Текст книги "Gold"

Автор книги: K. A. Linde

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Текущая страница: 1 (всего у книги 26 страниц)

OTHER TITLES BY K.A. LINDE

AVOIDING SERIES

Avoiding Commitment (#1)

Avoiding Responsibility (#2)

Avoiding Intimacy (#2.5)

Avoiding Decisions (#1.5)

Avoiding Temptation (#3)

RECORD SERIES

Off the Record

On the Record

For the Record

TAKE ME DUET

Take Me for Granted

Take Me with You

ALL THAT GLITTERS SERIES

Diamonds

Following Me

Gold, All That Glitters, Book Two

By K.A. Linde

Copyright © 2015 by K.A. Linde

All rights reserved.

Cover Designer: Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations, www.okaycreations.com

Editor and Interior Designer: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com

Poem reprinted with permission © r.m. drake, instagram.com/rmdrk

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Visit my website at www.kalinde.com

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Forty-Three

Forty-Four

Forty-Five

Forty-Six

Forty-Seven

Forty-Eight

Forty-Nine

Struck from the Record

Acknowledgments

About the Author

so ask yourself if you are willing

to burn. because the moment you

open yourself to me, i will have

no choice but to scorch everything

that defines you. and without

regret, i will devour and i will

leave nothing behind.

—r.m. drake

“HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED.”

That was the damn truth.

Bryna twirled her Harry Winston B diamond necklace around her finger and parted her pouty lips. She had decided on a gold glitter Chanel dress and hot-as-fuck black Jimmy Choos, and when she walked into Las Vegas State’s local nightclub, Posse, all eyes turned her way—just the way she liked it.

She was still getting used to her new life in college. No annoying cling-ons. No obnoxious stepbrother. No wannabe stepmother. No reminders of what had happened her senior year when her life was shot to hell. No reminders of him.

Just her scarlet letter hanging around her neck and a new crowd to rule.

This was the life.

“Bryna! Over here!” Trihn called from the bar.

Bryna fluttered her fingers at her friend and walked her way. It was strange, in a way, to have friends. In high school, she always had Gates Hartman, her movie star ex-boyfriend, but that had crashed and burned. Otherwise, she usually considered other girls as either followers or competition. With Trihn, there was none of that.

Trihn Hamilton, a name she only used professionally, was model tall and exotic with roots in both Vietnam and Brazil. She had endless brown-to-blonde ombre hair and slightly upturned eyes. Plus, she could dance circles around everyone knew. Not to mention, she was the nicest, most sure-of-herself person Bryna had ever met. They had met in this very club the first week of school. Trihn had confidently commented on Bryna’s next season Christian Louboutins. After a night of shots and dancing, a friendship had blossomed.

“Look at you rocking the Chanel tonight after the big game,” Trihn said. She pulled Bryna in for a hug. “I think glitter is your color.”

Bryna laughed. “Always. Look at you in your rocker grunge.”

“Excuse me. This is designer rocker grunge,” Trihn corrected her.

She wore skintight black leather pants, a ripped white crop, and strappy Gucci high heels she had probably gotten when she modeled for them last year. Bryna normally thought model types were dumb as bricks, so she was constantly surprised that they got along and that Trihn had a real personality.

“Ah!” a girl screamed, barreling into Bryna. “You look fucking hot!”

“I’m surprised you’re not still in uniform,” Bryna said.

Stacia Palmer was on the cheerleading team with Bryna. Her father was the head football coach at their biggest rival, the University of Southern California, and that would have made her the enemy, but she had come to LV State to stay out of her father’s shadow. It also explained her obsession with football players. Her reputation as a jersey-chasing whore really endeared her to Bryna. She appreciated the honesty.

“Oh, please.” Stacia flipped her bleach-blonde bangs out of her eyes. “All the guys here know I’m a cheerleader. Plus, Blaine isn’t even here yet. I just made a circuit to see if I could find him.”

Blaine was the starting quarterback of the LV State Gamblers football team. Stacia was determined to hook up with him. Her real goal though was to marry an NFL quarterback.

“You’re ridiculous. How can you even stand college guys?” Bryna asked.

“Don’t talk to me about older guys. Blaine is a senior, Bri. That’s good enough for me.”

Bryna arched an eyebrow. “Whatever you’re into.”

“Like Eric.” Stacia sighed heavily. “I would be very into him if he were still playing.”

Bryna’s eyes wandered through the crowd of football players to where Eric Wilkins was standing. She had been very into him on her school visit here last semester. Sometimes, she still was when she forgot why they would never hook up. She was pretty sure none of her friends and certainly no one on the football team actually knew the reason.

