ROMANCE: The Bad Boy Meeting (11 page)

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 diminished. 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.

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.

“What the fuck?” She whispered as Darren started the process of getting Clementine out of the van.

“She’s not moving,” He said, hoisting her out.

Angelica was CPR certified, something she had started in high school to give her a false sense of importance. Darren shrugged out of his coat and placed it under Clementine. Her eyes were shut, but she could see her chest rising and falling with her breath. She was still alive.

“This is--” Angelica was going to make another comment about how stupid their decision to do this had been in the first place when she heard something rapidly approaching. It was the patter of a very large animal galloping in the snow.

“Oh Shit.” Darren muttered in a shaking voice.

Angelica gulped, her stomach trembling inside of her. Then there was a roar, a distinct bear roar. She could see its shadow descend over the ditch. She tilted her head up, feasting her eyes on the bear who stood towering over them, his brown fur coated in snow. He dipped down into the ditch, one thick arm reaching for them.

“Oh fuck no…” Darren scrambled to the other side.

But Angelica stood frozen in her spot, captivated by the animal. “Blake?” She breathed.

He gave a quick nod, an awkward, human gesture for such an animal.

She peered even deeper into him, noting his green eyes. She had no doubt in her mind that it was him. Then, she took a leap of faith, sitting in the bed of his arm. As he lifted her out of the ditch, she felt closer to him than ever before. He set her down onto the snow.

“Hello!” Darren waved his hands.

The bear, Blake, reached down for him as well. Darren flinched, but then gingerly took his arm, straightening out his coat as soon as Blake put him back on the snow. Blake began to tremble as his body shifted back to his human form.

Angelica’s eyes were wide as she watched this. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“This is why I don’t have guests,” Blake said, his teeth shattering.

Darren looked intently into Angelica’s eyes. “We need to broadcast this.”

Angelica nodded, her heart fluttering in her chest with excitement. This was her first broadcast and she was going to nail it.