Villain: A Hero Novella Read online

  Then again, I might have been getting a little ahead of myself. Henry, when he wasn’t being a villain, was naturally flirtatious and charming. That didn’t mean he was attracted to me. This lunch could merely be an attempt to make amends and assuage his guilt over the way he’d treated me.

  * * *

  At one o’ clock on the dot, I found Henry waiting for me at reception. He drank me in from head to foot in a leisurely, decadent way, like he was savoring every minute of watching me walk toward him.

  Okay.

  So maybe he was attracted to me.

  He held out his elbow and gave me an arrogant half smile that was much more attractive than I’d like. “Ready to go, Sunshine?”

  For a moment I was caught off guard, not only by the nickname but by him. He was like a completely different person to the one who had burst into my home and threatened me against hurting his friend. This man was way more complicated than I think most people even realized.

  I tried to shrug off the butterflies in my belly—they’d been there since lunch yesterday—and ignored his offered arm. “Sunshine?” I yanked open the reception door and held it for him.

  Henry shook his head, laughing at my rejection, and wandered through the open doorway ahead of me.

  “Well?” I said.

  “Well what?”

  But my query was lost in the feeling of being overwhelmed as the elevator doors closed me in the small space, alone with him.

  My cheeks flushed. I could cook bacon on those things.

  I shot Henry a look out of the corner of my eye seeing his continued amusement.

  “What now?” I huffed.

  “Nothing.” He shrugged. “You’re adorable when you’re angry.”

  “If you knew anything about women, you would know that is the last thing you want to say to one who’s angry.”

  “Actually, considering how adorable I find you when you’re angry, it would make sense I’d want to keep you that way.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Very cute.”

  He nudged me playfully with his elbow. “We’re just two cuties then, huh?”

  The elevator doors opened and I strode out ahead of him. “I’m cute. You… I’m thinking undiagnosed multiple personality disorder.”

  Henry’s laughter rang out behind me and I had to suppress a smile at the compelling sound. He hurried to my side. “I’m growing on you.”

  “Like a wart.”

  He grinned and rushed to open the exit door. As I passed him, his blue eyes twinkled mischievously at me. “This is going to be fun.”

  I wasn’t at all surprised to find Henry drove a silver Mercedes S-Class Cabriolet. He had the top down and as he opened the passenger door for me, I almost balked at sliding against the pristine ivory leather seat in case I marked it. Sinking into the luxurious car, I could only stare at the incredibly sexy interior.

  Henry got in next to me and threw me the kind of excited grin a child might at Christmas. “Ready?”

  “This is quite the car.”

  “The words say impressed; your tone does not.” He observed as he pulled on his seatbelt. “Is it the top? Do you want it up so it doesn’t mess your hair?”

  “I don’t care about that.” I frowned, annoyed that he’d think I’d be that concerned with my appearance. “I care about how weird this is.”

  As we pulled into traffic, Henry slipped on a pair of aviator sunglasses. “What’s weird about two adults having lunch together?”

  “Because forty-eight hours ago, we were enemies.”

  “So melodramatic. We were merely mistaken about one another.”

  “You were mistaken about me. I think I have you pegged accurately.”

  “And that’s why we’re going to lunch because you don’t.” He shot me that sexy smirk. “You don’t know the good stuff.”

  “Has anyone ever said no to you in your life?”

  “Yes, frequently.”

  “Have you ever listened to them?”

  Henry chuckled. “Rarely.”

  His laughter and the sight of him driving this beautiful car with lazy confidence, his strong hands lightly resting on the wheel, those ridiculously hot sunglasses—it all affected me. Greatly. A sensuous ripple fluttered in my lower belly.

  Dear God, I really wanted him.

  The realization caused my breath to escape from me in a shudder, drawing his attention. Quite abruptly, I made a decision. “I’m just going to put it out there in case you’re planning to take me to a stupidly overpriced restaurant for lunch.”

