Loaded: A Bad Boy Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

but I kicked his ass,” I say. “Bears learned not to come at me that day.”
    “So he told all his bear friends not to fuck with Brent,” she says. “Brent, the bear fighter. I forgot your last name already.”
    Me too.
    “I’m just saying, no more bears picked fights with me.”
    “Undoubtedly,” she says. “How do you really know them?”
    I glance over my shoulder at the bartender, but he’s ten feet away and not paying us any attention.
    What I’m about to do is fucking stupid , not to mention reckless as hell.
    And yet, I feel like I’m careening downhill with no brakes, straight toward this girl.
    “You want to know a secret?” I ask, dropping my voice.
    “What kind of secret?” she asks. “Is it about your predilection for fucking elevators?”
    “It’s for fucking in elevators,” I say. “And that’s not a secret.”
    “Well, not anymore,” she says.
    “I’m not really Brent,” I say.
    Her eyes go wide, and she glances from side to side, making sure there’s no one around us.
    Then she puts one hand on my arm, and I can feel the heat of her skin even through my jacket and shirt.
    “Are you a spy?” she whispers.
    For another moment, she looks up at me with those wide green eyes, admiration and fascination in them.
    Then she dissolves into giggles.
    She leaves her hand on my arm, though, so it’s impossible to get mad.
    I take another drink and wait for her to stop laughing, remaining as cool and calm as I can.
    “I’d be a terrible spy,” I say, when her laughter starts to die down. “I lasted, what, two hours with my fake identity?”
    “True,” she said. “Though you look very James Bond in a tuxedo.”
    “I thought so too,” I say, and she rolls her eyes again, even though she’s smiling.
    “Okay, so who are you?” she asks. “And how did you bust into the society event of the year?”
    I shrug and come up with something on the spot.
    “Brent’s a friend of a friend,” I say. “And he got the flu yesterday, and told my buddy to come in his place. But then my friend had a family emergency, gave me the invite, and now here I am.”
    “So you just came to some stranger’s wedding,” she says.
    I hold up my Scotch glass.
    “I’ve drunk about seventy dollars worth of Scotch so far tonight,” I say. “I’m never getting invited to another wedding at the Beverly Hills Resort. Why wouldn’t I come and see how the other half lives?”
    She considers this for a moment as I hold my breath. There’s no way she’ll guess what I’m actually there to do, but she could have me kicked out if she wanted.
    “I’d probably come too,” she said. “Just to see what kind of wedding five hundred grand gets you.”
    I let out a low whistle.
    “Really?” I ask.
    “Oh, at least,” she says.
    I know how many guns or cars that much can buy you, or how much blow.
    Weddings? Not so much.
    “You’re telling me this wedding cost more than the house I grew up in,” I say.
    “Probably,” she says, then shrugs. “I guess, if you’ve got the money, you can spend it on what you like.”
    I open my mouth but then the band all starts playing at once, some oldie that I half-recognize. The other guests all get up and head to the dance floor, finally liquored up enough to get their grooves on.
    “You save me that dance?” I ask.
    “You gonna tell me your real name?” she asks.
    “You gonna dance with me?”
    “I see we’re at an impasse,” she says, and finishes her club soda. She sets it on a table behind her, and she’s giving me that little smile again. The one that just dares me to do something.
    “You said you’d dance with me if I wasn’t already balls-deep in someone else, if I recall correctly,” I say.
    I take a step closer to her, and now we’re only a couple inches apart. She’s looking up at me and not backing down, that same challenge in her eyes.
    Any other girl would be bent over the sink in my hotel room by now. I’m not bragging, it’s just