ROMANCE: The Bad Boy Meeting

by Kevin, Amanda

He shook his head.

  “Is there a question in that?” Blake asked, his body unmoving, but the message of impatience expertly imbedded into those words.

  Clementine looked up at him, a deer caught in headlights. “Of course.” Clementine chuckled. She looked down at her legal pad as if the answer were right there.

  They all stood in that room, staring at her with expectant eyes. Ironic how she was finally the center of attention. As she continued to gaze, unseeing, at the stack of yellow paper, Angelica realized that the answer was right there in front of all of them.

  Blake glanced at her. At first, it was a fleeting look, barely noticeable. But then his eyes settled on her, the green pupils scanning her from top to bottom. His plump lips hung slightly open, a haze in his gaze. Angelica wildly imagined herself sitting on top of him. She imagined those large hands caressing her curves and that look… that inviting look. “Are you seeing anyone?” There wasn’t even a trace of a stutter. A stunned look took over everyone’s face, including Angelica’s.

  Blake’s lips stretched into a smile, his eyes twinkling in the dim lighting. “Excuse me?” He asked, but there was no denying the amusement in his stare.

  Angelica had transcended her body. In her head, she imagined herself a rock star. The next words came out of her mouth before she even had a chance to think about them. “You’ve got this big house. You live with your mom… and your dad. What about your wife?”

  Clementine’s frown had devolved into a disbelieving grimace.

  Blake lifted his left hand, which, of course, was devoid of a ring. “There is no wife.”

  Angelica’s face flushed pink. It was happening again; her words piling up in the back of her head. There were way too many possibilities and Angelica simply did not have the time to sift through the stupid phrases. Just like that, she crashed back into her normal self.

  Blake had eyes only for her. “I am afraid I have an afternoon meeting that I must attend. Could we pick this up tomorrow?”

  Angelica nodded, even though the question couldn’t have been for her. She could see Darren’s crooked smile out of the corner of her eye.

  Clementine shot out of her chair. “Of course.” She said, reaching her hand out as if she intended him to shake it.

  He stared at it for a moment too long before finally taking it. Clementine seemed to melt at the touch. “Are you ready?” She asked, looking at Angelica and Darren.

  Darren nodded, took the camera down and began to pack up the rest of his belongings. Angelica lingered a bit, wanting to stretch out her time in Blake’s presence as much as possible before she stepped out. Her foot had barely made it over the threshold before she felt something on her arm. She turned to find Blake standing right behind her, a crooked smile lighting up his face. “You were completely out of place.”

  It was an accusation Angelica couldn’t deny. “I’m always out of place.” Something about him invited her in.

  He stood even closer to her, his hand a mere centimeter from hers. Half of her expected him to touch her and the other half had no idea what she would do if he did. “Why are you nervous?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Can you tell?”

  He traced his hand from her shoulder down to her fingers, lifting her hand up to his lips. He planted a soft kiss on it, the touch driving her mad with desire. “Don’t be. You’ve already won me over.”

  Angelica shook her head, waving a wishful thought before it even got a chance to become fully formed. “What does that even mean?”

  He leaned even closer to her, resting his hand above her head.

  He’s just looking for an easy lay. Girls don’t come around here that often. That’s all this is.

  But then he said, “You captivated me from the moment you walked in,” and Angelica didn’t care what this was.

  “Have I?” She could hear Clementine’s voice coming from the hallway: “Should I go back? I wanna go back in there!” and Darren: “Jesus, Tine. Just give it a rest for today.”

  “I don’t need to tell you that I felt the same way.” She was her best version of herself when she was around him.

  He continued to hold on to her hand. “I usually take my dinner on my own… but now that I’ve met you, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

  Angelica’s eyes were wide with endearment. She tilted her head up towards him, that smile pasted on her face even though her mind was going into overdrive. “Well now I have no other choice than to accept.”

  He raised her hand to his lips one more time. “You always have a choice with me,” He said.

