Prologue

Six months ago, Los Angeles California

~Foreign Torres~

 

After emptying the tumbler of its two-fingers worth of contents down my throat, I gazed at the guy sitting beside me then gave him a small smile. It conveyed everything I was thinking. He returned it with a breathtaking one accompanied by two dimples and a gleam in his eyes.

“What do you say we move to some place much more comfortable than your couch?” I asked brazenly, boosted up by the expensive cognac that went down like silken courage and put scandalous suggestions in my head.

No, that was a lie. I had these thoughts ever since I met the man, when we both were sober as a priest before I left my mother’s house to go with him to his. And I could dare to be bold when, even if he rejected me (but he won’t—he’s a man after all), I had no plans of ever seeing him again.

Technically, he wasn’t a stranger anymore either. We’d spent a few hours at my mother’s house chatting, after she introduced us with her own motives. Then, we splurged on a few more hours here at his estate drinking and getting more acquainted… if describing our dreams for our futures at his request counted. Probably didn’t, because upcoming lifestyles didn’t matter in the here and now. I had a long way to go before I was fit to open my own restaurant, and really didn’t give a flying flip about what new heights he wanted to take his company to, or the charities he wanted to sponsor.

Maybe I would care if he hadn’t already been judged and found lacking in all areas except one; how much he appealed to me. It should be a crime how broad and proportionate his shoulders were to his lean hips draped in an obviously tailored, double-breasted suit I had yet to rid him of. He was built more like a construction worker than businessman, and stunning in the face.

My fingers itched with the need to run through his blond hair, shaved to within an inch of its life on the sides and back. Two-inch strands were shoved upwards at his right temple, then swooped to the left to lay on his brow. My mind was all over the place, already plotting in my head how I’d two-hand grip his thick tresses, while my body took possession of his manhood. I would surely be having him tonight. We would make shocking memoirs for flipping through, whenever I wanted to look back at these series of moments. That was after I hightailed it the hell out of here while he slept in the middle of the night.

Oh yes, I was cheerfully going to put his ass to sleep. No doubt, the fact that I had several passive-aggressive arguments with my mother brought on the need to use sex as my outlet. I didn’t need her to run my life. I was well over the age of giving a damn what my mother thought. Tension from barely contained anger squatted like a vagrant in my neck and shoulders.

In a normal household, after the passing of a patriarch, my mother and I would’ve been in mourning and comforting each other. Since she was never one to pass up an opportunity to get what she wanted, she threw this guy, the latest eligible bachelor in her arsenal, at me instead of her arms around me. After two years of being estranged, you’d think she’d have just been happy to see I was still breathing. Yeah, no, my family didn’t work that way. Our grudges held up better than properly-installed steel frames in a hurricane.

The falling-out I had with my mother would’ve lasted longer if it hadn’t been for a death in the family and my beliefs that it was my right to attempt to pay my respects. I should’ve been escorted off the property, before I even breached the doors of my childhood home. Trust me when I tell you I certainly didn’t go back there to see if I had inherited anything. I hadn’t, my father hated me for years before he died. I simply went to say goodbye and to gently rub it in the living faces of my family that I was still surviving without their help.

Unfortunately for my new acquaintance, I was allowed to attend the funeral and the repast after the funeral along with everyone else. Unfortunately for me, my mother lost no time in furthering her agenda for my life. She and the man currently sitting next to me were the only ones that bothered conversing with me, while I was still considered exiled and unworthy to the members in the Torres clan. She and he both had their shared purposes for tolerating my company too. Too bad she wouldn’t get what she wanted, and he had to settle for a sample of his goal.

I was only giving him that much because at first glance… and the hundredth, he, who was looking even more gorgeous after I had gotten to the bottom of my glass, was every girl’s fantasy. That was if you liked them six-foot-two, blond, almost illegally attractive, attentive, as well as seemingly humble.

However, he was a social climber, albeit a charming one, just like the woman who birthed me. She was charming to just those who asked, “How high?” when she said “Jump.” So yep, she and I fought a lot when we were speaking. We hadn’t for the last two years. During that time, she had upped her game and found him… all for me.

Wouldn’t surprise me any if she knew ahead of time that I’d be powerless against his allure, when my resistance to anyone of the opposite sex I met via my parents, was made of the stuff of legends. That same resistance had been nonexistent since I laid eyes on him and shook his hand, the contact sending heat radiating through my core, rolling earthquakes down my spine. I wanted to take him to bed immediately but didn’t. He knew my damn mother after all, except eight hours in his presence had my body on fire, my mind in the gutter regardless that I detested his kind; rich and convinced they were entitled to whoever and whatever they wanted.

Only when I got the brilliant idea to show him the error of his ways did I decide, in about five seconds of meeting him, that he’d be the one to break my dry spell and he would be made an example of. Eight months between being waxed on and waxed off between the sheets made me susceptible to his pull and my own idiotic thoughts. The kind that assured me I could change him who appeared to be really nice and sweet despite the company he kept. He was not of the ‘egotistical jerk’ variety that usually showed their true colors from the start.

