She quietly followed him to the beauty section, trying to shake off his kiss and regain her senses, but she was afraid it was a lost cause. Her senses had taken flight the first time she felt his body against hers.
“Can you get three of those foot spas with the heat? They’re on sale, too,” she said to him as she grabbed an assortment of pumices, files, and anything that looked like it would scrape skin off feet.
“Why are you getting three of everything?”
“Because we don’t have time or the equipment to properly sterilize these between clients, Mr. Bringin-Thirty-Percent-More-Profit. We’re going to need some spray bleach.” She turned away to study the nail polish. “It’s three aisles down with the cleaning supplies, and get the store-brand stuff. It’s just as good as the name brand.”
He stood behind her, not moving. She could feel the heat of his eyes on her skin. “What?” She turned back to him.
“You’re bossing me around. I don’t allow people to boss me around.”
“Lucky for you I’m not most people.” She grabbed his hand, kissing his knuckles. She knew it was stupid to touch him again when she still hadn’t recovered from the last time her lips were on his, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to get a reaction out of him. “Please, sir, can you go get the spray bleach?” She kissed him there twice more. “I would ever so appreciate it.”
“Get on your knees and say it.”
“What!”
“You’re so easy.” He gently nudged her chin and walked away. She stared after him for a moment, thinking about how she got here. When she left her low-life ex-boyfriend, she never thought she’d end up on the other side of the country shopping for beauty products in a discount store with the CFO of a multimillion-dollar corporation.
“Zanna Jacobs.” She heard Perry Andersen’s voice and inwardly shuddered. He was like a rain cloud over a picnic. “I thought that was your fine-looking self. How are you today?”
“Fine.” She kept her answer short, hoping he would go away. He didn’t. He stepped closer, looking her body up and down like she was a piece of meat roasting on a spit.
“I’ve been thinking about you. I’ve still got that ticket to the firemen’s ball for tonight. You should rethink your answer and come with me.” She could smell the overpowering aroma of his teenage-boy-scented body spray, combined with cigar smoke. It made her stomach churn.
“A free ticket? I thought you were taking Ms. Emily Watkins. The nice girl who works in the library. In fact, I’m doing her hair for the event. Is she going to be unable to make it tonight?”
“I can make it that way. If you want, all it will take is one phone call and she’s out.” He took another step closer to her, but this time his hand came to rest on her shoulder. Perry wasn’t a bad-looking man, aside from a few crooked teeth. He was tall with dark hair and in the right light he sort of resembled Jimmy Stewart, but he was a prick. A world-class prick who couldn’t shake his thing for her.
She pushed his hand away. “Emily is a sweet lady. She’s been looking forward to this for weeks. I won’t be the cause of her heartbreak. If you didn’t want to take her, you shouldn’t have asked her.”
“Emily is cute, but she ain’t got nothing on you, Zanna. I’ll just put in an appearance at the ball and then me and you could get a motel room and”—his eyes roamed her body, lingering on her chest—“get down to some business.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Why a motel room? Why not your place?”
“My mother lives next door. You know that.”
“So I’m good enough to screw, but not good enough to take home to your mama? Fuck off. Emily is too good for you. She really likes you, you know. I’m not sure why. I don’t think you’re fit to lick her shoes.”
“I’m the fucking fire chief.” Little specks of spittle flew from his mouth as his voice rose. “That’s why. The youngest one they’ve ever had. My daddy was police chief before he died. One of my brothers is the manager of the goddamn bank, the other one runs the mines. I’m from good stock and my name means something in this town. Don’t nobody know where you came from. You’re so damn secretive about it. Acting like you’re better than somebody else. You’d be damn lucky to get somebody like me. You ain’t nothing around here.”
“You all right, honey?” Colt came up behind her, tossed the bleach into the cart, wrapped his arm around her waist, and locked eyes with Perry.
The term of endearment surprised her. She knew why Colt used it, but she didn’t expect to get a funny feeling in her chest because of it. “I’m fine, babe. Perry and I were just having a little discussion about why I can’t go out with him tonight.”
“She’ll be with me,” he said, not taking his eyes off Perry.
“So the rumors are true. The King boys are back in town.”
“We’re back but there’s nothing boyish about us.”
The two men stood staring at each other, bodies stiff, backs up. If they were dogs, they would have been growling and circling each other.
“You’ve come back here to throw it in our faces, have you? Some people may have forgotten what you were like, but I didn’t. My family hasn’t forgotten what you or your brothers did. And—” He stopped himself, but Zanna could have sworn there was an unspoken threat there.
“Glad your family hasn’t forgotten. They shouldn’t, but if you think I spent one moment thinking about rubbing my success in anyone’s face, you’re wrong. I’m here because my aunt needs me. Not because I give a shit about you or anybody else in this insignificant place.”
He ran his fingers down Zanna’s arm, finally looking at her. “You just about done in this aisle?”
“Yeah.” She grabbed a handful of nail polishes and tossed them in the cart. “I’m ready to get out of here.” She pushed the cart past Perry, glad to be rid of him.
“Fucking prick,” Colt said when Perry was out of earshot.
