ARROGANT BRIT (A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE) (47 page)

This
is sex,
I thought to myself.

This
is what I’ve been missing.

It’s
fucking incredible.

I felt like a missing part
of me was finally being fulfilled. An aching chasm, both physically and
emotionally, was at the pinnacle of fulfillment.

Trent supplied that through
a thick, studded cock.

Anyone else would have
fucked this up, but it just felt so
right
with him. It felt like everything was falling into place.

I couldn’t explain it. At
the time, I ignored most of the thoughts, or at least tried to.
It’s the moment,
I thought to myself.
It’s just because we’re having sex. He has
to leave soon, anyway.

The thought of him leaving
my side chilled me to my very core. He noticed, slowing down and pressing his
lips to my ear.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.”

“No, don’t lock me out. What
is it?”

“It’s just…you’re leaving
soon, right?”

He paused, smiling
knowingly. “I’ll be here until dawn… And dawn is hours away…”

Chapter 15

Trent

We fucked long into the
night, occasionally stopping to rest. We’d drink water (or in my case, sports
drinks that practically dripped with electrolytes) and rest our aching muscles
for a few minutes before ramping it back up.

I couldn’t believe how
amazing it felt.

The night I lost my
virginity, I was 14 and the chick was 16. She was some older girl who was this
total slut that I met at some party I was
way
too young to have been in.

Half-drunk, we made out in a
closet before she whipped out my dick, sucking me down like a champ. It was a
spontaneous experience that grew me up
real
fast, especially when she pushed her panties aside and straddled my
erection.

I felt spent but filthy
after that.

But the confidence boost was
incredible.

It helped that I had a
naturally attractive build. All I had to do was work on it properly. With the
burst in self-assurance from my first lay, I was practically drowning in pussy.

It suited me just fine.

Then, when my little
afterschool band and I swapped a few members out and started playing decent
gigs, got the right attention, and wound up with an LP demo sent out to the
right people in the right places…

Huh,
I thought to myself, pulling Angel down hard on my
studded dick again.
I guess I’ve never
fucked someone I actually cared about.

Just acknowledging that she
was anything more than a temporary fix was monumental alone.

Angel came hard on my cock
time and time again, surprisingly ready for more. I held back my own orgasm for
as long as I could – eager to draw out her pleasure – but there was only so
much that I could withstand.

This time, we came together.
It was an incredible, heart-pumping experience that absolutely defied
explanation.

We nestled up together in my
bed, her head easily resting in the crook of my shoulder. My body tried to
relax into the post-orgasmic stupor that it loved so much, but I defied my
lethargic nature to stay up with her.

Up until the dawning light.

 
“I wish I could go with you,” Angel
whispered.

“Do you want to?” I asked.

She immediately propped
herself up on an elbow, eager to give me her undivided attention. I could see
tentative anticipation on her face.

“What do you mean?” She
asked quietly.

“Well…it’s just us on the
road, right? The bus has room for you, and it’s not like we have a lot of shows
left. We’re pretty much heading straight home after this.”

I could see the cogs
spinning in her head.

“I mean…where will I go when
the tour ends? You’re not coming back to Alabama...”

“No, probably not,” I told
her. “But I think that you and I can probably figure it out when we get to that
point.”

I felt her heart practically
stop against me.

“You…you
would…no, there’s no way…”

“I mean it,” I told her,
smiling warmly. “I feel a real connection to you. And if it doesn’t work out,
so what? We get you on a bus and you just come straight back. No harm in
trying, right?”

“Do you…seriously want to
keep me around?” She asked quietly.

“I told you, Angel. I
feel
something with you. Come with me,”
I replied.

“Are you…are you sure?”

“
Positive.
”

“I won’t, like, distract
you?”

“Not at all.”

“What about the others?”

“The others?
Fuck
the others.”

“Trent, you can’t just–”

“I certainly
can.
If they have a problem with you,
then they have a problem with
me
. I’m
the driving force behind this group. They can’t go on without me. You’re not a
damn Yoko.”

“Who?”

“Yoko Ono… The Beatles?”

Her eyes were still
searching for understanding.

“I’ll explain it to you
later,” I said, laughing. “Just come.”

 
“Okay,” she nodded. “Let’s do this.”

“Do you need anything?”

She thought for a moment.

“My backpack. It’s back
home. My social security card, my state ID.”

I jumped up from the bed,
throwing clothes on. “We don’t have a lot of time,” I warned her, lifting a
blind with a fingertip. The sun’s rays were already penetrating through the
semi-darkness.

Steven was going to be
pissed
.

I threw a couple of her
clothes towards her. “Angel, if we’re going, we need to do it now
.
”

“Okay,” she agreed, tossing
on her miniskirt and shirt. She didn’t bother with anything else. Within
minutes, we were in the rental jeep and flying down the Interstate.

Keeping a tired but aware
eye out for any state troopers, perched along the shoulder of the highway, my
priority was to safely put considerable distance between the bus and us.

Her little ramshackle bar
was an hour-ish away, and we
definitely
had
less than two hours to spare.

As I pushed that little
rental Wrangler up to eighty miles per hour, a concerning thought occurred to
me. I quickly patted at my pockets.

Fuck.

In the rush, I’d forgotten
my phone.

Steven was going to be
seriously
pissed.

Chapter 16

Angel

Trent drove like a maniac,
whipping between the few cars along the Interstate and keeping us over eighty
miles per hour the entire way. The jeep felt like it was going to rattle apart
as we soared along.

With one hand firmly on the
steering wheel and another clasped around my thigh, his eyes were fiercely
locked to the road.

“We should slow down,” I
warned him.

