ARROGANT BRIT (A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE) (16 page)

I rose from the bed, and she didn’t move.

“Clara. Don’t shut me out.”

“I’m not shutting you out,” she grunted.

“You
are.
Look at you.”

She looked down. Her arms were crossed, her
stance was defensive, and she looked ready to absolutely come unglued at me.

Clara stayed like that for a moment… and I
was afraid that she’d only snap harder.

Instead, she began to relax.

“Look, I’m sorry, Dalton,” she whispered as I
came over to hold her close. “You’re right. There’s been a lot on my plate the
last couple of weeks. I didn’t mean to try and take it out on you. It’s just
that… I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“I know,” I murmured, rubbing her shoulders
as she remained pinned against me. “I understand. This has been a lot for you
lately.” Pulling back, I lifted her chin with my finger. “But here’s the thing
– I’m going to be right there with you, all the way.”

She nodded softly.

“Listen. First thing’s first. We can fix
your car. My guy tells me that he can
maybe
find a used engine to plug into
it. I can cover that.”

Clara’s eyes widened.

“No. I can’t let you do that.”

“Look, you need a car, and I have a ton of
money,” I shrugged. “What’s a few thousand dollars to me right now? Sure, it’s
a lot of money, but I’m not going to miss it. I’d rather see you mobile and
happy.”

“Still… I’ll find a way to pay you back.”

“Chiefly unnecessary,” I responded.

“Doesn’t matter,” Clara shook her head. “I
can’t expect you to make that kind of sacrifice for me, even if you
want to
and you
have the money.
”

“Fine. Point conceded,” I reassured her. “As
for the rest… school is going to suck, and our parents being married is going
to suck too. Those, I can’t really help you out with. But you’ll have my
support for as long as you want it…”

“I appreciate that,” Clara whispered,
nestling her cheek into my chest. “But what about work?”

“You’re going to have to suck that one up,” I
answered. “Make the call. Figure out what you have to do to keep yourself on
the payroll. That
privilege
of yours
that you mentioned before is probably gone by now, though.”

“Yeah…” She muttered. “Definitely.”

“So, do the right thing,” I continued,
handing Clara her smartphone. “Don’t put it off. Reach out to your boss
now
, kiss ass, and keep yourself with
some income. Work your way back up into his graces.”

Clara took the phone from my hand and smiled
up at me. “You’re really great, you know that?”

“I can be,” I shrugged.

“When you’re not seated at a table with a
bunch of marines and making a complete
ass
of yourself, at any rate,” she chuckled. “What was it you told me the night
we met?”

“Oh, I told you a great number of things.”

“I’m thinking of something in particular. You
asked if I had a menu, and then you were going to have me–”

“Stand on it, and I’d ask for some of
you.
Yeah, I definitely remember that.”

Clara pulled up her contacts list on her
phone and navigated towards her boss. “It’s funny to think of how much has
changed since then,” she thought aloud. “I thought you were a total prick, and
even a short while later, my roommate was trying to send you away… but now,
here we are.”

She lifted the phone to her ear and let it
dial.

I thought about that too. A lot
had
changed since Clara and I had first
met… but I was happy with it. It was great to finally have someone to push all
of my attention into, as opposed to just cycling through girls in my bed.

“Hi, Arnold? Yes, it’s me… I know… I’m really
sorry. My car… okay, sure.” She paused, pulling the phone away from her ear for
a moment. “He’s putting me on hold so that he can go somewhere quieter.”

I nodded, listening for every cue in her
tone.

“Right. I’m calling to apologize for tonight.
I was supposed to email you yesterday and notify you that my car broke down,
but I didn’t get the opportunity to reach out until now… uh-huh… yes sir… I
understand… of course…” Her eyes widened, but I couldn’t tell if they were from
surprise or fear. “Right… no, I get it, I understand… yes sir. Thank you, sir.”

She hung up the line and turned to me.

“Well, the good news is that I haven’t lost
my job…
bad
news is that I’m on
probation. Two shifts a week, maximum. As if I needed to add being broke
to my troubles…”

“Don’t worry about the money,” I replied,
pulling close and massaging her shoulders. “Just focus on doing what you’ve got
to do.”

Clara looked over her shoulder at me with
begrudging acceptance, and didn’t fight the point.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,
Dalton,” she murmured. “You came into my life at such a strange time… but I’m
happy to have you.”

Her hand slipped over my knuckles as I
kneaded her shoulder. It was warm and soft, squeezing tightly into the
indentions between my fingers.

“I’m happy to have you too,” I smiled,
planting a kiss where her jawline connected to her ear.

When she turned, her eyes half-lidded with
the first waves of desire, I slid my hands to caress her face and hold it
close. Giving a deep, passionate kiss, I realized how the tension had gotten my
blood pumping again.