  Angelica gulped.

  He nodded towards the door. “I assume your friends are waiting?”

  They’re not my friends. But she nodded eagerly. “Yes, of course.” She opened one of the doors and stepped back out into the hallway, not quite the same.

  Chapter 3

  Adrenaline was supposed to be Angelica’s best friend. Whenever she was scared or impossibly nervous, so nervous the fear was almost life or death, her motor skills kicked in and a switch flipped from introvert to extrovert almost immediately. It was her secret weapon, getting her through dinner parties and interviews to boot.

  But right now, in that moment, sitting at the end of the longest dinner table she had ever seen in her life, wearing her golden cashmere dress, adrenalin was her enemy.

  The words dropped out of her mouth, as numerous as a bag of sand, the first unable to even reach the ground before the second was on the move. The aroma of a generous T-bone steak and the sweet potato that accompanied it, drifted up to her nose, but she could barely take a sip from the goblet of red wine, let alone a whole bite of food. Somewhere on the back of her mind, there was a little voice demanding that she pull in the reigns, but it was being obliterated by her nerves. She could no more stop herself than she could scale a building.

  So Blake did it for her.

  He lifted his hand up, a stern look in his eye. His lips folded together, a “shhhhhh,” sound filling the large room.

  Angelica froze, for the first time since she sat down, she could actually hear the sound of the fireplace crackling behind her. It was nice.

  Blake stared right through her. Then he stood up, slipping off his shoes.

  What the hell was going on? Angelica had the distinct feeling that he wanted her to copy him, so she did. She stood up and slipped her feet out of her booties, following him to the fur rug that had been laid right in front of the table. He brought his plate with him, then nodded towards hers. In a short moment, they had relocated in front of the table in their bare feet with a plate of food in front of them.

  “Better?” He asked as he took his fork and knife and cut into her steak.

  Angelica lifted her eyes to the ceiling, her heart fluttering in disbelief as he picked up a petite piece of meat and nudged it towards her mouth. She opened it, letting him place the food onto her tongue. It tasted better than anything she had ever had.

  He turned back to his own plate. “You know, I had the best cut of meat brought in for this and you haven’t even touched it.”

  Angelica swallowed the bolus of food. “I’m really not here for the meat,” She said.

  Blake let out a dark chuckle. “I suppose not.” He then leaned over to her, planting a kiss on her cheek. His breath showered her ear as he whispered, “Neither am I.”

  Angelica gulped, grinding her teeth together and squeezing her palms, anything to stop herself from jumping him right then and there. “I don’t know what it is about you. I never do stuff like this, I just—”

  He placed a hand over hers. “Neither do I.” Then he kissed her. She could taste the smoke coming off of his breath, the sweetness of the wine and something else… something distinctly him. She forgot all about the plate of food in front of her and clutched at his shirt, drawing him closer to her. She felt so small in his arms, a delicate flower to be protected in the casing of his muscles.

  Just like that, the billions of thoughts in her head diminishe
d. She was filled with the white noise of pleasure, her moans mixing in with his groans as his lips found her chin, then her neck. She clutched at his satisfyingly large arms, biting her lips at the titillating sensation of his tongue on her skin. He sucked on her, drawing her flesh into his mouth, a growl gurgling at the base of his throat.

  Angelica sighed as he pulled away, a crooked smile on his face. “You taste divine.”

  She shuddered at this, practically melting into him. “Who are you?” She breathed.

  Blake picked up his goblet, taking a generous gulp of it, then set it back down on the table before replying with. “I’m not sure I know the answer to that question.”

  Angelica pursed her lips. Something didn’t add up. As the haze from that kiss started to fade away, she found herself asking questions again, the journalist in her reawakened. “You’re so down to Earth. So cool, “ She said.

  Blake raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t invite you here for an interview.”

