BANG (18 page)

Very fancy, expensive ‘dining experiences.’

Of which I had zero experience. Eating, let alone serving.

I’d look online I decided. Maybe somebody would be willing to give me a start. Not that the food service industry was my dream job but… at my age with my experience it was definitely the best I could get.

It might even pay me enough to save some money. I wanted to move off campus after Sophmore year. Neither Mr. Westfield or my mom were likely to pay for that. And part of my work study arrangement included a cut rate on the dorms.

It was up to me. But I knew I could do it. With just a little bit of luck and hard work, I could do it.

I leaned in and pedaled faster.

Chapter Five

Clay

My eyes were closed but I knew instantly she was there. Watching me as I lay out by the pool in the midday sun. I smirked, feeling her eyes on my skin.

Nevada.

I knew it. I knew she couldn’t stay away forever.
 

I stretched, flexing my muscles. Hoping she liked what she saw. How could she not? I didn’t have a spare inch of fat on me. Still, who knew what was going through that pretty head of hers these days?

I’d been home almost a week and the girl was clearly avoiding me. Most summers I’d see her out by the pool, walking around or talking to the horses.

Yes, she talked to horses. Ever since she was a kid. It was one of her more endearing qualities.

I opened my eyes a crack and frowned.

It wasn’t Nev who was staring at me.

It was Jen.

Shit, I’d never texted her.

Whoops.

“Hey Jen.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. She looked pissed. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with. I decided to make nice instead of being the dick I was capable of being with girls.

“Been busy?”

I sat up and pushed my hair back.

“Uh yeah, just catching up with the guys.”

“Right.”

She stood up. I realized I had to stop her if I ever hoped to be friends again. Even though I was experiencing a startling lack of attraction to her.

Like, no heat. Zero. Zilch.

“Hey- wait. Don’t go yet. Have some iced tea.”

There was a pitcher on a table under an umbrella. I’d actually been thinking about adding some bourbon to it. It was never too early to start drinking after all.

Especially on vacation.

She gave me the side eye, considering. Then she nodded. I got up and poured us each a cup. I knew someone would come around and refill it within ten minutes anyway.

Someone always did.

“How was school?”

Jen was pre-med. She loved regaling me with gross stories of anatomy class. But today she only shrugged. She was distracted, looking at something.

A slim blond girl was walking up the path.

She had a bikini top and denim cut off’s on.

She looked phenomenal.

Nevada had finally chosen to show up.
 

Now of all times.

Perfect.

Still, I was really fucking glad to see her. My big brain
and
my little brain. Fuck, especially my little brain.

Which wasn’t so fucking little for the record.

She rounded the bend and stopped short. Clearly she thought I had left when I got up to get the ice tea. It kind of hurt my feelings that she was avoiding me. And this was pretty much proof that she was.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know there was anyone here.”

She turned to leave but I stopped her.

“Nev, you can use the pool whenever you want. You know that.”

She gave me a look that clearly said ‘I’d rather not.’ But then she shrugged.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to interrupt you guys.”

She looked at Jen with a supreme lack of surprise. Disdain too- just a little but it was definitely there. But she was 100% not surprised that there was a hot girl hanging here with me.

Why should she be surprised? It was a common occurrence. At least, it used to be.

I frowned.

“Nevada this is Jen. Jen, Nevada.”

Nev smiled and nodded.

“Hi Jen.”

Jen was staring at Nevada with a cold look.

“I know who she is.”

Jen turned around and grabbed her bag from the lounge chair.

“See you around Clay.”

Nevada’s mouth dropped open a bit as she watched Jen walk away. But my eyes were on Nev. God was she a sight for sore eyes.

Her bikini top was nothing overly revealing, but fuck if she didn’t fill it out like a Victoria’s Secret model. Her tummy was flat and tan. I could almost reach out and rub my palm over it…

But I didn’t. I had some self-control after all. Less than usual with this girl though.

