LAD: A British Bad Boy Romance Novel (Bad Boys of London Book 1) (6 page)

I inhaled. A tilt of my head and I stood away from the wall. Our faces were that much closer that each of his warm, minty exhales met my own. I could definitely feel my whole body sweating now. My chest tightened, my cheeks warmed up, a gentle tingle spread through my panties…

I smoldered, leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek. “In your dreams, rich boy.”
 

I walked away. I walked slowly with intention and a seductive sway of the hips but, mentally, I sprinted out of there. I felt relieved to have space between us again, but part of me secretly hoped he’d come swooping at me again, like some hungry hawk who refused to give up his prey.

But he let me broil in the heavy temperatures of my insecurity a while. I made violent expressions toward the opposite end of the corridor, mouthing why the fuck did I do that and why did I have to be such an asshole. I snarled.

The cheeky bastard didn’t reply until I neared the elevators. “You were begging that I was the owner of the suitcase,” he shouted after me.

I searched for a string of clever words, but my heart was thudding so loud I couldn’t think straight. Instead, I countered with a move I’d learned from him— Silence.

And it worked like a charm. “So was I,” he told me. I stepped through the doors and almost toppled over from shock. A waft of his Bleu de Chanel cologne still lingered in my aura. I pressed the L button a thousand times in some hope it would plummet me away from this alternate reality. Then I heard the low patter of someone running towards me.

There he stood again, his large hands keeping the elevator from closing. “The Red Pirate, it’s a pub nearby. Bring my luggage there tonight then I’ll let you go.” Go— Like he’d given me permission to. His hand slid away and the doors closed. His deep gaze held me until the slit closed in tight.

“Let me go?” I said out loud. “Let me go? The fuck is…”

The doors opened into the lobby.
 
Ako and Kristen were there waiting for me. “Let me go?” I echoed to them. “The fuck does is that supposed to mean?” They giggled, wrapping their arms around me to take me to a place far from this Twilight Zone.

— 6 —
 

I rolled the suitcase to our door.

“Right, I’m putting my foot down this time. Kristen, we’re going with her,” Ako protested. “Especially to some place called…What, The Red Rocket?”

“The Red Pir—”

“The Red Pirate. It sounds like a brothel or like…dammit, it sounds dirty.” She applied some plum lipstick that complemented her Asian skin. “Do you understand what a bummer it would be if you died the second day of our dream vacation, Hayley? You’d ruin it for me and Kristen and that’s not being a good friend.”

“Like I said, Ako, I’m returning his suitcase not being stolen away to his underground lair. It’s going to take me no time at all.” But Felix had me wanting so much more. Maybe he did have Rasputin powers after all. I’d never felt this compulsion to be around a man before. I already couldn’t wait to see him again. He was the literal definition of irresistible, like a fresh slice of red velvet cake when you’re a week into a diet. The more I shouldn’t have him, the more I want him. Heck, I didn’t even know anything about him! I found myself crumpling under the weight of this craving and kicked my feet.

“In and out?” Ako pried further.

“I walk in, I walk out. Bada-bing, bada-boom.”

“Well,” Kristen chimed in, her nose buried in an edition of British Vogue, “of course we’ll escort her there. Red Pirate or no Red Pirate, Ako, you and me are going to go find some sweet, sweet foreign tail tonight. Mama need some re-lease!” She threw her magazine aside, spanked Ako on her butt and slid into her black fur jacket.
 

“You talk like a sailor.” Ako said.
 

After I’d settled on my outfit, I turned back to Kristen. She looked sexy, curvy, endearing— Everything I wish I could appear to be right now. Her eye caught me staring.

“Fess up,” she said. “Too slutty?” She gestured to herself.

