So Bad (Bad Boy Next Door #1)
Read So Bad (Bad Boy Next Door #1) Online
Authors: Kelley Harvey
Copyright 2015 by Kelley Harvey
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this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the
author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
For all the bad boys and the girls who love
them.
I round the corner and
he’s
there, both hands
gripping some girl’s butt.
I stop, my foot poised for the next step.
Danny’s got her pushed against the wall. Her legs are wrapped
around him, her skirt bunched at her waist. My stomach clenches tight and my heart
jerks into high gear.
Do I turn and leave?
No. Rachel needs her stuff. She has packing to do.
As I pass by, the girl flips me off without breaking their
kiss.
I make a beeline to get Rachel’s clothes. In the laundry
room, I gather the things she asked for and hold them close, steeling myself to
go by the groping couple once more.
I hug the wall as I come upon him and his—I don’t know,
girlfriend? I doubt it. The tribal panther tattooed on his back stares at me
and flexes as Danny’s muscles ripple when he rolls his hips forward. His jeans
ride half way down his backside, while the dimples at his lower back, right
above the curve of his butt, draw my attention. I try not to look, but that’s
impossible.
He grinds against her. She pants and makes this sound, like
a cat having kittens. Somewhere deep inside warmth curls and a pulse beats between
my legs.
For the love of—
Yesterday, blonde on the hood of the car; today, a brunette in
the hallway.
I avert my eyes. A condom wrapper lies at their feet.
“Classy.”
I zip Rachel’s suitcase while she adds a couple of last
minute things to her carry on. My heart weighs heavily.
“I don’t really want to go, you know. Dad says I have to.
Supposedly, it looks good for the pastor’s daughter to work at the orphanage
his church sponsors. I wish you were going with me.” She glances up with glassy
eyes.
“Me too.” I turn so she won’t see my frown. “But, hey, it’s all
good. I’m going to get in a couple of classes over the summer. Puts me closer to
graduating early.”
“Yeah, but it’s not fair. Mom and Dad could afford to send
us both.”
I shake my head. “No. Your parents have done way more than
anyone should ask. I mean, taking me in after Mom died and letting me live in your
guest house.”
I could’ve gone into foster care for the last year of high
school. Who knows where I would’ve ended up?
She bites her lip. “True. But they could do so much more, Mo.”
My mom could’ve planned better. She’s the one who up and died
without life insurance or a will. I’m lucky Rach and I have been friends since
kindergarten, or I’d have been screwed.
Rachel nods, her frown still marring her sweet face. “But
I’m glad you got to come live here. It’s been amazing having you so close.”
“Yup, it has.” I tap her case with my toe. “All right. I
think you’re ready. You want to ask Danny to haul these downstairs?”
She heads out, but stops at the door. “About Danny…”
I twist my fingers behind my back. “Yeah?”
“Look, I know you two don’t really get along, but—well, he
doesn’t have many friends here during the summers. Could you please hang out
with him some? It’s the first break he and I won’t spend together.”
My gaze darts around the room, avoiding her pleading eyes.
“I don’t know, Rach. He doesn’t like me. And honestly, I—”
“It’s not that he doesn’t like you, Mo. He’s just—you know,
awkward with girls.”
“Awkward? With
girls
?” Is she blind? Can she not hear
him through the walls when he’s entertaining company? “Really, Rach. He’s
anything
but
. How have you
not
noticed the string of girls he’s
paraded through the house since he came home?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’ve seen them. But those girls are simple.
Okay, so I guess you could say he’s awkward with
real
girls, not those
plastic types who don’t have a thought in their head or any substance to their
character. It’s easy for him with them because he doesn’t have to think about
it.”
Yeah, I bet he wasn’t thinking all that much two days ago while
he screwed one of
those
girls in the downstairs hallway.
I roll my shoulders trying to rid them of the tension bunching
my muscles. “It probably doesn’t matter. I don’t imagine he’s going to have a
lot of free time.”
“But you’ll hang out with him if he’s alone, right? I don’t
want him to be lonely.”
I shrug and lie to my best friend. “Sure. Whatever. Let’s get
you to the airport.”
*
I hug Rachel for the third time since we unloaded her cases
from the trunk. “I can’t believe you’ll be gone until the end of August.”
She squeezes me for a second, and then pushes away, rubbing
her finger under her eye. “Summer never lasts all that long anyway. I’ll be home
before you know it.”
I have to get out of here before I cry in front of Danny. “Okay
then, we don’t want to make you late. Be careful and don’t catch malaria or some
other crazy disease.”
Lush, sandy brown hair falls over her shoulder. “I had all the
vaccinations.
All
of them. If they’d have jabbed me once more, I’d enter
myself into the world record book as the first human pin cushion.”
She turns to Danny. I inspect my fingernails, trying not to
stare as he wraps her in a bear hug. Seems for the last three summers all I’ve done
is try not to gawk at him. And failed.
Forever. Failing.
He’s always been good looking. Growing up, he had nice skin,
good coloring, and beautiful eyes. But when he came home two summers ago, his back
covered with tats and his entire body ripped like an MMA fighter, he’d changed.
