by Regina Cole
Grabbing a wad of paper towels, I dried off the stem as much as I could. My steps were silent as I moved to the break room door. I glanced back and forth in the lobby, glad that the guys seemed to be tied up in their last-minute tasks for the night.
Hustling to my desk, I breathed a relieved sigh when I’d confirmed that no one had seen me, especially Neill. I wasn’t sure what he’d say about what I was going to do, and I didn’t really want to find out.
The large black sketchbook in my bag would be the perfect size. Clearing off a space on my desk, I laid it open to one of the blank pages near the middle back of the book. I hadn’t done this before, but people were always doing it in stories. It couldn’t be hard, right?
I spread two paper towels over the sketchbook pages and lay the dying magnolia blossom atop them. Biting my lip in concentration, I carefully arranged the petals back to the way they’d been yesterday, when he’d brought it to me. Then, carefully, so slowly, I shut the book and pressed down.
It wouldn’t close all the way. The thick, woody stem wouldn’t squish down far enough.
“Dammit.” I scowled at the book, pressing harder. “What am I doing wrong?”
Neill’s music cut, and I was out of time. My heart thumping erratically, I grabbed the sketchbook and shoved it on the bottom shelf of the bookcase behind my desk, grabbing a thick stack of books from the shelf above and placing them atop it. There. Nobody should notice it.
“God, I’m wiped,” Neill said as he left his studio, clicking off the light. “Good day, though.”
“Yeah, it was,” I said nervously. Relax, girl, come on. You didn’t do anything wrong. Just a little sentimental reminder that he doesn’t need to know about, that’s all. “You guys were slammed.”
“I know.” Neill set his helmet atop the counter. “Sorry we didn’t get much of a chance to go over anything today.”
“It’s no problem.” I pushed to my feet. “I’d better start on the floors.”
Neill crooked a brow at her. “Where’s Rog? It’s his night for the floors.”
“He had to go. I don’t mind.”
“I can help,” Neill said, moving for the maintenance closet at the back of the shop, where a bucket, mop, and cleaner stood waiting. “He shouldn’t dump stuff on you. You’re my apprentice, not his.”
“But I’m everyone’s receptionist, and more than that, he asked and I said yes.” I scooted over and grabbed the mop before Neill could. “It won’t take long just to do the studios. So go ahead, I’m sure you’ve got plans.”
I bent and grabbed the bucket, waiting, hoping he’d say . . .
“I don’t have plans.”
I schooled my expression into polite surprise. “Really? That’s too bad.”
“I could have plans, though.” He took the bucket from me and stepped into the break room to fill it. “If,” he called, “you wanted to grab some dinner?”
I grinned. “I’d love that.”
It took the two of us under a half hour to scrub the floors in the work areas. Frankie waved at us from his car as we exited the shop, his muscle car purring loudly in the alleyway. As our feet crunched the gravel, Neill looked over at me. “Where do you want to go?”
“Whatever’s open and not far. I’ve got to walk, remember?” I lifted a flip-flopped foot with a smile. “No wheels.”
Neill shook his head. “Nothing downtown stays open this late. Here.” He handed me his helmet.
“What’s this for?”
“So you can ride behind me. Come on.” Neill slung a leg over his bike. “It’s safe. I promise.”
I gulped. “Are you sure?” I’d never been on a motorcycle, and as fun as it looked, they seemed to go really fast without much between the riders and the concrete.
“Positive.”
After making sure my bag was around me as securely as possible, I pulled the helmet on. It felt big, like I’d turned into some kind of alien. Neill adjusted the strap when my fingers couldn’t make sense of it, and then somehow I was sitting on the bike behind him, my arms around his waist, my giant head stuck against his back.
“You’ve got to let me breathe, sweetie.” Neill laughed as he adjusted my hands. “Cutting off oxygen there.”
I tried to smile at the endearment, but my ragged heartbeat was taking too much of my attention at the moment. I wasn’t sure if it was anticipation of the motorcycle ride or having my arms wrapped so tightly around Neill. “Sorry.”