“No. Perfect. As soon as he sees you guys, he’s gonna smudge me from his mind. I’m so plain. I mean, look at this shit.” I fluffed my skirt and then, seemingly out of nowhere, tears rolled over my cheeks. Considering myself in the full-length mirror, I didn’t like this Hayley anymore. I wanted femme fatale Hayley from earlier. The who felt in charge. It didn’t feel as alien to me as expected to act like that. In fact, it lifted me, energized me. But no part of me was overtly sexual so was this all merely me wanting to be someone I thought Felix might like?

“Hayley, aw, Hayley.” Ako wrapped me into her. “Don’t be upset. You look as gorgeous as always. This is always how you dress and you’ve never had an issue acquiring male attention with it.”

I returned the squeeze, engaging her into a tight embrace so I could let my tears of mixed emotions out. Kristen joined in and stroked at my hair that I’d curled like the sucker I was.

“I suddenly hate every item of clothing I own,” I muffled into Ako’s shoulder. “Let’s burn it.”

“You can borrow our stuff.”

“Really?”

“Now, now, now, Ako. Wait a damn second.” Kristen lifted me away from the comfort of their warmth and secured me by my shoulders. “Hey, sprout. Look at me. You honestly don’t feel pretty in what you’re wearing?”

I shake my head. “I don’t feel like me anymore. Something’s changed.”

“What do you mean, though? It’s a black blazer and dress. How can that not feel like you?”

“I’m twenty-one. Why the fuck am I in a blazer? I don’t know if it’s the context of being out of college now or the jet-lag or this city but…No, this dress is heinous and boring and I hate it and everything is terrible and I want to slide under the covers and die because you guys are pretty and I’m basic as fuck.”

“Alright, we all need a drink, I think. Babe, you look fucking gorgeous and feminine and classy. How about we find somewhere right near the Pirate and you can join us when you’re done dropping off the bag?”

“Can you fix me first?”

“How?”

“I have this sudden want to feel sexy.”

Kristen lifted her perfectly filled-in brow. “For you or for him? I’m not letting you change for no man.”

“No, this feels like it’s for me. I don’t know what’s come over me but…I think I’m ready to show off what I got a little bit. Just a little bit, though.”

I used my phone to navigate me to the Red Pirate. I’d said I wanted to go on ahead without the girls in case this exchange took a little longer than I’d planned for. The journey proved more challenging than anticipated, however; These platform ankle boots Kristen had lent me into kept rolling on the cobbled streets (nor did the wheels of Felix’s bag agree with them either), I could hardly read the street signs, and my chest barely fit into the too-large, low cut, forest green dress I’d settled on wearing. I considered dashing into a convenience store, or Off-License as they called it, to ask for directions and make this whole thing easier; At least until I breached a corner and saw it: The old, painted sign of the Red Pirate swinging off a wrought-iron arm.

“You’ve got this, Hayley,” I muttered with vigor. “You absolute femme fatale. You Angelina Jolie doppelgänger with your flawless cat-eye. With your witty quips and your California glow and your…your hair. Feeling so fresh, tonight. No man deserves me. I am all woman, boy!”

Making my way across the street, I barely managed to dodge a cab who appeared from nowhere. My heart beat fast. At this point, it had its bags packed and was ready to move out of my chest cavity, I’d abused it that much today. But it hung in there. My plan was set: Drop off the bag, say my goodbyes, go meet the girls, find someone other than Felix to take my breath away. That would be the best case scenario. Worst case, I wake up tomorrow morning in Felix’s bed with a hangover. Well, if that’s worst case then I am one lucky girl.

The noise grew louder as I opened the door. Crowded and foggy from the amounts of bodies in the place, I carefully navigated my way to the bar. Glasses of beer and liquor — empty and full, perspiring and sticky — lined the counter, and jovial drinkers of all types were having loud discussions that I could barely understand.
 

The crowd of the Red Pirate was by no means of the lower class, but it had a roughness to it, a masculinity. It seemed filled with more laid-back types, architects or restauranteurs perhaps. I stared up to the corner and noticed the TV screens then realized the reason for the ruckus— Football, or soccer as I’d say back home, a sport that bored me to no end. An interesting and novel place to be, nonetheless; a rowdy atmosphere that had the scent of new money.

