Finding the Right Girl (A Nice GUY to Love spin-off)

by Violet Duke

  “And free from me.”

  “So that was why I dropped out. I got my GED the summer after my sophomore year, went to the bakery near our house and begged the woman who’d always been so kind to me and Willow to train and hire me. Between my dad and me, we made a plan to have Willow’s care completely under control by the end of the summer. And by Halloween, my mom was a free woman, living halfway across the country from us being blissfully carefree.”

  At his angered expression—yes, something like that would upset a wonderful parent like Brian—she added, “But it’s okay. I made sure Willow and my dad were better off without her. I took care of them, did everything she only deigned to do, but better, I loved them and filled their lives with as much life as I could. And later, when my mom needed money to get back on her feet, I took care of her too. Just because she didn’t want to be my mom, doesn’t mean I was going to stop being her daughter.”

  She had to look away. The sympathy in his eyes was too much. Pity, she was used to, even disdain and recrimination like during high school. But genuine, more-feeling-than-thought sympathy...never.

  He tipped her chin up, brought her gaze level with his.

  “You, Tessa Daniels, are even more amazing than I thought.”

  WITHOUT ANOTHER THOUGHT, and no further notice, he dragged her into his arms and took possession of her lips in a deep, sinking kiss that had an uncontainable growl thrashing out of his chest. The woman wasn’t just simply amazing, she was intoxicating.

  She was his.

  Finally having her in his arms filled him with a bone-deep comfort and reckless need all in one. She was consuming him whole. As her lips parted for him, he tried, really he did, to slow things down. He gentled his kiss, rubbed his fingers over the base of her spine slowly as he drank in all the tiny sounds he was sure she didn’t realize she was making.

  Her every reaction was like a revelation, her every open, honest response simply fuel that fed his arousal. When he felt her body softening against his fully, sinking into him as if her every pleasure was his alone, he was lost. She was burning alive under his touch, and all he wanted to do was drown in that fire.

  He stared at her, watched her eyes darken, turning nearly black with arousal when he skimmed up the hem of her shirt, just a sliver of an inch, and his calloused fingers met the smooth silk of her back. He wanted to feel every naked inch of her body.

  But not tonight.

  “Babe we can’t,” he somehow managed to punch out. Voice gravelly, he drew his hands back to safer territory and said roughly, “You're hurting and your emotions have gone through the wringer tonight. I can't take advantage of you like that.”

  And yet still, he couldn’t bear to let her go completely.

  “Then don't,” she replied simply, arms twining around his shoulders. “Let me take advantage of you.”

  Jerking back to put some head-clearing distance between them was about as painful as ripping off his own skin.

  “Sweetheart, why don’t we just hang out tonight? We can sit and talk more about those dickheads we ran into tonight if it’ll help, or we could just watch a movie…anything you want to do.”

  He quickly snatched her wandering hands as they traveled down his lats and started tugging at the hem of his t-shirt. “Anything except that,” he groaned. “Work with me here, woman.” Raggedly, he put his forehead against hers and counted to ten to try and find the tattered remains of his restraint.

  The thought almost made him laugh. Who was he kidding? He had no restraint when it came to Tessa. By the fifth second, his lips had already found their way back to hers.

  And goddammit if her whole body didn’t just tremble right there in his arms.

  She was just so mind-wreckingly responsive. As usual, without even trying, she was driving him batshit crazy.

  Tapping into a reserve even he didn’t know he had, he broke off the kiss and took another step away from her.

  Then he watched in sad disbelief as her expression became completely shuttered a half an instant later—closing him out behind the walls of a now ten-story castle and a moat filled with fire-breathing piranhas.

  The lightning quick response time of her defenses was a punch to his gut.

  “Look Brian, if you don't want to, you can just tell me you know. I just thought we had something and we could have a great night exploring it. But hey, I’m a big girl; you don't have to make excuses to let me down easy...”

