by KB Winters
“When you’re ready, I’ll be happy to share.”
She cocked her head to the side and gave me a small smile. Then she did the craziest thing, she doubled over with laughter. Her little body shook, and the husky laugh echoed in Magnus’ cavernous living room. “You know, Mick, I think I will.” She looked around the place again, and I wondered what she saw. An aging home with mismatched furniture? Or did she just see a home? “I didn’t intend for you to help me unload my stuff, but I appreciate the help. Can I buy you dinner as thanks? Wait, is there a place to eat this late in a small town?”
“Did you just offer to buy me dinner?” I scraped my hands over my beard and shook my head. Not once in my life had a woman bought me a meal or a drink. Other than my mother, of course.
Talon froze, mouth open in shock. “Shit, sorry. You have a girlfriend who’d have a problem with it. No problem, just point me toward the food, and maybe I’ll just send you a six pack instead.” Shaking her head and mumbling to herself, she walked to the kitchen and began typing into her phone. “At least he’s faithful,” she muttered to herself.
“Talon?”
She jumped at the sound of my voice and whirled around. “Yeah?”
“What are you doing?”
“Creating a shopping list, why?”
“I thought you were buying dinner, or was that just a line?” I wondered if she had as much fight in her as I thought she did.
“I thought…but you said?” She stumbled over her words, tilting her head as she looked at me. She looked confused, but that look faded really quick. “Yes, I’m buying dinner.” She straightened and shot me a sweet Midwestern smile then disappeared down the hall. When she returned, she wore a prim little cotton dress that should have turned me off, but damn if I didn’t feel my cock harden behind my zipper. “You don’t have a girlfriend, right? Because I don’t want to start any crap in a new town.”
“Completely and totally single. You interested?”
“I might be. Haven’t decided yet. Ready?” She winked.
Damn she was feisty. “Always.” I grabbed the helmet Magnus kept by the door and watched as Talon locked up. “Put this on.”
“But I have my car.”
“It’ll still be here when we get back. Unless you’re scared of a motorcycle,” I teased.
Just as I suspected, she snatched the helmet and put it on. “I’m not scared, but what if I were?”
“Then we’d be taking your car.” A slow smile spread on her lips as she followed me out to my bike.
“A little help?” She motioned to the bike, and I slid on first.
“Push off me and swing your leg around. And don’t forget, Talon, hold on tight.”
***
Talon
Sweet hot damn! I’d never been on a motorcycle before, but the ride was exhilarating. Thrilling. My whole body hummed, probably from all the vibrations between my legs, but maybe it had a bit to do with the tall, bearded redhead I had been wrapped around for the past fifteen minutes. “That was amazing!”
He grinned back at me in that sexy, kind of restrained way that screamed trouble. The best kind of trouble, but trouble nonetheless. Mick was tall—at least six feet four by my estimate—wide and tattooed. I should have been terrified. But I’d seen how sweet he could be, and that left me intrigued. “First time on a bike?”
“Did that classy dismount give away my secret?” I didn’t know how laughing had come so easily given everything that had happened lately, but maybe the weeks I took driving across the country were more therapeutic than I realized. “Oh!” My legs wobbled and I nearly fell flat on my face, but Mick’s strong arms wrapped around my waist and caught me. “Thank you. Nice arms.”
He did that quirk of his lips that almost appeared to be a smile, but not quite. The man had hidden depths, that much was for sure. “Don’t know really, too busy checking out your legs.” Without another word, he guided me into the diner where apparently, everyone knew his name because we were met with cries of, “Mick!”
“Popular guy,” I muttered, wondering if I had another player on my hands. I really hoped not because this man’s presence did things to my body that no man had in real life, never mind actual proximity. Not that I had a string of lovers in my past, just Damon and the cliché I lost my virginity to at prom, but until meeting Mick, I would have said that I wasn’t a very sexual person.
He guided me to a booth in the back, his big hand splayed across my lower back. “This is a small town, darlin’, everyone’s popular by default. You plan on sticking around Brently?”
“That’s the plan so far. I guess it depends on how things turn out.” Though I’d left Chicago pretty much in a hurry, I had a few weeks of driving across the country and talking to myself to really think about my options, and I’d decided to give Brently a fair shot. “This town is kind of small for an all-night diner, isn’t it?” I asked as I scooted into the booth.
