Her eyes narrowed at me and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I’m not staying if all you have to offer me is a quick screw before you run off to join your biker gang.”
“Honey, there’s nothing quick about the way I screw.”
“Oh, God,” the woman next to me sighed. “I think I just creamed my panties.”
The door opened and Eric walked through, sighing heavily when he saw Anna at the table. “I already brought you donuts today. Don’t tell me you needed more.”
“I’m not here for donuts,” she shot back.
“Then what’s that in your hand?”
“A pastry.” Anna narrowed her eyes and I knew she was about to unleash the beast. “It’s a tasty treat that I’m about to shove in your face if you keep talking to me like that.”
“This isn’t the time to come down and gab. I have work orders that need to be dealt with.”
“And I would be at work if your brother hadn’t shown up looking for advice on his pathetic relationship with Ms. Money Pants.”
“Hey,” Sofia said indignantly. “I don’t even have any money.”
“So, she’s here because of you?” Eric asked me.
“She dragged me down here!”
“Because you showed up in tears at the office,” Anna shouted.
“You were crying?” Sofia asked, snorting in laughter.
“I was not crying. I was trying to figure out why a woman would say another man’s name while grinding against my cock.”
“Oh, this is getting good,” Mary Anne said, coming closer to catch the action. “Who’s getting this on film?”
The bell above the door chimed and Corduroy walked in. I sighed and shook my head at the ceiling. This day was just getting worse and worse.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite family, here to cause problems, no doubt.”
“Let’s hope,” Mary Anne grinned. “It’s been a slow week since Sofia came in. She tanked my sales.”
“I told you I had no work experience,” Sofia shot back.
“Honey, you have less than no work experience. I’m not sure you would qualify to sit there and look pretty with the way your face looks.”
“It would look fine if Joe’s brother’s fiancé hadn’t beat me up!”
“Someone beat you up?” another person gasped.
“Yes! And his brother was groping me in his apartment!”
More gasps filled the shop and I ground my teeth together, praying this would stop.
“Which brother?”
“Will,” she answered.
“The gay one?”
“He’s not gay,” I corrected irritatedly. “Charlie is a woman.” I looked for Eric as backup, but he was heading out the door on a phone call. Now I had no one to help me with all this shit.
“So now two of you are after the same woman?” someone else asked.
“These Cortell boys have always been troublemakers,” another whispered loudly. “Remember the one that slept with sisters?”
“And now they’re both going after the same woman, when one of them is dating a man!”
“No!” I shouted. “Will is with Charlie, who is a woman. He was there to help Sofia after Carly and her got in a fight in the thrift store and Carly beat her up.”
“Carly beat her up?” one of the ladies asked, practically salivating.
“Well, in all fairness,” Corduroy interrupted, “Sofia did beat her up with a stiletto.”
“What kind?”
“Jimmy Choo,” Sofia muttered.
“Why couldn’t that have happened in here?” Mary Anne asked. “I could have dealt with an eye being poked out with a pastry or two women rolling around in dough! That would have been exciting!”
“Mary Anne, this is hardly helpful,” I sighed.
“I know. You should think about these things ahead of time. Your lack of planning is hurting my business.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“I think it would be best if we avoided any more fights for the week,” Corduroy said diplomatically. “However, if you wanted to set up a jello pit and have Sofia and Carly work out their frustrations there, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”
I didn’t even think about what I was doing as I stood and slugged Corduroy in the jaw. One minute, he was standing in front of me, and the next, he was flat on his back. That was how I ended up staring at Sofia through the bars of the town jail cell.
Sofia
“This is all your fault,” Joe spat at me.
“My fault? How the hell is this my fault?”
“Because…because it is!”
I watched as he paced his cell, all the while Corduroy had his feet kicked up on the desk, thoroughly enjoying all this. He snorted at Joe’s comment.
“That’s a great reason,” I hissed. “Why the hell would you punch him like that? He’s the sheriff!”
“Acting sheriff,” Joe corrected. “Nobody in this town voted him in,” he sneered.
Corduroy stretched with a big yawn. “Gee, you know, I think I have some very important police business to take care of. This paperwork that I have to process for you is just going to have to wait.”
This couldn’t be happening. I had no leverage here. There was nothing I could say to convince him to let Joe go. I may have influence in Chicago using my family’s name, but that meant nothing here. And I had the feeling that this was about more than just Joe punching him.
I spun around to face Joe and put on my best threatening look. “Apologize.”
He glared right back. “Not a chance in hell.”
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“Because what? What possible reason could you have for not apologizing to him? He was joking around!”
“He was purposely trying to get under my skin.”
“And how could he possibly do that?”
“Oh, this one’s naive,” Corduroy chuckled. “How could I possibly do that, Joe?”
I had a feeling he was taunting Joe, but I had no clue why.
“You’re an asshole,” Joe spat.
