No Strings Attached

Part 3 : No Strings Attached

Riccardo's P.O.V -

The woman who sat in the corner of the lift was sexier than sin and there was no denying it.

As my eyes trailed upwards from her shapely, long legs to her mane of beautiful blonde-brown hair, I had to fight my arousal with everything in me. 

But as she spoke, I realised, it was more than superficial lust. I was intrigued by her mind. 

That didn't happen often with women.

She wasn't just hot or sexy... she was absolutely beautiful.

But she could have only been around 23 years of age, maybe even younger and my track record with women wasn't exactly the best.

I liked short and sweet relationships with women, a No Strings Attached kind of deal. It was better that way. I could get all the enjoyment of having sex with a woman, except I didn't have to fork out for flowers or dinners or chocolate. And they knew where they stood, of course, some wanted more, but I kicked them to the curb as quickly as they came. Sex was sex and that was it with me.

And boy, did I like it. I wasn't ashamed to admit that sex was a part of my makeup. After all, I was a young, red blooded male, for a couple years more at least. I would fantasise about all of the ways I could have a woman: up against the wall, in my bed, on my desk, over the kitchen counter. No strings attached was just the way I liked things, and aside from my reputation as one of New York's youngest and most-cut throat senior partners, they all knew I was a womaniser.

Well, over the past few years.

It helped me to forget my absolute shambles of a marriage.

The bitter divorce between Sofia and I was lengthy, drawn out and pure evil. First we resented each other, then we hated each other and then we absolutely despised one another, not even bearing to be in one anothers presence for any time that was more than necessary. It was enough to put any man off any kind of commitment for life.

My mind immediately drew me back to when Sofia and I first met.

The attraction was immediately evident. Sofia could've easily posed for any magazine and graced any front cover. She had a soft kind of beauty with a button nose and pink, plush lips. However, her curvy body always decked out in designer hinted at her Puerto Rican roots which she gained from her maternal grandparents.

The thing about Sofia was that she played hard to get. She knew exactly the kind of power that she wielded over men and used it to her complete advantage.

I was 21 years old and fresh out of law school, blinded by the bright lights of New York City, so much so that I became completely and utterly fascinated by Sofia. I had $2,000 in my pocket, an apartment just the other side of 5th Avenue and a fridge full of beer. Sofia was different. She was kept and she always had been. A real daddy's girl who'd never seen a day of hardship in her life. I was confused as to how a guy like me would be able to get a girl... a woman like Sofia.

But after 6 months of hoping and praying, Sofia and I started seeing one another.

I spent every red cent I had on making her feel like the princess I thought she was. I'd save for days to take Sofia out for dinner, weeks to take her out of town. Everything I had was for Sofia. For a while, whilst I was wooing her, even my career went on the back burner. I was completely under her spell.

My parents sent me a significant amount of cash upon me showing to them that I could stand on my own two feet and that was the start of AAC. Rented office space in the back and beyond of the city soon turned into our own place near Times Square and finally, top floor offices in the heart of the metropolitan. We worked together, Sofia and I, it was our baby - after all, we'd decided to put off kids for a few years until the business was established and successful.

After a year we were married, after four - divorced.

She said she'd fallen out of love with me, that I spent too much time working, that she'd found someone else, someone who could meet her... needs. That someone just happened to be Nick, one of my best friends from high school turned professional football player. They'd been sneaking around my back for months, and a part of me knew that they'd been having sex in our bed.

After the divorce, he proposed to her, then they were married. I was heartbroken. No matter how much I hated Sofia, it was difficult to turn off my feelings for her that quickly. It would take time, I knew that. I spent most days in an office or sitting in a corner of my apartment, drinking away my sorrows. After the sadness passed, regret was what I felt. I'd wasted too many good years of my life trying to make a woman happy - a woman who had been far too high-maintance for me in the first place. Nowadays, it was more anger. If Sofia and I ever bumped into each other in the courtroom or at the DA's office, we were on the hunt for blood. I hated her with pretty much every fibre of my being. 

I couldn't help but think that Kimberley - this sexy blonde siren, could be a new start for me. Not just another notch on my bedpost, but something different. A girlfriend perhaps, the first I've ever had after the divorce. That would be a novelty. Not having a different woman or... Women every day. But this Kimberley was a blonde and I did like my blondes, plus she was sexy as sin with legs for days. I wouldn't have trouble getting her in my bed from my looks, but my personality?

You see I knew that I was good-looking, but I also knew I was arrogant as hell, something that turned independent women like Kimberley off.

She was independent but I could tell she was vulnerable, innocent. A part of me was turned on by that, the power-hungry part at least, and I knew that made me an assh*le, but a part of me wanted to take care of that vulnerable side, but let her independence flourish.

I knew that being the CEO and owner of a multi-billion dollar law firm would have some benefits as it always had done, particularly with the ladies. But looking at Kimberley, I can't help but be reminded of the woman my ex-wife once was. However, Kimberley had an aura about her, a sense of class, that attracted to me like her like I'd never been attracted to any woman before.

She was absolutely perfect, I knew that as well as every other man she would pass on the street. She was a masterpiece in a fitted suit and God, did I want her. Not only did I want her in my bed, but I wanted to know her. And that was beyond normal for a girl I'd just met.

I only knew her name and that she worked for Whyte and Browns, a rival firm.

That's the problem with me. I tend to move fast, that was my downfall with Sofia, and that would be my downfall with Kimberley.

Her red lips had me seduced beyond belief and she hadn't even tried.

So, I'll wait.... I'll bide my time.

And hopefully, she'll come to me.