Bad Romance Read online

  Todd was seething. His jaw clenched, his hands balled into fists at his side.

  “She was fucking drunk, you son of a bitch,” he snarled and he did something I never thought Todd would have the balls to do. He hooked me with a right, then when I was slightly still in shock, down came my head on his knee. The pain was real. I rolled on the ground laughing while he looked down at me like some kind of white knight for his wronged virgin princess.

  “She begged for it, Todd. Get off my shit.”

  “She was fucking drugged!”

  I grunted as another kick came at my gut. Fuck, he really was being all chivalrous and shit. It was so absurd that this dickhead really thought he would ever have Clara. So I started to laugh. It came out struggled at first. I mean, the douche did just kick me while I was down—quite literally. Getting to my feet, I staggered back. I came forward, grabbed Todd by the throat, and pulled him close.

  “Did you really think she would ever be yours?”

  I turned to the side and spit. A mixture of phlegm and blood smacked against the floor next to Tamara’s foot.

  “That’s fucking disgusting, Dax.”

  I shrugged, still pinning my gaze to Todd, who stared me right back down. I have to say, the kid had balls. Really big ones that were gonna get rammed to his throat if he kept pushing the Clara issue. I wiped off my mouth with the back of my hand and brushed an index finger under Todd’s nose.

  “Smell that?”

  Todd didn’t even flinch, but he knew. Oh, yeah, he fucking knew.

  “She came on MY finger. She will always come for me.”

  I gave him a firm smack to the cheek and moved around him, grabbing up my shorts and slipping them on. I looked down at a sleeping Clara. I rubbed my fingers against my chest. There was that fucking guilt again. Looking over at Todd, I smirked.

  “Get her out of my fucking house.”

  And I marched down the steps, grabbed a beer and headed out to the backyard, the feel of Clara all over me still. Her smell and her sexy moans. Taking a very long chug of my brew, I knew it before I even said it out loud.

  “I’m so fucked.”

  Chapter Five

  Clara

  Throbbing, uncontrolled agony pounded into my head as some loud obnoxious music thrust me out of my numb slumber.

  Bang Bang by Jessie J and two other female singers I didn’t know seemed to be screaming at me through the speakers of my phone. I popped an eye open, and if one could glare at something with one eye not even fully open, this would be what I was doing to my phone right now. I didn’t even have that song on my phone, much less as a ringtone.

  It stopped.

  Ha! There was a god.

  Just as I closed my eye and went to bury my head back in my pillow, the song went off again, in all its hangover thriving glory. Grunting and slapping the phone before I slid the screen to answer, I pressed the speaker option and tried to curl away from the person on the other end. I had a really, really bad feeling.

  “Good morning, sunshine.”

  The deep, masculine rumble did things to my body. Moreso than before. Literally, phantom touching coasted all over my body. Particularly, my nipples and clit seemed to scream out in joy at the sounds that came out of that man’s voice box. I tried to pretend it wasn’t there. That it didn’t do things to me hearing Dax Trenton all grown up, hot as all get-up, and calling me with a good morning. I also didn’t forget that he hated me for some reason and had no memory of me at all.

  “Oh, come on, little girl. You aren’t giving me the silent treatment, are you? Not after last night.” He chuckled.

  Did alpha males chuckle? No, he kinda like growl-laughed into the phone and let me just say, I didn’t miss the mocking in his tone.

  “Actually I’m trying to figure out if I want to kill you Dexter style or Hannibal Lector style.” My throat felt like sand paper. I rolled back over and spotted the glass of water and the bottle of Tylenol on my bedside table.

  The heavens were looking down on me.

  As I started to sit up, it was like someone repeatedly hit me in the head with a sledge hammer. Goddamn, I knew I’d been drugged as I was starting to black out, but hell, what was I drugged with?

  “Ah, are you telling me you would eat me, little girl? I had no clue a goodie goodie like you would be that fucking kinky.” He laughed.

  My glare was pinned solely on the phone which the voice of Satan was coming out of.

