After all, this isn’t ever going to be a long term thing, is it? What do I have to worry about? “Oh right, thank you.” I let him pour me a drink. “That’s very kind of you.”
“You’re very welcome.” He stares into my eyes and I lose myself in the warm, hazelnut color looking back at me. He looks like he has layers and layers that need to be pulled back, and I can’t wait to at least do a little bit of that. “You deserve it after that singing.”
I can’t take any more compliments on my singing, it’s getting a bit overwhelming so I find a way to change the subject instead. Anything will do. “You know, I don’t actually know your name. I don’t usually accept drinks from strangers.”
“Oh right, well it’s Brandon Heath-Smith,” he tells me, as if I should know what that means. I’d look him up online to see what’s so special about him if he wasn’t sitting right in front of me. “The Heath-Smith name is famous in old money, it’s also a big one in business too. I mean, I don’t expect you to have heard of me, but yeah…”
I don’t know if that’s an arrogant comment or not so I chose to ignore it. Maybe he gets by on his name usually, but this isn’t the big city. He needs to get by on his own damn merits.
“Oh right I see, well the Boots name is important here… but then you probably already know that since you’ve been here for at least an hour.”
At first he widens his eyes in shock at my words, he can see I’m taking the piss, but soon he bursts into laughter as if I’m the funniest person alive. His chuckling is infectious and soon I’m joining in, giggling alongside him like we’re a couple of school kids acting foolish.
“Oh yeah, I heard the Boots daughter is kind of a bitch though. This singer who’s a real diva. Big dreams and even bigger demands, you know the sort?”
“Oh I know… but I didn’t hear that.” I slurp my drink, feeling a little drunk now. “I heard she’s super sweet and everyone lives her. Isn’t that right, Doreen?”
“Oh we all love you alright,” she replies while giving Brandon a warning look. “That’s why we’re all here for you, looking after you.”
She zaps a bit of fun out of the game, I start to wish I didn’t bring her into it, but then Brandon gives me a playful wink as if we’re on the same side. Us against them. I like it. It makes me want to sidle closer to him, to wrap my arms around him, to kiss him…
“What do you have planned now?” he asks me thickly. “Do you have anything that you usually do once you finish singing a set?”
“If I did, I’ve already broken it by sitting here and drinking with you. One drink is my standard, now I’ve had a couple, so I guess all routine is gone.” God, it’s freeing to say that. I didn’t realize how constricted I felt by the rut I’m in until that very moment. “It looks like anything is possible.”
“It is… the only thing we’re constricted by is the small town we’re stuck in.” When I gave him a look he quickly retracts that sentence. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just presume there isn’t another bar we can go to.”
Okay, admittedly he has me there. “No, I suppose not,” I drawl slowly. “But there are other things we can do. You just need to use your imagination.”
His eyes become heavy and thick with lust. I have him exactly where I want him. “Oh yeah? Well my imagination has thousands of ideas.”
Of course he does. This is a man who knows exactly what he’s doing in the bedroom. The fantasy of his fingers all over my body, exploring every damn inch of me, might just about to become real. I shiver and smirk before sliding off my chair and making it absolutely obvious that I want to go. This is all fun but I want more. My body has been asleep for far too long and now it’s awake again. It needs to find some serious satisfaction and since it looks like I’m not going to get my ‘alone time’ anymore, I might as well have some ‘together time’ with this seriously sexy stranger. After all, how often does the opportunity for that to happen come around?
“Are we going?” he asks me happily.
“That depends.” I lean across the bar and stare intently into his eyes. “Are you finished here?”
“Oh I’m finished.” He stands up without hesitation. “I’m ready, let’s get out of here.”
And then in his commanding way he stalks from the bar, leaving me with absolutely no choice but to follow him.
Chapter 4 – Brandon
“So, what are the chances of me getting to see your place then?” I ask Lola cheekily as we leave the bar. I know I wanted to take her back to my motel to dirty the place up with her, but now that I’ve spent just a few moments with her I think she might be too good for that. Not for the being dirty part, I still want to see if she has that part in her, but the motel bit. It just seems to seedy for someone like Lola. “Or is that me pushing it a bit?”
Without answering me, Lola snakes her fingers through mine and she drags me along behind her. With any other woman the fact that she’s holding my hand might feel weird and possessive, but Lola just has this way about her that simply feels playful and fun.
“I see, you’re going to be like that, are you? Fine, I don’t mind.”
“You don’t mind?” She spins around and smirks at me. I feel like her blue eyes are piercing into my soul. “So you don’t mind letting go of control then?”
“Are you always this perceptive?” I can’t help but ask. “It’s a little weird that you can see things about me without us even talking much.”
It’s mostly weird to me that she cares. If I think back to all the meaningless experiences that have come before, I realize that’s been a two way street. I haven’t cared about learning anything about the girls, just like they haven’t me. They haven’t wanted to know what goes on deep inside me, they simply care about my name, my reputation, and my bank balance. Shedding that here in this small town, even if it’s just for a short while, is surprisingly fun.