And then we were off. Slowly at first, as we exited the lot behind Sinful Skin and turned onto the sleepy street in front of the shop. I was glad he didn’t accelerate too quickly. I could count almost three seconds in between streetlight posts at first. As the machine growled underneath us, the smooth movement of the bike reassured me, and before long, I was watching the world move past us. It was fun, actually, and I caught myself laughing when we took a tight curve at a bit of speed. There weren’t a whole lot of cars downtown at this time of night. The lack of traffic meant Neill could set his own speed. When I laughed aloud, he accelerated, braking a bit when I tightened my arms around him. And when he pulled the bike into the lot of the twenty-four-hour pancake house, I was almost bouncing with excitement.
“Oh my God, no wonder you ride this thing all the time,” I said breathlessly as he helped me off the bike. Which was good, because for some strange reason, my knees were wobbling when my feet hit the pavement. “That was amazing.”
He unfastened the helmet and I shook my hair out to counteract the flattening effects of the headgear, and we walked hand in hand to the small restaurant. There were six or seven cars in the lot, and we passed a laughing group of friends as they stumbled from the door. Probably heading out to the clubs, I thought as Neill held the door open for me.
The decor was burnt orange and yellow, a little bit seventies, but not in a cool, retro way. More in a tired, run-down, but clean sort of way. The hostess, in the restaurant uniform of black pants and white oxford shirt, led us to a small booth at the back of the restaurant. The scents of frying bacon and sweet syrup fired my appetite, and I thanked the hostess as she handed us a couple of plastic-coated menus.
Once Neill and I were alone, I cleared my throat. I needed to say what had been bubbling in my head for a while, and this was as good a time as any. “Thanks for this.”
“It’s not that far of a ride, but you’re welcome,” he said, spinning the saltshaker between his hands.
“No, I didn’t mean bringing me here. I meant, well, everything.” I looked down into my lap. “I’m not sure what I would have done without a job. I really, really needed the money. And more than that, with the apprenticeship, you kind of . . .” I trailed off, trying to keep a tight rein on my emotions.
Fortunately, a waitress interrupted us for our drink orders. But with the way Neill was keeping a tight, serious gaze on me, I was pretty sure I would have to finish that thought for him.
And that was pretty damn scary.
Neill
Hailey seemed to regain her composure while the waitress wrote down our drink order, but I wasn’t about to let her lose that train of thought. Whatever she’d been about to say looked important to her, and I wanted to hear it.
As the waitress left our table, I pegged Hailey with a direct stare. “I kind of what?”
Hailey shook her head, confused, or at least pretending to be. “What?”
“You said that by my offering you this apprenticeship, I kind of . . .” I trailed off, gesturing for her to continue.
She shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable. “You kind of gave me hope. You know, for the future, for my life.” She drew circles on the dark brown laminate tabletop with a nail coated in chipped blue polish.
I sat forward in my seat, not exactly loving the direction of the conversation but determined to see it through. “But you’re in college. You’ll have your degree in a couple of years, you can do anything you want. Why isn’t that giving you hope?”
Hailey smiled grimly
. “I haven’t exactly told you why I needed a job in the first place, have I?”
“You’re a college student with no car. I thought all you kids were broke.”
Hailey snorted. “Don’t talk like you’re some ancient being. You’re only a few years older than me.” She sighed, glancing out the window into the dimly lit parking lot. The girls we had passed in the entryway were hanging out by the back of an Explorer, passing around a bottle in a brown paper bag. “It’s a little more than saving up for a car or textbooks. My parents are splitting up.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t sure how it felt to have parents together. But to judge from the way her beautiful lips were drawn, the situation was clearly painful for her. So I said the only thing I could. “I’m sorry.”
Tears sprang to Hailey’s eyes, but she kept talking matter-of-factly, as if she didn’t notice them. “I kind of expected it. I mean, they always fought. Like, more than most people fight, I think. But it’s more than them getting a divorce.”
