Taming the Bad Girl (8 page)

Nothing could spoil this moment.
Nothing.

Chapter Twelve

Giles: Fate likes to give you a little reminder now and then.
 

An incessant ringing jerked me out of her soft arms.
I pushed back, momentarily confused, before realizing that it was Lucy’s phone.
Buzzing and ringing on my desk. It was the same phone she’d had four months
ago, the same lime green skin…and the same fucking message:
Alex calling.

My blood froze and I gasped.
Surely
not?

Lucy looked down, following my gaze and
stiffened. “Oh….”

I pushed away immediately, pulling myself out of
her, zipping up my flies, my hands shaking as I did so.
Because
I was angry.
So fucking angry.
How often did he
fucking ring? For it to have happened both times we’d been together. I growled
and picked the phone up, torn between wanting to throw it at the wall and crush
it in my hand.

 
“Are you
going to answer it, Lucy?” I grated.
 
“Don’t want to keep the boyfriend waiting.”

The ringing stopped, not because she’d answered
it, but because she’d let it ring out. Obviously she didn’t want to talk to
Alex in front of me. Jealously consumed me, the anger intensified and I did the
only thing I could think to do.
 
I
dropped the phone back on the desk, sent her the filthiest look I could conjure
up, and headed for the door.

“Giles, wait.”

“I don’t want to do this now,” I said. “I don’t
want to do this ever again.”
What a fool
I’d been.

“Stop right fucking there, Giles,” she screamed.
“I mean it.”

“Fuck off, Lucy.”

“Giles!”

I turned around slowly, her scream ringing in my
ears, just in time to see her slide off the desk, pushing her dress back down
to her knees. Her tights were sort of flapping around her ankles, but she
didn’t seem to notice. I could see her scarlet panties on the floor, crumpled
by my desk. How they’d got there I did not know.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

I wrenched my tie back into place and shot her a
glare. “Sort of obvious, don’t you think?”

She bent down and slid off her shoes. Losing
those extra inches made her look tiny. The ripped tights followed and she
bunched them up before tossing them at me.

“This is what you wanted and what? Now you’ve
had it you can walk out,” she demanded.

I frowned. “You wanted it as much as I did.”
Though guilt flared because I hadn’t exactly given her a choice, had I?
I’d pounced on her and fucked her senseless before she’d even had a
chance to really think it through.

Her chin lifted and she glared. “Yes, I did.”

Relief, sweet relief filled me.

“But tell me something, Giles,” she continued.
“Something I’ve never understood. Why is it that you can fuck my brains out one
minute and then cast me aside the next without so much as a fucking no thanks?”

Relief gave way to confusion. “Are you even
serious?”

“I’m having déjà vu here,” she screeched.
“Seems like we’ve done this before.”

“What? Fucked and been interrupted by your
boyfriend?”

“My boyfriend?” she screeched. “God damn it,
what is wrong with you?”

I growled, strode forward and picked up her
phone. “This is what is wrong with me, Lucy. This.”

She shook her head and fumbled with the ripped
top of her dress, righting her bra, trying to push it closed. “It’s not what
you think.”

A faint hope stirred. “Then explain it to me.”

“I tried to before, didn’t I?” she shrieked.
“You never listened.”

My mind flashed back to that night all over again
and I frowned.

Lucy stiffening.
“I have no family.”

Me jumping out of the bed, pulling her against me, her body all damp
and moist.
“So he’s a boyfriend?”

 
“He’s someone I care about.”

“And where
do I fit into this?
Into the situation between you and him?”

Lucy
shaking her head and pushing me back. “You don’t, Giles. You’ll never fit into
that situation. Never in a million years.”

The frown deepened and I shuddered. “You made it
clear that whatever was between you and him had nothing to do with me,” I said.
“Fool that I was I believed that maybe….” I shrugged, pain throbbing through my
chest. “I thought wrong, didn’t I? He’s still with you after all these months.”

She groaned. “Oh God, I can’t believe we’re
doing this again. Giles, please listen to me. For once in your life, listen.”

I waited. “Go on then. I’m all ears.”

She took a deep and obvious breath. “Alex is not
my boyfriend.”

The hope stirred again. “Then who is he?” She
shifted and shook her head. Silence reigned for far too long and I took hold of
her arms, just like I had that night, giving her a little shake.
“Who?”

“I can’t tell you that. Not right now.”

“Why the hell not?”
I
asked,
confusion obvious in my voice.
“Damn it, Lucy if he’s some guy bothering you I can—”

“He doesn’t bother me,” she said softly. “Not in
the way you mean. Not like you think.”

“Then tell me, talk to me properly, explain
this,” I demanded. “Like you should have four months ago.”

She pushed against me and sighed. “If you ever
cared about me at all, Giles—and let’s be honest it’s not like you ever
did—then
 
you’d have taken my word for it
that this is something I can’t talk about. It’s not a boyfriend, and it’s not
anything sexual. Alex is….” She paused, using the same God damn words as
before.
“Someone close to me.”

I exploded. Not sure what I was angrier about,
her casual dismissal of my feelings or him, Alex. “Of course I cared about
you!” I growled. “How long did I dance around after you? How many times did I
ask you out only to be given the go around? You know how much I wanted you.
That night you must have felt it.”

“I—”

“So be honest with me now,” I demanded, in no
mood to be interrupted. “You have to give me more than that. You have to.”