“Oops.” Corduroy slid the paperwork off his desk and into the trash basket. “Now, where did that paperwork go that I was supposed to process?”
“It didn’t go anywhere,” I muttered.
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“I said it didn’t go anywhere. Paperwork can’t get up and move around on its own.”
“Ah, so you’re one of those.”
“If you mean a smart person, then yes, that would be me.”
“Feisty. Is she gonna fight your battles for you too, Joe?”
“You know, I’ve never, not once in my life, wanted to punch someone as much as I do right now.”
Corduroy’s eyebrows shot up. “Threatening a police officer?”
“I guess if you feel threatened by a woman wanting to punch you. Although, I would guess that I’m not the first or the last woman to feel that way.”
He stood and walked around his desk, walking right up to me. “Most women don’t want to punch me. They want to kiss me, touch me, see what other…attributes I possess.”
“Sofia, don’t do it,” Joe warned.
Corduroy leaned in close, and whispered, “Care to find out?”
I smacked him across the face so hard that my hand stung. I had never (aside from Joe) had a man speak to me that way, and I wasn’t about to allow it now, town sheriff or not. But he didn’t get upset. Instead, he walked over to the jail cell and opened it up. And just when relief set in that he was setting Joe free, he grabbed my arm and tossed me in the jail cell.
I stumbled against Joe and then spun around to stare at Corduroy. “Why am I in here?”
“Assaulting a police officer. Two in one day. That’s a record for me.”
“I didn’t assault you. I merely made sure that you didn’t put your grimy hands on me.”
“By hitting me.”
“Yes.”
“Ass
ault,” he grinned.
My anger flared and I thought about smacking him again, but Joe stepped in. “Corduroy, you were baiting her. Anyone can see it.”
“Ah, but anyone is not here.”
The cell door slammed shut and he grinned. “Now, you kids have fun in there.”
“This is bullshit,” Joe spat. “Give me a real reason for you locking us up.”
“Hmm, well, I’ll look through the town charter and get back to you on that one.”
He strolled out of the office, leaving us alone in the jail cell. “He left us,” I whispered to myself.
“Of course he did. He’s Corduroy.”
“But…aren’t there rules for leaving prisoners alone? Oh God, is this going to go on my record?” I pressed my hand to my forehead and started pacing the jail cell. “If my parents hear about this, I’m ruined. Nobody will ever marry me!”
“Relax, sweetheart, this isn’t the eighteenth century.”
I turned to him, thrusting my hands on my hips. “Maybe this is funny to you. Maybe you and all your biker friends get arrested all the time, but I don’t. I’ve never been in trouble before in my life, and now I’m a felon!”
“You’re not a felon.”
“Stuck in a jail cell, probably being sent off to wear a jumpsuit!”
“You’re not gonna end up in prison.”
“And I look horrid in orange!”
“Everybody does. You’ll blend in.”
I spun again to face him, my panic reaching a fever pitch. “Do you know what they do to people in prison?”
“Do you?”
“Of course not! That’s why I’m asking! Manual labor is not my thing. They’ll probably make me pick up trash on the side of the road or do laundry!”
“I think they go pretty easy on people in prison now. It’s not like you’re going to have to pave any roads.”
Tears filled my eyes and I bit back a sob. “I don’t want to be someone’s bitch.”
His face crumpled in what I thought was pity, but then he burst out laughing. Rage filled me and I swung at him, completely missing.
“You ass!”
“I’m sorry, but you’re being dramatic, don’t you think? I mean, it’s a town jail cell and you slapped someone. And Corduroy isn’t vindictive enough to send you before a judge.”
“You don’t know that for sure!”
“Yeah, I do. He’s just getting his rocks off and you’re letting him.”
“I don’t know what that means. All I know is that I’m stuck in here with a biker while I do hard time.”
“So, one minute you have your tongue shoved down my throat and the next I’m just some biker.”
“Oh, would you knock it off. This is serious!”
“What’s serious is the fact that you need to chill the fuck out before you give yourself an aneurysm.”
“I’ll chill out when I’m out of here and back to my normal life, where I never get thrown in jail to rot with some guy that only sleeps with women for fun.”
He tilted his head to the side and grinned at me. “Is there another reason to sleep with women that I’m unaware of?”
I glared at him, forcing myself not to respond. He was pressing all my buttons and he knew it.
He walked over to me and raised his hand, slowly trailing it down the side of my face. His eyes were locked on mine in some heated exchange that only he was part of. My chest was heaving and I was panting, but I did my best to disguise it. His hand trailed down my chest until it rested right over my pounding heart.
“You have to calm down, Princess. You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
“Like you did in the woods when you let me freeze through the night?” I shot back.
His lips tilted up slightly. “You seemed to stay pretty warm out there.”