  He gave her a look that said he wondered about her IQ before grabbing her hand and dragging it over the zipper of his jeans. “Does that feel like I don't want to?”

  Her eyes widened, and her grip closed tight around him.

  Bourbon soaked shards of glass went hissing down his throat. “For chrissakes, stop.” The blood supply in his brain was dipping down to a dangerous low.

  And the damn temptress was clearly all torn up about it. He glared at the smile she was biting back. “I’m glad you find this so amusing.”

  “It’s not amusement, it’s relief. Here I was thinking it was just me getting affected with my perpetually wet panties around you and all.”

  A seriously pained groan escaped him then. “To preserve my sanity—and your panties—don’t use the word wet in any more sentences tonight.”

  She sighed. “I really don't know why you're making such a big deal out of this. It’s just sex. I’m not looking for anything serious. You heard Gavin earlier this evening. Being the ‘good girl’ was never my thing.” She brushed up against the hardening ridge tenting his jeans to drive home her point.

  With a muttered curse, he clamped one arm around her waist and tangled his free hand in her hair. “Sweetheart, this thing between us is a big deal,” he said roughly, tugging gently on her hair and nearly losing it when she arched her back in response. Her fitted tee was so paper-frickin’-thin. One sharp yank was all it’d take to rip it right down the middle.

  Jesus Christ, he needed to find some control.

  “And Tessa, whether this thing between us lasts one night or ten, when, and yes I said when we have sex, I’ll make damn sure that every single second of it seeps into your bones, burns into your memory, and turns into a relentless craving that makes you forget all the assholes from your past.” He ran his lips along the thrumming pulse at her throat.

  “And if I’m really lucky, it’ll also help ruin you for all other men completely.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  TOO LATE. She was already irreparably ruined, addicted.

  Hopeful.

  The latter was the scariest part of it all.

  Because for the first time in her adult life, she was actually hoping that there really was such a thing as a happily ever after for a girl like her.

  And a nice guy who calls the very next day.

  Because he did. Just to see how her day had been. A few days after that? Same thing. And by the week’s end, the only thing that was keeping Tessa from thinking about Brian non-stop since she’d seen him last was the sheer volume of work she had.

  She rarely left her weekly editor duties until Friday but it had been unavoidable. They were having an unusually busy Spring on the catering end of things with one corporate function every few days, not to mention all the Spring grant deadlines that she was working on with Connor’s pro bono team. Tessa was just thankful she didn’t have to worry about the summer edition of AZ Hotspots for another few weeks—there were just simply not enough hours in the day.

  Halfway through checking next week’s online layout and articles for AZ Potluck’s focus on cooking with spring veggies and fruits, Tessa almost hit the ceiling when her phone rang. It was her landline, and the jarring clang echoing in her apartment wasn’t a sound she heard very often.

  “Hello?”

  “Do you have plans tonight?”

  A warm buzz filled her veins. She wasn’t sure why she liked the fact that he didn’t bother to say who it was but she did. It was…intimate, somehow. And very Brian. “Depends. Are you planning on rui
ning me for all other men tonight?”

  Silence.

  She sat there and smiled, waiting him out.

  “Would you come over if I said yes?” he rasped out, calling her bluff.

  Two could play at that game. “Yes.”

  “Jesus Christ, woman.”

  She chuckled. For a first attempt at flirting, she’d say that was pretty successful. “I’m actually working tonight. Why? What’s going on?”

  “Just wanted to hang out with you if you were free,” he replied, sounding disappointed. “The girls are having their sleepover here tonight and normally, I’d make the girls sloppy joes or have a Mexican night, but since the weather’s warming up, they decided they wanted to camp out back instead. You sure you can’t make it? We’re doing our famous take-out smorgasbord. We each get to pick one or two of our favorite take-out items and we have ourselves a little buffet.”

  Tessa was tempted. “Lucky kids. I’ve always wanted to go camping.”

  His voice warmed. “Damn. I’d say we could pitch a tent as well but my yard’s not that big. And I’m not entirely sure I’d be able to behave myself.”

