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Bad Behavior
Bad Behavior
The dance floor was virtually empty as people sidled up to the bar and Presley was one of them. She watched the door nervously as Cruz placed their order.
“Presley, even if they come into the bar, they’re not going to try to f**k you out in the open.” Cruz started laughing.
“Cruz, her husband chased after us out of the restaurant to ask you which bar we were coming to dance at.”
“So?”
“You told him!” she pushed his chest frantically. “Why?”
“First, me and my two c***s, we could split her puny little husband in half, second, it’s kind of funny. We both know we’re not going to their villa with them. We both know I can keep us safe. Let them watch. If anything, it will make their s*x spicier when they get back to their place later and fantasize about us being with them. We’re doing community service.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“You’re beautiful,” he put a drink in her hand from the bartender. “Come on, Ladybird. Relax and have fun with
- me. We’re in Nice. It’s gorgeous here. The night is young. The drinks are on me and,” he surprised her by
kissing her nose, “we’re not going to waste another single second being angry. Not tonight.”
“What if I want to go to their room with them? What if the reason I’m all out of sorts is because you’re a cockblock and I was hoping to get my inner freak on during this vacation as personal and professional
research?”
He threw his head back and laughed, loudly, drawing the startled gazes of many patrons in the room.
“What is so funny?”
“You are, beautiful,” he hugged her to his chest. “You forget you admitted to me today you have a five–date
minimum.”
“Oh yeah,” she stared up at him. “Why are you so freakishly tall? I’m going to end up with a permanent crick in
my neck.”
He hoisted her up and sat her on a bar stool, “better?”
“I guess.” Her girlie parts were tingling at the way he simply lifted her like she was nothing.
“I mean we could do what I told Anderson today.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“I told him you fit, and I could strap you to my chest and walk you around and you’d be a perfect fit.” He was grinning widely, “like in one of those baby carriers.”
“I wouldn’t fit in a baby carrier.”
“We could label it as another one of our kinks. I could simply carry you strapped to me all the time.”
“You’ve lost your bloody mind,” she sipped her drink staring at him as he seemed to be visualizing her wrapped around his chest and she was fighting her grin.
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Bad Behavior
His gaze narrowed towards the far end of the bar, “Hey, your other buddy and his wife are here:
“Who?” She looked over her shoulder and saw Algernon. “Walt, she is his wife?” The woman was beautiful with a dark bob, a perfect figure and bright blue eyes which seared the soul.
“She’s mean and angry,” Cruz whispered back. “I’m fluent in French and the things she was saying when she was pounding on his door earlier today was intense. She was talking about taking all the money out of his bank account to hire a murderer to kill him.”
“If he was your partner, wouldn’t you? He literally was asking me on the beach to go f**k in the water.” She couldn’t look away from the woman, “what does she see in him?”
The woman started flailing her hands at Algernon about something he said and then he grabbed her, pinned her against the bar and kissed the ever–loving hell out of her.
“I think that, right there, is what she sees in him,” Cruz c****d his head to one side, “he’s strong for a man who reminds me of Dr. Robotnik from the cartoon version of Sonic.”
She giggled at his words, “holy s**t you’re right! He does.” Her smile faltered as Algernon started humping his wife against the bar and the woman was putty in his hands. “Is he going to f**k her right here?”
“Look away, Presley, lest your eyes be permanently scarred.” Cruz was blinking and rubbing his eyes while making gagging noises. “That ain’t right.”
The bartender made a loud whistle and chastised the couple. Presley watched in awe as the wife cuddled up next to Algernon and put her head on his shoulder.
“Do you think they’re the couple Paris and her husband are traveling with?”
“No, they’re American and she said they play back home.” Presley told Cruz with a shake of her head.
“Maybe we should introduce Paris to Algernon. She might not like him but maybe she’d like her?”
“Maybe we should mind our own business, Cruz,” Presley sipped her drink. “Where is your photographer?”
“Around, I’m sure. He’s supposed to try to make it look like he’s getting risky photos we don’t want him to take or know he’s taking.”
Cruz’s phone rang in his pocket, and he sighed after looking at the display.
“Odin?”
“Worse,” he muttered as he answered it on speaker, “Dad. What can I do for you?”
“You get her to agree to the wedding yet?”
“Nope. Didn’t even bring it up.”
Wedding? Presley’s eyes were shocked at comment. Cruz simply shook his head at her, but she realized now what he told her in the hotel room was not a lie. His father wanted them married.
“Cruz, family values are what my last four years of marketing have been. Connecting with family and loved ones and our entire marketing campaign speaks to a wholesome image. You will marry Gavin Brookmore‘ biggest mistake before she becomes ours. End of discussion. The day you are home, I want you getting you. marriage license.”
