I watched her lift her knee to rest her purse on her leg as she continued to search. Black yoga pants were painted on her squeezable thighs and plump ass, and the simple T-shirt she wore did nothing to hide the mouthwatering swell of her breasts. I wanted to taste every inch of the soft curves hiding beneath, and my feet ate up the distance between us.
When she heard me approach, her head jerked up and her mouth fell open in a sexy little O. To keep her from running off like she did last time, I forced myself to stop a few feet away and shove my hands in my pockets. Then, I flashed my most charming smile.
“What…”
I wasn’t able to hide my perusal of her figure as I scanned her up and down, nor my arousal, that I’m sure was a visible cock bulge in the front of my jeans.
Her hair was different. Shorter and it curled slightly just under her jaw. No makeup, her lips were ripe and plump. I watched her pupils dilate slightly in her beautiful hazel eyes as she stared back at me.
“I was just thinking about you and you showed up a couple doors away from my shop as though I conjured you out of thin air. That’s fate, right?” Truth was, I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since I woke up from the coma.
Her hand trembled slightly as she lowered her eyes and looked back into her purse, this time rifling through it much slower. “I was getting my hair done.”
“I see that. It’s beautiful.” I stepped closer to her and ran two fingers lightly down a strand that framed her face.
Her cheeks colored with a pink tinge and she dropped her purse. When things tumbled out of it and scattered all over the sidewalk, we both knelt to pick them up. I grabbed a tube of chap stick, earbuds, two quarters and a wadded up Kleenex. As she reached for a pen that had rolled into the street, I was struck by how she just got more breathtaking the closer I got. I pushed her hair back behind her ear and ran my thumb over her jaw.
“Goddamn you’re so fucking beautiful.”
She looked up at me, surprise written all over her. “Stop.”
I let out an unexpected laugh and pulled her to her feet. “Go out with me tonight.”
She bit her lip and her eyes strayed to where I held her forearms, my thumb casually stroking her skin. Her body swayed closer to mine, but she stiffened and pulled back. “I can’t.”
“Tomorrow night?”
“I can’t then, either.”
“The night after?”
She grinned for a second before shaking her head and grabbing her keys from her purse. “I-I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“Sweetheart, it’s a great idea. A fucking fantastic idea. I promise. It’s the best idea I’ve ever had, actually.” I placed a feather-light kiss on her temple and she sucked in a sharp breath then turned a heated gaze up at me. Her lip was tucked between her teeth and it looked like she was fighting to keep from touching me. I’d never seen anything so sexy in my life. I moved my hand to her waist and stroked her side. “Give me a list of why you think it’s not a good idea and we can debate the pros and cons of each reason on the list.”
“This isn’t debate club.”
“And you’re lucky it’s not. I was captain of the debate team.”
She frowned. “Really?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Not at all. But when I really, really want something, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get it.”
“Flynn Bennett! What the hell is going on?! Hey, whoever you are. You get the hell away from man!”
I winced at the shriek, while Arden jerked away from me as fast as she could. I glanced back at Tiff, the pain in the ass. She was becoming a stalker. She’d moved herself into my apartment while I was in the hospital and I found her living there when I got home. I should have called the fucking cops. I would have, except cops and I didn’t mix well. The craziest part was, although we’d had a couple casual hookups before the accident, I’d never had her up to my place before. Never so much as invited her through the door. I told her that night, in no uncertain terms, to get the fuck out—and stay out.
Growling low in my chest, I shook my head at her, thoroughly regretting that I didn’t have her ass arrested for trespassing.
Why she was stomping over to me, looking like she had a claim on me, was beyond my comprehension. “Thought I told you to get going and stay gone.”
“Who the fuck is this, Flynn?!” She jabbed a sharp, two-inch long fingernail in Arden’s direction. “Is this your side bitch?”
