The Bad Boy Next Door: A Red Hot Bad Boy Romance Read online

  “Hi there, Ruby. It’s Mandy. Just wanted to touch base with you and see how you’re doing. Isaac called me last night and basically told me what happened between you two. I am so sorry. I never should have advised you to go over there. Please call me if you aren’t too angry at me.”

  Ruby smiled, touched that Amanda had the consideration to call her. She felt a little embarrassed as well because she didn’t know how much detail Isaac had gone into. Did he tell his aunt that Ruby had thrown keys at his date? Or that she had shrieked at him several times like a banshee? His aunt understands, Ruby decided. She called Amanda Johnson and listened to the phone ring twice before the woman answered on the other end.

  “Hi, Ruby! I’m so sorry,” Amanda began.

  “No. Don’t apologize, Mandy. This wasn’t your fault. Isaac made his choice; this is all on him. I had to confront him at some point,” Ruby tried to assure the older woman that she wasn’t at fault.

  “I still feel bad. If I’d had any inkling that little brat was seeing someone else, I would have tried to break it to you gently and certainly wouldn’t have sent you over there to confront him about his childishness. This whole thing is out of hand if you ask me,” Amanda continued. “I can understand his grief about Reggie, but this is just too much.”

  “I was up all night with bad dreams, crying, and the like,” Ruby admitted. “I just woke up a little bit ago actually. I shut the phone off so Isaac couldn’t call me. He sent four texts but I’ve not read them yet.” Then she told Amanda in detail what had happened when she went next door the night before.

  “That’s it. I’m on my way,” Amanda proclaimed in a tone of voice that left no room for dickering. “Isaac is out of hand, and this has got to stop.”

  “But what can we do?” Ruby asked. “Do you happen to have any control at all over his trust fund? Maybe if you threaten to cut him off he’ll straighten out?” Ruby was at a loss for what should be done.

  “No. I would have to prove that he’s not mentally competent to take care of himself. Besides, I’d rather resolve it as peacefully as possible and without causing any further drama if at all possible,” Amanda explained.

  “Okay. How long does it take to get here?”

  “About ten hours, so don’t expect me until tomorrow late in the morning,” Amanda responded. “I’m going to get my assistant here to oversee the farm until I can get back.”

  “Okay. Just come to my house when you get here. I’m home every day,” Ruby said.

  The two women hung up and Ruby called Julia to relay the story of the Isaac Confrontation once more. Julia was boiling mad by the end.

  “That little weasel. I’ll run his ass over next time I see him crossing the street,” Julia said with venom in her voice.

  “You don’t need to wind up in jail,” Ruby said. She was touched nevertheless by her friend’s willingness to kill for her should the need arise.

  “Then I’ll egg his house in the middle of the night. I’ll egg his house and throw a rocks through a few windows.”

  Ruby laughed. “What are we, twelve now? We are not committing any felonies, Julia. His aunt is on her way and will be here tomorrow morning some time. Until then, I’m holing up in my office and finishing my damn book. Then I’m outlining the last book in the trilogy and jotting down plot ideas for the thriller I’m publishing.” Ruby tried to speak matter-of-factly though she felt sick to her stomach about everything that had happened in the last fourteen hours. What she really wanted was to curl up with a large cheese pizza and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and watch tear jerkers all day on the DVD player. She knew Julia would support this pity party if she asked her to, but Ruby wanted to shove passed it all for once and not wallow in it.

  I wallowed in it enough last night and early this morning. Time to get moving.

  Julia insisted on taking Ruby out that night to a posh night club for which she was organizing the grand opening. Reluctantly Ruby agreed. “I don’t have anything to wear to a posh night club.”

  “You can borrow something of mine. It’ll be great, you’ll see,” Julia promised. “I’ll be there at five to dress you.”

  Ruby went back to her office after hanging up the phone and got back to work on her writing. A reminder popped up on her computer’s desktop: Unread Emails was all it said. Ruby remembered then that just as she had shut down her computer the night before, an email from Blanca had appeared in her Inbox. She opened the email and read it.

