“So, what’s with the ink anyway? You just do it to piss off your folks?”
“Who says folks anymore?” She laughed, but when Rhett didn’t join in, she sobered. Her eyes flicked to the mirror and found him clenching his jaw again in that horrible teeth dusting kind of way that looked terribly painful. A vein throbbed angrily in his forehead. He probably thought she was taking a dig at him just like her shitty sister did.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it in that way. It was supposed to be a joke. I’m not going to sit up here and hurl insults at you after my sister just took the lowest pot shot at you in the history of low potshots. As in… she might have hit you so fucking hard in the balls that you have zero future chance of ever making babies.”
Rhett’s teeth ground audibly.
“I mean… shit. Sorry. I’m completely inappropriate at the best of times. I work in a place where the word, fuck, has meanings that you couldn’t even begin to comprehend. It’s thrown into literally every sentence anyone says. I guess I’m just used to crude jokes and the way anyone expresses any kind of love for anyone else, like friendly love, is to be sarcastic and witty. And horrible. I- I’m sorry. I’ll try to- be more considerate.”
“I get what you meant.”
“No, I realize now that what I just said was really fucking shitty. I mean- err, really terrible. I shouldn’t make jokes about your nether region after what my sister said.” Her face flushed hot, even though she was used to crude shop humor. There wasn’t a single thing that she hadn’t heard or even said over the past years. “I- I very much doubt that she was correct if that helps.”
Rhett’s eyes darkened dangerously.
Shit on a stick. That look on his face sent a straight shiver of desire right to her own nether region. Everything tingled and burned, including her damn ovaries. She felt so very… female at the moment that she was mad at herself. Her hands nearly strangled the steering wheel.
“Uh- okay. This isn’t helping. I’m sorry, okay. I’m sure you have plenty of chances of meeting a nice girl in the future and having nice babies. I know from my parents that you’re obviously well off, so you must be smart enough to have got this far. By the way, you said it was just your mom. I’m assuming she raised you as a single parent and you didn’t inherit that money. And you’re uh- really good looking.” Her entire body heated up a thousand degrees. She could practically feel herself ovulating. And dying of shame and embarrassment, but she sensed that if she didn’t tell Rhett the things she was blabbing on about, he’d take that stupid dick comment personal. What guy wouldn’t? “You’re young too. You’ll meet someone who appreciates all those things. It will be like a breath of fresh air and you’ll never take them for granted after what my sister did since you’ll realize all they have to offer. It’s like the good after a lot of bad. The sun after too much rain.”
Silence. Shitty. Awkward. Silence. “That’s very poetic,” Rhett finally ground out.
Bella’s palms became slippery and wet on the wheel. “Yeah. English major, remember?”
“Where are we going anyway?”
She didn’t dare look at him again after she’d just said all that stupid, mushy crap to try and make him feel better. Why was she even so worried about cleaning up Sarah’s mess? Oh, right. Because she was the one who found her sister’s poor, withered, sad, devastated, puking fiancé looking like a piece of discarded trash. It struck a nerve with her since it was how her family had always treated her. Like she was a mistake, something to be thrown away, a horrible accident with completely haywire set of genetics that they were meant to be ashamed of.
One look at Rhett’s horribly sad eyes and she knew just how he felt. She’d been there too. Part of her was still that little lost girl who would have done anything for her parents’ and sisters’ approval, and she hated herself for it.
Bella’s eyes scanned the road and on impulse, she changed lanes, cutting off two other cars, and screeched to a stop in front of a liquor store. “Here. We’re going right here.”
Rhett stared hard at the sign before he turned his eyes quizzically to her. Bella turned back around. The pain all over his face undid her.
Annndddd, he was just so fucking hot it was absolutely wrong.
How could her sister have cheated on this guy instead of with him?
If Rhett was hers, she’d book them a damn hotel room and tell him to meet her there, just so she could pretend they were strangers, do some illicit, really bad fantasy and cheat on each other with each other. Fucked up, but so, so, sexy.