Blake: A Bad Boy Romance (2 page)

Chapter Two

“Scrambled eggs and bacon, just the way you like it, kiddo.”

Jeez, Dad, kiddo. I’m twenty-five years old and he was still calling me kiddo
. But his cooking had always been delicious, which made the nicknames worth it. She reached for her fork and began to pile the bacon and eggs together and she took a huge mouthful and began to chew. And then Blake walked in.

“Morning,” he said, walking over to the coffee table to pour himself a cup of coffee.

Ivy closed her eyes as she tried to swallow the huge bite she had taken. Of course Blake had walked in at the worst possible moment.

“Good morning, dear,” Blake’s mother, Ellen, said as Blake joined them at the table.

Ivy finally managed to swallow her food, but then found she couldn’t talk. Blake was wearing a pair of loose-fitting sweatpants and a tight white tank top that revealed his well-muscled shoulders.

“Blake,” Ivy finally managed to spit out as she gave him a nod. She still couldn't quite bring herself to look him in the eye.

“Good morning, Sis,” Blake said raising his eyebrows at her as he took a long sip of his coffee.

“Blake, you interested in some breakfast?” her father, Jonas, asked.

“Love some, thanks,” Blake called over.

It was too much. It was all just too weird. Blake was sitting across the breakfast table from her. Blake, the guy she had lost her virginity to, the first and only guy she had ever loved was going to be her stepbrother. Was this going to be her life? Holidays and vacations spent making awkward small talk with her ex? And what would happen if he were to actually bring a girl home with him? Ivy would have to sit and pretend that she was happy and that it didn’t bother her at all. Not that it would bother her. She and Blake had broken up years ago and she had moved on. But the shock of seeing him and knowing she would have to continue to see him was more than she was ready for.  

“Everything all right, Ivy?” Ellen asked as she lowered the newspaper and looked over.

“I’m fine,” she said taking another bite of her eggs to avoid having to say another word.

“I know this is all a little strange. And we hate making this hard for you kids,” Jonas said, and then he reached across the table and took Ellen’s hand. They looked at each other and Ivy saw the smile that played across her father’s face. “But Ellen and I are just so crazy about each other. We just click so well, like two puzzle pieces that somebody finally pushed together.”

“It’s fine, Dad,” Ivy said, cutting in before her father could find any more ways to express his love for Ellen. “It’s not weird at all.”

“I’m totally fine with it,” Blake said with a mouthful of eggs. “You two crazy kids do you.”

Ellen put her hands to her chest as tears sprung to her eyes. “You are just the two most wonderful kids anyone could ever have.”

“We sure did raise them right,” Jonas said.

Ivy choked on her coffee and then smiled as she tried to cough discreetly.

Across the table, Blake was smirking at her and shaking his head. “You two are great parents,” Blake agreed staring at Ivy as she tried to stop herself from shaking her head.

She could not let Blake get to her. Her father loved Ellen and Ivy wasn’t going to take that away from him. Jonas had worked so hard his entire life to provide for Ivy and put her through school and this was how she could pay him back, by accepting his new love. She wanted him and Ellen to stay together and that meant she needed to stay away from Blake. She could do that, probably.

“We appreciate you being so mature,” Ellen said and Ivy saw the knowing look she gave Blake. He gave his mom a dutiful nod and then went back to shoveling his breakfast in his mouth. “What are your plans while you’re back in town, Ivy?”

“Oh, I’ll probably just meet up with a few friends, do some shopping.”

“What about you, Blake?” Jonas asked.

“Training. I’ve got a big fight coming up. My old gym is just around the corner and they’re going to let come back in and practice while I’m here.”

“You’re still fighting?” Ivy asked. She couldn’t believe it; after all this time he was still engaged in his little after school activity.

“MMA,” Blake answered. He met her gaze and the memory of their breakup flashed before his eyes: Ivy crying and yelling and Blake shrugging his shoulders. He had broken her heart and he didn’t even care. Not then, anyway.

“Blake is very good. He’s ranked nationally in his weight class,” Ellen said. But her voice was high-pitched and she didn’t look pleased.

“Mom doesn’t love the fighting,” Blake said.

“No, I gave up that battle a few years ago. If this is what Blake wants to do, if this makes him happy and he can support himself, then I’m okay with it.” The speech seemed to take a lot out of her and Ivy was glad to hear she wasn’t the only one who hated that Blake was a fighter.

Blake looked over to her and it was almost as if he were hoping that Ivy had changed her mind, as well. But Ivy was not so easily swayed. Blake had been her high school sweetheart. They dated for their entire senior year. They went to dances and parties and games, but they never went to prom. Going to her senior year prom was the only thing Ivy really wanted to do. She knew it was silly and old-fashioned, but she had wanted it. She wanted to feel like royalty for one night. She wanted to have her dad take her picture as she stood in front of her limo. And Blake promised her that. He got a tux and the limo and he properly asked her and everything. And then two days before prom there had been a fight. It was between him and another kid who went to a different boxing gym. They had been pushing each other’s buttons all year. It came to a head two days before prom where they arranged a fight in the schoolyard at four o’clock.