  Angelica giggled at this, resting her head on his shoulder. The movement felt so natural, as if she had been doing it for years. “You don’t like interviews.”

  “I haven’t done very many of them.”

  “And yet you’re the head of a multibillion dollar enterprise.”

  He glanced down at her. “Your point?”

  Angelica shrugged. “I just don’t see it. I have a feeling about you and you just don’t belong. How does a guy like you end up in a place like this?” She huffed out a breath, trying her best to keep her breathing slow and her heart calm. She was doing it. She was actually doing it.

  Blake shook his head. “I never wanted to be here. My dad’s the one that got rich… not me. But then he-- … well, he got hurt and none of us had a choice.”

  Angelica nodded. “And if you had?”

  “I would have a normal job… and maybe I would have met you sooner.”

  Angelica pursed her lips. “It gets lonely up here…”

  He wrapped his arms around her, “Indeed it does.”

  ***

  Blake pushed open the heavy door that led to his personal room. Angelica gasped at the grand space, taking in everything from the finished wood floors, to the massive stone fireplace, to the four post bed, lifted almost four feet off of the ground and draped in maroon sheets. He had offered to show it to her as a joke and, as a joke, she had accepted… But it was no longer just a joke.

  She shut the door behind her, her heart pounding with equal parts nerves and excitement. There she was, right there in the middle of a billionaire’s bedroom, wearing the best outfit she owned. “It’s nice…” He wasted no time crossing the room to her and placing his hands on her wide hips.

  “You are absolutely gorgeous.”

  Angelica gulped. She tilted her chin up towards him. Her hands pressed against his chest. He did not hesitate to kiss her, their lips dancing together. They swayed back and forth, grinding harder and harder against each other until her panties were damp with desire and she could feel his bulge digging into her torso. He guided her to his bed, hoisting her up on top of it.

  She noted how soft the mattress was, reveling in the way that it simply swallowed her up. He took off his sweater in one, lithe movement, revealing a washboard chest, abs that made Angelica want to pinch herself out of this impossibly pleasurable dream. He mounted her, his strong arms placed on either side of her shoulders as he kissed her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers intertwined in his thick head of hair. She encased him with her thick legs. She drove herself into him, pressing her crotch up against him over and over again.

  He slipped her dress down to her shoulders, sucking on her lips as his hand clutched at her breasts.

  Her nipples poked through her bra as the dress came completely off. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She was nearly naked before him and yet didn’t even feel a trace of embarrassment. All she wanted was to feel him inside of her. Yes. His manhood, engorged with blood, jutting into her over and over again. They were almost there… so close.

  He flung her breasts out of the bra that held them, his mouth shifting from the right to the left, taking them into his lips while his tongue flicked her nipples. Her nails dug into the skin on his back as she bit his shoulder, looking for something to hold on to. As she bit her lip, her moans filling the room, he slipped her wet panties off of her. He them across the room and fumbled with his own belt and pants.

  He shoved himself into her, his wide cock penetrating her with ease.

  She arched her back, pressing herself against him. He drove himself into her over and over again. Their movements rocking the bed. The thunk thunk thunk of the headboard slapping against the back wall. The dud dud dud of the posts wagging back and forth. Angelica’s mouth hung wide open as she sucked in ragged breath after ragged breath. As her pleasure intensified so did his thrusts. He embedded his head into her shoulder, his forehead slick with sweat as together, they climaxed.

  With a sigh, he dropped down next to her on the bed. “That was…” he gasped.

  “I know, “Angelica said.

  Chapter 4

  The next morning, Angelica sat in the hotel with Clementine in the next bed over. She had awoken with the taste of Blake in her mouth, the smell of him on her skin. She couldn’t believe that everything from the night before had really happened, couldn’t stomach the fact that she had actually had sex with The Black Hancock. She glanced over at Clementine, who’s gaze was fixed at the television set. She had not spoken to her since learning about her date with Blake and didn’t seem to want to break that silence any time soon.

