Bancroft and Ford: Alpha Male Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (2 page)

He let out a short chuckle. “Alright,” He held up his hand in defense. “We’re perfect strangers. Why don’t you come out and have a drink with me to remedy that.”

Remedie?

Leigh couldn’t think of a good reason to say no.

Chapter Three

Like always, the street was empty. Light pooling from family windows and streetlamps warmed the night. She pulled out her cigarette again. Now, it felt more like an earned indulgence than a nervous tick. She wanted to look relaxed when he arrived, like she was going to take a walk anyway and had barely expected him.

She heard the roar of a motorcycle before she saw him. Her stomach flipped as, once again, he had surprised her. Now, she was going to be expected to get on a bike for the first time with a man she had practically met five minutes ago. He pulled his bike to a stop and climbed off, slipping his helmet off. “Oh good, I didn’t want to have to yell over your wall.”

“Why is that too romantic for you?” She stepped towards the bike, examining it as if all the answers were just right there.

He stalked her. “Is this not enough for you?”

She turned, surprised to find him right behind her. “We both know this isn’t for me.”

“Oh is that so?”

Leigh couldn’t stop smiling. She wanted to fuck him and punch him all at once, but she just nodded and answered his question. “This is so you can tell yourself that no matter what, you’re more comfortable than I am.”

He nodded. “So now I know, you’ve never been on a motorcycle.”

Leigh narrowed her eyes. “I wanna be on a runway one day, covered in Chanel. How am I gonna do that if I’m filleted across an Italian highway?”

“Maltese. Not Italian.”

“I don’t care.”

“Of course not. That’s my job.”

Leigh wanted to backspace and start all over. She did care, she just didn’t want to get corrected by him.

But he just leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead, like he had done it a thousand times before. “Don’t you worry Farrah Fawcett, I will make sure your pretty legs make it to christmas.”

She wanted to kick him, but she didn’t want to leave him. Odd. “Don’t patronize me.” She felt his arm snake around her waist.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He said as he handed her the helmet.

Leigh clutched it, feeling grateful for something to shield her from the impending danger, but then she realized something. “Where’s yours?”

He chuckled once. “I don’t need a helmet. You won’t either. I’m that good. But I don’t expect you to just believe me.”

She nodded once and put it over her head, trying not to think about what the hell her beach curls would look like when she eventually took it off. As they were racing down the much too narrow streets, she couldn’t believe what she had been talked into doing. Why couldn't he have come in a car, or a rickshaw, or walked like a gentleman? Why did he have to assert his manliness over her like that. He must have been going three hundred miles and hour and he took to every bend like he hoped they would crash into something. Her heart was throbbing in her the pit of her belly and her body shook from head to toe. She hated every second of it, especially the fact that she had to cling to him like a baby because she felt the force of locomotion ripping her away from him.

More minutes passed, but it never ended, and all Leigh could think about was getting out of the situation. A good guy would have gone easy. “Stop!” She drove her fist into his back as hard as she could.

He eventually, infuriatingly slowly came to a stop on the side of a road. There was a sharp drop off on the side of the road, a steep hill lined with flowers. The sound of water, no ocean, drifted towards her in the night wind.

She panted, trying to hold onto her anger despite the fact that the sharp smell of salt water and lull of watered down jovial voices reached her from wherever paradise was. She was starting to get excited about this mysterious destination even though she nearly lost her life to get there.

“Getting cold feet?” He was infuriatingly calm.

“No. They’re shaking. I’m not going to be coy because there’s no point. But fuck you.”

He grimaced. “How could I have already fucked this up.”

He sounded strangely concerned, like he really didn’t want to have fucked everything up, like she was a glass doll he was trying, and failing, at taking care of. “I don’t know. Use your head.”

He ducked his head. “Are you afraid.”

“You knew I would be.”

“What is your problem?”

“Did you think I would like it?”

He had nothing to say to this. Instead he just gazed at her, an even stare, his eyes practically glowing in the night. “I don’t know.”

