Hard Core (Hard As Nails Book 3) by Hope Conrad Read Free Book Online

me.
     

Chapter Eight
     
     
    Alyssa
     
    My mind is dizzy, and my eyes blurry when I awaken from a deep sleep. The best sleep I’ve had on this side of my father’s most recent health scare, to be exact.
    A deep enough sleep to escape the reality of the world, where dreams don’t dare interfere with complete solace. But there’s a strange feeling when I open my eyes and see the bed sheets scrunched up beside me.
    Axel is gone.
    Maybe it was all a dream. After all, what would a man like Axel want with a girl like me anyway? It’s not that I’m not attractive. I am. But waitressing in a strip club is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.
    Axel, on the other hand, is a natural fighter. He prefers to ride a bike over driving a car. He’s a bad boy, and I’ve sworn off bad boys since my mom left me and my dad for one.
    Bad boys are no good for you. They’ll drag you into their troubles and upend your entire life. Hell, I stay away from boys in general because they’re nothing but heartbreak and annoyance.
    And yet, there is an empty feeling in the pit of my gut when I roll onto my other side, and scan my bedroom. He’s still nowhere to be seen.
    I slide out of bed, wrapping myself in a white sheet before making my way out of the bedroom. The front door has been left unlocked, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that he’s long gone.
    That’s good, I think. I wanted sex, and Axel was the perfect man to give it to me. What I didn’t want was anything remotely resembling the start of a relationship. Still, there’s an annoying hollow feeling in my stomach.
    If I had to judge the previous night on a scale from one to ten, my time with Axel was off the charts. What happened between the two of us—adults and consenting strangers—was the perfect distraction, enough so I could finally get the sleep I so needed.
    But apparently, it wasn’t enough to make me feel satisfied.
    Even hours later, all I want is more of Axel.
    And that is a very dangerous thing.
     
    * * *
     
    After breakfast, I call Marley. When she doesn’t pick up, I text her. Still nothing. I wait for her to call me back, using the time to replay my night with Axel in my head, but when she still doesn’t call, I get dressed. I’d visit her, but she never told me where she lived. I call her again, begging her to get in touch. I run a few errands, and even attend an open audition for a reality TV show. It’s not the part I’ve been dreaming about since I was a young child, but it has the potential to pay well, and in my current circumstances, that’s all that matters. I need money more than I need stardom, and I need it fast. If I can’t get it through acting, it looks more and more like I’m going to have to give stripping a try.
    Stripping. It’s such a mild word for what really occurs; it just doesn’t resonate with the emotions, good, bad, and ugly, that must go hand-in-hand with a woman dancing with her tits out, gyrating on a pole. That’s going to be me soon, I think.
    I leave the audition with an apprehensive feeling in my stomach, and negativity brewing in my mind. I’m too out of my game, even after a mind-clearing fuck last night. I totally blew the audition, and it was for a damn reality show. It shouldn’t even count as a real audition in my book.
    By the time I pull into the gravel parking lot outside Sugar Bare, I’m heading into a grouchy mindset. And I’m heading there fast. The occasional pain in my not-broken, but fragile ankle serves as a physical reminder of how much I loathe this place. I realize I never talked to Walt about what happened, and thus, all he thinks is that Marley and I disappeared on him. For all I know, the blonde guy Axel beat the shit out of called the police or told Walt some bullshit story about how Marley and I jumped him and tried to take his wallet.
    Like we could inflict the damage Axel had. No, chances are he’d slunk back under whatever rock he’d crawled out from. Even so, I feel