Bad For You - Sherilee Gray Page 0,54

on this. I glanced down and felt sick to my stomach. He was hard.

“Why did you volunteer to come here, Jarod?”

“Because your mother…”

“Bullshit,” I said, purposely cussing again. What did it matter now, the damage was already done. He’d say what he wanted about me and there was nothing I could do. “You were hoping you’d come here and I’d still want you, didn’t you? That I’d sleep with you, and you could blame me again for tempting you?”

He flushed an ugly crimson. “No…no, that’s not…”

“You’re standing there with an erection, Jarod. Your eyes have barely left my breasts since you walked in.”

He sneered. “What do you expect when you act like a whore? Just how many men have you fucked, Lila?”

I hadn’t given him the reaction he wanted and that pissed him off. “Again, none of your business. But we can definitely scratch you off the list, because honestly, those sad three seconds of you jerking and gasping on top of me, then crying like a baby, were definitely not fucking.”

He advanced, fury in his eyes. “You’re a damned slut. You want it. You wanted me. I’ll give it to you properly this time.”

“No, you won’t,” I said, letting him hear the anger in my voice as I shoved him back.

He flinched, startled, like he truly believed I’d just lie back on the desk and let him have his way with me.

He took another step toward me.

I lifted my hands to ward him off. “If you dare touch me, my boyfriend will beat the shit out of you,” I said, fear pounding through me.

His nostrils flared. “He’s not here.”

“He’s a biker, did you know that? You lay one finger on me, and he’ll hunt you down and kick your ass. I can promise you that. He’s good at hunting people,” I said, shaking harder. “I’ve seen him beat a man bloody. It wasn’t pretty, Jarod. All it takes is one word from me.”

He stood there, breathing hard, red and sweaty and angry as hell. “You did this to me,” he hissed.

“No. You did it to yourself.” I picked up my phone and clicked it on, showing him the screen. I hovered my thumb over Jesse’s name. “Leave or I’ll call. He works just down the street. He can be here in minutes.”

Shaking with rage, Jarod took a step back. “I’ll let your mother know why you’ve been ignoring her. That you’ve turned into a whore just like your sister.” Then he turned and stalked out.

I put down the phone and gripped the edge of the desk, fighting back tears.

He was wrong about me, about everything. I knew that, I did. But my parents wouldn’t feel the same way. They would never forgive me after this.

They were terrible parents. The way they’d treated Kate and me wasn’t something I would ever forget. But they were still my parents, and yes, I wanted their approval, despite it all. My ridiculous dreams of being a family again one day, after Jarod spoke to them, would never happen.

I wouldn’t have parents anymore.

And it hurt. It didn’t matter what they’d done to me. It still hurt.

The look on Jarod’s face, the horrible things he’d said echoed through my mind, and that hurt as well. He was nothing to me. But they still cut.

Dread filled me. He’d tell everyone his twisted version of my life, the people from our church, people who I used to think of as friends.

My mother would hate that more than anything. It was only a matter of time before she came for me.

Chapter Seventeen

Jesse

I climbed out of my truck, glad to finally be out of it. I’d been gone four nights and had come straight here when I hit Rocktown. All I wanted was Lila.

Unfortunately, my girl was trying to avoid me.

The lights were on inside. So she wasn’t “busy working” like she’d said. I wasn’t cool with that. I thought we’d finally had some kind of breakthrough, and now she was pulling away. Fuck that.

We’d planned to spend the night together before I left, but she’d canceled on me—Addie had needed her due to some drama. Had that been all bullshit?

I’d been gone longer than I’d planned, tying up the last of the loose ends left by Trip, and the texts, and one call she’d actually answered, hadn’t cut it. Not when all I wanted was to kiss her, touch her, slide inside her and forget all the bullshit I’d had to deal with because of my useless brother.

I