Chapter 5
The rest of the way to the meeting the car was quiet. Lalena was fuming at him and herself both. She didn’t know who she was more upset at though. The fact that she was even tempted to do anything sexual with him made her frustrated. She unfortunately realized that this meant her and Jake were not serious at all, or she would have been more angry about this conversation.
She was upset for the wrong reasons. She was mad that he seemed to know how Jake thought, and that he made that noise about her comment. How did he know that she would do anything with him, hell she wasn’t even sure about it? However, as she thought about it she realized that if he asked, she would do it. This admission made her feel shame.
Lalena didn’t look at Rico the rest of the way. She wanted to clear her mind about their argument and focus on the task coming up.
“Okay so when we first get there I’ll get out of the car first and look around to see if anything looks out of place. Then when you get out I’ll be right to your side and keep scanning the area. You know it would have been better if you had one more person with us at the least. Are you really afraid and think this person will hurt you?” Lalena asked Rico.
He jumped when she had first started talking. “I don’t know what this crazy person will do. It seems that people like to hide who they really are, so maybe he will kill me, maybe he won’t. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see now won’t we.” Rico commented.
“If I can help it no harm will come to you Mr. Mayor.” She said seriously.
Rico looked at her. “Physical harm only though.” He commented and looked away.
She stared at him, unsure of his meaning. There was no way he could have had any feelings for her, this had to be a game to him. This was the man who never dated a girl more than two times in a row. A man who his own cousin said was a male slut.
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but I think we’ve talked enough about personal things today.” Lalena finally said.
He grunted at her but didn’t say anything about her comment.
The car stopped and Lalena got out looking around. She tried to spot if any of the people who were on the list of threats were lurking around the area. She didn’t see anything out of place though and she opened the door and let Rico get out. “Mr. Mayor.” She said when she opened the door.
He got out and straightened his suit jacket. Lalena loved the way it looked on him, it fit him perfectly. She felt ashamed once more for noticing how good Rico looked and wanting him more than she should.
Lalena didn’t understand it she had never been a female who was with one guy and longed for another man. It just wasn’t her nature to be like that. She had always been someone who was faithful to a fault even. But here she was looking at Rico and wondering once more what his naked body would look like on top of her.
They made it to the building with no issue and were soon safely inside.
“You can wait out here while I’m in the meeting.” Rico said to her without even looking her way.
She sighed so now they were back to the behavior where he ignored her. She couldn’t figure this man out no matter how hard she tried. She knew she should really just focus on her own life and happiness, however, she did wonder how happy Rico would make her.
“What did he mean by you don’t know what I’m really like?” She whispered to herself as she sat outside the conference room. Lalena was dying to know more about him, and she couldn’t understand what the pull was that he had on her.
The meeting seemed to drag on and on forever, but finally the door opened. Rico walked out he looked tired, Lalena felt her heart ache for him. Did she cause him to look like this? There was no way; it had to be the threats that were weighing down on him.
She had read through the emails the day before and they were very threatening sounding. The fact that nothing had happened as of yet was simply pure luck, she was sure of that. This person, or even people, would take their shot at him one day. She only hoped that she would be able to protect him when it happened.
The ride back to the office was mostly silence. Rico didn’t seem interested in sharing anything new with her about how he felt. She had really wanted to ask him what he had meant though when he had said she didn’t know the real him. But Lalena knew she was playing with fire if she opened up that door. She really didn’t want to know more about him, it might make her like him more.
“We can drop you off at your house if you would like.” He offered.
“No I have my car at the office; I’ll have no way to get in tomorrow.” She stated.
“You can have you boyfriend drop you off.” He said, the tone of his voice showing the anger once more.
“I don’t know if he’s staying the night tonight or not.” She looked straight at Rico, a challenge in her eyes.
“Right, oh it’s one of those types of relationships!” He smirked.