I edged into the end of the bar so I could kneel up on a chair and look around for who I so wanted to see.
 
My sightline breached the surface of heads and I filtered through to find the messy blonde mop of Felix. The task challenged me a little, making me go through groups a few times to see if I’d missed him. Then I saw a hand raise up. I found him in a corner, sitting right beside another blonde girl, this one different from the last. Disappointment filled me in that moment and I had to look away. Why did I keep misreading all of this? And when I turned back to find him again, this time, all the pub patrons cheered a booming cheer at a goal on the screen and also raised their arms in the air. I’d lost him again. Fuck.

When the low rumble of screams dissipated, I continued searching and searching again and again. A hand rested upon my bare lower back, exposed slightly by a cut-out in the dress. His rough, warm fingertips upon my skin made my hairs prickle. I slipped as gracefully as I could from the leather stool and into his arms. His hands slipped down to my waist to hold my balance for me or perhaps merely to feel like he had some control. He touched me firmly and assertively, knowing the right way to hold me to make my whole body come alive in his hands.

“You’re girly,” he shouted over another cry of cheers.

“What?” I shouted back, confused if he meant is as a compliment or not. I dropped my head to look at my outfit. “You mean the dress? I guess it is. It’s not mine. I borrowed it from my friend.”

“No. I said you’re early.”

Shit. The awkward fool showed itself too soon in my game plan.

Luckily, he seemed unfazed by it.“Do I need to check to make sure all my belongings are still here?” he asked, letting the devil inspire his wide-open grin. An amazing smile, too? No. He couldn’t be real.

“Everything is in there. But I may have borrowed your nail polish to paint my toes,” I added by way of humor. “Oops.” My shoulder shrugged cutely as my own hands slid down my sides to release him from me.

“You’re going to be required to take out those toes for me, then.” I swallowed hard as his blonde date materialized at his side. Us girls gave each other a look and I’d grown uncomfortable with this exchange.
 

I cleared my throat and fisted my cool hand to my cheek, trying to hide yet another blush. I detested being a blusher around this guy because I knew it’d please him.
 

“Mate,” the blonde chimed in, “are you gonna buy me another drink?”

“I don’t think so. Something’s come up.” He didn’t even look back at her, the cocky prick. Not only did I find that rude but this girl was a knock-out— A model, for sure. And when I say she was a model, I damn well mean it. No person would deny that with those wide-set eyes and plump lips. Gorgeous, undeniably gorgeous, and yet Felix somehow seemed transfixed by me and only me.

“Sit,” he said to me.
 

I narrowed my eyes to him. “You first.”

He sat down modestly and looked at my expression with searching eyes. “As you wish.”
 

My plan replayed in my head:

Drop off the bag, say my goodbyes, go meet the girls, find someone other than Felix to take my breath away.

My intentions were set. “I’m not sitting. I came here to give you the bag and go. My friends are waiting for me.”

“Where?”

“None of your business,”
 
I revealed my dimples flirtatiously then darted my eyes around the room.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know yet. Somewhere close by. I’m not super familiar with the neighborhood yet.”

He gave some pause and took a drawn out sip of his beer.

“I scare you.” He stared straight ahead.

“You don’t.” I’d die before ever admitting him being right.

“I’m not who you think I am, I assure you.”

“And who do you think that is?”

“Probably some sort of female predator who lacks a conscience. See, I have my vices, as everyone does— Women, obviously, among others. But I assure you that you have nothing to fear about me, Miss Frost. At least, until I get you out of that dress…Then I can’t promise what I might be capable of.”

The words, creepy coming from any other lips but his, made me wet. Hell, even being in his presence had my libido whining about why it had been woken up so abruptly. I readjusted my skirt and leaned onto the bar to give him a good show of what he’d be missing out on this evening. Time to give him some back.

“I’m not scared of you. I don't know you.”