Read Online LAD: A British Bad Boy Romance Novel (Bad Boys of London Book 1) by Emilia Holland - Free Book Online Page B

breezed by his table, I watched him check over his shoulder, stand up then pace after her. I hastened my own pace, drunk and almost inviting of a confrontation.

    Sure enough, when I entered the restroom corridor, he’d caught Hayley’s arm. My temple throbbed in my skull. I felt my face growing hotter but decided to time this accordingly. I wanted a good reason to knock this guy about a bit and right now he seemed gentle enough.

    “Beg ya pardon,” he said. “I’m…I’m sorry, I never actually do this.” The bumbling fuckin’ fool. “I couldn’t help but notice you at the bar and you seem quite lovely. I hope you don’t mind my forwardness.” Ah, the polite gentlemanly tactic which I so lacked. I knew Hayley wanted none of this. Every signal of her body was screaming for him to back off, but I knew she’d be too polite to say so.

    “Oh, uh. Thank you?” Her bashful reply made the bloke lift his chin a little more and rest himself against the wall. Every inch of me was ready to run at him.

    “May I perhaps grab ya a drink?”

    “Um, I didn’t know if you noticed but I’m going to the bathroom. So…This is kind of a weird place to be doing this.”

    “Yeah, yeah, sorry ‘bout that. I wanted to speak ya to somewhere a li’l quieter than out there.”

    “Right.”

    “Fair, innit?”

    “Yeah, it’s…Fair…I guess.”

    “What you drinkin’, then?”  

    I cringed on Hayley’s behalf. “Well, I’m here with my friends,” she said. “I think the three of us are gonna to spend some time together tonight.” Smart girl. “Thank you anyway for the offer.”

    “Babe, it’s just one drink.”

    “I know, but I have money to buy my own and…I wanna hang out with my own friends.” Her body turned in the direction of the Ladies Room, but he caught her wrist.

    “Here, how ‘bout this then. How about you spend a li’l time wiv your girls then we catch up afterward for a nightcap? I’ll take ya numba.”  

    “No, I’m sorry.” Hayley took her wrist back. “I’ll probably have a drink with them and then get some sleep.”

    His polite façade fell to the floor. His ego had been threatened. “Babe, relax. It’s just a drink I’m looking for here, not sex. I ain’t no creep, man.”

    “Uh, yeah dude. Again, no thanks. Excuse me.” This time, he blocked her way forcibly.

    “You American girls, so fookin’ rude, in ya? You see how the stereotype gets propagated about you lot? Because you all act like a bunch of bitches. You don’t even know me and maybe if you gimme a chance,   you might like me.”

    She scoffed and tried to dodge him again. This weirdo leaped right to left with a drunken grin smacked on his face, playing some game of dodge with her. I shook my head.  

    “Let me through.” Hayley stayed calm.

    The moment that followed happened in a blur. He pressed her against the wall and forced his hand up her skirt. I started a run towards him. She slapped him once across his cheek, her face scrunched in shock and disgust.

    He didn’t move from her.

    She pleaded back, her arms flailing at his busy hands.

    He still didn’t move.

    My time had come. I stomped nearer — clip-clop, clip-clop — and popped a successful left hook hard against his jaw. A sharp crack resounded in the hallway. He stumbled over his military boots and fell with a feeble thud against the carpet. I shook my knuckles out and cracked them while I watched him writhe on the floor with glee. Kneeling down, I took one last prize from him. Hoping he’d be like any scumbag who inhabited this place, I found what I was looking for: A baggie of white substance tucked in his empty wallet. I wouldn’t be sure what exactly it was until later, but free drugs were good drugs.

    “What are you doing?” Hayley spoke down at me as casually as if she’d called me up on the phone for a chat. The response was unexpected, as I suppose I should’ve come to expect from her. In fact, it caught me