I suppressed an eye roll.

“Jared—”

“Let me do it.”

“I don’t need—”

I growled in irritation and gripped her hips firmly, lifting her into the air and smirking at her squeal of surprise. I twisted around and placed her on her feet behind me, then reached out to take the wrench from her hands while she just started up at me with wide eyes.

I crouched down and crawled under the sink to undo the pipe she was struggling to get loose. I lined up the wrench and used my all my strength to turn it, grunting from the strain. The damn thing was pretty well stuck—if it wouldn’t have pissed her off, I might have pointed out that there was no way she could’ve gotten it off by herself.

Instead, I stuck my hand out and said, “Give me the new one.”

A moment later, the replacement was placed in my hand. I made quick work of putting the new piece on and making sure it was tight enough to not leak, but hopefully loose enough for her to get off next time. When I was done, I eased myself out of the small space and looked up to find her glaring at me.

“I could’ve done it myself,” she said stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest.

With an exaggerated eye roll, I lifted the old pipe into the air so she could see it. “No fucking way. It was practically welded on there.”

She took the pipe and eyed it warily, but she wouldn’t drop the stubborn act. “I didn’t need your help.”

“Okay, okay. I get it. You didn’t need any help. You’re a strong, independent woman,” I said sarcastically as I sat up on my knees and twisted the faucet on, checking to make sure it didn’t leak before cutting the water off and turning back to look at her. “But since I’m here, you might as well put me to use.”

Please, dear god,
please
put me to use.

It’d been two days since I told her the truth about Brittany and we renewed our truce. She’d dropped all the passive-aggressive comments and the rigid behavior to act more like herself like I wanted, but if anything, getting to know the
real
her was just making my time stranded here so much worse.

The horrifying truth of the matter was that I was beginning to
like
her. We still hadn’t talked much at length, but I could feel something familiar rising in my stomach—something I hadn’t felt since I had a crush on Sandy Feldman in tenth grade. I wasn’t fond of how it felt back then and I sure as hell didn’t like it now.

I justified the feelings by telling myself that since my dick still wanted her, I was bound to be frazzled until I satisfied the need. I wasn’t used to this lengthy foreplay—or to being repeatedly turned down. That’s all it was.

But since this was uncharted territory for me, I didn’t know how long I had until I began to confuse the crush-like pangs for something else. Something deeper.

Something to be avoided at all fucking costs.

April tossed the old pipe into the trash can and let out a mumbled thanks before she stalked out of the kitchen. I heard her go into the bedroom and open the closet door, then her muffled voice as she called out, “I’m taking a bath!”

I silently wished that had been an invitation while I cleaned up the mess from changing the pipes. Once I was done, I stood up and washed my hands, then leaned against the counter and glanced around the kitchen.

What could I do to earn some points with her? Helping her take the pipe off had been a bust—not that I did it for her favor anyway. I had only insisted on helping because I knew she was struggling and I figured I might as well.

But how did one
seduce
a woman like April? She wasn’t responsive to my usual methods, which must have meant she was looking for something else entirely. Maybe romance?

I snorted and laughed at the absurdity. Even if that was what she wanted, I didn’t know a damn thing about romance or grand gestures or whatever bullshit that normal men used to lure in members of the fairer sex. Besides, using a romantic approach would send all kinds of signals that I didn’t want to send.

I frowned and cocked my head to the side as a thought occurred to me. She had been mollified when she found out I called Lauren to tell her that the whole drunk fiasco was my fault, then warmed up even more when I told her about Brittany. Something she said to me the day we met replayed in my head.

“Why do you keep up the act? The stupid bad boy womanizer bullshit persona...”

Bingo. All I needed to do to snag April was drop the act and be real. She responded well to honesty.

The only problem with that idea was I hadn’t been lying when I told her that what you saw was what you got.

So the only thing I needed to do to get April was to be a totally different person.

I thoughtfully clicked my tongue as I looked in the fridge and considered my options, trying to shove away my conscience as it tried to warn me about what a terrible idea this was.

* * *

“
S
urprise
!” I shouted, grinning when April froze and stared at me like I’d grown a second head.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked as she stepped into the kitchen and tried to peek into the pot I had boiling on the stove.

“What’s it look like? I’m making dinner.”

Her nose wrinkled up before she blandly stated, “It smells like something’s burning.”

“It’s probably the cookies. Pull them out, yeah?”

“
Cookies?
For dinner?”

I shrugged, glancing over to her as she pulled the tray of cookies out of the oven. Sure enough, I could detect the burnt scent April had mentioned as soon as the door was opened. At least there was plenty of milk in the fridge. That’d make them more bearable.

“I’m not exactly master chef over here,” I admitted as I pulled the lid off the pot and stirred the pasta. “The only things I could find in here that seemed simple to make was a roll of cookie dough and macaroni and cheese.”

“A winning combination, for sure,” she commented, poking at one of the cookies with a spatula. “We could have just ordered out, you know.”

“Don’t I get points for effort here? I was trying to do something nice.”

April lifted one shoulder in the air and smiled. “I’ll give you half a point.”

“Half a—You’re fucking insane. This is worth at
least
three,” I balked, gesturing at the stove with my spoon.

“One and a half.”

“Stop giving me halves, woman. Two points.”

“Fine! Two points. That’s the highest I’ll go.”

“I’ll take it,” I said with a grin as she walked to my side and stood in front of the sink.

April raised a brow and turned her eyes to hold my gaze. “I suppose since you did the cooking, that leaves me to clean up your mess?”

“It’d be greatly appreciated, but not necessary. I’ll do it.”

After I finished, I subtly shifted my eyes to gauge her reaction. She seemed both surprised and pleased that I would make the offer to clean the dishes and a small smile appeared on her lips as she started to fill up one side of the sink with warm water.

That’s another point for me.

From the corner of my eye, I saw her attempt to subtly glance over at me and her smile widened when she realized I wasn’t looking. I held back my smirk, but internally was patting myself on the back for the fact that she seemed to be rather pleased with me.

It wasn’t an expensive, romantic dinner. It was simple, honest, real—and that seemed to be the ticket to making April happy.

As she washed the baking sheet while I divided the macaroni and cheese between two plates, I thought hard about my next move. Some time during or after dinner, I needed to find the right moment to step my game up.