Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) by Karen Renee (summer reads .TXT) 📕

“So, no free ride.”

“More like tough lessons in money management.”

“Do you only get half the rent from your trust fund?”

I smiled with tight lips. “No. The rent Kaylee paid me, I put in my brokerage account. I used it to buy and sell covered calls and other options trades.”

A puzzled look crossed his face. “Okay, I know what a brokerage is, but ‘covered calls’?”

“Yeah. It’s different from buying a stock outright. The specifics will bore you, but I managed to earn money on her money, so when she left, I basically gave her back her rent.”

“What?” he cried and pulled me on top of him. “Are you telling me you’re a financial genius? Why are you wasting time working for Pruitt?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I took a few risks. Dad thinks I should be more careful, but I remind him ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’”

“Wow,” he murmured. “Just when I thought I knew all about you.”

I smiled. “It’s good to learn new things, right?”

He smiled devilishly. “Yeah, like now, I’m gonna learn how quickly I can get you naked.”

I arched a brow. “That’s not even a challenge since I’m only wearing a bra.”

The devilish smile widened. “You’re right, baby. Got a better idea. We’re gonna learn how inspired things can be with the right movie.”

I AIMED THE REMOTE at the television to pause the movie as Gabe sauntered back into the room from the bathroom. The movie had definitely spiced things up, even though I didn’t think we needed that sort of thing so early in our physical relationship.

He arched a brow at me as he grinned. “Are you trying to find out if the boss walks in on them?”

I chuckled. “I think they left that as a gaping plot hole, honey.”

He grinned at me. “I will not make the obvious joke. But why aren’t you turning it off?”

I widened my eyes. “Just like you thought I grew up in a mansion, I did not grow up wasting money. It feels like such a waste that we watched like what, fifteen minutes of this? And we’re being billed—”

He put his finger over my lips, and with his other hand he grabbed the remote to turn off the television. “Don’t worry about it,” he said.

I pulled away from his finger ready to retort, but he shook his head and arranged us under the covers.

“Baby, it’s an indulgence. A dirty one, but fun. Besides, incidentals are on me anyway.”

I stared at him for a moment, before I settled beside him and drew patterns on his chest with my finger. “So, I ever get to L.A. where’s the bitch I need to cut for doing you wrong?”

Gabe laughed and shook his head. “Darlin’, it’s over. It was six years ago.”

That was a fair amount of time, and I could see his point, but I really wanted to know more. I exhaled through my nose so I wouldn’t sigh outright, but Gabe chuckled.

“You aren’t gonna let it go, are you?”

“I’m sorry. I just... never mind. You don’t want to talk about it, that’s cool.”

“I mentioned I crashed with Dad’s Army buddy. Well, I met Jessica because she’s his niece and Rex thought she could show me around.”

Suddenly, I didn’t want to know. “Okay, I get it—”

“No, Cassie. You want to know. We hit it off and within three months we were living together.”

“Wow,” I whispered, because that seemed fast.

He gave me a weak smile. “It’s expensive to live out there. But she paid her share for three months. Then she lost her job. After that, she did what she could.”

“Oh boy,” I whispered.

He smiled again, and I knew nothing good would come of this.

“We struggled, but made ends meet for another three months. Of course, we did that eating ramen and generic mac-and-cheese. But, I had saved a small stash of cash. When she left me, she took my cash, my trumpet, a guitar, my laptop, and a bunch of other audio shit.”

I gasped.

He still smiled at me, but this one held disdain. “Yeah. I thought that was as sucky as it got, but no. She told me she’d paid the electric bill, only she hadn’t. Told me a lot of shit, but she hadn’t done it, and in the end, my credit score took the hit. Dad had to bail me out, and I left Cali so I could get my shit right again. That’s why it took me so long to start college. I wasn’t going to put Dad out of more money, and I wasn’t even considering loans with my credit in the shitter.”

My brows furrowed. “But student loans normally don’t—”

“I should add, Dad wanted me to keep student loans to a minimum, which is really to say avoid them if at all possible.”

“Ah,” I said raising my chin. “My dad would concur.”

He smiled and it made his eyes twinkle. “‘Concur.’ Only you use words like that.”

I gave him a look. “Other people use that word, Gabe.”

“Right, people over thirty use that word.”

“Stop it.”

“No,” he whispered.

I hesitated. “So, your issues with women and money have less to do with your mother than they do with this Jessica chick.”

His eyes narrowed a little. “Both of them left me high and dry, Cass. I never wanted to end up like my Dad, and as soon as I let a woman into my life seriously, I found myself almost just like him. The only upside was there were no children involved.”

That broke my heart, but I knew Gabe would not take well to my sympathy. “All right. That definitely explains a lot, honey.”

“Yeah,” he whispered.

Leaning toward him, I nudged his shoulder with mine. “And, I wasn’t kidding. I get to Cali, I’m gonna hunt her ass down. Former-Army uncle or not, I’ll take her for doing you like that.”

“You couldn’t take a mouse, Cassandra. Even if it were to feed one of the cats at the shelter. But I appreciate the thought.”

I arched a brow. “You may think all that, Gabe,