LAD: A British Bad Boy Romance Novel (Bad Boys of London Book 1) (8 page)

On my way, I thought to myself about the many ways I could approach this. My wicked mind contemplated simply hiding in the corner to watch her, and should she notice me paying no mind to her being there. She’d hate that and that alone made me excited. I liked to watch her squirm— It allowed me some semblance of power that she seemed to take from. Yes, that seemed a better option than coming across desperate in walking into the bar and right up to her to kiss her. She couldn’t hold all the cards. I needed to keep my air of mystery about me.

The outside of the Pearl was bustling with the usual late night crowd, smoking cigarettes, making conversation, males and females eyeing me up and down for their mutually different reasons. I never liked this place but found myself here often as it was a magnet for single easy women. Still, it bore me to no end the way these adults would carry on like teenagers indulging in their first night out. Add to that the sticky floor, the sweaty walls, the deafening music and the endless wait at the bar and anyone could see why I chose to settle on the Pirate— It was quaint, it was English, it dark, it was me.

The interior of this God-forsaken establishment had a dated gaudy interior illuminated by tacky, dim blue and red lighting. I cringed upon entering but made sure to make my entrance quick in case my suspicions were confirmed that the girls here here. I kept my head low and my hair over my eyes to make myself as inconspicuous as possible.
 

Some loud giggles rung in my ears at that same American frequency. Sure enough, there they were all three of them sitting at the end of the neon-lit bar and drinking what appeared to be colorful, feminine cocktails— A recipe for the ultimate hangover.

My back faced them now and if I positioned myself just right, I found I was able to see Hayley, drowning in the blue glow of the club, in the reflection of the mirrored wall in front of me.
 

Flawless detective work,
I thought to myself. I did wonder how I’d be able to watch her from such an angle the whole night. She laughed at her friends joke and sipped her straw. The kiss came back to my mind and my Johnny twitched at the mere thought. I imagined those lips crushing against mine again. This time, however, I’d be consuming her, taking her with every fevered passion I’d built up for this girl.

“Can I help you, mate?” the bartender said from behind me. I didn’t make eye-contact with him in fear I’d lose her, only ordered a whiskey then dismissed him.

I located a small table in the corner that would hide me enough. And as much as I detested the speakers behind my head, the bright television sets blaring music videos might distract the girls from noticing me here.

A while went by with me studying every facet of my beauty— From her messy hair to her tight stomach, her delicate ankles. I longed to get a little rough with her. I wanted to pick her apart piece by piece. Now and then I’d see her look over her shoulder but never enough to notice me.
 

My third whiskey came and the effects of it on my head and patience were beginning to show. I don’t know how long I could sit here in silence being tempted by this devil woman.
 

The third boy band video of the evening ended, allowing me another commercial break worth of reprieve. I took a deep sigh and looked up to the TV set for some distraction. That’s when something happened that made me recoil.

Upon the screen, a black and white shot of some shiny brogues walked along a sidewalk. My jaw flexed. I downed my whiskey to the bottom of the glass.
 

Clip-clop, clip-clop.

“In peace there's nothing so becomes a man…” A gravelly male voice spoke.

Clip-clop, clip-clop.
 

“As modest stillness and humility…”

The shoes stop in place and the camera pans upward.

“Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood…”

“Shit,” I hissed to myself under my breath. I looked through my lowered brow to Hayley who luckily hadn’t noticed the screen yet. If she did so, this whole persona of bravado I hold up may be tarnished. People seemed separated into two groups: Those who respect a model’s career and those who don’t. “Don’t look at the screen, don’t look at the screen.”

If one thing was on my side, it was that my national cologne commercial was short. This moment would soon pass if she stayed focused on her friends and didn’t recognize my voice coming through the speakers.

But no matter how hard I begged the gods to keep her distracted, her Asian friend pointed toward the screen, an obvious look of knowing spread across her face. She giggled demeaningly. My head rested again my fist.

“Fucks’ sake,” I muttered.
 

Of all the people I wanted to keep this from, Hayley was the single person. Had it been anyone else, I wouldn’t have given two shits.

