The Brat (The Playgirls #3) by May Sage Read Free Book Online Page A

– worse, yet. He couldn’t even tell her to get her shit together, because she wasn’t in a state to deal with the additional stress.
    Normally, it wouldn’t have stopped him, but Alice was freaking pregnant.
    Painstakingly, Shane tried to calm down and use his most patient, condescending tone – the one he switched to when he was talking to three-years-olds. Or his ex-wife, one of the two.
    Eventually, Alice agreed to spend the night at a nice resort, and wait for him there; he’d drive her home. She stubborn idiot had had it in mind to drive all the way from LA – although she’d had fainting sprees by the bucket loads.
    As soon as the conversation was finished, Shane ran out of his bedroom, irrevocably drawn to Brooke everytime something unpleasant occurred.
     
    Three years ago
     
    God, she was beautiful. Shane always noticed, but today, it was worse than usual; any given day, he’d think “yes, of course Brooke Barnes is stunning, however I am married, and she’s not interested.”
    He was still married; but not for long. Not after the bomb Fiona had landed on him… And Brooke didn’t look not interested.
    In fact, she ran out of the circle of friends with whom she’d been drinking her coffee, and landed straight into his arms.
    “Shane! I didn’t know you were coming.”
    If that was how she greeted him when he surprised her, he planned on doing it again.
    And again.
    “Last minute trip,” he replied – that wasn’t a lie, technically.
    Ok, bullshit: it was a total lie per omission. He was letting her assume he was there for work; when in fact, he was there because everything in San Francisco made him feel foolish.
     
    How had he let it come to this?
    Truthfully, the more he thought about Fiona’s accusations, the guiltier he felt.
    He had been a shit husband; he saw her ten minutes a day, max. Of late, he’d started to sleep at the office. He hadn’t fucked her in a while, either. Of course she’d go get her fix elsewhere…
    The issue was whom she’d fucked around his. His baby sister’s boyfriend. Really?
    The last week had gone in a blur and next thing he knew, he’d booked a flight to NYC. He didn’t even think it had been a conscious choice: he’d just run to the only positive constant in his life. Some people went to their parents’ or their best friend’s when shit hit the fan. Shane went to Brooke Barnes.
     
    He would have loved to ignore reality for the duration of his trip, but Brooke had had plans to go out, that night. He’d tagged along, doing more than his fair share of shots in the process; they gone home when they couldn’t walk straight and there, his mouth opened. In his next breath, the whole story was coming out.
    The volley of insults coming out of Brooke’s pouty mouth had seemed so cute.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Don’t ask,” she slurred, frantically typing on her black phone and her computer, practically at the same time.
    “Baby…”
    “I’m not telling,” she’d sang out.
    So, so cute.
    He couldn’t help himself: he was drawing her to him, and his lips fell on hers, hungrily.
    Then, he ran.
     
    Now
     
    Three days.
    Shane had been too busy to do anything about it at first, but it had been three days.
     
    When he’d finished talking to Alice, after her series of frantic phone calls, he’d ran out of his office, to go to Brooke, but she’d disappeared.
    Looking at the time, Shane had reasoned that it was pretty late; she’d just gone home. Nothing weird about that; she didn’t really live there, after all…
    But normally, she said bye.
     
    The next day, after an exhausting round trip to pick up his frantic sister and drop her off at their parents’ – where there had been a considerable amount of annoying drama – he’d made it home, eager to chill out with the brat…
    And she’d been a no show. Shane told himself she’d probably worked until five or six before heading out. Nothing weird about that, either.
    Today was day three.