Bad Girls Do: a Billionare Romance Novel (The Everly Brothers Series, Erotic Romance Book 3) (2 page)

Angela’s lips quirked in amusement. “That must have been quite a sight.”

“Yes, I thought his head was going to explode.” Diane stifled a laugh at the memory and lifted her glass for another big sip. When she gurgled up the last of the liquid, she looked down in surprise. She didn’t remember drinking the whole glass, but that explained why her head felt like it was floating. At least the shame of Andrew’s proposal had faded to a dull ache.

“You’re drunk,” Angela observed, looking on in a mixture of amusement and fascination.

“Huh. Guess I am.” There was a first time for everything, and at the ripe old age of twenty-eight, she supposed it was overdue.

The liquor heated her from the inside out, and suddenly she could think of nothing but the telephone conversation she’d had earlier with her mother. “You know, I think my mother’s right. Bad girls
do
have more fun.”

When Angela leaned forward, one of the glittering orbs overhead reflected off her auburn strands, momentarily blinding Diane. “Your mom said that to you?”

Diane shrugged. “It was one of her strategic points for convincing me to have a casual affair.”

Angela laughed and shook her head. “To think, the most scandalous thing my mother and I have ever discussed, was whether the cook and driver were dating behind our backs.”

Sudden inspiration struck, and Diane slammed her empty glass onto the table. “That’s it.”

Angela’s eyes grew wide. “What’s it?”

“I’m going to be a bad girl from here on out.”

After all, her mother was a self-professed bad girl, and look what it had gotten her? More money than she could ever spend, and a bevy of hot, young lovers.

Her friend broke out into laughter. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

Nonplussed, Diane stared at Angela. “Why not?”

“You can’t just
say
you’re a bad girl.”

“I know
that
.” Just because she was drunk didn’t mean she didn’t realize action was required.

She plucked her clutch off the table and dug into it for her cell phone. Then she swiped through it until she opened up her memo app…which, really, took much longer than it should have.

Maybe I shouldn’t have had that last drink.

“Okay. I’m going to make a list of things a bad girl would do.”

Angela arched one brow. “A Bad Girl To-Do list?”

Diane nodded at her friend. Now she got it. “Exactly.”

“Okay, I’ll bite.” Angela scooted her chair closer to Diane, staring down at the empty memo screen. “What’s the first thing on the list going to be?”

Diane thought for a second. “Oh, that’s easy, of course. Have an illicit affair.”

She typed into onto her screen.

Giving her a dubious glance, Angela said, “Let me get this straight. You are going to have casual sex with someone? Without it meaning anything to you?”

That made Diane frown. “What, like it’s hard?”

Just because she’d never done it didn’t mean she wasn’t capable.

Right?

Angela let out a disbelieving laugh. “Okay, well, if you’re going to take it that far, why not go further?”

Diane blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

“If you’re going to have meaningless, bad girl sex, why not indulge in every fantasy you might ever have? Bondage, sex club, voyeurism.” Angela ticked each item off on her finger.

Diane stared at her for a moment before shrugging and adding the suggestions that interested her to her list. From Angela’s guffaw, she might have been teasing, but Diane couldn’t think of a single reason why Angela wasn’t right. If she was going to be bad, why not do it all the way?

After typing everything into her phone, she looked up at Angela expectantly. “Come on, help me think up more stuff for my list.”

“Somehow I have a feeling this is going to backfire on you,” Angela murmured. But, like the good friend she was, she dutifully helped anyway.

***

This New Year’s Eve ball had started out just liked any other boring family function. Wealthy socialites gathered around to gossip about where they’d be summering, while their male counterparts congregated to compare the size of their dicks—or maybe it was stock portfolios, he could never keep up.

Okay, perhaps he was being a bit jaded about the whole thing, but the truth was, Sam Everly was tired of the lifestyle his family name provided. As the youngest son of the late publishing magnate, Andrew Everly, Senior, and official Art Director of Everly Publications, Sam was accustomed to socializing with Manhattan’s elite, but it got old after awhile.

