So Toxic(Bad Boy Next Door Book 4)(11)

I crossed my arms. “Josephina, not JoJo.”

“Sure. Whatever you say, JoJo.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me away from my studies, from my temporary home, and from the glaring girl who would be my sister for as long as I stayed.

The sound of the front door closing interrupts my earliest memory of Tyson Masters.

I call to Stevie, “Did you get his number?”

The carpet muffles the footsteps shuffling down the hall toward my room, but still there’s no answer.

I tighten the crook of my arm over my eyes to block out the light. “C’mon, don’t be coy. I know you asked him. You have zero shy-factor.”

The door hinges squeak just a tad as she leans against it.

“You always were so fucking sexy.” Ty’s deep voice propels me off the bed, but he keeps talking as though I haven’t moved. “In school, it was more subtle, but now it’s full-blown hotness.”

Talk about speak of the Devil. Apparently he shows up with a simple thought too.

I hold my hand to my chest as the suddenly crashing beat of my heart thumps against the inside of my ribs. I shake off the burst of adrenaline. “Sneaky bastard…who invited you in?”

A grin lifts one corner of his mouth and he winks. “Stevie told me I could come on in.”

“Of course she did.” I roll my eyes and jerk my thumb toward the door. “And now I’m telling you to let yourself out.”

He takes three strides and spins on his heel, falling backward onto my bed.

Snuggling into my down comforter, he props his head on laced fingers. “But I just got here.”





JoJo’s face tightens.

I can almost see the cogs and pistons in that brain of hers working away on a solution to me.

Well, too bad. There is no solution, except to give me what I—

“What do you want?” She props her fists at her hips.

You is the word that pops into my mind first, but I can’t blurt it out. She’ll bolt, and that would work against the plan I came up with only minutes ago. A plan to solve both of our problems.

I pull a hand from behind my head and inspect my nails. “Oh, I just thought I’d check on how your job search is going.”

“I’m still looking. Thanks for asking.” She steps to the doorway and indicates for me to exit with a wave of her upturned hand.

I wriggle a little deeper into her bedding.

She shoots me an extra-bright smile and points into the hallway. “Okay then, see you later.”

An intense desire to get under her skin, in a slightly different way than she always got under mine, takes over.

“You know, this is a very comfortable bed. I think I’d like to try it out. You can bring it with you.” I slide my palm over the blanket, deliberately smoothing it back and forth.

“Bring it where?”

“To the new house, of course.”

JoJo’s brows knit. “What are you talking about?”

I pat the bed. “Come lie with me for a minute.”

She crosses her arms and juts out one hip. “Yeah. Right.”

I suck in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “C’mon, JoJo. Pretend we’re eleven and lying on the patch of clover in the pasture behind our houses, watching the clouds go by. I have a proposition for you.”

I hold out my hand to her.

“Yeah, I bet you do. The answer is no.”

“Not that kind of proposition.” Even though I’d rather it were. “I promise. This is strictly above-board.”

Her skepticism is evident in every tick of her jaw muscle. But she steps toward the bed, her hand extending toward me, almost as if she’s unaware that she’s doing so. “What’re you up to, Tyson Masters?”

“Why do you think I’m up to something?”

Her eyes bore into me for a hot second. “Because you were always up to something.”

When she gets within reach, I roll across the bed, take her hand, and yank.

She flops onto the mattress, falling half on top of me. She immediately pushes up on her hands, warily eying me.

I take her shoulders and gently press her into the mattress, and then I lie on my side next to her. “You need a job, right?”

“Yes. But I’ll find—”

Placing my forefinger over her soft lips, I say, “Shush. Listen.”

Her heart beats so hard that it seems to send vibrations through the springs beneath us and straight into me as our gazes lock.

Her mouth twitches under the pad of my finger.

I shake my head. “I said listen.”

“But I—” She tries to maneuver away from me.

“Oh, no you don’t.” I roll on top of her, settling my hips over hers, letting only enough of my weight rest on her to keep her in place.