  “Okay.” He drew out the word, sounding amused and wary at the same time.

  “I don’t particularly like you. In fact, you have become one of the villains in my story so far. I don’t want to date you and I doubt very much that you are interested in dating me. However, I also doubt that you feel so guilty about your treatment of me that you merely want to turn around my opinion of you. No, sir. I’m here because you’re attracted to me. That’s okay because apparently, I’m attracted to you too. You’re hot and it’s obnoxious but I can’t deny it.”

  Henry’s mouth twitched like he was trying to suppress a smile. “Okay.”

  “We’re attracted to each other or you wouldn’t have asked me out and I wouldn’t have let myself be manipulated into saying yes. But let’s not pretend this is something that it’s not with chivalry and a date. You want to fuck me. And I’m amenable to the idea. So let’s cut all the bullshit and just do it.”

  “Jesus.” Henry almost ran into the back of a car that had stopped at the light, slamming hard on his brakes. He looked at me and even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I knew his expression was incredulous. “You’re amenable to the idea of me fucking you? Did I hear that right?”

  I flushed. “I’m sure you’re used to women with gentler manners but I’m a straight talker. I don’t believe in flowering up a situation so as not to offend delicate sensibilities.”

  The traffic moved forward and Henry didn’t speak.

  In fact, he stayed silent for a while.

  So long that I began to feel my cheeks burn with humiliation.

  I’d read him wrong. He really did only want to make amends.

  I wasn’t his type.

  Oh God.

  This month had been really, really bad for me.

  Finally, he pulled up outside a pizzeria on Tremont Street. Once he killed the engine he took off his sunglasses and turned toward me. His expression was surprisingly sober as he intently studied my face, as if he hoped to find answers there. “You’re right,” he said, his voice low, deep, “I want you. But I don’t consider anticipation bullshit. We’re going to have lunch. And you’re going to agree to have lunch with me on Thursday. And then you’re going to agree to be my date to the Delaney Charity Ball this Saturday. After which we’ll go back to your apartment and I will happily fuck you into satisfied exhaustion.”

  For a moment, I couldn’t speak because his last sentence turned me on, his words alone sparking delicious excitement deep in my belly.

  What the hell would the rest of him do to me?

  Of course, after a second or so of physical arousal, the rest of his words sunk in. “What?” I shook my head in confusion. “No. We don’t need to have lunch or go to a ball together.”

  “No lunch dates, no date to the ball, no penis for you. And you don’t want miss out on my penis. It’s a good one.”

  God, I didn’t want to laugh but he had the kind of irreverent charm that could melt the toughest critic. It was a gift. It was also a mask because I knew there was a dangerous character lurking behind it. Henry Lexington couldn’t be trusted. The thought sobered me and Henry frowned. “What’s the harm in a few dates, Sunshine?”

  The harm was in him. I wasn’t a naïve girl in a romance novel who thought she could seriously keep her emotions detached from a guy she was having sex with all the time.

  Joe was right about me.

  That’s why it would be a one-time thing.


  And even then, I was questioning my sanity over letting it happen that one time.

  “This week, sex on Saturday after the ball, and then you and I are done.”

  Henry contemplated me a moment. And then he held out his hand. “Deal.”

  Tentatively, I slid my hand into his and had to fight against a thrilled shiver as his thumb caressed my skin. “Deal,” I managed.

  He raised my hand to his mouth and gently pressed his lips to it. I stared at him, confused by the old-fashioned gesture as he let go. “Now, let’s eat.”

  After hurrying around to open my door, Henry helped me out of the car; I was bemused when he held tight to my hand as he led me toward the restaurant.

  We were having lunch at a pizza place?

  I didn’t know whether to be insulted or relieved.

  As if he’d sensed my thoughts, he flashed me a grin. “I could’ve taken you to a fancy restaurant but I wanted to enjoy my lunch with you. And this here is the best damn pizza and ice cream place in Boston.”

  Relieved, I followed him inside. “You like pizza?”

