Bad for You (Sea Breeze #7)(23)

“He’s bad news, Blythe. I don’t know him, but everyone has heard of him. Jackdown is pretty big around the southeast. Krit is . . . well, for lack of a better word, he’s a male whore,” he said quietly, so the table beside us wouldn’t hear him.

I nodded. I already knew Krit slept with a lot of girls. “I know what Krit is like. We were just friendly. Nothing more. I’m not his type anyway.”

Linc nodded in agreement. “No, you’re not. I’m glad you realize that.”

The ache in my chest couldn’t be helped. Hearing Linc confirm that I wasn’t tall and beautiful like the girls Krit brought back to his place was painful. Knowing it and hearing it from someone else were two different things.

I wasn’t in the mood to stay. I wanted my apartment and my pajamas. I wanted my silence. Taking one more drink of my soda I stood up. “I think I’m ready to go home now,” I told Linc.

He looked relieved, which only made me feel worse. Our date had started out nice, but it hadn’t ended well. I wasn’t the only one ready to escape it.

“Of course,” he said standing up. “Let’s go.”

KRIT

“I like her,” Trisha announced as I watched Blythe walk away with that guy. “She’s gorgeous and really sweet.”

“Linc’s a really nice guy. He was always friends with everyone in high school. I can’t think of one person who didn’t like him,” Amanda added to the conversation.

A pair of tits pressed against my arm. I wasn’t in the mood. My head was somewhere else. Shrugging off the unwanted female, I turned to look at Amanda Hardy. “You know that guy?” I asked. I didn’t want to let this bunch know I gave a shit that Blythe was on a date. They would all misunderstand and harass me about it endlessly.

Amanda nodded and bit her bottom lip nervously.

“She’s right. Guy’s nice,” Preston said. “He always did that Christian teens group thingy in the mornings. But he wasn’t like the other religious kids. He even stopped one night when Marcus and I had a flat tire. I didn’t have a spare or some shit like that, and Marcus wouldn’t call his dad because I was so hammered. So Linc gave us a ride.”

This wasn’t something I wanted to hear. Preston Drake liking someone so completely different from him meant this Linc guy probably was f**king perfect for Blythe.

Shit.

“Do you like her?” Trisha asked me. My sister wasn’t one to beat around the bush. She was a straight talker. I just wish she’d chosen to ask me this without all her nosey-ass friends watching me.

I shrugged. “She’s not my type. But, yeah, she’s a friend. Glad to know the guy she’s with is worthy of her.” I took a swig of my beer. “I need to get back. Fifteen minutes are almost up.” I never made it backstage on time. They were all thinking just that as I walked to the door leading to the stage.

I ignored the girls trying to get my attention. I just needed to get the hell away from everyone and hit something. I didn’t want to f**king care that Blythe was on a date. She wasn’t someone I could mess with. She was fragile. The more time I had spent with her, the more I realized just how fragile she was. I wasn’t good with fragile. I broke shit. I’d never forgive myself if I broke her. That would likely destroy me.

But could I just cut her out of my life? I’d missed her like crazy the past week. She made me laugh. Really laugh. And damn, I smiled all the time when she was around. I loved watching her find herself and her independence. It made the darkness that seemed to live in my chest ease up.

Blythe made me feel whole inside. I’d never felt whole. There was always this emptiness. I had tried everything to fill that dark ache inside, but nothing had ever worked. Until Blythe smiled at me.

“Break’s up,” Green said as he came through the door and slapped me on the back. “Cheer up. You’re thinking too much about this. Just be her friend. Be her motherf*cking friend. That’s it. Try it. You might find you like it.”

I watched as my best friend grinned at me and nodded before turning to go back onstage. Green had been the only person in my life to really know me. He knew my dark places and he knew why they were there. Not even my sister knew everything. I couldn’t tell her; she’d blame herself for not protecting me. For leaving me. But Green knew. He’d seen it.

Should have known I couldn’t hide my battle with Blythe from him. He saw it all over my face. Was he right? Could she be my friend? Jess had been my friend. Sure, I’d wanted in her pants most of the time, but in reality she had been my friend. She’d accepted the dark side of me and she’d understood it. She also had been one of the toughest people I knew. Hurting her was impossible. At least for me. I knew I’d never break her.

Blythe wasn’t Jess. She was so innocent and . . . hell, she was precious. I closed my eyes and let out a string of curses. I was so losing badass points for that thought. Who the hell thought a girl was precious? Not f**king Krit Corbin.

“Think about it later, dipshit! We got a crowd to please,” Green yelled at me from the stage.

He was right. I shoved thoughts of Blythe to the back of my mind and put on my game face. Trisha would be watching me, and I needed to get her off the scent. If she thought I wanted Blythe, she’d bust her ass to get into my business. I loved my sister, but she was hell to shake when she got something in her head.