Bad Things (Tristan & Danika #1)(29)

He paused for a long time before speaking again. “That’s just fine. Fuck you, too, man, just so long as you leave my girl alone.”

He hung up the phone, looking at me.

He sighed, striding to me. He pushed my face into his chest, hugging me. I melted against him, even pissed. I thought that was because I wasn’t really pissed. It was more that I thought I should be pissed. What I was was completely infatuated. I didn’t think I’d ever met a sweeter guy in my life.

He kissed the top of my head, murmuring, “Don’t be mad at me, K? I just want to look out for you. I can’t help it. You’ve put up with enough of that guy’s shit. Let me take over. I’ll make sure he never bothers you again.”

“You aren’t really going to beat him up, are you? That was just a threat, right?”

“Sure, boo,” he murmured into my hair. “I won’t beat him up, just so long as he never tries to contact you again.”

Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of his arms. “You’re impossible, you know that?”

He nodded, and gave me that dangerous smile. “I’m impossible, and you’re irresistible. That’s a great mix, if you ask me.”

I rolled my eyes, heading back into the house. “Irresistible, my ass,” I muttered.

He laughed. “Exactly,” he said.

He laughed harder when he saw the writing on my butt. “Sassy pants, huh? Did you have those custom made?”

I shot him a very sassy look as I started to open the door. “You think you can just infiltrate a girls’ night in? We’ll see about that. I’m going to have you voted out.”

He stopped me with a hand on my arm and a big grin. “Let’s make a wager out of it. If the girls vote me out, I’ll give you that bikini peep show you’ve been fantasizing about.”

I raised a brow, instantly intrigued. That would be priceless…

“And if they don’t vote you out, you get to sleep in my bed, no funny business.”

He nodded. “No funny business.”

I held my hand out to shake.

His big, warm hand enveloped mine.

“You’re going to lose,” I warned him. “I know these women better than you do. They won’t be swayed by your pretty face and your slutty body.”

I opened the door and walked inside while he was still laughing at me.

I went back to the loveseat and no sooner had I sat back down than Tristan was sitting next to me, crowding so close that I had to scoot nearly into Bev to give him room.

Tristan threw his arm over the back of the couch, making himself very comfortable.

“Girls, this is Tristan. He thinks he can crash our girls’ night. I told him it was girls only, no exceptions. Who wants to help me kick his ass out?”

My eyes narrowed when not one of them volunteered.

“I vote we keep his ass in,” Candy said, giving him a very friendly smile. “I like his ass already.”

I mouthed a few choice words at her.

“It’s more of a friends’ night than a girls’ night,” Harriet said. “We just don’t have any men volunteering to join.”

“What’s the harm?” Jen joined in. “The more the merrier.”

I couldn’t believe it. They were turning on me. I opened my mouth to say something when Tristan spoke into my ear. “If you tell them it’s a bet, I automatically win the bet.”

“Fine,” I bit out. “Let’s take a vote. By a show of hands, who wants to let a man into our sacred girl ritual night?”

Everyone raised an eager hand in the air, except for Bev and Lucy, apparently the only ones who had my back.

I continued, even knowing I’d lost. It wasn’t in my nature to just give up. “Who votes we keep our girls’ night how God intended it, girls only?”

Me, Bev, and Lucy raised our hands. I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or kick him when I saw that Tristan was raising a hand. He knew that he had enough votes, even if he voted with me, the smug bastard.

And so he stayed, chatting up the ladies until nearly three in the morning.

Aside from the sting of losing a bet, I thoroughly enjoyed having him there.

He was funny, and charming, and for whatever reason, he gently deflected Candy, and then Harriet’s subtle, and not so subtle come-ons.

Lucy shot me a few concerned glances in the beginning, but in the end, even she was charmed by Tristan’s playful personality.

“You know, we usually call it a night by ten, eleven tops,” I told Tristan, as he helped me clean up after all of the women had left. He’d even managed to shoo Bev off to bed, not letting her help with cleanup. She’d had enough of her own strong cocktails to take him up on the offer gratefully.

“Did I corrupt your friends?” he asked with a shameless smile.

A corner of my mouth kicked up ruefully. “Not as badly as you’re corrupting me. I don’t do the dirty Vegas club scene.”

“I think I understand you a little better now, after meeting your friends. You’re like a forty-five year old, trapped inside of a hot, twenty-one year old body. That might be why you can never really cut loose and just let go.”

I took exception to that. “I cut loose all the time. We’ve been out dancing every night this week. What do you call that?”