“Watch your mouth.” I bit the words out between clenched teeth and turned to explain to Arden that Tiff was out of her fucking mind, but Arden had already unlocked and opened her car door, and was getting in. “Arden, this isn’t—”
“Yeah, that’s right, g’won bitch. This here’s my baby daddy. You go find yourself another one. Maybe at the country club.” Tiff tried to get closer to Arden, but I put myself between them and growled louder at the woman.
“Hey, psycho-stalker, I am not your man, and if you really are pregnant, I sure as shit ain’t the daddy.”
The sound of Arden’s car starting added fuel to my burning anger. I turned and spotted her lower lip tremble as she pulled out of her parking spot and headed north on Main St.
She didn’t look back.
Swinging around to Tiff, I held up my hands and skirted around her. “You are fucking nuts, you know that?!” I had never hit a woman before, and I could say in all honesty, that right then was the first time in my entire life I ever wanted to.
“Flynn, this baby’s yours. I told you. Why don’t you believe me?” She followed after me, clutching the back of my shirt and whining.
I inhaled deeply. Sure enough, she was pregnant. It was faint, but I scented a baby growing inside her. Definitely not my baby. She had a slightly extended abdomen. Very slightly. The woman wasn’t a day over four months pregnant. “The reason I don’t believe you is because I’m not a fucking moron. There’s nothing between you and me and there won’t ever be anything between you and me. That woman that just drove off is my future wife. No matter what shit you try to pull, that’s a fact. Give it up.”
She scowled. “You’re not shafting me on child support. Uh-uh. No way.”
“You do know that paternity tests exist, right? It’ll be pretty simple to prove that the child’s not mine.” I slammed the shop doors closed and locked them before heading for my Harley. “Don’t come back here. I mean it. I don’t want anything to do with you, Tiff.” I doubted she actually wanted anything to do with me either, except maybe as a meal ticket.
“You’re a real sonofabitch, you know that? A real sonofabitch.” As I straddled my Harley, she slapped me hard across the face and backed away when the bike roared to life. “Just so you know, I was fucking Simon the entire time you were away.”
I laughed. “Now we know whose kid it is. No wonder you’re trying to bark up my tree. You heard he blew through all his dough.”
“Fuck you, Flynn Bennett. Fuck. You.”
I pulled out of the lot and headed toward Pelican Drive. As far as I was concerned, Tiff didn’t exist. She was nothing to me now. She hadn’t been anything to me before the accident either, except a rare hookup.
I had never let myself get close to any woman before, and if I had, it wouldn’t have been her. Tiff was on the arm of a different guy every night. Whoever she could get something out of, that’s who she worked. I didn’t care if she fucked Simon—or the entire island, for that matter. I’d seen her around with lots of guys. Never bothered me in the least. Thanks to her, though, I now had a lot of explaining to do to the one woman I did care about and who did mean something to me. Arden probably wouldn’t understand. Who could blame her?
I knew where Arden lived. I would never tell her, but I’d scented her out immediately after leaving the meeting with Simon at the diner. I’d had to. My tiger wouldn’t rest unless he knew. I was doing a decent job of not overwhelming Arden with the whole mate thing, lord knew I didn’t want her to think of me as a stalker, but I couldn’t
sleep at night unless I first made sure she was safe. I’d checked up on her after dark to make sure her place was secure and that there was no scent of danger around the area.
Parking the Harley in front of her house, I hopped up the front steps and knocked on the door. Arden’s eyes grew wide as soon as she opened the door, but she didn’t look furious. That was a good sign. She did look sad, and that sliced me like a razor.
I held my hands up in front of me. “I’m sorry that happened. I’m just here to ask you for a chance to tell my side of it. I can explain, if you’ll let me—if you’ll just hear me out. Please.”
9
Arden
The second I opened my front door and saw Flynn standing there, my knees went weak and my brain turned to mush. Had he followed me? Why? What did it matter to him if I walked away and out of his life? On a hotness scale of one to ten, the man was a twelve. He couldn’t possibly care how I felt. In his eyes, I’d never been anything to him. I’d never been a significant part of his life. He was the one who’d been a significant part of mine.