She cleared her throat and I lifted my eyes to hers. She’d caught me staring. I smiled at her, unconcerned. She was going to have to get used to that.

“Earth to Clay, come in Clay.”

“Do you want some iced tea?”

She shook her head quickly, pulling the grungy looking beach towel off her shoulders,

“No, I’m good thanks.”

I watched her walk over to one of the lounge chairs. Not the one next to mine as I’d hoped. No, she’d chosen one as far from mine as she could get. She spread out her old beach towel and sat down on it.

“You know, we have towels here. Big white fluffy ones.”

She gave me a look and kicked off her tennis shoes. I watched hungrily as she started unbuttoning her jean shorts. I knew she felt funny about using any of the services provided by the staff. Her mom was one of them and she didn’t want to make extra work for them. I knew her reasons but it still annoyed me.

She started shimming her shorts over her gorgeous hips. My mouth went dry as her ass and thighs came into view. Mother nature had been very, very kind to Nevada.

Excessively kind.

It almost wasn’t fair.

I jumped into the pool abruptly, trying to distract my dick. Which had gotten hard almost instantaneously the moment she’d started undressing.

Fuck, that was fast.

I swam a few laps and then over to the edge of the pool near her lounge chair where she was reading a beat up old paperback. I hooked my arms over the edge and grinned up at her legs. Her long, surprisingly tan legs.

That’s right. She went to UCLA. Sunny all year round. Even more so than Sonoma.

“My eyes are up here Clay.”

I laughed. I loved that she wasn’t intimidated by me. Never had been. Lots of girls were, even the rich and beautiful ones.

“I know where they are.”

She rolled her eyes at me. And went back to her book. So I went back to perusing her amazing, perfect, delicious looking body.

She kept ignoring me. It wasn’t just a show either. She was genuinely trying to read her book.

So I did what any reasonable guy would do.

I splashed her.

“Hey!”

I grinned and ducked under the water. When I came up she was saying something.

“What?”

She glared at me.

“Nothing.”

“So did you get a job? In your little short shorts?”

She scowled.

“No. But I think I found something. I might start helping out around here if it doesn’t pan out.”

My stomach sank. I did not want her to be a servant here. Still, it would make her at my beck and call… that could be fun. But she would be out of reach then. There was an unspoken rule about messing around with the help.

As it was, she was kind of in a gray zone. Not that it was going to stop me from getting what I wanted. Nothing ever did.

“Where?”

“Where what?”

“Where did you find a job?”

She sighed, looking embarrassed.

“The club.”

“Wait, my club?”

She nodded sheepishly.

“It was the only place that would take me without experience.”

It was absurd, the shot of lust that went through me at her words. I wanted to be the one to give her experience. Even though I knew that’s not what she meant.

“I’m sure you’ll get it. Do you want me to put in a good word?”

She looked alarmed.

“No, absolutely do not do that.”

“What’s wrong Nevada? Don’t want to owe me any favors?”

She frowned and started to gather up her things.

“Come on, don’t be like that. Come in the water. You know you want to. It’s hot as hell out here.”

She gave me a look and sighed, setting her things back down.

“You would know.”

I laughed. She’d basically just called me the devil. I probably deserved it though hardly anyone would ever say something like that to me. The girl had sass to spare. I leaned against the back of the pool and watched her gracefully dive in.

I’ll admit it.

I was hoping her top would come off.

No such luck.

She did a few laps. I was surprised at how good her strokes looked. She looked like an excellent swimmer. Actually, as far as I could tell, she did everything well.

It was kind of funny that I’d never noticed that before.

“Did you swim at school?”

“Sometimes.”

She was treading water in the deep end. She smiled at me and dove under the water. She came up again in the shallow end.

“Party much?”

“Not really. My mom would kill me if I didn’t keep up my grades.”

Good. For some reason I liked hearing that. Even though I usually hated goodie two shoes. Not that that’s what she was exactly…

“Got a boyfriend?”

Now she rolled her eyes at me.

