Read Valentine (A Standalone Novel) (Bad Boy Romance Book) for Free Online Page A

ignore my need to run for the door and go
back to my room for the evening. Between the conversation with my mother, then
my father, and then the car breaking down, I was over it. All of it.
    "You look like you need a drink,
beautiful." A blond frat boy I'd never met handed me a glass of something
red and wagged his eyebrows at me. "It might help loosen you up a
little."
    "No, thanks." I handed the drink
back to him and reached for the closed beer bottle Amy offered me. Her eyes lit
up when she saw the guy.
    "Kade Jones? Wow. I watched you
totally kill it on the field last fall. You're headed for the NFL soon,
right?"
    I popped the top on my beer and took a
long drink of it as I ran my eyes over the stud in front of me. He was eye
candy, for sure, but he was looking to score and I was in a relationship. Not
that I would have been interested if I wasn't. One-night stands were for the
needy people in life and I wasn't one of them.
    Try
again.
    "Yeah. And, you are?" He
extended his hand to Amy, which gained him automatic points with me. Most guys
treated her like she wasn't there.
    "Amy, and this is my friend
Valentine, but we just call her Val."
    I gave her a look and shook the guys hand
as he gave me a cheeky grin. "Valentine, hmm? That's a pretty interesting
name."
    "It's my mother's favorite holiday.
What can I say? She's original." I removed my hand from his and turned to
let my eyes run across the crowd of people. "Where's the rest of the
crew?"
    "Katelyn was with Martin out on the
back patio, and Lucinda is on the dance floor in the other room." Amy gave
me a quick glance before turning back to Kade. "You like to dance? Cause
you know Val here loves to…"
    "I do." He smiled and reached
out, taking my hand again and moving us into the far too big living room. It
was cleared out to make way for the dance floor. A large strobe light hung from
the center of the room and people jumped with their hands in the air.
    "I'm not in the mood-" I started
to protest, but he turned and pulled me against the front of him, wrapping his
hands lightly around my waist.
    "I'm not trying to sleep with you,
beautiful. I just wanted to dance. You're not from around here, are you? We're
not all bad guys." He smiled warmly, and I considered the possibility that
a dance was all he wanted, but the thought faded fast.
    "I'm from just up the street, and I
know you country boys better than you know yourself." I gave him a tight
smile and relaxed a little. "My boyfriend is the captain of the hockey team
at UMN."
    "Oh, I know Paul. He's a pretty
decent hockey player." Kade chuckled and spun me around, helping me to
loosen up even more. He wasn't a bad dancer, at all.
    "He's a pretty decent boyfriend,
too." I laughed and took another drink of the beer. A quick memory flashed
across my vision of the guy I'd met on the side of the road. Todd? Tanner?
Tate. Yeah. Tate.
    "Just decent, hmm?" The handsome
boy in front of me pulled me closer as the music slowed. "I'm thinking
someone as interesting as yourself shouldn't be tied down. You need to live a
little and date a lot."
    "Interesting? You barely know
me." I finished my beer and handed the empty to Amy as she gave me another
one. She should have been dancing with the guy, not me.
    "What if I want to get to know
you?" He ran his hand over my lower back, pressing in softly and forcing
me flush against him. The strong muscles of his chest felt good, but one dance
was all I had in me. I wasn't interested in a friendship with anyone that
looked as good as this guy. He was just after one thing, and I wasn't
interested.
    I almost wished I could be. Jealousy ran
through me for people that could simply show up to a party, find a good partner
for the night, and get lost in the pleasure of being touched, fucked, and held.
I wasn't that girl, though I wanted to be.
    Only
needy people do that.
    My internal thoughts were starting to
sound more and more like my mother. It was disturbing on far too many levels to
think too