  Hi, Ruby!

  I think the idea of branching out is a great idea. Just don’t alienate your current fans by giving up the romance genre altogether, okay?

  Publishing under your own name is fine. In fact, if you’re changing genres I recommend using your name or another pen name.

  If you want to send me your outline I can shop it around and see if I can get a bite. If I can’t then I will refer you to a good friend of mine who works in that genre on a regular basis.

  Also: the network owner who was personally interested in Love and Old Lace has accepted the invite to your launch party! I am so giddy right now.

  We are moving it to the Hilton down town Dallas. One of the penthouse suites. Julia is handling all the arrangements, like the darling that she is.

  -Blanca

  Ruby’s breath caught in her throat and she could hardly breathe as she read and reread the email a third and fourth time. Her mind raced aimlessly in circles. She felt like flapping her hands and dancing in circles and screaming, “Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh.” Instead she took several deep breaths to calm her racing nerves and calmly sent a text to Julia regarding the confirmation of a certain network owner coming to the launch party. She laughed aloud at Julia’s response:

  OMG! OMG! OMG!

  “My thoughts exactly,” Ruby shrieked with happiness at the phone.

  The day looked a little brighter then, and Ruby found herself looking forward to going out for a night on the town with her best friend.

  Screw Isaac. He lost a good thing.

  Chapter14

  Julia arrived promptly at the appointed time, garment bags in hand. Ruby let her in and they went upstairs to get ready to head out on the town. While Ruby stripped to her blue lace bra and matching underwear, Julia started unzipping the garment bags and pulling clothing out of them. The first item she held up next to Ruby was a red sequined dress with a flared skirt and beaded accents along the hem line. The bodice had a sweetheart neckline accented with beads that matched the hemline and had spaghetti style straps. There was a gossamer, red silk shoulder wrap to go with it.

  “Wow,” Ruby breathed. “That looks too fancy, doesn’t it? What kind of night club is this anyway?”

  Julia stripped down to only her underwear, her full breasts swaying as she moved. She put on a sleeveless blue bandage dress and looked at herself in the full length mirror. The skirt swirled like gauze over the shimmering, solid fabric beneath it. “Well,” she said, “It’s called Sanguine, and the interior is done in simply luscious red and pink velvets. They have a slightly medieval theme, huge tapestries covering the walls and the like.”

  Ruby raised an eye brow. “Sounds kind of dangerous.”

  Julia laughed at her friend and said, “This from the woman who writes adrenaline junkie romance novels for a living.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Ruby tried on the red dress and twirled in front of the mirror. It set off her dark skin nicely, she thought, and wondered if she had any dressy sandals that would match. Her friend had thought of everything, though. Ruby saw her pull a pair of strappy red sandals out of the bottom of the garment bag.

  “There, now you’ll be perfect,” Julia said.

  Ruby slid the shoes on and then looked herself over once more. “I need to do something with my hair. I’m thinking a red headband?”

  Julia nodded and motioned for Ruby to sit in front of her in the vanity chair. She ran her hands through Ruby’s hair and then grabbed a length of slender, red fabric. She intertwined it through Ruby’s hair and tied
it off underneath.

  “Beautiful,” she pronounced. “Let’s go.”

  As she buckled her seatbelt, Ruby cast a glance in the direction of Isaac’s house. It was dark and the curtains were closed. She wondered briefly where he was and then forced the thought away as Julia pulled the vehicle out of Ruby’s drive way and headed for downtown Dallas.

  At the club, the two of them go out of the vehicle and Julia handed the keys off to a valet. She and Ruby looped elbows and walked up to the bouncer who recognized Julia on sight and let then through the velvet rope.

  “Thanks, Charlie,” Julia said with a wink to the large man. He smiled and nodded at her before replacing the rope.