“Come with me, Foreign,” he invited without a hint of arrogance that always turned me off like a light switch.

Hopefully, I would come with him because once his deep, panty-dropping tone washed over me, if I had any reservations about what we were going to do next, I had none now. Don’t judge me. It had been a full workday since we met. Enough time to change the world. Before half that time had passed, I left him downstairs at my mother’s, under the impression that I needed to freshen up in the bathroom—I really did have to go potty—but I was actually going to peek at his history. Mainly his latest medical records, which were dated as of this morning when he donated blood. Told you, nice and transparent guy who had given way too many details about himself to a stranger. Didn’t matter that he seemed like boyfriend material most women wished for—not me—he was still wealthy. I was still prejudiced… to a certain extent.

Out of habit, I went straight to the bathroom I used to use as a child that just so happened to be near my father’s office, where my half-decent computer skills pulled up the stranger’s background. My dishonest skills hacked into his general practitioner’s database. A lone woman had to protect herself in every way because people lie convincingly. Although, I’d never admit that I simply wanted to know everything I could about this particular man.

The wanton side of me wanting to come out and play with him didn’t help matters. Neither did being on birth control, knowing his full name, birthday, where he lived, did for a living, and most importantly, that he was truly clean. Not even a parking ticket. Perfect. Condoms tended to rub me the wrong way anyway, and it would’ve been a shame if I had to leave California without sampling this fine specimen who melted my insides with just a damn look.

Later, I’ll tell you about how in high school, I hung around the rebellious-teens-without-a-cause by choice, unintentionally learning a thing or three such as back-dooring into people’s databases and picking genuine door locks that only stopped honest people. Whoa, I felt your judgment hit me like a ton of bricks just then, but let me explain myself.

I’ve never broken in a home or stolen anything except someone’s privacy. Even that started out as something to do for shits and giggles and avoiding being at my parents’ home that I never viewed as mine. It was just a bunch of bricks I couldn’t wait to leave and the equivalent of walking into a viper pit. Or rather into an elegant dwelling filled with vicious Torres snobs.

Moreover, my selected friends, the less wealthy but saviors of my teenage sanity, made it possible for me as an adult to find out who I was truly dealing with at the stroke of a few keys. I was real big on knowing what I was getting myself into, and as I said, people lie. This guy hadn’t felt the need to inflate himself to me though, and I liked him all the more for it. If I didn’t, I’d have never went anywhere with him. He made me more relaxed in his home than I had been in any place in Los Angeles. And that was saying something, because I lived there from two-years-old to twenty-six.

His demeanor was permanently on easy, as if he had all the time in the world, and his home was cozy and welcoming. Not the typical mausoleum bought to mainly showcase the owner’s expensive tastes and provoke its guests’ jealousy. This guy was different. Something in me wanted to embrace that about him, literally, at least for a little while.

The controlled blaze, just for show in the fireplace we sat a few feet from in his library, threw no warmth as he snagged my wandering hand from his chest and gently pulled me to my feet from the thickly-padded leather couch. Yeah, I could take him on the couch, but I needed more room for all the things I was going to do to him.

Standing up in the muted firelight, barely pushing back the darkness inside and outside the line of windows in one wall, we easily skirted around the glass-topped tables that he dropped his half-empty tumbler on in passing. I did the same with mine. With my fingers still in his, he stepped first into the heavy shadows that concealed the door of the expansive space. I treaded behind him into the carpeted-corridor that homed four torso-sculptures divided up by twice as many enormous flower arrangements. Each decoration was displayed on stark-white pedestals. The multi-colored blooms were the only splash of color in the lengthy hallway. Trekking to the end of it took us past several closed-door rooms.

He paused at another one, swung it wide, stepping just inside a high-ceiling bedroom lit with scattered moon rays wandering in from somewhere behind him. His broad body denied me a complete view of the room that I wasn’t interested in touring anyway—we were about to get to the good part. He swiveled around, then reached behind me, closing the door before stalking forward on silent loafers, forcing me to walk backwards into the barrier he used to confine us in the room.

“Foreign,” he whispered, standing toe to toe with me who had to crane my neck just to preserve eye contact with him lording head and shoulders over me.

“Hmm,” I answered, then shivered in the adequately warm room.

His voice skating down my spine shook me down to my toes.

“Now is the time to say no,” he croaked.

I knew he wanted to do anything but give me a way out of what came next but would honor my change in mind. So damn sweet.

“Why would I do that?” I asked rhetorically, tugging my hand out of his to glide both up his thick neck, tugging him downward by the lapels of his jacket. “You, on the other hand, might want to save yourself. This is going to be a wild ride for you. I’m offering you a life preserver only once.”

His response was to plant his lips on mine. His was ultra-soft and fitted neatly between my top and bottom. I wasn’t expecting the small connection to light my senses on fire then blow them away at first touch and make something swell in my chest until I thought it would bust. I would feel better if it did. Well shit, maybe I would need the life preserver, but there was only one way to find out. Plus, I had gotten pretty damn good at saving myself over the last couple of years and hoped the same could be said for him.