Free Fighting Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 1 by Nicole Hamilton Page B

course, because when you fix the finances just like I know you will, without my help you might not have a programme left to attend. If you don’t show up and act like an attentive and intelligent student, they are going to shut you down anyway.”
    “Intelligent? I don’t need you to help me appear intelligent, Cody!”
    “That’s not what I meant, Ashley. You are good enough, in fact you are better than good enough for this programme. But the tide is against you. I can help you make it to the shore.”
    “Cody. Thank you for the coffee, but right now I need a little more than coffee and sympathy. I need a practical solution, and it looks like it’s all down to me. As you can see, the clock is ticking. So I’d better go and find a way , don’t you think?” said Ashley.
    “Ashley. You need to study too. Remember that. When you want to do that, I’ll be there for you,” he said.
    Ashley picked up her bag, her jacket and smoothed her hair around her gorgeous, serious face.
    “I’ll remember.  But until then, Cody try taking a crash course in how not to patronise your friends. Thanks for the coffee.”
    She walked out of the coffee shop and he felt conspicuously alone, like the date who had been left at the restaurant, yet when he looked around nobody was watching. But he was sure they had been listening. He threw his face into his hands and groaned quietly.  Maybe Ashley was right. He was beginning to think his overtures to her were amateur and clumsy. He was out of his depth and floundering in his mission to help her. But he had to take a lesson from the girl herself. She was tenacious, feisty, and was never going to give up. To get her to accept his help – to get her to fall for him – he needed to help with her whole situation, not just her study, but her finances and everything else too. He needed to be there for her in every way possible. And once they’d overcome all those huge obstacles, they were going to make such a fantastic double act. Whatever happened next, he just couldn’t screw it up anymore.

Eleven
     
    I got through the weekend okay after my second row with Cody. I spent a half hour reading up on William Blake, but really, who was I kidding? All I could think of was how I was about to lose my job when I needed it the most. Purdy and Reggie had been unfair to me, but so far life hadn’t exactly been a great example of fairness. These were the cards I had been dealt and there was no point moaning anymore.  Yet again I’d been too hard on Cody. The guy was cute, not my sort of cute, but he was funny and kind of charming. But he just kept getting too close to the pressure points in my life right now. I was beginning to think he liked me a little – in more than a study buddy kind of way. But then again why else would a boy be so willing to help me in all the ways he wanted to help me? If he was attracted to me it was kind of flattering. He wasn’t a weirdo, he wasn’t predatory, he was nice and he wanted to help. When I was calm again – when my life was all fixed up – I would be nice to him and thank him for that. But he had no chance of anything else with me. Brandon was one hundred per cent my main man, and in between fits of worry and angst, I still remembered the feeling of his skin on mine, the fullness of my body when he was within me, and the sweet release when we came together. Indulging in those memories became my only joy that weekend as I began to turn my job around. I worked hard, I was polite, and when the odd jerk-off tried to do one per cent more than simply eye me up in my waitress get up, I just gave him my killer sickly sweet smile. If the jerk in question looked closely enough, he would have seen the total contempt in my eyes. But thankfully they didn’t, and the tips kept flowing. By Sunday night, my weekend’s earnings were enough to make me think anything was achievable. Even mission impossible. I spoke to Brandon by phone and we reminisced about our night