  “I was swinging more towards Dexter. Watching you bleed to death wrapped in Saran Wrap just has this joyful appeal at the moment.” I reached for the glass of water, and popped the bottle of Tylenol open after somehow aligning the arrow with my still drugged brain.

  How the fuck was I supposed to get through class today?

  Shit, class.

  I groaned as I swallowed two pills and fell back on the bed. Laughter on the other end of the line came through my speakers and made me go all aglow again. Stop it, lady puss between my legs, you ain’t having none of that.

  “So violent, little girl. I may have underestimated you.”

  I looked at the time on my phone. Eight forty-five. Great. Enough time to shower and become human again.

  Sighing, I looked up at my ceiling. “Why are you calling me, Dax?”

  “Don’t say my name, you haven’t earned it. Call me Mr. Trenton.”

  I rolled my eyes and just as I opened my mouth to retort, my door opened and all six-two of Todd came striding into my room like he owned the place. Shit, I didn’t have a bra on. I knew this because my left boob kept trying to side boob its way out of my tank top. I squealed and threw the comforter over my head.

  “Good, you’re awake.” Todd’s cheerful morning lilt hit my annoy button. How could anyone be this chipper after drinking the night before? “I was coming in to get you up, make sure you got to class.”

  I waited for my body to find the tingle. You know that hunger it got for a-holes like Dax. But nothing.

  “Todd,” Dax growled from the speaker of my phone. “What the fuck are you doing there?”

  Silence stretched for so long I thought Dax had hung up and Todd had left. Heck, I would’ve hidden in a closet at that tone from Dax.

  I slowly started to drop the comforter and peeked over the top and saw Todd’s handsome face curled up in a scowl at my phone.

  “Bye, Dax.”

  He reached down and hit the end button just as Dax started to threaten every child Todd would ever have if he hung up on him. The room fell silent and I shrank back under the sheets again.

  “Oh no you don’t, sweetheart.”

  There it was. My body got all warm, and my nipples perked up. The fact that he still used the term sweetheart was so flipping amazing I wanted to kiss him. That was until my sheets were ripped from my body. I squealed and tried to scramble for a blanket, but Todd tossed them across the room, leaving me with swaying boobs and panties.

  “Shit,” I mumbled and crossed my arms over my chest.

  Todd leaned against my large window frame. He crossed his arms and legs in that lazy fashion that made me seriously consider if the man was real or not.

  “I saw it all when I helped you home last night,” he smiled. Oh, and he waggled his brows at me suggestively.

  I could feel my body turning red on his stare. Yet still he kept his eyes on me and didn’t try to seduce me with his gaze like other men did. A certain level of respect bloomed to life inside me. Deciding that the virgin innocent act was tired and overdone, I dropped my arms. I felt the weight of my boobs and wished I just slept in a bra. Todd pushed off the wall and took a seat on my bed. It dipped and my body shifted to move closer.

  “Sorry about Dax. Normally he’s not so—”

  “Shitty?”

  “I was gonna say douchey, but shitty works too.” He laughed and I joined him.

  I scooted down the bed a little and dropped my legs over the side to sit next to him.

  “Thanks for getting me home. I figured if
Shannon was all wrapped up I would be on my own. I didn’t know Dax would drug me.”

  “Yeah, about that.” He went uncomfortable with me for a second.

  I grabbed his arm before he could talk.

  “No, don’t say sorry. Please, it wasn’t your fault. I’m not even sure it was my fault. But I don’t think anything happened. I mean, even if Dax did something, which I’m not sure he even wants to touch me.” I paused and tucked my hair behind my ear.

  “You see, Clara, when I came back in the room, the door was locked.”

  I froze. My whole body got tense.

  He wouldn’t, would he?

  “You were laying on his bed, and you had no top or bra on. But Tamara was there and looking very pleased with herself. She was fully clothed. You had pants on. I couldn’t get it out of Dax what happened. I don’t know what he has planned for you. He mentioned the blacklist, which is some stupid bullshit that only happens when someone pretty much breaks a deal with a frat, so why he would use it on you…” He got up quickly and stabbed fingers through his hair.

