Bad Boy Romance: Nick (Romantic Suspense Alpha Male Romance) (New Adult Rock Star Contemporary Short Stories) (Hard Rock Star Series Book 2) (59 page)

****

Natalia woke up to a shifting
between her legs that nearly made her shoot off the bed. The alarm only
succeeded in jamming a violent headache right between her eyes. With a groan,
she collapsed back onto a floppy pillow. “Ugh, what the hell…?” she began, but
stopped when she heard a soft chuckle. “What time is it?” she muttered, gasping
when she felt that shift rub nicely against her folds, making her sigh out
gently.

“Five AM,” she heard, and when
she peeked out from under her arm, she noticed that the daylight entering the
dank and unfamiliar room was dim and soft. Her eyes landed on a single hand,
tracing around between her legs and working her up. “Relax, Nat. Just helping
you with that hangover.”

“What a gentleman,” she
murmured, but found that he had a point. Orgasms supposedly were a pretty sweet
cure for nasty headaches. She blinked once before dropping a hand to stop his
ministrations. “Did you just call me
Nat
?” she asked, and when she
turned around, she was faced by curious green eyes.

And it all hit her like a ton
of bricks.

She had slept with a guy not
twenty four hours since her arrival, and now she was in the idiot’s bed. When
the hell did she get so careless? Thoroughly put off, she shoved him off of
her, turning her body away from his gaze as she stood in search of her clothes.

“What’s the matter?” Jace
purred, voice raspy and alluring. Natalia wasn’t going to fall for it now that
she had a killer headache and her common sense back in place.

“I’m leaving,” was her stout
reply, tossing him a glare over her shoulder, black locks hanging down her face
like a ragged curtain. “Where’s my underwear?”

Jace gave her a shrug, lifting
his arms to rest behind his head. His naked torso was like sculpted marble,
draped almost artfully with the pale gray sheets around him. Natalia nearly
felt nauseous after staring at him for so long. With a grunt of irritation, the
woman continued her search on her own, throwing Jace icy glares every time
their gazes met.

“You know, I might be able to
tell you where I last saw them, but for a price,” Jace smirked up at her
teasingly as she scoured the bedroom. It was—unsurprisingly—covered in strewn
pieces of laundry and the occasional bag of garbage.
Ugh, gross.

“You can jerk off on your own,”
Natalia retorted, not sparing him another glance. “I’m sure I can find them.”

“Whatever,” Jace replied,
clearly at ease to let her continue searching without his assistance. Her
irritability nearly made her want to turn around and chuck the nearest garbage
at his face, but she refrained, knowing full well it’ll only make things worse.
The sooner she got out, the better. “You know, you weren’t half bad.”

“You weren’t half
good
,”
Natalia snarked back, feeling some relief when she found her shorts.

“That’s not what you were
screaming last night,” Jace teased; she could practically hear the grin over
his mouth. “If I recall, it sounded something like ‘
Yes, yes, just like
that—oh God!’
but then again, I could be wrong.”

Natalia finally straightened up
from tugging her shorts over her hips. She fixed him an unamused stare, “That
did not sound like me at all.”

“Close enough,” he said and
gave her a little beckoning with his chin. Natalia almost paused, somewhat
entranced by the way his figure was so open to her with a sultry promise of
more pleasure. She remembered how her fingers had gripped hard on his back,
dragging bright red welts over his spine as he pounded into her. Yeah
—
she
would admit
—
it had been a pretty great lay, but she wasn’t the kind to
shoot for seconds, sloppy or otherwise. With a snort, Natalia turned around and
headed out the room, “If you find my underwear, I expect you to throw them
away.”

“I will make no such promises!”
he called back as she sauntered out the door and down the hallway of the
apartment. She was able to find her bra and shirt easily enough, tugging them
on as she made her escape.

She never considered herself as
one to take part in what women called ‘
The Walk Of Shame
,’ thinking the
entire idea was completely idiotic since there was nothing shameful about
having a
great
lay
. Besides, it’s not like she had had any
romantic expectations between her and Jace. It was just a single one night
stand. That was all.

