Page 253 of Hot Mess
“Yeah. I mean, we already celebrated last night.” I met his eyes again. “Whatever it takes to make her happy, you know?”
Prick.
“You don’t usually come here?”
“Not really my scene.”
“Right,” I said, watching him like I was fully absorbed in what he was saying—and pretty fucking fascinated with his existence. With his mouth, actually. “So, you wanna head out for a bit, or what?”
He blinked at me, a slight scowl flashing over his face. He leaned his head in slightly like he hadn’t heard me over the music. “What?”
“You and me,” I said, clear as day. “We could take off. My place is close.”
Yup. I just hit on him.
Pained me to do it, too. This dude was fucking gross. Handsome, sure, but so fucking full of himself in his crisp collared shirt—Xander was right, it was shiny. Probably spent half the day looking in mirrors and taking selfies, wallpapering his friends’ social media feeds with his fucking obnoxious face.
“Uh. Sorry?” He stared at me like he was that fucking confused by someone who looked likemeinviting him for a fuck.
“If you want, I’m sure we could convince Danica to join in. She’s pretty sweet on me.” I punctuated that with another long, slow look right down his body.
No way to misinterpret that, and he definitely didn’t. I could see it on his face when I looked in his eyes again.
And here was the thing about an invitation to sex—with me and his ex-girlfriend—worded just like that.
First of all, I already knew there was no way in hell, even if he was desperate to get back up Danica’s skirt, that he’d take me up on that offer, because he clearly didn’t swing my way. But watching him squirm or get offended or whatever the fuck he was gonna do about it would be fucking entertaining.
And second, and much more importantly, his reaction would tell me a whole lot about the quality of this dude’s character. If he cold-cocked me, right now, for the way I’d just offered to toss Danica in-between us—which implied I was willing to use her to get him into bed—I’d actually respect him. Because a comment like that, about a girl like that, deserved a beat-down.
But as it turned out, Carter was just a little too predictable and about as disappointing as he appeared at first glance. Because all he did was break eye contact, shift uncomfortably, and start looking around for the nearest exit.
“Yeah, I’m not really down with that,” he muttered. I couldn’t hear him all that well over the noise of the bar, but I read his lips. I got his meaning.
Whether he actually believed I was into dudes or not, I’d just come across like a total fucking asshole. Which meant that if he turned and walked away from me right now, which I was pretty fucking sure he was about to do, he was willingly leaving Danica to a total fucking asshole.
All he knew was that this asshole either wanted him… or wanted him gone. But dude was in this for himself; that much was clear. When shit went bad, he wasn’t about to put his ass on the line for anyone. Danica included.
Yeah. I had zero respect for this guy.
“I’ve, uh, gotta head out,” he said, briefly meeting my eyes before setting his beer aside, turning, and leaving a trail of dust.
“You do that,” I told his retreating back.
Fucking pathetic.
But at least I knew I was right. Dude was a class-A douchebag.
He was definitely sniffing around after Danica. Playing the long game, maybe, kissing up to her family because he knew how important they were to her, trying to wear down her defenses and worm his way back into her bed.
And why wouldn’t he? Probably regretted losing her over whatever stupid-ass shit he’d done to make her ditch his arrogant ass in the first place.
Unfortunately for him, Danica Vola wasn’t up for fucking grabs.
I turned to find Xander chatting with her, keeping her distracted for me.
Good man.
I leaned into her ear. “Can I talk to you?” I put my hand on her elbow and started steering her away before she could answer.
