I'd been on guided tours before, but nothing like this. I knew that Trouble's dad was a philanthropist, but that's normally just something that you put on your resume to look better. Dad took special interest in education and sports programs for at-risk youth, but he didn't go in for the flashy donations to universities, ballets, or operas. As the daughter of Hudson and Jalanda King, I had never experienced stuff like this.
I watched in absolute awe as I walked behind the scenes. The front of museums always has all the exhibits. The back corridors are where the magic happens. There were tons of people back there. I passed a room where people were carefully sorting through some Egyptian artifacts, and then we went through another where they were preparing a Greek statue for an exhibit. It was gorgeous. I'd never been so close to art before.
When we had walked around the museum, I was tired. The docent brought us to a small room.
"We've prepared the dinner you requested, sir. I hope you enjoy it, miss." The docent nodded his head at us, and he left.
"After you," Trouble said, being an absolute gentleman.
I walked in, and the first thing I saw was a candle. It was in the center of a table that had fresh roses on it. There were salads at our plates, and a sideboard had silver covers on more food.
I brought my hands up to my mouth. "Oh my gosh, Trouble. This is gorgeous. It's too much."
"Nothing but the best for you, Laila."
We sat down, and we put our napkins in our laps. The salad was a Caprese salad, a simple one with just a tomato, mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette. It tasted divine.
When I was done, Trouble went over to the sideboard and brought me the entree. It was gnocchi with lamb ragu. It had a mint garnish. I speared a little gnocchi with my fork, and I ate it. I swallowed.
"This is the best thing I've ever tasted."
Trouble smiled. "I'm glad you like it. It's one of my favorites, too."
I was quiet as I ate the food as quickly as I could and remain ladylike. Trouble was just as fast.
"What's for dessert?"
Trouble smiled. "What's your favorite dessert?"
"Tiramisu."
He lifted a silver cover, and there it was. It had a little slice of orange on top.
"I thought I'd go with a twist. It has the normal mascarpone, ladyfingers, and Grand Marnier, but it also has a little orange in it."
He stuck a fork in it and put the first bite in my mouth. The blend of the mascarpone with the bite of the alcohol and the tang of the orange was delightful.
"I think this is my new favorite."
He fed me another bite. Our eyes locked as he put the third bite in my mouth.
It was quiet and intimate when he fed me. I was perfectly capable of feeding myself. But somehow, when he looked at me like that, I didn't mind at all. In fact, I really enjoyed the way that he had taken care of me. Our first date was simple, dinner and a movie, but this had taken a lot more effort.
He also was hyperaware of how quickly I was eating. As soon as I was ready, he put the next bite into my mouth. It felt like he knew exactly the rhythm of my breathing, letting me take a tiny rest sometimes.
When all the tiramisu was gone, he put the fork down.
"Didn't you want any?"
"No. It was for you. I'm lactose intolerant."
I blinked. Oh. I had violated my weekday veganism with the lamb and cheese today. Oh well. It was totally worth it if Trouble was the one feeding me.
"Didn't you have to eat cheese in the salad?"
"I didn't eat the cheese in the salad."
I looked at his plate and noticed for the first time that his mozzarella was off to the side.
"Oh."
"This meal was for you."
I smiled. "Thank you. It was delightful." I'd talk to him about my veganism later. For now, I would just appreciate the gesture of trying to take care of me.
We were done, so we went back out to his big motorcycle. I clung to him as he went through the LA streets, dodging pedestrians and cars alike. It always raised my heart rate.
When he walked me to my door this time, he pinned me to it when he kissed me goodbye. I felt the planes of his rock-hard chest press against my soft curves, and I could feel my hard nipples poking through my bra.
His mouth was on mine. His hands were around my waist, spanning it, making me feel like a delicate girl. He kissed me like he was fucking me with his tongue, and I felt myself melt between my thighs. My hands were in his hair. I could feel his growing erection press against my soft tummy.
He let it go on for a little longer this time, but he pulled back, just like before.
"I have to go. Bye." Then he ran down the hallway like there were hellhounds behind him.
18
Thumping
Laila
I blinked. I knew that he enjoyed that kiss. Why was he running away?
I went into my room, and Andrea was there with her glasses on, reading a book. She put her finger in it and closed it.
"I heard some very interesting thumping coming from our door. When I looked through the peephole, I saw your hair. Want to share with the class?"
I blushed to the roots of my hair.
"No."
"Oh, come on! Spill!"
"Nope. Nope. I have homework to do."
"You're not going to get away with putting me off so easily. I can see your mouth."
I touched my lips. They were kiss-swollen. I smiled.
"Oh girl! That's the smile of a woman who has been..." She waggled her eyebrows at me.
"It's not like that. I don't know why, but it's not like that."
Andrea tapped her lips. "Hmm. Maybe he's gay."
I thought about the size of the formidable erection that pressed against me as he pushed my soft body against the door, making those thumping noises that Andrea had heard.
"No. He's not gay. He's had so many women."
"What if it's a cover?"
