Melissa hesitated just a fraction before she answered.
“No. He has a play date with a classmate after school and will be staying there for supper. They’re going to bring him home about seven.”
Crow bit back a wolfish grin.
Perfect.
“You ready?”
He put a casual hand on the small of Melissa's back and led her across the driveway to his house. Crow felt her tense through the soft sweater, but after a moment she began to relax and accept the familiarity. When he pressed a little harder to guide her around a small puddle, Crow felt Melissa move in the direction he steered her in, and smiled inwardly. As they crossed the threshold into his house, he wondered what she would think of the changes he had made. Then Crow realized that Melissa had never been inside and he found that he liked the idea that the only version of the house she would see was this one.
And this house was all his.
“Watch your step,” he grabbed her hand and pulled her just a little too hard over the pile of lumber sitting in the middle of the floor. Melissa stumbled hard against him and his hands fell on the sides of her soft breasts before she righted herself. She blushed furiously. “You did that on purpose.”
“Of course I did. You looked like you were going to fall and I caught you. You’re welcome.” Crow gave her a lazy, dangerous smile.
“And you couldn’t do that without copping a feel? You just cannot stop yourself even for one day from …oh, never mind!”
She huffed and turned to go.
Crow reached for her, but pulled her back more gently this time. When he felt a shiver go through her, he knew. There was no getting around it. Whether she wanted it to happen or not, Melissa definitely got off when Crow touched her.
But he knew she was not ready to admit that to herself…yet.
Disappointment showed sharply in Melissa’s face when she looked at him. Before she closed up again.
Shit.
It was obvious to Crow that Melissa had been looking forward to the day ahead. And she had made an effort. The hair and the makeup and the new outfit did not escape his notice. His dick was leading him on that same merry chase. Again. And now the hard-won truce between them was almost broken.
“Okay, you’re right. I promise to cut out the copping a feel shit.” He winked at her.
Melissa looked uncertain and shook her head at him. She turned to leave, but just then the sun broke through a cloud, creating a kaleidoscope of color on the wall in front of her.
“Oh! Look at that. Where is it coming from?” Awe filled her voice.
“The sun is catching off the leaded glass. I put in some new panes, so when the light hits it at the right angle it does that.” Crow’s voice filled with pride
“You thought of that? It’s such a beautiful effect. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I used to wonder what it looked like in here—peeking through the windows doesn’t show you much.”
“Come here. I drew up some new blueprints,” he said to take advantage of her momentary distraction.
“You know how to do that?” Melissa hesitated, but moved towards him.
“Yeah. Turns out I'm not just a pretty face,” Crow grinned. He got busy unrolling the blueprints.
“Wow. Impressive! I mean they look complicated, intricate, but I don’t really know what I’m looking at,” she said with honesty.
Crow's broad hand moved over the blueprint and smoothed out the wrinkles. He explained his vision for the house and how the walls he had taken down would give it more natural light and lots of open space. As Melissa listened carefully and asked thoughtful questions, for a while all the tension between them disappeared and they became just two people talking.
“So what do you think?” Crow asked finally.
Melissa hesitated and leaned forward one more time to peruse the plans, then stepped back and looked around.
“I like it. I especially love the openness of it—how one area leads into another,” she said. Then Melissa took a step back and surprised Crow by giving one more observation. “I like that there are no dark corners. No walls separating one life from another.”
Crow turned to look at Melissa then. She was so goddamn pretty standing there. The rays of filtered sunlight set fire to the honey-colored streaks in her hair and her eyes lit up with traces of amber and gold.
She smelled damn good too.
They had been shoulder to shoulder for the past twenty minutes and in that time he had found it harder and harder to focus. He felt that familiar tightening in his crotch and thanked God that the table hid his reaction to her from view.
Because so far… so fucking good.
Crow grabbed the keys to the Harley and two helmets. When they got to the bike, Crow began to give Melissa some rudimentary rules on passenger safety. He almost choked on his own spit when she put up her hand in a halt motion, reached for the helmet and said, “I got this.”
And she did.
Crow took it easy on the road, but found himself surprised by the way Melissa instinctively seemed to shift and lean in. When she put her arms around him and pressed herself against his back, she hung on just tight enough. Not the frantic tight clutch of a new rider and not the flirtatious I got my tits plastered across your back grip either. Her being behind him felt comfortable and right. Because he could never ever leave well enough alone where she was concerned, he took some unnecessarily sharp corners just to rattle her a little. When Melissa loosened her grip on Crow's waist just long enough to give him a small punch to the gut, he smiled inwardly.
The girl had some balls.
Not much surprised Crow about people anymore, yet Melissa seemed to be revealing a little more of herself with every small encounter. Every so often the wind would send the scent of something subtle and flowery his way and when it did he rode just a little harder causing his passenger to tighten her arms around him. It was a perfect day for riding and eventually he felt Melissa's body take in a deep breath and relax behind him. When he caught her face in his mirror, there was a shine in her eyes that he hadn't remembered seeing before.
