Cocky Bastard

by Penelope Ward

  “I like you half-naked. Just…in the car or a closed tent. Not prancing around town for everyone else to see.”

  “Were you dating Piper when that poster of you hit the stores?”

  He squinted. “That’s different.”

  “Oh yeah? How?”

  “My being naked from the waist up, doesn’t have the same effect as you walking around with that little flesh-colored tank top with your massive tits bouncing up and down.”

  I sipped my beer. “Wanna bet?”

  Chance’s eyebrows shot up. “Princess. Are you being brazen again?”

  “Do you like brazen?” I asked with a sinister smile.

  He chuckled and shook his head. “You’re trying to kill me. I knew it.”

  We both ate ridiculously large hamburgers and washed them down with our even larger mugs of beer. I was going to need a month long cleanse after this trip.

  “So what do you want to do tonight?” Chance asked as we headed to the lobby to book rooms.

  “Whatever you want.”

  He stopped short. “That’s a dangerous offer, Princess. You might want to amend your answer before I take you up on it.”

  Between his admission earlier today and the beer leaving me feeling a little tipsy, I was feeling bold. I walked into Chance’s personal space and smirked. “Whatever you want. I’m yours to do with what you please tonight.”

  He groaned, and I pretended I didn’t notice him adjusting his shorts a few times as we checked in to the hotel.

  I took less time to get ready for the senior prom than I did getting ready to go out that night. Normally, I tried to tame my naturally wavy hair, but instead I encouraged it to be wild. Smokey eyes and glossed lips matched the sexiness of my open toe high-heeled shoes, and the simple black dress showed off my figure in all the right places. Finally, toting around everything I owned had a perk.

  My look wasn’t really me, and it definitely wasn’t how I’d normally go out at night. But when Chance knocked and I opened the door, any apprehension I’d felt went out the window.

  “Fuck.” He raked his fingers through his hair.

  Inwardly, my peacock feathers fanned. “I just need to grab my bag. Come in.”

  “No, thanks. I’ll wait out here.”

  If I couldn’t have him, I was damn straight going to make sure to rub in his face what he was missing.

  A group that looked like they might have been a bachelor party stumbled to the elevator bank as we waited. I sort of loved it when Chance put his hand on the small of my back in an understated possessive gesture. I really loved it when he didn’t take it away, even when we walked out on the strip.

  “Where are we going?”

  Chance hailed a cab and opened the door for me. He answered by means of directing the driver, “Spearmint Rhino, please.”

  Five minutes later, we were pulling into a parking lot. The neon sign read Spearmint Rhino. But beneath it explained more: A Gentleman’s Club. “We’re going to a strip club?”

  “We are. You said it was my choice all evening.” He winked.

  Oddly, although I’d never been inside of one, I was more intrigued than put off. The interior was nothing like I’d imagined. I suppose I expected darkness and sticky floors. But instead, I was surprised to find two floors, a grand stage and opulent décor. At first, it seemed more like a swanky nightclub than a place where women took off their clothes. The main stage had seating all around it, and there was a section with long couches for larger parties. Other areas could be curtained off for privacy. Some of the curtains were closed; others were open and inviting. I watched as two attractive women led a man by his hand into a private area behind a door.

  My eyes took in everything around me, but when I looked at Chance, he was only watching me.

  “Have you been here before?”

  He nodded. “A mate’s bachelor party last year.”

  “You mean you don’t frequent this place with your dates?”

  Chance chuckled and took my hand. “Just you, babe. You still think I’m a womanizer, don’t you?”

  I let him lead me to a booth in a corner. It was quiet, private almost, but it didn’t stay that way for long. A dancer wearing only a g-string, with a body I could only dream about, smiled as she approached. “Would your date like a dance?”

  He looked at me, caught my widened eyes and declined graciously. “Not just yet. I think we’re going to have a drink first.”

  He turned his attention to me. “Still okay with me picking what we do all night?”

  I rose to the challenge. “Of course.”

  We shared a bottle of wine that was grossly overpriced, and I actually forgot where we were for a while. I looked around and sighed. “Where do they get all these perfect women from?”

  Chance emptied his glass. “I only see one.”

  “That’s sweet. But I can’t lift my leg over my shoulder like that one.” I pointed to a woman who had to have been double jointed. “So I think she definitely has me beat.”

  “Thank God.”

  “Thank God, she has me beat?”

  “No. Thank God you can’t lift your leg over your shoulder. There’s only so much a man can take before he breaks.” There was an intensity in his eyes that made me feel like if I pushed a little harder, I could break him. Only, I didn’t want to break him. I wanted him whole.

  “So. Have I passed your test yet? Or do we have to pay a hundred dollars for another nine-dollar bottle of wine?”

  “Just one more thing. Then we can go.”

  I was almost afraid to ask. “What’s that?”

  “I’m going to buy you a lap dance.”

  “And that will prove I’m not uptight to you once and for all?”

  “No. But it will sure as hell make my night.”

  The lap dance was nothing like I expected. It sort of…turned me on, and I didn’t know how to process that. I liked men. I never had any interest in women, so it left me feeling a bit confused on the way back to the hotel.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours, Aubrey?”

