Fool Me Once: A Bad Girl Romance by Samantha Westlake

Author:Samantha Westlake [Westlake, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

DANE

*

"Oh my god, you suck!"

"I suck?" Ruby retorted, beaming wickedly back at me. "Really? That's usually what the guy who gets killed should be saying!"

"Oh, you're on. Just wait for me to pop back up-"

On the television screen in front of me, my character reappeared – and then immediately died again, as a huge truck with a mounted machine gun ran right over me.

I groaned again, trying to resist the childish urge to chuck my video game controller across the room. Next to me, Ruby rocked back and forth with glee on the couch, her fingers deftly manipulating the controls.

"Something's not right here," I accused her. "You're a pretty girl, and you're always on the move! There is absolutely no way that you should be any good at video games."

"I'm just sad that I couldn't convince you to put money on it," she retorted. "Now, come on, let's start another game. Maybe you'll do a little better this time."

"Doubt it," I said, taking a long swig of beer. Still, I picked up my controller, getting ready to face off against Ruby once again.

Ten minutes later, I dropped the controller back down on the table in front of me, finished the last of my beer, and glared angrily at it. "Maybe it's your fault," I said to the beer bottle, wiggling a finger at it. "Normally, I do so well at this! Why are you screwing things up for me?"

Ruby also set her controller down. "You know, you didn't really strike me as the geeky, nerdy type," she commented. "What's up with you having a video game system hidden away? Are you embarrassed of it?"

"A little," I admitted, "but not for the reason that you'd guess."

She put her head on her hands, tilting it slightly at me. "Okay, now you need to tell me."

"After another beer." I pointed at the second bottle beside her. "And one for you?"

She polished off the last gulp. "Yeah, why not." She eyed me. "Although if I didn't know you better, Dane, I'd think that you were trying to get me tipsy enough to win a repeat performance of Friday night."

"Perish the thought," I assured her, placing my hand over my heart, and then grabbed her bottle from her and ducked into the kitchen.

A minute later, when I returned and handed over her bottle, I settled down on the couch. "So I wasn't always this well off," I started, gesturing around at my apartment, my shelves of books, the warm lamps and comfortable furniture. "I grew up poorer, but finally managed to get my life together and started making money. But when I got my first paycheck, saw all that money, I kind of went a bit overboard with the spending on presents for myself."

Ruby tossed back her head, blonde hair cascading out of the little bun she'd been wearing at work as she laughed. "And let me guess," she picked up for me. "You saw the game system, and immediately decided that, since you were rich now, you needed to own it.

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