  His perfect style went right out the window. Then he started to pace. I hated pacing. It was the overactive way to handle things.

  I got up and stood in front of him to stop him. My five—five frame was dwarfed by him. He looked so sad, those light eyes gazing down at me with guilt, regret, and self loathing. Dax must be a redeemable human if his best friend was Todd.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure he did whatever to piss you off and make me look bad. So, what do you say we just get our day started and get ourselves to class? I have calculus first, then world history. Let’s just think about school and forget about last night, okay?”

  You would think I was handling this well. I was silently screaming inside. My stomach had bottomed out, and I was doing a mental inventory of all my body parts to see if I could tell if I’d done anything dirty with Dax, or someone else he hired to do something with me. I put on a really brave-looking smile that Todd seemed to totally buy. Literally, the guy’s eyes lit right up with mine and he pulled me into a hug, resting his chin on top of my head.

  “Tell you what.” He pulled me out of his arms and seemed to hold me at arms’ length. “You go get a shower, get feeling human again, and I’ll go make up something to eat that won’t kill your stomach. Then I’ll personally walk you to class. I have econ at ten, which is in the same building as calculus, so it won’t be that far.” He gave me a quick wink, which continued to melt my heart even more. I was staggered by not only how nice this guy was, but how quickly I was forgetting about Dax.

  Wow, this guy was good.

  I gave him a nod, and a smile of my own. I collected my clothes and headed to the bathroom that was attached to my room. After I set everything down on the countertop I gazed up at myself, inwardly cringing at the image before me. My hair was a nest of rats, my eyes had bags under them, and were blood shot to hell. Not really looking forward to meeting my professors like this, I got to work. First shower, then a splash of make-up, then food. My stomach rolled at the idea, but it needed to be done if I was going to survive the day.

  ***

  Todd

  I watched as she walked away. She turned to look back at me one last time and I gave her a reassuring grin before tucking my hand into my back pocket and pulling out my phone, which had been going off the moment I’d hung up on Dax.

  It wasn’t just calls. A series of threatening text messages lit up my iPhone screen and I couldn’t help but scowl.

  If you fuck this up for me, brother or not, I will end you!

  She’s blacklisted, you fuck.

  If I don’t see you walk out of that house alone before I leave in sixty seconds we are going to have words.

  They just went on from there. Each sentence was more violent than the next, so that it really wasn’t worth reading. I’d known Dax since he was fifteen. His anger was under control for so long. Until he realized Clara Parker lived next door to him. Something snapped inside the normally cool and calm manwhore and whatever it was, he was close-mouthed about it. What he didn’t know was I was having my father, head of security for a major cyber firm, looking into his background and how he connected to Clara.

  Clara.

  Just thinking about her got my cock hard and ready to go. She was a true test in self control, and totally worth waiting for. She brought life to a dull room. Seriously, with her sexy curves, clueless nerdy personality, and the effortless way she breezed through life made her that much more appealing. The woman had no clue she was hot. So hot Dax threatened nearly all the pledges and half of the frat house when they saw her enter the party. Why he even gave a shit about the woman he was determined to ruin was beyond me.

  I deleted every text and cleared out my voice mail and headed down stairs. The kitchen was recently stocked. As I pulled eggs and sausage from the fridge, I popped open the freezer and found hashbrown patties. I fired up the stove and got to work making her a full breakfast. No doubt the drawbacks of Dax’s clever idea of slipping her a roofie would make her rebel to most of this, but I planned on getting as much down her as possible. The sound of the front door opening and shutting drew tension to my body. Instinct told me Dax wouldn’t come in here making due on his threat. But Dax wasn’t really acting like himself lately, he was acting like his—fucking.

  “Fuck yes. I’m goddamned starving.”

  Hearing the feminine jingle of Shannon’s voice physically removed all the tension. I looked back over my shoulder at the pretty, bubbly female. She looked freshly fucked and ready for the day.