I never thought I wouldn’t want to be a Heath-Smith, but as it turns out, for now I don’t.
“I am quite perceptive,” she says quietly, changing her tone for just a moment. “I knew that Mom was sick way before she did. I kept begging her to go to the hospital but she never would. Not until it was too late anyway.” Her eyes fix on the ground as we walk, but still she doesn’t take her hand away from mine. I wasn’t expecting this vulnerable moment from this cool and spunky girl, but surprisingly I don’t mind it. Maybe this trip will end up bringing out a whole new side to me. “I also knew that Rory would be gone long before he did…” Suddenly she glances up as if she’s just remembered I’m here and she’s horrified at herself. “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to get all heavy then, I don’t know what happened to me…”
“No, it doesn’t matter.” I need to put her out of her misery quickly before she falls into a pit of guilt. “Actually, when Doreen was warning me away from you she said you’ve had loss and heart break. How long ago was it?” I need to know to work out how I should behave.
“Four years, so a long time ago.” She gives me a weak smile and a bit of a giggle. “Long enough ago that Doreen doesn’t have to treat me like a child anymore.”
“Oh I think she just cares about you… to be honest, this does seem like the sort of place where everyone’s a bit like family. In a good way.” I think!
“And yet you want to come along and want to build all over it,” Lola says, but with a hint of teasing so I know it isn’t about to descend into an argument. “Just bloody marvelous. It’s always the big city types that want to wreck everything, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. We have no soul or heart, all we want to do is make money out of everything.” I say this as a joke, but actually it’s much closer to the truth than I’d like it to be. At least for my father, if not me. I’ve never cared too much about making heaps of money but that’s because I’ve always had it. “Anyway, it might be an improvement, you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you? In two months you might change your mind completely.”
“Hmmm,
we’ll see about that one. I don’t think I’ll agree until I’ve seen it for myself.”
“Or maybe you won’t be here… maybe you’ll be a famous singer by then!”
I am only teasing with my remark, but judging by the way Lola looks crestfallen I know I’ve said something wrong. Only I don’t know what so I can’t even make it right. All I can do is squeeze her fingers between mine and hope that whatever I’ve said doesn’t put her off me. She’s the most interesting woman in this town, I don’t want to push her away already.
“So, this is my home,” she suddenly blurts out, making me jump. I got so lost in worry then that I forgot we were even walking! “That little cottage, right there.”
She points to a small, wooden type building that can only be made for one. It’s sitting on the edge of a farm that looks like it was bustling and full of life once upon a time, the sort of place you might see in a children’s picture book, but now it’s failing. Not quite post apocalyptic, but certainly not thriving anymore. The animals appear to be few and far between, the equipment is rusty, the house at the other edge of the farm is crumbling and falling apart. It’s not the sort of home I would have pictured for Lola.
“Oh right, it’s nice!” I lie a bit too enthusiastically. “It looks really, erm, homely.”
“You don’t have to say that to make me feel better,” she replies dryly while unlocking the door to her home. “I know it isn’t much, but it’s all we have at the moment.”
I want to ask her more. I want to pry further into her life and find out all about her but I don’t know if I can. This isn’t even like a first date or anything, just a chance encounter than neither of us were expecting. I don’t know what the rules of privacy are, but I’m sure if she wanted to offer me an explanation, she would.
Instead of probing her, I step inside behind her and glance my eyes everywhere inside, which doesn’t take long because there’s hardly anything; a tiny kitchen with a tabletop oven and a microwave, plus a couple of drawers to store everything in, then a small table in the same room. There’s a partition separating a couple of chairs and a TV in what must be the living room, and two doors. I presume one leads to her bedroom and one to a bathroom.
Wow, she really doesn’t have much. Money must be the issue here. No wonder she doesn’t want some big shot billionaire coming into her town and telling her what it does or doesn’t need. We couldn’t be further apart in our worlds if we tried.
As I walk through and I take one of the chairs, I think about my own home back in the city. I have a massive, luxurious three piece suit in my living room and a massive flat screen television with all the extra gadgets a person could ever want surrounding it. Three of this cottage could fit in that one room. Then I have a kitchen with all the cooking equipment known to man, and I don’t ever use it, I just get take out. I have four bathrooms and five bedrooms. Plus a games room and a reception area. It’s ridiculous really, far too much for just one person. I’ve never seen it that way before, not even once.
“Why don’t you live in the other building?” I ask without thinking as she hands me a drink. A mug filled with wine so cheap it’ll probably make me sick. Not that I care about that. “I mean, you do have it lovely here, it just seems like there would be more room there.”
“That’s my dad’s house,” she replies quietly. “I live here so I get my own space and I can practice my music without disturbing him. It’s just easier, and I like it.”
Oh God, her dad must be a bossy bastard like mine. Maybe he runs a tight ship around here when it comes to the farm, which makes Lola’s life difficult. I shouldn’t have said anything to get involved with family stuff. “Fair enough, I like it too.”
