STUBBORN HEARTS
by
Melanie Munton
Stubborn Hearts
Copyright © 2016 Melanie Munton
All rights reserved
Cover Design by L.J. Anderson at Mayhem Cover Creations
www.mayhemcovercreations.com
eBook Edition
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This is a work of fiction and any similarities to persons, living or dead, or places, actual events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters and names are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Table of Contents
A Note from the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Acknowledgments
About the Author
A Note from the Author
Stubborn Hearts is the first installment in the five-part Timid Souls contemporary novella series. Each of these novellas will be standalone and do not need to be read in sequential order, though this is recommended. The characters in this series were initially introduced in the Possession and Politics trilogy and though it is not necessary to read the trilogy in order to follow the Timid Souls stories, it is highly recommended.
Read more about the rest of the upcoming Timid Souls novellas on
my website!
Check out the Possession and Politics trilogy at the links below:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Parts 1-3
For all of the stubborn hearts out there.
We are a frustrating bunch.
Chapter One
Claire
One year ago
October
Why did I agree to this?
I don’t go on blind dates.
I don’t like not knowing what to expect. Don’t like not being in control. I prefer to choose my own dates and I certainly didn’t need help in finding them. Sure, I hadn’t been on one in forever but that was my decision, my choice. I didn’t have time to date right now and definitely didn’t have the attention span to devote to a relationship.
I blamed Staci, my no-good, sticks-her-nose-in-my-love-life-when-she-shouldn’t, roommate. She was the one who roped me into this and convinced me to go on a group date with her, her boyfriend Kevin, and Kevin’s single friend, whom they insisted I would have a lot in common with.
And if the girl wasn’t my best friend—and if she hadn’t bribed me with unlimited access to her ginormous stash of Sephora makeup that she was usually pretty stingy with—I would have refused swiftly and not so politely.
But instead, I had been enticed by her eye shadow palettes and the prospect of possibly meeting a nice guy. Even if he and I didn’t hit it off, the thought that I could potentially get some decent sex out of the deal—hell, at this point, I would take mediocre sex—had me perusing my closet for one of my best dresses. You know, the type that says I’m up for a fun night but I’m going to stay classy about it, so don’t hit the gas until I give you the green light. It had been a while since I dusted off one of those, or really anything other than the business casual attire that I wore to my graduate classes.
I guess tonight was as good a night as any to pretend that I actually had a social life.
Plus, a few other things probably needed dusting off, just to make sure everything still functioned correctly.
And Staci knew me better than anyone. So, she surely wouldn’t set me up with a jerk. Right?
Maybe tonight wouldn’t be as bad as I feared.
##
I’m never doing this again.
And I’m never talking to Staci again either. How I’d make that work since we lived together, I wasn’t entirely sure but I would figure it out. There was no doubt that she could sense all of this, too, since I kept murdering her over and over again with my eyes from across the table.
Some might call that overkill.
I called it justice.
“I’m sure he’ll be here any second,” Staci said with a nervous expression, not wanting to look back up at me.
She knew the daggers in my gaze were ready to spear her the second her eyes connected with mine.
My “date” was thirty minutes late and hadn’t bothered to call Kevin to let him know that he was running behind. Or that he needed to cancel the date altogether. So there I was, looking like a pathetic idiot who had been stood up while having to endure my best friend and her boyfriend making googly eyes at each other and whispering sweet-nothings into each other’s ears all night.
I couldn’t have been happier that she was in love and seemed to have found a good one. But being the third wheel to their public love fest was the absolute last thing I wanted to be doing on my Friday night. Giving myself a bikini wax would have been more enjoyable.
I snorted sarcastically in response to her comment and downed the rest of my drink, more than ready to pay my tab and get the hell out of there. “Yeah. The lack of effort he’s made to get ahold of Kevin to let him know that he wasn’t standing me up, tells me that he was really looking forward to this date.”
Staci kicked me under the table for the third time since we had arrived at the downtown bar, which was her way of telling me to behave.
“He’s usually not late like this. And he almost always answers his phone,” Kevin said with a puzzled look on his face as he once again typed out a text message on his phone, which I assumed was going to his friend, David. My date.
My absent date.
Figuring that I would quit while I was already behind, I started to stand up and call it a less-than-pleasant night when Kevin all of a sudden announced, “Oh, there he is. He just walked through the door.” He started waving his hand around to get his friend’s attention, so I turned to look in the direction he was facing.
