by Nicole Casey
I felt like a naughty schoolgirl as Joe looked at me with a disappointed face. Why did this guy make me so angry just by looking at him?
“Adam, we can drop Jessie off at her hotel, right?”
Oh God, no. The last thing I wanted was to travel to my hotel in his limo. I could well imagine his satisfied face when he saw the nasty little hotel I was staying in.
“No, I would really rather just walk. It’s not far.”
Adam took off his sunglasses and his dark eyes flashed dangerously. His expression was somewhere between playful pleading and arrogant mocking. I wished I could interpret his expressions better than that but there was some sort of confusion between his eyes and mouth that led to extremely mixed messages. What was he hiding and why?
“Jump in, Jessie. There’s room for as many gorgeous but argumentative eco warriors as can fit in here.”
Joe pushed me in and I decided to sit down inside of making a fuss about it.
I was squashed in the middle between the two of them. It was a warm day and we all had shorts on. As the limo started up I felt Adam’s muscular leg press against mine. I could sense his strong, masculine presence next to me every single second of the trip and I didn’t like how it made me feel.
The car went round a roundabout and Adam put a hand on my thigh, apparently to help him keep his balance. It was lingering there just a fraction of a second longer than it had to, though.
I was angry at myself for enjoying the feel of his big hand on my leg. What was wrong with me today? The hand was still there and it was clear he wasn’t going to move it. It was as though he was claiming me as his possession by holding me there.
“There’s no greater pleasure in life than traveling in a quality vehicle with a real lady by your side.” His smile mocked me but his eyes didn’t seem so sure whether to be serious or not. I threw his hand off my thigh. At the next corner, I stuck my elbow sharply into his ribs and felt fantastic about doing it.
“What hotel are you in, sis?” Joe looked over at me.
“Umm…”
“My favorite is the Alvear Palace but you look like more of a Hilton or Sheraton kind of girl.” Adam licked his lips as he savored making me feel uncomfortable. Our hips bumped going round the corner and I tried very hard to fool myself into believing that it didn’t feel good.
“Just drop me in the Plaza de Mayo. If you don’t mind.”
“Ah, there are some quality hotels around there as well. Just be sure to get a suite with a view of the Casa Rosada.”
Enough was enough. I turned round to face the rude billionaire. His face was closer than I had thought and we rubbed together as I faced him. He casually put an arm over my shoulder. His hand was now dangling only inches away from my breasts and I could see how tempted he was.
I instantly regretted not wearing a thicker t-shirt, as I was sure he was enjoying the feel of my body against his. Was I too? It wasn’t the right moment to think about it, as I tried to act cool and calm.
“You’ve been taking advantage of my brother since you met him, and now you have been rude to me since we first met…Stop looking at my breasts.” I grabbed his arm and pulled it off my shoulder.
“I can’t.” Christ, he could have at least lied. “They’re my one weakness.”
“You are so infuriating.”
Adam leaned his hand on my thigh again, this time way up higher than any stranger had the right to, and I hit him a stinging slap in the face.
Too late, I realized that this he had genuinely lost his balance as the driver braked sharply when entering the iconic Plaza de Mayo. The Casa Rosada where Eva Perón had addressed her adoring public was in front of us now but I felt very far from being the sort of dignified lady that Evita had been.
He looked stunned. My hand was stinging from the impact and I could see a red blotch appear on his cheek.
Should I apologize? I would have felt better if he had slapped me back but he just kept staring at me with that deep, impenetrable expression.
The limo pulled in to the side of the plaza and I had hit the ground before it even fully stopped.
I hoped never to see that annoying man again in my whole life. In fact, I had to avoid him like I had never avoided anyone before.
Adam
The limo pulled in beside my yacht at the harbor. My cheek was still stinging but I wasn’t angry at Jessie for slapping me anymore. I had forgiven her even before she had got out of the car, to be honest.
I was angry at myself because I had deserved it, and more besides. It had been so long since I had met a woman who had turned me on like she did that I had completely forgotten how to act. Most girls just giggled and made it too easy for me when they found out who I was and how much money was swilling around in my bank account.
That had made me get lazy, so I usually just dropped a few less than subtle hints about my money and let them do the hard work from there on. It had always worked, even if it tended to leave me with an empty, unsatisfied feeling deep inside me.
Jessie had done the exact opposite and had shown complete contempt for me from the very start. Now I couldn’t get her proud expression and her fine body out of my mind no matter how hard I tried. I knew that she hated me but I had the niggling sensation that she could grow to like me if I could only find a way of breaking down those barriers that she had put up.
I had tried to be funny, I had tried to be nice, and I had tried to be a tough guy but absolutely nothing caused her to lower her barriers. She made me feel like the worst guy in the world but I knew that wasn’t true. I had to find a way of getting through to her but I had no idea how to even get started on it.
What I did know what that I was bored of easy women who fell over themselves to be close to me. I could now tell a mile off when someone was only after my money. Of course, I had been badly burned more than once before I had worked it out and seen what the warning signs were.
