Page 1 of Such a Bad Girl (Hot Creeps #5)

REBECCA

Slap.

Slap.

Slap.

My feet hit the polished wooden floor as I dashed along the hall, glancing at my watch and cursing. Being late on my first day of the semester wasn’t my plan. I’d so carefully planned every minute from getting up to getting to class.

I hadn’t allotted three spare minutes for the idiots who’d thrown their ball by the front doors, knocking my binder out of my hand and sending papers flying every which way.

Settling for a scathing look, I lacked the time to stop and give them a piece of my mind. After all, it would eat into precious minutes, and I desperately wanted to make a good impression at my first lecture .

Instead of arriving at my first scheduled college class with grace, my hair stuck to my sweat-coated forehead, my binder half-hanging in disarray.

The door stood open, and I stumbled through it, keeping my head down and hoping no one would pay any attention to my late entrance. Students stared and throats cleared as I scanned for an available seat, hoping to slink to the back.

No such luck.

The handful of empty seats was all on the bottom tier, right up front and centre.

Of course.

Those football guys were lucky I didn’t get a good look at them. I hated being thrown off my schedule.

Not that I could do a lot to them. Not while keeping out of the limelight like I wanted to.

Heat rushed to my cheeks as I scuttled toward an empty seat. I slid into it while balancing my messed-up binder on the thin table in front.

‘Class begins at nine a.m., Miss…’

My blush deepened, practically radiating enough heat to warm my seat-mates. I lifted my eyes to the professor, who stared at me with a raised brow and eyes reminiscent of a stormy tropical sea. A deep, tumultuous green.

‘Benson,’ I croaked out, even my voice misbehaving. My out-of-place timing had disrupted everything. Rebecca Benson wasn’t known for being meek. I’d had many monikers attached over the years: a go-getter, studious, relentless, a control freak, but neither meek nor mild.

They say who you were in high school isn’t who you’ll be in college... Perhaps my plans needed a touch more flexibility than I’d granted them. A tweak.

The professor stared. His brows knitted for a moment before he caught himself and turned back to the board, continuing his lesson.

A lesson I struggled to focus on at all.

Because my teacher was mouth-wateringly attractive. His slacks clung to his thick thighs and framed his generously muscled ass. Damn, how did anyone get anything done with him up front in the classroom?

Unfolding my binder, I smoothed out the crumpled pages within. It had taken two years of hard work to finally gain acceptance into the advanced mathematics program, and I was determined not to let a morning blip derail my first day.

There was too much work to do.

Midway through the lesson, my hand cramped from my furious note-taking. Damn, the professor spoke faster than my pen could follow. I wished I could ask him to slow down a bit.

Stretching, I shifted my legs, tucking my feet to the right. A hot flash washed over me, pulling my attention to the man at the front of the class. His eyes snagged on my bare thighs, and I tugged my skirt down an inch while blushing furiously.

Illicit hunger flickered in his deep green eyes, shadowing them with a predatory darkness as his gaze crept higher. Higher . A knot formed in my core. Being spotted—singled out—by the attractive older man felt dirty.

Kind of delicious.

Someone interrupted his one-man perv session with a question, and the tension building in my stomach dissipated.

Picking my pen up, I resumed my note-taking, trying my best not to stumble over the equations he discussed.

Feeling like the class dummy. The other students were fresh out of high school, getting in purely on their intellect.

For two years I’d struggled through additional courses at community college to bring my grades up. Anything to achieve my dreams.

And to get what I wanted most, I needed to join Willem College.

It was finally my time to shine.

I got back to my ground-floor apartment late in the day, clutching a half-eaten sandwich while I struggled to locate my keys in the depths of my handbag.

Around me, women and men laughed together, mostly in pairs. Likely dorm-mates. A twinge of regret ate at me as I stood on my own. Would sharing a dorm have been more exciting? A built-in friend? Someone who couldn’t avoid me. Friendships didn’t flourish easily with my intense focus on my goals.

My apartment was small and cost an eye-watering amount each month, but it’d do.