I saw her precious face look over her shoulder to the screen. She paused. Her sweet lips parted slightly. She seemed at first confused until the recognition kicked in. But I failed to read her. What might she be thinking about seeing me up there? Her face lacked expression, or perhaps you’d say she seemed dumbfounded. And I couldn’t decide if I preferred that over any other possible reaction that may have come from her. My sincerest hope was that she’d be looking at that extreme close-up of my seductive bedroom eyes and wishing she could be looking into them for real once more.

She repositioned herself in her stool to get a better angle. By that point, it had already ended. I took that as some sign she didn’t find it too lame. I watched as her friends probed her with their fingers, trying to get her to react. But she held steady, smiling politely then excused herself from the table. Her friends looked to each other when she left and interlocked fingertips— Perhaps they’d be in with her. But my tipsy impatience was getting the better of me. I needed to be alone with her and only her. My spying grew tiresome.

I waited until her two friends had turned to away again then proceeded to follow Hayley to the restrooms. It was then I saw something far from my liking—
 
Another young gentleman — a Cockney thug — tall, wiry with a buzz cut and earrings, appeared to be in pursuit of her too. When she breezed by his table, I watched him check over his shoulder, stand up then pace after her. I hastened my own pace, drunk and almost inviting of a confrontation.

Sure enough, when I entered the restroom corridor, he’d caught Hayley’s arm. My temple throbbed in my skull. I felt my face growing hotter but decided to time this accordingly. I wanted a good reason to knock this guy about a bit and right now he seemed gentle enough.

“Beg ya pardon,” he said. “I’m…I’m sorry, I never actually do this.” The bumbling fuckin’ fool. “I couldn’t help but notice you at the bar and you seem quite lovely. I hope you don’t mind my forwardness.” Ah, the polite gentlemanly tactic which I so lacked. I knew Hayley wanted none of this. Every signal of her body was screaming for him to back off, but I knew she’d be too polite to say so.

“Oh, uh. Thank you?” Her bashful reply made the bloke lift his chin a little more and rest himself against the wall. Every inch of me was ready to run at him.

“May I perhaps grab ya a drink?”

“Um, I didn’t know if you noticed but I’m going to the bathroom. So…This is kind of a weird place to be doing this.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry ‘bout that. I wanted to speak ya to somewhere a li’l quieter than out there.”

“Right.”

“Fair, innit?”

“Yeah, it’s…Fair…I guess.”

“What you drinkin’, then?”
 

I cringed on Hayley’s behalf. “Well, I’m here with my friends,” she said. “I think the three of us are gonna to spend some time together tonight.” Smart girl. “Thank you anyway for the offer.”

“Babe, it’s just one drink.”

“I know, but I have money to buy my own and…I wanna hang out with my own friends.” Her body turned in the direction of the Ladies Room, but he caught her wrist.

“Here, how ‘bout this then. How about you spend a li’l time wiv your girls then we catch up afterward for a nightcap? I’ll take ya numba.”
 

“No, I’m sorry.” Hayley took her wrist back. “I’ll probably have a drink with them and then get some sleep.”

His polite façade fell to the floor. His ego had been threatened. “Babe, relax. It’s just a drink I’m looking for here, not sex. I ain’t no creep, man.”

“Uh, yeah dude. Again, no thanks. Excuse me.” This time, he blocked her way forcibly.

“You American girls, so fookin’ rude, in ya? You see how the stereotype gets propagated about you lot? Because you all act like a bunch of bitches. You don’t even know me and maybe if you gimme a chance,
 
you might like me.”

She scoffed and tried to dodge him again. This weirdo leaped right to left with a drunken grin smacked on his face, playing some game of dodge with her. I shook my head.
 

“Let me through.” Hayley stayed calm.

The moment that followed happened in a blur. He pressed her against the wall and forced his hand up her skirt. I started a run towards him. She slapped him once across his cheek, her face scrunched in shock and disgust.

He didn’t move from her.

She pleaded back, her arms flailing at his busy hands.

He still didn’t move.

