by Snow, Jenika
My heart was in my throat as I put on a smile that seemed a little bit forced and probably anxious, and tipped my head back so I could look into his face. He was a big wall of masculine, powerful male. With broad shoulders and a wide chest, everything behind him was blocked out. It was hard not to feel a flush steal over me when I looked at him.
With his short dark hair and his piercing amber-colored eyes, he was gorgeous. A strong nose, full lips, and a chiseled jaw. I was sure most of the female population wouldn’t mind sleeping in his bed.
“Hi,” I whispered then cleared my throat, trying to sound like I had my shit together, but the reality was my voice shook with my nerves.
He watched me intently, intelligently. The corner of his mouth kicked up, and he took another step forward, just a small one to where he was nearly touching the counter. The scent of him slammed into me, a combination of his cologne and his natural, purely male aroma.
“What can I get you?” He came in here several times a week, and his order was always the same. Medium plain black coffee. Then he’d sit in the corner, and I noticed he wouldn’t even drink it. He would just watch me, as if he was trying to figure me out. As if he was trying to know all my secrets. It was a little unnerving, put me on edge, but I couldn’t help how it made me feel, like I was the only woman in the world. Like there was no one else for him but me.
After he ordered his usual, but also a second drink, I tried not to fumble as I turned and started making it. Which I failed at, since I was still keenly aware of that prickling all over my body because he was staring at me.
But I liked his gaze on me. I liked this unsteady arousal that I felt whenever he was near.
Arousal was such a potent thing, pushing away anything else so it rose to the surface swiftly. And I’d never felt desire the likes of which I felt with Malkolm.
I’d never felt arousal. Period.
I put his coffee into a to-go cup, even though I knew he’d stay, although he ordered a chai latte, and for some reason I felt this stab of jealousy thinking about the drink being for a woman.
After making the drinks, I gave him both cups, his fingers brushing along mine as he reached out and took them from me. Shivers raced up and down my arms from that small contact, and I stifled a chill at the very thought of how it would feel to have my entire body pressed against his.
Because if just a small touch like that from him could ignite me this much... I could only imagine with startling clarity what it would feel like to have our naked bodies moving together.
Those thoughts had my face heating, and I looked away quickly, knowing my cheeks were probably as red as a candy apple. A moment passed since I made his order and gave it to him, yet he still stood there despite several people behind him waiting in line.
“Go out with me,” he said suddenly.
I snapped my head up in his direction to look into his eyes. I felt my own widen in surprise. I opened and closed my mouth, feeling like a fish out of water, trying to gasp for air and failing. I was very aware of several sets of eyes locked on us, no doubt the other customers holding their breath... or maybe that was just me.
I felt Tatum still beside me, since she’d conveniently come back out once I helped Malkolm.
He shifted on his feet, and I wondered if he was nervous because I hadn’t said anything.
I know I would be. Say something. Anything.
“Well?” I heard Tatum prompt, her voice breathless with anticipation as she waited for me to answer. “You gonna answer the man?”
I wanted to cut her a glare, but I kept my focus on Malkolm. I couldn’t have torn my eyes from him even if I tried.
“A date?” I asked in a mumble. I probably sounded like an idiot, but the corner of his mouth kicking up made me feel anything but... because he was amused and pleased.
I’d be lying if I said that half, arrogant-looking grin didn’t make him even sexier. Going out with him was what I wanted, of course. I wanted to know more about him, wanted to see if this intense attraction I felt went deeper than just on the surface.
“A date.” His voice was a deep rumble as he responded.
“Okay,” I said softly, instantly, after he’d spoken. And then his half grin turned into a full-on smile, one that reached his eyes and made me swoon.
He nodded once and said, “Good. That’s real good, Flora.” His voice was a husky tenor, as if he was immensely pleased I agreed to go out with him and couldn’t stop the growl from spilling forth. “I’ll come by after you close up tonight, and we can talk and set up the plans?”
I licked my dry lips, my throat feeling tight and dry even though I wasn’t thirsty. I nodded and gave him a tentative, probably hesitant-looking smile. But inside, I was ecstatic, feeling excitement and arousal spread throughout me.
I stood there and watched him walk away, but before he left, he looked over his shoulder, and our eyes locked once more. I felt that familiar zing of electricity move between us, and I didn’t stifle my shiver then. I let it pass through me in a very hot and consuming way.
I didn’t know what I just agreed to, but I’d never looked forward to something as much as I was the very idea of seeing Malkolm Taylor on a personal, intimate level.
3
Flora
“So, are you going to tell me what you guys talked about when he came back after we closed up?”
I glanced over at Tatum, who sat at my small two-seater dining room table, and felt my heart thump at the mention of Malkolm.
She’d come home with me so we could have dinner together, something we tried to do a couple of times a week. Tatum and I had always been close, especially seeing as we were only a year apart. But it wasn’t just because we’d grown up so close in age that had us thick as thieves, so to speak. It was also because we really didn’t speak with our parents anymore, and we were all we had family-wise.
Tatum had a slew of friends, being a social butterfly, but I, on the other hand… I wasn’t at that level. So when I said she was all I had, that was the God’s honest truth.
