Purple Rain (The Rain Series Book 2)

by TJWEST

  “Seriously, Sandy! Who does that and why? It’s like a slutty novel coming to life.”

  “What? A slutty novel? Please stop right there.” I groaned

  Peta chuckled. “Okay, no more slutty novel talk. Go home. Have a glass of wine and relax. You’ll figure things out this weekend. Call me!”

  “Yeah. Sounds good. Talk later.” I clicked off and started my car.

  I thought about that kiss all the way home. I kept touching my lips, reminiscing the feel of his strong, but soft lips on mine. What came over him? I seriously thought this dude totally hated me. I’ve known him, what, two days and this happens? All night I felt his eyes burning into me. It was like he held this power over me and it was infuriating, but at the same time I was drawn to him. I pretended that he wasn’t affecting me just so he wouldn’t take notice that I was attracted to him. He really was an asshole, yet there was something about him that I couldn’t get over. His eyes, and the way he looked at me. Now, I couldn’t get over the kiss. I was in deep shit and I had no idea how I was going to get myself out of it.

  Getting to be with Joey for two days was bliss. We had the chance to spend some much needed time together. I took him to Seaworld on Saturday. He was thrilled when I told him what I had planned. Even though the day trip was a pricey one, just seeing Joey’s face light up was worth every penny spent. On Sunday we stayed home and watched movies all day - it was a perfect weekend. Quinn came to my mind every so often, but Joey was a great distraction. He is what matters most to me. That helped make Quinn take a backseat, but I knew things were going to go back to being strained and awkward on Monday - I was dreading it.

  Peta texted me every so often, during the weekend, to give me highlights on “Wolf.” I told her I didn’t want to know anything, but she couldn’t help herself. He mostly stayed cooped up in his office, but other than that she never saw him come or leave.

  I thought I would have to deal with Quinn on Monday, but I never saw him. He wasn’t around by the time I showed up, which was at five at night. I was sort of relieved he wasn’t there, but then I wanted to see him and get our little - whatever it was we did - thing over with. The end of the week came and went and still no sign of Quinn. He was avoiding me. I just knew it. He must be leaving before I come in for my shift and that was pissing me off. I decided to turn the tables and come in earlier on Friday evening.

  After I picked up Joey from school I went into work. Quinn’s motorcycle was still in the parking lot. Good - he had no idea I was showing up early. There was no doubt he was in the office. I knocked on the door, and he said “Yeah,” In a tone that clearly said he didn’t want to be bothered. I opened the door, but he didn’t look up. He was too focused on whatever he was reading. I cleared my throat to get his attention; his eyes met mine and I wanted to melt right there. I saw a look on his face that I hadn’t seen before. It was a look of surprise, but immediately went callous again. He then looked back at his paper and mumbled, “What is it, Shorty?” I wanted to fire back about him calling me shorty, but I had to pick my battles and this was not one of them.

  “Uh, can I sit?” I asked.

  “If you see a chair, then yeah.” He said gruffly.

  “Look, about last Friday -” He cut me off.

  “It won’t happen again.” Looking back into my eyes.

  “Okay, good, but -”

  “Anything else, cuz I got shit to do.”

  Thrown off balance, I whisper, “What the hell is your problem?”

  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then straightened his back against his chair. His obscure focus landed on mine. “My problem is you comin’ in here, interrupting my work. I told you it won’t happen again. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my work so I can get the hell outta here.” He kept staring, and I frowned at him. He was absolutely frustrating! I wanted to slap some sense into this man! I don’t know what came over me, but I didn’t leave. I should have just kept my mouth shut…...I didn’t.

  “No. I’m not leaving, because whatever happened last Friday happened for a reason and you’re gonna explain it to me!” His glare was intense enough it could have killed someone, but I wasn’t going to back down; he wasn’t going to scare me no matter how dark he became. I’ve had enough people playing me and pushing me around that I wasn’t going to let some big badass, hunk of a man do the same. Yes, a hunk of a man. Damn! Why did he have to be so gorgeous and mean at the same time?

