Frenemies With Benefits (Geek To Chic Book 2) Read online

  The three girls stayed in the hotel room all day, drinking, ordering room service and male bashing. Not how Izzy had planned on spending her day. She had still planned on being in bed with Jeremy or Alex or whatever the fuck his name was. On that thought, she took another shot. The burn of the alcohol matching the pain in her heart.

  Izzy soon passed out into a fitful sleep, filled with dreams of the Viking god who ran away.

  Chapter Three

  6 years later…

  Alex practically had to drag

  Derek into the bar. Derek was a brilliant computer programmer but he had the social skills of a timid cat. Tonight they were going to celebrate the deal they had made with the two leading assholes in the world. There was no way Alex was going to let Derek sit at home and work his life away after a victory over those two.

  Derek was whining, for the millionth time, about Alex, pulling him away from his precious work to go bar hopping. “Shut the fuck up, we just got the land deal done with the douche bag twins. Time to celebrate my friend. You need to step away from your computer if you are ever going to get laid.” Alex quipped in response to his friend’s whine.

  “I get laid enough without your help asswipe!”

  “Yeah, when was the last time a woman got you off instead of your own hand and some porn?” Alex challenged.

  “Let’s just grab a beer and go home. I really do have work to do. Remember, I am the brains behind this business.” Derek smiled back, knowing he was pushing Alex’s buttons.

  Alex only smiled back at his friend, not willing to engage him in that discussion. His friend suddenly stopped walking. Following Derek’s line of sight to the bar, he knew he had done his friend a huge favor by dragging his ass out. Sitting at the bar was the girl Derek had been obsessing over for six months. Alex turned to his friend, a devious smile on his face. “We are not leaving this bar without you at least getting her name, getting her naked would be better.”

  “Naked right here in the bar?”

  “Don’t knock public sex until you have tried it.” Alex shrugged.

  “Seriously? What kind of girls do you date? Never mind, I don’t want the answer. I can see the answer written all over your face.” Derek took a deep breath. “Fine, I will talk to her, but you are to either go to the other side of the bar or shut the fuck up. I don’t need you hitting on her friend. We both know that will kill any chance I have.”

  Alex knew Derek was right. Most likely he would end up in the back of the bar with her friend, getting blown or having sex with her. Neither scenario would endure his friend to Starbucks Girl. He simply laughed it off and followed after Derek.

  Sitting a few seats down from the girls, he ordered a beer, and sat back to watch the show. Alex hoped his friend didn’t screw this up. Derek had been trying to ask this girl out for half a year now. He watched as Derek leaned in close to her ear, a move Alex had taught him. He was grinning like a proud mother as he watched Derek work his magic. His face went from grinning to wincing when he saw the girl’s elbow connects with Derek’s face. Pushing him back into a table of beefed up guys. “Oh for fuck’s sake.” Alex half growled half laughed. He decided he better make his way over to Derek, just in case.

  When one of the huge men grabbed Derek by the shirt, Alex knew it was time to step in and save his friend. “Dude, chill. Clumsy Barbie over there, all but broke his nose simply turning around. If you are going to blame anyone, blame her.” Alex interjected, laughing the entire time in an attempt to defuse the situation. And for good measure, he turned to the blonde, in question adding, “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” He flashed his best panty wetting smile.

  By the look on her face, his playboy smile had failed. As Clumsy Barbie verbally obliterated him, he saw the guy drop his hands from Derek’s shirt and smile. He didn’t enjoy the woman calling him a Neanderthal or implying he had escaped from a mental institute but at least his friend was no longer going to take a punch to the face.

  Clumsy Barbie walked off to tend to an injured Derek. Alex shook his head and smiled. Maybe Derek would actually get the girl this time. He looked at the bar to introduce himself to her friend, his world stopped when their eyes met. How did that quote from Casablanca go? “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” That about summed up Alex’s shock at seeing Izzy sitting at the bar. By the look on her face she was just as stunned.