“High school rivalry? Did he steal your girlfriend or your spot on the football team?”
“We were on the wrestling team. But that’s not why I hate him.”
“Why then?”
“His family is the reason Duke went to prison for five years.”
*
The next morning Colt looked at his little brother as he poured himself the world’s largest cup of coffee. He looked bone-tired but happy. Levi was always happy. Even after their father disappeared and they had to survive on white rice until Duke scrounged up enough money to feed them. He even seemed cheerful after Duke went to jail and Colt forced him to come live with him in California for a while. Nothing seemed to put a damper on his brother’s spirits, and he wondered how Levi did it. How he could always be so damn cheerful when life had handed them so much shit? But that was the good thing about him. Levi made the bad times so much easier to get through.
“What have you been up to?”
“Shelly.” He dumped a truckload of sugar into his coffee. “Have you seen Shelly? Little Shelly who used to have braces and wore her hair in pigtails?”
“No.” He shook his head, amused by his brother’s bemusement. “Has she changed?”
“I mean she’s still the same sweet thing who prays for everybody before she goes to bed at night, but she’s … she’s … Damn.”
“Why do you sound so surprised by this? I thought you two kept in touch.”
“We did. We do. But in letters. She writes me long letters once a week and sends them to me wherever I am.”
“Sends them, as in mails them?”
He nodded as a grin spread across his face. “She handwrites them. I email her back, of course, tell her she doesn’t have to write longhand, but I get a kick out of it.”
Colt never understood Levi’s bond with their neighbor. Levi was a happy-go-lucky wild guy and Shelly was the sweet shy daughter of an incredibly strict prison guard and church deacon, but they had always been close. It made Colt wonder if his serial-dating little brother had some deeper feelings for his be
st friend.
“You have a late night last night?”
“Yeah, I took her driving in the desert. I’ve got a friend who makes these insane off-roading vehicles. You take them fast enough and they literally fly. Me and Shelly were flying last night.”
“I didn’t think she was an adrenaline junkie like you are.”
“She’s not, but she said she’s never been able to experience anything. So while her dad’s in Florida this month I’m going to show her a good time. We all know when that blowhard comes back, he’ll put a stop to it.”
“She’s a grown woman. He can’t stop her from enjoying herself.”
“But she doesn’t want to disappoint him. Since her mother died, she feels like it’s her job to take care of him and keep him happy.”
“She needs to get the hell out of there.”
“Hell yeah, she does. I wish I could convince her.”
“Colt King!” Zanna’s angry voice distracted him. He looked up to see her, eyes flashing, money in hand, and charging toward him.
There went his damn heart again. He never enjoyed making somebody angry, but seeing Zanna pissed off gave him a little charge. It was almost like a high. If Levi felt like this every time he raced cars, Colt could understand why his brother was always doing things to risk his life. Being near Zanna was a rush that nothing else could compare to.
“What the hell is this?” She shoved the two hundred dollars he’d left for her at him. “You paying me for services rendered? If you’ll pay me this much for a kiss, then how much will you give me to sleep with you.”
“Whoa!” Levi said, his eyes looking fully alert for the first time that day. “What’s going on?”
“It’s not what you think. Both of you.” He took the money and handed it back to her. “We’ve been here eating your food, drinking your coffee, and using up all your hot water. I’m paying you back.” He handed it back to her.
“Well, I don’t want it.” She shoved it back at him.
“You’re insane. Take it. We don’t want to owe you.”
She looked horrified. “This is way too much! I-I can’t take this. You don’t owe me.”
“We do owe you. You are going to take it. And that’s final!”
“That’s final? Who do you think you are telling me when something is final?”
He stepped forward, grabbed her arm to pull her close, and slipped the two bills in the back pocket of her jeans. Her eyes widened and that spark in them changed to heat. He wondered if she thought about that kiss they shared in the office yesterday, or the too-brief one in the middle of the store. He had a hard time keeping control around her and it seemed that she felt the same way.
“Um.” Levi cleared his throat. “Still here. While I’m fascinated by your freaky little foreplay, I don’t need to be a witness to it.”
“Shut up,” Colt barked at him, then turned back to Zanna. “You’re keeping this money, okay? I want you to have it. I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking advantage of you. You work hard for a little bit of money and I don’t want it going toward us when we already have so much.”
She nodded slowly. “Just don’t leave it on my nightstand. It makes me feel cheap,” she said so quietly he could barely hear her.
“Okay.” He wanted to kiss her, pull her into his arms and kiss her until he was out of breath. He felt bad. He liked seeing her mad, but he didn’t like the thought that he might have hurt her feelings. “We’re still going to the farmers market?”
“Farmers market? They’ve got one of those here?” Levi asked. Colt kept forgetting his brother was there, watching everything that that was going on between them. He had always been über-aware of his surroundings, but with Zanna around everything and everybody else faded away.
“It’s nice, Levi,” Zanna said. “Come with us. I’ve got some extra money. I’ll buy you ice cream.”
“Ice cream. Oh boy!” he cheered sarcastically, but in a lovable way. “I would love to spend the day at the farmers market with you. Colty here is another story.”
