Infamous: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Novel

by Arabella Abbing

  “I highly doubt that,” I spat out as I tried in vain to push him back using the door as leverage.

  But the man was solid muscle and it felt like I was trying to move a brick wall. It was only a matter of seconds before he stopped finding my useless struggling amusing and forced his way inside.

  “Come here,” he beckoned with a finger after I backed as close to the shower stall as I could get, grateful for the few feet of distance between us.

  “No. Get out.”

  “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do, April. I’d appreciate it if you stopped looking at me like I’m a fucking monster.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you right now that I don’t want to sleep with you.”

  Jared grinned. “You’re such a terrible liar, sweetness. But fine. I’ll agree to back off if you agree to come out and talk to me.”

  I was sure there was a catch in there somewhere, but I didn’t have very many options. Still, he sensed my hesitation and let out a resigned sigh.

  “Fine. We don’t even have to talk. Do you have Netflix or something? I don’t really care what we do—but I’d like to spend time with you. In a totally civilized manner.”

  I eyed him warily. “You promise?”

  He looked genuine as he nodded. “Promise. The next two weeks are going to be hell for both of us if we can’t get along.”

  Well, I couldn’t really argue with that. If it was this bad after only a few hours, I could only imagine how bad the next two weeks were going to be if we kept going at each other like this.

  With a sigh, I nodded at Jared and followed him out of the bathroom. He led me to the living room and immediately sat down on the couch, directly next to the stack of blankets where my vibrator was resting underneath my pillow.

  I felt my cheeks heat up from embarrassment, the feeling growing even worse when he lifted his arm to rest it on the pile. If he kept his hand there for too long, he was bound to realize that I had hidden the vibrator there and that would only welcome even more mortification.

  So I did the only thing I could think of—I tried to steer him away.

  “Why don’t we do something else? Watching TV sounds pretty dull.”

  Jared scoffed. “What the hell else are we supposed to do in this apartment if you won’t sleep with me? It’s not like I’m allowed to leave.”

  Yet another point that I wasn’t ready to argue. I searched my mind trying to think of something else, but came up empty. What could we do? His eyebrow raised as he waited for an answer and I tried to subtly move toward the pile of blankets and pull them from underneath his arm.

  Of course, he picked up on what I was doing pretty much immediately and grinned as he pulled his arm away. It was clear from the look on his face that he hadn’t forgotten that I fled the room with the vibrator earlier, and I was pretty damn sure he knew where it was.

  But thankfully, it looked like he was going to let it slide and keep his word about acting civilized. I breathed a sigh of relief when I placed the stack in the corner of the room, far enough out of the way that he couldn’t ‘accidentally’ knock off the top pillow and expose me yet again.

  Later on, I’d find an actual space to hide the damn thing until he left. But it was at least safe for the time being.

  “Now that that’s taken care of… movie?”

  “Do I get to pick?”

  “Nope,” he said with a smile. “I’m the guest, April. Be a good hostess and sit down while I pick something for us to watch.”

  He had already located the remotes and was booting up the television when I sat down on the other end of the couch. He turned to give me a mildly hurt look before returning his attention to the screen and I silently wondered how long his promise to be civil was going to last.

  When he landed on the home screen of Netflix and scrolled through until he reached a romance movie, I knew it wouldn’t be long. Even though I rolled my eyes at his choice, I couldn’t help but to think that it would be better to watch a romance with Jared than a porno.

  “This all right?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “I really don’t care,” I replied with a shrug. “If you want to watch a romance, that’s on you. But don’t think I’m going to cry and snuggle up to you during it.”

  The grin on his face was slightly lopsided and I cursed how damn charming he looked because of it. I reminded myself of the promise I made to Lauren and thought about all the girls before me who had lost their jobs because of his games.

  The thought worked well enough for me to sit back and relax, propping my feet up nonchalantly on the coffee table as the movie began. I could feel him watching me, but I steadfastly stared at the screen and lost myself in the story.

  8

  Jared

  That obviously wasn’t a good plan, I thought bitterly as the credits began to roll.

  True to her word, April hadn’t moved any closer to me during the film, nor did she shed a tear at any of the emotional moments. Which meant I put myself through an hour and a half of terrible plot and poorly-acted love scenes for absolutely no reason.

  Well… shit. Time for plan B.

  “Sooo...” I started, trailing off as I slid down to the middle seat and sat just far enough away so we weren’t touching. “What’d you think?”

  She turned to me and cocked an eyebrow. “It was pretty boring.”

  I thought for sure I would’ve scored some brownie points for picking a girlie movie, but she clearly wasn’t a fan of the genre.

  I really liked this girl.

  I chuckled and nodded. “Definitely agree with you there.”

  “You’re the one who picked it,” she pointed out.

  “I was trying to be romantic.”

  “After you promised that you’d cut it out.”

  Her eyes narrowed and I narrowed mine right back at her, feeling the familiar irritation beginning to rise. Just as I was opening my mouth to demand she tell me the real reason why she wanted nothing to do with me, she abruptly stood up.