Eric was gay. That was why he never tried to hook up with her on her visit and why he hadn’t talked to her since.

“I don’t think you’re his type,” Bryna said.

“Whatever. I heard the guys talking about how he dated that psychotic head case last year. What was her name?”

Bryna raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t heard anything about this. Must have been one hell of a cover story.

“Audrey,” Trihn said.

“That’s it.”

“Why did they break up?” Bryna asked.

Stacia shrugged. “Who cares? She was a crazy bitch. But now, he’s on the market. We can all take our chances with him. What do you say, B?”

She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think I’m his type either.”

“Bri, you’re everyone’s type,” Trihn said.

“I appreciate the sentiment.”

Normally, she wouldn’t disagree with Trihn. Bryna had perfect long blonde hair, an impressive rack, and a killer body to boot. Most guys couldn’t tear their eyes away from her, and she always enjoyed the attention. After her disastrous senior year, she had especially enjoyed that attention this summer while lying on various European beaches and hooking up with gorgeous exotic men whom she couldn’t understand.

“So then, go ask him out.” Trihn nudged Bryna.

Stacia cracked up. “Ask him out? You want Bryna to ask him out?”

Bryna rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not happening. Do you know who I am?”

“The elusive Bryna Turner,” Trihn said with a wink. “Come on. You should be confident enough to be able to ask him out. I’d do it.”

“You do it then and let him turn you down. I’m not interested.”

“Well, I’m interested,” Stacia said.

The girls didn’t get it. Bryna never considered herself a good person. In fact, she normally figured she was a class-A bitch. But she wasn’t about to tell people that Eric was gay. He obviously wasn’t out, and the last thing she wanted was for it to get back that she was the one who had outed him. She admired him too much to spew venom.

After all, as the defensive back, he had led LV State to a national championship before he’d completely blown out his knee, ending his career. Now, he was a student assistant coach for the team, which meant they always hung in the same circles.

She would keep her mouth shut and tolerate her friend’s ridiculous behavior.

“You know what?” Bryna said with a smile. A plan was already formulating in her mind. “I’ll go ask him out.”

“Yes!” Trihn cried, thinking she had won.

“But…when he’s not interested, you’ll get a big, fat I-told-you-so, and you bitches will need to find guys to buy us the next round of shots.”

“Easy for us,” Trihn said. “There’s no way he’s not interested.”

Bryna smirked. This is almost too easy.

She honed in on Eric. Tall and still built like he played ball with short-cropped dark hair and an easy smile, he was easy to spot, even in the crowd of football players. The guys he was hanging out with had a bunch of girls desperately clinging to them, but Eric was without one. He might have told everyone else that it was because of his psycho ex, but she knew the truth. They always said all the hot ones are gay.

“Hey, Eric,” Bryna said, interrupting their conversation. “Can I talk with you a minute?”

She felt the eyes of all the other football players heating her skin, but she kept her focus on Eric. She wet her lips and looked up at him from under her long lashes. One of the other guys murmured something vulgar under his breath, and Eric shoved him.

“Sure, Bryna. What’s up?” he asked nonchalantly.

Bryna pointed her French-manicured finger toward a more private location. “Mind if we talk over there?”

He nodded and then followed her away. The guys immediately catcalled to him.

He flipped them off before returning his attention to her. “What’s going on?”

When she stared up into his honey-hazel eyes, her smile widened. God, he is fucking hot. She always thought so. Too fucking bad.

“Bryna?”

She snapped out of her trance and remembered why the fuck she was here in the first place. “Do you want to go out sometime?”

Eric blankly stared back at her. He looked surprised, but underneath the shock was something else. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“You’re asking me out?”

“I know. Shocker, right?” She tried to play it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. She had never done this before. Mostly because she didn’t need to. She was hot, and guys flocked to her. She was just proving a point.

“Look, I…I don’t think you’re my type.” He scratched the back of his head. “Nothing against girls like you, but they’re not for me.”

Bryna’s mouth fell open. “Girls like me?”

“You know what I mean.” His eyes fell to the floor.

There it was in his voice again. Is that…disgust?

“No, I don’t think I do. I’ve been here for a month. What exactly is my reputation that makes you say ‘girls like me’?”

Eric sighed, and his eyes found hers once more. “You know what people say about you…about all the cheerleaders,” he clarified quickly. “No offense. I’m not into that.”

“Them now and not just me?”

She had expected him to turn her down. She had expected him to say no, that he didn’t want to go out with her. But she sure as hell hadn’t expected him to basically call her a slut-bag whore.

Girls like me? What the hell did that even mean?

