Dirty Little Mistake (Dirty #2) Read Online Free Page B

fingers through my hair. “How bad can it be?”
    “Pretty bad.”
    I forced another smile. “It hardly seems fair to drag a guy out in the woods, cry on his shoulder – literally – then not tell him why.”
    “I didn’t drag you out here!” she protested.
    “No?”
    “I was already here when you came.”
    “Are you saying I’m following you?”
    “Are you purposely avoiding my question about Ian?”
    “He’s my cousin.” I relented. “And I know him better than I want to.”
    “And from what you know…Could he like me?”
    I sighed. “What do you want me to say, Brenna?”
    “Honestly? I want you to say that I’m as hot as every other little creampuff that’s rolled through his bed and that I stand a chance.”
    I’d never heard such an apt description of the women in my cousin’s life before.  It might’ve been funny if she didn’t sound so serious.
    A war waged itself inside of me.  I could tell her what I thought of her in relation to Ian and his creampuffs.  I could tell her that Ian didn’t deserve her and that even if he had her, he wouldn’t know what to do with her half as well as I would.
    Of course, I’d sound like a crazy person.
    She was looking at me so hopefully with that little bit of a tremor in her lower lip and the leftover tears in her eyes and I just couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t make her any more sad than she already was.
    “The thing is…I don’t think you’re much of a creampuff,” I said slowly.
    “No?”
    I shook my head. “Nope. You’re more of a quindim.”
    “A what?”
    “Exactly.”
    “Explain,” she commanded.
    “Do I have to?” I teased with a grin.
    “Well. You can’t just drag a girl out into the woods and call her names and not tell her why.”
    My smile widened even further. “So that’s how it’s going to be?”
    “Yes.”
    I let out an exaggerated sigh and prepared to hand her a flip explanation.  What came out instead was the truth.
    “When I was ten, my mom took me with her on a trip. She was following some asshole around South America – bad habit of hers, by the way – and we wound up in Brazil, in some poorer neighbourhood and somehow we got separated. One second I was holding her hand, the next I wasn’t. I remember thinking I should stay in one place, like they tell you to do. Only it was midday and the streets were crowded with people and all of them looked dangerous to me. So I panicked and I ran. Who knows where I thought I was going? I sure as hell didn’t.”
    The words tumbled out, and in two minutes, I’d told her more about my life before my time in foster care than I had ever told anyone else.
    “That must’ve been scary.” Brenna placed a gentle hand on my arm.
    I met her eyes, then cleared my throat awkwardly. “Eventually, o ne of the vendors took me in. While he had someone search for my mother, he fed me these little custards. They were the best damned thing I’d ever tasted. So a quindim…It’s a Brazilian dessert.”
    A cute little frown creased her forehead. “And you think Ian would like quindim?”
    “I know that asshole better than he knows himself, and I guarantee you he’d never want to eat anything else if he got a hold of a quindim. All he’d have to do is try it once.”
     
     
    ***
     

Chapter Four
     
    Brenna
     
    As Ridley finished speaking, a bubble of hope rose to the surface of my heart.  I knew he was teasing me and placating me and generally being nice, but a small part of me felt that he was being sincere, too.  He really thought I stood a chance of being better than a creampuff.
    I grabbed his hand and squeezed thankfully.
    Ridley’s palm was warm and welcoming, and fit over mine perfectly, not dwarfing it or crushing it, just sitting with it, fingers not quite intertwined, like that’s the way it was supposed to be. 
    I met his eyes from across the bench.  They were a deep, stormy shade of grey.
    The kind of eyes a girl could get lost in.
    The thought caught me off