"No, sweetheart, it's not a cover."
She shrugged. "Whatever. When are you seeing him again?"
That pulled me out of my post-date glow. "Oh. I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I don't know...we went to a museum, and we came home."
"Museum? Isn't that a cheap date?"
I snorted. "No, Andrea, it was anything but a cheap date. It was fantastic."
I took off my dress, and I lay in my bra and panties on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I closed my eyes and remembered what it had been like to kiss him. He tasted absolutely divine.
"I saw that you tried out the vibrator."
My eyes were instantly open. "What?"
"It was the only thing in the trash. I also saw the wrapping for the rechargeable batteries."
I groaned and covered my eyes. "Oh god."
"It's perfectly healthy for young women our age to have vibrators, you know."
"I don't know. I don't think my mom has one."
"Honey, your mom probably has a dozen. It's not really something that you talk to your young teenage daughter about, you know?"
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"My mom has a zillion vibrators. She owns a shop back home."
I sat up on the bed. "That doesn't make any sense. Why would you buy stuff from a shop here when you can get stuff from your mom?"
"It's so embarrassing to buy that stuff from my mom. If I do, then she knows about my sex life. Like, during high school, I bought condoms from Target instead of just getting them for free from her 400-condom boxes. She's so eager to talk about the boys I'm dating or what I'm doing. Other parents are buttoned-up, but my mom is the completely opposite. It makes me more private. I don't want her to know about my personal life, you know? It was bad enough when I lived with her, but I can have a modicum of privacy now that I'm in college."
I nodded. "I understand."
"What about you? What do your parents do?"
"Um, my dad's a businessman, I guess. And my mom runs some non
profits."
"Oh yeah? Doing what?"
"Like, my mom came from pretty humble beginnings. She worked for everything that she got. So she wants to give people who are young and growing up in urban centers a leg up. My mom runs Read Up! which is focused on literacy from all ages, from toddler age to adult age. Did you know that third-grade literacy rates are the measure that they use to project future prison populations?"
She blinked. "I had no idea. Seriously?"
"Yeah, it's a thing. Literacy is super important. Well, functional literacy is. It's not a huge jump to teach someone the alphabet, but it's much more strenuous to teach someone to read enough for their job, you know?"
"I've never thought about it before, but you are right. Huh." She took off her glasses.
"So what, are you and your brother super book nerds?"
"Andrea, we're both in the Resident Honors Program. It's not like we're idiots."
Andrea nodded.
"But, no, Chris isn't a big bookworm. I am, of course. Mom made us read a lot when we were little, but once we got into school, she didn't push us too much. Like, we got bedtime stories. We worked through the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and all that chapter by chapter when we were little. So we grew up respecting stories. Chris is more of an athlete. He'd rather be running around outside. I think his idea of a perfect day is just swimming in a gigantic pool with hot girls surrounding him, giving him drinks."
"Interesting. What's your idea of a perfect day?"
"I've never really thought about it before. Um..." I wrapped my arms around my middle. "I guess that my idea of a perfect day would be sitting in my bed, while it is raining outside, reading."
"Oh my god, you're such an introvert."
"I am."
"And you don't want to live in LA, either."
"Yeah, I guess not. It barely rains here."
"Don't you know there's a drought?" she said, deadpan. I laughed. It was a constant refrain in Los Angeles.
"What's your perfect day, Andrea?"
She tapped her chin. "I guess that it would be a weekend day of just nonstop sex with enough alcoholic chocolate whipped cream to feed an army. And really great room service."
I smiled. "Sounds like fun."
My phone buzzed. I looked at it.
Same time and place tomorrow?
Sure
Andrea said, "I know who that was."
I just smiled. I knew that I'd see him in my dreams tonight. I put on jeans and a soft lime green Uniqlo shirt, and I got down to business.
19
Pine Cone
Laila
The next day, I went to all of my classes in an absolute haze. I didn't focus. My bio teacher gave us test keys once we got out of the giant lecture hall where we took the multiple choice exam. As I checked through my answers, I realized that I had gotten a score of 100%. Weird.
When I got home that night, there was a neon pink Post-It on our door. Andrea wasn't in our room. I read the note.
See you tomorrow.
I crumpled it up and put it in the trash. I was going to get ready solo again, it seemed. I used one of my own dresses this time, a tangerine one that had a halter and showed off the smoothness of my shoulders. I thought it made my skin look like it was glowing. I put my hair into a Katniss braid, and I put on Katniss-style makeup. Today was a day for me to feel like a badass. And because yesterday he gave me an ultra-romantic dinner, I had the feeling that he was going to do something new today.
He called me when he came, and I practically skipped down the stairs for our new adventure. The helmet slid easily over my side-braid, and I pressed myself against his back, loving the feeling of his muscular form under my hands. I could get addicted to this feeling like a heroin addict. I breathed him in. Maybe being wrapped around him while feeling his motorcycle thrum between my legs was better than sex.
This time, he took me to a different restaurant near Redondo.
"This place has the best seafood ever."
I looked at the crowded restaurant and believed it.
