[EB03] Bad Girls Do Read online

  Andrew’s decision to propose to his girlfriend Hailey had come as a surprise to Sam, but it wasn’t completely unexpected. Anyone could see he was head over heels in love with her. But in his eagerness to propose to the woman he loved, Andrew had failed to take into account the fact that his ex would be here. Clearly Diane had taken offense to that.

  It was beyond intriguing that her response to Andrew’s proposal was to decide to go bad.

  Maybe there’s more to her than meets the eye.

  He should have left his observation at that and went on his merry way, but something about her comments had struck a chord within him. Who knew better than he the pressures of dealing with Manhattan society, and the urge to just say, “Fuck it” and do whatever the hell you wanted? It was something he’d done years ago, and he didn’t regret it for a moment.

  The word “bondage” floated to his ears, and much to his shock, the thought of engaging in that very activity with Diane entered his mind. Even more surprising was the way his body responded to it.

  Shit. Now he was battling a stiffy right in the middle of a crowded ballroom.

  Urging himself to move on, he forced his feet to carry him to the bar and get that refill he now desperately needed.

  He was in the process of doing just that when his older brother James sidled up to him, his hair tousled and a shit-eating grin on his face.

  “Still here?” James asked.

  “Yup,” Sam drawled, giving his brother a once-over. He had a dab of lipstick right above one of the buttons on his stark-white shirt. “I see you and Lys found somewhere cozy to have sex.”

  When James scowled and looked around to ensure no one had heard him, Sam let out a laugh. James and Lyssa had started dating a few months back, and they’d pretty much been doing it like bunnies ever since. For Sam, it was a win-win. Not only did he get to see his brother walk around happy, but he’d also become so fucking easy to tease.

  “Don’t worry,” Sam said to him. “I doubt anyone noticed but me.”

  James relaxed, leaning onto the bar. “Can you believe Andrew’s engaged?”

  “No.” Sam chuckled. “Sucker.”

  Secretly, though, he was glad to see Andrew with Hailey. Her carefree temperament loosened him up. They were a good match.

  James no doubt knew how Sam felt inside because all he did was grin. “It’ll happen to you one day, too. Then we’ll see who the sucker is.”

  “Never.” Sam loved women, but settling down with just one of them wasn’t in the cards for him.

  “That’s what I said, too.” James straightened and peered over at Lyssa. “Well, the night’s about over. We’re heading back to my place. Wanna walk out with us?”

  Sam hesitated. He knew he should go with them. Andrew and Hailey had left a short while ago, and his best friends Zoey and Zach Beringer—i.e. the twins—had left right after them. The only other people he cared to spend time with here were James and Lyssa.

  Then his gaze landed on Diane, who was looking decidedly sloppier as she leaned closer to her friend while typing something onto her screen.

  “Nah,” he found himself saying instead. “I think I’m gonna stick around for another drink or two.”

  “Suit yourself. Just make sure you eventually find your way home.”

  With a clap on Sam’s shoulder, James turned and left.

  Ignoring the twinge of guilt that tightened his chest over his failure to leave with his brother, Sam turned back toward the table where Diane and her friend sat. Feeling only slightly less pervy than a stalker, he grabbed his glass of whiskey and sidled closer. He purposely kept his eyes on the thinning crowd of people on the dance floor as he lifted his glass for a long sip.

  Diane’s voice drifted to him, clear as a bell. “Why not? Doing what I’m supposed to do isn’t getting me anywhere.”

  “You’re just mad because your dad barely even said hello to you tonight,” her friend told her.

  “No, that’s…well, yes, I am mad about that. But that’s not why,” Diane insisted. “I’m pushing thirty and I haven’t ever done anything really daring. And honestly, the most exciting sex I’ve ever had was with Mr. Winky, and that’s just sad.”

  “Um, who?” her friend asked.

  “My vibrator.”

  Her friend let out a scandalized laugh, and Sam manufactured a cough to cover his own chuckle.

  “I feel like I need to live a little, you know?”

  The plaintive note in Diane’s voice caused an answering twinge in Sam’s chest. Because even though she wasn’t talking to him, he did sort of know where she was coming from.

  “Well, just don’t do anything until you’ve had a chance to really think it through, okay?” Diane’s friend rose from her seat. “I have to visit the ladies’. You?”

  “I’m fine,” Diane murmured.

  “Okay, then wait for me right here. When I come back, we’ll catch a cab together.”

  With those words, Diane’s friend turned and walked off, leaving her momentarily alone.

  Giving into impulse, Sam turned back to Diane. She sighed and set her phone, which was covered in a pink rhinestone-studded case, onto the table. Then she leaned over it in a way that made her look sad and lost. The movement gave him a clear view of the generous cleavage spilling out over the top of her slinky golden gown.

  To his chagrin, he felt himself growing hard again.

  Don’t be a dick. Just walk away.

  She’d clearly had too much to drink. Doing anything other than leaving her alone would be stupid and wrong. Yet even as he thought that, he found his feet moving directly toward her.

  Before he could even process what he was doing, he found himself taking the seat Diane’s friend had just vacated.

  Her eyes widened as she looked over at him and then she groaned. “Oh, no.”