My time had come. I stomped nearer —
clip-clop, clip-clop
— and popped a successful left hook hard against his jaw. A sharp crack resounded in the hallway. He stumbled over his military boots and fell with a feeble thud against the carpet. I shook my knuckles out and cracked them while I watched him writhe on the floor with glee. Kneeling down, I took one last prize from him. Hoping he’d be like any scumbag who inhabited this place, I found what I was looking for: A baggie of white substance tucked in his empty wallet. I wouldn’t be sure what exactly it was until later, but free drugs were good drugs.

“What are you doing?” Hayley spoke down at me as casually as if she’d called me up on the phone for a chat. The response was unexpected, as I suppose I should’ve come to expect from her. In fact, it caught me off-guard it was that unexpected. Without waiting for my response, she continued through the bathroom door.

I waited outside for her for about five minutes, wondering if perhaps she’d snuck out the window to save seeing me. In that time, that low-life prick got carried out by his band of fuck-wits, blood nose, ballooned chin and all. I blamed the ordeal on some punk who’d king-punched him for his sloppy behavior then made a run for it. The friends seemed to know what I was talking about and went about their business without further inquiry.

I checked my watch.

Hayley took her time. But I finally saw her trailing behind another large group of girls. They all checked me out, a customary expectation of the opposite sex, and carried on their way. Hayley, however, lingered back avoiding looking at me.

“Already getting yourself into trouble, Miss Frost.”

“Seriously, if you call me anything else but Hayley, I’m never talking to you again.” She was bluffing, but I’d let her have this one.
 

“London not the fairytale you’d imagined?”

Her face, sullen with shock, lifted to me. “I have to go.”

“You don’t. Let’s get out of here a minute,” I said and took her hand.
 

“I need to go back to my friends.”

“I’ll bring you to them. But, right now, you’re shaking and in shock and I want to make you alright again.”

I led her out into the coolish night through the back entrance and wrapped my jacket over her shoulders. “Thank you.” She pulled it in more tightly to her body. It pleased me to see my body warmth affecting her like that. It comforted her. I wanted to comfort her.

“I had to see you tonight,” I told her straight. “And I have to see you tomorrow.”

Her teeth chattered as she stared out into the derelict urban alleyway we found ourselves in. “I didn’t know you did commercials.” I rubbed my brow, forgetting that had even happened. “This whole time I figured you were a music producer or something.”

“A music producer? Hm.”

“Yeah. I figured you can afford to live at the Chateau and still you choose to dress like that. So, you were either a music producer, a rockstar or an actor I hadn’t heard of.”

“An actor, too, hey?”

“Well, I was half-right. So you’re a model. I guess that makes sense.”

“It’s not me. Just a dumb job I’m about to put behind me for good. It pays well but, as it turns out, the return isn’t worth the embarrassment.” I lit myself a cigarette.

“Can I have one of those?”

“You smoke?”

“Not usually but I feel this night might call for it.” I ignited the current fag between my lips and placed them between hers. Her worry softened and she inhaled gently.
 

“There’s no dumb jobs. At least it helps me to think that way. I wanna be an actress of all things.”

I breathed, amused. “That so?”

“Stage actress. In fact, that speech in that commercial…that’s from one of my favorite plays.”

“Shakespeare fan then?”

“Mm-hmm.” Her face got even brighter as she became lost in an obvious passion of hers. Her face lifted to the moon in the deep, black sky above us. “Not many stars here.”

“That’s the old smoke for you.” We both exhaled our own smoke into the night air. As though words weren’t necessary, we stayed there a while basking in the stillness; Basking in each other’s presence, neither of us having figured out the other and both being perhaps too stubborn to.

“Well, I have to go back in with my friends.”

“I’ll be seeing you tomorrow.”

“Please, Felix. Let me go.” She said it like I had a physical hold on her as opposed to a request for me to emotionally detach from her. I examined my stance. I’d merely rested against the wall beside her. I wasn’t even touching her. Did she think I was going to restrain her out here?

“You’re free to leave.”

She opened the back door and I returned to gazing at the starless sky. “I’m…I’m spending time with my friends tomorrow,” she said. “I told you this is our vacation. We’re on the bus tour and I don't think I—“ In a moment, I turned to quiet her. I pressed my finger to her lips and leaned in close, cutting her off before she had a chance to refuse me, unable to hear her deny me again.