Loud: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Male Romance) Read Free Page A

my head. It had been months; I knew I should be getting over
it, but for some reason, what he had done still haunted me.
    “Can we please just forget about it, Les? I'm not in
the mood. Let's just get the rest of this stuff into the apartment. I've gotta
get the truck back to Bryan soon.”
    “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “But seriously, you’re
going to have to lighten up sometime.”
    Yeah , I thought to myself.
    I am.
    But not
today.

 
    CHAPTER
TWO
    Emerson

 
    “One more rep, E! Smash it, come on!” Chris growled at
me.
    I grunted under the bar as I pushed with all my might
against the unrelenting weight. My arms felt like jelly and a fiery pain
blasted through them as if my blood had been replaced with molten lava. Still,
I delved deeper into the final reserves of strength I had left and extended my
arms up until they locked, completing the rep. With a sigh of relief, I lowered
the bar onto its supports and closed my eyes.
    “Yeah, bro! Yeah!” Chris whooped. “New record, yo! Two
hundred and eighty pounds! High five!”
    With my eyes still closed, I extended a trembling hand,
which he slapped enthusiastically.
    “Of course,” he added, “if you would just try out a
lil', you know, juice you'd be pushing three hundred and eighty
pounds instead and you’d be doin’ it with ease, like me.”
    “Not gonna happen,” I replied. “That stuff… I know you
say it's safe, but you gotta think long term. It does a lotta damage to
your body. No thanks, man; I'm just lifting to stay strong and healthy.”
    “It is safe, if you inject it and cycle it
correctly, like I do. And, look at the results, bro! I'm ripped , dude!
Bitches can't get enough of me. Yo, especially those two little hotties who
just moved in next door! What did you think, man? Did they live up to old
Wally's description or what? Don’t you remember last time we went down there to
sort out the rent, he told us there was gonna be two smokin’ hot chicks moving
in next to us and, man? As old as he is, he sure ain't blind. They are fine.
Especially the quiet one, what was her name?”
    “Brooke,” I replied as I sat up from the bench and
dabbed the sweat from my forehead with a gym towel.
    Chris punched me playfully in the shoulder.
    “I saw you checking her out, bro. Don't deny it.”
    I shrugged. “I admit, she’s gorgeous. But man, she's
got a bit of an attitude, don't ya think? I mean, we hauled that heavy sofa up
three flights of stairs for her and she could barely find it in her to mutter a
thank you? Yeah, she may be hot, but with a personality like that, I can't say
I'm all that interested in getting to know her much.”
    Chris scoffed. “Why you gotta get to know her, bro? I
didn't say you should date her or make her your girlfriend or nothing. Shit,
just get in there, have some fun, and then move on to the next one, before
things get 'complicated' as chicks always like to say.”
    Because I'm
not like you, Chris, is what I
wanted to say, but didn't. Instead, I merely shrugged. “She's just not my type,
man,” I replied. “I don't wanna waste time with a chick that I would just never
be compatible with in a million years. And besides, you heard her – she's gonna
have her nose stuck in books the whole semester, anyway. She sounds like an
overachiever. Nah man, seriously, just forget about it. And what about you,
huh? Why don't you see if you can pull something off with her roommate, Leslie?
She seemed like a lot more fun-loving than Brooke. A little more your speed.”
      “I dunno, bro,”
he said with a shit-eating grin pasted across his unnaturally tanned face. “If
you're not gonna go for Brooke, I think I just might get in there myself, know
what I mean?”
    A sudden flicker of jealousy flared up inside me — as
much as I wanted to deny it. Stay the
hell away from her is what I wanted to say but, again, I didn't. I took a
moment to try to suppress the unwarranted reaction and then replied in a tone as
calm and