  “You can’t just waltz into this place and demand respect when you don’t do the same for us. And you can’t come onto me expecting me to forget it. You kissed me, Quinn, which was unprofessional. Isn’t there any compassion inside you to give me some kind of answer for your actions?”

  “I’m not your child, Shorty, so enough with the lectures about compassion, and actions.”

  He can’t be for real!

  “You are unbelievable, you know that? I should just go file a sexual harassment suit and get you removed from this place. How does that sound, tough guy?” I was about to get up and leave when he retorted back.

  “You wouldn’t want to do that to Red.”

  “No, I wouldn’t want to, but I don’t think Red would want you to be such a jerk to his employees, plus hitting on one of his waitress’s for that matter. So, really, you’re giving me no choice but to file suit no matter what it does to Red.” Silence hit the room, along with more scowling. I couldn’t take this anymore so I gave up. “Fine, whatever, I’m done with this shit. You can go back to your precious work.” I got up and headed for the door.

  “I see you wanna be a manager?” That stopped me dead in my tracks. What was he doing? He was so exasperating! His changing moods was making my head spin.

  I turned around and his eyes were less intense. “Uh, yeah, I do, so what about it?” I crossed my arms.

  “Sit back down, Shorty.” He gestured his hand to my chair. I shouldn’t have listened, yet I wanted to know where this was going.

  “What are you doing?” I asked with a questionable look.

  “I wanna know why you wanna be manager. Other than what it says in your file, that is.”

  I blinked twice, unsure why he wanted to know anything else.

  “I said all I had to say in my file.”

  He smirked at me. Smirked! Where was this change of moods coming from!

  “You see, I don’t believe you -” I interrupted him this time.

  “Well, you don’t need to believe me because it doesn’t matter. What matters, is what’s in my file. It tells you the experience I have had over the last seven years. I’m one of Red’s best employee’s, ask him yourself.”

  “He already has told me about you, Shorty.” He informed me, therefore continuing, “But I can tell, from beyond this file, that there is a real reason why you wanna take on more responsibility.”

  I whispered back, not expecting him to dig further. “I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “I wanna know, Sandy.” He quietly said my name.

  Quinn saying my name made me want to tell him. So I did, even though I shouldn’t have.

  “My apartment complex is raising my rent in the next two months and I won’t be able to afford it if I don’t get some sort of raise in my salary. The manager’s position will give me the raise I need to stay in my apartment. I can’t lose my place. I have a son who needs stability.” I don’t know why, but my eyes felt somewhat wet and blurry. Oh dear lord was I about to cry? I couldn’t let Quinn see that. I looked straight into his eyes and saw, for the first time, compassion. He really was making my head spin.

  Nodding his head he said, “Alright. I’ll think on it. That means I’ll need to follow you around and see how you work.”

  “But, why? That sounds a bit obsessive don’t you think?” I asked confused.

  “Maybe, but that’s what I’m gonna do, Shorty. Take it or leave it. Any other questions?”

  “Yes. How long will this, following me around shit, gonna go on for cuz, like I sai
d, my rent goes up in the next two months. I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “I’ll let you know before that time is up. I think that settles it. Now, as you can see, I need to finish up this shit.” He gestured to his pile of papers.

  “Whatever.” I mumbled and walked out of the office.

  So exasperating!

  Chapter 6

  Quinn

  Going back to Reds never crossed my mind - yet, here I was. Too many bad memories haunted my mind whenever I thought of home. Leaving San Diego, in the first place, was the best choice I could have made for myself - for Pop. My Ma left us when I was nineteen. After my older brother, Jake, got killed she suddenly up and left and never looked back. As a family we were already broken, but her leaving made things even more cracked - I had reasons to believe she left because of me, but I couldn’t say that out loud. I buried my feelings, never talked about my brother and decided to get the hell out of San Diego.

  When I was a kid it’s not like Pop and I never got along, we just never really saw eye to eye on a lot of things; losing Jake only made our relationship more constrained and uneasy - he couldn’t even look at me without thinking of Jake. It fucking hurt.