I could still picture the look on Andrea’s face as she had laughed at me and walked out the door with a bag stuffed full of expensive jewelry and designer clothes. That day had been the last time I had cried, and I swore that I would never let any woman do that to me again.
Jessie was different. She seemed to hate me simply for being rich and successful. There was no way she was interested in my money. She would probably donate it all to orphaned sloths and traumatized monkeys given half a chance anyway.
I had been feeling increasingly lonely in the last few months but I wasn’t going to go crawling to anyone to try and get them to like me. I was who I was and people either took me at face value or they could get lost.
Joe was one of the few people I could open up with and who seemed to appreciate me for who I was. He never asked me for money and he was always there to help me when I needed someone.
He seemed like the kind of guy who I could tell my secrets to and who would try to understand me if given half a chance. I had already been tempted to open up and tell him more about who I really was deep inside. Yet, I had always got scared and carried on with the façade of being a carefree billionaire playboy who was rough, tough, and a little bit wild.
I felt light-headed for a second as I imagined being with Jessie on my yacht or in one of the big mansions my family owned across the world. In my glorious yet painful daydream, we were both relaxed and comfortable.
Could I ever be happy living a simple, normal life with a woman like that or was I doomed to just move from one mansion to another and from one pointless party to the next without ever meeting the right woman?
Joe had been silent since his sister had slapped me and I knew that he was embarrassed about the whole thing. I started to get angry with him for no good reason.
I climbed out of the limo and turned round to him.
“You need to learn how to control your sister, Joe. That little girl is out of control.”
“She isn’t normally like that at all. I’ve never seen her act so crazy.”
“Maybe a monkey bit her in
the ass while she was in the jungle and gave her some sort of disease that affected her brain. She needs professional help.”
“Well, she has definitely changed since she left home. I think I told you before that she used to be shy and a real nerd.”
“Well, she isn’t a shy little girl anymore. She’s a…tigress.” The memory of her flashing eyes in the moment that she slapped me came back to haunt me. She was furious with me but her stinging reaction surely hadn’t been justified.
“I think we should maybe leave Buenos Aires, Adam. The cops are probably keeping an eye on us after last night.” Ah, so that was why he had been constantly looking out of the window during the car trip.
“Don’t be silly. This is one of the biggest cities on the planet and it has enough problems with the gang, drugs, and poverty for them to not worry about some random rich guy getting into a fight with a bunch of idiots. We’ll be fine here for a few days more.”
“Why don’t we sail up the coast to Brazil or…whatever else is further up there? Central America? I’ve always wanted to go there and go surfing.”
It wasn’t a bad plan now that I thought about it. Brazil was a huge country where I didn’t know a soul. That meant freedom in my book and freedom was exactly what I needed just now. Freedom from my business, from my uncle, and from wild-eyed, wild-haired temptresses who made me feel confused and lost.
Of course, I had some bad memories of my time in Brazil. I had once spent a week in Rio de Janeiro, which was the only time I had ever been there. The images flashed through my mind of a birthday party that had gone horribly wrong. Was that when I had unconsciously made the decision to close off my emotions?
Now wasn’t the time to let awkward thoughts like that enter my mind. I needed to try and stay positive if I was going to avoid slipping back into a depressed state of mind. After all, I had everything a man could ever ask for. Or did I?
Joe had helped me greatly in getting back on my feet in the last few months, but I couldn’t risk it all happening again so soon after the last time.
“You might have hit on a very decent idea there, Joe. Maybe you should invite your sister along to keep us company.” I tried to keep it casual but the words came out faster than I had intended them to. “After all, she owes me an apology.”
Joe laughed and I decided to play along and pretend that it was a joke all along.
“Let’s go and get some food, Joe. Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“Listen, let’s not mention the whole thing about the fight and the trip to prison to anyone. Now go and put on your finest clothes because we’re going to light up Buenos Aires tonight, my hungry little friend.”
After he had gone to the cabin to get changed I looked out over the city. Being in such immense cities always made me feel small and insignificant, which is why I liked to stay in smaller places where I knew that no-one was richer or more powerful than me.
I had gotten used to being the richest, most handsome man in any restaurant or party and I didn’t want to lose those bragging rights. Did Diego Maradona or that guy who used to be president still live here?
Ha, even if they did I bet my bank account was bigger than theirs. The thought soothed me for a moment, although deep down I knew that I shouldn’t judge myself solely on the money I had if I expected other people to see me for who I really was.
The phone I had bought the other day started ringing. That was weird since I hadn’t given out the number to a single person yet.
I looked at the screen and saw an unexpected but very welcome name pop up on it. Well well, it looked like Joe had exchanged numbers with his sister without me noticing.
Things could start to get interesting after all.
Jessie
I lay back on the lumpy bed in my cheap two-star hotel room close to the Plaza de Mayo. There was no air conditioning in the room, just a ceiling fan that looked as though it would fly off every time that it spun round.