  His heart stopped. He had dreamed about this moment. Wished he would find her one day. The pull he felt toward her all those years ago still crackled between the two of them. Without thinking he walked over to her. “Well, if it isn’t my long lost wife.” His cocky attitude poured through the single sentence.

  ~*~*~*~

  In a state of pure shock over seeing the man she dreamed about so often, Izzy barely blinked or took a breath when she saw Jeremy, or Alex. Her heart was pounding so hard she was worried she was going to pass out. That’s when he spoke. Joking the same way he had when they met. Bringing back all the pain, anger and humiliation she had felt all those years ago when he walked out on her without a word.

  She took some joy in the fact that he at least remembered her. However, not enough to stop her from lashing out at him in the middle of the bar. “Well if it isn’t the man who took my virginity and ran from the hotel room the minute he was finished using me. Jeremy is it? That is your name correct?” She said quietly. Her anger and bitterness too powerful to keep from showing on her face.

  He started to look a little nervous when she spoke his name. His smile fell and his hand rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually the name is Alex, Alex Porter. Izzy, I…I am sorry for the way I treated you.” Then as though his quick apology made up for the way he had behaved his cocky smile returned. “Looks like we are going to be friends-in-law if my boys gets his way, so how about we kiss and make up?”

  For the second time in a matter of minutes, her body went into shock. Did he actually just say that? No one can that be that cocky. Then he moved closer to her, smiling as though he had her right where he wanted her. Something in her just snapped at that very moment. Years of hatred for this very man flooded her system, cutting off any rational thought. “You’re an asshole!!” Izzy screamed, jumping down from her barstool. She now stood toe to toe with the man who had all but destroyed her in a matter of days.

  He reached out for her. His body language shifting from confident to compassionate. Was that sadness in his eyes? If it was, she didn’t care. Pure rage took over her mind at that point. Izzy had never slapped a man before; nonetheless, that is exactly what she did. As hard and as fast as she could, she slapped her small hand across his perfect face. “Seriously, you should never ever be allowed out of your house without a trained nurse or a larger dose of your medication!” Izzy pushed her glasses up her nose. “You asshat, are the reason women hate men. I don’t even care what your real name is and I am ready to jump on the hate Suit Boy bandwagon. So take your frat house attitude and shove it up your ass and leave me the fuck alone!”

  The douche bag had the good sense not to say a word to her. Izzy looked over to Roni and nodded to the door. The universal sign saying “time to go.” She grabbed her purse and pushed past the man who took her heart and stomped all over it. She left the bar without a backwards glance. Hoping she would never see him again, but having a bad feeling this brief encounter was only the beginning.

  Chapter Four

  6 months later…

  Dancing around her house with excitement, Izzy put snacks on the coffee table and put the beer in the fridge. She loved playing hostess to her friends. She had done so, a few times while Roni had been away. She was so excited Roni was coming back from her vacation paradise. The guys and the girls were coming over to surprise Derek and Roni with a welcome home/gaming party. Her new groups of friends had become like family over the last six months.

  She loved all of them, save one annoyingly handsome Viking god, who set her blood on fire from both the lustful and mur
derous thoughts he provoked. She snorted a small laugh at her own inner drama queen. She had been able to keep her lustful feelings for Alex from bubbling over into action for the last six months and she planned to keep that record going. Any physical contact that had occurred between the two of them over the past few months, had always been initiated by the Super Asshole and was always met with swift punishment. Obviously Alex was either a little slow or didn’t value his balls like most men because he continued to show Izzy affection.

  Over the last six months, she had come to terms with the fact that Alex was going to be in her life as long as Derek was in Roni’s. Every time he was near her, her personality flipped from the loving, shy, nice person she normally was, to a personality she didn’t quite trust. Her second personality couldn’t decide if she wanted to rip Alex’s clothes off or run him over, repeatedly, with her car. How could she simultaneously hate him and want him with every cell in her body? She figured the best approach, for his safety, was to stay clear of him.

