Page 48 of Dirty Grovel

“I’m here with a friend.”

She sidles a little closer. “Your friend seems to have ditched you,” she observes, her smile growing a little wider, a little more playful. “I can be your friend for the night.”

“Trying to outdo Anna with the bad choices, are you?”

She giggles. “Are you saying you’re a bad choice?”

“The worst,” I growl, hardening my features and turning the scarred side of my face towards her.

She smiles meekly. “I think you’re wrong… and I like your scars. I think they’re kinda sexy.”

“That’s because you’re stupid and horny.”

Her smile drops instantly, her hands tensing against the railing. “W-what?”

“You heard me,” I snap. “You’re stupid and horny and far too young to know what a fool you’re making of yourself. For the record, I don’t date little girls. And I certainly don’t fuck them. So run along and pick another man to boost your self-esteem, because it’s not going to be me.”

By the time I’m finished with my tirade, there are tears standing sentinel in her eyes. Her bottom lip quivers.

“Told you,” I snarl. “I’m the worst choice you could possibly make.”

She whirls around and runs from me.

I watch her go calmly.

“You deserve better,” I murmur to her back.

But it’s not really her I’m talking to.

16

SUTTON

“Please?”

Jesse’s eyebrows hitch in the middle as she turns her sternest glare on me yet. “No!”

“Pretty please?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?”

She rolls her eyes, but I can see her lips twitch upwards in a hint of a smile. “You’ve been spending too much time with my five-year-old.”

I lace my hands together in prayer formation and give her the biggest puppy dog eyes in the world, which I did in fact learn from her five-year-old.

“Aw, come on, Jesse. I’m bored out of my mind cooped up in this huge house with nothing to do. Let me help you clean it at the very least.”

She’s wavering. I can tell.

We’re close to victory.

Jesse chews at the inside of her cheek. “If Oleg finds out…”

“How is he gonna find out?” I ask slyly. “I’m certainly not going to tell him. Are you going to tell him?”

She sighs. “You’re a guest in this house. I can’t make you clean.”

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