  Wow. Clearly, he was much better at the flirting thing than she was; her mind was doing somersaults.

  “We could go camping for real one of these weekends,” he offered then, his voice smiling as he added, “I’d see to it that neither one of us would have to worry about behaving.”

  “That was mean,” she said when her vocal cords finally started working again.

  Chuckling, he reassured her, “Wasn’t trying to be. I find you make it hard for me to think before talking.”

  Oh. Well then they were even. “I’ll take a very eager rain check on the camping. I’ve actually never even been on a vacation, let alone one in the woods. I’m always working. Like tonight.”

  “Yeah, Connor mentioned that. Say, why don’t you bring your work here? I should probably do some grading anyhow. And the girls usually don’t resurface until at least nine the next morning. You wouldn’t even have to bring a take-out dish; we’ll have plenty of food.”

  Geez, he was making it so hard to say no. The food part yes, but also the part about their working alongside each other. It sounded so…nice.

  “I don’t know,” she waffled. “This week has been so crazy with a mid-week catering event and two grant revisions for a new HD clinical trial we weren’t prepared for. My to-do list for AZ Potluck alone will probably keep me chained to my desktop until at least eight maybe.”

  “So come over after. That’s around when the girls eat on the weekends anyway. Say yes, Tessa. I like spending time with you. I’ve been thinking about you all week.”

  Definitely ruined for all other men.

  “Okay, yes. And you can put me down for take-out veggie paella.”

  “I’LL CALL ABBY and ask her to stay here with you two,” said Brian firmly, as he filled up his plate with food and took a seat at the table across from Tessa. “I have Spring open house conferences until late that night. And since Becky’s folks are going to be there too for Becky’s classes, you girls will be unchaperoned until nearly nine o’clock.” He shook his head. “No can do, Sky-bug.”

  Seeing his daughter wind up with what looked to be a hell of a pitch, he settled in for a fast one.

  “Dad, I’m almost fourteen. I can stay home alone. Becky’s older sister used to babysit Becky and her little brother when she was fourteen.”

  Becky echoed that last rebuttal point, her expression serious, her fast bobbing head silently cheering her friend on for all thirteen-year old girls everywhere.

  “During the day, sure,” Brian volleyed back, glad that he’d done his research for this particular battle—the girls seemed to forget that parents actually talk to each other when their children are busy plotting. “But that was never at night. Again, sorry kiddo. Discussion closed. We can pick this argument up again when you actually are fourteen.”

  Game, set, match.

  Skylar sighed in a you’re-lucky-I-love-you way and the two girls grabbed their plates and headed out back to their fully stockpiled tent, Becky praising Skylar for being so close this time.

  Tessa just chuckled, waiting until the girls slid the patio door shut before teasing, “Do you honestly believe you’re going to suddenly be able to loosen those apron strings next year?”

  He gave her a look that cried out Judas, and she chuckled even louder, miming the zipping of her mouth shut and throwing away the key.

  “Ha!” he let out in disbelief. “If I thought that had any chance of working, I’d steal that invisible key and bury it in my pocket.”

  Brian watched as Tessa paused in surprise and then tipped her head back to laugh so hard she almost fell off her chair. He’d never seen her without those colorful weekly-changing streaks in her hair—without it, her ink black hair framed her face with a softness that made her look more delicate, vulnerable. Infinitely more memorable.

  And when she laughed. Jesus. The effect could stop traffic. It didn’t take much for her dainty fairy-like features—dark cat-like eyes, petal soft skin, and full, just-kissed lips that curved up at the corners even when she wasn’t smiling—to become the picture of unabashed pleasure, joy. That’s what it was. Joy. Her eyes would absolutely fill with joy, turning into ‘rainbow eyes,’ Beth used to call it—a phenomena he’d only ever seen in a few cherubic children. Shining with humor, arched like two little half-moons over high, laughing cheekbones, those eyes alone could make a stranger smile.