Somebody snitched. The Vice Principal showed up and Blake was suspended and banned from the prom. But that wasn’t the worst part. Ivy could have handled a suspension, she would have gone to prom with her friends and met up with Blake afterward. She could have laughed with him at a suspension.

“Look, Babe, fighting is my life. If you can’t get on board with that, then maybe we can’t be together anymore.” Those were his exact words and they struck Ivy like a knife. No apology, no offer to make it up to her, just teenage swagger.

“What about my life?” Ivy asked him as tears rolled down her eyes. “What about what I want.”

Blake crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders looking off to the side. “That’s not really my concern.”

They had broken up that day and hadn’t spoken since. Ivy spent prom night crying into her pillow while her friends had a blast. But that was high school. It was a long time ago. She was a grown woman with a good job and her MBA. She made a lot of money and she did very well on the dating scene. She was not one of those girls who was hung up on her high school sweetheart. She honestly hadn’t thought of Blake in years. But now he was here in front of her and he looked like a man.

He was full grown and strong. She had no idea how he had got so strong. She could see the individual muscles on his triceps. It was all too easy to image him swooping her up in those arms. No, those arms were far too tempting.

“See something you like?” Blake asked.

Ellen and Jonas had left the kitchen while Ivy had been lost in her thoughts and she was surprised to see herself alone with Blake.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” She stood up and put her plate in the sink. Her hands were shaking and she needed them to stop. Why did she feel so nervous around Blake? It didn’t used to be like this. She used to feel so relaxed around him. She was always herself with Blake. She never needed to pretend to be anyone else.

“Think we’ll share a room? Bunk beds maybe?”

“Stop it. This is important to our parents. We need to make this as easy as possible for them.” Ivy sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s good to see you again, Ivy,” Blake said, his voice suddenly serious. She glanced up at him and saw he was staring at her. She was wearing skinny jeans, boots, and a long-sleeve shirt and Blake’s eyes were staring at her, going up and down her body like he was drinking her in until he finally looked into her eyes. “You look good.”

Chapter Three

Blake was in the guest room of Ivy’s house. It doubled as the office and there was an ancient computer on the desk behind him. He began to unpack, lining up his vitamins along the dresser and pulling out his laptop and and chargers. Finally, he found his gym clothes. He hadn’t been lying, he needed to train, but he mostly needed to get away from Ivy. She looked way too good. He had secretly been hoping she would had gotten fat or sloppy.

Teasing her had been fun. Ivy was so pale that any embarrassment turned her cheeks a beet red. She was so embarrassed about it, which only made it easier to get to her. Pale skin and dark hair, kids used to call her Snow White at school.

She looked great. She had filled out her shape, giving her the hourglass figure that had eluded her in high school. She wore clothes that complimented her figure now, long gone the baggy jeans and loose t-shirts of their childhood. They had been replaced with well-fitting clothes tailored to her figure. But Blake had barely noticed her clothes; he had been trying to figure out what was hiding beneath them. He knew what her body used to look like when they were clumsy teenagers, but he was desperate to know what it felt like now.

He shook his head to clear the memory. Their high school romance had been filled with nervous fumbling as they discovered each other’s bodies. He had loved her and she had loved him, up until he had ruined it. He needed to find a way for her to forgive him. Being with Ivy was like nothing else; in all of his years he had never met a woman who compared.

The gym. He needed to go to the gym and lift some weights, hit the bag. He would wear himself out, make himself exhausted so he would be too tired to lust after her. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was his only plan. He took of his shirt and his sweatpants and slipped into his boxer-briefs.

“Sorry!” Ivy squeaked as she looked away from him, a bright red blush spreading across her cheeks. “I came in here to get a cellphone charger. I didn’t know you would be in here.”

“Where did you think I was?” Blake asked, turning to face her. He was in just his boxer-briefs, but he hardly noticed. He wasn’t shy. “I mean, there are only three bedrooms in the house. Jonas and my mom are in one, you’re in the other; it makes sense that I would be here...I think you just wanted to catch a glimpse of me undressed.”

“Please,” Ivy said, throwing back her shoulders and making her way to the desk where she grabbed a phone charger.

With one step, Blake was in front of her, standing between her and the door. “Please what?” he asked with a smirk.

“Ugh,” Ivy said, “I thought we were going to be mature about this.”

“I am being mature. I’m trying to talk to you and you’re running away from me. Is there something you want to tell your stepbrother?” Blake asked.