She looked up, her gaze catching mine and for
several seconds we just stared. It was she that broke it. “You could never
trust me could you? Not now, not then.”

“Of course I did,” I countered. “Before the
phone call I did. You know I did!”

She shook her head. “You were ready to believe
the worst. You jumped to conclusions immediately.”

“Because men follow you in
droves!”
I exploded again. “You’re like a
fucking honey pot. You flirt and you joke with them, and they come back and
back, over and over again.”

“And that’s my fault?
Because
men think with their dicks?”

“No…I…” I growled and strode across to the
window. Already it was getting dark, people rushing home.
To
their wives and their families.
My throat constricted. “You encourage
them,” I said. “You’re out every weekend picking up man after man.”

“I’ve had a hard few months.”

I laughed bitterly. “Haven’t we both.”

Silence filled the room. She lost in her
thoughts, me in mine. Alex? Who the hell was he? Why wouldn’t she tell me? And
was she right? Had my trust been so thin it shattered after one hiccup? But no,
who could possibly blame me for what had happened? I’d courted her, seduced her
and then found out that she’d lied to me all along.

She didn’t
exactly lie
, my mind whispered.

No, not a lie.
An omission then.
Which
was no way to build a relationship.
Something that had
been my plan all along.
And hell I’d known it was going to be hard. Even
before that night I’d hated the way men looked at her, the way they flirted
with her and the way she flirted back. She was gorgeous, practically screaming
sex. Was it any wonder my trust was precarious? Only the desperate desire I’d
felt for her had been enough to make me try to date her.
That
and the odd feelings that plagued me whenever I was in her company.
Now,
four months later I wasn’t sure whether I regretted giving into those feelings
or not.

“Giles?” she prompted. “Talk to me, please.”

Even without hearing her voice I could feel her
across the room, actually
feel
her,
and I knew right there and then that it was too late for me.
Maybe
had been ever since I’d given into those feelings so long ago.
The
knowledge washed over me, and I bit back a groan. Despite everything I still
wanted her so badly.
Couldn’t keep my hands off her.
The months apart had only made it worse. The feelings I’d buried would not stay
there. They wanted out.

They wanted her…because deep down
I
knew the truth. I fucking loved her. I had for months. It
was inescapable.
Whether I liked it or not.

“Giles,” she said again and I turned, leaning
against the window frame and looking at her. She was so beautiful, even with
her hair whipped around her face, her clothes all ragged and her fists
clenched. She was mine. It was obvious to me now. I could deny it no longer,
and that knowledge made me reckless. Made me ask a question I’d avoided for so
long.

“Do you want me, Lucy?” I asked. “Be honest. Do
you want to be with me?”

She shivered, her eyes widened. I waited, heart
in my mouth for her answer, knowing that it would decide the course of my life.

Eventually she nodded, slowly, deliberately.
“Yes,” she whispered. “You must know that I do.”

Relief filled me.
So sweet, so
deep.
It hit me at my core and shook my very foundations.
What a fool I’d been.
“Then you need to
level with me,” I said. “Tell me everything there is that I need to know and
then we’ll see what the hell we can salvage out of this mess.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lucy: It’s just a little step, giving someone your trust, so why
does it feel like jumping into a chasm?

My breath caught and my heart jumped in to my
throat. Giles wanted me. He
still
wanted me—had all along. I could barely believe it, could hardly dare to take
it all in, and for a moment I simply basked in the knowledge.
Wishing that I’d known all these months.
How different
everything would have been.

But he
doesn’t trust you, not at all.

My heart dropped from my throat to my knees and
I picked my phone up off the desk. The missed call jarred me because I’d have
to return it and soon, and what fun that would be.

“Are you really saying what I think you’re
saying?” I asked, dropping the phone again, wishing Alex had better timing. But
then I could wish a lot of things about Alex, couldn’t I? In the end my wishes
mattered little, that course had been set since I was thirteen.

“Yes.”

The word was terse, clipped, but it hit me right
in the chest and I took a deep breath. “You really want to be with me? That’s
what you mean by what can we salvage?”

He nodded.

“Then you have to trust me.”

“I will when you tell me the truth.”

I shook my head, and though the words were hard
I said them anyway. “No, Giles. That’s not trust. Trust is taking someone on
faith. Not finding it after the fact.”

Slowly he made his way across the room to me.
“We’re past that point, Lucy.
Way past it.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“This.”

He lowered his head and touched my lips with
his. It was a soft, fluttery pressure and I gasped.

“I want you so bad,” he whispered against my
mouth. “Feel how much.” He took my hand and pressed it against his crotch,
where an erection was obvious.
So quickly?
But then
I’d experienced his stamina before, hadn’t I? I knew how hard he could get.

“Sex,” I said.

He kissed me again, teasing my lips with his
tongue. “Yes.”

At least he was honest. I had to give him points
for that. And hadn’t it been that way all my life? Giles was right about one
thing, men did chase after me.
Had done since I was thirteen
years old.
Despite my lack of inches and tiny breasts there seemed to be
something about me that attracted them.
Maybe the blonde
hair?
And yes, I’d flirted with them but that was more a defense
mechanism than anything else. Flirt back and leave it at that. It was how I’d
rolled all my life. The only men who’d ever breached that barrier were my first
boyfriend and Giles. And now the other men too, but I was discounting them
because it was just bad fucking judgment, brought on by heartbreak.