Unfortunately, the company was undergoing a worldwide expansion spurred on by Sam’s older brother, Andrew, which meant there would be many more of these types of events in the foreseeable future. At the beginning of the night, the thought of that had grated at him. But now, he found himself well and truly distracted. To his surprise, the cause of his distraction was none other than Diane Milstrom.

When his older brother James’s girlfriend had pointed her out as a dating prospect earlier in the night, Sam had laughed at the thought of ever hooking up with Diane. Not only was she the daughter of one of the company’s investors, but she’d also dated his oldest brother Andrew for a few months. More importantly, the woman was about as interesting as reading his company’s monthly corporate reports. So while he could objectively recognize her hotness—with her stacked body, long, blonde hair, and green eyes, she gave Ivanka Trump a run for her money—he couldn’t be less interested.

But then, as he’d been headed to the bar for a refill on his Chivas whiskey, he’d overheard her talking to a friend about making a bad girl list. Being your average red-blooded male, that had stopped him dead in his tracks. The rest of what he’d heard Diane say had veered into the
oh-so-interesting
category.

Andrew’s decision to propose to his girlfriend Hailey had come as a surprise to Sam, but it wasn’t completely unexpected. Anyone could see he was head over heels in love with her. But in his eagerness to propose to the woman he loved, Andrew had failed to take into account the fact that his ex would be here. Clearly Diane had taken offense to that.

It was beyond intriguing that her response to Andrew’s proposal was to decide to go bad.

Maybe there’s more to her than meets the eye.

He should have left his observation at that and went on his merry way, but something about her comments had struck a chord within him. Who knew better than he the pressures of dealing with Manhattan society, and the urge to just say, “Fuck it” and do whatever the hell you wanted? It was something he’d done years ago, and he didn’t regret it for a moment.

The word “bondage” floated to his ears, and much to his shock, the thought of engaging in that very activity with Diane entered his mind. Even more surprising was the way his body responded to it.

Shit
. Now he was battling a stiffy right in the middle of a crowded ballroom.

Urging himself to move on, he forced his feet to carry him to the bar and get that refill he now desperately needed.

He was in the process of doing just that when his older brother James sidled up to him, his hair tousled and a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Still here?” James asked.

“Yup,” Sam drawled, giving his brother a once-over. He had a dab of lipstick right above one of the buttons on his stark-white shirt. “I see you and Lys found somewhere cozy to have sex.”

When James scowled and looked around to ensure no one had heard him, Sam let out a laugh. James and Lyssa had started dating a few months back, and they’d pretty much been doing it like bunnies ever since. For Sam, it was a win-win. Not only did he get to see his brother walk around happy, but he’d also become so fucking easy to tease.

“Don’t worry,” Sam said to him. “I doubt anyone noticed but me.”

James relaxed, leaning onto the bar. “Can you believe Andrew’s engaged?”

“No.” Sam chuckled. “Sucker.”

Secretly, though, he was glad to see Andrew with Hailey. Her carefree temperament loosened him up. They were a good match.

James no doubt knew how Sam felt inside because all he did was grin. “It’ll happen to you one day, too. Then we’ll see who the sucker is.”

“Never.” Sam loved women, but settling down with just one of them wasn’t in the cards for him.

“That’s what I said, too.” James straightened and peered over at Lyssa. “Well, the night’s about over. We’re heading back to my place. Wanna walk out with us?”

Sam hesitated. He knew he
should
go with them. Andrew and Hailey had left a short while ago, and his best friends Zoey and Zach Beringer—i.e. the twins—had left right after them. The only other people he cared to spend time with here were James and Lyssa.

Then his gaze landed on Diane, who was looking decidedly sloppier as she leaned closer to her friend while typing something onto her screen.

“Nah,” he found himself saying instead. “I think I’m gonna stick around for another drink or two.”

“Suit yourself. Just make sure you eventually find your way home.”

With a clap on Sam’s shoulder, James turned and left.

Ignoring the twinge of guilt that tightened his chest over his failure to leave with his brother, Sam turned back toward the table where Diane and her friend sat. Feeling only slightly less pervy than a stalker, he grabbed his glass of whiskey and sidled closer. He purposely kept his eyes on the thinning crowd of people on the dance floor as he lifted his glass for a long sip.

