There are people who believe in true love, and there are people who don’t. I thought I was one of the people who did until quite recently. I was going to find my one, marry her, settle down, have a mess of children, and live happily ever after.
And then it happened, and my whole view on the world changed.
My sister—well, she’s a bit more optimistic. She got married to a guy named Thomas, who I am not a fan of, and is going to make things work. At least that’s what she’s been telling me since they first met a year and a half ago.
Not me. I’m not forcing the whole happy-ending thing. Not anymore. But I am still a man, and I’m not going to pass up a beauty like the one standing in front of me right now.
Erika…
She might just be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. Actually scratch that—she is. And she’s not even dressed up either. She looks perfectly normal—a pair of fashionable jeans with a light yellow blouse, a cute little gold necklace, and what looks to be a normal makeup job. Her hair is either naturally wavy or she’s done a little something to it. Either way, I like it and have been feeling my pants tighten since the moment I laid eyes on her.
Her hand feels like it’s ready to burn up in mine. It’s soft as silk, tender and tiny, delicate like a treasure. I don’t want to let go of it, but I know that if I keep holding on for much longer, the probability of me coming across like a creep are going to skyrocket, so I’m hoping she’ll hurry up and give me an answer to my question. But she just keeps looking at me, starry-eyed, as though I’ve asked her what her opinion on String Theory is.
Luckily, her friend behind her (whose name I’m not sure of), pokes her in the back and shakes her from her stupor.
“Yes, of course!” she blurts out.
I smile and release her. “What would you like?” I ask.
This seems to cause her some distress, and she glances over at Jared then back to me.
“You know, I’m not a huge drinker…I…”
“No?” I ask. “Hey, you’re not like sixteen, are you?”
“No!” she snaps quickly. “I’m”—she leans in—“I’m eighteen, thank you very much.”
My cock stiffens. I smirk and whisper back, “Still shouldn’t be in here.”
“We know Jared.”
“Ah.” I nod. Then an idea hits me, and I reach out and take her hand again. The softness, the tenderness, the sensation of holding a treasure hits me all at once, and I’m smitten.
“Sorry, everyone,” I say just loud enough so the surrounding crowd can hear me. “But this girl isn’t old enough to be in here.”
“What are you doing!?” Erika hisses.
“My name’s Lieutenant Malcom Smitherson. I’m working undercover tonight,” I continue as I pull her away from the bar. “I’m going to have to escort her down to the station. Please nobody make a scene!”
I look back at Jared and see him holding back a smile, but to my surprise, I can see her friend (whatever her name is), doing the same thing as Erika looks back to her in a panic.
“Sarah!” she calls back.
Ah, so that’s her name.
“Hey, don’t look at me!” Sarah calls back.
I’m getting this girl out of here now. This hot and eighteen years old? Unbelievable. She’s been screwing around with high school boys who don’t know how to treat her—who cheat on her like a guy who owns a Ferrari and drives it through the mud and never washes it.
Erika needs a real man to treat her like she’s supposed to be treated, and that’s me. She’s not just a beautiful body, either. She’s full of spunk. I noticed that the minute she started to speak to me. I love that in a woman. I guess I’m like my father in that way.
I shoulder the door open into the night and brush past Cameron, the bouncer, who’s having a smoke. “Have a good one, Cam.”
“You too, Mal.”
I hang a right toward where I parked my car and feel Erika tugging against my grip on her.
“Lieutenant Malcom Smitherson? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Why?” I ask, pulling her up the block. “Don’t girls like police officers?”
There’s a pause, and I can practically hear the gears whirring inside her skull before she speaks again. “You have to be fucking with me.”
We’ve reached my silver Maserati, so I stop with my back to it and use the remote to unlock it. The lights illuminate her beauty. If there was any doubt left in my mind, it’s gone now.
“Yeah, I am.” I grin. “I’m fucking with you.”
“But why–?”
“Because I want to take you home with me, Erika.” Her perplexed face is absolutely adorable. I reach back and open the passenger door for her. “And I needed to make an excuse for you.”
