Villain (Hero 1.50)

“You never stop.”

“Nope.” He eyed my burger. “Are you going to eat that?”

The truth was I never ordered a burger on a date. It was too hard to eat and look elegant at the same time. But in the moment it had sounded like a good idea. Now that my makeup was almost all off, my hair was limp and dripping, and my shirt was a wrinkled mess, I didn’t think it was a good idea to add wolf-eating to the image I was creating.

My stomach grumbled.

Henry rolled his eyes. “I heard that. Eat.” He lifted up his burger and bit into with no qualms.

Ah, screw it.

I bit off a chunk and closed my eyes in bliss.

“Good?”

I opened one eye and nodded.

Laughter danced in his eyes as it seemed to a lot when he was around me.

“I need to go to the gym,” I said glumly after I swallowed. “I hate the gym.”

“Then don’t go.”

“No, I need to. So I can eat like this.”

“Thank God you eat.” His eyes dropped to my breasts for a second and he shifted in his seat. Was it just me or were his cheeks a little flushed?

“Like what you see, huh?” I teased.

Henry’s eyes smoldered so abruptly, my breath caught. “Sunshine, you have no idea how much. I doubt there’s a man alive who wouldn’t like all that.” He gestured to me.

I laughed. “You’d be surprised.”

“Gay men.”

“And straight men.”

His outraged disbelief was extremely flattering. “Blind men.”

“No.” I shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I get plenty of attention from men who have a thing for Christina Hendricks… but it has been suggested to me in the past to cut out the burgers and pick up a salad.”

“I hope you told the assholes to fuck off.”

Annoyed at the flicker of tenderness I felt at his defense of me, I looked away, pretending to check out the people around us. “I may have even told one of them that if he wasn’t into curves, he might prefer fucking himself. And that he should go do that. Immediately.”

His chuckle caused a little flutter in my belly and I closed my eyes, trying to shut him out. My attraction toward him was too much for my liking.

“I like you, Nadia.”

My gaze flew back to his in surprise. I struggled for a reply, scared to reciprocate, terrified that he was trying to suggest we nix the one-time-only deal. Eventually, I smiled and replied lightly, “I’m likable.”

If he was disappointed by my reply, he didn’t show it. Instead he stole a fry from my plate when he had plenty of his own.

“That was mean.”

He grinned boyishly. “You don’t like to share?”

“Not my fries when you’ve got your own. You’ve not got enough in life without having to steal my fries?”

For some reason he took my teasing question more seriously than I’d meant him to. “Do you think I’m just a rich asshole, Nadia?”

How to answer that?

The truth was I wasn’t sure about anything when it came to Henry Lexington. Yes, he’d been an asshole to me so that would make him a rich asshole. But he was this other guy too. A funny, flirtatious, witty, thoughtful guy.

He could be the hero and the villain. Which one of those was the permanent resident and the other the visitor, I didn’t know.

“I don’t know who you are,” I answered honestly. “And you don’t know who I really am. But as agreed, we’re not really sticking around to find out.” To break the sudden heavy tension, I smiled flirtatiously. “But come Saturday night, you’ll hopefully know something about me very few men know.”

“Oh?”

I leaned over the table and his eyes fell to my lips. “The sound I make when I come.”

His nostrils flared as our eyes locked and his voice was hoarse, “Have no doubt, Sunshine. I’ll make you come so many times, I’ll have the sound of it memorized.”

My nipples hardened, my breasts swelled, and my skin flushed. Fingers tightening around the stem of my glass, I said, “Let’s cut out the Delaney Ball and take what we want from this.”

Henry reluctantly sat back. “Nice try.”

“Come on, Henry, we both know what this is.”

He raised his wine glass to his lips. “Do we?”

* * *

The sprawling stone mansion was lit up in the dark by spotlights above the many windows, and going in and out of the huge double front door entrance were elegant couples in formal wear that veered from shimmering to starkly traditional.

After smoothing a hand down my dress, I noted how my fingers trembled and clenched my fist to stop the involuntary movement.

“You look beautiful,” Henry said, caressing my waist as he led me inside with his arm around me. Since picking me up, he had showered me with compliments and then proceeded to stare at me heatedly the entire drive out to Weston.

There were a number of reasons I was so nervous walking into the Delaney Ball.

One, Henry had told me Caine and Alexa were going to be there and it was weird for me knowing I’d have to meet them and pretend I didn’t know anything about them, let alone two of their darkest secrets.

Two, the people I’d be mingling with were Boston’s elite. Although I’d met a few here and there, I’d never been to one of their events. I hated the idea of feeling like an outsider. Especially as I really was, considering Henry and I were extremely temporary.

Which brought me to the third reason I was nervous.

As soon as we’d gotten into the back of the Town Car, Henry had turned surprisingly serious.

“What’s wrong? Regretting the dates? Wishing you’d gone straight for the home run?” I teased.

“You have no idea how wrong you are.”

I squirmed under the intensity of his attention as he looked me straight in the eye. There was no sexual perusal of my body or cocky suggestiveness. “What do you want?” I huffed, feeling defensive for some reason.

“You,” he replied immediately. “For more than one night.”

My palms turned sweaty. “What?”

“I think it would be foolish not to explore what’s between us. No deadline, no fooling around, just you and me getting to know each other like normal couples get to know each other.”

“You don’t date,” I argued, feeling my cheeks flush.

What was happening here?

Henry’s expression turned tender. “For you, I want to.”

“What? No. What?” I shifted uncomfortably, breaking his implacable hold on my gaze. “That’s… no. You and me? No.” I looked back at him in outrage. “No.”

He smirked. “Why not?”

“Because…” I sputtered, trying to find the words. He had caught me so off guard. “It’s us. No. No!”

“I reserve the right to change your mind. I have all night to do so.”

I knew I was gaping at him like an unsophisticated middle grader, but I was in a state of shock. Henry Lexington didn’t date. He played around. And suddenly, for me, he wanted to give dating a try? I wasn’t buying it. Maybe he was under the illusion that there was something between us, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t get bored in no time at all, and I’d be the one having to pick up the pieces of my pride as well as my heart.

Uh… no thank you.

“I’ll let you think about it.” The bastard winked at me.

Butterflies had completely taken over my stomach as I tried to glide in my five-inch heels over the stone flooring in the Delaney’s home. It was hard to describe the austere beauty of the ballroom we were led into. It wasn’t as though I came across many homes that had an actual ballroom in it. The event was formally titled the Vanessa Van Hay Delaney Benefit for Alzheimer’s. It was hosted by Michelle and Edgar Delaney, the children of Vanessa Delaney, a woman who’d been a pillar of Boston society for over fifty years before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She passed away a few years after her diagnosis and e

ver since, every year, the Delaneys hosted their benefit to fund finding a cure. Only Boston’s very elite were invited to come share their philanthropy, and that included my date and his good friend Caine Carraway.

I was merely the curvy treat of the week for Lexington but I’d done my best to make sure I wouldn’t look out of place. Too much. Using my hard-earned savings, I’d bought a floor-length dress that hugged my upper body until it hit the top of my thighs and flowed out in layers of silk chiffon. It was the color of lapis lazuli, had wide straps over the shoulder, and a sweetheart neckline that screamed “This dress is all about the boobs!” With boobs like mine, it was very rare to find any piece of clothing that my boobs didn’t immediately take command of. So it was easier to just go with it and let ’em shine.