The Orphan and the Beast

Four

Tossing and turning Brittany awakens with a start, her heart racing, palms sweaty, and images still dancing in her head. Wiping the tears from her face, she flops back down onto her bed.

Fully awake now though, she decides to hop into the shower. Turning on the shower, she decides to set the shower head on pulse in order to work out some of her tension knots.

Steam begins to fill the bathroom, with a sigh of relief she enters the shower closing the glass door behind her, encased in the warm water, her thoughts begin to wander. Only one name keeps circling in her mind, Rosco Boulderdash. Lathering herself up with her loofa, coconut mixed with almond butter scent begins to fill the steamy bathroom.

Lost in thought, her mind wanders to that tall, dark, dangerous man from the bar three weeks ago. "R-os-co" she mumbles, while playing with his name on her tongue. She could get used to saying a name like that.

Shaking her head at the thought, she rinses the rest of the body wash off and turns off the shower.

Stepping out she grabs a warm towel from the rack and proceeds to twirl it into her hair, walking into her bedroom from the in-suite bathroom, it hits her, just how lonely she actually feels lately.

The dreams won't stop lately, it doesn't help her high school graduation was about a month ago. Remembering how her induction to middle school went, it's a wonder she even attended.

She skipped the ceremony when she reached high school, but her teachers convinced her to attend her final graduation ceremony, after all, she was the salutitorian.

Despite bringing so much anxiety she was proud of her accomplishments and even spoke with so much elegance it brought tears to Rhonda's eyes.

Ah, Rhonda, her saving grace! Rhonda took her in, well rather moved into the family cabin after Brittany's parents accident. Now that she was 18 though Rhonda had fully moved out, for the past year Rhonda had been staying occasionally, sometimes not at all.

Being well into her `golden years`, it was time to take care of herself more, besides, it wasn't as if Brittany was incapable of caring for herself, hell for the past 4 years she had been essentially caring for both herself and Rhonda.

Donning her apron and throwing her still damp hair into a messy bun, Britt headed for the door to go to work. Again, living so far outside of town had it's disadvantages, walking two miles to the bus station being one of them.

"Great" she mumbled, Gary must have been running early or rather on time today, as the bus was pulling away from the stop as she arrived.

Cursing herself for not being there earlier, she had no other option than to walk the additional two miles to work. Dragging her feet, it seemed as if it would take forever to get there, despite it being a warm summer day, the black - ominous clouds threatened to rain at any moment.

Three blocks from the bakery the clouds delivered on their promise, dumping buckets upon buckets down on her. Sprinting through the downpour it was getting harder to see, shooting across the street she heard a loud horn and brakes screeching, stopping just short of hitting her.

"Watch where the f*ck you're driving" Brittany shouts, even though knowing full well it was actually her fault and it's not fair to take it out on the innocent driver. Grunting, she waves an apology and begins to cross again.

From the drivers seat, unbeknownst to her, sat Rosco, staring at her in amazement.

"F*cking hell s*x on the beach girl has some spirit" Rosco's right hand man - Jerry - comments, earning himself a sour look.

Feeling this was too good to be true, Rosco steps out of the vehicle into the rain to pursue her. Brittany notices footsteps behind her, knowing full well her mouth has landed her in trouble again, she twirls around to give the driver a piece of her mind.

Before she can utter a word though, Rosco is on her, causing her to momentary bump into his chest.

Shock spreads across her features, remember Brittany, those who mess with Rosco Boulderdash go missing, she scolds herself even more for opening her big mouth.

Of course it's Rosco, shes missed her bus resulting in her having to walk a total of four miles to work resulting to her being late, she's sopping wet from the rain, and now to make it all worse she's yelled at one of the most dangerous men - again!

"Going somewhere" Rosco smoothly asks

"La-Bakery, in fact I'm late"

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk" he replies shaking his finger, "being on time is being late, being late is unacceptable."

`Great!` a lecture, that's helping. Pushing away those thoughts she realizes it's best to not anger him, "Uh, yeah, I suppose that's right. I'm never late though, it's just turning out to not be my day" she replies which results in that oh so sexy chuckle to rumble out of his chest.

"Hop in the car" he states, not a question, just a statement. Before Brittany can utter one word or back away, she's swept up into his arms and carried towards his luxury town car and plopped into the backseat.

It's not until Rosco's back in the car that she realizes just how soaked she is, embarrassed she feels her face getting warmer and spreading to her chest, which doesn't go unnoticed by the mysterious lion in sheep clothing sitting in the drivers seat.

Fixated on her blush it takes every ounce of willpower to pull his eyes away and drive towards La-Bakery. Pulling up to the front of the building he curses himself for not taking the long route in order to keep her in his presence longer.

As soon as the car comes to a stop Brittany is unbuckling her seatbelt and bolting for the door handle, only to realize it's locked from the outside, stupid child locks!

Panic starts to overcome her, that is until Rosco is at her door opening it for her to exit, `when did he even get out?` she thinks to herself, she was so obsessed with the thought of being trapped with two known criminals, she hadn't realized he had gotten out.

Throwing him a "thank you" she exits and walks towards the staff entrance, only to be shocked again when she realizes he's following her, hot on her trail.

Spinning her around he lands a brief but passionate kiss on her lips, stealing her breath and clearing all thoughts in her head. Blank - that is all that's running through her mind - well that and the deep want and desire for him to kiss her again.

Feeling like hours - but only being seconds - she regains her composure, wanting to berate him for `attacking her` it falls short when she can't wipe the smile or blush from her face.

Feeling embarrassed she quickly darts through the entry door making sure to close it tightly behind her. Breathing hard she leans against the door to catch her breath and calm her nerves.

"What just happened?" she mumbles, still feeling the tingle on her lips and relishing the taste of him.