A teardrop slid down her cheek, splashing to the tabletop. I reached over and took her hand, not knowing what else to do.
“They kind of used all my college money. So I’m stuck.” She dashed away her tears with the hand that wasn’t holding mine, almost as if she was afraid to let me go. “I can’t go home, because my dad is there, and a lot of this is his fault. My mom has disappeared, cut off her cell, won’t return my emails. I want to finish school, get my degree. They can’t take that away from me, too. But I have to earn the money myself now, and it’s going to be really hard.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but she kept going.
“And when you offered me that apprenticeship, it was like this giant opportunity opening wide right in front of me. Even if I fail, even if I can’t make enough money to get my degree, there’s something else I can do for a career. And knowing that?” Her voice fell into a whisper. “It makes me feel like maybe my life isn’t over after all.”
I grabbed both her hands, pulling them toward me. “You listen to me, Hailey Jakes. Your life is so far from over, it’s in a different time zone. You’re going to do this, I promise. You can get your degree, you can be a kickass tattooist, and I’ll help however I can.”
Her eyes were so wary, so wounded, but the hope lingering in their depths nearly crushed my heart. “You mean that?”
I nodded. “I do.” Sliding out of the booth, I held out my hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
She took it, and together we left the restaurant before our drinks had arrived. I drove her straight to my house, not letting my brain get a thought in edgewise. I couldn’t. If I thought about this, I’d never go through with it.
But I wanted to. And I knew she needed to. And that was good enough for me.
She held me tightly all the way home, her chest against my back as the bike roared beneath us. Through my neighborhood and up my driveway into my small garage. Just like the night before, we walked hand in hand to the door. But this time, once we went inside, I didn’t hesitate.
“Hailey,” I whispered as my lips descended toward hers. She tilted her chin up to me, accepting my kiss eagerly.
It wasn’t sweet this time. It was full of need, of remembered pain and past mistakes, of passion and connection and more, all at the same time. I held her so close, pressing her body tight against mine. She opened her mouth, begging for more, and I deepened the kiss with sweeps of my tongue in her mouth.
I pushed her toward the table by the door, and she went. Propping my hands under her thighs, I lifted, setting her on the table’s surface. Her legs opened and I nestled between them, never stopping kissing her.
Her hands ran over my shoulders, my back, down to my hips, pulling me tighter to her. God, she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her. This was right. This was good. And it would happen tonight.
I ripped my mouth from hers just long enough to swoop down and kiss her neck. Her skin was so soft there, so inviting.
“Neill,” she moaned, tangling both her hands in my hair. “That feels so good.”
“Do you want more?” I asked between kisses to her collarbone.
“Please,” she hissed on a ragged breath.
I didn’t wait. I picked her up and took her straight down the hall to the bed we’d occupied so innocently the night before. Tonight I’d do what I’d wanted to do so badly before. If there was a good reason to wait, I’d managed to bury it so deeply that it didn’t bother me now.
Laying her tenderly on the bedspread, I looked down at her. God, she was beautiful, her knees drawn up slightly, her eyes wide and dazed with lust. Her skin almost glowed in the dim light spilling from the hallway. I pulled my shirt over my head and knelt beside her, running my hand through the chocolate fall of her hair. “You’re so beautiful, Hailey.”
She smiled. “Think so?”
“I do. But I’d like to see more of you.”
She sat up slightly, pulling the shirt over her head. I was almost sad to see it go. Watching her wear my shirt all day had been really nice. But when I saw her underneath, all regret burned away.
“Now I know you’re beautiful.” Looking down at her lacy bra, the demi-cups just covering her nipples, I didn’t think I could get any harder. But when she reached behind her back, releasing the clasp and removing the last covering between her breasts and me, I proved myself wrong.