  Inside, the music was already pumping through the speakers and a throng of bodies was writhing on the dance floor. Julia led Ruby to the bar and ordered them drinks. She handed the bartender her credit card to start a tab and took the proffered cocktails. Ruby took a long drink of hers and watched the dancers on the floor. She found herself thinking about Isaac without meaning to. She took another drink of her cocktail and wished he were here with her, one strong arm around her, hand intimately resting at the small of her back.

  Julia overheard Ruby sigh and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Missing him?” When Ruby nodded, Julia set both of their drinks on the bar and pulled her friend out to the dance floor.

  Bodies were gyrating in time with the bass notes thrumming through the air like a maniacal heartbeat. The two women held hand, facing each other, and twisted back and forth in time with the music. The Disc Jockey was female, Ruby noticed. She was wearing a purple brocade bustier and a skirt that had been made by stitching together brightly colored bandannas in purple and blue tie-dyed pattern. Ruby liked the look and wondered if she could duplicate the skirt pattern at home. When the song ended, she and Julia went back to the bar for fresh drinks.

  ***

  Isaac sat on the couch which was still in the dining room, staring into the darkness that surrounded him. The strippers had packed up the portable dancing poles and after checking every nook and cranny of the room and couch for spare dollar bills and loose change, they had disappeared without a backward glance. The house looked like New Orleans the day after Mardi Gras ended. Not wanting to deal with the mess and unable to stomach the sight of the place post-party, Isaac had shut all of the lights in the house off and closed all of the curtains to shut out the moonlight as well.

  He had screwed up big time, and he knew it. Isaac had known from the second he sent that first party invite out on his social media page, that he was being reckless and making a huge mistake. But he somehow convinced himself that life should be lived without limits, without abandon, and that it had been wrong for him to try and confine himself to the role of boyfriend and father. Isaac found himself wishing that Genie Randles had never found his aunt’s phone number, that she had stayed gone when she moved to Nevada, that they had never met in high school. His arms were wrapped around himself, and tears coursed down his unshaven face as he replayed the party form the night before in his mind.

  I never should have started flirting with Priscilla. I knew it was going to end badly the second I looked at her in those tight leather pants and that skimpy red halter top and asked her to dance.

  Isaac told himself in the moment that it was just fun, dancing at a party, but somewhere inside, his conscious was screaming a warning. It won’t just be a dance though and you know it. Isaac didn’t listen to the intelligent half of his brain, choosing instead to impress Priscilla by doing a keg stand. He had been tipsy afterward, to say the least. Then Priscilla surprised him by doing a keg stand of her own. Isaac recalled the way her red halter top, which was already a midriff baring garment, had slid down, exposing a see-through red mesh bra underneath. The party turned into a whirlwind for them then, dancing and drinking cocktails. Somehow, they had managed to amble up the stairs and into the master bedroom where Isaac’s inner warning bells were screaming like air raid sirens. They were muted however by the copious amounts of booze he had ingested, paired with his general apathy towards making intelligent decisions.

  Isaac pulled himself back to the present and the darkened house. He laid down on the couch and tried to remember what made him turn his back on Ruby. Not only her, but Aunt Amanda. He had all but thrown her luggage out the upstairs window, when all of the fault for what had happened lay with Genie Randles. Isaac knew his aunt was only looking out for him, and Ruby too for that matter had only been trying to look out for his best interests.

  Not that I deserve any of that now, he thought bitterly. The tears flowed again, but he didn’t care. He needed to purge himself of the bad feelings and negativity so that he could move on and see if things could be repaired with Aunt Amanda and Ruby. No, any bitterness and anger Isaac felt, he now directed at Genie. Genie and her mother, Judith. Judith had probably put her daughter up to the whole thing, Isaac decided. Judith had always been the money-grubbing one, and if that’s the only environment Genie grew up in then who would be surprised that she had followed in the unfortunate footsteps of her mother? At least she isn’t an alcoholic, Isaac thought.

  Should he reach out to Genie and forgive her, at least find that little bit of closure? He didn’t really want to, if he was being honest with himself. He didn’t want anything to do with that woman ever again if he could help it. After thinking it over for a while, he decided he would write her a letter and send it to her. He would get everything off his chest and then wash his hands of it and move on with his life. Isaac stood up in the darkness and stretched, wondering vaguely what time it was. The face of the clock on the microwave told him it was after ten.