Even with the fan on at full power the heat was stifling. I hadn’t known that Buenos Aires got so damned hot in summer. Normally a shower would have been perfect at a time like this but the shared bathrooms looked like they were best left purely for emergency use.
I checked that the door was locked and took off my t-shirt and shorts. That was slightly better but I longed to be on the beach or lounging beside a pool with a cool drink in my hand.
I had been feeling restless all day long and had been looking forward to getting back here to let my mind wander. The best thing about all the traveling I’d done lately is that it had given me time to be alone and think about who I really was.
I had been overjoyed when I had discovered the pleasure of traveling on long distance, overnight buses or staying in a jungle reserve with no electricity. Of course, being cut off from the world without any outside distractions had seemed like a nightmare at first.
However, I had soon sensed that it was a good opportunity to do something different. Things I hadn’t thought about in years came flooding into my head. I recalled old friends and re-ran old situations from my past life.
I remembered one trip in Peru in particular. It had been a marathon bus trip and I had tried to recall the faces and names of every single person I had ever known. In fact, I had got so engrossed in the game that I was a little bit disappointed when we finally pulled into Cusco.
A big cockroach ran across the bed and I flicked it off. I would never have dreamed of doing that a few months ago. I would have screamed in horror at a bug like that being on my bed but now I felt capable of handling pretty much anything that came my way.
I could still recall how giant bugs with eyes like headlamps had swarmed around us at night in the jungle reserve as we drunk hot chocolate made with powdered milk and bottled water. The sound of mosquitos constantly buzzing around inside and outside my mosquito net had kept me awake many nights as well.
These were all experiences that I knew I would look back on fondly in the future. They were helping me to grow as a person but I felt that there was still some way to grow before I was the person I wanted to be.
The windows looked out onto a side street and I watched the world go by. I simply couldn’t imagine where all those people were going to and what their everyday lives were like. However, just looking at the human activity below made me feel better somehow.
This was far from the worst hotel I had stayed in any way. I remembered a tiny room in Riobamba in Ecuador that looked like a prison cell and one in La Paz in Bolivia that had an all-night karaoke blaring away downstairs from my room.
The only real problem with this hotel was that a lot of the other guests looked suspiciously like hookers and their clients. That would explain why I had never seen the same couples twice since moving in here. As long as I kept myself to myself I should be fine.
I stared up at the ceiling fan but it was Adam’s face I saw. Had he felt the same tingling sensation that I had when our bodies had bumped together in the back of the limo? I guessed that he hadn’t, as he hadn’t shown any sort of interest in me as a person, only as an object to be mocked and occasionally ogled or fondled.
Of course, he had the kind of strong body and dark eyes that I always fell for, but there was something in his personality and his way of speaking that made me lose all control of myself. I still couldn’t believe how hard I had slapped him.
I checked the door again and slipped off my underwear. This was only the second or third night in the last few months that I wasn’t in a shared dorm room and I planned to enjoy letting my imagination run wild.
I hadn’t been properly touched by a man since starting the trip. Sure, there had been plenty of offers from randy backpackers and from locals who saw me as being exotic and different. They probably thought I was easy, someone who moved from town to town sleeping with guys and then moving on to the next one.
I wasn’t like that all and it had never felt right. Maybe I was naïve but I still wanted a man to sweep me off my fee
t and shower me with compliments. Did that ever really happen in real life, though?
I had never realized that traveling would lower my sex drive but I felt as though it was coming back to me right now, stronger than ever before. My right hand ran over my breasts and slipped down over my stomach before exploring further down. It had been a long time since I had done this and it felt so good.
When I closed my eyes it was Adam’s face and body that hovered over me. Just like I knew it would be. It was his hands that I imagined doing the exploring and the touching. Just like I knew it would be as well.
I was getting short of breath and was close to exploding when my phone started ringing. It was my Mom. Great, that was exactly what I needed right now. I tried to ignore the ringing but the moment had gone.
“Hey mom, what’s happening back there?”
“Hi Jessie. Did you meet Joe? Is he alright?”
“I did and he’s fine.” Well, there was no point going into details and getting her worried.
“Are you coming home together now?”
“I’m not sure. We haven’t spoken about it yet.”
“Jess, I think Joe might be in a bit of trouble.” Her voice was shaky and hesitant
Heck, how had she had found out about him spending a night in an Argentine cell so quickly?
“Listen, it’s not a big deal. These things happen and-”
“I know but the bank just called.”
“The bank?”
“He’s been spending like crazy on luxury goods all over the world. His credit card is maxed out and he’s like way overdrawn. His friend, Mike, works there and he got suspicious.”
Was the horrible rich guy making Joe spend all of his own money? The dirty rat had deserved that slap and a lot more.
I dialed the number Joe had given me for his Argentine cell phone. It rang and rang before someone eventually answered.
“Yeah, speak.”
“Joe? Is that you?”
Silence for several seconds.
“Well, well. If it isn’t little miss jungle bunny. Have you called to apologize at last?”