“Listen I told you once before, you shouldn’t judge someone when you are doing the same exact thing. It’s my business, not yours. You never even told me the real reason why you came to see me last night. You say that you aren’t the man the papers claim, but I see someone who is exactly like that. The only problem is you don’t like it has to be because of some sort of male dominance issue or another. I don’t care what it is though. Until you can honestly say that you aren’t this man who sleeps with women of all kinds, then don’t judge my life. I don’t sleep around at all, I stay faithful to the man I’m with. Plus compared to you I’m a virtual virgin. I’m sure you’ve slept with more woman than you would care to count. On the other hand I can tell you honestly that I’ve had sex with a total of 3 men in my entire 29 years of life. Can you say that?” Lalena had enough and let loose on him.
Rico stared at her. “Well look who’s the little spit fire. I saw the look in your eyes when I whispered into your ear that first night. It wasn’t a look that said I’m dating someone either. No it was a look that was a challenge a dare to me. You were saying try if you want, but you have a wild ride on your hands. So before you go and preach to me about how you are faithful to this boy, you should remember that I saw that look in your eyes. It wasn’t the only time either, in my office yesterday you had the same look. If I wanted you I could flick my fingers and you would be mine.” He laughed.
“I don’t know why you think you could do that and I would be putty in your hands. Perhaps you aren’t used to women turning you down. But I could tell you with all honesty that if you asked me right now to screw you I would spit in your face.” She finished then knocked on the window. “Driver can you please pull over, I need to get out.” She said.
The driver pulled the car over.
“What are you doing? We’re in the middle of nowhere, how will you get home?” Rico asked her.
“I don’t care, but honestly I don’t have to listen to your insults anymore.” She opened the door and climbed out.
Lalena breathed in the fresh air and waited for the car to pull away, but it didn’t. Instead Rico was soon standing beside her. “Get back in the car, we just won’t talk anymore.” He tried to pull her towards the door.
“No, I don’t want to. You’ve insulted me more than one time and I’m done with it.” She shouted.
“I see the look in your eyes when you look at me. If you could honestly swear to me that you loved Jake Newton I wouldn’t believe you. I see the looks, you get that right. You don’t love him, or you wouldn’t look at me those eyes that scream out to be fucked.” Rico said in a low voice to her, his face was only inches from hers.
Lalena looked at him, the shock on her face was apparent. She slapped him hard across the face.
He looked at her; the danger in his eyes was shining brightly. He grabbed her and pulled her to him. Rico pressed his lips hard on hers. She tried to resist him and fight, but soon her body betrayed her and she kissed him back. As soon as she did he pulled away and jeered at her.
“Your just like any other woman.” Rico said, and he climbed back into the back of the car. They pulled off and left Lalena standing there on the side of the road.
“How could you kiss him back?” She wanted to pound her head into a nearby tree. His lips had felt nice on hers; she had tried to fight it. But in the end the feeling of want was far too strong in her, she wanted to taste him. It ended far too quickly in her opinion.
Tears began streaming down her face. She was right she didn’t love Jake, but clearly Rico didn’t love her either. So what could she do? She had a walk to think about it, it was at least 4 miles to get back to the office and her car. She could have called Jake and he could pick her up, but how would she explain this one to him. “Hey sorry I’m stuck here, but Rico kissed me and I kissed him back so he got upset.” She was almost positive about his reaction to the news. It wouldn’t be good at all.
She used the time as she walked to think about her feelings and what she should do about them. Jake was really sweet and she knew he cared about her, but there wasn’t anything serious between them. He had made that clear to her last night. It was more of a mutual agreement to sleep together and enjoy each other’s company for a period of time.
Once he was healed he would be out of town and on to greener pastures. Lalena was almost positive that she wouldn’t want to go with him. She couldn’t see herself outside of this town, she loved it here. Her life was good, for the most part. Though today hadn’t been a great day, she thought as she continued to walk. Overall most days of the week she was happy with her life.
“Fucking Rico, who does he think he is?” She fumed and got angry as she got closer to the office. She wouldn’t even go upstairs; she would get into her car and go home. She was already going to be so late getting home.
Lalena thought about simply telling Rico she quite, but she didn’t want too. She was sure that soon enough this person who was sending the emails would do something, and she didn’t trust anyone else to protect Rico.