All I could do was stare up at him, speechless. Flynn didn’t wait to be invited in. He gently took hold of both my upper arms and walked us backward into the house. He reached back and closed the door with his foot, then I found myself being pulled into my own living room by a man who technically had no business even being there. Especially considering that he had a girlfriend and a baby on the way.
A stabbing pain pierced my chest at the realization. I had to get rid of him. This wasn’t right. He couldn’t be here. “I don’t think this is such a good idea, you being here. You need to leave.”
“Will you listen to me first? Please. If you still want me to leave after hearing me out, I will. I promise.”
I pulled my arms out of his grip and wrapped them tightly around my stomach, turning away from him slightly. All of a sudden, my living room looked different. I was envisioning it through the eyes of someone who had never seen it before, and wondering what that someone thought of it. The throw pillows were flat and the afghan was on the floor.
I wondered what he was used to. What kind of women did he usually date? Well, the woman who’d just confronted us was slender with painted on jeans, heavy makeup, a teeny tiny crop top, and high-heeled sandals. Guess that was his type. Flynn and I were from different worlds. He probably thought I was incredibly uptight and stuffy.
I opened my mouth to tell him so, but that’s not what came out. “You didn’t cut your hair.” Why’d I say that?
“You told me not to. You like my hair?” He flashed a cocky grin.
My cheeks heated. “I don’t know why I said that. I used to brush it. It’s silly.”
“It’s not silly. Not at all. I wish I could tell you how much that means to me.” He cupped my cheek. “I’ll never cut it again. Not unless you tell me to.”
Oh, sweet Jesus. I grabbed a pillow off the couch and started to fluff it before tossing it back, grabbing another and doing the same thing.
“Arden?”
I looked back at Flynn and frowned. “Why are you here?”
“Tiff—that woman—is not my girlfriend, Arden, and she never was. The kid she’s carrying, is definitely not my baby. I can tell you that with absolute certainty.” He must have seen my astonished look because he rushed on. “There was never anything serious between us. I mean, come on, if there was, don’t you think she would have maybe visited me while I was in the hospital?”
He had a point. He was right about her not visiting, at least as far as I knew. “Well, why would she do that then? Why come at me all confrontational like that?”
“I really don’t know. She’s crazy. And the fact that I’m wasting time talking about her when we could be talking about you is really fucking irritating. She is nothing.”
I tilted my head to the side and frowned deeper. “Technically, I’m nothing.”
“What? You’re—”
“You don’t know me. I don’t really even know you. You want to talk crazy? I just sat by your bed and visited with you and made up this whole fairytale in my mind that we were friends. But we’re not friends. We don’t even know each other. Plus, I acted like a super creep and kissed you while you were in a coma.”
He was silent for several seconds. He looked as though he was contemplating something. Then his eyes narrowed and a brow shot up. “Would you like to be friends?”
He had me there. What could I say? In my book, if someone asked if you wanted to be friends, unless they’d done something amoral or offensive, to decline was just mean—hurtful even. I mean sure, Flynn was a felon—ex-felon, who’d served his time—and he was a biker type and we were from different sides of the tracks, but who was I to pass judgement? I didn’t judge people based on the circumstances they were born into. I knew full well that growing up surrounded by a cushion of wealth and privilege did not make you any better than someone who grew up with the deck stacked against them.
“Um, sure, we can be friends.”
“Just friends?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Don’t push it, Flynn Bennett.”
His face grew serious. “I love the way my name sounds sliding out from between your lips.” His gaze strayed to my mouth and stayed there for several seconds. “I’m warning you, sweetheart, I’m going to take this newly formed friendship of ours and make you fall in love with me.”
My heart fluttered in my chest. The man didn’t have far to go for that. I was already madly in lust with him. But why the hell did he want that? It wasn’t that I had a low opinion of myself, or anything. It was just that he and I didn’t seem to add up. Then, a lightbulb went off, and I knew what was going on.
“Look, Flynn, I know you think that you and I are a good idea, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s the Momma and duckling phenomena.”
