PROLOGUE
Jordan Grant pulled around the corner and parked along the curb a few houses down from the France’s house. Damn, he was late. His dad was going to kill him for missing half of his own ‘welcome-back-from-college’ barbecue. It blew, having to work on his summer vacation, but his ROTC scholarship didn’t give him time to work during the school year.
Walking up to the side of the house, he caught a glimpse of Emme’s dark curls rounding the corner. Guess he wasn’t the only one running late.
“Emme!” She didn’t turn around. In fact, it looked like she was trying to avoid him. “Emme, wait up.” He broke into a jog as she ran across the yard and headed to the small gazebo in the back.
He stepped into the covered wooden platform. “Emme Lou Who, what you running for?” She kept her back to him. What? No Jordan Jingleballs? “Hey. What’s wrong?
She sniffed. “Please go away, Jordan.”
What the hell? “Are you crying?” Because he teased her?
Her head shook, sending her mass of curls tumbling across her back, and turned further into the corner.
He sat next to her. “Emme, talk to me.”
A sob shook her shoulders and her hands covered her face.
“Do you want me to get your mom?”
She shook her head harder and he caught a whiff of her flowery shampoo. His dick stirred in his jeans. What the hell? Not the right time, not the right person.
“Then talk to me.”And please, god, stop crying.
“I broke up with my boyfriend,” she said in a small voice.
Oh, shit.He leaned a little away from her. “I think you should talk to your mom about this.”
“No!” She tilted her face up, tears streaming down her face from her honey-colored eyes. “She’ll tell Dad and he’ll get angry and do something stupid.”
“Okay.” He took one of her hands in his. “Then tell me what happened.”
“I thought he liked me, but it was just a stupid bet.”
“Who? What?”
“David Baker.”
His head reared back. “Daniel Baker’s brother?”
She nodded.
Damn right she needed to worry about what her dad would do if the little brother was anything like the older brother. “What happened, Emme?”
“He wanted to have sex, but I didn’t want to.”
Jordan clenched his teeth and tamped down the rage threatening to overtake him. If this story ended up with anything other than that fuckwad saying “all right then”, he was going to fucking lose it. “Did he—?”
Her head shook vehemently. “No. He took ‘no’ for an answer, but he wasn’t nice about it.” She started crying again. “He called me a tease and said I was nothing but a stuck-up bitch.” She ended on a sob.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. “Emme—”
“That’s not even the worst part,” she cried. “He said— He said the only reason he asked me out in the first place was because…because the bounty on my virginity is two-hundred dollars.” She turned her face into his chest and cried uncontrollably.
That son of a bitch. He was dead.
Jordan wanted to rush into the house, grab Doug, find that asshole, and beat the shit out of him. Instead, he rocked her while he rubbed her back.
