Page 18 of Down & Dirty

My mouth fell open. “I am nothell bent.”

The smug grin that curled his lips was like a match to the powder keg of my frustration.

“It’s not a bad thing. Unless you were going for subtle,” he chuckled, lifting his beer for another drink. “Besides, if you’re in here, that’s a good sign. You might know how to cut loose after all.”

“Is that what you’re doing? Cutting loose?” This place hardly seemed up to the level of the illustrious Cory Ellis, international superstar. “Shouldn’t you be in Hollywood with your latest trophy?”

Cory’s expression fell and he dropped his head, closing his eyes with a heavy sigh. “Please keep your voice down.”

I glanced around at the crowd of hardworking, regular people, none of whom were paying us any attention, unsure what his problem was. The man went out of his way for press, but now he was suddenly feeling shy?

“What’s the matter, don’t want your groupies to know you’re slumming it in a dive bar?”

The muscles in his jaw twitched. “Just let it go, okay? Drink your drink. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

If that was a white flag he was waving, I didn’t see it. The margarita in front of me was strong, and as I took another big sip the simmering buzz worked its way through me. I needed more tequila in my life. This felt so much better than being a sad, singlemom who had to rely on her family to pay her bills. More tequila for sure.

Blame it on the buzz or my natural inclination to want to understand people, but I pressed him when I should have just let it drop. “Come on, Cory. What gives? Why are you here?Alone? Don’t you have a photo shoot or something?”

With surprising quickness, Cory spun my way, and leaned across the open seat between us. “We broke up. Okay. I’m trying to lay low. Now, can youpleasejust keep your voice down?”

His voice was hushed, and I realized he was serious. A line had formed between his eyebrows, deep and severe. It made him look sad. I’d never imagined the man had it in him.

“Sorry to hear that,” I mumbled, keeping my voice low, as he leaned back. “I wouldn’t have thought such a short affair would have this much of an impact on you.”

It wasn’t my intention to be harsh. I was being honest. How could a man who swaps women every three to six months really form an emotional bond strong enough to hurt when it breaks?

He shook his head, motioning to the bartender for another drink. “Clearly you haven’t turned on the television today, or you’d have seen that our breakup was preceded by some decidedly bad news.” He picked up the fresh pint and drained half of it. “Nicki made some poor choices back in the day. And now we’re both in the position of trying to navigate our way back into the good graces of the gossip columns.”

I licked some salt from the rim of my glass, my eyes glued to Cory’s profile. “So, wait a minute, you’re saying she did stuff before your relationship, and you’re holding it against her? What kind of chump are you?”

When he started to laugh, I looked around us to see what I’d missed. Nothing I’d just said was even remotely funny.

“That is exactly what I said people would think.”

“Said to who? To yourself when you were looking in the mirror deciding to drop the girl like a bad habit in the middle of some media shit storm?”

Call me crazy, but even with the negligible expectations I had of him, this seemed low. Now I really wanted him to stay the hell away from my brother.

His laughter slipped. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not what you think.”

I swallowed the sip of limey heaven in my mouth and shook my head. “I don’t care what your excuses are, you’re even more shallow and narcissistic than I thought.”

The humor from a second ago vanished from his face completely and he leaned my way again. “We weren’t really dating, okay?”

His eyes were a shade of hazel I’d never seen before. The green and gold were spun around each other, creating little pockets of sparkle. Or maybe it was the light from the TV bouncing off the wall of bottles. Either way, he held my gaze for a second too long, and I found myself unable to turn away.

“It sure looked like you were.”

“That’s ‘cause it was supposed to. I don’t date women for the same reason as everyone else.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. The man couldn’t be any more conceited if he tried. “And what reason do you have that’s so much better than the rest of us sad, lonely souls?”

Cory’s smirk was back. “Money.”

“You get paid to date them?” I didn’t do a very good job of keeping my voice down, and I flinched when Cory scowled again. “Sorry, sorry. But do you?”

His expression flattened. “No. Jesus. It wasn’t like that. We both needed something from the arrangement.”

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