“It was just… normal,” I said as I grabbed the plates out of the cupboard, the silverware out of the drawer, and brought them over to the table.
“Uh huh,” she murmured, and I felt her watching me.
There was a ready-made lasagna placed in the center of the table, steam billowing out from underneath the foil covering it. A cut loaf of garlic bread Tatum brought with her sat on a plate beside the lasagna, and a side salad I poured out of a bag and into a bowl was closest to me.
I never said our dinners were homemade or fancy, but that wasn’t what this time we spent together was about. We could have been eating cold tuna from a can, and as long as we were having dinner together, I was happy. And I knew she was too.
She wasn’t only my little sister; she was also my best friend.
“Oh!” she exclaimed and got up, holding her finger up for me to wait a minute. “I grabbed us a bottle of wine for dinner and fancy crystal glasses.”
I snorted at the latter and watched her head toward the front door where her bag was. A moment later, she came back with a bottle of Riesling in one hand and her “fancy crystal glasses,” which were two plastic wine glasses, in her other hand.
I chuckled and gestured for her to open it up and start pouring. And then we began to eat, the conversation moving away from Malkolm, even though that’s what she started talking about first.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell Tatum about any of this, because I told her everything. I confided my dreams and fears to her. But honestly, there wasn’t a whole lot to tell.
When he stopped over after we closed, Tatum had been in the back counting inventory. I’d been so nervous standing in front of him, feeling the full weight of his unobstructed gaze, his heat pouring out of his massive body and spearing into me.
Our interaction had been polite and friendly, no stress, and I instantly relaxed. We exchanged numbers, had some light conversation, and then he said he’d co
ntact me tomorrow so we could set up a date. And then I stood there like an idiot and watched him head back to Broken Hearts.
I might have even sighed in feminine appreciation at the sight of him.
Hate to see him leave. Love to watch him walk away.
A moment passed where there was a stretch of silence between Tatum and me, and I realized I was lost in my thoughts of Malkolm.
Tatum looked at me with a knowing smirk, the wine in her plastic glass already half downed. She eyed me over the rim, and I knew she wanted me to delve into what I’d just been zoned out on—as if she already didn’t know.
“You’re thinking about him right now, aren’t you?”
I felt my cheeks become hot and grabbed my glass, taking a hardy sip.
“Oh my God, you are.” She started laughing as she teased me.
I exhaled, leaned back in my chair, and took another long pull of wine before setting the glass back down. “I was,” I admitted. “Seems I can’t help it. There’s something about him.” I expected her to tease me again, but she had this weird look in her eyes as she watched me silently.
“How long have you wanted him?” Tatum finally asked, setting her glass back on the table but keeping her fingers wrapped around it.
I shrugged, looking off in the distance, letting my eyes unfocus for a moment as I remembered when I first started noticing him. “I don’t know. Not long. A month, maybe two?” I felt so silly having these deep feelings for someone I hardly knew.
I looked back at her and shrugged again. Tatum stayed silent for a moment, but she nodded slowly.
“He’s head over heels for you, Flora, and I’m not even talking about how he’s like this lost puppy constantly coming to the coffee shop.”
I lifted my eyebrows at her statement.
“You do realize that, don’t you?”
“What makes you say that? Well, aside from him coming into the coffee shop a lot, and watching me, but that could all be chalked up to male desire.” She made it sound like he was already in love with me. Or maybe I was reading too much into it. And why did my heart skip a beat and my face feel flushed at the very thought of him being in love with me? That was insane to even contemplate a man I didn’t know having those types of feelings for me.
“It’s not the amount of times I catch him staring at you, or even how many times he stops by to get a cup of coffee he doesn’t even drink. It’s the way he stares at you, Flora. It's….” She paused as if she was trying to phrase whatever was on her mind. “He looks at you like he’s consumed by you.”
He does look… consumed. I saw it in the way he watched me, the way his amber eyes tracked me at every turn.
“What can I say? He seems really nice... and I like the way he looks.” I like the way he looks at me.
But I had zero experience with guys and dating, so I was jumping into this blindly and hoping I didn’t crash at the end.
“I like the way he looks too,” Tatum said, and as I narrowed my eyes at her, she chuckled. “Easy, tigress. That boy only has eyes for you. Besides, he’s not my type. I like them more refined and less bad boy.”
And Malkolm sure did scream “bad boy” in the best of ways.
“You know I have no experience with men to begin with. So I’m sure this whole thing will fail miserably.”
My sister gave me a soft smile and said, “Did you tell him you’ve never been on a date before?”
I snorted and shook my head. “Yeah, like that’s really going to win him over.” Although a part of me knew if I did admit that, if I confided to Malkolm that I’d never dated a guy, let alone been intimate with a guy, he’d be understanding. But it was embarrassing. I was a twenty-four-year-old virgin, inexperienced in every single way imaginable. I put all my focus on building my dream of owning my own business with my sister first and foremost.
I exhaled and felt a little deflated. It’s not like I hadn’t had opportunities in high school. There’d been a couple of guys who had shown interest in me, but I hadn’t been ready for any of that in my life, didn’t want to be physical when their affections were clearly only skin-deep. They hadn’t been interested in me but in what I could give them.