  Part of her was desperate to give into him. Have him in her bed just one more time. That part of her personality was the weak willed naïve part. The part that had ruled her in Cabo, the part that had fallen for his nice guy act. She sighed, she wanted to believe it was all an act in Cabo, that he was the Super Asshole she had deemed him. However, she had watched him over the past few months. Watched him when he wasn’t aware of her. Instead of seeing the dickhead she desperately wanted him to be, she saw a kind, funny, and loyal man.

  Alex really was everything she wanted in a man. He was the type of man her parents would have been happy to see her marry had they still been alive. Too bad, he had ruined any future they could have had when he walked out that hotel room door. Even with her mixed up feelings for him, he was still the man she compared all others too. And wasn’t that just a sad clue into her fragile psyche.

  Shaking off the sad thought of what could have been, she bustled around the house getting ready for everyone to arrive. When the doorbell rang, she practically skipped to the front of the house to answer it, she was so filled with excitement. Her excitement bubble was popped the minute she opened her front door, only to see Alex standing on her doorstep.

  “Hey there, am I early?” He smirked at her. He knew damn well he was thirty minutes early.

  Super bitch shield in place, she answered him, “Yes, you are early. So you can wait on curb or lay in the middle of traffic.” She gave him an evil smile and strutted away.

  Of course Alex, again not one to catch on to the fact she wanted nothing to do with him, followed her inside. Closing the door behind him, Izzy was suddenly very aware that they were alone, in her house. No friends to create a buffer. Not willing to chance her resolve to not give into temptation, she put as much distance between herself and him by going into the kitchen.

  “Don’t you want to know why I came early?” Alex called after her. His footsteps were closing in on the kitchen.

  “Don’t care.”

  “Sure you do.”

  “Nope, now shoo fly go away.” She waved her hand dismissively at him and began to put more appetizers on a tray. A failed attempt of ignoring him.

  Laughing at her little pun, he proceeded to ignore her call for him to leave. Grabbing a beer from her fridge, he leaned a hip against her kitchen island. “I know you want to know so I will just go ahead and tell you. I have decided that it is time we talked. Got it all out and moved on.”

  Turning around slowly, Izzy gaped at him. Seconds later her shock turned to anger. “No, we already talked. Done and done. Plus, do you really think it is smart for us to talk alone in the kitchen? As in the place we keep the knives.”

  His face scrunched a little in distress. Putting down his beer, he ran his hands through hair, dropping them on the kitchen island. He leaned closer to her, clearly ignoring her warning regarding the knives. “You walked away from that conversation and since then between Derek and Roni breaking up and then running off, and me left to run the company, we have not had time to finish our discussion. Tonight is the night we finish talking.”

  The need to either slap him or kiss him or both burned in her veins. Matching his aggressive stance she leaned into his space. “Look, Super Asshole,” she waved her finger between the two of them; “we are done talking. We have nothing left to talk about. You fucked me and ran out of that hotel room as fast as your legs would carry you and never looked back. The only reason you are even sorry about what happened is because now you are stuck hanging out with me. And believe me there will be no repeat performance of Cabo.”

  Frustration rolled off of Alex in waves. "Did you hear anything I said to you at the gala? For fuck’s sake, Izzy, I don’t know how else to get through to you.”

  “I heard what you said. As I said, we talked, it’s over. Now leave me alone.”

  “So that's it, I had one five minute conversation to make things right? Even you have to agree that's not fair." His voice was gaining volume with each word.

  Leaning into each other's space, he was too close to her. His scent engulfed her and drew her thinking back to the conversation a few weeks ago he was referring too. During the one dance they shared at the gala. The way he spoke to her and held her almost melted the ice she had built around her heart in regards to him.

  He held her so tenderly, pure anguish displayed on his face. Keeping his voice at a whisper, he revealed, “I think of those days in Cabo often.” She tried to pull away, but he held her tighter. “Please, let me get this out, and then you can go on hating me. I deserve that but you deserve an explanation.”