She hadn’t slept with anyone since arriving at LV State. While she had flirted, she had been wary of getting too close to anyone. The last thing she wanted was for feelings to get involved and fuck her up again. She preferred meaningless hot sex. And it was harder to come by with someone who went to her school, knowing she could inevitably run into that person again.

“I don’t want to get into it, Bryna. But it’s…cute that you asked me.”

Cute.

He had said it was cute. This had gone from irritating to humiliating with one word. What an asshole!

“Maybe call up your friend Gates. He seemed into you.”

“We’re not friends anymore, but thanks,” she spat sarcastically.

Bryna turned to walk away, but Eric reached out and grabbed her arm.

“Hey. I didn’t mean to upset you. I didn’t know you two weren’t friends anymore.”

“Let me go,” she growled.

Eric immediately dropped her arm. “Whatever.”

He had that look again, like he was already disgusted with her, and her harsh tone had only made it worse.

Bryna stormed away, back to her friends. She struggled to find composure.

The thought of Gates irritated her to no end. He had been in love with her, and everything had gone straight to shit. She hadn’t even talked to him since he kicked her out of his movie premiere, and now, Eric Wilkins had brought him up.

Ugh!

And that only made her think of one thing. Images flooded her mind. The most prominent of them all was him.

Jude.

She took a deep breath and shut down. She locked away the image of him. She refused to think about the man she had once loved telling her he was married with a son, and then him turning around, following his wife out of the banquet room, and leaving her forever.

She swallowed hard. This wasn’t right. Jude’s name held no power over her. Never again would he hold any power over her.

She shouldn’t let this get to her. Gates was out of her life. Jude was out of her life. And Eric Wilkins didn’t matter.

“SO, WHAT DID HE SAY?” Trihn asked. She planted her hand on her hip and gave Bryna an expectant look, thinking she had the cat in the bag.

“No. He said no,” she said tightly.

“What?” Stacia asked. Her mouth dropped open in her overly dramatic style. “I can’t believe it.”

“Well, believe it.”

“I mean…have you ever been rejected before?” Stacia asked. “I haven’t. What was it like? Did it suck?”

“I’m giving you my big, fat fucking I-told-you-so. I knew he’d say no,” she said as if everything else he had said didn’t bother her in the slightest. “Now, where are my drinks, bitches?”

“Maybe we should verify,” Trihn said.

Bryna shrugged her shoulders. “Confirm if you must, but Eric is going to tell you the same damn thing. I think a better use of our time would be to find some guys in VIP to buy me those drinks.”

Trihn still looked skeptical but acquiesced to Bryna’s suggestion. They walked across the room and to the upstairs VIP lounge. The bouncer checked them out first before allowing them access. In L.A., Bryna wouldn’t have even needed a second glance. If the bouncer didn’t know her, then her promoter friend, Max, would always put her name on the list. The scene was so different here.

Trihn swished her hair to one side and smiled at the bouncer. “Thanks!”

Bryna kept from rolling her eyes. Trihn, the eternally nice one.

“You don’t have to talk to him,” Bryna murmured.

“What?” Trihn asked.

“The bouncer. You don’t have to talk to him.”

“Ignore, Bri,” Stacia said. “You know she’s a bitch.”

“I am,” she conceded. “But I stand by my statement. Your approach to bouncers might be different in Brooklyn, but isn’t everything?”

“Hey now. Brooklyn gets a lot of heat, but it fits my image,” Trihn said with a smile. “Plus, you can’t have a fashion photographer for a father without living in an artsy area. You all should be glad I ended up with the fashion side and not the artsy side.”

“Trihn…you’re a design major. Does that not scream artsy to you?”

“At least I have a major,” she said, pointedly staring at Bryna.

“Whatever. I assume you lived your life like Dan from Gossip Girl.”

“I am not Lonely Boy!” Trihn cried.

Then, all three of them cracked up laughing at the ridiculous turn of their conversation.

“Drinks!” Bryna cried.

She ushered them away from the entrance. Once she reached the bar, she eyed the crowd and focused on her prey. She could see a couple of hot guys who would likely buy drinks for them with no more than a smile from her. The home game had brought in so many prospects.

Leaning forward against the bar, she let her chest pop over the top of her dress, and she winked at the bartender. “Maya!”

Maya fluttered her fingertips at them from the other side of the bar. The girls had quickly become regulars at Posse, and Maya was their favorite bartender. She finished pouring drinks for a group of frat douches and then sauntered all five-foot-ten inches of her luscious African-American caramel-toned body over to them. “Hey, babes. What can I get for you?”

Bryna pursed her lips and looked around the room. “Him and him and maybe him, too.” She pointed out each guy in turn.

