AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Putting my head back on the seat, I know it’s a bad idea as my eyes are trying to close, but it feels nice to just sit in the quiet for a minute and not be sparring with the jerk next to me.
This man infuriates me.
He told me this morning he wished today would bring me what I was looking for. Well, my wish list didn’t include a controlling cocky prick!
Thanks, universe. You totally misfired once again.
ChapterSix
NICHOLAS
Ishould have just walked straight past her outside the bar.
Then I would have been close to heading home to my city apartment by now, enjoying a long hot shower after releasing my day’s frustration with Simona in one of my hotel rooms. Not here sitting once again next to this woman who is getting under my skin, and I’m not sure it’s in a good way. Flynn is going to get great mileage out of this tomorrow when he starts pumping me for details.
This verbal sparring match isn’t over yet, I’m sure. I know without a doubt when we get to her home, she will have something sarcastic to say, and I doubt it will be followed up with a thank-you. Why can’t she just take the gesture of me trying to be nice and make sure she gets home safe as just being that and nothing else? I don’t do this sort of shit normally, so I expect a bit of gratitude at least. But so far, every conversation has been a battle, and it’s driving me insane. I should be the one who is running a mile away from her. This morning she spit tea on me, and tonight, I’m more worried it will be vomit, on either me or in my car.
Looking at her, I can see how fired up she is. The alcohol has her pale skin flushed, or maybe it’s from her temper. Hard to know at this stage. She has been messaging her friend ferociously since we got in the car and looking sideways at me to make sure I wasn’t reading whatever was on the screen. To be honest, I couldn’t give a shit what she is telling her friend. I just want to make sure she gets home safely and then I’m done. If I don’t see this woman again, it will be too soon. The next sixty minutes in the car will be torturous enough.
And who was that idiot screaming her name from the front of the bar? What was he hoping, she would go back inside with him? Maybe it’s her boyfriend. Surely not, no sane man would let another man take his drunk woman away in a car with him. No matter who the dickhead was, he wasn’t keeping her safe, and that makes me even more angry.
We are hardly out of the city and on the motorway when I hear the first snore. It’s not a delicate little one either. Head back, mouth open, a full drunken snore coming from such a tiny woman has me wanting to laugh for the first time in the last hour. If truth be known, it’s the first time today I’ve truly smiled at something so innocent.
Reaching under the driver’s seat, I pull out the throw that Wallace keeps there. He always had it for my grandfather as he aged, but it still gets pulled out occasionally on those nights where the snow is falling, and the temperature is so low that this southern hemisphere blood is frozen to the core. I do miss the Australian climate.
I take her phone from her hand and place it in her handbag. Once the bag is on the floor, I gently drape the blanket over her and find myself really taking her in for the first time. Not while she is busy arguing with me, but while the peace of sleep has taken over her.
I’ve never really been taken by a woman with red hair, but Tori has a beauty that suddenly catches me by surprise at how attracted to her I am. Even with the small trail of drool coming from the corner of her little pouty lips that are wide open at the moment. I’m sure she would be horrified if she could see herself. But to me, she looks perfectly messy.
Ever since I moved to London, I’ve been surrounded by flawlessly beautiful women who don’t have one single thing out of place. They know how to hold themselves, what to say and when, and they’re always looking for a man with an arm to hang off. Don’t get me wrong, I have taken plenty of my fill of the women who are virtually throwing themselves at me. But it’s just sex, a need to get off. Much to my mother’s dismay, there hasn’t been one of these women that I would even consider a second date with. I decided so long ago that relationships weren’t my thing, and I’m happy with my life that way.
As I lift the blanket up high to cover Tori’s shoulders and make sure she is comfortable, her head drops to the right slightly as I’m removing my hand. My fingers gently swipe across her cheek. The tingle shocks me, and I pull my hand away quickly before she wakes. I don’t want her thinking I was touching her. Sitting back in my seat, focusing out the window, I collect my thoughts. I haven’t realized how I’m stroking my fingers that touched her cheek with my other hand. What was that sensation? Not something I’m used to, and my brain is overthinking it.
Wallace’s soft voice snaps me out of my thoughts. “This one’s a firecracker, sir,” he says, smiling at me in the rear-view mirror.
“That’s an understatement. Let’s get her home before she fully explodes.” I chuckle quietly to myself because that could be taken two ways, and I know I would prefer it being the explosion of words rather than of vomit.
Like she knows we are talking about her, Tori lets out a sigh and then continues to fall farther to the right until she is now leaning against my shoulder. I should move her, but part of me likes this soft side of her.
“Smells sexy too…” she mumbles, making me smile, surprisingly pleased that she might be thinking about me too.
The trust she has that I won’t hurt her must be buried there somewhere in her subconscious, even though when she’s awake, it’s a different story. Settling in for the drive, I take in the quiet that is surrounding us. Her snoring is now gone, and I can hear a sweet little breath every so often over the sound of the engine as we speed down the motorway.
Her silence is golden.
Pulling up to the address she gave me, it’s just like I pictured. A small home in a row that are all joined, mirror images of each other, just different colors and with a mixture of yards, from the gardens that people treasure, to the opposite, with concrete on every square inch.
A small porch light is on above the door. Did she leave it on or have it on a timer, or worse, does she live with someone who is about to attack me for forcing her to get in the car with me? Contemplating waking Tori up, I decide against it. To be honest, I’m too tired for any more drama tonight.
“Wallace, please go and see if someone can open the door for me to carry her inside. I don’t want to wake this little sleeping Tasmanian devil.” Wallace looks at me, a little confused, but he steps out of the car, doing as I asked.
Waiting for someone to answer, I see the door open to a bleary-eyed woman around the same age as Tori, dressed in her pajamas and a dressing gown wrapped tightly around her. She looks confused but pushes her door wide open, ready for me.
Propping Tori up straight, her little snuffle only lasts a second as she falls back into her slumber. There is nothing like a drunken sleep. It’s equivalent to being in a semi coma. She is out of it by now, which surprises me, because I didn’t think she was that far gone when I found her outside the club.
Walking around to her side of the car, I open the door and take my last look at this young woman who has piqued my interest more than it has been in a very long time. Shaking my head, I decide it’s a good thing I won’t see her again, as she is far too young for me and completely wrong to fit into my world. Today is going to end the way it started. With me walking away from my little redheaded firecracker.
Lifting her off the seat and into my arms with ease, I back away from the car so Wallace can grab her bag and close the door.
