He raised an eyebrow. “Do you like that?”
“It’s all right. Not my first choice,” she said with a small laugh, “but it pays my bills and allows me to travel, which is what I really love to do.”
His eyes seemed to light up at her words. “Do you? Where have you been?”
“Mostly around the greater part of the western United States. I’ve been to a couple places back east, but not out of the country.” She held up her index finger. “Yet.”
“Where would you most like to visit?”
“Probably Scandinavia. Finland, Sweden, Norway…that would be my first choice.”
“Why there?”
She shrugged. “I’ve always been fascinated with the culture. Shelby and I used to do this Viking reenactment thing, and I’ve kind of been into the history and such ever since.”
“That would explain all the weapons.”
“Partly.” She gave him a playful expression. “The other reason is to, of course, try and stab unsuspecting people in the dark who are lurking on my porch.”
“Well, of course.”
His teasing tone and the lightness of the conversation put her at ease while setting her body on fire at the same time. He overwhelmed her with his presence and he wasn’t even trying. He was laid back, easygoing and playful, but something about Hayden seemed so roguish and wild. He reminded her of a mountain lion sunning itself. Casual and relaxed, but at any moment, all of that coiled muscle and power could spring into action. He didn’t seem dangerous exactly, but there was an unmistakable rebelliousness to him that called to her in the worst way.
“So, what about you? What’s your story?” she asked. “You said you were only here for the weekend. Where do you live?”
“Sacramento, currently.”
She frowned slightly. “Currently. That doesn’t sound permanent.”
“Not much in my life is.” There was a strange play of emotions across his face. A mix of rapture and sadness that tugged at her heart.
“What do you do for a living?”
The warring emotions converged back into his easy grin and his gaze came up to rest on hers. “Is there somewhere on a business card I can put ‘vagabond’ or ‘gypsy?’”
“I’m not quite sure that’s an actual profession.”
He chuckled and some of that odd sorrow came back into his eyes before he looked away. “Right now I work at a construction company, but I’m not usually in one place for too long.”
She frowned in thought. “But you grew up here, right?” He nodded and she continued. “And your family lives here?”
“Just my brother. He’s the only family I have.” He paused before taking his arm off of the back of the seat and returning it to his side, effectively closing himself off from her. She wondered if he even realized he had done it. “Our parents died when I was seventeen,” he said softly.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Gina reached over and placed a comforting hand on his forearm. He gazed down at where she was touching him for a moment before his lips quirked slightly and he reached for her hand, taking it in between both of his and tugging her closer. Her heart picked up speed at the subtly intimate gesture. She let him twine their fingers together without a second thought. Being close to him felt so right somehow.
“Jack was only twelve when it happened,” he continued. “I had always planned to go to college abroad. Didn’t know what in the world I was going to study, but I wanted to do it in a far off place where I could have adventures and see amazing things. I’ve always had a wanderlust in me. But when our parents died…” He shook his head. “There was no one else, and I couldn’t let Jack get lost in the system and be tossed from foster home to foster home until he was broken and psychologically damaged beyond repair. So, I became an emancipated minor and his legal guardian.”
Gina’s eyes widened and she let out a slow breath. “That’s a lot of responsibility for a seventeen-year-old.”
He nodded. “It was just the two of us for six years. I worked two jobs in order to pay the bills, keep us fed, and save for Jack’s tuition. I became an adult with a child overnight, it seemed. Not that I ever thought of him that way. He’s my little brother, you know?” He shrugged. “But still, I felt like I’d skipped over all the party years I was supposed to have, those ‘best years of my life,’ and woke up a dad. I didn’t think much about it at the time, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat, but once Jack started going to college and was living on campus, I didn’t have anything keeping me here anymore. Jack was a grown man, pursuing his own dreams. I started to feel stifled and stagnant, and I got to a point where I felt like, if I stayed in Reno, I would be stuck here forever. One more working stiff whose dreams had died. It was overwhelming to me. I couldn’t handle it. So, I took off on my bike, rode off into the sunset, and haven’t been back since. Not until now. And every time I stay in a place for too long, I start to get that same stuck feeling, so I tend to move around a lot.”
