Cocky Prince

by Jules Barnard

  I hate the way he says my name. Condescending and sexy at the same time. I was just having fun with Mira and the others. But I can’t return to Zach and Nessa’s if Adam is a part of the package. There’s no way I want to be friends with him. “Nessa and Mira invited me tonight. I didn’t realize you were a regular.”

  Adam runs his hand through his dark brown hair, longer at the top than on the sides. He glances at the others. “Zach’s a good guy. I started hanging out with him more these last couple of years. Now we work together at Blue…” He shrugs one shoulder. “What can I say? Tahoe is a small world.”

  He’s mimicking my thoughts now? “Small world indeed.”

  Adam lifts his eyebrow. “Are you agreeing with me? Because I wouldn’t mind you agreeing with me for once.” He grins, and thankfully, this one is all swagger.

  I shake my head and gesture to Jaeger. “We used to know each other. Way back when.”

  I always wondered if Adam recognized me when he first started at Blue. Based on his blank expression, that would be a no.

  When will I learn? Guys like Adam don’t remember girls like me, let alone defend them.

  His face goes still, his eyes delving a bit. He shoves a hand in his pocket and swirls the beer in his other hand. “Way back?”

  I roll my eyes, appreciating the light buzz that’s allowing this conversation to take place with minimal discomfort. I returned to Lake Tahoe to confront my past; there’s no point in running from it now. My new friends should know about my past. And Adam should know his part…

  “Jaeger was my boyfriend in high school—when I was a sophomore and accused of sleeping with a teacher. I’m the girl you told him to dump.”

  Chapter Four

  Okay, that was blunt, but I’m tired of hiding my past. I ran from Lake Tahoe to get away from the rumors. They made me feel weak and helpless. I’m not that helpless sixteen-year-old anymore. And Adam should know what he did.

  He chokes on his beer, the room suddenly going quiet.

  Mira walks over, her voice gentle. “Hayden, you were that Beth? Beth Tate…” Her voice trails off as though she’s putting two and two together.

  Of course Mira heard the rumor about the teacher and me, even if I didn’t know her in high school. Most people had heard it. “Yes.”

  “She didn’t do it.” Jaeger’s expression is stern. He’s stepped closer, obviously having picked up the conversation.

  Somehow, Jaeger’s public support of me, even in an informal setting, has the waterworks building behind my eyes. I push them back and move on. “No one believed me. And neither did Jaeger at the time. Though I’ve forgiven him for it.” Jaeger glances away, as if ashamed, and Adam has a strange look on his face.

  “Long story short,” I say to everyone, because they’re all listening now, and I don’t want there to be secrets, “the teacher resigned, I fled Lake Tahoe, and now I’m back. Eleven years later. All’s well.” I grab a handful of chips and pop one in my mouth, focusing on the bite of the salt on my lips.

  Adam’s face is frozen, his eyes burning with…something. “Let me get this straight. You were Jaeger’s girlfriend—that girlfriend? Beth…” His gaze scans my face and body, as though he’s calculating all the changes and adding them up.

  “For a short time, yeah. He broke up with me when he heard about the teacher. I understand you were instrumental in making that happen.” I chomp into another chip and watch the tic in his jaw.

  “And that made you leave Lake Tahoe.” He swallows, as if even he can’t stomach the truth.

  “Well, not the Jaeger part, but yes, the other stuff. I was harassed by students—pretty much the entire town. Chip?” I hand him one, no longer having a taste for it myself.

  He doesn’t look at the food in my hand. Adam grabs the back of his neck. “I need another beer,” he mumbles, and pounds the last of his.

  Cali walks over and refills the margarita resting against my breasts in the cocktail yoke. Jaeger joins her. “I’m really sorry about that, Hayden,” he says. “I knew it was rough on you. I didn’t realize how bad.”

  “You apologized years ago. Water under the bridge.”

  Not that those waters didn’t crash rocks against the shore, leaving deep gashes. But the scars that formed had less to do with Jaeger, and more to do with the entire town turning on me. Not having a single person I could rely on, besides my parents, left me feeling empty. Even Adam, who didn’t know me, caused damage.