  My Ma was always a basket case; having meltdowns for no reason - for example: leaving the toilet seat up brought her to tears, and a tantrum that led to throwing things across the room. Jake and I had a lot of practice dodging the soaring items that Ma hurled at us. We could never understand what the fuck her problem was - Pop kept his trap shut and pretended everything was peachy. Jake and I knew better. We knew she was a bit off her rocker.

  Things with Ma escalated after Jake died; she tried to commit suicide a couple times, and for once Pop tried to get her help, but her depression and anger were still obvious.

  I did right by leaving as well. Pop never batted an eye when I left - he didn’t beg me to stay or say goodbye. I did all I could to make things right - I never succeeded.

  My life on the road had a lot of ups and downs. I phoned Pop many times to bail me out of trouble. He would send me money, which I knew I didn’t deserve, and used it on other things besides rent. I used it to buy booze, to gamble or to just sleep around. He gave up on me when I got arrested on numerous occasions for getting into bar fights or the one time I slept with a hooker. She wasn’t actually a hooker, but was an undercover cop. That was the shits. After a couple years of being a loser I decided to clean up my act. I couldn’t take sleeping on the streets, or in my car anymore. I was afraid of dying as the loser who killed my parents golden boy, son, Jake.

  It was why I didn’t understand my Pop wanting me to take over his business. I wasn’t meant to be head of Reds, Jake was - it was his dream, not mine. If he was alive today he’d be manager and thrilled as fuck to take over Pop’s work. Pop had never dreamed of me fulfilling his shoes and neither did I.

  I fuckin’ missed my life back in Nevada. I missed the life of my successful business of rebuilding bikes. I made a fuckin’ load of money working on peoples shit. I found peace in that - no one to answer to except myself. I didn’t have to talk to nobody, but the ones that paid me for fixin’ up their stuff. Word got around town about my work; bikers came from all over just so I could make something old into something new.

  Yeah, I fuckin’ missed my other life. What made me listen to Pop, I have no idea. I told myself that this would be temporary, that once I took over Reds, and things started to calm down, I’d go back to the life that was waiting for me. But something had changed when I walked into Reds and it had nothing to do with wanting to please my Pop. It was the green-eyed peer that I couldn’t get out of my head.

  She was getting under my skin. I tried my damndest to come in before or after her shift, but she caught me off guard just now. I didn’t show any signs of letting her see how she affected me, but there was no denying the attraction I felt towards her.

  I jacked off that night thinking about her tongue doing crazy things to my mouth. I wanted to taste more of her smart mouth while squeezing her sweet ass. Her small frame with vibrant curves was implanted in my brain. No one has ever pissed me off more than this spitfire. She was a challenge that I was going to take whether it was on my office desk or in my bed.

  What got me even more pissed is her telling me she needed the extra income just so she could stay in her apartment. I wasn’t going to let her and her son become homeless for some lame ass increase in rent. I don’t know why this affected me….it just did. I already knew I was going to give her the managers position, but I was going to play my little shadowing game first. The look in her eyes was priceless; she may hate my fuckin’ guts, but seeing her get riled up was worth it.

  I called Pop, before I left work, to see if he wanted me to bring anything to eat. He said he wanted his favorite mushroom burger, so I ordered two of them. I was headin’ out with my bag of goods when Sandy and I made eye contact. She was at the bar getting her drink orders, and was leaning her arms on the counter, underneath her tits. The tops of them were peeking out from the wide v-neck cut of the shirt, giving Jeff a show and tell. While filling up her order I could see his eyes snaking their way down to them. I wanted to slam his face into the counter for making even the slightest move on her. His damn, snarky smile, flirtin’ with her, boiled my jealousness even more. On top of that, she knew what he was doing and she gave into it; the sleek smile from her lips, the laughter she gave him, and the glance she made at me tipped me over. She saw what this did to me. She saw the look in my eyes, but she kept playin’ her game. I didn’t give a flying fuck when I growled, “With me. Now.” I grabbed her arm and took her out to the back parking lot. She hissed at me, telling me to let her go, but if she wanted to play this torture game, I was all ready to win it.