  The strip was jam packed like it was nine in the morning in midtown Manhattan, even though it was almost one in the morning in Las Vegas. I’d had a little too much truth serum…I mean wine. I leaned my head on Chance’s shoulder in the back of the cab and took an audible breath. “Say my name again, Cocky?”

  “Princess.”

  “No, my real name.”

  “Oh. Uptight Princess.”

  I jabbed him in the chest with my elbow and laughed. “No really. I like the way it sounds when you say Aubrey.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Alright, Aubrey.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close.

  AH-BREE.

  Snuggled tightly to Chance’s side, I dozed for a few minutes in the car. His raspy voice saying my name with that incredible accent, made me warm all over. It felt so right, it almost hurt to think we wouldn’t be with each other all the time soon enough.

  Chapter Eight

  The knock at my door came at eight in the morning. I was awake but definitely not awake enough to go into a gym. What was I thinking when I’d agreed to go? I was way too amenable last night. The alcohol had smoothed out my edges temporarily, but this morning I was feeling wrinkly again.

  “It’s too early,” I groaned after finding Chance already dressed in his workout gear. He looked sexy as all hell in his low hanging running shorts and sneakers, but even that wasn’t enough to help my dragging ass. He caught the door as I turned back to my bed and slipped back under the cover.

  Chance ripped the toasty blanket off of me.

  “What the hell?”

  “Rise and shine, Princess.”

  “I don’t feel like getting up.”

  “You’ll feel better after we do it.”

  I cocked an eyebrow and he smirked. “Ah. I think I’ve corrupted you. Who’s the pervert now?”

  “A pervert is
someone who has sexual behavior that is wrong or unacceptable.” Word for word, I recited the definition he’d given me when we were arguing over my not admitting to masturbating.

  He chuckled. But also scooped me up from the bed and carried me to the bathroom. “Did you see the size of that burger you ate yesterday? I need to go the gym, and you’re coming with.”

  I pouted. “Are you telling me I’m fat?”

  “Not at all. I’m telling you I like looking at that shapely ass of yours and I’m selfish. I want to keep it that way.”

  I rolled my eyes but went into the bathroom and washed up. When I came out, Chance was lying in my bed, both his hands behind his head as he leisurely watched a European soccer game.

  “Do you miss playing?” I asked. It was a stupid question. I regretted it the minute it came out of my mouth.

  “I do.”

  “Can you get back into it somehow? I don’t mean playing. Maybe coaching or managing a team or something?”

  “I’ve thought about that.”

  “And—”

  “I never actually finished my education. I went pro in my second year of college. Most universities and even high schools want their coaches to be educated. Sets an example for the students.”

  “So go back to school.”

  “I suppose I could. Might keep me busy for the next two or so years.”

  I walked to the suitcase and got out my little workout top and matching spandex leggings. “I’ll just be a minute. I need to change.”

  Inside the bathroom, I pulled my hair back and dressed in my workout gear. I yelled to Chance through the bathroom door as I brushed my teeth. “What are we doing? I like yoga.”

  “Yoga isn’t a real workout. I usually weight train and run on the treadmill for forty-five minutes for my cardio.”

  “Okay. Maybe the gym will have both¸ and we can do our own thing.” I opened the bathroom door and walked out, ready to go.

  “That’s what you’re wearing to the gym?”

  I looked down. My tummy was bare, but I didn’t think it looked too suggestive or odd. “What’s wrong with this?”

  “Nothing.” He turned off the TV and grabbed my hand on the way to the door. “Guess I’m doing yoga today, too.”

  We actually compromised in the gym. He took a yoga class with me, and then we ran on side-by-side treadmills for a half an hour. After, we were both starving. Last night, we’d talked about staying another night, so I broached the subject on the way to breakfast. “Were you serious about wanting to stay again tonight?”

  “I’d stay forever if we could.” Those little things he said gave me hope, even though he’d all but written the words never gonna happen on my forehead.

  “Well, then tonight is my night. You got to pick what we did last night. Now, it’s my turn.”

  Chance squinted and held my gaze for a heartbeat too long. “I’m game.”

  “Great.” I smiled. “I want to go visit Esmerelda Snowflake this morning. She’s probably scared.”

  “We’re paying a pampered pet place eighty dollars a day to babysit that thing. They give him three squares, and it sleeps in air conditioning, when it normally lives outside and walks in front of speeding BMWs. And you’re worried it’s scared this morning?”

  “It’s my day. Did I complain when you got to pick whatever we did?”

  “I only got a night. Why is it that you’re getting a whole day and night?”

  “Because.”

  He chuckled. “Good answer, Counselor. Do you argue that well in court?”

  “Shut up.” I grasped for something. “I get a whole day and night because you made me go to a strip club and get a lap dance.”

  “Table for two,” Chance said as we arrived at the hostess station of the buffet. Then he turned his attention back to me. “You liked it. I think you even got a little turned on.”

  “I did not.” My face reddened.

  Chance spoke to the hostess as she seated us. The woman was probably in her late sixties, not that he cared. “She got a lap dance from a stripper last night and won’t admit to liking it.”

