Page 30 (2/2)

I turn to Taryn and fold my arms over my chestI’ot back frooGavin hadback or notAnd yet, here I a to fill in for Marco when I should be naked, wrapped up in Cash’s arames

“Look, I’ht as well give it upI’m on to you, Taryn”

She opens her pouty ruby lips like she’s going to argue, but then she snaps them shutHer innocently pleasant expression settles into sohs

“Okay, I admit I was a little jealous of you when you started hereI don’t know if you knew this or not, but Cash and I used to dateUntil recently, ere still…resolving soet in the way of thatBut now I know you’re notBesides, I know he’s not interested in youHe’s got someone else on the hook, so it wouldn’t matter anyway”

That piques my curiosity“Why do you say that?”

“What?That he’s got soirl a couple times and he’s been very, very distracted latelyAnd that’s not like hiuy”

“He’s not?”

“Oh, hell no!I knew that going inAny girl who goes into a relationship with Cash thinking she’ll change him or that she’ll be the only one is du blond hair”

“Blond?Because of the girl you think he’s seeing?”

Taryn shrugs“Her, too, but Cash has a ‘type’,” she says, quirking one pierced brow atup a pale twist of her hair“Blond”

I nod and s my best to seem unaffectedWhich I’m not, of courseFar froht in Taryn’s pretty face

“What makes you think he’ll never pick one of these…blonds and settle down?”

Her laugh is bitter“Because I know CashThat boy has wild bloodGuys like that don’t changeAnd girls can’t make ‘emIt’s just the way they are It’s part of why they’re so irresistible, tooDon’t we all e can’t have?”

I srabson the bar“Anyway, I’ the hatchet”

“I’e to eke out past the lump in my throat

I busy myself with early clean-up dutiesDual is less than an hour fro is beyond me, but I know the first step is to keep busyBut no a voices in my head

You kneas a bad boyThat’s why you tried to stay away froet involved

I feel dismay curl in the pit of my stomach like a cold, heartless snakeBut then the voice of reason—or is it the voice of denial?—speaks up

After all that has happened over the last feeeks, how can you doubt the way he feels about you?Cash isn’t the type to fake itAnd what he’s said, what you’ve shared isn’t fakeIt’s realAnd it’s deepAnd Taryn is a psychotic bitch who has no clue what she’s talking aboutMaybe all that tattoo ink has gone to her brain

While all of that is true, nothing I tellof unease that has settled into my bonesInto my heart

One part of ical, uninvolved, hurt-too-many times part—pops up to make matters worse

How onna fall for the sauy?

But Cash is differentI know itDeep downI ree a book by its coverNo matter how ht be that of a bad boy, but the book, the inside is so much more