And I had to say that I was impressed.
The guy who waved back at Kevin, sans smile, was around six feet tall with short dark hair and black-framed glasses, which were much more attractive than I would have expected them to be. He was dressed in a clean-cut suit and tie and looked to have a nice, fit body underneath it. Not super muscular but rather a lean, athletic build which was, coincidentally, the exact type I preferred on a man.
Despite the fact that he had rudely showed up late without any notice, I was willing to put sex back on the table based on what I was seeing. And if he had a good enough excuse for his tardine
ss. Things happened, I understood. Everyone deserved a second chance, especially when they elicited such a visceral response from me like this guy was apparently able to do.
David shook Kevin’s hand when he approached the table, but instead of focusing his attention on the woman he was supposed to be meeting—me—his eyes searched the crowd and waved over a waitress when he was finally able to get her attention. He hadn’t looked over at Staci and me once.
Not exactly a great first impression.
And certainly not the type of behavior I was expecting, considering how late he was.
My opinion was further tarnished whenever the waitress told him they were out of the brand of top-shelf liquor he requested and he was pretty blatant about his displeasure over it. He then waved her off with a different drink order and finally turned his attention to the people he was so obviously ignoring.
Kevin had a worried expression on his face and glanced between me and David a few times, looking as uncomfortable as Staci was starting to, as if he didn’t quite know how to handle the situation. Eventually, he cleared his throat and said, “Claire, this is David Edelman. David, this is Staci’s friend, Claire Stevens.”
Forcing a smile, despite my desire to scowl at this guy and leave him without so much as a “how ya doin’,” I extended my hand in greeting. “Nice to meet you.”
He paused for a couple of seconds and finally took my hand, looking less than thrilled to be in my presence. He didn’t even attempt a smile; however, I did notice he wasn’t particularly shy about giving my body a brazen once over after he released my hand. I rolled my eyes and scoffed at his audacity to make me wait on him and then shamelessly check me out before saying a word.
He noticed it, too. And he smirked arrogantly, which only further annoyed me and made my dislike for this guy grow. Regardless of his good looks, which were even better up close. Dammit.
Why did the best looking ones always have to be assholes?
“Pleasure is all mine, Claire,” David said, his voice somewhat mocking as he pronounced my name.
Of course, his voice had to be deep and sexy, too. It couldn’t have been one of those David Beckham voices that didn’t match his looks whatsoever and one that you didn’t necessarily want to hear calling out your name in bed. Nope, it was smooth and husky because my luck was just that awesome.
I didn’t bait him by responding further and he took his seat next to me at the square high-top table. We weren’t close enough that our upper bodies touched, but I could feel his knee brush mine under the table as he propped his feet on his chair. I immediately scooted my legs over and crossed them in the direction facing away from him.
I wasn’t about to play footsie with this smarmy jerk.
I made it a point not to look over at him but I could feel his eyes on me as I shifted my legs underneath the table. He seemed to notice that, too, and I could hear him chuckle under his breath.
I could feel my blood pressure rise. If he was into games and mind tricks, he was going to be severely disappointed when I refused to play.
“So, what is it that you do, Claire?” David asked after the waitress dropped off his drink and left with our food orders.
Staci had told me next to nothing about my date, claiming that she’d only met him once but couldn’t remember most of it because she’d been drunk. She insisted from how Kevin had described him, though, that he was a good guy. Smart and ambitious, apparently.
I wondered what Kevin had told him about me.
“I’m in graduate school, working for my master’s in event management,” I responded, my voice confident and proud. I had worked hard to get into that program at Georgetown and I was doing well in it.
“Event management?” he asked, not even pretending to disguise his judgmental tone. “What is that, like a party planner?”
My face heated, not in embarrassment but in anger. I was guessing that he knew exactly what event management entailed and he was just trying to antagonize me. Why, I had no idea. But it was taking everything in me to keep from grabbing my date’s drink and pouring it down the front of his designer suit.
“It’s actually the organizing of a variety of executive events. We also develop creative, technical, and logistical marketing strategies for companies. There’s a lot more involved than simply planning parties and ordering people around, Mr. Edelman.”
I had no clue why I decided to not use his first name. But using anything other than his last name seemed too personal, and in no way did I want to get personal with this guy.