Heading back to the hotel
proved to be another issue entirely since Natalia couldn’t remember where she
was. This early in the morning, there were few people up and about and since
she was fairly certain she could orient herself, she continued on her merry way
without wanting to run back to Jace’s arms. After some time, Natalia felt her
back pocket buzz against her skin; when she pulled her phone out curiously, her
irritation only skyrocketed further.

See you at the reunion,
princess. ;)

With a curl of her lip, Natalia
quickly typed a response before deleting the message and Jace’s contact
information from her phone.

Fuck off.

She could practically hear him
laughing at her response, and she tugged her phone back in her pocket before
she continued on her not-so-merry way.

****

Keeping to herself had been a
bit of a long-shot wish. She had hoped to avoid meeting with her family for as
long as possible. She probably should have asked Arty to keep her appearance a
secret, but two days after her little rendezvous with Jace Dillinger, her phone
suddenly buzzed with the excited call of her mother’s desire to meet.

“How long ago did you arrive,
and how come you haven’t told me? I had to hear from Archibald that you got
here, and he said you disappeared with some strange man? Please tell me it
wasn’t Jace Dillinger.”

Wonderful.

“It wasn’t Jace Dillinger,”
Natalia replied evenly, taking a sip of her morning coffee and staring at one
of the hotel’s newspapers. “And I’ve been busy, so sorry I haven’t visited
yet.”

“Busy doing what, Natalia?” her
mother sounded exasperated.

“Catching up with old
friends.” 
Ha, that was laughable.
Natalia Hyde was never known to
be the type to harbor friends. The closest thing she had to friends were
Nathan’s old lackeys, but they were more like bits of amusement rather than
friends. What friends Natalia had during her first years of high school had
disappeared with Nathan’s rise in notoriety, and soon, all of her time was spent
making sure her brother didn’t do anything extremely stupid.

“Really?” her mother sounded
dubious. Natalia had a feeling the woman was aware of her daughter’s reputation
as the school’s Ice Queen. “Well, that’s nice, I suppose.”

“Any sign of Nathan?” Natalia
asked, but kicked herself once the words came out. If she hadn’t contacted her
parents when she arrived, it was even less likely that her brother would have.

“Nothing,” was the response and
Natalia sunk into her chair, spreading the remains of her breakfast over her
plate. “I wish you’d come and visit soon. Your father would love that.”

“I’m sure he would, Mom,”
Natalia said, humoring the woman before ending the call. The reminder of Jace
was no help to her already frazzled nerves, and while Natalia had been
successful in steering clear of the dark-haired temptation, her body didn’t do
her any favors. The following nights that she had spent in her hotel room were
spent in restless sleep and frustrating dreams. Brad had come knocking one of
those nights, hoping for a nightcap, and Natalia nearly ripped his head off in
aggravation after refusing him twice. He managed to get the hint after that and
gave Natalia plenty of space whenever they bumped into each other.

Exhaling, the dark-haired woman
slid a palm down her cheek, ignoring the slickness between her legs as she
tapped a rapid rhythm with her fork against the plate. She lifted an arm and
waited for a server to arrive with the check, silently damning Jace for the
intimate frustrations she’d been dealing with.

As expected, Natalia furtively
avoided heading home, dodging every single phone call from her mother with the
excuse that she was busy with other things—which earned her a huge
guilt-tripping text message—until she could find some peace. The rest of the
day passed by with Natalia’s focus on her work, and when she visited the pub
one last time, she was both relieved and disappointed that Jace remained absent
throughout the end of the night.

****

The dreaded day of the reunion
finally came around, and Natalia was in the middle of getting ready when she
heard a knock at her door. A groan built its way through her throat as she
approached the door, “For the last time, Brad. I don’t need a fucking date to
the reunion.”

When she opened the door, to her
surprise, a pair of green eyes and a natural smirk met her gaze. The moment her
eyes found the rest of Jace’s figure, her expression had flattened
considerably, even if her heart was now thrumming hard. “Oh.
You
. What
do you want?”

Jace’s smirk widened, “Wow, and
here I thought you reserved that attitude for when you’re hungover. You look
nice, by the way.”

