Page 20 of Used

“Still texting because a hard stop ruffles feathers. If I want that kind of girl to stay calm and quiet, I have to handle her a certain way.”

“You broke their hearts too, you know?”

He scoffs.

Maybe he doesn’t understand how really dangerous his charm is. No one I’ve ever met before or after him listened to me and made me believe in myself the way he did. He was breathtakingly beautiful, which was bad enough, but worse was that he could make a girl feel like she was born special, like she’d bewitched him. It was the most incredible feeling, better than a dozen shots of alcohol. An endless buzz. Until he was gone.

“Did I matter to you at all?”

“You did.”

“Then when I texted you a couple weeks later, why did you ghost me?”

“You took too long.” He looks away for a second, licking his lips. “I made myself get over you.”

That hits me like a physical blow. Two weeks and he was over us? A decade later, I’m still not sure I’m over us.

He shrugs. “Plus I decided you were better off moving on. We wouldn’t have worked, so there was no point dragging things out.”

“You decided I was better off? Why was that your decision?”

“Because I knew what I wanted from you and you didn’t.”

Scowling, I shake my head. “Your games are more dangerous than your gun.”

His brows rise slowly, skeptically.

“At least if you shoot someone he’s dead instantly. The other way you wound people lasts so much longer. You’re mad I put something in your drink? What you should be is grateful it wasn’t cyanide.”

“Be careful, Laurelyn.”

“Or what? You’ll spank me?”

He folds his gorgeous arms across his beautiful fucking chest. “That and so much more.”

Now that I’ve started, I can’t seem to stop the tide of anger and frustration from pouring through the broken dam. “I honestly think the world would be a better place without you in it.”

His expression changes from unhappy to blank, and he leaves the room without another word. Then I remember too late what it’s like to have and lose Scott Patrick’s irresistible attention. I’ve just learned the hard way again that fighting with him is better than being ignored by him.

Chapter 4

Trick

I need to get her out of my apartment.

But she’s a challenge I can’t resist. Thoughts of her juicy rack, spanked red ass, and raised middle finger make me want to pin her to the bed and nail her with the cock she so obviously needed to screw her back in the day.

I take a warm shower and jerk off to the memory of her upturned ass and how much I wanted to dip my fingers in her sheer panties to see whether she’d creamed them for me. After I come and wash it down the drain, I try to get my head right.Let this go, I tell myself.Be as smart as your eighteen-year-old self, for fuck’s sake.

After washing my scalp wound, I check it. Not much blood and not deep enough to need a staple. I hold gauze against it until the bleeding stops again.

When I come out of the master bathroom with a towel in hand, I find my house guest standing at the night table going through the burner phone. She jumps and tries to retreat, but I catch her at the door, grabbing her arms from behind and pinning her to my wall so her soft breasts are pressed against it.

“Who’d you call?”

“No one.”

I slap her ass, making her gasp and rise up on her toes. My errant fucking cock starts to stiffen at that reaction from her.