She nodded. “And that’s the point.” Leigh couldn’t spend another second standing there. Suddenly, her mother was all she could think about. She pivoted on her heel and went walking back the direction they had come from. She had no idea how long they had been riding for, but she was confident she could remember all the twists and turns.

She had only taken three steps when she felt something grip her arm, tight. “What the hell are you doing?” His lips were folded into a scowl, his eyes alive with such feeling it exhilarated her.

“I’m going home.”

“I don’t understand you.”

“Why do you presume to?”

Both of his eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I see.”

“Look, you have no idea my history with motorcycles because you didn’t care to ask. Just like you didn’t ask if you could kiss me in front of strangers. Just because I’ve seen your name in Vogue and you’ve seen my face in Paper doesn’t mean we aren’t strangers,” But by the time Leigh had stopped talking, she could she his eyes grow warm and smokey. She knew he wasn’t listening to her, but at the same time, she knew that she was the only thing on his mind was her and maybe the it was the model in her, always vying for attention, or maybe it was her mother in her, but all she knew was that she’d do anything for him to never stop looking at her like that.

“That wasn’t a kiss.” He grabbed her and held her close.

“It wasn’t?” Her eyes fell on his lips. She forced herself not to think of anything else.

“No.”

Before she took her next breath, he locked his lips on hers. Leigh grunted at first, but then let herself melt into it. He knew exactly what to do with her lips, the suction of his mouth sucking her in, his lips so soft it had to be illegal. His words from earlier stuck her mind and yes, if it felt this good it had to be bad. Something had to be bad about this.

He went up for air. “We’re three minutes away from drinks but I already feel buzzed.”

Leigh rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes wide open as she took in every detail of his neck. “So what did you have planned for after?”

He glanced down his nose at her. “There was gonna be an after?”

Leigh stepped away from him. “Don’t be stupid. I can hear the ocean…”

With that, Nigel hopped back on his motorcycle and Leigh gingerly followed, but this time, he went so slow that she could see each flower, each blade of grass as they past by. Five minutes later, they were walking on the sands of the beach, the water rolling over their feet. It was all so sensual, the warm, wetness of it. She could feel it in her bones.

He stopped her and leaned in for another kiss, his hands finding their way into her leather jacket. She sighed.

“Swim with me,” He whispered.

She didn’t know what the right answer was. Do what he says? Don’t do what he says? Resist and then eventually do what he says? She decided to just do what she wanted. Wow, she really did feel drunk. None of it seemed to matter. It was as if they were in some sort of fantasy land where their actions had no consequences in the real world. At least, that’s what she told herself as she undressed in front of him.

He took her cue and she liked the way he pretended it was her idea all along. She beheld him like he was a painting in the Louvre. On a whim, she fished out her cigarettes and lit one, before putting both of their clothes a safe distance from the shore.

When she turned back around, she found herself struck by how beautiful he was. Tall, towering over her, not a pound out of place and a myriad of tattoos marking his chest and his back, and under his arms, and on his ankle.

There.

She could tell by the ink that it was the newest, a tattoo straight from India. It made him seem even more mysterious and entirely worldly. She felt like she could learn something from him. She wanted to bed into him and all the stories she could imagine he would tell about his adventures, all the stories she could tell him about hers….

Chapter Four

Leigh sucked in a deep breath. Her butt was starting to hurt from sitting for so long in that chair, but she couldn’t stand the thought of standing up and being watched as she walked around the room to air out her legs.

“You changed your hair,” Nigel took the liberty of fingering her gray locks in his hand.

Leigh pursed her lips. She hated the way she couldn’t decide whether she wanted him to stop or not. “I couldn’t decide between blond and black.”

He chuckled. “This isn’t exactly in the middle.”

“I wasn’t going for the middle. I was going for something different.” Leigh didn’t think he was entitled to know about the way she tried to erase herself after him.

“This isn’t all that different. It’s decidedly you.”

“Well who did you expect me to be?”

He scoffed. “You always ask the most difficult questions.”