She sighed, digesting his words while she watched him play with her fingers and enjoyed the tenderness of his rough hands. “You know, Hayden, a place doesn’t make you stuck. A place is just a place. You’re only stuck if you let yourself be stuck.” When he looked at her, she smiled and reached up to brush a rebellious stand of hair off of his forehead. “I admire you for what you did for your brother and the sacrifices you made to take care of him. Not everyone would have done something so selfless.”
He shook his head. “There was no other choice. He’s my brother. There was never any other option and never any question. Like I said, I would do it all again in a second. I don’t regret any of it.”
Gina’s heart warmed at his devotion to his brother. “Is it strange being back here then? After being away for so long?”
“A little bit, yeah. I’m trying to figure out what that means.” He chuckled, but it sounded a little forced. “What about you? Have you ever lived anywhere else?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Don’t really have a desire to either.”
Her statement seemed to surprise him. “But why? You said you love to travel.”
“I do. I want to see every country and every culture in the world, but that doesn’t mean I have to wander to do so. My family is here, and my family is everything to me. I want to go off and have an enormous adventure, but then come home and know that they are here. Family is what matters most to me. It’s stability and sanity. It’s home.” She caught the question in his perplexed expression before he could voice it. “Reno isn’t home. Reno is just a place. Just like everywhere else is just a place. If my family moved to Alaska, that would be home. This is just a place I live. The people I love are what make it home, and that’s more fulfilling to me than any incredible journey.” She smiled. “Sometimes, the most amazing adventures can be had right where you’re standing if you have the imagination for it, and some of the greatest journeys can happen within yourself.”
A bewildered sort of amazement flashed across Hayden’s face as he stared at her, but she didn’t look away despite the fact that her cheeks turned warm at his scrutiny. That was a philosophy she had lived by for a long time. So many people went away to “look for themselves.” How could someone find who they were out in the middle of who knew where? The best place to find out who you were and what you are made of was your own environment, where you came from, where your roots were.
Hayden finally broke the silence with a short laugh. “I don’t know what to do with your outlook on life. It confuses me.” He gave her a boyish smile that deepened his dimple.
“Why?” she asked with a chuckle of her own.
He shook his head. “It’s just so different from mine.”
“Different is good.” She met his gaze and arched an eyebrow in a flirty, playful gesture.
The blue of his eyes darkened and his gaze drifted to her mouth briefly before scanning over the rest of her and then coming back to her eyes. He shifted closer to her, encroaching on her space in the best way
. “You’re right,” he murmured. “Different is very, very good.”
All of her senses became full of him. He exuded raw, masculine sexuality in every ripple of movement. She wanted to run her fingers through his careless hair and trace the planes of his chest as the black fabric of his shirt stretched across it. She wanted to lose herself in his scent and his untamed presence. She wanted to bask in his confidence and soothe the momentary lines of uncertainty from his ruggedly gorgeous face.
Her gaze went to his mouth. Oh, how she wanted to sample a taste of that mouth…
“You know what I want to do?”
Shelby’s boisterous voice invaded Gina’s world like a siren. She and Hayden both jumped, shattering the intensity of their private moment.
Gina turned her attention to her sister, who was hanging over the back of the seat in front of them, oblivious. She sighed. “What?”
“We should go get those old western pictures done! Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Gina smirked at her sister’s unquenchable enthusiasm. She glanced up at Hayden, who had adopted his relaxed pose again with both arms resting across the back of the seat like he had never been rushed a day in his life.
He smiled and shrugged nonchalantly. “Could be fun, but only if you dress up like a saloon girl.”
She arched an eyebrow. “What if I want to dress up like an outlaw and put a noose around your neck?”
