Читать книгу A Good Girl’s Guide To Bad Boys - Katie Hart - Страница 14

Chapter 9

‘No,’ I countered for the umpteenth time.

‘Are you sure?’ Hunter asked and I groaned, running my hands down my face.

‘No, you know, I’m not. Maybe he slipped it in when I wasn’t looking!’ I exclaimed, causing Hunter to smirk and stop making the omelette.

‘No need to be snarky about it,’ he teased, gently prodding our food with the spatula. One thing that I hadn’t guessed about him was that he could cook.

‘Well stop telling me that I slept with your brother then,’ I said. Hunter only chuckled, shaking his head. What he didn’t know was that I’d spent the night before in the same room with Kenzi, Kyle and Seb. No funny business would’ve been able to happen unless I was happy to get at it like rabbits in front of my two friends. Which, just to clarify, I wasn’t. Plus, after the police had taken our statements and dispersed the party, nobody was in a chatty mood.

‘I wasn’t telling, I was asking.’ Hunter turned and tipped the omelette out of the pan and onto a plate, letting the juice run onto the white china, turning it slowly yellow. Picking up the fork, I cut a bit off the end and took a bite. The flavour erupted onto my tongue, tingling my every taste bud.

Hunter was giving me such a smug smile that I couldn’t bear to tell him how good the omelette actually was. I shrugged nonchalantly. ‘It’s all right.’

He laughed, taking his own bite. ‘It’s amazing, you know it,’ he taunted, leaning against the counter and waving his fork in front of my face.

I grunted, rolling my eyes and taking another big bite, popping it in my mouth. ‘It’s okay,’ I corrected, jumping down from the counter. I brushed my hands on my jeans and was about to turn to go out when Hunter grabbed my arm, pulling me back against his chest. I felt the warmth radiate from his body and onto mine.

I shook my head. ‘Ah, ah, ah. I don’t think so,’ I said, yanking my arm back and stepping away towards the door.

He frowned but continued to watch me with an amused expression. ‘Don’t like my kisses anymore?’ he asked, taking another step towards me.

I shook my head again. ‘Nope. You want me to get closer to your brother, so that is exactly what I am going do.’ Hunter just raised a quizzical eyebrow as I backed out of the flat with my coat, walking downstairs to meet my friends outside.

Little did I know, Hunter had followed me to the lift. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me back to him with a small scowl on his face. I almost laughed but his serious expression stopped any sound coming out apart from a squeak.

‘Andy, promise me that you’ll be careful around him.’ His words had such a sharp edge to them that I nearly flinched.

‘If I’m in so much danger, I’m not sure I should be doing this. Why do you want me to do this?’ I asked and he immediately closed off.

‘It’s not dangerous for you, I just want you to watch your back. You’re not ready to know that yet.’ He started to stroll back to the flat.

‘I’ll see you later,’ I shouted at his back, running my hands down my face. I was just hoping that an afternoon of dance practice would be able to calm me down. I was a little wary and quite scared, so wasn’t sure how well I’d actually do. I could always pretend that I didn’t manage to get close to him and that he was too interested in Kenzi. That seemed like the safer option.

Seb was over by the car having a cigarette (total turn off) and Kenzi was sitting on the bonnet, staring at him adorably (another turn off). Seb acknowledged me with a nod. Kenzi grinned and slipped into the back, barrelling into me when she clipped her seatbelt in.

‘Apparently, Zoe and Kyle did the dirty deed,’ Kenzi whispered when Seb had lowered himself into the car. I was about to ask why Seb was tagging along when he wasn’t a dancer, but that wasn’t exactly the best way to start our ‘budding friendship’.

‘You don’t need to whisper, it isn’t exactly a secret,’ Seb replied, looking at us both through the wing mirror. ‘Who do you think walked in on them in the morning?’ he asked. I shuddered, reaching down and doing my seatbelt up.

‘That’s disgusting.’ Kenzi scrunched her nose up and thwacked the back of Seb’s seat.

All the way to the warehouse, I had to listen to Kenzi and Seb’s god awful singing.

‘I think my ears are bleeding,’ I murmured as I got out.

The music was already pumping in the warehouse by the time that I had dumped my bags by the door. There wasn’t any sign of Kyle or Zoe but I brushed that thought away as Seb dropped his bags next to mine.

***

Finally, Kyle emerged from a cupboard and walked over to meet us. I decided against asking where Zoe was, mainly because I really didn’t care and because if she wasn’t there, I would have one less problem to deal with.