“You don’t know what I always do. Not anymore.”

“Why are you so determined to hurt me?”

Leigh stopped cold at that question. “Maybe because I know that I can’t.”

Nigel opened his mouth to say something else when there was the sound of static from over head. A man clearing his throat. “I would collect your cell phones but frankly, this airport is expansive and I don’t have that kind of time. If you can’t tell, you’re a hostage and if that makes you antsy, go ahead, try to use your phone. You can't get to them and they can’t get to you. No cell lines. Not for you.”

“He’s from London,” Nigel breathed.

Leigh glowered at him. “Do you know him?” She could hear the sound of boots from somewhere distant. They echoed in the almost empty halls.

“God no. What does that even mean?”

“That your friends were fucking trouble-makers.”

“Shh…” It was a man in the back corner with silver hair.

As Leigh turned back around, the source of the boots walked past the open doors to the lounge. Two men wearing all black. Bullet-catching vest and dark hair slicked back. Scowls and guns. Leigh’s blood rushed to her head. It didn’t feel real until right at that moment. All at once, she had no idea how this would end, if she would even alive the next time the sun rose.

Chapter Five

“There has got to be an easier way up this fucking cliff.” Leigh tried her best to keep up with Nigel, only it was next to impossible on account of the fact that there were thorns everywhere she stepped, hard, rocky sand kept getting caught in her shoes and she couldn’t deal with the fact that every step she took was on an incline. The wind had decided not to come out that day, but the sun was at full force, beating down on Leigh’s bareback with all it had.

“It’s not a cliff.” He stopped at the top of a rock and glanced around him.

Leigh reached up for a hand as she joined him. She had to hand it to him, she could scarcely think of anything more beautiful than that bright blue ocean, accented with the gray spray of the waves, more stunning than the sunflowers practically glowing in the sunlight, the tint of the red dirt, the sharp tinge of the forest green grass and shrubbery.

Nigel lifted the camera from where it hung on his neck and took a snapshot of Leigh’s profile.

She chuckled at the flash. “God, I’m off duty. Doesn’t that mean something to you?”

Nigel let out his dark chuckle and wrapped his arms around her, encasing her in a hole that made her feel like nothing in the world could knock them over. “You’re never off-duty to me babe.”

And…. there it was. Over their last two weeks together, Nigel never failed to make her feel like a lucky girl, someone not only special because he chose her, but chosen because she was special, like Princess Diana. But then, out of nowhere, just when she was starting to relax, he’d do something absolutely obnoxious, like talk to her like she was his assistant. “Don’t call me that.”

He frowned. “It’s a reflex.”

Leigh sucked in a sharp breath. “That just makes it worse.” With that, she stepped off of the rock and into what seemed to be a fairly harmless patch of shrubbery, but then her foot kept falling and falling until it ended up in between two hard rocks. “Goddamnit!”

“See, that’s why you don’t get irrationally angry.” Nigel chuckled.

“Stop laughing at me,” But even as the whine left her lips, she started to feel herself starting to laugh as well.

He stepped down into the brush, but landed on top of the rock, Leigh must have been standing right next to. He paused, glancing straight ahead.

Leigh followed his gaze. The cave was only a couple of yards away.

“The face of objectification is a perfectly reasonable rational reason to be angry.”

Nigel stepped on top of the next rock and turned to lift her up. “How can I objectify you when you are already so good at it.”

Leigh giggled. “I do love those arms.”

He paused there as Leigh pressed her body up against him. For about the fourth time on that hike, she wished there wasn’t an entire crew of extras, assistance makeup and costumes and her manager following just behind her. All she can think about was the way he had pressed his body down onto her the night before, naked before the moon, right there on her roof, and she wanted to take him again. She didn’t know what it was, but he brought out the animal in her.

He grabbed her hand and guided it to his crotch. “I think there’s something else you like too.”

As she groped him, she could feel his bulge growing. “Don’t do this to yourself. You know it can’t go anywhere.”

He grabbed the back of her head, pulling her hair back and forcing her chin up. She let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a moan.