  He eyed her in confusion. Had he done something to her he didn’t remember?

  “What?”

  Diane’s lips puckered into an enticing pout. “Nothing personal, but the last thing I want to see right now is another Everly.”

  “Ouch.” He mock scowled to hide the twinge of hurt her words had sparked. “We’re not all alike, you know.”

  She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I know.”

  He hesitated for a moment, at a loss for words. Something in her expression made him want to apologize for Andrew’s carelessness. He opened his mouth to do just that, when she crossed her arms over her waist, unintentionally pushing the swell of her breasts together and making his brain momentarily short circuit.

  His cock twitched in his pants, and when he spoke, his words weren’t the comfort he’d thought to give.

  “I overheard you talking about your list.”

  Her breath hitched. “You what?”

  “Your list.” He’d already mentioned it. No going back now. “I heard you talking about it.”

  Diane locked gazes with him, her light green eyes dilated in a way that made him think of sex. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Oh, she wanted to play that game, did she? If there was anything he was good at, it was games.

  Grinning, he plucked her phone off the table.

  “What are you doing?”

  She lunged for it, but he raised his hand in the air, and her palms landed on his chest instead. She sucked in another breath, her chest heaving in a way that made it hard to take his eyes from her breasts, and then slowly sat back.

  Seizing the moment, he swiped through her phone and found the list. Some demon inside of him prompted him to recite it aloud. “Oral sex in public. Spanking. Bondage.”

  Well, damn. He didn’t know why he’d felt the need to tease her, but with every word he read, his humor evaporated. In its place, rose sharp, dark need.

  He hesitated on the last item she’d listed. “Play slave to his master.”

  When his gaze rose to hers, two bright spots of color decorated her cheeks. She could’ve slapped him, or cursed him o
ut and stalked away. Both of those would have been well within her right.

  Instead, she lifted her chin haughtily and said, “So you’ve read my Bad Girl To-Do list. So what?”

  Even as admiration for her gumption coursed through him, his insides twisted with a melding of emotions: chagrin, lust, confusion, all rolled into one tight ball in his gut.

  So what? So she’d just typed his every secret desire into her pink-studded cell phone, that was what.

  Play slave to his master.

  How many times had he fantasized about getting a woman to do just that? The problem was, given his usual laidback demeanor, any time he tried to go that route in the bedroom he ended up surprising the hell out of his partner. Was it so hard to believe, given his carefree nature, that he could be an Alpha in the bedroom?

  Apparently so.

  Diane didn’t know it, but her bad girl list had just awakened his deepest fantasies, and now she was the star of the play running in his mind.

  A myriad of emotions raced through Sam as he locked gazes with Diane. Though she looked embarrassed as hell, she didn’t waver. Instead, she squared her shoulders and stared at him like the posh little princess he’d always envisioned her to be. A drunk one, but a princess nonetheless.

  What would she look like staring at him so haughtily while kneeling down at his feet? He shifted uncomfortably as he realized he really wanted to find out.

  Hell, she just might be the perfect partner for the kinds of games he envisioned playing. And wasn’t that the biggest surprise of all?

  “Do you think I’m not allowed to express my desires just because I’m a woman, is that it?” she challenged.

  “No.” His voice came out hoarse, but right now he couldn’t bring himself to give a crap. “I’m just thinking that you’re missing something.”

  Frowning, she grabbed his wrist and brought the phone to her. Her brows furrowed as she stared at it hard. “What am I missing?”

  He gave her a wolfish grin. “A partner.”

  When she stiffened, he got the feeling that, despite her current state of inebriation, she understood what he was talking about.

  She let go of his wrist and her eyes slowly rose to his. “What exactly are you implying?”

  Something he shouldn’t, that much was obvious. She was Andrew’s ex-girlfriend. Odds were she would shoot him down. Or slap him and then shoot him down. But the racing of his heart and the tightness in his slacks told him he wasn’t about to back down. Not after reading that list. Not after discovering that what she was looking for aligned so closely to his unspoken desires.

  “You want to be bad. I know more about that than most.” He lowered his voice a fraction and leaned toward her. “I can help you.”

  Her breath caught and color rose in her cheeks again. Something in the trembling of her lips told him she was envisioning what he’d suggested, and didn’t find it as distasteful as he’d feared.

  “You’re Andrew’s little brother.”

  “Not so little,” he murmured suggestively.

  Diane flushed. “I’m sure you can see why what I think you’re suggesting would be a horrible idea.”

  A sudden thought occurred to him and he leaned back with a frown. “Are you in love with my brother?”

  “I…no.” Her face screwed up in disgust. “I was never in love with him. We actually weren’t all that compatible.”

  The amount of relief that poured through him at her pronouncement was surprising. His shoulders relaxed and he gave her a soft grin. “So then what’s the problem?”

  “I…” Her eyes glazed over, and when she unconsciously licked her lips, his body tightened in response. But then she sat back. “No, it’s not a good idea. I couldn’t possibly.”

  To his shock, even though he knew she was right about it being a bad idea, disappointment flowed through his veins at her words. He schooled his face into a carefree smirk and shrugged. “Suit yourself. But just in case you change your mind...”