Diane’s voice drifted to him, clear as a bell. “Why not? Doing what I’m supposed to do isn’t getting me anywhere.”

“You’re just mad because your dad barely even said hello to you tonight,” her friend told her.

“No, that’s…well, yes, I am mad about that. But that’s not why,” Diane insisted. “I’m pushing thirty and I haven’t ever done anything really daring. And honestly, the most exciting sex I’ve ever had was with Mr. Winky, and that’s just sad.”

“Um, who?” her friend asked.

“My vibrator.”

Her friend let out a scandalized laugh, and Sam manufactured a cough to cover his own chuckle.

“I feel like I need to live a little, you know?”

The plaintive note in Diane’s voice caused an answering twinge in Sam’s chest. Because even though she wasn’t talking to him, he did sort of know where she was coming from.

“Well, just don’t do anything until you’ve had a chance to really think it through, okay?” Diane’s friend rose from her seat. “I have to visit the ladies’. You?”

“I’m fine,” Diane murmured.

“Okay, then wait for me right here. When I come back, we’ll catch a cab together.”

With those words, Diane’s friend turned and walked off, leaving her momentarily alone.

Giving into impulse, Sam turned back to Diane. She sighed and set her phone, which was covered in a pink rhinestone-studded case, onto the table. Then she leaned over it in a way that made her look sad and lost. The movement gave him a clear view of the generous cleavage spilling out over the top of her slinky golden gown.

To his chagrin, he felt himself growing hard again.

Don’t be a dick. Just walk away.

She’d clearly had too much to drink. Doing anything other than leaving her alone would be stupid and wrong. Yet even as he thought that, he found his feet moving directly toward her.

Before he could even process what he was doing, he found himself taking the seat Diane’s friend had just vacated.

Her eyes widened as she looked over at him and then she groaned. “Oh, no.”

He eyed her in confusion. Had he done something to her he didn’t remember?

“What?”

Diane’s lips puckered into an enticing pout. “Nothing personal, but the last thing I want to see right now is another Everly.”

“Ouch.” He mock scowled to hide the twinge of hurt her words had sparked. “We’re not all alike, you know.”

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I know.”

He hesitated for a moment, at a loss for words. Something in her expression made him want to apologize for Andrew’s carelessness. He opened his mouth to do just that, when she crossed her arms over her waist, unintentionally pushing the swell of her breasts together and making his brain momentarily short circuit.

His cock twitched in his pants, and when he spoke, his words weren’t the comfort he’d thought to give.

“I overheard you talking about your list.”

Her breath hitched. “You what?”

“Your list.” He’d already mentioned it. No going back now. “I heard you talking about it.”

Diane locked gazes with him, her light green eyes dilated in a way that made him think of sex. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Oh, she wanted to play that game, did she? If there was anything he was good at, it was games.

Grinning, he plucked her phone off the table.

“What are you doing?”

She lunged for it, but he raised his hand in the air, and her palms landed on his chest instead. She sucked in another breath, her chest heaving in a way that made it hard to take his eyes from her breasts, and then slowly sat back.

Seizing the moment, he swiped through her phone and found the list. Some demon inside of him prompted him to recite it aloud. “Oral sex in public. Spanking. Bondage.”

Well, damn. He didn’t know why he’d felt the need to tease her, but with every word he read, his humor evaporated. In its place, rose sharp, dark need.

He hesitated on the last item she’d listed. “Play slave to his master.”

When his gaze rose to hers, two bright spots of color decorated her cheeks. She could’ve slapped him, or cursed him out and stalked away. Both of those would have been well within her right.

Instead, she lifted her chin haughtily and said, “So you’ve read my Bad Girl To-Do list. So what?”

Even as admiration for her gumption coursed through him, his insides twisted with a melding of emotions: chagrin, lust, confusion, all rolled into one tight ball in his gut.

So what?
So she’d just typed his every secret desire into her pink-studded cell phone, that was what.