The Bad Boy Next Door: A Red Hot Bad Boy Romance Read Online Free

showed up anyway,” Amanda laughed. Her voice was gentler then. “Do you need me to come help you set up house or anything like that?”
    “No. I’ll be okay. If I had stayed there, I would have been the dead lottery winners’ kid for the rest of my life. Their deaths were just so public . I was tired of people looking at me and asking about it.”
    “I understand. Look, I have some vacation days coming up in a few weeks. I’ll come down for a long weekend. Your house no doubt needs a little feminine touch. I’m guessing you haven’t even bought dishes or proper groceries yet.”
    “You know me too well, Aunt Mandy.” After a few more minutes of chit chat they got off of the phone and Isaac hit the button that would show his contact list. He selected the number that would connect him to a booze delivery service. They didn’t normally deliver but when Isaac offered to pay double their retail price and a delivery fee to the driver, they capitulated. Isaac was realizing that money really could buy you anything you wanted.
    ***
    Ruby’s agent called her around seven that evening. She had her headphones on and the windows in her house closed.
    “Hi, Ruby, it’s Blanca.”
    “Hi, Blanca. How did you like the book?” Ruby pushed back from her desk and hung the headphones on the hook she had put on the wall next to her desk.
    “Love it. There may be a few edits needed here and there, but that’s to be expected. What’s that sound in the background?” Blanca asked Ruby.
    Ruby sighed, irritated. “That is my new next door neighbor. He has thrown a party for the last two nights until after midnight.”
    “Wow. Is he right next door to you?” Blanca’s voice had an edge of incredulity to it.
    “No. He’s about half a block from me, but there’s nothing between us. So the sound carries, even when my windows are closed.” Ruby steered the question back to the book.
    “You should really do something about that noise. My god, it must be a headache,” Blanca said before hanging up.
    Ruby sighed and looked out the window across the expanse of lawn between the two houses. I really should go over there and introduce myself, maybe ask them to turn the music down. She walked out on to her porch and down the steps. Then she stopped and stared.
    The bonfire had been lit again, and the dancers were circled around it once more. The sound of some kind of Middle Eastern drum was vying for airspace with the Bollywood style music pouring from inside the house. All of the windows were open and once more all of the lights were on. Ruby took a few more steps and then stopped again. What if she went over there and they laughed at her for telling them to quiet down? She looked at the neighboring houses and noticed that both of them were dark, the driveways empty.
    No wonder the neighbors weren’t complaining, They’re not even home! Ruby took a few more steps and stopped once more. She was feeling nervous about confronting her neighbor while he was surrounded by all of his friends. His drunk, rowdy friends. Ruby turned and quick-stepped back into her house. She looked at the clock and saw that it was just after ten. She sighed and wondered if it would do any good to call the police again.
    Probably not, she thought to herself. They went out there last night and here he is partying again.
    Her phone rang again. This time it was Julia.
    “I just got off the phone with Blanca,” she began. “We have things arranged for the launch party. If all goes to plan it’ll be in about three months.”
    “In Miami?” Ruby asked.
    “No,” Julia responded slowly. “I couldn’t sell her on Miami; too expensive, she thought, to set it all up.”
    “Oh okay. Where then?” Ruby’s first two had been in New York City, one at a hotel and one at a swanky night club.
    “Well, we were actually thinking closer to home. There’s a pretty happening LGBT bar in downtown Dallas. Blanca thought that since the new book has a trans-gendered