I dumped my bag and continued eating my somewhat pulverised sandwich as I leafed through the welcome pack I’d received.

Arriving late, I’d missed most of the orientation events, but there was a pizza party at the on-campus coffee shop. I figured it couldn’t hurt to check it out.

After freshening up, I made my way through the tree-lined pathways until I arrived at the busy coffee shop, “Beans and Co”.

It was a cute building on the open green, surrounded by lounging students.

Despite being at college for less than a week, many had coupled up already, swapping saliva—and possibly other bodily fluids—in the open like it was no big deal.

The place was packed with bodies, a pervasive din filling the air with a cocktail of laughter, chatter and the whir of the milk frothers.

Side-stepping a group of raucous boys, I took a moment to rethink my evening.

I’d pictured a few people gathered around a couple of pizza boxes, shooting the shit, not a student-filled sweatbox.

Clearly, I’d underestimated the draw of free food to a pack of hungry students.

Inching backwards, I bumped into a wall, attempting to shimmy my ass right back out of there. Screw free pizza—I’d pay for my own.

I almost made it out.

So close.

A set of red-tipped fingers grasped my arm and pulled me toward a duo of women as I let out a yelp.

One, a blonde like me, wore the smallest, reddest dress I’d ever seen.

She was all tanned skin, coiffed hair, and sparkling teeth.

The other girl screamed cool in that I-don’t-need-to-try kind of way.

Her dark, curly hair swept into a bun on the top of her head, and she wore her Willem hoodie like it was fresh off the catwalk.

She gave me a nod before looking at her friend, raising a brow.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,’ the bubbly blonde practically sang. ‘You looked a bit lost.’

My cheeks heated, and I let my shoulders relax. ‘Not going to lie. I was about to make a run for it. Kinda intense here.’

‘Yeah, I haven’t even gotten near a slice of pizza. Those guys must be competing to see how much they eat because they’re finishing the pies like they’re going to set a world record or explode from the inside out.’ Blondie narrowed her eyes at them.

‘Pigs,’ the other woman muttered.

The guys were everything you’d picture frat boys to be, all with matching alpaca-esque haircuts and obnoxiously hooting as they scoffed the cheesy slices at breakneck speed.

‘Do you want to get out of here?’ I asked the women. ‘I’m pretty sure there are a few free picnic benches nearby.’

They looked at one another for a moment before the cool one nodded. ‘Sure. I’m starving, though—we should hit up somewhere for food first.’

In a room full of free fucking pizza? Nah.

‘I’ve got it,’ I said, turning and shouldering my way through the crowded room until I stood on the outskirts of the band of idiots. They were utterly self-absorbed, shoving food into their faces. Several looked ready to vomit. Gross .

I jabbed one guy in the ribs, and he half-choked on his food. He leaned to the side, cursing, which opened a gap in their circle. I stomped on a foot as I made my way past them to the buffet table they were blocking.

Steaming boxes of pizza leaned against the wall, a handful of which were still untouched.

‘Hey,’ a guy said, gripping my arm. ‘You stepped on my foot.’

The look I gave him must have hit the right mark, as he dropped his hand immediately.

‘Your fat asses are blocking everyone else’s access to food. If you want to have any hope of losing your virginity around here, stop acting like toddlers and get out of the way.’ I picked up two pizza boxes and turned, clutching them tight.

‘Who do you think you are, bitch?’ The choking guy had recovered and taken umbrage at being treated the way he deserved.

‘Oh, sweetheart, don’t ask questions that have answers you aren’t equipped to handle.’

I stifled a giggle at the way his mouth hung open like a dead fish as I pressed my way past him.

‘Burn!’ came a shout behind me as the group descended into more laughter.

The women met me at the door, Blondie grinning ear to ear. ‘God, you’ve got some balls. ’

‘As if,’ I said with a smile. ‘Balls are much easier to break.’

‘I’m Emery. This is Faye,’ she said, holding the door open for me.

‘Nice to meet you. I’m Rebecca, but you can call me Bex.’