“Don’t call yourself that,” Ivy countered.

“Why not?” Blake asked taking a step towards her. “Am I something else to you?”

“Yeah. You’re my asshole ex who I hoped I would never have to see again!”

It was like a slap to Blake’s face and he took a step away from her. He should have expected that hit. He should have seen it coming. But he still would have taken it. He deserved it and she deserved to give it to him.

“Look, I’m sorry about prom-” Blake started.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Ivy said. “It was a long time ago and I’ve moved past it. I’m just not enjoying having your presence at the breakfast table.”

“Then why are you up here?”

“Because I needed a phone charger.”

“Now, right now? When you knew I would be in here getting dressed?”

“Blake, I don’t think about you at all,” Ivy said. “The only reason I’m in here is because I honestly forgot about you. It didn't even occur to me that you were still in the house. Don’t try to pretend I’m going to great lengths to see you because I’m telling you I’m not.”

“I thought we were going to be mature about this, Ivy. That was pretty mean,” Blake said as he pulled his gym shorts on and slipped a t-shirt over his head. He didn’t know what he expected. He hadn’t thought Ivy would still be this mad at him. He hoped she would have thawed a little in the last seven years.

He didn't want to fight with her. He wanted to joke with her and laugh, but she was closed off to him. She didn’t want anything to do with him. He didn’t know how he could show her he was sorry about prom and the things he had said. She stopped listening to his apologies the summer of their senior year and she wasn’t interested in listening to them now.

“So you’re still fighting?”

“Yep. And my mom wasn’t lying. I am good at it. I’m damn good. Have you not heard of me at all?” She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Not because I’m famous or anything, but just because you used to know me. My name has never jumped out at you?”

“I saw the commercials for that Vegas fight,” Ivy said shrugging her shoulders. “But I didn’t watch it.”

“Well, you should have. I won in three rounds.”

“I’m not interested in watching two men fight. I don’t really care about it.”

Blake clenched his jaw and nodded as Ivy twisted the knife. Why would he have expected anything different. Ivy was the kind of girl who liked prom and dresses with birds on them; she wasn’t impressed by MMA fighting. It was the one thing Blake was good at and she didn’t care at all.

“Well, it’s been really great talking to you, Sis,” Blake said, standing up and grabbing his gym bag. “It’s been a pleasant conversation where I learned you don’t care about me, don’t think about me and find my profession not worthy of your notice. I guess MMA fighting has nothing on accounting.”

Ivy looked at him in rage. “I’m a financial advisor. I give billionaires investing advice. So, no, it’s not as impressive as punching someone. But I use my brain all day instead of my fists.”

“So you sit in a tiny, windowless office typing all day, maybe you have a client buy you an expensive lunch. Sounds like a waste of a life to me.”

“I have a big office,” Ivy said taking a step towards Blake and poking him in the chest. “And it has lots of windows and I have a secretary who does my typing for me. So try something else.”

“It just sounds like a boring and torturous hell to me,” Blake said with a shrug as he walked out of the room.

He smirked to himself; he knew exactly how worked up Ivy was behind him. She would be standing there with her fists clenched shaking her head at him. He glanced back and she was standing the same way she had when he won their arguments in high school. Ivy hated to lose, but she would never continue their fight in front of their parents.

“Bye, Mom!” he called into the living room where she was sitting next to Jonas and doing the crossword puzzle.

“Dinner’s at six, do not be late!” she called to him.

“Yes ma’am,” and then he was out of the house and back in suburbia. He stepped out into the foggy air of his northwestern home town. It was good to be back. Everything felt familiar. He was bigger now, stronger and more mature. Everything around him looked smaller and he was well aware of how much time had passed since he had last been to town.

He hopped into his car and drove the old route to his gym, making the turns and stops without having to think about it. He was, instead, thinking about Ivy. He wished he could read her mind. He was desperate to know what she was thinking. Was she still mad about their high school breakup? Blake felt guilty about it to this day; he hadn’t handled it well. They had been too young and too much in love. His feelings about her had been so intense. He hadn’t been ready for them yet. He wasn’t ready for them now.

Teasing Ivy was one thing, but that was all it could be. He didn’t want a girlfriend. He didn’t want someone who was going to worry about him or expect him home at a certain time. He liked having his own life and his own space. He only had room for girls like Michelle and no-strings-attached sex. Just two people having a good time with no expectations and no rules.

Still, though, he liked making her blush. He loved the way her pale skin showed her emotions so clearly. She would look down as the red passed over her nose and cheeks and then she could glance up to see if anyone was watching her. When they made eye contact at those moments she would blush more and look away, and Blake would be putty in her hands.

He pulled up to the gym and grabbed his gear as he walked inside. He took a deep breath of the gym that smelled like plastic and metal and sweat. It felt good to be back. Everything made sense there for Blake.