I could already feel the
tension building.

“No,” he told me, a hint of
his arrogance shifting back into his voice. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You’re driving like a crazy
person,” I pleaded. “They’re not going to leave without us, right? Just…please,
please slow it down. For me.”

He coldly turned to regard
me for a moment, but then visibly softened. “You haven’t met my band
manager…the guy’s a complete prick. He all but has it out for me. Thinks I’m a
hotheaded, egotistical jerk.”

“Are you?” I asked, trying
to swallow the mounting pit in my throat. I could feel anxiety begin to take
its hold.

“Of course I fucking am,”
Trent grinned. “But our manager is paid to
handle
that. If he can’t then, well, tough shit.”

I struggled to nod.

“Listen, I don’t think I can
stress too much how
little
time we
have here, so I’m going to need you to be in-and-out when we arrive,” he
reiterated. “We don’t really have the time to hang around, alright? If you need
to say some goodbye’s you can do it by phone once we’re on the road.”

“Trent,” I croaked weakly.

“You run in, take care of
what you’ve got to and lets get out of here.”

I was getting tunnel vision
now.

Please,
not now.

Be
strong.

Be
brave.

Trent was saying something
else, but I couldn’t hear him.

I focused on the first thing
to jump out at me – the logo on the glove compartment. I made it my core, my
stone, mentally latching onto it with all of my strength.

It’s
okay,
I thought to myself.

Just
keep it all together.

You’ll
be so happy if you just hold on.

He’s
taking you away from here.

His voice came through
again. He sounded urgent. I wondered what the matter was.

I faintly felt something
around my face. I was being tugged away.

No!
My stone! I need it!

I panicked, trying to flail.

Trying to tug at what was
holding me.

My fingers clawed wildly at
my face.

“…Down, Angel! Calm
down!
”

I paused, feeling my chest
heave over and over. I realized that I was holding his hand – rather, that
Trent was holding my chin in his fingers, his eyes locked onto mine, and that
my fingers were trying to pry him free from me.

We weren’t moving.

“Angel, what’s wrong? What
is it?”

“I…I
just…so fast…I can’t…”

“Angel, settle down…we’ve
stopped.”

I focused on that, pushing
down the crippling anxiety that had infiltrated my mind. I clamped my eyes shut
and bit down on my lip, concentrating on our immobile position.

A car rocketed past, and the
jeep swayed slightly. I almost leapt back into gripping terror, but Trent was
pulling me close, stroking my hair.

“Look, it’s okay, Angel,
everything’s okay…it’s all fine now. I’m here.”

I fought back a sob.

Be
brave, Angel.

“Are you…can you tell me
what’s going on?” He asked quietly.

I shook my head.

No.
He can’t know.

He
can’t know that I’m a freak.

“Okay,” Trent whispered,
allowing me to slide back into place. “I know the jeep rattling like that must
have been scary. We’ll just have to deal with my manager when we see him.”

I nodded aloofly.

My
stone,
I thought, looking at the logo on the glove compartment
again.
My stone’s back.

We rode in silence for the
rest of the trip, never going higher than sixty miles per hour. After about
forty minutes, we arrived at the Riverton Bar, and I extracted myself from the
jeep and let myself in through the back door.

“We’re going to be running
late,” Trent reminded me. “Do you need me to give you a hand?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be
quick, I promise.”

“Okay,” he nodded. “Once we
leave, we’re not coming back anytime soon. If you can’t carry it, leave it.
Clothes, books, just leave it all. I’ll take care of anything you need.”

“Ok,” I answered, rushing
inside.

I knew I didn’t need much.

A moment later my hands
descended upon my backpack, and I quickly checked through the contents.

I liked to call it my
Breakaway Bag
. A sturdy, waterproof
backpack, it contained everything that I needed to scamper off under the
moonlight. I checked for a few discreet pockets –
social security card, state ID,
shit like that – and then did a
very brisk inventory of the rest.

Towels.

A few changes of clothes.

Extra socks and underwear.

Pads and tampons.

Cheap first-aid kit.

Throw blanket.

Folding knife.

Taser.

Yeah, I was golden.

I had just enough room to
shove in a couple of small items of some sentimental value – a birthday card
that Old Greg had given me – when I realized that I was abandoning him.

He’d done so much for me.

He’d never know what
happened.

I snatched one of my old
notebooks back out of the trash, tracking down the only writing implement I
could find – a thick permanent marker. Hastily, I scribbled a clumsy note for
him:

Old
Greg,

Thank
you for everything, from the bottom of my heart. I’m going on a little
adventure and I might not be coming back. I’ll call and tell you all about it…

I’ll
never forget you, and I wish you the best.

Angel

I pinned the note up above
my cot, grabbed the trash bag, slung on the
Breakaway
Bag
, and locked up on my way back out.

He’d be here in a few hours
probably. That was his routine on the weekends, after all. Luckily, I didn’t
work tonight either, so he had time to find someone to replace me.

I hoped, at any rate.

After turning the key in the
lock for the last time, I realized that I didn’t know what to do with it.
Thinking quickly, I slipped it beneath an easy chair by the door.

Hopping back into the jeep
with Trent, I avoided his glance. I knew he’d be mad that I took so long.

“No second thoughts?”

I looked back up at him.

He wasn’t furious.

He was
pleased.

“I’m ready.”

“Good,” he smiled, twisting
the key in the ignition.

His hand clasped onto my
thigh as we kicked out gravel from beneath the tire. My hand rested upon his,
enjoying his warmth, his pressure, and his companionship.

I felt like I was where I
needed to be.

I felt like, just this once,
I belonged.