Hard Bastard(75)

I took a second to think. “I don’t have a good reason. I guess I was distracted with my own shit. And besides, it wasn’t like she was trying to hunt me down, either.”

“Anything you want to say to that?” Jess asked Aubrie.

“No, nothing. It’s just typical of him to pass the blame off on someone else.”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” I said. “First you barely know me, and now you know me well enough to call me selfish?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what you said.”

She paused and stared at me, and she suddenly looked calmer than she had this whole time. After a beat, she unclipped her mic and dropped it onto the floor.

“I’m done with this. Good luck with the documentary, Lincoln. I hope it really works out for you.”

I laughed. “Thanks for your time, Brie baby.”

She shook her head, stood up, and stormed out of the room. I watched her go, unable to hide the disappointment in my expression. I knew I needed to play it cool in front of the cameras, but that wasn’t at all how I had expected it to go.

My plan was to rile her up, frustrate her a little bit, tease her. Not to piss her off and make her walk away from the whole thing. Not make a real asshole out of myself.

I sighed and gathered my shit mentally, looking over at Jess.

“I guess we’re done.”

“That’s fine,” she said.

I unclipped my mic as the crew began to turn off the equipment and break down the set.

“Listen, Lincoln. You need to apologize and get her back in front of the cameras.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me? After how that just went?”

“It’s a great angle, the family thing. And she works on camera.”

“I don’t think that’s happening.”

Typical Jess. She only gave a shit about the production and nothing else. She would start a war within our family if it meant getting twenty minutes of great footage. I liked and hated that about her, frankly. It made her good at her job, but it made her really difficult to work with, let alone control.

I began to walk away.

“Make it happen, Based. We need her for this,” she called after me.

I turned back and stared at her. “Don’t call me that. And if you want her, get her yourself.”

I didn’t bother to wait for a reply, just walked out of the room as fast as my fucked-up legs would take me, cane tapping on the hardwood floor. It seemed to echo all through the house, reminding me again and again of my crippled body. As if I needed a cane for that.

As I passed through the kitchen, I caught sight of Brie sitting back down in her chair by the pool with a huff. I paused, looking out at her as she stared off into the distance, and I felt something weird grip my chest. I had been running from her for so long, mainlining strange sluts all over the globe, women of all shapes and sizes and color, most smoking hot, but it still overtook me every time I looked at her.

That feeling. I didn’t know what the fuck it was, but I knew that it made me want to grip her hips and pull her against my hard dick. It made me want to bite her lower lip and watch as she slipped down along my skin only to slide my cock into her mouth.

I pulled open the back door, dick half hard as I shuffled across the lawn out toward her. We’d have some privacy while the crew broke down the set, for a while at least.

“Hey,” I called out.

She looked at me with disgust. “What do you want, Lincoln? Trying to embarrass me some more?”

“I wasn’t trying to embarrass you,” I said, lowering myself into the chair next to her. Pain lanced up through my legs, but I ignored it. “Rile you up a little, maybe.”

“Well, good job. I’m riled. I’m actually fucking pissed now.”

“I get it. You’re mad at me.”

“You disappeared. You didn’t bother to call. I thought we—” she cut herself off and looked away. “I thought we were going to be friends.”

“Yeah, friends,” I said.

She looked back at me. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Look, you did the interview, so I owe you whatever now.”

She blinked and seemed to relax. “I thought you’d go back on that since I walked out on it.”

“I’m a man of my word, even if you only answered a few questions.”

“Okay,” she said, visibly calming down. “Thanks, I guess.”

“But Jess is going to try and get you into the movie somehow. Just so you know.”

“And I still don’t want to do it.”

“I know. I’m not trying to convince you.”

“Okay. What are you doing, then?”