  Isaac looked out the window and saw that Ruby’s house was dark. “Can’t start there then,” he said to himself. He rummaged around the house, opening curtains as he went, fumbling through the half light of the moon, looking for his phone. He finally found it upstairs under the bed in one of the guest rooms. Isaac pulled up his aunt’s phone number and dialed it. It went to voice mail so he left a message telling her he was sorry he had acted like an asshole and would she please call him when she got the message so he could grovel in person? Then he dialed Ruby’s phone. No answer there either and it went to voice mail after two rings. Another message left; basically the same one he left for Amanda.

  ***

  Ruby felt her phone vibrating and pulled it out of her hand bag. “It’s Isaac,” she half-shouted to Julia.

  Julia frowned and took the phone from her before hitting the button that would send the call to voice mail. Then she handed it back after turning it off and shook her head at Ruby. “Not tonight. Tonight he doesn’t exist.” Then Julia excused herself for a little bit saying that since she had organized this grand opening, she needed to go give some face time to the more important guests.

  “You never know when one of them might want me for a project,” she said into Ruby’s ear.

  Ruby sat on her bar stool, sipping ice water with lemon slices floating in it. Her feet tapped rhythmically and she found herself head-bopping along to the music. Normally she wouldn’t consider herself a fan of the electronica and techno genres, but she was realizing that even they had their place. Like here in a club, she thought, where all people are looking for in their music is something they can dance to. It doesn’t need to be high art, it just has to have good bass lines. She turned back to the bar and ordered another lemon water. The bartender winked at her and obliged.

  Julia came back shortly thereafter with a smile on her face and three new business cards. “The fishing expedition was a success.”

  “Did you land a whale, then?” Ruby asked.

  “Might as well have. One of those men is Price Willoughby Ainsbury,” Julia responded, excitement in her voice.

  Ruby half smiled. “Wow. Now that is probably the most hoity-toity, aristocratic name I’ve ever heard.” Then Ruby lifted her nose in the air and cocked her pinkie as she picked up the glass of water. “But not just any Ainsburys. He’s from th
e Hamptons Ainsburys.”

  Julia couldn’t help but giggle. “Yeah, he might as well be an aristocrat. The man is a loaded land developer. He’s building a casino in Carson City and he wants me, me! to organize the grand opening for it!”

  Ruby almost choked on her water. She set the glass down and started flapping her hands. Julia started flapping her hands in response. Finally Ruby managed to choke out her words. “That is the best news ever! You are practically going to be a celebrity! Your name is already moving in the upper circles. I’m so happy for you!”

  “Me too. It’s not a done deal yet, but I gave him a brochure of my services and the names of three other upper-end clients who were happy with my services. As a sort of testimonial you see.”

  “Wow. This is cause for celebration. We should find a restaurant.”

  Julia laughed and put a hand on her friend’s arm. “I think you’re tipsy and we should go home.”

  “Noooo. I wanna go have a big ole Belgian Waffle with strawberries on it.” Ruby rubbed her stomach, her speech slightly slurred.

  “Come on,” Julia looped her arm through Ruby’s and led her friend out the front doors of the club. She handed her ticket to the valet who immediately jogged off to retrieve her vehicle.

  Julia dropped a sleepy Ruby off in front of her house soon after. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Let me call you instead,” Ruby countered. “Amanda is coming back tomorrow and it would be easier if I call you after the ordeal is done.”

  Julia agreed and watched to make sure her friend made it through the front door before she pulled away. As she rolled past Isaac’s house, she noticed that a light was on in the living room now. She was half tempted go to the gas station and pick up a carton of eggs. Or toilet paper. She decided against it however on the grounds that she was a grown-ass woman who didn’t have to act like a teenager to get revenge on someone for her friend. But if Ruby even hints that she wants to egg his house I’m in.