I lay down over her, gently, slowly, relishing the feel of my naked chest against her breasts. Our kisses were tentative at first as we adjusted to the incredible sensations, but I couldn’t hold back for long. I was too hungry for her. My hands roamed skin I’d only dreamed of seeing, and my mouth soon followed, trailing a line of kisses from her mouth down to her breasts. And when my lips closed over her tight nipple, she gasped aloud.
“Neill,” she moaned, hips writhing beneath me. “Please.”
I knew what she wanted, but I wanted to hear her say it. “Please what?”
“I need more.”
Her jeans were gone in a matter of seconds, and mine quickly followed. She removed her panties herself, the purple bikinis sailing across the room as she knelt before me on the bed. Her eyes were hungry as I removed my boxers, her gaze taking in every inch of me.
“Hailey.” I rested my hands on her shoulders, rubbing down her arms. “I want you to be sure about this.”
“I am,” she said, reaching forward and laying a hand on my belly. I flexed the muscles there reflexively, gratified at her intake of breath. A thought stilled me.
“You’re not a virgin, are you?”
Even though she was naked in front of me, had basically begged me to take her, she blushed at the question. “No, I’m not.”
“Thank God for that,” I said, pressing a quick kiss on her lips. I yanked open the bedside drawer and grabbed a condom, making quick work of putting it on. A moment later, I’d pressed her back on the bed, her breathing heavy and her eyes wide.
“Please, Neill, I want you.”
“I want you, too,” I said before kissing her wildly. Our hands were everywhere, hers on me and mine on her. Every reachable patch of skin was caressed or kissed or both. But when I rose on my hands, ready to enter her, I said it one last time. “If you tell me to stop now, I will.”
She gripped my hips, pulling me forward. “Please don’t stop.”
I slid home, and we both groaned in pleasure. It was so right, feeling her surround me, her legs locked around my waist, her arms around my shoulders, gripping me, encouraging me to move, to take her higher.
So I did.
I moved until her cries were high-pitched, desperate, wanting. And then I reached between us, touching her, sending her crashing into pleasure. And with her body spasming around me, I didn’t hold back.
I called her name, shuddering as my body finally took the release it had been longing for since I’d met her.
Chapter Nineteen
Hailey
A warm arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer. I
snuggled back happily, bare skin on skin. This was magical. This was wonderful. I wasn’t even afraid to open my eyes, because the good dream had been real, and he was pressing kisses on my shoulder.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice a husky growl from sleep.
“Morning,” I said with a smile he couldn’t see. “Did you sleep well?”
“Definitely. You?”
“Mmm-hmm.” I stretched, loving the way he sighed as my body rubbed against his.
“You’d better stop that or we’ll be in bed all day.”
I laughed. “I’ve got today off, but I don’t know that the boss would be so thrilled with you not going in.”
“I’m the boss, I make the rules.” Despite that declaration, Neill sighed and slid out of bed. I watched shamelessly as he moved around the room, picking up our discarded clothes from the night before and grabbing some fresh ones for himself.
I sat up, keeping the sheets tucked beneath my arms. Neill opened his closet door, his bare back toward me, and I drank in the delicious sight of his tattooed nakedness.
Good God, he was gorgeous.
“I need to grab a shower,” Neill said as he turned. “You can go back to sleep if you want.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m awake now. I should head back to school soon. I texted Jackie last night, but I still have lots of homework to catch up on before classes tomorrow.”
“I’ll be back in a few.” When Neill smiled, his expression was almost strained. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but he’d left the room before I got the chance.
I flopped back against the pillows, staring at the white ceiling.
We’d had sex. I’d had sex with Neill Vanderhaven, my boss and the most incredible guy I’d ever met. Would it make things weird between us? I hadn’t thought so at first, but now? My worry went into overdrive as I got out of bed, pulling the silky gray sheets up toward the pillows. What if I’d been bad at it? I hadn’t lied, I wasn’t a virgin, but I hadn’t exactly done it a lot. And it had never felt like that, never been that incredible.