As my cock bounced with lust for her, I
gently lowered Clara back down to my bed again…

Chapter 15

Dalton and I didn’t see much of each other
outside of class for the following week. Most of this was due to the workload
of my semester; while he had apparently elected to take it pretty easy, I’d
scheduled a number of core classes into my half-year at university.

I’d just gotten my car back from the shop.
His mechanic fell ill a couple of days, but prioritized replacing my engine as
cheaply and efficiently as possible. I was never told how much it cost, but I
told myself that I’d save up and pay him back for all of it in the future.

Since I was too busy to see him too often, I
went ahead and splurged on the psychology book. Luckily, I found a late used
return at the local bookstore outside the campus, so it didn’t cost me more
than a hundred bucks… which, to me, was like being paid a banquet shift without
having to work it.

Dalton and I stayed in communication via
text. He gave me my space when I needed to focus on my schoolwork, and was
never more than a few minutes away when I sent him a buzz out of the blue.

Finally, after I’d caught up with my homework
and had pulled myself back out of banquet probation with Arnold, I had him come
back over.

“I’ve missed you,” I whispered, nuzzling my
face into his throat as we laid together in bed.

“Oh, I’ve missed you too,” he murmured.

I climbed onto his lap and bent forward,
kissing his lips. I loved the warmth of them, and the feeling of his body near
mine. The little crackle of energy between us never failed to invigorate me; I
wondered how I could possibly do without it.

Dalton tried to lean up, but I gently held
him back with my hands against his pecs. Shaking my head with an impish smile,
I kissed him again. My wandering lips meandered from his own to enjoy his
cheek, his chin, his jawline, his throat, any patch of skin that I could
access.

Slowly, I pulled up at his shirt, peppering a
trail of kisses down those rippling muscles and that stack of sculpted abs. As
I continued, I began to fumble with his belt in my hands, slowly unbuckling and
tugging down his jeans.

By the time I reached the V of his hips, his
boxer briefs were the last deterrent between his weapon and me. Already, his
tool was yearning for attention, standing tall against the underside of the
fabric. Tugging those down too, I wrapped my fingers around his steaming, rigid
tool.

“Do you like my hand on your cock?” I
whispered into his ear as I began to stroke him.

Dalton nodded, groaning as his head sank
backwards into my pillows.

“Good,” I whispered, rolling my fist over his
bulbous head. “Because I think I love doing it. Knowing that I can drive you
crazy with my touch…”

I sank back down his chest, licking beneath
the crown of his rock-hard erection as I continued beating him off. Dalton
shifted slightly beneath me, as if he were going to take control again, but I
parted my lips around the red helmet tantalizingly.

“Nuh,uh,
uhhh
”
I teased him, just hovering my lips on his blood-engorged head. “
I’m
in control now. You just sit back,
relax, and let me take care of things…”

Dalton glanced down at me, his eyes filled
with animalistic lust, but he did as he was told. He lowered his head back down
to the pillows, his hands down on either side.

With that, I slid my fingers out of the way
and descended down his cock.

I knew that he was huge, but I wasn’t
prepared for just how much of him I was trying to fit into my mouth. I could
barely manage
half
of his generous
size, and that was only by pushing myself…

But I was determined to please him.

My head began to bob up and down his erect
weapon. As my enthusiasm and passion began to take hold, I steadied myself
against his body by pushing down against his thighs with my palms.

Dalton’s hands drifted downward, but instead
of controlling the tempo of my mouth on his cock, or trying to force me to suck
more of him inside, he graciously held my hair out of my way.

“Oh god, Clara,” I heard his husky, English
accent murmur out. “That feel so
bloody
good…”

His reaction only prompted me further. I grew
more tenacious with the motions, pushing myself to take more of him inside,
speeding it up. After a moment, I relinquished his saliva-slicken cock from my
mouth, rolling my fist down it again as I licked the underside.

Teasing him with my tongue, I was eager to
get him towards his limit. I could feel his body begin to move around beneath
me; his hips shifted in position, his chest rose and dropped in faster
intervals, and his great, broad form began to subtly squirm under the pressure
of my passion.

“That’s right,” I murmured, kissing his
helmet as I stroked him. “Come for me, baby. I know you want to.”

Dalton looked down at me again, but his eyes
were glazed with unadulterated pleasure. With another few, swift groans, his
hands quickly dove for my head. He pushed my lips down around his cock as he
thrust up several times, careful to not hurt me, but eager for satisfaction…

As his body trembled and his thick cock
twitched between my lips, I felt his hot release burst into my mouth. In
several steady, hot ropes, his salty come glazed my tongue, and I swallowed down
his load while he groaned heartily, draining his balls inside my mouth.