“You know what your problem is?” I snapped. “You think you’re so damn special. You think that if you sweet talk a woman, she’ll just fall at your feet and give you everything. But I’m not one of those women. I have standards. I have-“
His hand was suddenly at the back of my head, gripping my hair tightly as he yanked my head back. “You have no fucking clue how a man should treat a woman,” he said, right before he smashed his lips against mine. I gasped, allowing his tongue to slide inside my mouth. I pressed my hands against his chest, wanting to push him away, needing some space from him. But my head was at war with my body, and the more he kissed me, the more I needed what he was offering.
He took control of me, demanding everything from me. He spun me, pressing me up against the jail cell door, his hand sliding down my body until he was cupping my ass and pulling me against him. When he broke the kiss, his lips slid down my neck, sucking and nibbling on my flesh. I gasped and moaned, panting hard as he played my body. I had never felt such desperation in my life. I needed him to show me all the things he could do to me.
Just as his lips were grazing along the top of my breasts, he broke away, cradling my face in his hands as he kissed me hard again. I forgot about the jail cell and the orange jumpsuits. The only thing that mattered in this moment was Joe and how much I needed him.
But then I remembered how much of a jerk he was being when I was trying to explain my earlier blunder. I pressed my hands against his chest and shoved him back a step. He grinned, like he thought I was playing around and came at me again, but I stepped away from him and held up my hand. “I told you to stop.”
“That’s not what your body was saying.”
I stomped in indignation and turned away from him frustratedly. I hated that he could expose every weakness I had. “You know, you’re an ass.”
“An ass,” he grinned.
“Yes, a low-life…stupid…ass!”
“Does that make you feel better? Do you feel like you’re working out your frustrations by calling me names?”
No, it didn’t make me feel better. I had never resorted to name-calling, but Joe pushed all my buttons. “You call me a princess all the time.”
“Because you act like one.”
“And how is that any different?” I asked, thrusting my hands on my hips. “Don’t you think it hurts my feelings to have you talk to me like that?”
“I don’t know, because you have an iceberg around your heart. You’re always so worried about how things look or how you sound that you never seem too concerned about little things like feelings. How many times have you pointed out that I’m not good enough for you? Or that I’m from a small town and I have nothing?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but snapped it closed.
“Yeah, that’s right, Princess. You think that because I have tattoos and ride a bike that I don’t have feelings? That you can walk all over me and treat me like shit?”
“I never-“
“You damn well did. And here’s the thing, without that fancy name and your daddy’s money, you have nothing. But I earn everything I have. I work hard for what I have. So maybe my life isn’t as luxurious as yours, but it’s all mine. I don’t have to rely on anyone else for what I have, or spread my legs to get what I need.”
I didn’t think. I just swung back and slapped him hard across the face. I knew what I was getting involved with when I agreed to marry Graham, but to have Joe throw it in my face like I was a whore was something completely different. Tears welled in my eyes and I had to quickly blink them back so he didn’t see my composure slipping.
He held his cheek and slowly turned back to me, his eyes searing into mine. “If you have a problem, you talk to me. You don’t fucking hit me.”
“And you don’t ever speak to me like that again. I may have been marrying for a position, but I’m not a whore.”
He nodded and took a step forward. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “I shouldn’t have hit you.”
“Well, if you do, you should at least know how.”
I tilted my head to the side in confusion and h
e grinned at me. “Come on, Princess. Let me show you how to do it right.”
Eric
I walked into the office, always wary that Anna might be ready to throw a donut at me. Over time, that happened less and less, but still, once bitten…Plus, I had just yelled at her not that long ago at the bakery. I was tempting fate by even being here.
“Mrs. Cranston called again.”
I sighed and shut the office door. “Please tell me that you just refused to answer the phone.”
“Sorry, boss. I wish I could, but she pays so well,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
“You know, I would think Kat would have put a stop to this a long time ago. I just don’t get why she allows this old lady to do this.”
“Because she likes the page just as much as the rest of us. And if you really wanted an old lady to stop perving after you, all you have to do is start referring her to another handyman.”
“It’s not that simple. I have to think about my business reputation.”
She snorted. “Yeah, and your reputation is really improving with every photo she takes.” She held out the ticket for repair and I snatched it out of her hand with a glare.
“Another leaky pipe? Can you just start coming up with real work at her house so she’ll stop sabotaging the work I’ve already done?”
“I thought about that already,” she grinned. “So, here’s a list of work that needs to be done. I figured that you could point out a few things on the list so that you could bring in real work.”
I looked over the list and frowned. “Where did you get this?”
“Well, I went over to visit one day, since you know what a great employee I am, and I brought R.J. over with me so he could take a peek around while I kept old lady Cranston busy. I figured it was time to put you out of your misery.”
I glanced up at her, confused by her motivation. “You did this for me?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. You are going to be my brother one day.”
He grinned. “Does that mean that you and Robert are getting married?”
She narrowed her eyes and stood suddenly. “I said that in confidence. Don’t you dare go putting ideas in his head.”
Priceless Ink: A Small Town Romance Page 13