  “Dump her,” Adam said, as I stood around the corner from Jaeger’s school locker, waiting for Jaeger to finish talking to his friend. I’d paused when I caught sight of them together, unsure if I should interrupt.

  Jaeger switched out his books, and looked up, absently lifting a hand to a guy passing, whom I recognized as an athlete on the football team. Jaeger knew all the athletes. He was popular. Yet he’d chosen to date me, a mousy bookworm.

  He closed the locker and leaned against the metal frame. “You think she did it?”

  Adam snorted. “Don’t be stupid. Get out while you can. You don’t need to stand beside her just because you’ve dated her for a couple of weeks. No one will blame you for dumping her.” Adam notched his head up and flashed a grin at a beautiful girl walking by. I’d seen the girl in my economics class. Not bright, but she’d been nice the few times I’d interacted with her.

  She smiled sweetly at Adam, and walked on with her friend.

  Jaeger’s expression went pensive. “You’re right.”

  Adam hitched his backpack higher, his gaze darting away. “Course I’m right.”

  That same day, when I was leaving school, Jaeger caught up to me. He broke up with me at the foot of the stairs to the parking lot. Thanks to Adam Cade pounding the last nail in the coffin, my boyfriend turned his back on me during one of the darkest moments of my life, along with the rest of the town. I couldn’t walk into a grocery store without someone pointing a finger.

  Small towns are a bitch.

  Mira puts her arm around my shoulders, and Gen joins us. “That shit was messed up,” Mira says. This coming from the girl who recently lost her mother to drug abuse.

  What happened sucked. It was brutal at the time, and I’ll never forgive Adam for being a jerk during everything, but I’ve returned because I’m ready to move on. “As long as you don’t mind my sordid past, I’m over it.”

  She smiles. “Your sordid past has nothing on mine.”

  “Or mine,” Gen chimes in. “Most of my life I never knew who my father was. This is small potatoes. And the rumor wasn’t even true. Though, if you had hooked up with a hot teacher, that would be a good story to tell.”

  “I don’t have a sordid past,” Nessa admits. “But now I think you’re even more badass for coming back and kicking ass in this town.” She does a flashy karate chop in the air, and kicks up her platform heel.

  Zach leans over and kisses Nessa on the top of the head. “Cutie.” He smiles down at her.

  The next hour goes smoothly. No more discussions about nasty rumors. And Adam keeps his distance. We eat, and it’s not until we’re outside, sitting around Zach and Nessa’s new built-in fire pit, that Adam approaches me again. He lowers himself onto the camp chair beside mine and stretches out his long legs. “I was friends with Jaeg in high school.”

  I glare at him. “Yeah, I remember. You were such a good friend.” I let out a breath and stare back at the campfire. I didn’t return to town to hold grudges. “Look, I know you convinced Jaeger to break up with me. Maybe he would have anyway. Regardless, you didn’t know me.”

  “Hayden—”

  “Even so, that was a long time ago. We were young, and people make mistakes. I can’t say it didn’t affect me, but I’ve moved on.”

  He’s silent for a long moment, his handsome face more serious than I’ve ever seen it. “You’re right, I didn’t know you, but that’s no excuse for what I did. And you do judge me for the past, if the way you’ve treated me at Blue is any indication. You have
every right to. I’m sorry for what I said to Jaeg back then. It was a shitty thing to do.”

  I can’t take the look in his eyes. It’s one of his rare sincere expressions, and it jumbles up everything. Confuses me. And his confession…I never thought I’d hear an apology like that from Adam.

  A stretch of silence follows as I process his words. He turns away and stares at the fire pit. “In any case,” he says, his voice soft and low, “I wish I had known you.”

  That grabs my attention, because apology or not, Adam gave every indication back then that I was dirt beneath his feet.

  I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, shaking my head. “No one wanted to know me after the scandal. If you recall, I wasn’t anything special before it.”

  “Special enough for Jaeg to snatch you up.” An enigmatic look flashes across his face.

  “You have some sort of competition going on with Jaeger?”