  His brows drew together. “Is there a person alive who doesn’t?”

  “Fair enough.”

  We were seated at a small table; I sat on the red leather banquette that stretched the entire length of the restaurant and Henry across from me in a black wrought-iron chair. I suddenly found I didn’t know what to say or do now that we’d put our attraction out in the open.

  Henry, however, never seemed to be uncomfortable with any situation. “So what made you want to be a meteorologist?”

  “Um…” I stared at him, confused. “Are we really going to do the ‘getting to know you’ thing?”

  “What else are we going to do? Sit here and stare at each other? I could do that because the view is spectacular but I’ve always found a view gets even more beautiful when you know a little something about it.”

  “Do you always know the right thing to say?”

  He smiled. “I asked a question first.”

  I sighed. “Fine. I grew up in Connecticut, a small town, and one day for career day in junior high, a broadcast meteorologist from the local station came to talk to us about her work. She was smart and glamorous and she was very kind to me.” I gave him a wry, somewhat embarrassed smile as I admitted, “I was a chubby, awkward kid. Not very popular. Everyone else was clambering for her attention. But she picked me out and showed me how her job worked. I fell in love with it right there and then.”

  “One moment of kindness can change everything.”

  “Kindness costs nothing and yet it’s worth everything.”

  His answering look was too soft, too tender.

  And thankfully the waiter came to take our order at the right moment.

  When he was gone, I changed the subject. “And you? Do you like working for your father’s bank?”

  “I do. I’m a managing director so I’m responsible for bringing in revenue. It means wining and dining clients, traveling a lot. It suits my personality.”

  “I’ll bet it does.” He was the perfect salesman—no smarm, just natural charm. “And did you become a managing director right out of college?”

  “No. My father is grooming me to take over as COO shortly. He’s been grooming me forever. I went into the bank after college as a junior analyst. Worked up to senior analyst, then to VP, then to director, and then to managing director. My father wanted me to understand how the business functions at every level. Well, not every level. He didn’t start me in the mailroom.”

  “That’s smart.” I was impressed he’d worked his way up through the ranks, even if it wasn’t from the mailroom. “And you genuinely like it? You wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else with your life?”

  Henry grinned at me. “I’m not a cliché, Nadia. I’m not a poor little rich boy with a woe-me story of familial pressure and suppressed passions. I have a good family, a blessed life, and a job I like and can depend on.”

  I nodded, wishing it weren’t rare to come across someone who was so content with their life.

  “I thought you weren’t interested in the whole getting-to-know-each-other thing?”

  I rolled my eyes at his teasing. “I’m naturally a curious person. Don’t get a big head about it.”

  “Curious, you say?” He raised an eyebrow, and I saw the sexual speculation in his gaze.

  “One night, Henry. Not a lot of time to indulge my curiosity.”

  The blue in his eyes appeared to darken, to smolder. “It’s time enough.”

  Arousal had deepened his voice and suddenly I was imagining all the things I’d like him to do. Lust shot through me, shocking the heck out of me. My breath stuttered and I even felt my nipples peak against my shirt.

  Shit.

  The pizza arrived, cutting through the tension-filled moment.

  I stared down at the yummy-smelling plate, looking forward to tasting pizza that was famous for its charred crust.

  “Nadia?”

  Reluctantly, for I feared what looking at him would do to me, I lifted my eyes.

  Henry stared at me like he wanted to devour me instead of the pizza. “The way you say my name gets me extremely hard, so you might not to want to say it in public too often.”

  As turned on as his cheeky words made me, they also gave me a little of my equilibrium back. “And you, Henry, might not want to divulge your weaknesses to me.”

  “Go ahead. Call me Henry. I’m perfectly comfortable walking around aroused in public. I just thought it might embarrass you.” He flashed me a mischievous grin before lifting a slice to his lips.

  I tried not to laugh.

  I did.

  But damn, he made it difficult.

  The sound of my laughter clearly delighted him, his answering smile big enough to light up Boston.