  “I’m taking a shower. Watch whatever you want.”

  Then she was gone. I groaned in frustration and collapsed on my back, rubbing my palm harshly across my face. Without sex, the idea of staying here was starting to feel like torture.

  Mainly because I wanted April more than I had wanted anyone in a long damn time, even though I didn’t fully understand why.

  The sun was starting to set when April finally appeared again. The sound of her footsteps pulled me out of a trance-like state and I sat up to glance over at her. I immediately noticed that her hair was dry and I shot her a questioning look to which she just shrugged.

  “After my shower I figured I’d get some work done while you weren’t holed up in my bedroom.”

  “Fair enough. I guess I zoned out.”

  She laughed softly and shook her head. “Zoned out? You mean passed out. I came out here for something to drink earlier and you were snoring. You still want that pizza?”

  I sat up and grinned like a kid on Christmas. “Yeah. Want to watch another movie while we eat? I’ll let you pick this time.”

  “Are you going to hit on me again if we do?”

  “Probably.”

  “Then I’ll pass.”

  She moved toward the kitchen and I shot up from the couch to follow her, frowning at her back as she dug into a drawer and came out with a menu for a pizza place. She asked what I liked on it, but my hunger wasn’t the first thing on my mind.

  “Why are you being such a bitch to me?”

  April dropped the menu on the counter and turned to give me an incredulous look. “Are you seriously calling me a bitch because I don’t want to sleep with you?”

  “No, I’m calling you a bitch because you do want to sleep with me and you’re pretending like you don’t. It’s fucking annoying.”

  “I’m not pretending, I—”

  “Look, I know those psychotic relationship books you’ve probably read all say that you should
play hard to get because men love the chase, but that’s just not true for me. Regardless of how much you play that game—I’m not going to date you. I don’t want to hold your hand and take you to the movies and settle for a good night kiss. I don’t want to be your boyfriend or your fucking white knight.”

  April’s eyes lit up with anger and she opened her mouth—to scream at me, I could only imagine—so I darted forward to cover her mouth with my palm. She grunted and tried to squirm away, but I wrapped my other arm around her back and hauled her against my body to hold her still so I could finish.

  “What I want is to pull your hair and make your toes curl and your pussy clench around me while I fuck you from behind. I want to see how many times I can make you come before you beg me to stop because you just can’t take any more. I want to bury my face between your legs and make you scream, then watch those pretty lips of yours wrap around my cock and have you suck me dry. Does that not sound more appealing to you than two weeks of small talk and movies?”

  Her eyelids fluttered and her breathing quickened—I could feel it being as close as we were. She couldn’t keep denying that she desired me, not with the way she shuddered just from my words alone.

  I wondered if April had ever even had good sex—if she had ever been fucked the way she so obviously needed to be fucked. I’d only known her for a few hours, but it wouldn’t have surprised me in the least if she told me she’d never had an orgasm during sex.

  April was hot, but very uptight. It didn’t take long to see that.

  I really wanted to be the one to unwind that tension for her. Show her what it could be like if she would just fucking let me.

  “Princess?” I lowly questioned after a long minute of total silence. “You still with me?”

  Her eyes flew open and when I saw her anger, I felt my own begin to rise.

  “I was never with you and I never will be. The sooner you get that through your thick skull, the easier the next two weeks will be on both of us.”

  With that, she jerked away from me and I let her go. I clenched my jaw tightly, not wanting to say anything given how pissed off I was. I honestly didn’t even know why I was so mad—this certainly wasn’t the first time I’d been rejected by a woman. It was just the first time in a long while.

  “This is bullshit,” I seethed, unable to hold myself back. “The only reason I agreed to this arrangement was because I know how Lauren’s interns usually are. I could’ve just holed myself up in a fucking hotel room!”

  “You and I both know that if Lauren trusted you enough to stay out of trouble by yourself then you wouldn’t be here!” she shouted before letting out a humorless laugh. “You can’t even help it, can you? It’s just embedded into your personality. You have to be the center of attention. You have to get yourself into these dramatic situations because you refuse to think with anything but your dick!”

  I’d had enough. I stormed out of the room before I said something I might regret later and down to where I left my bag. She didn’t follow me, which was a bit of a shame since she would’ve gotten a great view of my ass as I shoved down my shorts and pulled my jeans back on. After grabbing a few extra items and shoving them into my pockets, I strolled back out and headed right for the door.

  “Where the hell are you going?” she demanded as she rushed out of the kitchen.

  “Anywhere but here,” I hissed, spinning around on my heel to glare at her as I said, “Like I said—I only agreed to be here because of what I thought I was going to get. Since you keep insisting you’re not interested, I’ll find it elsewhere.”

  It was a total fucking lie, but she didn’t know me well enough to realize that. The shock of what I’d said was enough to keep her frozen to the spot as I stormed out of her apartment and out of the building. I glanced around the street and sighed, pulling my phone out of my pocket and dialing the car company I usually used when I was in the city as I started walking.