“If this is your idea of a
proposition, you can beat it,” Natalia grunted. “I’m not interested.”

Jace gave her a shrug and she
took that moment to appraise him. He was dressed rather sharply. A black
button-down shirt hugged his figure like a loose glove; a simple gray tie hung
around his neck where the collar was unbuttoned, exposing his collarbone. A
silver belt buckle accentuated the narrow dip of his hips, and black slacks
slipped down his legs.  Even his sleeves were rolled up to expose the
corded muscles of his forearms. She couldn’t deny that he looked incredibly
delectable right now.

“If you must know,” Jace spoke,
“I wanted to give you a bit of news.”

“Oh?” Natalia asked, leaning
against the doorframe. “What of?”

“It has to do with your
brother, Nathan.”

That got her attention.
Straightening up, Natalia felt her fingers itch for a whole new reason and her
heart gave a little jump in her chest. Jace noticed her change in demeanor with
a smile and he turned his chin slightly to fix her an amused stare. “Have you
seen him? Did he show up?”

Jace chuckled, “Easy there,
tiger. I’ll tell you everything I know,” he paused to lift up a finger. “But,
on one condition.”

She was already dreading his
reply. “And that is?”

Then his smile rose half-way,
making his lips twist in a charming smile that almost seemed boyish. “Be my
date to the reunion?”

With a disgusted snort, Natalia
tried to slam the door in his face, but he stopped her by pressing a hand over
the door. “Aw, come on; humor me a little.”

“What part of ‘not interested,’
did you not understand?” Natalia hissed, bracing herself against the door as
she met his gaze with a glower.

“Possibly the whole ‘not’
part,” Jace replied cheekily.

“I will break your fucking
hand, Dillinger—don’t think I won’t.”

He laughed, “Alright, alright,
I’ll lay off. If you change your mind and you want to find out what I have to
say, then give me a call. You should have my number.”

“I deleted it,” she said before
forcing the door shut. Jake yanked his hand away before his fingers caught
between the wood and the frame. Natalia waited against the door for several
moments, wishing her heart rate to slow down and the heat in her blood to cool
off.
Damn him.

Minutes later, her phone gave
an abrupt buzz; when she checked it, her stomach plummeted to her feet. Sure
enough, it could only be Jace who texted her, and Natalia had half a mind to
toss her phone into the toilet.

Here you go. ;)

What an asshole.

****

The reunion was exactly what
Natalia had expected it to be: awkward, boring, and far too long to be
enjoyable. The whole thing started at 3 PM and wasn’t due to finish until
midnight. It had barely been two hours since it began, and the young woman was
already wishing she had played hooky and just showed up at the very end. She
had even entertained the idea of visiting her parents instead of sticking
around for much longer, but that was easily disregarded when she pictured how her
mother would react.

No. If she was going to visit,
it would be right before she had to leave; that way she could avoid unnecessary
‘bonding time,’ as her mother liked to call it.

The only good thing that came
from the whole event was that they had an open bar, with all the free vodka
Natalia could possible want. It was there where she had taken up temporary
residence while their class presidency struggled with setting up the
commemorative slideshow of all the good times. The music was dull and those who
recognized Natalia stayed far away; this wasn’t a problem for her
at all
.

Until Brad showed up.

“You look really pretty in that
dress, Natalia,” he said; the dark-haired woman had to pause from swirling her
martini glass to glance over to his large figure. He was dressed in an old gray
suit and his floppy hair was slicked back over his large head, exposing a
rather unattractive receding hairline.

“Thanks,” she said,
noncommittally. “I made it myself.”

Brad’s eyes blinked wide open,
unsure of whether to take her words seriously or not, and gave her a half
smile, shuffling awkwardly to stand next to her. “So, uh…you doing anything
later?”

“Yep,” Natalia replied,
reaching behind to grab an olive from a tray to plop it into her mouth. “Real
busy.”

Brad appeared somewhat
disappointed before he tried to fix her a very sad version of a sultry look,
“Might I tempt you to...
change your mind
?”

“Afraid not, Bradley,” she
said, her eyes never leaving her drink.