“Momma and duckling…what the fu—huh?”
“When a baby duck comes out of its shell, it latches on to the first creature it sees and follows it around as though that creature is its momma. Like, if it sees a human first instead of a duck, bam, the human is its momma, or so it thinks. But, really, we both know that’s not the case, because its momma is a duck, not a human. I’m just the first person you saw when you woke up, so…” I flipped my hand over in a you-get-my-meaning-don’t-make-me-spell-it-out-here gesture.
Flynn threw his head back and roared with laughter. “Oh, Jesus, that’s good.” He stepped closer to me, still chuckling, wiping tears from his eyes. “Arden, you really are as sweet as sugar. Listen, sweetheart, I’m not a duck. I’m a tiger.” His eyes raked over my body in a gaze so heated I blushed. “And I’m damn sure not looking at you like a child looks at its momma.”
I turned and started fluffing the pillows again. I picked up the afghan, folded it, and smoothed it over the back of the couch. I noticed the rug needed vacuuming, too. “I just meant that you probably think I’m someone special because I’m the first person you saw when you came out of your coma.”
“I do think you’re special, but that’s not why. You’re special because you’re kind, caring, nurturing, and helpful. In fact, I think you’re amazing.”
I rolled my eyes, finally recovering a bit from the initial shock of him showing up at my front door. “Exaggerate much?”
He caught my wrist and all but yanked me into his chest. Staring down at me, breathing heavily, he bared his teeth before leaning forward and dragging them down the side of my throat. The wave of pleasure that hit me was something akin to the tension right before a massive orgasm. I sucked in a sharp breath and grabbed the front of his shirt in an attempt to keep myself upright.
How he did that to me, was a total mystery. My core pulsed and I felt my heart beating against his chest, perfectly in sync with the hard beating of his. “Flynn…”
He lowered his mouth to my neck again and sucked on my sensitive skin there. Each pull of his mouth was like a stroke to the damp, pulsing folds between my thighs.
When a loud knoc
k on the front door echoed through the house, I jumped back, out of his arms. Glancing toward the door, I swore under my breath and straightened my shirt.
“We’re not finished here, friend.”
Even a foot of space between he and I gave me a little more clarity. “Yes, we are. You really should go.”
“No.”
“What? You can’t just say no. This is my house.” I placed my palms flat on his lower back and pushed him toward the door. “You don’t get to be bossy in my house.”
“Then let’s go to mine. I’ll be bossy there. I’ll even let you be bossy for a while, if that’s your thing.” He swung around and gripped my waist with both hands, lifting me in the air and laughing when I squeaked. “You got a little naughty dominatrix in you, sweetheart?”
“Put me down!”
When he did, I yanked open the door and found myself facing to face with my mother.
* * *
I knew my eyes went wide and my mouth fell open, but I couldn’t help it. The timing could not have been worse. There, on one side of the threshold, stood Margarite Richardson in all her pretentious glory. She was staring past me to the man on the other side of the threshold, island bad boy, Flynn Bennett.
Mom’s eyes narrowed on him and I noticed her upper lip curl ever so slightly. Her hands, fell from their position on her hips, dropping in front of her and clasping together in a sign I recognized. She was fighting to keep her temper in check.
Flynn was not at all concerned that a woman who could verbally eviscerate him was staring with what would have undoubtedly been an ugly scowl, had her face not harbored so much Botox.
No, Flynn could not have cared less. He leaned down and ran his nose over the shell of my ear. “I’ll make you feel real good, bossy.” I slapped away his hands that had found their way to my waist again.
“Well, Arden Danielle.” Middle name. Despite the phony sweetness of her voice, Mom was pissed. The viper fangs were out.
Flynn made a low humming sound in his chest. It was barely audible, but it didn’t stop me from stepping on his toes in an attempt to get him to stop. The noise itself didn’t bother me, it was my body’s reaction to it—the rush of moisture seeping into my panties.
Chased Mate: Cybermates Page 6