  I swung her little body around the hood of the truck, that I borrowed from Pop, lifted her ass onto it and instantly made her legs wrap around my body. I brought my hand to the back of her head, bent down and crushed my lips onto hers. This happened so fast she didn’t have time to fight me. I heard her make noises that brought my hardness against her belly. It was swelling by the time I grasped at her ass. I squeezed that fine roundness and moaned in her mouth. Our tongues were hot and wet, slipping against one another. I felt her hands move towards my back end - fuckin’ insane! I leaned her back against the hood and dug myself even further into her body. Her tits were slammed against my chest, driving me crazy. I wanted to take her right then and there; I brought my hands to her shirt, untucked and inched my way inside the back of her spine. My lips found her throat which made her gasp with pleasure - it turned me on even more. She tightened her hold onto my back and dug her nails into it.

  “Fuckin’ hell you taste so good.” I huskily said.

  “Oh, my God, you need to stop.” She responded breathless.

  “Don’t think so, Shorty.” I mumbled, while still tasting her throat.

  Before she got another word in I took her mouth again. I found her tits. I grasped one of them and gently squeezed it and heard her moan in my mouth. I went up beneath the front of her bra and found her nipple. I tugged at it, making it harden against my thumb and finger. The heels of her feet tightened around my waist - my dick was braising against her and I could feel her move, wanting more. That’s when I stopped. I slowed the kiss, took my hands out from underneath her shirt, and removed her legs from my body. She just laid there, panting, with her big green eyes glaring back at me.

  I backed up so she could have room to get off the hood.

  “You’re so damn confusing!” She huffed as she put herself back together.

  Putting my hands on my waist I agreed. “Babe, I can’t argue with ya there.”

  She slid off the truck. “What is this you’re doing, Quinn? One minute you’re telling me it won’t happen again, and the next you’re practically tearing my clothes off. I don’t get it. What is it you want from me?”

  Again, I had not a fuckin’ clue, but told her this instead, “I don’t like you flirtin’ with the men.
You wanna show some tit, I’ll show you what it does to them.”

  She gasped. “Excuse me?”

  I got up closer to her so she could look up at me. “You got it, Shorty. What your flirtin’ does to these men - gets them hard. I can see in their eyes that they wanna do what I just did moments ago. The truth is one of them is not gonna stop and you’ll be thrown in a bush like the next days trash. So you need to watch how you act with them, you got me?”

  “You asshole!” She hissed. “I do not flirt with the men! And I don’t believe for one second that you made out with me just to teach me a lesson. I don’t know what it is about you and your ego but you need to take a long fucking look in a mirror and have a reality check cuz seriously, Quinn, you have problems! Now if you’ll excuse me, big guy, I need to go back to my customers and make an excuse on why I was missing for ten minutes. I have money to make.”

  She pushed herself by me and left me in the dust. She was right on all counts - I was a fucking asshole who had serious problems. Problems from dealin’ with a spitfire and not knowin’ how to deal with those feelings. After just what happened out on the truck I knew I couldn’t stay away from her. I needed more of her. I needed to taste her. I needed to be inside her and rock her world.

  “Fuck me.” I whispered to myself. I picked up the bag of burgers and went home.

  Chapter 7

  Sandy

  I lied awake thinking about Quinn. I couldn’t figure him out. I couldn’t figure out his mood swings - they drove me crazy! He did things to me that no one has ever done to me. He made me feel things that I haven’t felt for a very long time and I didn’t know what to do with that. He was incredibly intense and confusing. What made him tick tonight? Was I really flirting with Jeff just to make him jealous and I wasn’t aware of my own actions? Is that what I was doing? I tried to replay what I did before he dragged me outside, and yes I looked at him and brought my arms under my boobs to make Jeff notice them. Holy hell I feel so gross right now. I have no interest in Jeff! It was all for show. I knew Quinn was watching and I did it anyways, but why wouldn’t he just tell me he felt something for me instead of making up stupid excuses? They were flat out ridiculous.