  I just hoped the company would actually pick me up in Brooklyn.

  9

  April

  Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  Not even a full day into my task and I lost the client. Literally.

  I let out a loud groan of frustration as I buried my hands in my hair and resisted the urge to pull. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I had been too stunned by him saying that he only came here because he thought it meant two weeks of sex to stop him and I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do to get him back.

  Where would he have gone? I tried to think of local strip clubs that he might have wandered into in hopes of a quick lay, but the memory of his obvious distaste of the borough led me to believe that he would have gotten a ride into Manhattan before he looked for something here.

  Which meant it was going to be even more impossible to find him.

  I rushed to my bedroom and pulled my phone off the charger, my fingers hovering over Lauren’s speed-dial button for a moment. I stopped when I remembered that she had e-mailed me Jared’s cell phone number the day before and I searched through my messages to find it.

  After three rings, it was directed to voicemail. I growled and dialed again. This time, it only made it to two rings.

  He was dismissing the calls. I wondered if it was because he didn’t recognize the number, or if it was because he did.

  The third time, it didn’t even ring. The phone had been turned off.

  Fucking perfect.

  I wasn’t foolish enough to think that he would bother listening to a voicemail if I left one, so I ended the call and opened the web browser. I rushed around and grabbed my purse while it was loading the local gossip sites, hoping that if someone spotted him and posted the location, I could get there and keep him out of trouble before another scandal arose. I scrolled through the latest news on each site, but saw no sign of Jared.

  During the elevator ride down to the lobby of my apartment building, I lost connection to the websites and groaned. Once I stepped outside, I attempted to reopen the pages— but my phone rang before I had a chance. With a wince, I accepted the call.

  “Hi, Lauren. How’s Paris?”

  Lauren bypassed the pleasantries. “A friend just called to inform me that Jared walked into his bar ten minutes ago and ordered bottle service. Where the hell are you?”

  “We had a fight and he bolted. Where is he? I’m hailing a cab now.”

  “SoHo. I’ll text you the address. What are you fighting about?”

  Thankfully, a cab pulled over for me and I opened the door. I told the driver to head towards SoHo before I said, “He’s mad because I told him I’m not going to screw him and he apparently expected it. So he took off to find some elsewhere.”

  The cab driver raised an eyebrow and glanced back at me in his rear view mirror as I slunk down into the seat. I could practically hear her eye roll over the phone and I prayed that she would understand.

  “Just get him out of there before he makes a fool of himself. All right?”

  “Text me the address—I’m on the way.”

  I ended the call before she could berate me and read off the address to the driver. I tapped my foot impatiently on the floor while I waited to arrive, hoping I’d get there before anything bad could possibly happen.

  “Princess!”

  Oh no.

  What should have been a ten minute drive wound up taking forty, courtesy of a fender bender that had traffic backed up because the drivers refused to pull their cars from the road until the police arrived. I had held onto the hope that Jared was a grown man and could keep himself out of trouble until I could get there.

  Which—in all fairness to him—he did stay out of trouble. For the most part.

  But how much trouble could a person really get into when they were busy tossing back shot after shot at the bar?

  “You’re drunk,” I stage-whispered, hoping he’d be able to hear me over the thumping bass while trying not to draw too much attention to us. “We need to go. Now.”

  “Hold-Hold up
. Got to close the tab, sweets.”

  Jared nearly stumbled back to the bar, bracing himself against it as he dug into his back pocket. How the hell he managed to get so plastered in an hour was beyond my comprehension. When I stepped up beside him and heard the bartender tell him what he owed, my eyes nearly bugged out of my head.

  “Shit,” Jared mumbled, reaching his hands up and patting over his chest with a frown before he turned to me. “You seen my wallet? I just had it.”

  The bartender overheard and motioned to a security guard who was lingering nearby, but I held up a hand to stop him.

  “Sir, that won’t be necessary. Can you just point me to where my client was sitting so I can look for his wallet? If I can’t find it— I’ll settle his tab.”

  The man nodded, but still motioned for the guard to come stand nearby. When Jared pointed out the booth he had been sitting in before moving to the bar, I crawled beneath the table and winced when my hands immediately found something sticky.

  “This is so disgusting,” I grumbled as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone to use as a flashlight. A moment later and I spotted the wallet, then cringed as I noticed an empty condom wrapper a few feet away.

  The knowledge that people had sex in places like this made me weirdly grateful that I didn’t have much of a social life. There was no question that I’d much rather be at home reading or doing pretty much anything besides being in this kind of environment. It wasn’t my scene by a long shot.

  I went to brush my jeans off after I stood up, but my sticky hands kept me from doing it. When I returned to the bar I shoved the wallet against Jared’s chest and pleadingly asked the bartender, “Do you have any hand wipes? Like the ones for chicken wings?”

  “No, but the bathroom is right there,” he offered, pointing toward a small nook in the corner that I hadn’t noticed before.

  I turned to Jared and heatedly whispered, “Pay your bill then wait here. Do you understand? Do. Not. Move. I’ll be right back.”