He made a sexy purring noise in his throat. “I’ve never been tied up before. That could be fun too.”
For all the unflappable coolness she was trying to conduct herself with, Gina couldn’t help the way her face flamed at his comment. She wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or being completely turned on.
She averted her gaze to get herself under control, then glanced up at him from under her lashes with a smirk. That roguish dimple of his was going to be her undoing.
“And fudge!”
Gina jumped again from Shelby’s impeccable timing. “Excuse me?”
“Fudge!” she cried again. “We have to go to that one candy store.” She turned to Troy. “They make the best fudge.” Troy nodded once.
“I love fudge. Especially divinity,” Jackson threw in.
Gina shook her head at her sister’s cluelessness and her heart stumbled over itself as she felt Hayden’s fingers slide over hers again. She looked up at him as he picked her hand up and twined their fingers while he stared out the window as the arid Nevada desert landscape went by. He seemed lost in thought so she didn’t disturb him, but when she gave his hand a little squeeze, she didn’t miss the way he smiled.
Chapter Five
Hayden frowned at Troy, who was leaning up against the wall outside of the candy shop, texting. “I could have sworn that he was fun at one time,” he muttered.
Gina looked up at him as she finished the piece of fudge she had purchased and smiled. “He really is kind of a stick in the mud, isn’t he? Not what you’d expect from a biker who looks like a convict.”
Hayden burst out laughing and was happy they were far enough away from Troy that he couldn’t hear their conversation. Gina’s earlier words filtered through his mind. “Time changes everyone.” Had time changed him? He knew it had. Time had turned him into a coward who ran from everything. His past, his family, he ran from life under the pretense of running toward it. When had he gotten so backwards? And how come he had never realized it until now? Gina had a very astute way of pointing out painful truths in the most kind and tactful manner. It didn’t make those truths any less painful to come to grips with.
“You okay?”
Her gentle touch on his arm pulled him from his wandering thoughts and he turned his attention back to her. He smiled when he noticed a smudge of chocolate in the corner of her mouth. He reached out and wiped it off with his thumb, then stuck his finger into his mouth to lick it off. “Mmm,” he teased. “Delicious.”
Something came to life in her blue-gray eyes. Something smoldering. Something he liked. His gaze was drawn back to her wonderful lips and he lowered his head, unable to stop himself. She moved toward him simultaneously.
The door to the candy store opened and Jackson and Shelby emerged laughing. Hayden pulled away from Gina, not wanting to be razzed by his brother and not wanting to be interrupted. When he kissed her, he wanted to indulge himself. Their attraction was magnetic and the heat that arced between them was insane. He didn’t want a taste of Gina. He wanted to get drunk off of her.
He stifled a grin at her small huff of frustration and he turned to watch Jackson as he finished up an animated story that had Shelby laughing and all of her attention focused on him for the first time all day. Jack’s eyes were full of life and light. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his brother look that way. He really liked her.
“Okay, let’s go take pictures!” Shelby exclaimed once Jackson had finished talking.
Hayden reached down and took Gina’s hand as they strolled down the wooden walkway, liking how she instantly responded to him. She didn’t try to hold back, didn’t try to hide her attraction to him. She was comfortable with it, comfortable with him. He had barely known her a day, yet she felt so familiar. As soon as he’d met her, she had been an instant fit for him. He didn’t know what to do with that. It was overwhelming and frightening, but he didn’t need to analyze it now. Currently, all he wanted to do was enjoy her company and her touch, and eventually, he was going to kiss her breathless.
They made their way to the Old Tyme Photo place and were ushered into separate changing areas to get garbed up for the picture. Hayden selected clothing of all black, Johnny cash style, while Troy and Jackson went with the traditional brown and tan dusters and western shirts. All three of them donned cowboy hats and bandannas around their necks. The women were put in saloon girl outfits. Shelby’s was emerald green and black while Gina’s was black and maroon.