“You don’t need help with them. Not if I know you,” Maya said. “How about a dirty martini with three olives?”

“You know me so well,” Bryna crooned.

“Trihni, my love!” Maya leaned across the bar and kissed Trihn on the cheek. “Gin and tonic, and something girlie for the cheer slut?”

“Perfection,” Trihn said. “Just like you.”

“I love when you talk dirty to me,” Stacia said.

A minute later, all three drinks were placed in front of the girls. Before any of them could retrieve their wallets, a guy motioned for Maya to put it on his tab. Bryna raised an eyebrow as Trihn fawned over his generosity. He was good-looking in an LV State button-up and slacks that he had likely worn to the game. His appearance screamed wealthy alumnus, and even though everything in Bryna told her to back away, she couldn’t help but be interested in older guys. Another unfortunate side effect of the Jude catastrophe.

“Why don’t you ladies come sit with me and my friends?” he asked with an easy smile that said he had done this before.

“Oh! We’d love to,” Trihn said.

Bryna’s eyes traveled down to his left hand buried in his pocket, and she wondered if something was lurking on his ring finger.

“Bri,” Stacia snapped, nudging her.

“Yeah. Sure,” she said.

She met his gaze and saw that look she craved. Desire. He wanted her.

She licked her lips and smiled, slow and sultry. “Sounds fun.”

She followed them across the VIP lounge. His friends had a booth right off of the dance floor, and Stacia immediately starting grinding on Trihn.

“Come on, Bri!” Trihn called over her shoulder.

But Bryna didn’t have any interest in dancing at that moment. She shook her head and held up her martini. Trihn and Stacia were almost finished with their drinks already, working toward that state of oblivion. Bryna liked to get there slower. After that one horrendously embarrassing moment when she had gotten shitfaced on her college visit, she didn’t like to let herself go like that. Being out of control didn’t suit her.

“Hey, I’m Thomas,” the guy said, sidling up next to where Bryna stood by the booth.

“Hey yourself,” she said with a smile.

Yes, up close he was even cuter. Strong jawline and extremely dark eyes. She could see the expensive watch on his wrist, and she took that as a good sign.

“What’s your name?”

This was a step in the right direction. “Brihn-uh,” she said, deliberately drawing her name out. People tended not to pronounce it right.

“That’s different. I like it.”

“Me, too. My friends call me Bri though.”

“Your friends seem to be having a good time. Are you guys students?”

Inquisitive one. She wasn’t used to that. Her European hunks hadn’t asked a lot of questions. And before that…well, Jude hadn’t cared to ask or else they might not have ended up in that situation in the first place. At least she was legal this time.

“Yeah. Students. And you’re an alum?” She plucked the Gamblers logo on his shirt with her fingers and leaned in closer.

His eyes landed on her lips, and then he nodded. “Yes. A proud Gambler.”

“I can see that,” she purred.

God, it was all a game. A very, very familiar game. And she wanted to hate herself for playing along…and even worse, for enjoying it. But she didn’t. She couldn’t hate something that made her heart race. She associated the mystery and danger with an unbeatable adrenaline rush and super hot sex. At the same time, she had an uncontrollable urge to watch with a smile as it all burned down in front of her.

He laughed and then offered her a spot at their table. They eyed her appreciatively and seemed impressed with their friend for not only finding one hot girl but three.

Shots appeared out of nowhere, and then they reappeared regularly. The girls were past tipsy and dancing sloppily with Thomas’s friends. Bryna even relented to dance with them. She was sandwiched between Trihn and Stacia, shaking their asses as if there were no tomorrow.

Thomas grabbed her hand and pulled her away from her friends. Grinding their hips together, he leaned into her. She thought he might kiss her or something, but he never did.

The music changed, and they all crashed back into the booth.

Stacia pulled out her cell phone and groaned. “B, we have to go downstairs. Everyone else is here, and they’re doing some kind of cheer thing.”

Thomas’s hand landed on Bryna’s, and his lips grazed her ear. “Don’t go. Stay up here with me.”

She smirked at the attention. She craved it like a life force. “I’ll come down later,” she told Stacia.

Stacia gave her a knowing look. “Are you sure? It’ll be fun.”

“S, go!” Bryna nodded her head toward Thomas and raised her eyebrows. Hello, I’m occupied.

“Fine. Trihn, are you staying?”

Trihn wasn’t even paying attention. She was animatedly talking to one of the other guys about who knew what. She was a happy drunk and suddenly found everyone interesting, not that the guy seemed to mind in the slightest.

