Thief: A Bad Boy Romance (78 page)

I
’m fussing
with the hemline of the white dress again, even though Quinn and my friend Cassy have already told me a
thousand times
that it looks great on me. The problem is, the dress
does
look good, I’m just not sure it’s really
me
, you know?

“Seriously, stop playing with it, you look hot.” Quinn is every inch the world-weary college girl home on break; twenty-one going on forty and
totally
jaded about, like, you know,
everything
.

I make a face at her; “I’m not trying to look
hot
, Quinn, it’s a
family
graduation party.” A family event, I might add, that our Dad is
actually around for
.

“Well, too bad, cause you look hot. That dress makes your tits look
great
, by the way.”

“
Quinn!
”

“Oh stop being a prude.” She sticks her tongue out at me before she stops and seems to look past me, and her brow arches and a little grin creeps across her face; “Well
hello
.” She slides her sunglasses down her nose an inch or so; “Don’t look now, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks you look hot in that dress.”

“Huh?”

“No,
Reagan-
” She hisses as I start to turn; “I said
don’t
look now!” But I’m ignoring my older sister as I turn around, and suddenly lock eyes with possibly the most attractive looking man I’ve ever seen. His piercing blue eyes flash at me, boring into me so much that I feel a warm flutter hit me even from 100 feet away across the gardens. He says something to the other suited guy he’s talking to, and suddenly he’s walking over to where we’re standing,  his eyes never really leaving me as he strides towards me.

“Um, what do I do?” He’s definitely walking towards us, and I definitely have no idea what to say to a man that looks like that.

Quinn laughs; “Ugh, you
talk
to him, psycho?” She sees me biting my cuticle and pulls my hand away from my mouth; “Yeah,
don’t
do that. Just, be normal and be yourself, ok?”

Yeah but myself is an awkward, gawky bookworm, despite the sexy dress my sister picked out for me.

“You know you
are
going to have to talk to guys at
some
point when you go to college, Ray,” she says grinning as she winks at me and starts to walk away.

“
Wait!
Where are you
going!
” I hiss at her.

She sticks her tongue out at me; “Go get get ‘im, tiger.”

I’m opening my mouth to yell something at her back about deserting me when I hear his voice for the first time; “Congratulations, Reagan.”

The voice is like honey and leather; smooth and smokey and yet older-sounding than the man who looks barely much older than I am standing in front of me.

“Uh, hi.” I say, feeling flushed as I turn to him.

Smooth; very smooth
.

Up close, I can see the tiniest glimpses of tattoo ink peeking out above his shirt collar or at the sleeves of his Armani suit, hinting at something much less
polished
beneath. A $5,000 suit and visible tattoos? Color me curious. Up close like this, I can see the thin white scar on his chin, and combined with that crazy charming smile and those hints of bad boy ink, I realize that more than just being the most attractive looking man I’ve ever met, he also might just be the most
dangerous.

I can feel my blush spreading up my cheeks as the thought hits me; the kind of blush that I
hate
because it makes my cheeks pink, which looks weird and not in a cute way if you’ve got red hair like mine. He’s grinning at me though with that totally charming and utterly disarming smile, and those piercing blue eyes are flashing and it’s like I’m under some kind of spell.

…You know, the kind of spell where I apparently can’t say
anything
without sounding like a total weirdo; “So, how do you- I mean, how did you get-”

Wow, was I really about to ask ‘how did you get invited?’
I shake my head; “Uh, sorry. I guess I meant to ask your name, not, you know, accuse you of party crashing or something.”

He laughs, and the sound is like warm silk and smoke, which makes something tingle inside of me; “Oh, yeah sorry, I never even got to that part.”

God
that smile is freaking
criminal
it’s so attractive, it’s like I just want to-

“Hudson,” My heart skips a beat; “Hudson Banks.”

Shit
. And just like that, I’m over it.

“I work with- “

“You work with my Dad.” I say evenly. Ok, spark gone; mystery butterflies dead.