  Adam huffs out a chuckle. “Jaeg’s one of my best friends. We’d never poach from each other.”

  A sharp choking sound escapes my throat. “Are we talking about women or stealing chickens?” This is a serious conversation, but that poaching comment cannot go unchallenged.

  His gaze slides to me. “Women. Always women.”

  Damn.

  Suddenly I’m locked; I can’t turn away. He’s doing it again, staring deeply. Why would Adam say any of this? He didn’t even realize I was the same Beth from high school until now.

  “We were friends,” I stammer. I don’t know why I feel the need to explain. “I helped him with an English project. We became more than friends for a little while.”

  Adam’s wide palm squeezes his leg above his knee. “Do you—do you still have feelings for him?”

  “What?” I whisper loudly, and glance over to where Jaeger and Cali are sitting several feet away. “No. Of course not.”

  The last thing I want is for people to wonder if I have a flame burning for Jaeger. Whatever romantic feelings I had for him ended soon after he dumped me. He’s a good guy, but that’s all.

  This conversation has grown too personal. I reach down and pick up a pine needle from the dirt. “How was your celebration at Farley’s? Did you eat your weight in hot wings?”

  Adam’s expression lightens, and he rubs the corner of his mouth. “Not exactly. But this might interest you. I’ll be hiring new employees.”

  I bring the pine needle to my nose, taking in the brisk, woody scent. “Which is to be expected, since your promotion has left a void for the assistant position. I’m happy to list a posting on Monday.”

  “No,” he says sharply. “That’s not necessary. Blackwell wants me to handle the new hires on my own.”

  I turn in my camp chair to face him, which isn’t easy, as there’s a dip in the middle of the canvas, and I wobble more than shift. “What are the positions? And why wouldn’t you use human resources? We’ve had our disagreements, but we get along well enough to do our jobs.”

  Adam glances across the campfire. Mira is looking over with a worried expression, my elevated voice likely the cause. “Walk with me for a minute.” He stands and heads toward the deck.

  I rise from the camp chair and slowly follow, watching as Adam hoists himself up on the closed lid of the hot tub.

  He reaches down. “Give me your hand.”

  My need to discover why he’s hiring new employees without the human resources department outweighs my desire to avoid his touch. I do as he says, his large palm engulfing mine, warming me from the inside out. He helps me up, and I inch away, dangling my feet over the edge of the hot tub cover and creating space between us.

  There’s only one thing I want from Adam, and the imprint of his warm hand on my body isn’t it. “What’s going on at Blue? I know there’s something, so don’t feign ignorance.”

  I’ve asked around. Rumors indicate that Paul, one of Blackwell’s Blue Stars, used to be just like Drake Peterson, the man who hurt Gen and the reason Blue hired me. A couple of admins said Paul was handsy with female coworkers and often propositioned the cocktail waitresses. Not that I trust rumors a hundred percent. I know better than anyone how wrong rumors can be, but with all the secrecy among management, I can’t help wondering what Blackwell is hiding about his Blue Stars. And since I’m not a part of his inner circle, I have no problem pumping Adam for information.

  He leans back on his elbow. “Nothing I can talk about. Some things are…exclusive.”

  My blood boils. I turn, bending the side of my leg over the cover in order to face him. “What kind of bullshit is that?” I glance at our friends and take a deep breath, lowering my voice. “Have you any idea how shitty those guys you’re chumming around with are?”

  Adam frowns and sits up, his face inches from mine. “Why? What have they done?”

  “Jaeger must have told you what they did to Gen and Cali?”

  “Yeah, of course. It was terrible, but that was one guy, not the casino. And that guy is in prison. You have nothing to worry about.”

  “Oh really?” My sarcastic tone makes it clear I disagree.

  “What’s up, Hayden? What do you know?”

  “Some things are exclusive.” It’s an immature comment, but forget him. Adam’s turning into one of the Blue Stars; he probably knows all about Gen and a lot of other things, like the drug suite Mira and Tyler found around the time Drake was fired. But now he knows that I know—well, at least some of it—and I’m not going to ignore what’s going on behind the scenes the way he’s willing to do.