  The woman smiled and shook her head. Her Jamaican accent was thick when she spoke. “No shame here, sweetheart. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. You enjoy a little shakity-shake if you want to. Can go back to being your conservative self on Monday. I’ll grab you some coffee, and you can help yourselves to the buffet whenever you’re ready.” She walked away.

  “Come on. Admit it. You liked it. That woman’s ass grinding down on you.” Chance shrugged. “I know I liked it.”

  “Why do you enjoy making me admit things that are embarrassing?” I’d already confessed one embarrassing thing; I had no intention of offering anything else.

  “You mean like when you admitted you pleasured yourself?”

  I felt the temperature on my face heat. I stood to head to the buffet line, even though I’d just sat down. But Chance grabbed my wrist and stopped me. “Don’t ever be embarrassed by pleasuring yourself or enjoying a lap dance. It’s beautiful, and so are you.”

  Taking an early afternoon stroll, we’d just returned back from visiting the goat. Sweet boy got really excited and jumped all over Chance, licking his face when we arrived. Poor thing probably thought we were never coming back.

  “Esmerelda Snowflake was so cute when he saw you.”

  “My face is still sticky from that attack.”

  “You know you missed him.” I chuckled.

  “What are we gonna do with that thing anyway?”

  “That thing? Don’t refer to him like that. He’s like our adopted child.”

  Chance came to a halt and looked up at the sky, cracking up. “Our child?”

  “Yes! He has no one but us in this entire world.”

  “Seriously, though, Aubrey. After we part ways, what are you going to do with him? You can’t keep him.”

  My heart suddenly dropped.

  After we part ways.

  My mind was trying to grapple with the fact that he’d implied that this trip was definitely it for us. In typical Chance fashion, just when he’d given me a little bit of hope that something was developing between us, he’d go and ruin it.

  I was silent for a while before I forced myself to speak. “I’m gonna try to find a farm that I trust. I’ll keep him with me somehow until I’m certain it’s the right fit.”

  “Fair enough. He’s lucky to have you.” He was searching my face, trying to read my sullen expression. “Have you thought about what you want to do for the rest of the afternoon?”

  “You know what? I really don’t care. You decide.”

  Chance stopped walking again and turned to me. “Wait. You want to forfeit your ability to choose whatever we do today? Why on Earth would you do that?”

  Because you just basically admitted that I mean nothing to you, and I don’t really want to be around you at all right now.

  “I’m just not in a decisive mood.”

  “There’s a dark cloud in the air, Princess. I don’t know what I did or said this time, but I feel like I know you well enough now to know that something suddenly pissed you off.”

  “Drop it, Chance, okay? We don’t have much time left here. Don’t waste it trying to read me. Sometimes people get into bad moods. End of story. Just pick something.”

  His face turned serious. “Are you alright?”

  “Yes. I promise.”

  “I know I was joking about it earlier…but is it your time of the month?”

  “No!”

  He scratched his chin as we stood facing each other in the crowded promenade. “I think I have just the idea of what you need, something that’s going to relieve all of the tension that has been building up inside of you over the past few days.”

  “Oh really?”

  He wiggled his brows. “Oh yeah. Wait here.” He walked away to make a phone call out of earshot.

  As I stood there in the middle of the dry heat, I vowed to try to keep my mood in
check moving forward. I had to accept this situation for what it really was—a road trip, nothing more, nothing less. I needed to enjoy these last hours with him and stop overreacting.

  Upon his return, his mouth spread into a wide smile. Those dimples. A reminder that my new stance wasn’t going to be easy.

  Grabbing my hand, he said, “Come on.”

  I had no idea where he was taking me. I couldn’t have told you if it was out to ice cream or up to his bedroom. After a five minute walk, we ended up back at the hotel. Following him into the elevator, I noticed that he pushed the button for a different floor than where our rooms were located.

  “What’s on the third floor?”

  He winked. “You’ll see.”

  When the doors slid open, I saw the sign: Tranquil Waters Spa.

  “We’re going to the spa?”

  “Well, we’re getting you a rub down.”

  Before I could ask him to elaborate, he walked up to the receptionist. “Couples massage appointment under Bateman.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head. “Couples massage?”

  “Yes. We’re getting one together. I could use some tension relief myself.”

  An attractive woman approached and batted her eyelashes at Chance. “Right this way.”

  Bitch.

  We followed her down a long hallway and into a room with dimmed lighting. “Take off everything but your underwear and wrap yourself in these towels,” she said. “Your masseuses will be in shortly.”

  It was completely quiet except for the sound of soothing instrumental music. The room smelled like mint, and there were flickering electric candles sparsely arranged around the space. It would normally be a relaxing experience were it not for—

  “You heard her. Take off your clothes,” Chance said gruffly.

  A chill ran through me upon hearing the dominant tone of his voice.

  “Do you really think I’m going to just disrobe in front of you right now?”

  Instead of answering my question, he grabbed at the material of his shirt. I watched every movement of his rippling ab muscles as he slowly lifted it off. If that vision were a gif on tumblr, I would have replayed it over and over.