  Izzy lets out a sigh, she leaned her cheek into his chest. “Fine. You have this one song to explain why. Why the kindest man I had ever met, used me and walked away.” She felt his intake of breath.

  “Izzy, honey, I never meant to use you, or to walk away. When I figured out, that you had given me your virginity, something you should have mentioned beforehand but we’ll get to that. I freaked out. I was a dumb kid, immature and selfish. I wasn’t ready for the overwhelming feelings I was starting to have for you after only a few days. So I ran. I kissed you goodbye and left.”

  “You make it sound as though I expected you to marry me because we had sex. Why couldn’t you have just said goodbye to me in the morning? You could have told me, ‘thanks for the good time, see ya around’. Waking to an empty room was awful. And then to learn from the front desk lady you had lied about your name, I fell apart. I was completely humiliated.” It was taking every ounce of her strength she had not to cry.

  “The front desk lady? You went looking for me?” His voice sounded stunned.

  “Yes, of course I did. She told me they only had an Alex Porter staying there not a Jeremy Porter. At that point I knew I was nothing more than a notch on your belt.” She looked down, shaking her head. The tears were threatening to break free.

  He stopped dancing, took a sharp intake of breath and placed a kiss on her hair. Placing a finger under her chin, he forced her to look at him. The look of sincerity gripped her heart tightly. “Izzy you were never a notch on my belt. You meant so much more to me. I have thought about you every day since I boarded that flight in the early hours of the morning. Leaving you is the biggest regret of my life.”

  Izzy’s already fragile heart broke. Hearing him confess that he felt something for her and that he thought about her was more than she could hear. Looking into his gorgeous eyes, she said, “Alex, if I meant something to you, if that night meant something to you, then you would have at the very least said goodbye.” It was her turn to run away from him. Pulling free from his embrace, she grabbed Roni and headed to the bar to drown her sorrows in strong alcohol.

  Shaking off the memory of how sad she had been after that encounter with him, she went back to punishing him for what he had done to her. "Yes, I told you when we were dancing that you had that one song to explain. You gave your explanation, doesn't mean I have to believe you or forgive you. If I was so important to you, you would h
ave at least told me your real name."

  “You’re right; I should have been honest with you. At that point, I had figured out that girls only wanted me for my money. A quick Goggle search would have told you what I was worth. I missed women being attracted to me for me, not my bank account. I started lying about my name to protect myself.” Alex said defensively.

  Thinking for a moment, she could see his point. It had to be difficult to not know if someone was with you because they liked you or if they wanted your money when you were a person of Alex’s wealth. She was still curious about a couple of things. “I understand why you lied. Tell me, Alex, would you have told me your name in the morning had you stayed? If you could have overcome that voice in your head telling you to run, would you have wanted to see me when we came back to the states?” These were the questions she had been dying to ask him since he came back into her life. She had never asked out of fear of the answers.

  Sighing, he ran his hand down his face and shook his head. “Honestly? No, probably not. I would have enjoyed our time together on vacation. Kissed you goodbye and tried to move on with my life. As I told you, I was too selfish at that point in my life to realize that what I felt for you only comes along once. The end would have been the same, you would have been hurt and I would have realized too late how truly special you are to me.”

  Honesty sucked sometimes. She appreciated that he didn’t bother to sugarcoat what would have been. Maybe if she would have been able to say goodbye to him all those years ago she would have been able to move on. Looking down, Izzy fiddled with one of the appetizer trays as she became lost in thought. “I think a proper goodbye would have made you leaving easier. I wouldn’t have felt so humiliated. I wouldn’t have been so confused about what I did wrong.” She responded honestly. “I could have looked back on our vacation romance with a smile. However, since you did leave, I try not to ever think about those days I spent with you. Even after all these years, the same ache of pain in my chest hits me.”