Had his father just insulted her by calling her, her father’s biggest mistake? She was ready to speak when Cruz put his finger over her mouth and shook his head.
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Bad Behavior
“Dad, I’m a thirty–two–year–old man. I haven’t listened to you telling me what to do since I was eighteen and filed for emancipation. I appreciate you feel you have some kind of say in the way I live my life, run my company, or manage my situations, but let me remind you, I don’t give a flying f**k what you think of how you feel. Your feelings stopped mattering to me when I found out you were personally responsible for my mother’s suicide. Unless you want me to publish an op–ed on the dangers of mental health and my firsthand understanding of the impact untreated mental health issues in my life, you’re going to back the f**k off.”
“I called her father this week and told him our partnerships were all off if she didn’t agree to this. He’ll lose a half billion dollars. He will make sure the wedding happens. You will both make this happen.”
“Any father would know his daughter doesn’t come with a price tag.”
“Why do you think you’re there? He wasn’t doing you a solid. He did it because I threatened him.”
“And you call yourself his friend,” Cruz spat back angrily. “Dad, you can watch how my relationship with Presley plays out on social media like the rest of the world but if I find out you meddle again, threaten her family or her again, bring up marriage, litigation, prenups or anything else, I will expose a side of you to social media which will make the damage currently happening to your family values campaign look like child’s play. You might be the richest man in the country, but I have as many resources as you do, if not more.”
“Now son,” his father growled.
“Goodbye, Dad. f**k off.” He hung up the phone and rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry about that.”
“He’s still an asshole, huh? Aging isn’t mellowing him out any?”
“Not in the least.”
“I can’t believe he wants you to marry Gavin’s biggest mistake.” She angrily chugged the rest of her drink.
“Only for six months. You sign a prenup leaving you with nothing if you even spill a single word of our arrangement. The prenup, which he’s already drawn up, outlines your behavior must be befitting a Hawley. There was a list of dos and don’ts. For the record, I tore it up before I left his office.”
“He got this drawn up?”
“His stocks took a hit because of the things you posted about me. As his son, my behaviors and actions influence his image and, for him, image is everything.”
“What did you mean about the suicide thing with your mom? I thought she died of a heart attack?”
“Nope. When I was seventeen, I was going through his office looking for cash. Dad always made me use a card so he could track my purchases, and we were going to a house party, and I wanted beer. Anyway, going through his office looking for cash, I opened a drawer at the bottom of his desk and found my mom’s medical file and her diaries. She’d been keeping diaries since I was born. She died when I was seven. She was sick but Dad refused to allow her to be medicated. He felt her being medicated, if it got out, would negatively impact his image. He insisted instead she follow a strict diet and exercise regimen, which helped to a degree, but she was bipolar. She needed meds. Every single notation from her doctor in her chart notes included a comment about my father vetoing the medication and how Dad used his power of attorney over mom to
control her.”
“No way.” She was stunned.
“Yup. I took the information. I hid it where he would never find it. Funny, he thought I’d take it to your Dad or Anderson’s parents, but I was smart!” he tapped his temple. “When I opened my very first bank account, it
Bad Behavior.
came with a safe deposit box. He didn’t even know. I kept it there until I was eighteen. Threatened to release it to the press if he didn’t agree to emancipation. He signed me away. I took my trust funds and left his house to go to college and other than a handful of times in the last fourteen years, we don’t talk.”
“I’m so sorry, Cruz. I had no idea.”
“When I made Olympic qualifiers, he made a sizable donation to the team. The association made me do
press with him. He almost ruined my Olympic experience. He was everywhere for a photo op. Came to every game and I was forced to pose with him before and after every one of them. The team hated him because he was grandstanding and getting in our way. When tryouts happened four years later, I refused the invite.”
“Because of him?” she asked putting her hands on his forearms as he signalled the bartender for another
drink.
“I couldn’t do it to my teammates again. I couldn’t focus and I was not going to do it to them again by making them a sideshow to his pompous posturing.” He looked past her, “speaking of pompous posturing,” he got closer to her, “your buddy Algernon is getting a hand job under the bar.”
“No.” she made wide eyes. “You’re kidding.”
“Do not turn around.” He was trying not to laugh. “His wife’s arm is jack hammering away and he’s staring straight ahead towards the bar. It’s so f*****g obvious yet nobody is saying anything.”
“It’s so gross. What if it sprays and hits the underside of the bar?”
He looked at her incredulous, “Presley!”
“I write mom porn for a living, Cruz. I’m imagining the specifics. Make it stop!” she pleaded with him. “Your wish is my command,” he gave a dark laugh before he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her senseless.
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Tatienne Richard
Don’t forget this story is going pay to read
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