I wiped my lips with the back of my hand as I
pulled back, grinning slyly down at him.

“Where did
that
come from?” Dalton murmured, stretching his arms and holding
onto his head briefly.

“I
told
you
I missed you,” I chuckled, sliding into place beside his broad,
powerful chest. His arm naturally slid around me and kept me close.

“Yes, I can see that,” he smirked.

The stresses of our school day came upon us,
and soon we fell into a nap together. I dreamt peacefully of a life where I
didn’t have to worry about money, or schoolwork, or my parents, or anything
else of the sort.

When I awoke, Dalton was facing away, staring
into space. I watched him for a few minutes before he finally glanced back down
and noticed that I wasn’t asleep anymore.

“I’ve been thinking,” he mentioned.

“Oh yeah? What about?”

After a moment of contemplation, he finally
spoke. “If you’re ready, I’m about to tell you about that topic that came up
before, which I wasn’t too comfortable in divulging… the topic of my wealthy
relatives.”

“Only if you want to,” I nodded.

Dalton smirked. “You might not actually know
this, but my grandparents are
fookin’
loaded,” he explained, subtly letting his accent come out. “We’re not talking
just a couple of million dollars. My grandparents have an astronomical wealth
that makes my head spin.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

Dalton nodded, his eyes cutting back to meet
my gaze. “Extending back generations through English history, we were the
Windsor-Carlyle family. For hundreds of years, we were one of the most
distinguished families in the country. We had a place at the court, lordships,
ladyships…”

I listened intently, hanging on every crisp,
fascinating word on his introspective breath.

“But that ended with my ancestor, Lord Abner
Villas Carlyle. At the height of Windsor-Carlyle decadence, he offended Her
Majesty. You see, he had quite the flame for her darling daughter, the upcoming
Crown Princess… enough so that he was caught in her bedchamber, his face
between her thighs.”

I breathed in sharply. “Oof. That must have
been quite the scandal.”

Dalton smiled. “Understatement of the year
there, love. It didn’t help that Abner was a truly heinous and self-serving
man. It wasn’t the first time he dragged the good family name through the mud,
not by a long shot. But I like to think that he did love the Princess… either
way, he was vilified by the Crown, and banished from English shores.”

I tried to imagine what that must have been
like. Risking your place among nobility, your reputation, for the sweetest,
most forbidden prize… surrounded by thorns. One wrong move, and you’re pricked.

Was what we were doing any different?

“Once Abner was sent across the English
Channel to live the rest of his life in disgrace, three things happened.

“The first was that his only sibling, his
younger brother Reginald, was made the immediate patriarch and representative
of the family. Reginald was a quiet and meek man, used to the comfort of his
brother’s shadow. Thrust into the light, he had to ensure that this sort of
scandal and disgrace would never undermine us ever again.

“The second was that the Windsor-Carlyle
family was dropped from the court. Permanently disgraced by the King and Queen,
we lost our chair in the court until our bloodline proved itself worthy of
nobility once more.

“Finally, we were given the ultimate
punishment for the former Lord Abner’s transgression – we lost our claim to the
Windsor title. Clipped from the tree, so to speak. To appease the Crown, our
name was split back in twain, and we were henceforth simply the Carlyle clan.
For a prestigious family dating back to the very roots of Anglo-Saxon history,
this was the ultimate insult… and a vicious punishment.”

“That’s why your grandparents are so fixated
on maintaining the sanctity of the family name,” I realized. “They want their
place back at the top of English society?”

Dalton smirked bitterly. “They’re obsessed –
particularly my grandfather, Raleigh. They believe it to be their birthright. I
don’t know why it even matters to them anymore. The British Empire is gone. The
sun has set on our grip over the world. What’s the point anymore? They already
have the money and the luxuries… but that’s never been enough to them.”

I could sympathize a little.

In the broadest sense of the thought, my
banquet serving gave me some common ground with his grandparents. Although
fancy balls and events indisputably paled in comparison to the royal court, I
knew what it was like to be that close to the glitz and the glamor, but doomed
to always sulk in the shadows.

We saw that world, interacted with it, but
knew that we’d never really be a part of it.

Dalton shook his head, clearing his thoughts.
“Anyway. Now you know about the minor kink in my family’s history.”

“But why don’t they like your dad?” I asked.
“I mean, he’s their only child, right? Why are they so estranged from him? From
you?”

“Father isn’t their only child. He just so
happens to be the
surviving
child.”

That
, I wasn’t expecting.

“You had an uncle?”

“An aunt,” Dalton corrected me, a faint smile
on his lips. “Auntie Gloria died when I was very young, but I still remember
her smile, and the faint scent of lavender in her perfume…”

“What happened?”