  A stark contrast to the week prior.

  For days after that night, he hadn’t been able to shake the image of her telling him about her heartbreaking past, her eyes brimming with tears she simply refused to shed, her broken-angel features almost haunting in its pain.

  He stared at her in wonder. “Seriously, Tessa, how is it that you can you still laugh like that?”

  “Like what?” She blinked, little bursts of laughter still seeping into her voice.

  “Like the universe hasn’t taken everything out of you and crushed your spirit, like it hasn’t squeezed the humor out of your soul with its selective cruelty.”

  She looked startled for a moment, but then recovered with a slow nod. “Sometimes I forget you know exactly what that feels like.” Shaking her head, she said softly. “For a while, I couldn’t laugh. Especially after Willow died. It’s not easy. To keep laughing. You have to be open to surprises, not shut yourself off to it. When you focus so much on surviving, nothing is a surprise because you’ve prepared yourself for everything. Nothing is funny anymore. You can’t laugh if you don’t let the unexpected sneak up on you and take you by surprise.”

  “Here, try this—look out that window and catalog everything you see.”

  He looked out at the pitch black scenery outside. “Everything I see in the dark?”

  “Just do it. There’s enough street light. Be quiet and concentrate.”

  He stared off into the night and took inventory of the neighbor’s fence off to the right, the house with the weird rock garden out front, three SUVs… He heard her shuffling around behind him. “What are you doing back there?”

  “Stop getting distracted. Keep going,” she said sternly.

  When she fell all but silent behind him, he focused back on the bizarre task at hand. Street curb, tree, fire hydrant…

  “Okay, now turn around and tell me what you see.”

  He pivoted toward her and heard it before he saw it—the airy hiss that registered in his brain a split-second too late.

  Followed by an ice-cold splatter webbing over his face.

  Incredulous, he swiped a hand down his face to clear the whipped cream out of his eye.

  The woman had actually sprayed him with a can of whipped cream.

  Tessa’s jaw fell open and she backed up a step. “I swear, I didn’t know it was going to do that. I was just aiming for your mouth.”

  With a slow, simmering smile, he wiped the rest of the cream off on the sleeve of his
shirt as he stalked toward her. “You’re so going to get it.”

  Her eyes flicked down to take in just how much white foam was now staining his partly rolled sleeves and her lips twitched in a flagrant lack of remorse.

  Despite the fact that she was laughing at his expense, he smiled wider. Mostly because he’d just added that escaped grin to the tally of things he was going to collect on.

  “Now, Brian. Let’s be rational,” she tried reasoning. “You can’t blame me for that food canister malfunction.”

  Another tiny giggle.

  Check.

  The closer he got, the more he wondered why exactly she wasn’t even trying to run—

  He found out moments later when she launched the whipped cream toward the dining room and bolted in the opposite direction toward the sliding patio door.

  Clever little prey. Too bad she put too much stock in the bottle of whipped cream.

  He snagged her by the belt loop and crushed her body back against his. The sudden explosion of ear-singeing curse words at full soprano intermixed with those drunken fairy giggles of hers had a ball of laughter building in his chest.

  Naturally, she followed that up with the last possible thing he expected.

  Rather than attempt to escape, she instead spun around and grabbed the two sides of his half-buttoned flannel shirt—or as Skylar called it, his country music award outfit—and rammed her face into the opening, smooshing her face against the t-shirt he wore underneath, and wrapping the two flannel sides around her head like a protective bubble from any whipped cream retaliation. Her laughter continued, of course, buried though it was against his chest.

  “This is your defense of choice,” he burst out laughing, “the ostrich head in the sand move?”

  He took a few steps forward and cracked up harder when she shuffled back quickly to keep pace. He was certain if the girls were to happen upon in the house now, hopped up on candy as he was sure they’d be, they’d freak out thinking they were seeing an ass-backward centaur.

  Two muffled words vibrated against his sternum.