Hudson freaking Banks. I can’t
believe
I haven’t recognized him from the corporate gala event Dad threw a year or so back. Of course, back then I was too busy hating our Dad for dragging us to his stupid event and too busy sulking in the corner with a book to bother being introduced to anyone. Anyone like Hudson Banks; one of “The Guys” my father is always palling around with in whatever conflict zone he’s in this week. The charm suddenly looks more like smugness to me; the cool confidence now arrogance as I realize that
this
is one of the people it seems my father would rather spend time with than his own family at his own home.

Hudson frowns a little, seeing the way my smile falls from my face, and he opens his perfect mouth to say something when suddenly something blonde and
loud
crashes into him; “
Heeey baaabe
.”

I can see him wince, and see his jaw tense up, and I almost have to grin at his discomfort. I mean I thought
my
dress
was a little too flirty for the occasion, but this girl looks like she might be a stripper.

“
Hiii
, I’m Chastity.” She says, sticking out a hand covered in tacky looking jewelry with big fake nails.

Ok, I take it back, this girl is
definitely
a stripper. I can’t even help but let the grin spread across my cheeks as I see the frown deepen on his. Whatever charm he was trying to work on me - and I
refuse
to admit that it
was
; working, that is - is now being totally shattered by this bimbo, and that thought is
extremely
amusing to me in that moment.

Hudson clears his throat; “So, uh, you’re going to be in New York for college in the fall I hear?”

I’m momentarily confused how he knows that, but I nod; “Yeah, Columbia. It was that or Cornell, but I really liked the idea of being in the city-”

“
Oh
my
God
.” Hudson’s stripper-date has her mouth wide open, her eyes glazed as she shakes her head at me; “I
totally
gave up corn too. It has
so
many carbs it’s like
crazy
, am I right?”

Wow.

I can see Hudson’s eyes flash as he cringes, and it only makes me grin even more and nod enthusiastically at her; “That’s, uh, yeah that’s terrific.
Good
for you-”

“Chastity.” She says with a smile, holding out her hand as if we didn’t
just
do this thirty seconds before; “Like the virtue.”

I almost lose it completely; you just
can’t
make this stuff up, folks.

Hudson clears his throat again, as if trying to clear how awkward an encounter this is; “Well, I’m in the city too you know, and I’d be happy to show you around sometime.”

Oh, yeah, definitely,
I think to myself;
maybe we could go watch Chastity’s pole routine or something.

What are you, jealous
? I frown, quickly burying the voice in my head and the totally
ludicrous
notion that I could possibly feel
jealousy
involving a guy I’ve
just
met, who I already sort of hate just on principle.

“
Babe
, I’m gonna go powder my nose, ok?” Chastity makes an exaggerated pantomime that even
I
get as a cocaine reference despite having never done drugs, before she giggles; “Oh, can I get my phone?”

Hudson grits his teeth, clearly totally uncomfortable with this whole scenario as he slips his hand into his jacket pocket and pulls out her cellphone. It’s when the two little nip bottles of scotch fall out and hit the grass under our feet that his face falls, he groans; “That’s, uh, that’s not what it-” He looks up at me, his gorgeous blue eyes darting around my face as if they’re searching for something, and for the briefest of moments, I want to
be
that something.

But this is
Hudson Banks
for crying out loud. Despite that charm and those eyes and that cocky, winning smile, this is the very last man on Earth I need to
be
anything for or with.

“It was nice to meet you Hudson.” I say with a thin smile. He opens his mouth again, but I’m already walking quickly away, trying to convince myself not to turn around.

M
y heart is pounding
as I slam the door shut to my room. I’m pacing the floor, the blood roaring in my ears and hot across my face as I bring one of my fingers to my lips and chew at the cuticle; a habit I’ve been trying to kick since I was a kid.
Shit
; I just walked in on Hudson totally naked with those absolutely insane abs, those grooved muscles of his hips and that
holy-fucking-shit
HUGE cock. I can feel the blush bloom hotter through my face as I think of that particular part of him again; the part that had me staring and frozen like I was under a spell of some kind. It’s the part of him that has me wetter than I’ve ever been as the mental image of it sears itself into my brain.