They hadn’t known anything about me, hadn’t even wanted to get to know me. That had told me waiting until I found that special person was exactly the road I wanted to take.
But years had passed, and it had gotten to the point where my loneliness had increased.
“I have a good feeling about this,” Tatum finally said, and I wondered how long I’d been lost in thought and we’d just been sitting there in silence.
I smiled. “I’m glad one of us does.” She gave me a curious look but didn’t comment on what I meant.
I don’t even think I knew what I meant. I wanted things to go smoothly and work with Malkolm. He brought out this side of me I didn’t even know existed. And that scared the hell out of me.
So even though I wanted this to work, I was scared and hesitant and knew all I could do was hope for the best.
4
Malkolm
If I thought she consumed my thoughts before, I was in for one hell of a surprise after speaking with Flora and her agreeing to go on a date with me.
“You’re taking her where?” There was thickly laced amusement in Ryder’s voice as he sat behind the front desk, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand, a cream soda in the other.
I pulled the tattoo gun away from my client’s arm and set it aside. I gave him a glance before answering, then finished cleaning up the newly marked skin.
“Porky’s,” I mumbled, and I felt my client's gaze searing into me before he burst out laughing.
“Um” was all Ryder said before he stuffed his mouth with a bite of sandwich, a grin in place as he chewed.
“What?” I prompted as I wrapped the tattoo up, muttering the home instructions—although, my client was a regular and had more ink than me, so he knew the drill.
“I assume you’ve never been to Porky’s?” Bill, the client I just finished tattooing, rolled down his shirt sleeve and looked at me.
“What? I’ve been there. Once before.” I looked between Ryder and Bill.
Bill’s expression was unreadable, and his salt-and-pepper hair was styled impeccably, and the button-down shirt looked crisp and pressed. He was a physician in Sweetheart, yet I doubted anyone was aware of the ink that covered him. His chest, his arms, hell, most of his back was inked up.
“So you’ve been there before, and you’re still willingly taking her there for your first date?” It was Ryder who spoke.
I held his gaze with my own. I wasn’t sure why he and Bill were making such a big deal about it. I understood Porky’s wasn’t the fanciest restaurant, wasn’t some five-star Italian joint, but I got the vibe that Flora wasn’t that type of girl. I got the feeling that she’d appreciate anywhere we went.
“I like Porky’s. And their barbecue is the best in the state, which was the main reason I picked going there.” Bill and Ryder looked at each other before they both started laughing.
“Man,” Ryder said as he stood and threw away the wrapper from his sandwich and his now empty soda bottle. “I’m not saying their food isn’t kick-ass, but the atmosphere certainly isn’t what I call first-date material.”
I was cleaning up my station when I lifted an eyebrow at him. “Yeah? Why don’t you tell me what a first date place is for you?” This should be good.
Ryder leaned against the wall and crossed his muscular arms over his wide chest, looking off in the distance as if he was really thinking about it. “I’d take her someplace that’s underrated. Hell, I’d take her somewhere she’s probably never heard of before.” He nodded once like that was the best fucking idea he’d ever come up with. “She’d be so amazed at the food and the atmosphere, at the fact I found some hole-in-the-wall gem, that nothing else would top it.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Flora doesn’t come off as the kind of woman who gives a shit where she goes as l
ong as she enjoys the company.” I didn’t know her that well to actually say for certain she was like that, but I was pretty good at reading people, and I’d gotten that vibe from her as soon as I’d first seen her.
She came across as down to earth and no-nonsense. She had to be in order to be successful, own her own business, and be as independent as she was. And that was such a fucking turn-on.
“I have to agree with Ryder,” Bill finally interjected as he headed to the front counter.
I met him on the other side to check him out but didn’t hide my irritation toward the two guys.
“I mean, Porky’s has incredible barbecue, and I enjoy the atmosphere. It kind of gives me Urban Cowboy vibes. And I’d wager it’s the best I’ve had in the country. But damn, Malkolm, they have peanut shells all over the floor, and that place is so messy you have to use a bib to eat.”
I was starting to regret my choice.
“Like, I don’t think any woman wants barbecue sauce covering their face on a first date.” He shrugged.
“I mean, that’s the appeal,” I muttered as I looked at Bill. I liked the fact that the place had a very messy atmosphere, where the country music was loud, the floors dirty with discarded shells, and how there were neon signs everywhere.
Bill stared at me with a stoic expression at first, and then he started laughing. “Oh. Shit. You’re being serious.”
All I could do was shake my head at both of them as they continued to rib me. After Bill left, I sat in the chair behind the front desk and looked at Ryder.
“I think she’s gonna like it,” I said, but I didn’t know if I was trying to convince myself or Ryder. Now I was worried I picked the wrong place to take Flora.
“No, man,” Ryder said before pushing off the wall and walking toward his station to get things set up for his next appointment. “She won’t even notice the place, because she’s going to be hanging out with you.”
I narrowed my eyes at Ryder. “You’re such an ass,” I replied, but there was no heat in my words.