  Flipping her phone back toward him, he typed his number onto the very bottom of her list, then handed it to her.

  She accepted it, her breath shuddering as she stared at the screen.

  Sam rose from his seat and stepped past her chair, then bent to murmur in her ear. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, sweetheart, being naughty with her ex’s brother is most definitely something a bad girl would do.”

  Her small shiver was the only indication that she’d heard him.

  Enough was enough. He’d made his point.

  Straightening to his full height, he turned and headed for the door, leaving Diane to ponder what he’d just said.

  Chapter Two

  The shrill blast of a phone woke Diane from a dream she couldn’t quite remember. Whatever it was, it had left her feeling guilty and more than a little turned on. Another sharp ring was all it took for the lingering vestiges of desire to dissipate.

  “Stop,” she croaked, as if that would somehow cause the phone to silence. Wow, her head felt like it had been run over by a limousine.

  Groaning, she burrowed out from under her white down comforter and snatched her cell phone off the nightstand. That was all it took for memories of the night before to assail her.

  It all came back in one blinding flash. Watching Andrew propose to his girlfriend. Getting drunk and typing a list of naughty things she wanted to do into her phone. Sam snatching her phone and reading her list, and then—horror of horrors—actually volunteering to help her with it.

  “Oh god…no,” she whispered.

  It wasn’t so much that the thought of doing any of those things with Sam Everly turned her off. Surprisingly, they didn’t. In fact, once he’d mentioned it, she couldn’t help but be turned on by the images flashing through her head.

  No, her dismay was due to the fact that he’d seen the list in the first place. She had never been so embarrassed.

  Trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, she glanced at the screen. It was Angela calling. She hit the answer button and held the phone to her ear. “Why did you let me drink so much last night?”

  Angela let out a laugh. “You can’t blame me for that. I tried to stop you.”

  She was right, damn it.

  “Did you still want to meet for a late lunch today,” Angela continued, “or are you too hung over?”

  Somewhere in the jumbled memories whirling through her mind, Diane remembered making a lunch date with Angela on the way home last night. “Spaggio’s at three o’clock?”

  “That was the plan,” Angela said cheerfully. “Are you up for it?”

  Diane hesitated. The pounding in her head urged her to cancel and lay in bed all day. Maybe she could pretend the events of last night never happened. But the other part of her, the part that was awhirl in confusion, wanted to talk to Angela about what had happened with Sam. She’d been too drunk last night to even process the incident, much less bring it up.

  “I’ll be there,” she finally said.

  “Okay, then get your tush out of bed. It’s past one already.”

  Diane whimpered. “It is?”

  “I had a feeling you might say that.”

  She scowled at Angela’s peppy tone and said her goodbyes, then forced herself out of bed and into a nice, warm shower. That only alleviated the pounding in her head by a fraction, but it was enough to propel her out the door and into a cab headed for the meatpacking district.

  By the time Diane hopped out of the cab and braved the falling specks of snow and slippery brown ice patching the ground, Angela was already seated at their favorite table.

  “You look like hell,” her friend said cheerily as Diane unwrapped the scarf from her neck and eased out of her gloves and coat.

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “I told you not to drink so much—”

  “Yeah, yeah…I got it.”

  Angela’s lips curved into a smug smile as she reached for the teapot that had been set in the middle of the table and p
oured some of the steamy liquid into a teacup. She slid it toward Diane just as she took a seat.

  “Thank you.” Diane eagerly lifted the cup to her lips and took a deep sip of the lemon-and-spice flavored contents. Before she could say another word, the waiter stopped in front of them and asked for their order.

  “I’ll have the spinach and prosciutto salad,” Angela said, ordering their usual. She glanced over at Diane. “Same for you?”

  Not today. The hammering in her brain and the roiling of her stomach told her she’d need something with far more substance than the usual greens she ate to watch her weight. Besides, who cared if she gained a few pounds here or there?

  “I’ll have the fettuccine alfredo and a side of minestrone soup.”

  Angela’s brow lifted, but she didn’t comment until the waiter had left. “You really are going bad, aren’t you?”

  Her allusion to that stupid list made Diane groan. She lifted her palm to soothe the shooting pain that had manifested right above her right eyebrow.

  “What’s wrong?” Angela scooted forward in her seat. “You seem upset about something. Is it still the whole Andrew engagement thin—”

  “No,” Diane snapped. “Could you please stop bringing that up?”

  Angela made a face and uttered a defensive, “Sorry.”

  Crap. Now she’d offended her one and only real friend in the city.

  “No, I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh. “I guess I am feeling a little sensitive about that, but that’s not what’s bothering me.”

  Frowning, Angela said, “So, what is it?”

  Diane stared down into her teacup. Part of her still debated even bringing it up, but she desperately needed someone to talk to. “While you were in the restroom last night, Sam Everly approached me.”

  “Sam Everly?” Angela said in a shocked voice.

  “Um-hm. He…ah...” Diane took a quick glance around, because it was just her luck that someone she knew would be sitting within hearing distance. When she saw no one familiar, she said, “He overheard me making my list.”