“No Clay. God, you sound like someone’s dad!”

I bit my tongue and let the relief wash over me. I wasn’t sure why I cared. Even if she’d had a boyfriend, it wouldn’t stop me from trying. I’d been about to say something about how dad’s didn’t always automatically give a shit. Mine sure didn’t.

She didn’t need to hear that though. Even an insensitive dad was better than not having one. I knew that.

I also knew people at school at made fun of her for having a single mom. And for being poor. And for being flat chested.

Well, they’d be eating their words when they saw her this summer, that much was for sure.

And if she was at the club, everyone would see her.

She’d be beating guys off with a stick.

Fuck. I didn’t like the sound of that at all. And what if she chose one of them instead of me? It seemed unlikely with all the years she’d obviously adored me, but who knows? Maybe her school girl crush was gone for real.

I got out of the pool and lay back, thinking and watching her.

It was going to be a long summer. I just hoped it was a long summer of sex with Nevada.

Nevada

I’m not going to lie. It was gratifying to see Clay so taken with me. What’s not gratifying is how damn sure of himself he was.

He was just flirting with me anyway. I doubted he actually meant anything by it. He could, and probably did have fifty girls as speed dial booty calls. And that was so, so not my style.

Especially considering the fact that I was a virgin.

But I would rather die than tell him that.

I would just have to avoid him as much as possible. That’s what I kept telling myself anyway. I just wished he wasn’t so achingly beautiful. In a not-fair-knows-he’s-God’s-gift-to-women kind of way.

Ugh
.

I spent another hour at the pool, just because I couldn’t seem to bring myself to leave. Besides, once I was working it wasn’t not like I will have time to just lay around and swim or sunbathe. Not like all the other kids in this town.

Sometimes it was hard being the only not-insanely-rich kid in this town.

But I was a big girl. I knew life isn’t usually fair. If it was, Clay wouldn’t look like a Greek God. And I’d have a tree that grew money. As it was, I was going to just have to suck it up.

As usual.

Finally, I realized my shoulders were turning pink. If I stayed much longer he’d start to get even smugger, if that was possible. Not that I wasn’t enjoying myself. Clay could be very charming if he wanted to be.

And right now, he clearly wanted to be.

Betsy brought out sandwiches and I took it as my cue to leave.

“Hey, aren’t you hungry?”

I was, but I wasn’t about to take food from the staff. I knew they got the left overs anyway so it’s not like it would go to waste.

“I’m good. See ya.”

He was frowning at me as I wrapped my damp towel around me and slid into my shorts. They fit perfectly and were so soft. At least I could rock denim, even if it wasn’t designer stuff.

“Stay, it’s still early.”

“Yeah but I need to pound the pavement. I need money for next year.”

“Don’t you have a scholarship?”

“Yeah for tuition. But everything else is on me. And my mom.”

He was staring at me with those piercing blue eyes of his. I could tell he’d never thought about having to pay for books or food or anything.
 

Fuck, was he pitying me?

“It’s no big deal. Anyway. Have a good day.”

He was still watching me when I turned around and looked back.

Chapter Six

Clay

“So are you entering this year?”

I shrugged. I knew he meant the club’s tennis tournament. It was a big thing around here and now that I was 21, I was eligible for the adult competition.

There some excellent players at the club so it might be worth my while. Plus, winning would guarantee me ass for days. Years really.

Not that I needed the help. Except when it came to the one girl I wanted…

“Holy shit, is that Mouse?”

My head swiveled so fast I heard the air move. There she was. Nev was in town with her friend. I could never remember her name.

But Mouse?

Mouse was not the right name for Nev anymore.

Babe.

Goddess.

Ice Queen.

She’d been ignoring me since the day at the pool. I could see her sometimes, swimming early in the morning or in the evening. I knew she was deliberately staying away from me.

What I didn’t know was why.

I’d thought about trying to catch her down there but I’d thought better of it. She’d come to me eventually. They always did.