  The toilet flushed and Darren emerged from the bathroom.

  Clementine scoffed. “Jesus, Darren. Do you ever wash your hands?”

  Darren narrowed his eyes at her. “None of your business,” He said. Then he turned his attention to the television where a man stood in front of a weather map, spewing excitedly about a massive snow storm headed in their direction. “That doesn’t look good.”

  Angelica glanced out of the window, for a deep, dark overcast had, indeed, descended over the snow caps. What little trees stood around the hotel grounds swayed violently in the wind. “That looks intense.”

  Clementine snapped her gaze in Angelica’s direction. “Like last night?”

  Darren rolled his eyes. “Don’t be like that,” He said, slipping a cigar in his mouth.

  Clementine glared at him. “You can’t smoke that in here.”

  “Yes I can,” Darren said, “I asked the lady at the front desk.”

  She let out a dramatic sigh before climbing off of the bed and shrugging her robe on. “Well fine. Then I’m leaving.”

  Darren just shook his head as he flipped the lighter, but the shrill sound of his phone ringing interrupted this. “Hello?”

  Clementine paused in the doorway just in case.

  “Oh right. Of course,” He said, a twinkle of excitement in his eye as he hung up the phone. “It’s Jim. He wants us on location for this storm.”

  Angelica glanced out of the window, her eyes wide. To say she was unprepared was a massive understatement. “Oh my God. Are you serious?”

  “Oh fuck yeah.” Clementine said as she barged right back into the room, ripping her robe off. Angelica dressed herself with shaking fingers. The thought of them getting back in that van and driving anywhere in this weather made her stomach turn. Almost thirty minutes had passed before they were walking through the front doors of the hotel, ignoring the flabbergasted looked from the clerk.

  The snow had already begun to fall, whipping around through the wind and easily slamming against Angelica’s face, even under the cover directly in front of the hotel. They could hardly see ten feet in front of them. A gray fog had descended upon the whole landscape. Angelica shuddered to wonder if their old van could take it…

  ***

  Blake sat in his father’s room, taking in his sleeping figure. He was nothing more than the shell of a man he had grown up on. It
always gave him chills to see him that way, but after his night with Angelica, he was starting to rethink everything.

  “I know I promised you I wouldn’t, but I did,” He said, talking to the man as if there was a possibility, however slim, that he might respond. “I met a woman the other night and I think we might really be something,” But his heart ached to know that that may very well not be the case.

  He leaned onto the bed, watching the mattress give and his father with it, but there was no movement, no response. “God, I wish I could speak to you. Mom is no help. No fucking help. I wish I hadn’t--” He shuddered at the memory of his father standing in their foyer yelling about one thing or another. He had changed right in front of him: no warning, no opportunity to reverse the process. He was man and then he was bear. And then his father collapsed onto the ground in front of him, a mass of body and blood.

  The thought made Blake want to scrape his insides out.

  The storm raged outside of his window. He turned his attention to it, unable to look at his father anymore. “If I let myself get close to her… If I reveal what I am…” He could see something smoking just off in the distance… a car or… a van. His eyes peered at the peculiar sight. It couldn’t be…

  ***

  Angelica coughed, blood slipping from between her lips. Darren had spun out of control, slipping off of the road and into a ditch. In mere seconds, this disturbance caused a small avalanche. Angelica’s head spun from all the tumbling and rolling.

  “Save the camera,” Darren grunted as he shoved the door open, pushing against the build-up of snow.

  Angelica lifted her head off of the seat in front of her. Clementine’s hair was coated in dirt, snow and blood. She wasn’t moving.

  Angelica cleared her throat. “Tine?” She said, but there was no response.

  By then, Darren ripped her door open, the cold air blasting in. It wasn’t until she set foot on the snow that she even realized what was going on around her. They were about six feet deep into a ditch. The van had blasted right through multiple layers of snow and they were stuck. Impossibly stuck.