We sit in silence for a few moments, both lost in our own thoughts. Inside my mind I’m trying to work out just who Lola is. She’s clearly a girl with fire, but that’s been dulled by her circumstances, which is a real shame. I know I can’t do much for her since I’m not exactly going to be around forever, but it’d be awesome if I could show her a good time while I’m here. For the both of us. I’m not usually a big believer in fate but it kinda feels like we’ve met at a time when we both need some fun and company, making it perfect.
“I have to tell you, I like those shorts,” I say with a wink, amping the tension back up to a sexual one. I think we need to put the serious conversation topics of family, death, and exes to bed for a while. It’s time to be flirty and fun instead. I even add in yet another wink, because she seems to really like them. “They make your legs look very long.”
“Oh yeah?” She stands up and twirls around, giving me a glimpse of them from the bottom to the top. “W0w, thank you very much. I’m sure you have nice legs too.”
“Do you want to see?” I join her by standing upwards. I shake off my suit jacket and toss it to the ground as if it didn’t cost me seven hundred dollars. Then I fiddle with the button on my trousers as her eyes bug out of her head. “I have runners legs.”
“Do you run?” she gasps out, clearly struggling to breathe because I’ve stunned her so much.
“Nope.” I pop the P teasingly. “Just got the legs for some reason.”
I think she thought I was joking because she makes a noise as the trousers drop. I have to really stifle a laugh. If that’s stunned her then she’s going to be in with a shock when it comes to me and her. I think we’re going to have a whole lot of fun.
“Wow.” She gulps loudly. “You really do have runner’s legs.”
I step closer to her, closing the annoying gap between us. Her flushed cheeks and wide eyes tell me that she’s ready for this. She might not know it herself yet, but she is. I just need to ease her in gently.
I cup one hand around her cheek, enjoying the warmth of her skin and I direct her gaze up to me. She might not be able to vocalize what she’s feeling with words, but her baby blues say it all. She’s craving my touch, she wants me to kiss her, she brought me back to her home for only one reason.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmur as I bring my head in closer. “So very beautiful”.
I pause for a moment with our lips almost touching. There’s something that I love about this moment, the anticipation before our first ever kiss. I breathe her in and she does the same to me, both of us with hot anticipation racing through our veins. The moment is coming, we can both feel it, and we know that once our mouths connect nothing will ever be the same between us again.
Any minute now…
Chapter 5 – Lola
Oh my God, what am I doing?
I’m kissing Brandon, this man that I only saw a moment ago in the bar. I never behave this way, this isn’t like me at all, but damn it, it feels so good. It feels incredible to just let lose and to have some fun. It feels good to act out of character just for once. This man is just a stranger anyway, just some guy who is rolling through town. Never to be seen again.
And now his trousers are down and his hands are tangled up in my hair. Also he’s kissing me like there’s no tomorrow. This certainly isn’t how I thought this night would end.
The fire that ignited in my belly earlier is fully alight, and the pulsing in my panties is killing me. Half of me wants to close my legs together tight so I can’t get carried away and the other half me wants to open my legs wide so he can drive me wild.
“Oh, Lola,” Brandon groans into my mouth. “You feel so good.”
His hand clamps around my back and he grips me to him hard. I can feel every inch of his hard muscles under his shirt, and I can also feel a hardness somewhere else… it’s been such a long time that I’ve found a man equally as desirable as he finds me, so this feels utterly phenomenal. The sensation of his body next to mine almost makes me want to scream.
Brandon pushes me back until I hit the wall behind me and I go willingly. I’m so swept up in the heat of the moment that I’m happy to go along with anything right now. As long as I still get the feel of his needy fingers grasping at my skin. That causes a warm pool of desire to
form in my stomach that I want to remain forever.
“Oh, Brandon.” As his mouth moves from mine and it travels down my neck, I let my eyes fall closed and my head loll to one side. Every part of my body that he even lightly brushes with any part of him sets me alight. I’m burning, flaming, all over. “Oh God.”
Brandon yanks at my shirt, pulling it open. Some of the buttons pop on the way down but I don’t care. I don’t care if he rips it clean off my body, I just want it gone. All the material that’s left between me and him is hell bent to torture me.
As his fingers reach behind my back and he fiddles with the clasp on my bra I notice that he’s actually trembling. To think that this overly confident, amazingly sexy, business man might actually be so turned on by me that he’s shaky makes me want to growl with my sexual prowess. I feel like a feral animal that’s been unleashed from a cage that I’ve been trapped in for far too long. I need this, I have to have him right now or I might just go insane.
Eventually my bra flutters away from my body, and Brandon steps back just enough to watch it fall to the ground. My chest heaves and my breaths fall raggedly out of my mouth. My nipples stand to attention, begging for attention. As Brandon cups underneath my breasts and he slowly brings his hands up over them, he rubs his thumbs over my nubs a couple of times causing me to gasp desperately. I’ve never felt so many sensations from my breasts before, and it’s incredible.
The Valentines Day Proposal Page 3