“I want you,” She breathed.

“I know.” He answered. His lips fell onto hers, his tongue jutted into her mouth, demanding all of these things from her. She squeezed him harder down there as he hiked up each leg of her satin shorts his hands squeezing her butt like he owned it.

“We can’t…” Leigh whispered as he knocked her.

“If we play our cards right, we can…” With that, Nigel hopped off of the rock and started up the last incline, tugging Leigh along.

She followed as close as she could, but was panting by the time they got to the cave. “It’s fitting isn’t it?”

Nigel turned around himself, taking in every inch of the small open, from the carvings in the wall to the tentative weeds growing in the small patches of dirt in the ground. “What?”

“Calipso. This is where she lured all these men.”

Nigel chuckled. “You don’t believe those stories, do you?” He asked as he approached her.

“They’re fairytales,” She said as she reached out for his hands. She pressed her lips against his palm, kissing him with everything in her. Her eyes remained locked on his as she sucked on his finger, one by one, until she couldn’t deny herself that other thing she wanted in her mouth.

“You’re so passionate up here.” He trailed his tongue up the side of her neck.

“I’m passionate everywhere.” She dropped to her knees, unbuttoning his linen pants. She kissed him all around his member, worshipping him with her tongue. His hand dug into the top of her blouse, his warm fingers tickling her nipples. She opened her mouth, taking him in as deeply as he could go. He had already begun to taste familiar, like this was the most natural thing in the world to her.

He yanked her up, kissing her as he guided her towards the bench and turned her around. Her hands pressed into the sand-coated rock as he held her by her hips and entered her. It was slow at first as she let herself ease into it, her womanhood slowly opening for him. It seemed to have a life of its own, purring as it hugged him.

He slipped in and out, all the while digging in deeper and deeper. This was what Leigh loved about making love to him. He was just so good at making an event out of it. He savored her as much as she did him and she could feel that and that turned her on even more. As if he could read her mind, he reached forward for her breasts and cupped them. The carried her moans as he started to pick up the paste, in and out and in and out until he was ramming into her over and over again. Her ponytail had whittled down until her hair bounced up and down with his every move.

He leaned onto her, as his groans turned into lengthened moans, as he started to push harder and harder. Leigh could tell he was about to climax because it was always like this. She sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes and let him take the both of them there.

“Fuck, I need a shower,” She said, a minute and a half later as she started up the nature-made stairs off to the side of the cave.

“No you don’t.”

Leigh huffed out a breath. On top of the cave was a whole nother world on its own. There were trees and brush and flowers so tall, their white petals brushed her knees and the ocean, oh the ocean looked so beautiful from up there at that deceptive height. Leigh wanted to simply jump over the side of that cliff and right down into it. “No, you don’t. No one is gonna be hovering around you to dress you.”

Nigel put his arm around her shoulder. “They’ll be impressed that you seized the moment.”

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Speak for an entire group of people like you know what they’re thinking and they’re all thinking the same thing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what art is?”

“You speak for yourself with those photos”

Nigel sighed.

Leigh, sensing she might have brought up a sore topic, smiled at him. “You must have known that. You’re too smart not do.”

“I hate ads and I hate photostories. I’d be there in the action.”

“What do you mean? What action?”

“I’d much rather be on the ground, a war correspondent.”

Leigh eyes went wide. This must have been what girls felt like when their boyfriends enlisted in the army. Yet, she couldn’t deny how proud of him she felt. Suddenly he had grown to be ten feet tall and she found herself openly admiring him because there really was a man in there with a real heart and real goals. She could see him going places, and she could see herself standing right next to him when he did.

“What about you?” He looked down at her, his eyes telling her this was a vulnerable moment for him.

“I wanna be a humanitarian. Something like Princess Diana. I want to be beautiful, but not just because of my face, you know. I want people to love me…” Her voice broke at the end.

He lifted her chin. “People already do.”

Leigh barely had time to think that over before she heard the roar of three trucks coming up the other side of the path.