"Let's find a table. You can stake it out, and I'll get our food at the counter."
We found a tiny table tucked in the corner. I sat down while Trouble went to get our food.
The smell of delicious fried food filled the air. I looked at the tables around us. Everyone had fries and tons of seafood on their tables. Shrimp, scallops, crab legs...they had everything here.
Trouble came back with a basket of fries and several pounds of shrimp with cocktail sauce.
"Oh my god! There's no way that we can eat all of that!"
He looked down at the food. "Believe me, I could eat this by myself."
We sat and ate in companionable silence, letting the cacophony of the other diners fill it. It was like background music or white noise. I felt very Zen, like Trouble and I existed in our own bubble, here eating our shrimp, and the screaming baby at the next table was on another planet. He was right. It was the best seafood ever.
We walked down the Redondo boardwalk. We passed kids playing with kites and a million people fishing. There were people docking boats.
"Do you want to fly a kite?"
"Let's go fly a kite," I sang to him. He grinned at me. We bought a cheap kite from one of the boardwalk stores, and we went to fly it. Our kite went higher than all the other kites in Trouble's hands.
"You're so good at this," I said.
"Practice."
"When did you learn to fly a kite like this?"
"I spent a lot of time alone as a kid."
I felt like he'd constantly been at my house, but it was true. He hadn't actually lived there. My heart ached for his loneliness, a loneliness that I didn't even notice before we started dating.
We stayed there as the sun went down and turned the world into shades of pink. We got back onto his motorcycle. When I plastered my body against and around his body, I felt a deep connection to him. It was simple to fly a kite together, but I knew that he was opening up to me. I held him a little tighter as he took me back to my dorm.
At my door, I unlocked it. I turned and said, "You know, my roommate is out tonight."
He looked into my eyes. He knew what it meant.
"Do you want to come in?"
He looked down the hall, as if he was going to make a run for it again.
"Um...I don't think I should."
"Why not?" I smiled at him. "No one will know."
"Just for a little while, then."
He came into my room. I got water bottles out of my fridge.
"Here."
He drank a little water and then put the bottle down. He looked like he was sitting on a pine cone.
For the first time in my life, I made a bold move on Trouble McKane. I walked over to him as he sat on his chair, and I straddled his lap.
The bottom of my dress was wide, and I was grateful for it. I took his face in my hands. He was breathing fast, in gasps, and I brought my face close to his. Ninety percent, just like Will Smith says in Hitch. "Are you in?"
After a single breath, he leaned forward and kissed me. I tilted my head to the side so that our noses wouldn't bump. He tasted like our seafood. Maybe it would have been gross on someone else, but it was delicious on him.
We made out, and he took a sharp breath when I rubbed my crotch against his, dry humping him a little.
He stood up suddenly, and I landed on my feet in front of him.
"I have to go."
Without another word, he walked out of my room.
This time, I couldn't stop myself from crying. I took my dress off and curled up in my bed. So much work for nothing.
When my tears stopped, I remembered that I had a new pink vibrator. I got it out of its hiding spot in my desk drawer, and I lay back thinking of how I wanted this night to go with my eyes closed.
Let's see. Instead of running away when I rubbed myself on him like a cat in heat, he would have stood up and kept me in his
arms. He would have taken me over to my bed and put his hard body on top of mine. Then, he would eat me out, licking up all the cream that I'd built up during our date and our make-out session. After I'd orgasmed once or twice, he would spear me with his hard rod, and he'd give me orgasm after orgasm before coming himself.
I opened my eyes. Even though the vibrator gave me pleasure, it wasn't enough to bring me to orgasm. My body ached for Trouble's touch, and it wasn't going to let me get away with a pale imitation.
I took a shower, cooling down my heated and sexually frustrated body, and I went back to doing homework while watching a little Netflix and thinking about Trouble when I watched Amy and Jake Peralta kiss for the first time on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
20
Pants
Laila
Wear pants
I blinked at his cryptic command in a text in the morning. Why did I need pants? But I put on a pair of black yoga pants. Well, originally they had been black. Now, they were a faded gray.
I'd tried much harder at the beginning of our dates. Now, I knew that he loved me for me. He didn't really care what I wore, and I didn't mind wearing my yoga pants around him. He'd seen me wear a large variety of stuff while growing up, including my gross Tweety Bird PJs that I refused to throw out even when my mom tried to steal them from me. They were ratty but the most comfortable thing that I owned.
"Where are we going this time?"
"You'll see. We have to go before dinner."
I was really curious. When the motorcycle took us to Jump Zone, I laughed.
"Oh my god! We haven't been here since we were little kids."
"That's the point. Remember when Chris had his birthday here?"
"Oh my god. I thought the two of you were going to break something. Mom was so freaked out. We never had another party here again."
"That was an awesome party. You mostly stayed with your mom, though."
"I was 5! Everybody else was a boy. God only knows what would have happened to me in there. Probably would have gotten my nose broken or something."
Trouble: A BWWM Bad-Boy Billionaire Romance Page 5
