Ruthless by Gillian Archer Read Free Book Online

it’s over now.”
    Nic nodded along, but I could tell from her raised brows she was still skeptical.
    To be honest, so was I. But what else could I think? He hadn’t said one word about seeing me again. And then he left without a word. Clearly we were one and done.
    No matter how much I wished for more.
    At least we were only a few blocks away from the Vine. I couldn’t wait to get out and away from Nic’s probing questions. It was hard to convince myself that I was happy my time with Zag would only ever be one night when she kept pelting me with questions that reminded me how amazing he was.
    “So what did you get up to last night?”
    Nicole rolled her eyes as she signaled to turn into the Vine’s parking lot. “Nothing as exciting as you. Emily and I went to see a movie and then out to dinner. We missed you.”
    “Yeah, well, maybe next time. I could use a girls’ night out.”
    Nic nodded as she pulled up behind my car.
    I unbuckled my seat belt and grabbed my purse from the floor. “Thanks for the ride.”
    “No problem.” Nic gave me a half smile. “I mean that, Jess. Anytime you need me, just call.”
    I jerked my chin in a small nod and grappled for the door handle.
    “I mean it. I’m sorry if I came off all sanctimonious or whatever. I was worried about you.”
    “I know. I’m sorry, too. On the bright side, I’m pretty sure after this weekend I’m done with dating for a while. Especially with guys my mom swears are
the one
. Lord, she has the worst taste in men.” I made a wry face.
    Nic laughed, her eyes sparkling with amusement. After a second she sobered and pushed her curly brown hair out of her eyes with a slight frown. “Are you going to tell her?”
    “About Zag? Hell no.”
    “No, I meant about ‘the respectable lawyer.’ ”
    “Oh. I don’t know. On one hand, it would make her think twice about setting me up with any and all successful men she meets. But I don’t want to hurt her. Ugh. It’s never easy with family, is it?”
    “Nope.”
    I collapsed back into the seat with a sigh. “What do you think I should do?”
    “I don’t know, hon. I think maybe if you don’t want this to happen again, you should tell her something. She needs to know your boundaries.”
    “So I should tell her that attempted rapists are on my ‘hell no’ list? Seems kinda obvious to me.”
    “Wait. What? He tried to
rape
you last night?”
    My eyes had been drawn to the site of Charlie’s foiled attack. It looked so different in the daylight. Like any other parking lot, really. But last night it’d felt so menacing, or at least it had during. Not so much after Zag showed up.
    “Jess!”
    “What? Sorry. Yeah, Charlie was one of those asses who think ‘no’ is a negotiation starting point.” I tried to make light of what had been a very scary situation.
    “Holy shit. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
    “You mean when you were harping on how going home with a biker was a bad idea?”
    Nic’s lips twisted in a sardonic expression. “Point taken. But just to clarify, going home with any stranger is a bad idea.”
    I snorted. “You’re so full of it. What about that casino gaming conference in Atlantic City? I seem to remember you going home with a programmer.”
    “That was different.”
    “Because he wasn’t a biker? If you’ll remember, I went out with a respectable lawyer last night who attacked me in the parking lot. Zag stopped it from happening. He’s a good guy. So no, it’s not different in my book.”
    “Okay, okay. I get it. Zag’s a good guy. But are you all right? Do you want to talk about it? About what happened with Charlie?”
    “Not really. I just want to go home, take a shower, and forget everything about that horrible date.”
    Nicole gave me a devious smile. “Well, not everything, right? Sounds like you have some great memories in your spank bank. With your
biker.
”
    I wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. “Thanks for the