  “Aren’t you chipper?” I smirked in her direction.

  She rolled her eyes at me and dipped her bare fingers into the pan with the sausage and pulled one free quickly.

  “Those aren’t done—” Too late, down the pie hole they went.

  Shannon just shrugged and went about making a cup of coffee.

  “So, you keep my girl all safe and sound like you promised?”

  I cringed. I did promise that and had failed horribly. She was on me faster than a fly on a pile of shit.

  “What the fuck happened, Todd?”

  “Well—”

  “Hey, that actually all smells good.” Clara came into the room and slipped onto a stool at the center island.

  Shannon and I were having a visual standoff that was silent, deadly, and told me that this conversation was not over with according to her. I watched as her features smoothed out and she turned towards Clara.

  “It’s super yummy, stole some sausage. So, how was your night?”

  Clara darted her gaze towards me. Deer in the headlights had nothing on how Clara looked at me for a save. She didn’t want to tell her friend, and I wouldn’t make her. I was just worried we all would soon find out what Dax had done.

  I turned around with a platter full of cooked food.

  “So, who is ready for a full tummy and a great first day of school?”

  She mouthed a thank you, and I nodded with a reassuring smirk. If I needed to protect her from Dax I would. Clara didn’t deserve his wrath. No one did.

  Chapter Six

  Clara

  I was refusing to leave my house. My eyes were pinned to the porch of the house next door as if the very devil himself would march out and take me to the netherworld.

  I had to laugh at myself because that wasn’t too far off.

  Leaning over further, I pressed my nose against the glass, then my cheek. It looked silent in the world of hell next door. Just as I was about to pull back I felt warm breath on my neck. Tingles shot up my spine as Todd’s husky voice filled my right ear.

  “What are we looking at?”

  As I breathed in deeply, I took a step back into his arms. I squealed and turned quickly. My palms flattened against his chest, and I could feel every single plane of muscle this man had on his chest. It was hot. Well, it was more than hot. My panties got wet and I pushed off quickly and hit the big window with a rattled thud. I swallowed. The burn in my
cheeks only intensified when I realized my cheeks were on fire.

  Todd, in all his gentlemanly glory, dipped his head and looked back up at me through his enviable black lashes.

  “Didn’t mean to scare ya, kid.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and took a step back.

  Shaking my head, I moved forward and touched his shoulders.

  “No, please. I was just waiting for Dax to leave. I would rather not cross paths with him.”

  He lifted a brow and his gaze became concerned.

  “Is there a very overpriced looking Ducati motorcycle out front?”

  I turned to look out. I did spot a motorcycle. Brand? No clue. I didn’t know things like that.

  “I see a bike, but it’s green. Does he have a green one?” I could hear the frantic edge in my voice before I could temper it and looked over my shoulder at Todd.

  He’d come close again. The heat of his body was like a warm blanket. It might have been nearly ninety degrees outside, but inside, his heat was a comfort. We had all the windows open that could open, and the ceiling fans on strong. My dad thought it was clever to keep the house in its ‘original splendor.’ A smile broke out on Todd’s handsome face and he seemed to glow. He held out his hand.

  “We’re safe. That’s Tommy’s bike. He has classes on Tuesday and Thursday only. If the ostentatious piece of black metal isn’t out front, he’s already left. We’re safe. To add to that, he has human sexuality and psychology today. The building is at the other end of campus, so we will be Dax free for the majority of the day.” He tapped my nose and I felt so feminine and adorable. I wasn’t either of those things. I was kinda awkward and fussy on a good day. So Todd had just performed a miracle.

  Without an ounce of trepidation, I took Todd’s hand and allowed him to guide me out of the house. I felt safe with this guy. I might not feel a mind numbing sense of arousal, but did I really need to? Dax did crazy things to my libido. Todd kept me safe while keeping my body at a steady ninety-nine degrees of aroused, which was pretty darn good if I say so myself.