ROCK HARD (A BRITISH ROCKSTAR BAD BOY ROMANCE) (29 page)

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…

D
alton
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?”

Dalton’s eyes hardened.

“If you, I mean, don’t mind me asking…” I realized with some shame that I’d probably jerked him away from some pleasant memories of her.

“Car accident,” he answered bitterly. “A drunk driver rammed her car in the driver’s side. There wasn’t anything the paramedics could do to save her. Pronounced dead at the scene.”

“Oh god,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well… she was their favorite, you know? Gloria was not only the firstborn, but she was the doting, loving daughter who lived up to their high expectations. She was brilliant, polite, very well spoken, and fell in line with their demands.”

“And your father wasn’t?”

“What you’ve got to remember about Dad is that he grew up in the Seventies, and he was the younger child. Gloria developed maturity and grace quickly – enough so that she overrode their initial qualms about her gender. Probably never occurred to them that a daughter could redeem the family name. But as for their son… Dad never really wanted any part of their world. He didn’t sit well with endless etiquette classes, primers on court manners, and classical piano lessons. Rebellion and escapism are probably why he developed his drug addiction.”

“Drug addiction?”

“Oh yeah,” Dalton continued. “That’s why Dad and I aren’t positively
loaded
right now. You see, love, it started with pot. After a while, he moved on up to heroin. Wasn’t too long before Dad was in and out of rehab centers, sullying the good family name. Don’t get me wrong, he cleaned himself up and never looked back. He even got himself into a good engineering school, but by then his relationship with them was damaged beyond repair. I know that my grandmother forgave him, but her husband always had a stiff upper lip…”

“I would have never guessed,” I thought to myself. “He seems so kind and well-adjusted.”

Privately, I wondered if Will still suffered. Did he feel those compulsions anymore? Would that ever truly leave his heart?

“So, he wrapped up his degree just in time to be cut off from the family money. At least he could support himself then. He turned to a life of meaningless sex, and I was the eventual end result there.”

“Do you know anything about your mother?” I asked him, curiously.

“Never met her. Don’t know a single thing about her, other than she was a beautiful and talented hairdresser. Tried to put me up for adoption but Dad took me instead.”

“Explains why you’re so presentable,” I chuckled. “But you’ve never wanted to find out about her?”

“Nope. If she’s willing to throw me away, I don’t need her,” he shrugged. “But anyway. That’s enough about the past. I’m more interested in the future now.”

“The future?” My breath sucked back between my lips, and I felt a telling patter in my chest.

“The future,” Dalton repeated firmly, his eyes searching mine. “Tell me about yours. What do you want most in this world, love?

I thought on this a moment.

A smile smile crossed my lips.

“You.”