Misbehaving (Sea Breeze #6)(38)

“Krit,” I said, throwing his hand off me. “Stop it.”

Krit tucked his hand back behind his head. “Fine. I get it. No touching. But tonight I’ll lay one on you and probably grab your ass at least twice so people can see. It’s the only way to show everyone you’re taken.”

He had used me more than once to get the attention of other girls before. I had used him to piss off Hank. It was a mutual-benefits thing. “If I do this, will you leave?” I asked.

He laid his hand over his heart. “I’m hurt. You want to get rid of me?”

“I don’t know how long you can lie in bed with a female before making a move. Don’t want to push my luck,” I told him.

He turned his head and winked at me. “Love, if I thought there was any way I could convince you to let me in those shorts of yours, I would already have my head between your legs.”

He had no filter on his mouth. I shook my head and shoved him off my bed. “Go on. I’ll see you tonight.”

Krit stood up. His shirt had ridden up, and the tattoos that covered his chest peeked at me. His arms were also covered, and so was his back. He pulled his shirt up and stuck his pierced tongue out at me and wiggled it suggestively. “You want some, love, you don’t have to stare. Just ask.”

I rolled my eyes and he grinned. He had the same startling blue eyes as Trisha, and his hair was just as white-blond, but he wore it short and sticking straight up all over most of the time. Both his ears were covered in piercings, and his eyebrow was pierced too—and, according to talk from the females, his penis. But that was new. Back when I had been with him, his penis was metal free.

“Bye, Krit,” I said.

He puckered up and blew me a kiss. “Tonight.”

When he was walking out the door, I realized that he was the first person to actually try to help get me out of this funk.

“Krit,” I called out, and he stopped and turned around.

“Yeah, love?”

“Thanks,” I said.

His expression became serious, and that was a rare thing. He usually either had a naughty gleam in his eyes or a wicked smile. “That dickhead is a fool,” he said, then turned and walked out of the room.

I fought back the urge to defend Jason. He wasn’t the bad guy. He had been honest the whole time. I had known it was a short fling. My being a girl and caring too much was what had screwed things up.

Chapter Fifteen

Three months later . . .

JESS

It was finally Friday night. I needed a break. Between my classes and working every day, I liked to remember I was young and could have a good time. I loved my new job and my classes weren’t bad, but they took up my entire day Monday through Friday. If the shop was busy, I had to bring things home to work on them in the evenings.

I still couldn’t get over the fact that Mrs. Dillard had hired me to work as a seamstress in her store. Not that I wasn’t good enough, because I was, but because Mrs. Dillard’s husband was a Baptist minister and I was a stripper’s daughter. She didn’t seem to care, though.

I was making more money working for her than I would waiting tables or at a bar. She had sent the dance studio to me when they needed help with costumes, and I had been hired to design them after they saw some of my ideas. After they hired me, I got a call from the dance studio in the next town over, asking me to design for them, too. I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I knew that after this year at school it was very unlikely I could go to a four-year college. Junior college was all I could afford. All my momma could afford. But I was beginning to wonder if I could make a career out of this.

I parked my truck outside the back entrance to Live Bay. Jackdown was playing tonight, and it would be crawling with the college crowd soon. I stepped out of the truck just as the back door swung open and Krit came out, headed straight for me. I hadn’t seen him in two days. Not from his lack of trying, though.

“About f**king time,” he said before he grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. I laughed against his mouth and felt him smile in return. The cool metal from his tongue ring slid past my lips and entered my mouth. The mix of cigarettes and tequila hit my tongue. It was Krit’s signature taste on nights he played.

Before he could get too carried away, I pulled away and pressed one more kiss to his lips so he wouldn’t pout. “I had a test,” I reminded him. He hadn’t been very patient with my studies so far this semester.

“And all I could think about was your pu**y,” he said, slipping his hand into the front of my jeans. I reached for it and pulled it out before he got too far and I let him. Krit had many talents, and knowing how to make a woman come fast was one of them.

“Let me play,” he begged, backing me against the side of the truck.

He wasn’t normally this frantic with me. Maybe the monogamous thing was getting to him. It had been a month since I’d agreed to have sex with him only if it was just me and only me.

When he had promised me it was just me he wanted, I thought he was high. I also thought it would be short-lived. I needed someone to make me forget Jason. It had been two months then, and he had stayed in all my dreams and fantasies. So I had agreed to a friends-with-benefits thing with Krit if it was just me he was sleeping with.

For the most part it had helped. There were times I was guilty of closing my eyes and pretending he was Jason. Those were weak moments. Most of the time I was completely with Krit.