He didn’t want his brother tagging along. It was stupid. He wasn’t dating Zanna, even though yesterday he’d led Perry the Prick to believe that he was.
He had never gone shopping with a woman before. But yesterday he pushed the cart through the store listening to her talk about everything and nothing while she placed items in it. It all felt so normal. So domestic. He didn’t think he would like it, but spending time with her in a discount store was more fun than he’d had in years. Either he needed to get out more or it was her who made it that way.
He liked her. He shouldn’t. She was a distraction. She was Lolly’s employee and the type of woman he should stay away from. He was supposed to be thinking about the salon and how he could make it function better in his short time here, but yesterday as he watched her work all he could think about was her.
It was bad. But right now he needed a little bad in his life.
“Go get dressed,” he told Levi. “We’re leaving in ten minutes.”
“Yes, sir!” He mock-saluted and sauntered out.
Zanna remained, quietly looking at him and for the first time looking almost unsure of herself. “You really blew up about that money. Why did it make you feel cheap?”
“It was nothing.” She looked away from him and down at her feet. “Forget about it. I’m sorry.”
“I want to know,” he prodded her gently.
“I feel stupid about it now.” She shook her head. “My granddaddy used to say I get madder than a cat forced to take a bath.”
He stepped closer to her. “Tell me.”
“It just brought back some shit I’d rather forget.”
“Of what?” He didn’t want to let this go. He wasn’t going to forget that angry hurt look on her face.
“My mama. Sometimes her ‘dates’ left money for her when things got tight. I swore to myself that no matter how bad things got for me, I would never let anyone use me like that.”
“Have I used you?” Sometimes he did. He used people to get things he wanted, and places he needed to be. He used women for sex, for boredom relief, but he didn’t want her to feel used.
“No, Colt.” She shook her head. “You haven’t.”
“Good. Now will you buy me ice cream at the farmers market?”
She smiled beautifully at him. “Only if you’re a good boy.”
*
Zanna sat in the passenger seat of Colt’s SUV as he drove them to the farmers market on the outskirts of town. She was feeling mighty stupid about what had just gone down in the kitchen. She didn’t know why she went so crazy when she saw the money on her nightstand. She hadn’t slept with Colt, even though she wanted to. Even though last night it nearly took an act of God to keep her in her bed and out of his after what went down between them.
He was a controlling pain in the ass who had usurped her power in the salon but he wasn’t like any of the other men in her life. She had lied to him when she told him she had vowed to never let another man use her. She had been used in every relationship she had been in. She didn’t give her heart often, but when she did, she gave it all away. First it was Mickey when she was twenty, who claimed he was an artist, but the only talent he had was putting a permanent butt print in her couch. She worked two jobs while she went to beauty school to support him and he still stole the three grand she had saved up.
Bruno didn’t steal from her. He didn’t have to because he stole from everybody else and used her apartment for his shady business dealings while she was at work. She had jumped into that relationship with both feet. So impressed by Bruno’s charm and the gifts that he showered on her, she really had believed that he worked for his uncle’s plumbing company instead of as a low-level mobster. He used her too, and took a piece of her pride when he slapped her for questioning his business. She should have shot him right then and there, but she did something else to get back at him. Something that really had hurt him, and that’s why she had to leave the
East Coast. It had been a year and half and she hoped he’d moved on, but she knew he wanted her dead.
Colt hadn’t done anything to her yet, except make her want him. Maybe that’s what scared her. She wanted him more than she had anybody else. It was more than a want. It was almost like a need. A need to be near him. A need to smell his scent and hear the low rumble of his voice. A need to be pressed against him. Her skin actually broke out in tingles when he was around. Her stomach felt like a whole field of butterflies had broken free when he looked at her. And when he touched her, even innocently, her nipples went hard. Warmth spread through her and moisture formed between her legs.
He had power and money. He bought and sold people and places for a living. He was just the kind of jackass she’d fall for. If she let him use her, there would be nothing left for anyone else to have. She wanted to give to somebody else, even though she wasn’t in the market for a guy right now. But she wanted a family of her own, a little girl she could raise up right and correct all the mistakes her mama had made with her. She wanted a guy with a nine-to-five job. Who came from a normal family. She wanted stability. A millionaire who would throw her away like a snotty tissue when he was done with her was the last thing she needed in her life. The only thing that brought her comfort was knowing that he would be gone soon. She just had to get through the next three weeks with her legs closed and her heart intact.
“This place is packed,” Colt said as he pulled into the parking lot. “And not just with locals, either.”
“I told you all about it. You didn’t want to believe me.”
“I needed to see it for myself. I didn’t become successful by trusting anybody’s word.”
She looked over at him as he pulled the car to a stop. “Do you trust anyone, Colt?”
“Nope,” Levi chimed in from the backseat. “Not anyone. Even I had to go through three rounds of job interviews before he hired me, and I’m his favorite person.”
“Why do you keep saying you’re my favorite person?” He looked back at Levi. “What makes you think I like you more than anybody else?”
The Bad Boy CEO Page 8