Brad glanced up, eyes crinkling
with confusion when Jace appeared from the other side of the counter. Jace
looked absolutely pleased with himself. “Our plans can’t be rescheduled. You’re
looking nice, though. Sharp suit.”

“You look familiar,” Brad
muttered curiously.

“Bye, Brad,” Natalia said
quickly, knowing full well the consequences that would explode around them once
the bigger man recognized Jace’s smirking face. The dismissal was taken with
some surprise and unexpected disappointment, and sure enough, Brad was slinking
off into the crowd.

“Poor guy,” Jace sighed
dramatically. “You’re as brutal as I heard you’d be.”

Natalia wasted no time jumping
to the point. “What do you want, Jace?”

He faced her with mischievous
green eyes and sly smile, “If we’re being honest,
you
.” Natalia heaved a
heavy sigh, dragging her fingers down a lock of her black hair away from her
face. She would not look at him, especially now that his words had started a
strange tremor in her chest. She should’ve tested her luck with her family.

“Bye, Jace,” she said before
leaving her half-empty martini glass on the counter. A warm and coarse hand
gripped around her wrist; gentle, but with enough tug to stop her.

“Alright, I won’t play around,”
Jace said, and when she dared to face him, his demeanor had sobered up. She
could see a muscle in his jaw work as he seemed to be genuinely struggling for
something to say. The very implication of what was about to transpire next made
her freeze completely, incapable of pulling away. “But, I wasn’t lying when I
said I do want you.”

A bright flush erupted beneath
her skin, and for the weirdest moment, Natalia could feel her body react almost
violently to the sincerity in his words. This was…new. For years, men tried to
make contact with her, only to disappear moments later; but this guy wanted to
stick around? She didn’t get it.

“You’re joking, right?” she
asked, a tinge of panic in her otherwise composed voice. Jace shook his head,
and his thumb traced over the skin of her palm, making electric shocks buzz
with every caress.

“I’m serious, believe it or
not,” he said. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since you walked
off that morning.”

She couldn’t take it anymore.
Firmly yanking her wrist away, Natalia took a step away from him and nearly
stumbled over her own heels. Jace’s face contorted to one of wounded surprise
before it disappeared behind a wall of casual stone.

“That isn’t funny, Jace,”
Natalia stated, her voice hard.

“I’m not laughing, Nat.” There
it was again.
What gave him the right to call her that?

“Let me make something clear to
you,” she hissed, taking an angry step forward. “That was a one time thing. I’m
not a doll you can collect or some conquest you can drape on your arm. We
drank, we had fun, and we had sex. That’s all. It meant nothing.”

Jace looked genuinely taken
aback, but his face had hardened swiftly before she could make anything of it.
A familiar smirk appeared over his lips, “Alright, Ice Queen, I get it. But let
me ask you just one question before we go on our merry ways.”

Natalia felt one of her
eyebrows twitch, “Spit it out, then.”

He moved before she could
attempt to figure out what he was doing. His mouth rammed firmly into hers,
pressing a fiery current against her tongue and setting her skin alight with
pleasure. Natalia couldn’t help but melt into the kiss, her mind blanking
completely when one of his hands curled around her neck to tilt her chin
further toward him. It wasn’t at all like the kisses they had exchanged that
night when they were drunk, and even though there was some inhibition spooling
warmth in her blood, Natalia was perfectly aware of what was happening.

So, it made no sense whatsoever
when she let out a soft moan and pressed a little harder against him, wanting
to taste more—
feel
more—she wanted to drag him deep into her chest and
make him do wonders over her heart. She had leaned upwards, her fingers
beginning to tighten around his tie and dig wrinkles into his shirt when
suddenly Jace broke away, peeling his mouth from hers with an obscene little
pop.

She was gasping, her mind
reeling and her knees shaking.

He began to speak; she could
feel his breath against her lips, “Are you absolutely sure that meant
nothing
?”

And just like that, Jace ripped
himself away from her and sauntered off, leaving Natalia to stare after him,
lips kiss-stung, and body trembling as if she had been electrocuted.

It wasn’t until after he left
that Natalia remembered that he knew something about her brother, but by the
time she realized that, Jace was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the night.