Rocky and his companion whipped their heads towards her.
“What the—” snarled Rocky, making a move towards Laura.
She was nervous, but she pushed the door fully ajar and fumbled in her beach bag for the sunglasses she had been carrying around like a talisman since Carnival Day.
“I’ve got something for you,” she said, holding them out.
“I’ve got something for you too,” Rocky replied, reaching for her wrist with grim purpose and catching it up in a tight, almost painful grip. “Excuse me just one moment,” he said to the other two before marching her up the stairs and into a vacant bedroom.
“Wait here,” he said. “Don’t move. Don’t even think about moving. Don’t phone or text anybody. I’ll be five minutes tops.”
He jerked her over to the bed and left, letting the door click behind him.
Laura was usually pretty cool in a crisis, but even she was thrown by this. She was even a tiny bit scared. She thought of calling Daddy and asking him to come and pick her up, but then her curiosity about Rocky won over the remnants of her common sense and she decided to do as he had said and just wait.
There were nicer places to do it, she was sure. The bedspread was made of clingy nylon, so she stood up before it started a static fight with her sarong. Cheap crappy furniture built of plywood and melamine, filthy skirting boards, dust balls on top of the wardrobe. The view from the ill-fitting window was of a yard full of wheelie bins and beer crates. As for the bathroom…ugh. Mould city. People actually pay to stay in a place like this?
Rocky, thankfully, was true to his word and did not keep her waiting long in this anteroom of hell. He opened the door with a crash and strode in, whipping up a maelstrom of delicious fear and anxious lust within seconds. He threw his jacket on the bed and folded his arms, showing off biceps Laura’s modelling agency might find interesting.
“What are you doing here, Laura?” he asked bluntly. “Not really your scene, is it?”
“I was on the beach. I saw you come in here and I thought…I might as well…since I’ve still got your sunglasses…”
“You can keep them,” he said, unsmiling. “With my compliments.”
She leaned her bottom back on the windowsill and thrust out her chest in its green wet-look bikini top. “I’ve been looking out for you,” she said softly. She stretched one leg out in front of her, flexing her ankle in his direction.
“And now you’ve found me. You can stop looking.”
“Are you going to disappear on me again?”
“Laura…” He unfolded his arms in exasperation and came to sit near her, on the bed. “I’m not sure what you want from me, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t anything I can offer.”
“I don’t want anything from you.” She edged her foot near his so that her bare toes brushed his big black boots. “Except what you want to give.”
“Well, that’s just as well. Because I’m not somebody you can take home to Dad. Especially your dad.”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want walks along the beach. I just want your body.”
The direct approach had never failed Laura, and she could see from his involuntary reactions that she was on to something here.
He laughed disbelievingly. “Laura, you’ve got balls as well as beauty, but all the same—”
“I like that.” She beamed at him, running her toes up his boot to where it turned into tight leather wrapped around his calf. “Balls as well as beauty. Can I quote that in my portfolio letter of introduction?”
“Quote away,” he said, grabbing her ankle in one hand. “I can see that you are used to getting everything you want, Miss Trewin. Am I right?”
“You’ve hit the nail on the head,” she said, letting him lift her ankle and place it on his lap, where he proceeded to massage her sandy foot and coral-pink-painted toes. “When I want something, I see that I get it. I like shiny things, Rocky. Cars and diamonds and Jimmy Choos are lovely, of course, but my favourite thing of all is a cock that’s hard for me. Like this one here.”
She ground her heel into his crotch and the leather strained in a way that made her want to whoop with joy.
And then his hand closed around her ankle and yanked, hard and fast, pulling her into a stumble, and before she knew it she was pinned to the horrible nylon bedspread by her wrists while Rocky crouched over her, straddling her hips, a spray of his black hair tickling her face.
“Be careful what you wish for, Laura.” The words, so commonplace, were like a dirty caress, an irresistible threat. “You might just get what’s coming to you.”
“Oh, I hope so,” she rasped, baring her teeth to show him combat held no fears for her. “I suppose you think you can show me how it’s done, do you?”
“I know I can, sweetheart. The question is, can you take it?”