“Hopeless,” Stacia said with a shake of her head. She kissed Bryna on the cheek and whispered in her ear, “Be careful.”

Bryna laughed off Stacia’s warning, and then she disappeared through the crowd. Stacia was super cautious and paranoid about everyone, except for herself. The girl seriously knew how to let loose, but when other people did, she’d freak out for them.

“So,” Thomas said, “you’re a cheerleader?”

“Don’t I seem the type?”

He let his eyes drag down her body. “Your friend seemed the type. You seem…different. More mature.”

That was a new one. “I like that.”

“I like you,” he said.

“You barely know me,” she corrected him.

And she was sure he wanted to keep it that way. It would be easier to justify the one-night stand if she was only a beautiful face in his mind.

“You’re gorgeous and an LV State cheerleader. What else should I know?”

She let the hit roll off her shoulders. The fact that she had come into LV State with a 4.0 GPA probably didn’t matter to him.

“Nothing,” she said dryly. “That’s all there is to know about me. What about you? What do you do?”

The question popped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. The way he had acted like anything other than her looks didn’t matter made her want to act like nothing other than his money mattered. It reminded her of last year and made her stomach twist. This was the person he had made her. Damn, Jude.

“I’m a biomedical engineer,” he said with pride. “It’s technical and not interesting.” He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her onto his lap. His lips settled into the crook of her neck. His hand crept up to her upper thigh. All the inhibitions he had been holding on to disappeared in the darkened booth with the help of the booze they had been downing all night.

She tilted her head, so he would have better access, and she reveled in the feeling of being wanted. She craved it like a smoker needed nicotine. And she refused to apologize for it.

As his hand snuck further up her dress, she reached down and grabbed it. She wasn’t going to do anything more than this in the crowded bar. She’d go back to his hotel room before that.

“Aw, come on,” he urged.

She crossed her legs and shifted. She wasn’t an open invitation. He would have to work a little harder for this.

His friends were watching them from the other side of the booth. “Your friends clearly like a show,” she said. It came out sounding like an excuse to stop, but she was more curious about their interest.

“Ignore them.” Regardless, he pulled away from her. “They should mind their own business. Let’s get another drink.”

Suspicion crept into her mind. Why would his friends be this interested in a girl he wanted to take back to the hotel?

“Or we could get out of here,” she purred.

She stood and reached for his left hand. Her hand brushed across his ring finger and found it empty, but she couldn’t ignore the indentation where a ring used to sit. Her stomach turned, and she tried to rationalize that maybe he was divorced.

He hesitated a second longer than she’d expected, and her insides turned to lead.

He followed her to his feet as he made his decision. “You have a place nearby, or should we go to my hotel?”

She gritted her teeth and then forced a smile, wondering how far he was going to take this. “Probably your place.”

“Yeah, my place,” he repeated.

Bryna giggled and leaned into him. “Something wrong? Don’t you want to take me back to your room and fuck me all night?”

Thomas groaned. “Yes. Yes, I do.” He pressed forward into her and let their lips meet. “Fuck, I want you.”

“Then, let’s go,” she encouraged like the devil on his shoulder.

He grabbed her and crushed his lips down on her again. She could tell he desperately wanted her at this point, and they hadn’t even made it out of the bar. Maybe she should have felt bad, but she didn’t. The guy was bringing this on himself.

“Come on,” she urged.

“Wait,” he said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He met her baby-blues. “Nothing’s wrong.”

Bryna withdrew. This game was over. Thomas bored her.

“It couldn’t be that you’re married?”

His eyes widened. “What?”

“And your friends are looking at us, wondering why you’re a cheating scumbag making out with this whore?”

“What are you talking about?” he stammered.

“Please. An indentation on your ring finger, overly curious friends, and you being fidgety when I told you to fuck me. I should have guessed.” She pushed him away.

“Wait!” he cried before she could turn and leave.

She curiously eyed him. Did I misjudge him?

“I’ve never done anything like this before.”

She rolled her eyes. Nope. “Clearly.”

Thomas was such an amateur. She couldn’t believe how much it irritated her. He hadn’t even made it interesting. If she was going to do this again, he’d need to be better than this, make it worth her while to try to wreck another marriage.

“Stay with me tonight,” Thomas said softly, lacking all the confidence he’d had when he bought their drinks and flirted with her much of the night.

Ugh! Such a waste.

Bryna grabbed a half-empty cocktail off the table and threw it in his face. “You’re disgusting. Go home to your Stepford wife.”

She walked over to where Trihn was sitting with her mouth wide open. “Let’s go.”

Trihn immediately jumped up and followed her out of VIP. “What the hell just happened?”

Bryna sighed. “Jude happened.”