His mouth broke into an amused grin and he took a sip of his drink, keeping his eyes locked on mine as he brought the glass to his lips and swallowed the liquid slowly, drawing my attention to his throat where his Adam’s apple bobbed with the action. I knew he was deliberately doing it slowly, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his strong jaw as it worked and flexed.
I eventually tore my gaze away and focused on my own drink. I couldn’t believe that I had just ogled his throat. He’s going to either think that I’m a complete freak who has a kinky fetish for men’s necks. Or worse, he’ll think that I’m sex-starved and easy and would fall to my knees for him with a snap of his fingers.
No way in hell was that ever happening.
His ego clearly didn’t need that kind of boost.
“Well, forgive me, Miss Stevens,” he retorted with that cocky smirk still plastered on his face. “But I bet you’re really good at giving orders.”
His voice had lowered when he said it, the sexual innuendo coming out loud and clear. I wasn’t a prude and I normally had no problem with a little double entendre with my meal. But David was intentionally being an ass about it. And since he had already started the night on the wrong foot, his double meanings were not having the desired effect on me whatsoever.
Unless he was saying them solely to piss me off, in which case he was doing a beautiful job.
Staci and Kevin were fidgeting on the other side of the table, looking increasingly uneasy with the tension on mine and David’s side and worried about the direction the night was going.
They should be. It was their fault, after all.
Why in the world would they think that I would hit it off, let alone even get along, with this prick?
But for my friend’s sake, because I loved her so much and because I knew she loved Kevin so much, I tried to repair some of the damage and act amiable toward my date.
“What do you do?” I said it through clenched teeth but I think I played it off in a non-angry tone.
David leaned forward with his elbows on the table and watched me for a few seconds with a curious look in his eyes that made me squirm in my seat, however hard I tried not to. He could be intense when he wanted to be with those eyes. Thankfully, he played along with my attempts to play nice.
“I work at City Hall, in the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions office.”
“You’re a politician?” I asked, my disgust evident. So much for playing nice.
I hated politics. Living in the nation’s capital, I couldn’t really escape it and I had no interest in that world. Granted, I realized that going into event management meant that I would most likely be planning political events in the future if I stayed in D.C.
If I stayed in D.C.
I wasn’t yet sure of my plans after I graduated. I decided I would cross that bridge when I came to it.
David’s jaw hardened at my question. I guess he hadn’t liked my tone. See how it feels, buddy? “I work for politicians. Why? Does that bother you, sweetheart?”
I was sure steam was coming out of my ears. That grin was back on his face and I was finding it so hard to not reach over and smack it off. Partly because his arrogance was so frustrating and partly because it pissed me off to no end how even more attractive that grin made him look.
I shrugged, forcing nonchalance because I really didn’t want him to know how much he was getting to me. “Not really. I just don’t associate myself with politics or th
at world, in any way,” I said pointedly, staring him down and making it quite clear that there would be no more associating myself with him beyond tonight.
His eyes narrowed, searching my own as if assessing me. It was like he was trying to determine the type of challenge I presented and if I was worth pursuing or not.
I could give him the answer right now.
No.
I didn’t deal well with assholes like him.
I caught Staci’s eyes across the table when the guys became distracted by something on the televisions hanging on the walls. She mouthed I’m sorry. I flashed her a silent message that said you’d better be and was already planning to demand that she could repay me by doing my laundry for the next two months.
It seemed like a fair trade-off if I was going to endure the rest of the night with David, The Douchebag, Edelman.
The night really didn’t improve after that. I kept my caustic remarks to a minimum for Kevin’s sake more than anyone else’s because he genuinely looked annoyed with his friend and apologetic to me. And David’s behavior hadn’t become any more civil. He was arrogant, snarky, and was purposely insinuating sexual undertones into almost everything he directed at me.
I really didn’t understand his deal. Whether he was always like this, or if I was just the lucky lady to have caught him on such a bad day. Either way, his chance with me had died the moment he opened his mouth, even though it was a mouth that I wouldn’t mind having on mine and perhaps even on other parts of me. It was such a shame that he was so gorgeous, yet had the personality of the most spectacular shmuck alive.
I was sure that if he could just keep from talking, he could do fantastic things with that body in bed. And I would most assuredly enjoy them all.
As long as he didn’t speak.
Wishful thinking.
Stubborn Hearts (Timid Souls #1) Page 1