He had put that look on her face.
With great reluctance, Crow pulled into the parking lot. Last thing he felt like doing was being cooped up for even a minute on a day like today picking materials. When he turned to Melissa and saw the windblown hair, the light in her eyes and the pink in her cheeks, he decided that this was going to be one quick damn shopping trip.
“Crow? That was really fun. Thanks.” Melissa’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“You’ve ridden before.” Crow observed.
“Yeah. My dad and grandpa have bikes. My dad's a Harley guy. But my grandpa is a die-hard Indian man. Family legend has it that my great-great grandpa placed in the Isle of Man competition in 1911 with the bike my grandpa has crated up in his barn. My dad says it's all bullshit, but my grandpa swears it's true.”
“How about you?” he asked.
“Me?” Melissa unhooked the helmet strap.
“Harley or Indian?”
She lifted the helmet off her head, shook out her hair and handed it to him.
“I don’t know. I never really thought about it. Being from Massachusetts, I have an allegiance to the whole Indian thing. Hard to argue with a ride like this, though.” Melissa ran her hand over the sleek leather seat of Crow’s bike.
Crow smiled slightly and led them inside.
The warehouse was a huge place. It actually consisted of two large separate sections. Home improvement and furnishings. He guided her to the paint section and Melissa seemed surprised when Crow had her pick out some new paint for the living room and bedrooms and flooring for the kitchen. Once given the chance to voice them, Melissa had some pretty strong opinions about colors and wood grain and quality vs. cost.
And… everything else.
Crow found again that he enjoyed himself. He liked the animated way Melissa used her hands when trying to make a point and the way she tilted her head wh
en something caught her attention. He liked drawing her out. He almost lost it when she looked at the receipt before they left the counter and told the clerk that he forgot to waive the delivery fee as advertised.
Melissa was still lecturing Crow about being more careful to check his receipt when he steered her to the furniture section of the store.
“What are we doing here?” Melissa asked him.
“I need some stuff in the house. Mattress, table, place to sit. You know shit like that.” Crow answered without looking up from the pamphlet he had in his hand.
Melissa hesitated. Helping pick out a couple of gallons of a paint and wood grain was one thing. But helping him choose furnishings was another matter. It seemed too intimate.
“Okay. Where would you like to start?” Melissa asked, quelling her concern for the moment.
“Where I always like to start…in the bedroom.” Crow’s eyes twinkled a challenge.
“Really? The bedroom huh? I took you as more of a kitchen floor or dining room table kind of guy.”
“Wise ass,” Crow muttered and led her off towards the bedding section.
Melissa hid a grin and went along with him willingly. In the last few hours, to her surprise, she had discovered that she really liked being around him. Melissa got the severe badass biker vibe that Crow had going on, but sometimes he couldn’t hide the slight look of shock that crossed his face when she messed with him. She found that she got a perverse sense of enjoyment out of that particular look.
Now Melissa had to double her steps to keep up with Crow's long strides until they got to the bedding section. Then she put her hands on her hips and looked at the vast array of mattress choices lining the showroom.
“King, queen or full?” She adopted a businesslike tone.
“King.”
“Firm or soft?” She reached down and bounced her hand into the mattress.
“Guess.” Crow lifted a brow at her.
Melissa let her eyes trail slowly over him stopping pointedly at his crotch.
“Soft.” she answered with dancing eyes.
“Guess again,” Crow growled.
Melissa let out a small laugh as he huffed and pulled her along with him.
Together they navigated the bedroom section, but Melissa held back and would voice no opinion on Crow's choice of furnishings. He didn't press her about it, though, and when the sales person came over he asked no questions just pointed and grunted at what he wanted. He chose a high-end king size mattress, a dark hardwood platform bed and a heavy triple dresser to match.
Crow moved purposefully over to the kitchen furniture. Instead of chairs he chose two long benches to go with a table. When he added a leather couch to the order, Melissa felt sure that the older woman who was writing up the bill and mentally calculating her commission almost had an orgasm on the spot.
Then Crow surprised Melissa by heading off towards the children’s furnishing section.
He stood in the archway looking around. It never occurred to her that Crow and his ex might have a child together. Melissa realized then that she really knew nothing much about him. She had never taken the time to consider his marriage to Jaci.
“You have children?” Melissa blushed at the way her voice had cracked over the word children.
Crow didn’t answer right away. Melissa felt the heat rise to her face and redden her ears.
“Why do you sound so surprised?” He didn't look at her, but continued to peruse the room.
Melissa was taken aback. What could she say? That the man he was and the woman she had met in Patrick Murphy’s office looked about as far as you could get from a match made in heaven? Should she also add that the thought of Crow and Jaci making a baby together made her feel sick for reasons that she really didn’t want to explore? And then there was the whole opposites-attract thing.