It turned out, Kyle wasn’t one for hanging about; we got straight down to the dancing. Most of the time, I was next to Kyle, mirroring his moves and body rolling, which apparently was what Zoe’s job consisted of most of the time. Being the only girl before Kenzi and I showed up, she was the ‘sex magnet’ or as Seb called her, the ‘STI magnet’. Their crew used to consist of five people, but Kyle told us they walked out when their courses at university got tougher.

Seb didn’t do much, just observed, keeping his eyes on both Kenzi and I as we tried to pick up the moves. It wasn’t exactly hard, the music matched my rhythm, I was moving my limbs with the beat and taking me out of present time.

When we stopped for a breather, I noticed Seb get up to answer his phone. He was pacing outside, running his hands down his face with an exasperated expression. His body language made it clear that he was having an argument. I felt my heart jump when he caught me watching him.

He turned his back on me after shooting me a glare and moved out of sight. He didn’t come back until practice ended to take Kenzi back to the flat.

‘Need a ride?’ I heard a voice when I had made my way about half-way down the road. I glanced over my shoulder to see Hunter in his car, leaning out of the window and shooting me a smirk.

Instead of answering him, I carried on walking with an annoyed expression. ‘Nope! God gave me legs to walk, not just to look good,’ I shot back and I heard him chuckle before the engine roared again, this time coming level with my walking speed.

‘And they do both very well. Get in the car.’ I glanced over to see that one long, muscled arm was hanging out of the window and the other was lying lazily over the wheel. He wasn’t wearing his usual leather jacket, which only exaggerated the muscles on his arms.

‘I’d rather not. For all I know you could kidnap and torture me. I’d never be seen again,’ I replied snottily, deliberately trying to annoy him. He sighed and pulled the car onto the pavement in front of me. ‘I’m pretty sure that the cars are meant to stay over there. This is pedestrian turf,’ I said, gesturing towards the road and crossing my arms over my chest. Hunter raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused. Either I wasn’t as irritating as I thought, or he just had a soft spot for loons.

‘Andy, if I was going to kill you and torture you, I’d do that in your sleep. You also have pepper spray apparently. I’d rather that stayed in the bottle and not in my eye sockets.’ He paused to trail his eyes over my body in my dance gear. ‘The quicker you get in the car, the quicker you can get home.’ I shook my head, making a move to walk around the car but the engine roared in protest. ‘I’ll give you three options, okay?’ Hunter said, holding three of his fingers out. ‘One, you can get in the car. Two, you can avoid getting in the car and I’ll drive home quickly before locking you out or three, I’ll just run over your legs so that you have no choice in the matter.’

I groaned, clambering into the car. Hunter’s eyes never left me as I slammed the door shut and put the seatbelt on.

‘After a short time of living with you, I’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t do anything gently,’ he mocked, pushing the gear stick forward and backing off the pavement and back onto the road.

‘That’s because I like it rough,’ I purred, tapping his thigh.

His large hand latched around my wrist, pulling it up from his leg. His eyes were trained on the road ahead. ‘Don’t even bother. I’ve had enough cold showers thanks to you; I don’t want to go through another.’

I sniggered and took my hand back, resting it on my own thigh and tapping out the rhythm of the dance song.

‘Did you find anything out about Seb?’ Hunter tried to ask casually but the tension in his voice was a bit of a giveaway.

‘Yep, I found out that he has a top secret lair below the warehouse and there are all sorts down there, nuclear missiles, guns, hell, I even saw human test tube babies.’ I noticed that Hunter was attempting to glare at me but his lips were slowly curving into a smile.

‘Seriously, Andy, did he say anything?’ Hunter pushed and I rolled my eyes, looking out of the window.

‘I’ll tell you what he did if you tell me why you want to know,’ I countered and he shook his head with a smirk.

‘Keeping you in the dark is best.’

‘You’re making this sound like something out of the Godfather,’ I mumbled, earning a small chuckle from the driver’s seat.

The rest of the drive went by in silence, so did the walk back up to the apartment. I left Hunter to lock up his car and grab his bag while I jogged up the stairs – avoiding the death trap of a lift – and unlocked the door.

Dumping my bag on the armchair, I slumped down onto the sofa, feeling something sharp dig into the back of my leg. Hunter’s feet were making an echoing noise through the passage and when I shifted to see if I could see him, the sharp object pinched my leg.

I grunted, picking up the sofa cushion. I found myself staring at an object that I’d only ever seen in films. The metal was cold against my fingertips and my stomach dropped to my feet. I felt Hunter’s presence by the door and I turned to face him, holding it between my fingers carefully, making sure not to touch it properly.

‘Hunter, why the hell do you have a gun?!’