Page 103 of One Bad Idea
His gaze skimmed my sundress, and I saw of flicker something thatwasn'tloathing. "Trust me," he said. "Thatwasn'twhat I was thinking."
"What doesthatmean?"
"It means, I'm sure you had plenty of offers."
I gave a bitter laugh. "Oh yeah, loads. Including one that was a lot more interesting than I realized."
I mean, it wasn't every day some stranger offered to show you his privates.
Jaden gave me a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. "You'd better be talking about Derek."
My only reply was a tight shrug.
"Tell me," he said with the barest hint of a smile, "is there someone else that needs a talking to?"
It wasn't even a full smile, and yet, just like always, it made me go soft in the head. I heard myself ask, "About Derek, did hereallysay that?"
"You didn't hear?"
I shook my head. "I heard something about a horse, but…"Oh, shit.Now, I couldn’t help but cringe. "He wasn't implying that he's, uh…?"
"Hung like a horse?" Jaden gave a hard scoff. "Yeah, that was the gist of it."
I blew out a long, shaky breath. "But how couldyouhear, andIcouldn't? I was standing a lot closer thanyouwere."
"Notmuchcloser," he said. "Besides, I knew it was coming."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You think you're the first girl he's said that to?"
"Oh." I gave it some thought. I'd been talking to the guy for only five minutes. If he movedthatfast, no doubt he'd already been making the rounds. I bit my lip. "Let me guess. He'sthatguy."
Jaden's eyebrows furrowed. "What guy?"
"The local creep, the one who comes across as perfectly normal for five whole minutes before asking for your undies."
Damn it. Undies?
Why had I called them undies? And now, Jaden looked ready to laugh.
I murmured, "Never mind." With a shaky laugh, I added, "I'm pretty sure I don't want to know."
Somehow, in the last couple of minutes, most of my anger had evaporated. Jaden was a lot of things, but not a liar. If anything, he was too blunt, too honest, and too prone to say exactly what he was thinking.
In that way, maybe we were more alike than I wanted to admit.
With a sigh, I glanced toward the main exit. Storming out had seemed like such a wonderful idea just a few moments ago.
But now, it felt like an admission of defeat – that I couldn't have a reasonably normal evening without it going to crap.And what was I? Some kind of freak magnet?
I was still mulling all of this over when Jaden said, "So, whydidn'tyou?'
"Why didn't I what?"
He flicked his head toward the dance floor. "That."
"You mean dance?"