I’m used to living alone, but I can’t believe I just barged in through a closed bathroom door. And I
stayed
! Why on earth hadn’t I just turned on my heels and bolted as soon as I’d seen him, instead of
staring
at him and his- his
cock
like I was some sort of sex-starved, tongue-tied weirdo! And what was I thinking letting him get that close to me, so close that I
actually felt him
against my thigh like that.

‘Say the word, Reagan’

My breath comes shaking as the desire floods through me, and I stop pacing to lean my forehead against the door. I have
no
idea where I possibly found the ability to say no, and as I feel my pulse throbbing in my ears and between my legs, I almost wish I could go back in time and try a different answer.

“Reagan.”

The knock at my door makes me jump, makes my heart leap into my throat; “Go away, Hudson.” I croak out. It takes every ounce of my control to keep my voice level and not betray the quaver I’m trying so hard to contain; “And learn to lock the damn door!”

I can hear him growl in the hallway; “Will you just open
this
one and we can ta-”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” My eyes are clenched tightly, my fingers digging into my palms as I chew at my lip, not sure if I want to will him to walk away or break the door down and take me right here and now. I can hear him swear under his breath on the other side of the door and then I jump at the sound of a palm slamming flat against the doorframe.

“Damnit, Reagan, open-”

“There’s
nothing
to talk about, Hudson.” I saw quietly; “Just lock the door next time.”

Please don’t ask me to open this door again or I know I will,
I think, chewing at my lip with my eyes closed tight. I’m so close to the edge that I know if he asks me again, there’s no way I’ll be able to say no. I clench my eyes closed even tighter, feeling my body shiver with desire and feeling the heat pulsing between my legs.
Please, ask me-

The door to the guest room slamming shut down the hallway makes me jump, and I let my breath out suddenly, realizing I’ve been holding it. I count to three, and then ten, and then fifty before I open my door. I poke my head out to see that the hallways is clear, before I slip out and pad barefoot to the bathroom.

It’s still steamy in here from him, though I guess he never got a chance to take a shower before I barged in. There’s a bottle of aftershave lying on the sink next to a razor, and before I can stop myself, I’m holding the bottle to my nose and smelling his scent; letting it fill my senses as the steam of the room swirls around me. His aftershave hasn’t changed, and the smell instantly has me back there, back where we came so close. His hands are on me again, pushing me against the stone behind us as he kisses me; his hardness pressing hotly against my thigh through his pants.

I blush crimson, knowing that as of seven minutes ago, I know
exactly
what that hardness looks like.

I shake my head to clear it as I reach to turn on the water, trying to shake
him
out of my thoughts. The aftershave hasn’t changed, and as much as I want to think the man who wears it
has
with this whole new sober, healthy, helpful and positive Hudson, I know it’s just a new facade. People don’t change, not like that.

But when I step under the hot spray of the water, he’s still in my head;
all
of him. And as much as I want him gone from my thoughts, as the water teases electrically over my skin, the vivid image of his rock-hard body and his
big
cock standing a foot away from where I stand now invade every corner of my brain. I’m wet; far wetter than I’d be just from standing under a shower head, and before I can stop it, I’m pushing my hands down over my hips and over my stomach, and sliding them lower. My fingers roll over my aching clit, making me gasp quietly as I lean my forehead against the tile wall. A moan as soft as the steam rising around me escapes my lips as I rub myself there, picturing Hudson standing hot and ripped and naked right in front of me, so close that I can feel the heat from his body, and then closer still as I feel the throbbing heat of his erection press against my thigh. I picture myself letting him go further then, instead of pushing him away like I did. His mouth is on mine, sliding down to suck one of my nipples into his mouth before he slides lower still until he’s sliding his tongue deep into my wetness as I buck against his mouth. I moan again, louder this time as I slide a finger over my entrance and push it inside. I’m squeezing my eyes shut tight, already feeling myself start to tumble as I rock my hips to grind my clit against the palm of my hand as I picture Hudson wrapping my legs around his muscled waist and sliding that big, hard-