Page 4 of Monster
ANGELA
I knew I looked good.I didn’t need the appreciative looks from every guy that walked past my sunlounger to tell me that. But it was always nice to have people stare, even the bratty girlfriends who glared at me were rewarded with a smile.
I could afford to be nice to people. On the surface anyway. I was on holiday and had just spent the night with a man who had literally blown my world apart. More than once.
Even the memory of his tongue against my inner thighs had me squirming. Jesus, he sure knew what he was doing. It was just a shame that I hadn’t caught his name.
Throwing back my head, I laughed, drawing even more attention to myself. Who was I kidding? Not knowing his name was part of the fun. He would always be the mysterious man I had shacked up with in Vegas, the one with the magic tongue and the monster dick. I didn’t need to know his name because I was never going to see him again.
And that was exactly how I liked it.
Nights like the one I had spent with him were best left to memories. Once names and numbers were exchanged, things started to get complicated. Feelings would eventually happen and I didn’t have time for any of that.
I was too focused. Wild, sex-filled nights with strangers were just a way to blow off steam and let my hair down. But I knew that even those would have to stop soon. My father was an old-fashioned man who expected me to be married before I was thirty. Which meant I only had a few months left of having fun before I had to start really looking for Mr Boring to put a ring on my finger.
The thought caused my laughter to fade.
Me? Married and popping out kids? It didn’t bear thinking about, but what other choice did I have? No one knew the real me, least of all my family. They thought I was a good girl. The type of woman who went to church on Sundays and didn’t cuss. And I wanted them to keep believing that. I needed them to keep believing that. I had worked hard to gain that reputation. And live up to my name.
Angela.
They had given me a name that literally means angel, when in reality I couldn't be further away from any messenger of God. Harbinger of the devil was more likely, not that they would ever know that.
Settling my oversized glasses against the bridge of my nose, I let my eyes wander around the pool. I still had two days left in Vegas. Two days of unbridled hedonistic fun. And yet not one of the perfectly sculpted bodies of the men that were eying me interested me at all. There was nothing appealing about them apart from their abs.
Abs fucking galore, but none offered what my last one-night stand had. Danger. It had rolled off him. Whatever his name was had dark and dangerous emanating from him in waves and God did that turn me on.
From what I could see, none of my prospects would be able to compete with him until the memories had started to fade. I cursed softly. Damn him.
Maybe I should have tried harder to get him to stay a while longer, I mused. Figuring at least that way I wouldn’t have to spend the next few days bored out of my skull.
* * *
“Angela.”Someone hissed into my ear from behind, and I swatted my best friend away with my spare hand. My other hand still gripped handfuls of the guy’s hair who was currently kissing his way down my throat.
He wasn’t dangerously hot, but he would do. He definitely had some skill with his mouth that I was hoping to put to good use later that day.
“Angela.” She hissed again, more insistently this time. I frowned, tugging back on the guy’s hair so I could turn to her with a frown.
“What the fuck, Manda?” I growled out. The look on her face made any further words die on my lips. She looked worried. Not just what the hell is Angela up to now kind of worried, which was her usual look, but holy shit, something bad is going down worried.
“You need to…” Her eyes drifted from my face to the guy and back to mine again. “I need to show you something in private.”
Groaning, I turned to face her fully. “Spit it out, Manda, I’m kind of in the middle of something important.” Running my hands through my current conquest’s dark hair, I ruffled it playfully, like I was petting a dog between his ears for a job well done. In answer, his fingers came up to skim the sides of my breasts. Disappointingly, my body didn’t react at all.
“It's...well, you should probably see it for yourself.” Manda thrust her phone under my nose and my eyes skimmed over it. And this time my body reacted instantly. A cold icy dread filled me as I scanned the headline and photo.
They had blurred out what they needed to but it was pretty clear I was naked in it. Naked and spread out like a fucking Christmas turkey.
“There’s more, your dad…” she whispered, her eyes dropped and she stared at her feet.
More? I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what I was reading. If my dad saw it then my life was over. And the chances of him not seeing it were absolutely none.
Again, I read the headline.
POLICE CHIEF’S DAUGHTER CAUGHT IN PASSIONATE EMBRACE WITH OUTLAW BIKER.
“Fuck.” I grabbed at the phone, squinting at it as if somehow that would make a difference. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
