Ten years ago when Eva and Kami had shown up out of nowhere and he and Cox had spent three days locked in a room with that skinny rich bitch?
No. That mess could only be considered just that. A mess. A hard-core fuck fest, yeah, but still a mess considering Cox was married to the bitch now and Kami loved using Ripper to make Cox jealous when she was mad at the guy. Which was every five seconds and so goddamned annoying that he’d begun wishing the three-day fuck fest had never happened.
So, no. He’d never had spectacular sex before.
Until now.
Holy shit, what was wrong with him?
He was going insane, that’s what was wrong with him.
He’d finally lost his mind.
Chapter 7
“You’re acting weird,” Anabeth said, not bothering to look up from painting her toenails. “Weirder than usual, I mean.”
Ellie glanced up from her book. “She’s right. You’ve been acting weird since prom.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned back to my vanity mirror and applied a light coating of peach lip gloss, just enough to give some shine and a boost of natural color. Then I smoothed my long blonde curls, reapplied my eyeliner, double-checked the zipper on my jeans skirt, straightened and re-straightened my pink T-shirt. Maybe my hair would look better straight today?
“Seriously, Danny, what is wrong with you? And why are you putting so much makeup on? You look like a hooker.”
What was wrong with me? I was a mess. All I could think about was Ripper and what had happened at the lake.
Since Dorothy’s birthday party nearly two weeks ago, I’d avoided the club like the plague. I didn’t care that no one was home to hang out with me; I was terrified of running into Ripper again.
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him?
“Danny, what is wrong—”
I whirled around. “I slept with Ripper,” I blurted out, then immediately slapped my hand over my mouth.
Ellie’s mouth fell open, a starkly different reaction from Anabeth’s grin.
“Ripper,” Ellie said slowly. “As in Ripper, Ripper? Your dad’s sergeant-whatever guy?”
I nodded.
Anabeth let out an excited shriek. “Finally!” she yelled. “I thought you were going to die a virgin!”
I glared at her. “I wasn’t a virgin.”
She made a face. “Shawn O’Brian does not count. That was like, what? Five minutes of horrible in the woods? So doesn’t count.”
“Oh God, Anabeth,” Ellie muttered. “Your whole life is based around sex.”
“So?” she shot back. “It’s better than having sex with fictional characters!”
Ellie shot up out of my desk chair. “I do not have sex with fictional characters!”
“Oh puh-lease, I’ve seen the books you read, all big muscley men and virginal women and steamy sex. Why else would you read that crap if not to get off?”
Ellie was about to blow. Her eyes were bugging out of her head, her nostrils flaring.
Ignoring her, Anabeth turned to me. “Was it good?” she asked.
I buried my face in my hands and peeked out at my friends through my fingers. “Yes.”
Anabeth’s smile turned sly.
Ellie turned her bug eyes on me. “Do you actually like him? He’s so . . . old.”
Like him? Um, I didn’t like him, like him . . . did I?
Anabeth laughed. “Oh, who cares. He’s only what, like, thirty?”
“Thirty-two, I think,” I said, wincing as Ellie’s face scrunched up in disgust.
“Ignore her,” Anabeth said dismissively. “Ripper is hot. All big and bad and scarred up. And speaking of big, how big is he?”
“Scarred up?” Ellie gaped at Anabeth. “The man has half a face!”
I dropped my hands and glared at both of them.
“What? It’s a legitimate question!”
“It’s none of your business! And he doesn’t have half a face!”
Anabeth’s grin turned positively evil. “Oh. My. God. You do like him!”
“Gross,” Ellie muttered. “Not only is he deformed, he’s old enough to be your dad.”
“That makes it even hotter,” Anabeth said, nodding gravely.
“He is not old enough to be my dad!” I yelled. “My dad is like fifty!”
“Whatever,” Ellie said. “That’s not the point. The point is you like an older, deformed man who works for your crazy dad. Do you actually see yourself dating him?”
Date him? The thought of going on a date with Ripper was absurd. He wasn’t the kind of guy you went to dinner and a movie with. He was the kind of guy who dragged you out of the lake, shoved you down on the ground, growling and groping you, telling you all the dirty things he wanted to do to you . . . and then did them. No-holds-barred, invasive, mind-numbing, disturbingly awesome things. I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering . . .