by Marie Hall
I knew I was snarling and it wasn’t his fault. But I wasn’t in the mood for guys and their stupid games right now. “Sorry.” I sighed. “Look, give me about fifteen minutes, okay?”
I didn’t give him a chance to approve; I just turned and walked out the back of the shop. The moment I was clear, I plopped down onto an overturned crate and dug my cell out of my pocket.
No missed calls.
What the hell? Nibbling on the corner of my nail, I shook my head. Still no call. My dad was an ass for what he’d done, but that Alex was giving me the cold shoulder about it stung.
The door opened and Tor’s joined me, his massive frame taking up most of the space. “Wassup, gorgeous?” he asked in his delicious throaty accent.
Dressed in scruffy jeans and a dark gray silk shirt, Tor looked good today. Real good. His blond hair was in a just-woke-up muss and even his flame-dyed goatee looked manicured.
“Wow, Tor, when did you get hot?” I shoulder-bumped him.
His grin was nothing but teeth. “What, this?” He brushed a wrinkle from his shirt. “This is nothing.”
I wiggled my brow. “Nothing, huh? You look yummy. Who you getting sexy for, Viking?”
Snorting, he gave me a playful shove. “Job interview. Not like that.”
“You’re leaving us?” I didn’t mean to sound so glum about it, but the thought of working here without Tor was majorly depressing.
“No, just getting another job. Anyway,” he said, waving the topic away, “been watching you today. You seem off—what’s happening?”
He dug into his pocket and pulled out a packet of raw nuts. Tor was a major health freak, which made me feel slightly guilty for the greasy cheeseburger I inhaled at lunch, but a girl had to have some vices, right?
Where to start with that loaded question? I didn’t want to blast Alex or our problems around the shop. Much as Alex pissed me off, I cared for him. I enjoyed his company. But I trusted Tor in a way I didn’t trust the others working here.
“My boyfriend. I’m just…” I sighed and then shrugged, giving him a clipped smile.
His blue eyes were full of compassion. It was so weird to me that a dude who didn’t want to get into my pants would actually take the time to sit here and listen to me. Blew my theory about guys and girls being incapable of platonic relationships totally out of the water.
“Is an ass?” he said with a grin.
“Stop.” I swatted his beefy arm. “He’s not an ass.” Shaking my head, I picked at a piece of lint caught in the hem of my skintight blue jeans and opened up. “He’s awesome and sweet and makes me laugh.”
My voice grew happy as I thought about the two of us. There were a lot of fun times mixed in with all the crap, and I didn’t want to forget that. I just wanted to understand what in the hell was going on with him.
“Then what’s the problem?” He popped an almond in his mouth and chewed slowly.
“Problem is my parents did something so incredibly stupid yesterday. I know they did it because they love me, but they forget I’m twenty-one and they don’t need to do that for me anymore.”
My jaw clenched remembering the look of utter devastation that had scrawled across Alex’s face. I can only recall a handful of times over the years that I’d seen him look so… sad. He wasn’t usually like that. To see it, it had taken the breath from my body. I’d thrown the file to the floor after reading the first page, completely incensed and raw with fury at my parents for doing that to him.
We all had skeletons, and yeah, it’d hurt like hell to see him wrapped up in the arms of who knew how many girls. But as much as it’d hurt, it hadn’t been anything new. I’d known all along who Alex was. Whether my parents believed me or not, it didn’t matter. I’d chosen to take a leap of faith with him and there was really only one choice for them. Accept it. Period.
When I’d told my mother that, she’d given me a look of pure disgust, as if I was too stupid to live. Like she’d raised me better than that, and I’d known immediately the thoughts rolling through her perfectly manicured head.
That I was opening myself up to pain by dating a player, that I was stupid enough to believe the lies of a man who was an admitted man-whore. But Alex was different with me. I knew that in my soul. I felt it in the way he looked at me, touched me, and the fact that he wasn’t sleeping with me… For him, that was as good as telling me he loved me. I’d never in my life known Alex to be that way.
He wanted, he took, and he left. But with me, he was still here, and that was what I clung to.
“They dug up his past.” I looked at Tor.
Tor’s face was comical in that moment. His brows shot up toward his forehead and his mouth went slack. “Dug up how exactly?”
Picking up an empty Skittles packet, I wadded it up in my hand. “Like CIA dug up kind of crap.”
Whistling loud and long, he chuckled under his breath, rubbing his knees in a nervous gesture.
“Exactly. And now he hasn’t called. Yesterday, when I dropped him off, he didn’t even look at me.”
“I don’t know him, but I know if someone ever did that to me, I’d want to kill them. The fact that he didn’t says a lot.”
I eyed him hard. I’d never seen Tor lose his temper. In fact he was the most even-keeled person I knew, with Alex coming a close second. The mere fact that the gentle giant said that made me wonder just how Alex was coping. “I’m just afraid he thinks I’m like my crazy parents. I love them, but they’re not really showing their best side, and it worries me because I think I might be…”
“If you say in love, I think I’ll heave chunks.” That was not Tor’s voice.
Startled, I jerked around and spotted Jamie, who was smiling broadly and headed our way from the alley. She looked amazing today. Her blond hair spilled around her shoulders, moving like an ephemeral cloud on the gentle breeze. In her black slacks and pink sleeveless silk top, she looked elegant.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I stood, dusting my butt off.
“It’s my lunch break and I was wondering if you wanted to grab a bite of something.”
Tor cleared his throat. And as he stood, I watched him, noting the way his eyes never swerved from her face, how he literally seemed to drink her in, and words flew out of my head.
He liked her.
How had I missed that all these years?
“Jamie, good to see you.” His grin was effortless and broad and so damn sexy it was a wonder my bra didn’t light on fire. The man was seriously giving off major sexy vibage today with his shoulder-length hair pulled back and all cleaned up, showing the hard, strong lines of his jaw. How in the hell was Jamie immune? She should be a drooling puddle at his feet.
“Hey.” Jamie nodded then turned back to me.
How could my friend not feel the fire? I felt it, and he wasn’t even directing that smolder at me.
“So?” She tapped her foot.
I narrowed my eyes. “Where’s Angel?”
“I could give a crap.” Tossing her hair over her shoulder with an agitated motion, she quirked her brow. “Well?”
“I’ll see you later, Jamie. I need to get back inside.” Tor nodded his head and looked at her for at least a three-count before opening the door and disappearing.
Once he was out of earshot, Jamie’s tense shoulders sagged and her voice warbled just slightly. “I broke up with him, Zo. Like for real, for real this time. I caught him with…” She sniffed and I knew without her even having to say it.
The past few days, her being such a wench… it was all forgotten because I loved her, and that’s what friends did, they let it go.
“Oh, Jamie. Honey.” I pulled her in for a quick hug.
She patted my back and nodded.
“Really? Over, huh?”
Wiping a single quivering tear off her eyelash, she inhaled. “It couldn’t be any more over, and now I feel like such a freaking idiot.”
Right then an idea began to form in my head. “Give me a
second to get my station in order and tell Ryko where I’m headed. I’ll be right back.” I wasn’t hungry at all—I’d eaten my weight in burgers for lunch—but Jamie needed me, and I was going to be there for her.
Maybe I’d even plant a bug in her ear about a certain gorgeous, sweet Viking while I was at it.
She slipped a piece of gum in her mouth and waved me on from where she leaned against the brick wall.
“I’m heading out for lunch,” I called out, not really caring if Ryko heard or not. Candy’s head snapped up, and I could only hope she’d pass the message along, but knowing her, probably not. Thankfully Tor knew I was out.
Grabbing my cell phone, I noticed a missed call and that it was from Alex. Heart jumping into my throat, I listened to the message.
“Zoe, I’m an ass. I know it’s not your fault. I’m sorry. I really want to see you today, I’ve got to do some apartment hunting, but when I’m done later I’d like to meet you at the Rooster. About five? If you can’t make it, I’ll drop by your work.” Lengthy pause. “I miss you, lotus.”
The message clicked off and I hugged the phone to my breast. “Miss you too, cowboy.”
Chapter 14
Alex
Apartment hunting had been a bitch. It wasn’t that nothing was good enough, it was. I could even afford a couple of nice ones without having to search for a roommate, which was something I hadn’t been very interested in pursuing to begin with.
But every time I found a place that could possibly work, it was like my brain just shut down and wouldn’t let me focus on the positives. All I kept thinking about was what a damn pansy-ass I was because the thought of leaving Ryan was like a little bit of torture for me.
Not because I had to have my cousin around to function, but because what if he needed me? Tapping the pub bar, I pulled the stool out and waited for Zoe to show up after her shift.
The bartender was just sliding me a beer when a delicate pair of hands wrapped themselves around my eyes.
“Guess who.” Zoe’s voice, an exotic blend of huskiness and sex kitten, got me every time, and I couldn’t help the smile that inched across my face.
“You made it.”
Kissing my cheek, she slid into the seat next to me and grabbed two menus, handing one to me. “Yeah. God, today sucked ass.”
“Yeah?” I tipped the beer back, inhaling the bitter hint of hops before chugging.
“Chick came in, wanted to get pierced down in her who-ha.” She winked, and I felt my body getting hard. Zoe looked smokin’ today.
Cat-eye makeup and black eye shadow framed her honey eyes; the perpetual red flower was tucked into her jet black hair, which was twisted into some funky cool style; and a navy-and-white-striped jumper showed plenty of leg. I was one lucky bastard.
“Well, I get her all prepped for it and…” She shuddered. “I really wish people would shower sometimes before opening their legs for me… just sayin’. Anyway, second I touch needle to labia, she freaks. I mean freaks. Starts squawking like a chicken on crack, and her boyfriend starts threatening to sue.”
I chuckled. “What? Seriously?”
Her look said it all. “Tor and Ryko had to get all kung-fu chicken on their asses; they were scaring everybody. Needless to say, I didn’t see any new action for at least an hour after that. Helluva day.”
The bartender came back then. I wasn’t really in the mood for food, so I just let her order for both of us.
Turning to me, she smiled again, but her eyes that always seemed to see beyond the mask I wore turned serious.
“So, Cowboy, what’s up? Did you find an apartment today?”
I picked at the paper wrapping on my beer with my thumbnail, feeling suddenly overwhelmed and exhausted.
She grabbed my hand and tucked it into her lap, then petted me like she would a dog. Slow and steady, over and over, and I never wanted her to stop touching me.
Leaning in so that she was whispering in my ear, she said, “It’s okay, babe. I know this is hard. Doc said it would be, right? It’ll happen. No stress.”
I’d told her about seeing a shrink two weeks ago, expecting to see a horrified look on her face when she realized I didn’t have my shit completely together. But she’d only hugged me and then asked me where we should eat dinner.
I didn’t deserve her, and I knew it.
Releasing the beer, I turned my entire body into hers, forcing our knees to touch. “How do you do that?”
She pulled her blood-red lips back into a slow, sensual smile. I don’t think she was even doing it on purpose, but that was Zoe. Everything about her was sexy. Unable to resist touching her even one more second, I tucked a strand of hair behind her head.
“Do what?”
I couldn’t even remember what I’d asked her, because there was only one thought hammering through my skull, and that was that I had to taste her. To hell with what Doc thought. I wasn’t using Zoe; I didn’t think I was capable of doing that to her.
Grabbing her, I pulled her into my lap. She gave a little mewl of surprise but came willingly. Her body went languid in my arms, and when our lips touched it was fireworks all over again. The soul-deep connection I always felt around her pinged loud and clear and drew me in. My body was alive, electrified, and humming.
Her lips tasted like berries and her tongue was sweet as candy. I didn’t care that we were in a crowded pub, that there were catcalls whistling out all around us, because her hands were running the length of my back and my body ached. It craved. She was my drug, and I needed a fix.
So I took and she let me. Zoe gave all of herself to me.
The kiss could have lasted five seconds, or maybe even five minutes, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that once we pulled back, we were both breathing heavily and staring at each other as if it were the first time.
“Alex?” she whispered and I heard the question, but I wasn’t sure what the answer was.
“Zo.” I licked my lips, still tasting her on me.
“Wings are up.” The bartender slid the basket toward us, but I was hungry for more than chicken. Then I remembered the bet I’d lost; I owed her dinner.
I stood and, still staring at her, reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet, then tossed some money onto the counter. “Can you wrap them up to go?”
“Whatever.” The bartender grumbled, taking the chicken back with him.
“Where are we going?”
“You keep telling me I owe you a special date. I don’t cook, but I’m going to take you out on a picnic.”
“Now?” She laughed. “It’s already five thirty. Sun is gonna set soon.”
“Live a little.”
Nodding, she hopped off her stool. “I know the perfect place.”
“I don’t care where. I’ll go wherever you lead.”
“Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep, cowboy.”
“I never do.” I bit my bottom lip, letting the hunger spill into my words and my eyes, and I knew she saw it when her own opened wide and something similar gleamed in their depths.
On the way out we stopped at a deli, ordered two pastramis on rye, and purchased a bottle of red wine. I wished I could get her something as fancy as what she was used to drinking with her parents, but I was a dude making barely more than minimum wage. Fine things just weren’t in the cards for me.
In no time we were on the road. I’d left my truck at the pub and gotten into her Chevy. She was flying down the empty freeway.
“My parents are in Napa for the weekend.”
“No shit?”
She’d said it like it was nothing, and again I was aware of just how lacking I was. No wonder her parents hated me. They probably thought I was a serious step down for their precious only daughter.
“Yeah, I know.” She rolled her eyes. “And before you wig out that you don’t measure up, stop. I’m not with you because of what you can get me. That was never our thing.”
Ouch. I frowned.
She glanced
at me from the corner of her eye. “That’s not what I mean, babe. I mean, if I wanted a rich guy, I’d date someone with the right bloodline from their country club. I never did give a shit about that. I’m with you, Alex, because you’re the one I want. Period.”
Mollified just slightly, I grunted, shifting down in my seat.
“I’m going to take you to the house by the pond.”
“Zoe.” I shook my head, immediately angry thinking about that place.
Glancing at me, her lips thinned. “Alex, I know what happened there and I’m sorry. But I love that place, always have, and I don’t want your memory of it to be tainted because of what my dad did to you. I want to make new memories there. With you. I want you to love it the way I do. Will you come?”
I wanted to say no. God, everything inside me wanted to scream it. I didn’t want to go back to the place where one of the greatest humiliations of my life had happened, but I just couldn’t find it in me to deny her. Not when she was looking at me, all adorable with those big almond eyes and sultry soft smile. “Zoe, you’re killing me.”
But her enormous smile made it worth it.
“Well…” She shrugged. “It’s really mine. They got it for me after high school, and being that I plan to retire and live in it someday, I really want you to love it.” She laughed.
I wanted to join in, but I was still stuck on the fact that her parents had gotten her a house as a graduation gift. My jaw clenched. I knew I shouldn’t let it, but it bugged me that at the rate I was going I’d never be able to even buy her a car, let alone a house. When had I become such a fucking loser?
“C’mon, cowboy.” She patted my knee. “If you don’t want to, we won’t go. I just want to be where you are—location really doesn’t matter.”
I didn’t like to hear my baby doll beg—it made me feel like an ass. It wasn’t her fault I’d dropped out of university to pursue a degree in L.A.Z.Y.
Swallowing my pride, I kissed the knuckle of the hand she’d been patting me with. “It’s fine.”