Now, all I can do is stare.
Thank heaven for sunglasses; they hide a multitude of sin.
That’s what David, Rach’s dad, would call this sick attraction I have for his son.
Sins of the flesh
.
My flesh flushes just looking at Danny’s long fingers and the
veins crisscrossing the backs of his hands and trailing up his muscular arms,
much less his abs or his back—those little dimples above his waistband. The scene
in the hallway pops into my mind and I shake off the goose bumps prickling my
arms.
I have to stop this. It’s ridiculous.
When Danny sets Rachel on her feet, he grabs her backpack
and helps her put it over her shoulders. “Got your ticket?”
She nods.
“Passport?”
She gives him her are-you-kidding-me look. “Really? You don’t
think I can remember my passport?”
He ignores her question. “Ear buds?”
Rach cringes. “Aw, man. I
knew
I was forgetting
something.”
He digs into his pocket and pulls out a wad of white,
tucking it into her hand. “Take these. It’s a helluva long flight to get stuck
listening to someone’s kid scream or some guy snoring his ass off.”
Rachel frowns. “Language.”
Language.
Yeah. That’s gonna work.
Danny grins at her and winks at me. “You’re right. Dad
probably heard me all the way from Cancun.”
“Mom’s in recovery; Dad went to support her. Stop already.
It wouldn’t hurt you to be a little more compassionate.”
“My ass. This is Mom’s fourth trip to rehab in two years.
They’re vacationing and it’s a medical write off. Open your eyes, Sis.”
He runs his fingers through his hair. It’s weird how they
have the same color hair, the same glass green eyes, and yet they’re so
completely opposite. If they didn’t look alike, I’d barely think they were related,
much less twins.
I pull my phone from my pocket. “Hey, the clock’s ticking.
Rach, you’d better get through security. It’s an international flight; they
want you at the gate early.”
Rachel bites her lip and grabs me around the neck again,
whispering, “Don’t let him get into trouble this summer. Any more scandals and
Dad’s gonna disown him.”
I’ll have more luck nailing Jell-O to a wall than keeping Danny
out of trouble.
She backs away as she says to Danny, “Take care of my best
friend—and yourself.”
“Sure thing.” He gives her thumbs up.
She turns and waves backward over her head. “I love you
both.”
“Love you too.” Danny and I say in unison. Neither of us moves
until she gets through security and disappears into the depths of the airport.
I turn toward the car, my stomach clenched tight. An hour on
the road. With Danny Jennings. And a whole summer with no Rachel as a buffer.
I swallow the knot of dread in my throat only to have it
slide down to join the bubble of excitement waiting there.
Luckily, the dread pops the bubble. As it should.
This is going to be a disaster.
The moment my foot hits the pavement outside the revolving
door, Danny drops his arm over my shoulders. “So,
Moan
-uh, where to?”
I pick up his hand and spin away. “Don’t call me Mona. It’s
Mo, or even Lisa, but
not
Mona.”
“Whatever you say,
Moan
-uh Lisa.”
Somehow he makes my name sound like I’m a porn star. I
resist the growl fighting to get out of my throat. I will not let him see how
he gets to me. I won’t.
Fists clenched, I head into the cross-walk. Danny’s arm
circles my waist, and he pulls me hard against his chest, yanking me backward.
His citrus and sin scent envelops me.
I stiffen. “What are you—”
A car speeds past. Its side mirror misses me by only inches.
My heart hammers against my ribs.
His breath tickles my ear. “Might want to watch where you’re
going,
Moan-
uh
.
”
My hands grip his arm. I squeeze, signaling him to let loose.
He doesn’t.
Instead, he steps forward, his body pressing into mine. All
that muscle wraps around me, his hard-on pushing—his
hard-on
?
I wriggle, trying to get loose. “Let me go, you perv.”
His chuckle reverberates through my chest. “Perv? I just
saved your cute little ass. Don’t you think you should show a little gratitude,
Moan-
uh?”
He hangs on tight, walking me forward, his cock hard against
my butt. I dig my nails into his arm and infuse steel into my voice. “Let go.
Now.”
As soon as we step into the parking garage he lets loose and
holds his hands high as if to surrender. “Just following Rachel’s orders. She
did say to take care of you.”
“She didn’t mean you should man-handle me, or rub your—your
thing
against my backside.”
His grin sends an ice pick of fury through my brain.
He cups his crotch. “This? I wasn’t rubbing it on you. You’re
imagining shit. Or maybe—yeah, maybe you’re wishful thinking. Could that be it?
You subconsciously
want
me to rub my cock on you? I can make that
happen, Sweets; just say the word.”
I did
not
imagine his dick against my butt cheek. I
stomp my foot. “What is wrong with you?”
“Not a damned thing,
Moan
-uh. Not a thing.”
We head home, and silence envelops me. I wrap a protective
cocoon around my mind as memories bombard me of the last time Danny and I were
alone in a car.
Rachel, Danny, and I met Rachel’s date at the movie theater.
Not exactly a double date, because Danny and I weren’t together, not like that.
But after the show, Rach’s date wanted to take her for ice cream. Danny and I headed
home, just the two of us.