“Not all night, just open until midnight then reopens at four in time for the truckers to eat and get back on the road.”
I sat back and took a moment to really soak him in. Fiery red hair in a short spiky style that should have made him seem less intimidating and a close-cropped beard that he obviously took great care of covered a full set of pink lips and if I had to guess, also a razor-sharp jaw. His eyes seemed bluer because of the red hair and when he looked at me, they smoldered. “Makes sense.”
The silence that settled over us was broken by a busty blonde in tight jeans and a pink t-shirt with the words BLACK BETTY scrolled across the chest in large gothic letters. “Hiya, Mick.” She leaned over so her tits were just inches from his face, a salacious grin on her red painted mouth. “What can I getcha?”
“Janine. I’ll have a Guinness. What do you want, Talon?”
Damn, he’d just straight up ignored what she so clearly offered. I wondered if it was for my benefit or if he really had no interest in her. “I’ll have the same. And a burger, medium rare and sweet potato fries.”
Mick flashed a grin and then looked up at Janine. “Make it two.” He’d been about to say something, but we were interrupted once again by an older woman with salt and pepper hair and an all-black ensemble. “Hey, Charlie, come and meet Magnus’ daughter, Talon.”
I looked at Charlie and knew her instantly. “Charlene?” I whispered. “My dad mentioned you in the letters he left for me. He loved you so much.” So much I wondered if I’d ever find someone to love me like that.
Charlie’s dark green eyes misted over, and she put a hand to her chest. “I love that old fool, too. He was stubborn and bossy, but the man had the biggest heart of any man I ever came across.” She surprised me with a tight hug. “It’s nice to meet you, Talon. Once you get settled, come on back and I’ll run you through everything.”
My confusion must have shown on my face because Mick jumped in. “You own this place, along with the house and the land.”
My eyes went round with surprise. I thought he’d left me a small café that sold sandwiches and chips, not all of this. “But what about Charlie? This has to be a mistake, he couldn’t have left everything to me if he was the good man everyone says he was.”
Charlie’s warm hand fell to my shoulder. “You sure are a sweet one.” She gently cupped one side of my face. “Don’t worry, Magnus made sure to take care of me. That’s just the kind of man he was.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. I got my own house and a small plot of land. He gave it to me years ago, to make sure I was always taken care of.”
Charlie’s words finally broke the dam I’d erected around my heart and my emotions since finding Damon plowing into Abby on my kitchen table. I didn’t cry after kicking him out, or when I sold everything in the apartment for two grand. I didn’t cry as I packed up my little red SUV and said goodbye to Chicago. I wanted to cry because I’d been left all alone in the world sooner than I should have been. Wanted to cry for the man I never got to know. But somehow Charlie’s
softly spoken words were what made me crack. Why, Mom? I just wanted to know why she had lied to me my whole life. Why she’d taken that relationship from me, that love. I turned toward the wall when she walked off, using a napkin to dry my tears.
Finally under control, I took several long pulls from my beer as the busty Janine set our plates down. “Thanks.”
She ignored me and kept her gaze trained on Mick, who acted like she wasn’t even there. He raised his beer and said, “Don’t be shy, sugar, dig in.”
And in six words, Mick made me forget my grief as my body surged to life at that slow molasses drawl.
Yep, he was gonna be trouble with a capital T.
* * * *
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Acknowledgements
Thank you! I love you all and thank you for making my books a success!! I appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks to all of my beta readers, street teamers, ARC readers and Facebook fans. Y’all are THE BEST!
And a huge very special thanks to my wonderful PA, Silla. Without you, I’d be a *hot mess! I’m still a hot mess, but without your keen sense of organization and skills, I’d be a burny fiery inferno of hot mess!! Thank you!
And a very special thanks to my editor, Tina Rucci (who sometimes has to work all through the night! *See HOT MESS above!) Thank you for making my words make sense.
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
About The Author
KB Winters has an addiction to caffeine, tattoos and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are…well…bossier!
Living in sunny Southern California, the embarrassingly hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!
You can connect with KB on Facebook and Twitter!
Or stop by her website at KBWinters.com!