“An…excuse?”
“To get you out of there,” I say. “I knew you wouldn’t want to leave with a man you just met. Even if he was disturbingly handsome.”
“Disturbingly?” she repeats, trying and failing not to smile as I maneuver her toward the open car door. It’s a dance—a slow dance being performed by two partners who are just starting to feel each other out.
I expect some more protest from Erika but get none. Instead, she simply goes along with me as I place one hand on her lower back and the other on her waist and guide her into the car.
She’s looking up at me with the most gorgeous, vulnerable eyes as I close the door and go around to my side. My heart is pounding inside my chest as the most primal part of my male side thuds with anticipation and desire. My hormones are raging as I get in beside her and pull away from the bar.
I notice now that she even smells wonderful. I don’t know if it’s her soap, her shampoo, or some kind of little splash of perfume she’s put on, but I can’t get enough of it. And in this enclosed space of my car—now that we’re no longer in the bar—I feel like I’ve just died and gone to heaven.
“So this is what you do?” she asks, turning a semi-accusatory glance in my direction.
“What’s that?”
“Use your assertive, manly rizz on young girls at the bar and get them to go home with you?”
Yeah, she’s got a lot of spunk to her.
“Rizz?” I reply with a scoff. “Excuse me, Erika, are you accusing me of being a player?”
Erika shrugs. “Well, what would you say to Michael Jordan if you saw him shooting three-pointers?”
A smile forms on my lips. We’re not far from my place now. I take a deep inhale of her scent and give her a cocky little shrug. “So you’re saying I’m the MJ of rizz, Erika?”
Erika just returns my smile, along with a shrug of her own, and turns her attention back to the road.
“So you said you guys know Jared? You and your friend?”
“My friend knows him,” she replies. “I was just along for the ride.”
“Drowning your sorrows,” I suggest. Again, she shrugs.
“Like I said, not a big drinker. It was all Sarah’s big plan.”
There’s something different about this girl—something I can’t quite put my finger on. And it isn’t the fact that I’m just nearly hypnotized by her astounding beauty either. I love the way she tosses everything I throw at her right back at me, but in the words of Shrek, Ogres are like onions, donkey! And I can’t help but feel like there’s a lot more to this girl, and I would love to get to the center and discover every bit of her.
We reach my house, and as I pull in, Sarah looks at it, then looks back at me, and gives me the eyes.
“So what do you do?” she asks. “Own a couple companies? Emerald mines in Africa? Run an international drug smuggling ring?”
“Come on,” I laugh. “It’s not that nice.”
“No? You should see where I’m living currently.”
“Well, I might be able to help you out with that actually–”
Erika quickly holds up a hand. “Thanks, but I don’t need a sugar daddy.”
My respect level for her instantly rises. In my line of work, it’s hard to count how many girls come to me looking for handouts—how many favors are offered if I could just please give them a discount on the rent. It’s happened so much that I’ve basically become numb to it at this point.
“I’m a landlord,” I reply.
“Ah.” Erika nods. “So the scum of the earth.”
“Oh, come on,” I say as I get out and go around to her side of the car. I tug the door open, snatch her by the wrist, and pull her to her feet. She stumbles forward, and her perky, teenage tits press against my chest. Goddamn I can feel just how perfect they are, even through the fabric of her shirt. “You girls love bad boys. Admit it.”
Her lips are perfection.
Her cheekbones high. Her eyes wide and innocent, staring back at me.
My blood is hot and racing through my veins as I reach around her and press my palm into the small of her back.
“No man in his right mind would ever cheat on you, Erika,” I tell her. “Even if that man was the scum of the earth.”
I see her starting to blush, which only makes her cuter. There’s nothing this girl could do that wouldn’t make me even more attracted to her.
“Well, someone did,” she says, a temerity in her voice.
“That’s because he was not a man,” I tell her. “And he did not know what he had with you.”
She opens her mouth to reply, but before she can, I lean in and kiss her.