  “How much time do you have?” Henry said in lieu of “hello” as I met him at reception on Thursday. I was keeping up my end of the bargain and meeting him for lunch.

  “Why?” I eyed him warily. Today he was dressed casually—instead of a suit, he wore a black, thin cashmere sweater with the sleeves pushed up his forearms, and slim-leg black trousers.

  “Because I secured the afternoon off so I could spend it with you. Very difficult thing to do. You should feel honored.”

  “And what if I didn’t have time to give you the entire afternoon?”

  “Do you?”

  “Maybe, but if I didn’t…?”

  He grinned. “I’d convince you that what I have planned is better than whatever you have planned.”

  “What if what I have planned is sex with an exotic stranger?”

  We stepped into the elevator and Henry pressed his hands to his chest dramatically. “Oh how she wounds me.”

  I laughed at his antics. “Okay. So what did you want to do?”

  “Well…” he drew it out, waiting until we stepped out of the elevator, “if I recall, you told me on Tuesday that you hadn’t toured Boston since coming to live here. Correct?”

  “Correct.”

  Henry reached inside the back pocket of his trousers and produced two tickets. “Hop On, Hop Off, Red.”

  It was difficult for me to admit, but the man was continually surprising me. “A bus tour?”

  “Not just any bus tour. You pay practically nothing for the whole day and you get off and on at whichever stops you want. It’s genius.”

  I snorted. “I would’ve thought you’d want to tour in style. You seem the type.”

  “That’s your problem.” He tapped my nose playfully. “You see me all wrong.”

  “Hmm,” I said, letting him know I wasn’t convinced by his sincerity. “I’ll need to change into something more comfortable.”

  “We can stop off at your apartment.”

  “If we’re doing that, we might as well have sex and be done with this.”

  He wrinkled his nose, seeming to consider it, and then he shook his head. “Nah. I like my plan.”

  “
You’re seriously giving up the chance at sex for a bus tour?”

  “Yes.” He put his hand on my lower back and led me around to the passenger side of his car. That innocent touch made my blood heat.

  Why wasn’t it affecting him as much, dammit?

  I glowered at him and he gave a bark of laughter as he got in the car. “I have had women pissed at me for fucking them and not calling them again. Never have I had a woman pissed at me for refusing to do just that.”

  “I’m smarter than most women.”

  Henry threw his head back in laughter. The gorgeous sound trickled away in the wind as we moved into traffic and I shook off the uneasy feeling that I was starting to like Henry Lexington.

  And wasn’t it a clusterfuck to like a man but not trust him.

  * * *

  “You had fun, right?” Henry’s eyes were filled with laughter.

  We were currently sitting in Carrie Nation where I’d ordered the biggest burger along with the biggest cocktail. It wasn’t the first time I’d been there. A date once brought me here and we sat in the intimate speakeasy section. Very nice atmosphere for a first date. If your date didn’t spend the entire night talking to your breasts.

  Thankfully, Henry was being a gentleman and he wasn’t looking at my breasts, even though my shirt was soaked.

  As was every inch of me.

  I’d tried to dry as much of myself as I could under the hand dryer in the bathroom. I should’ve insisted on going home but Henry thought it was hilarious that we’d been doused in an unexpected rain shower after visiting the Old South Meeting House.

  The cocktail bar and restaurant was a few minutes away. I hadn’t known where we were going when Henry grabbed my hand and started running.

  The waiter had laughed at us when we came through the doors.

  Henry was fine. Wet shirt and hair and somehow he looked more lickable than normal.

  I looked like a drowned cat.

  “Super fun.” He laughed at my deadpan tone. “Up until the rain, I mean.”

  Actually it had been fun. I thought Henry would get bored half an hour into it, but he seemed to enjoy the tourist thing as much as I did.

  “You knew all the stuff we learned already, though, right?”

  He shrugged. “It’s good to get a refresher. Especially in such lovely company.”