Jaci hadn’t even wanted to shake Melissa’s middle-class hand, yet she had married a member of the Hells Saints MC. How could that make for a healthy home environment to raise a child in? Jaci and Crow were both beautiful, though. There was that. Beautiful, compelling and alluring in a way Melissa could never hope to be…
Crow cleared his throat.
“Do I sound surprised? I guess I just don’t…” Her voice trailed off.
“Don’t what? Think I’m the father type?” Crow finished for her with a hint of anger in his voice.
“No,” Melissa said.
“No?” Crow snorted and his eyes darkened.
“I mean no, that’s not it. That’s not what I was thinking. I was going to say that I don’t remember you mentioning children.”
Liar, she said to herself.
Then because Crow honestly seemed bothered by the conversation she added, “You’ve been so great with Jett. It's not a stretch at all to think of you with a child of your own. It's just that I would have thought you would have said something by now… if you had one, that's all.”
Crow ran his hand through his hair and visibly relaxed.
“Well, I don’t, but you do. Pick out something for Jett.”
“What?” Melissa wasn’t sure she heard him right.
“Pick out something for Jett’s room.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Why not? The cottage was supposed to come furnished. Based on the shit you have in there now, I guess that didn't happen.”
Melissa reddened with embarrassment for the second time in the conversation. Granted there were no leather couches or long beautiful rustic tables, but she thought she had done okay.
“It did. I mean, it came with a few things, but I had to throw them out. They were musty. I can't have Jett around that kind of stuff.” She picked up most of her current furniture at yard sales.
“Pick out some things today and I’ll take care of it. Forget next month’s rent too.” Crow nodded in the direction of the furniture.
“You know I won’t agree to that,” Melissa told him.
“Yeah, I know. That's why I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. The contract says furnished house. You got shit for that. A couple of musty old couches and mattresses that you had to toss. I know you had to pay to have that shit taken away. Now your son is sleeping on what I guess is a budget mattress and God only knows what else you dug up to throw in that room. I'm making good on the lease, that’s all.”
“I did my best with what I had at the time, Crow.” She hoped the humiliation didn’t show on her face.
“I’m not saying you didn’t. I’m saying that you got the shaft and I’m trying to make it right.” Crow turned his attention fully on her now.
Melissa thought for a minute. He was right. If Crow were willing to stand by the lease and do better for her in his role of new landlord, then she would be a fool not to let him.
Melissa gave in. “Okay, you do have a point. And I think it’s important that Jett has a nice mattress. If you want to spring for that, I‘d appreciate it. And maybe a chest for his clothes or a desk. Either one is fine. I see a clearance sign in the back...”
“We are not getting clearance shit from the back.” Crow growled at the insult.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the nicer furniture in the front showroom. When Melissa hesitated and hemmed and hawed, carefully comparing prices and searching for the best value, Crow finally ran out of patience and took matters into his own hands. He picked out a high-end twin mattress and box spring set. At that, Melissa crossed her arms in front of her, remaining stubbornly resistant to the idea of spending more of his money. Crow took his revenge by purchasing a child-sized desk, a mirrored dresser and a bed frame that had drawers of storage on the bottom perfect for holding the gathered treasures of a little boy.
At the thought of how excited Jett was going to be, Melissa’s heart swelled and she quickly let go of her snit. But still she really didn’t know what to say or how to thank Crow and her awkward attempts at expressing her gratitude were met with scowls from Crow. So she just smiled at the saleswoman as she ru
ng up the additional purchases.
When they were all done, Melissa glanced at the wall clock. It was early afternoon. The day stretched long before her. She let out a small sigh. She hadn't realized until now what a prison the house had become. Not yet. She did not want to go back yet.
“Ready?” Crow asked her.
“Can we take the long way home?” she surprised him by asking.
“We aren’t going home,” he said looking pleased with himself.
“We aren’t going home?” Melissa echoed.
“Thought we’d head up the coast for a while. Maybe catch some lunch? You good with that?” Crow asked.
Like he’d read her mind. Melissa nodded.
The rain had held out, but the sky was still cloudy and it had turned a bit cooler. The fresh, clean scent of warm rain lingered and mixed with the salty sea air. As they drove along the interstate Melissa let herself be taken away by the thrust of six hundred pounds of raw power and chrome rumbling beneath her.
It seemed like only minutes before they left the busy highway for the much narrower coastal country route. The sound of the engine roared in her ears and coupled with the misty spray of the ocean as it pounded up and over the close sea wall. The sights and sounds of the ride held Melissa captive in a way nothing had in a long time. The route had only two lanes, which made riding tricky on a tight curve. Melissa had to shift her weight, hold Crow close and lean in hard. With every balanced move, Melissa felt a kind of freedom that she had all but forgotten existed. Her life was in another person's hands and instead of feeling a crippling fear at the thought of that loss of control she reveled in it.
On one particular tight curve something happened. Melissa felt her last bit of fear join the outgoing tide. In its place the seeds of growing trust sprouted and blossomed. For the first time in a very, very long time Melissa felt safe and protected in the hands of someone else.
Taming Crow (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) Page 9