Free LAD: A British Bad Boy Romance Novel (Bad Boys of London Book 1) by Emilia Holland

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.