  He studies me a moment longer. “Why do you hate me? Is this all because of what I did years ago?”

  “Hate you?” I gasp. “Because I don’t throw myself at your feet like every other woman?”

  He glances up, as though considering. “Women throw themselves at my feet? If they do, I’ve missed a few. And I’m rather observant where women are concerned.”

  I ignore the taunt. “You traipse into Blue without a clue, and suddenly wind up as a manager, hiring people for a secret project that puts you in Blackwell’s pocket? I don’t know, Adam, why wouldn’t I trust you?”

  He leans closer. Probably because my voice is getting louder and louder the longer we talk. “I don’t know, Hayden. If you’re being honest and you’ve gotten over the past, then what do you have against me?”

  Against him. His words echo in my head, and suddenly all that heat is back—the heat radiating off his body, the warmth building inside me from his nearness.

  His blue gaze, nearly black in this light, dips to my mouth, and I suck in a breath.

  “Screw you.” I jump off the hot tub cover and walk toward the group, but Mira is already on her way over.

  “What’s going on?” she says, looking past me to Adam, who’s leaning on his elbow again. But this time he’s staring down and frowning.

  “Nothing. I think I’ll take an Uber home. I’m tired.”

  “Let’s leave. Especially if Adam’s being a shit.” She looks over my shoulder toward him.

  I swallow and realize it’s not Adam. It’s Blue. “He isn’t.”

  I don’t know with certainty that Adam is in cahoots with the Blue Stars. Having suspicions about Blue Casino and not knowing for sure is driving me crazy. “I’m just frustrated with work,” I tell her.

  We return to the group, and Mira makes an excuse for us to leave. We say our goodbyes, and a few minutes later make our way to Tyler’s Land Cruiser parked in the driveway.

  I hear my name called and I turn.

  Adam is jogging toward us. “Hold up,” he says.

  Mira raises her eyebrow in question, but she and Tyler climb into the truck, while I stand outside with Adam.

  He tucks a hand in the front pocket of his designer jeans. “I know it’s awkward—me hiring people without your say. It’s not normal; I get that. But it’s how Blackwell wants things.”

  It should be cooler out here, away from the fire, but it isn’t. It’s hot and edgy. “I understand. You have to
follow Blackwell’s orders. But hiring the right people isn’t as easy as it looks.”

  He smirks. “How hard can it be to hire an assistant?”

  There we go. There’s the Adam that infuriates me at work.

  Instead of a sharp set-down to fire back, an idea springs to mind… Maybe it was the tequila tonight, or maybe it was unloading my disreputable past on my new friends, but I’m feeling the need to kick a little ass. “How do you feel about a bet?”

  “We’re betting now?” He chuckles. “Is this how far our relationship has degraded? I didn’t take you for the gambling sort.”

  “When I’m certain of my odds, I’m willing to gamble.”

  He leans in, resting his arm on the side of the truck. “What did you have in mind?”

  A whiff of soap and man hits me, and my mind blanks.

  My body tips against the truck, and I blink hard. “Whoever you hire for the assistant position…I bet you’ll let them go soon after.” I glance up, mentally calculating. “I give it two weeks.”

  He looks into my eyes. Something crosses his face—curiosity? Respect? “I’ll take you up on that bet. How about, if I win, you stay away from my new hires. No snooping in their files, or keeping tabs on them.”

  Interesting choice of criteria. And damning, if he’s involved with the Blue Stars. “And if I win?”

  He shrugs. “Whatever you want. I’m pretty good with my hands.” He grins suggestively, and I roll my eyes. “You’re a single girl. I’m sure there’s something you need help with around the house.”

  “That’s the best you can do? I’m not sure replacing a lightbulb is equal to me ignoring suspect activities at work. But putting that aside, how do you know I’m single? Just because I’m not interested in you, doesn’t mean I’m not interested in another man.”

  His jaw shifts. “Are you single?”

  I ignore that one. Won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing my private life. “More to the point, how do you know I’m not handy?”

  There’s a moment of silence as Adam stares at me, his jaw still tensed from the first question. “Are you good with your hands, Hayden?”