House Rules(41)

The word “arrangement” sent warning bells off in my head, pulling me out of my lust-induced haze. “What do you mean ‘arrangement’?”

He watched me. “Dates and times. If you’re free for a quick fuck, I need to make sure I’m home from work.”

I stepped back as if his words had burned me. “A quick fuck every couple of nights? That’s what you want from me?”

He shrugged and it pissed me off even more. “It’s the perfect arrangement. We both get what we need, with no messy emotions.”

“You’re a heartless bastard. You told me a few weeks ago that I was too good for Ray. Now here you are, graciously allowing me to be your whore. Here’s a bit of advice” most women want dinner and flowers, not a scheduled night of sex.” I reached up and smacked him in the face before he had a chance to stop me. “Fuck you.”

I spun around and stormed from the room. My breath came in rapid pants that had nothing to do with desire.

Why did I ever let that man touch me?

Charlie was sitting at the bar talking to Derek and Evan. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them watching me as I flew through the main bar area to the front door, no doubt looking like a hot mess. I could only imagine what was going through their minds. But my fight or flight response had kicked in. Embarrassed and ashamed didn’t even begin to cover it. Anger poured through me like liquid lava. I was probably red from the tip of my toes to my hairline from the combination.

Arrangement.

After everything I’d been through with Ray, I should have known better than to think for one moment Miller would want me for anything else. That was just my shitty luck. Miller wasn’t the type of guy to go for a girl like me. I didn’t mean because of my looks because I knew I wasn’t ugly. I meant a simple girl with small-time ambitions. I wanted to finish school and get a job. I wasn’t cut out for the high roller stuff. Hell, look what had happened when I went along to one game with Ray.

No, I wanted a man who was only interesting in me, not sleeping with every woman who crossed his path.

What an asshole.

Tomorrow I was done worrying about what Miller did at work or at home. If today had done anything, it had proved that Miller clearly wasn’t the man for me.





CHAPTER 14





Theresa


“What can I get you guys?”

I rounded the table to speak to the group who had just sat down, all of them rowdy. Most likely they pre-gamed before coming out to the bar. It was the same every time I stepped up to a table of all guys. Inevitably their eyes would linger on my chest, before slowly making their way down my legs and, finally, they would look up at my face. The eye contact wouldn’t last long, their gaze always returning to my breasts as soon as the order was placed.

Ever since I’d told Miller to shove his offer up his ass, he hadn’t shown up to the bar, so I’d stopped worrying about whether or not he’d be pissed if I waited on a table full of guys. They were the better tippers and that was what counted.

“A night with you?”

The guy closest to me was attractive, in an obvious kind of way. Not that I planned on picking anyone up, but Miller deserved some payback for his latest suggestion. Churlish though it may have been, over the last few days I’d made sure to flirt with every guy who flirted with me in the small hope Miller would walk through the door and see. I knew he knew about it because I overheard Charlie giving someone the lowdown on the phone. At the time, Jason had been behind the bar with a customer so I knew it wasn’t him on the other end. There was only one other person it could have been.

I really had tried to let it go. I’d spent the first few days pissed as hell, to the point where Derek and Natalie, another server, had tried to get the story out of me. Apparently after I left, Miller went on a rampage. Not used to not getting his way, he nit-picked his way through the bar, firing Evan and another server for minor indiscretions. I felt bad, but after a few days they were both back to work. Jason had called and told them they’d be compensated for the days off.

So despite people prying, I’d refused to talk. There was no way I would admit what the argument was about. I had considered that what they might make up in their heads could be worse. Then I remembered that Miller had won me as part of a poker pot, fucked me, then asked for a “friends with benefits” arrangement but without the friendship. So I left them to their imaginations.

Between that and Ray’s incessant phone calls, my mood was shit most days. It didn’t matter how many numbers I blocked, he’d call from a new one the next day and leave a million messages about how I was his and I’d come back soon. Hell no.