Page 24 of The Bad Boy Rule

“Once or twice. There’s that saying though. A thin line between hate and wanting to fu?—”

“That is not even how it goes. You’re just being crude to get a rise out of me.”

I shrug. “I think it’s working though, yeah?”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Her words are muttered as if she’s talking to herself. She shakes her head. “I have something to ask you. Do you think you can table the whole asshole thing for a second?”

“Doubtful, but proceed,” I retort, leaning against the top of my stick.

She tugs the bottom of her lip between her teeth. “I have a… proposition. For… you.”

My brow arches. What could Golden Girl possibly need fromme?

After a brief moment of silence, she finally spills, a rush of words tumbling out of her lips so quickly I barely catch them. “I need you to date me.”

A deep rumble of a laugh vibrates out of me and echoes around the rink, causing her lips to pull tight into a scowl, the expression on her face remaining serious.

“Oh, wait, you’re serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious, you dick.” She huffs, reaching up to finger the ends of her long, auburn curls. “Not like actually date me, but… Look, you are exactly the type of guy my father wouldhate. You’re crass, rude, arrogant, and covered in tattoos. Not to mention, you drive that deathtrap thing out there.”

“Are you supposed to be convincing me with that speech? Because you’re doing a real shit job at it,” I deadpan.

“I’m saying I need you tofakedate me. To just go to some events as my date, let me parade you around my father so he’ll believe that I’ve fallen for a delinquent, cliché bad boy, and sothat he’ll wake up and realize I’m not the prodigy trophy wife that he’s been grooming me to be.”

This is the most insane shit anyone has ever said to me, which is already saying a hell of a lot, and I’m slightly impressed that she had the balls to do it in the first place.

I don’t date. I don’t evenfuckthe same girl twice. I don’t sleep over, and I sure as shit don’t play the doting boyfriend.

Before I can even respond, she’s continuing. “Summer said I have first dibs on the ice next semester. If you do it, then I’ll give it to you, no question. All yours. And you won’t ever have to deal with me again.”

That sweetens the pot some, but… what Princess doesn’t realize is I don’t even need her ice time to agree to this because the in I needed to get with her father and exact the revenge I deserve?

It’s her.

She just played right into my waiting hands, and she has absolutely no fucking clue.

Ever since talking to Bennett, I’ve been mulling it over. Trying to think about how I could use this, her, to my advantage, and it seems like fate has decided for me.

Here’s Rousseau’s daughter on a silver fucking platter. The perfect little innocent virgin, ripe for me to corrupt. And once I do, I’ll make sure he knows all about it. Knows that because of his fucked up decisions I fucked with his daughter. But in order to do that, I’d have to get closer to her. To seduce her. Hard to do when she spends all of her time hating me.

She’s just given me the perfect excuse to get closer to her. To dirty her up, and when I do…I’ll make sure he knows that it was Devereaux who seduced and used his daughter.

He fucked with my family, so I’m going to ruin his.

TWELVE

LENNON

“Do I look like the kind of guy who ‘dates’?” Saint says haughtily, lips curled at the edges in a cocky smirk.

Of course he neither looks nor seems like the kind of guy who takes a girl out to a nice dinner. He absolutely seems like the kind of guy who would haveyoufor dinner instead.

A shiver dances down my spine at the thought, and he arches a brow.

“No, but that’s exactly what I’m banking on. You’re an asshole, and you have the manners of a farm animal, and that is precisely what will send my father careening over the edge.”

For a second, he says nothing, and I shift from one skate to the other, an awkward, heavy silence hanging in the air between us and making me feel even more ridiculous for asking this.

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