Lucy Callaghan

Lucy Callaghan
Rowan's POV

“Hello, beautiful.” I grinned down at her, placing my business magazine on the free side of the table, just before her. She looked up gently at me from the rim of her champagne flute.
Her lips moved over the rim of the glass, prepared to say something to send me away, then they froze on me, her beautiful brown eyes static on her forehead, stretched wide, as recognition slowly crept into them. Her fur coat hung around her petite, curvy body underneath, outlined by the evening gown she wore, with its chest area elegantly adorned with rhinestones.
She kept staring at me over the rim of the glass, her fingers still frozen over the champagne flute, pressed between her heavily painted lips. 
Then in one furious move, she threw her champagne at me. I had expected it, so I jumped out of the way of the charging liquid, and it spilled onto the next table, and thank hell it was empty. My attempt at dodging the liquid puts me within the reach of her claws.
“You bastard,” she screamed, and she lunged at me with her long artificial nails. Luckily, I caught her wrist, and I spun her around, holding her to my body, my fingers firm on both of her trembling wrists.
“I see you have really missed me, Lucy.” I grinned into her ear.
“I don't, Rowan.” She snarled, her lips curled up in disgust, her body trembling around mine. “I want you to rot in jail for the rest of your miserable life, Rowan. I want you to rot in hell.” She yelled.
I leaned closer to her, placing my head over her shoulder, my breath brushing the smooth, pulsing skin of her neck. I held both her hands tighter, pressing them over her breasts, as I pressed her further to me.
I grinned, and I let her glimpse a little of my grin, even though I was behind her. “If you really wanted me to rot in jail, all you needed to do was to tell the police about me.” I whispered against her neck, and I fed my grin more when I felt the tension and struggle from her begin to ease under me. “The cops would have been so eager to slap some charges up my ass that they would have OD'd on joy. They would have loved to lead me before a judge if they had your testimony against me, but they didn't, and neither did you report me, which means that you are happy to see me as I am to see you.”
She resumed her struggle against my body now. “Get off me, Rowan.” She screamed, “I hate you.” 
“You won't be the first lady to tell me that, love. As you won't be the first one to not really mean it.” I whispered against her ears.
“Just fucking get off me, Rowan.” She yelled, still pushing and shoving against me. “Leave me alone.”
“Leave the lady alone.” Someone screamed from behind us.
“Yes, do, mister. Stop molesting the poor lady.” Another one snapped.
“Someone gets the security,” another chimed.
I glanced around at the elegant tables and expensively styled diners around, and I grunted, having to find the whole room staring right at us. I hated the attention, throwing my eyes away from the large hall.
I leaned back to Lucy’s neck, whispering against her ear, just as my ears picked up on the noise of shoes tapping against the tiles as some of the male diners marched for me.
“You have called so much attention to us, and you know that I don't like that, honey.” I whispered. “So I am going to let go of your hands, Lucy, and I am going to kiss you, and you are going to return my kiss with every fiber of your being. Do you understand?”
“You wish, bastard.” She made a sharp, strangled laugh, her mocking voice sharp in the air between us, and she continued her struggle against my body. “I am sooner going to stab you for conning me and playing me like a fool six months ago than kiss you.”
I grinned against her neck. “Oh! You will kiss me, Lucy. Even though you want to kill me, you will still kiss me like you fucking meant it.” I whispered, brushing my breath more against her neck.
Before she could work out another counter, I spun her around fast, and I brought her body closer to me, pressing her petite body to mine, and I kissed her hard, not so hungrily, just hard enough for her to relax in my arms and respond to my kisses.
She struggled at first, but then she submitted, pressing herself against my lips and throwing her hands around my neck, pulling me for more. I always know how to make her tick, not just her—women. I knew how to make them tick. How to get them to submit completely to me.
“Oh, oh!” I heard someone choke in surprise around us.
“I really didn't see that coming,” another person echoed around us.
And all the while, she kept dragging me down against her lips for more, moving wildly against my mouth. I just submitted to her and let her have a good fill of me.
I wanted to give her more, to kiss her as hard and seriously as I would usually do, but somehow, I couldn't. Everything about our kiss lacked that fire—that heat of raw desire that always consumed me, coursed through my veins, and burned through me when it was the detective’s lips beneath mine.
Lucy eventually pulled back from me, panting gently. For a moment she smiled at me, but soon, the edges of her smile turned sour, and she whipped her palm for my face. It cracked hard against my cheeks, sweeping my face to the side.
“That's for ghosting me for six months, Rowan. For conning and using me, I will…”
“Are you okay, Miss. Is this man really…” a man was saying, striding closer to us. 
“Why don't you just mind your fucking business? Huh?” She yelled at him, sweeping him condescendingly with her long lashes.
The man threw his hands up, conceding defeat, and he strolled back to his table, his head bowed, glancing back at us with a pained frown on his face. At least, that would really teach him to mind his damn business.
I stared around to see the whole room still focused on us. The attention seemed to be building more around us, hushed whispers flying about. The last thing I wanted was unneeded publicity, or else I would have an army of women charging fast for this hotel, hunting madly for my neck. 
I snatched Lucy’s purse from her table and her bottle of champagne, and I scooped her into my arms. She screeched as she struggled flimsily against me. I just grinned at her frowning face, her brows wired tight. “Where is your room, darling?”