Shelby’s large chest was straining against the corset almost as much as it had been straining against her leather vest. He looked over Gina while she perused the costume rack for accessories and allowed his eyes to appraise her. While she had less in the chest area than her sister, her form was still very shapely. The corset hugged her slender frame and drew attention to the curve of her hips. With an appreciative smile and unable to stop himself, he went over to her and slid his hands around her waist. “This could prove to be an extremely distracting experience,” he murmured against her ear. The smell of her shampoo tantalized him.
She stilled for a moment before she turned and draped a red feather boa around his neck. “That’s the fun of it.” She winked and sauntered back over to her sister. He wondered if she put more sway into her hips on purpose just to make him drool.
They gathered around the set-up in preparation for the picture. Troy sat down on a box and Hayden took a seat next to him. He caught Gina’s eye as she adjusted something on Shelby, and motioned her over. “Get over here,” he teased, grabbing her waist and pulling her onto his lap.
She huffed. “Regardless of my current state of dress, sir, I am a classy lady,” she said with a Southern drawl.
He grinned. “That’s why I picked you. I don’t go for any run-of-the-mill hussy.” She giggled and settled herself on his lap in a way that made him hope the photographer worked quickly before he had to explain that he didn’t have a gun in his belt.
Shelby flounced her way over to Troy and flopped herself into his lap. Hayden heard him heave an exasperated-sounding sigh and he glanced over to see him looking slightly annoyed and bored out of his mind while Shelby continued to try and flirt with him. He frowned. Troy was starting to get on his nerves. He didn’t remember him ever being so much of an ass. It was like, for whatever reason, he thought he was better than all of them, better than Hayden. Like he was doing everyone a favor by gracing them all with his presence. It was really annoying. And poor Shelby had been throwing herself at him all day while all he could do was grunt and nod like a friggin’ Neanderthal.
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��Okay, are you guys ready?” the photographer asked. “Sir, why don’t you put your hand on her knee, and you put your leg up on that box in front of you.” She was talking to Hayden and Gina. Gina obeyed and the photographer pulled back her skirt to reveal a lot more of her lovely, toned leg. Hayden was more than willing to oblige with the photographer’s request.
He glanced over at Jack, who was standing all by his lonesome over on the sidelines like the kid who got picked last for the baseball team. He kept shooting Shelby longing glances while she completely ignored the fact he even existed and tried to engage Troy, who acted like she was nothing more than annoying insect.
He snorted. “Okay, wait, I can’t deal with this.” He gently guided Gina off of his lap and stood. “This looks stupid. There is no motivation in this picture whatsoever. Troy and I look like we invaded a brothel and Jack is standing all alone over here like he’s been benched.”
Jackson scowled. “Thanks,” he muttered.
Hayden waved his hands. “We need some kind of a plot or something. This just isn’t working for me. Here.” He grabbed Shelby by the arm and yanked her off of Troy.
“Whoa!” she cried. “Why are you manhandling me?”
He gentled his grasp. “I’m sorry. I’m just trying to fix this. You, go over here.” He pushed her toward Jack and looked around at all the props. Gina’s noose idea came back to him and he grabbed one, as well as an empty bottle of Jack Daniels. He looped the rope around Troy’s neck and handed the end of the rope to Jackson. “You, hold that.” He met his brother’s eyes with a wicked smirk. Scanning the props again, he grabbed another rope and tied Troy’s wrists up with it. “Okay, now, you take this and point it at him.” He gave Jackson a gun and aimed it toward Troy.
“What am I supposed to be doing?” Jackson asked in bewilderment.
“Uh…you’re a bounty hunter and he’s an outlaw. You just captured him.” He guided Shelby over to Jackson’s side and positioned his arm around her waist. He tried not to laugh when he saw his brother’s eyes bulge out of his head.
Ride a Rebel Wind Page 4