Tamed by the Bad Boy Next Door

Owning Up

Lewis quirked a corner of his lips in a refreshing smile.

“Sure thing,” he replied. “What is it?”

“Well…”

…

One good thing about Ainsley was that she was action-oriented, especially if it was about something that really mattered to her.

Lewis had worded his opinions on the matter in a nice way, but his efforts were wasted on her. Yes, it was before Ainsley found out that Jay already had a girlfriend that she followed him around with her eyes, but it was still her fault for not realizing that development herself without needing to be told about it.

She cursed her tunnel vision for this. Whenever she was focusing on one person, she tended not to notice much of anything else. And it was because she had carelessly gotten onto Colleen’s radar in the first place that all of this happened. Thus, it was no use for anyone to tell Ainsley that she wasn’t to blame.

She and her silly little games did this, so if nothing else, she had to go and apologize.

That’s why she had asked Lewis before they parted—where and when would she be able to find Jay and Colleen so she could talk to them?

At first, Lewis felt that what Ainsley planned to do was a bad idea, and he told her so. As he had already said, this was no one else’s problem but the two parties directly involved. Only they would be able to fix this, and that’s only if both of them wanted to.

When Ainsley pleaded with him to cooperate, however, Lewis eventually gave in.

“I’m sure Jay isn’t blaming you either,” he cautioned seriously once he had given Ainsley the information she wanted. “But as for Colleen…?” He shook his head. “Best be careful there.”

“Don’t worry,” Ainsley replied as she prepared to leave. “I’m not actually brave enough to meet either of them alone.”

For some reason, that made Lewis grin.

“But you met with me,” he said. “And there’s no one else here with you.”

Ainsley laughed. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but I didn’t exactly plan on this. Besides… you’re all right.” She walked backwards a few steps and waved. “Thanks again, Lew!”

Lewis’ eyebrow twitched as he held back his amusement. ‘So it’s “Lew” already?’

“Sure,” he answered aloud with a friendly nod. “No problem, Ainsley.”

***

“What do you want now?”

Before anyone else could get any word in, least of all Ainsley, Sebastian had already greeted her with those words that were said in a displeased tone.

Ainsley’s allotment of luck for today seemed to have run out. None of her friends had been free to come with her to ambush—that is to say, “try to meet”—Jay after his last class in the afternoon ended. And for some reason, Lewis seemed to have thought it wasn’t necessary to warn Ainsley that Seb was taking this class with Jay.

The slimmer guy with a monkish air didn’t even notice the girl hanging around the exit when he streamed out of the lecture hall with his classmates. As this was the computer science department, the majority of the students were disproportionately male, and they were paying much closer attention to their surroundings.

They thus didn’t miss seeing the female student who was obviously from another department. Some of them were familiar with her face, having seen it in passing now and again. But to the others, she was a complete stranger and was therefore quite intriguing.

It helped, of course, that when Ainsley wasn’t being her usual oddball self, she was really easy on the eyes.

The way some of these young men were looking at her…

She didn’t seem to be aware of it, focused as she was only on Jay, and then on Seb when he spoke. This more than anything was what pissed him off.

Didn’t she know what kind of people tended to be drawn to this particular field of study? As much as Seb hated to admit it, the stereotype was unfortunately true.

A lot of his coursemates were the extremely awkward and socially inept type who didn’t have much real-world experience when it came to interacting with girls. Most of them were harmless enough, but a worrying few were downright misogynists.

Not that he was one to talk in that regard, of course, but he at least still considered women to be actual people worthy of basic respect.

On the other hand, some of his classmates not only hated “real” girls, but they also viewed them as nothing more than s*xual objects who didn’t deserve the rights and freedom every human should enjoy.

By virtue of being born male, they felt that it was their right to be served and pandered to by women in every possible way. They were thus angry and resentful that most women with a functioning brain didn’t want to have anything to do with them.

The things these types of guys say, often even within their handful of female classmates’ earshot… they were absolutely disgusting.

And Ainsley, all clueless and trusting, had walked right into this den of beasts. Seb really wanted to shout some sense into her, but for now, he contented himself with approaching her until he had all but invaded her personal space.

He did this not because he wanted to, he told himself. He just wanted to signal to anyone looking that she wasn’t without a protector.

Of course, what those braindead guys would really read in this action was that Ainsley already had an “owner” and was therefore off-limits. As infuriating as it was, another man’s claim was one of the few things such people could respect.

“Whatever it is,” Seb continued in a lower voice, “let’s get the hell out of here first.”

Not understanding his intentions, Ainsley took issue with Seb’s words and attitude. Her hackles were raised all the way up as she replied, “I didn’t come here for you, you know. I just want to talk to your friend.”

Seb bit right back, “You can still do that somewhere else, can’t you?” He turned to Jay, who had trailed after him mindlessly. “Come on, man. Let’s go.”

Nodding, Jay started walking away first. Ainsley’s presence had already registered to him, but he still hadn’t acknowledged her beyond that. Anxious that he wouldn’t want to hear her out, Ainsley gingerly trailed after him without saying anything.

Seb brought up the rear, and as he did so, he roamed his eyes watchfully around. Those who saw him recognized the warning in his hard expression. They didn’t dare to even look at Ainsley anymore after that.

If Ainsley’s father had seen this, he would have approved. A perfect guard dog indeed.

Once outside, the trio continued to walk along the campus grounds quietly, with Jay leading the way. Wherever he was going, Ainsley was determined to simply follow. She had just begun to realize that Jay probably had no intention at all to talk to her when the guy suddenly stopped walking.

Surprised, she stared wide-eyed as Jay turned around.

“If you want to apologize,” he quietly began in a lifeless tone, “you really don’t have to. It doesn’t matter anymore.” He turned to continue walking. “Just forget about it. And please… stop following me.”