by Lane Hart
“Oh, ah, okay,” Paul mutters. “You want Verek to join us?”
“Well, it’s a public beach, and the prospects will be there with us,” I remark rather than backpedal and uninvite Verek. By now, after three dates, Paul has to know that the way I feel about him is nothing more than friendship. We may have had a connection once before, but it’s gone for good.
“Sure, right,” he says rather than demand that I not bring Verek along. “So, um, did I mention that I saw Bev a few weeks back?”
“Oh, no you didn’t,” I say. “How is she?” I’ve tried to keep in touch with my friends and coworkers from home, but I know they’re busy, and I haven’t really had anything to talk about.
“She’s good,” Paul says. “She said they really miss you in the office.”
“That’s sweet,” I say.
“Have you thought about going back to the law office?”
“You mean moving back to Raleigh?”
“Well, yeah. It’s been your home since you were born. I’m sure your parents and friends would love to have you back, and I know I would.”
“I just got settled into my apartment here,” I say, gesturing to the door I’m in a hurry to go through. I saw Verek’s bike down in the parking lot, and I know he’s waiting for me.
“I thought staying here was just temporary, though,” Paul remarks. “You don’t have any plans to come home?”
“My home is here now,” I explain. “Maybe someday in the future I might want to move back, just not right now.”
“Okay,” he says. “No harm in asking.”
No harm? Seriously? Doesn’t he know that whenever I think about my hometown, my parents, my friends, my workplace, that it’s all a sad reminder of the old me, the one that was happy and didn’t have a care in the world other than planning the perfect wedding?
“Right, well, it’s getting late, so I’m going on inside. See you tomorrow,” I say in a rush before I unlock the apartment. I hurry in so fast that I almost run smack-dab into Verek’s chest. “Oh! Hi!” I say with a laugh.
“Hey,” he says, sending his usual peppermint gum scent my way because we’re only inches away from each other. “How was your dinner and a show?”
“Great,” I reply. “The dessert was probably the best part.”
“That right?” he asks.
“Yep. So, um, were you heading out?” I question him since he was so close to the door.
“Yeah, I am. Why? Do you think I was eavesdropping?”
Grinning, I tell him, “No,” even though now I’m wondering if he was in fact listening with his ear to the door. “Where are you headed so late?” I ask. Then I notice the addition of his leather cut over his long-sleeve white Henley. “You got your cut back. That’s great!”
“Well, ah, yeah I did. And Winston is acting president while Roman’s gone. He wants me to go check on things at Fluid every night, starting tonight, to give the other guys a break.”
“Oh,” I mutter, disappointed we won’t be having a night in bed like last night. Verek and I slept in this morning, but I haven’t seen him awake much of the day.
“I don’t have to go,” Verek assures me, but I shake my head.
“Yes, you do,” I say as I grab either side of his cut. “You just got this back. I know how much you must have missed it. No reason to go and do anything to piss off the acting president.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you here alone.”
I start to remind him that the prospects will be outside, and then I have an even better idea. “Could I come with you?” I ask.
“You want to go to the club?” Verek asks in disbelief. “I thought you hadn’t been back and didn’t want to ever go back.”
“I didn’t before, while you were gone. But if I’m with you, then I think I’ll be okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I confirm. “The prospects will be there with the SUV if it’s too much or if I need to leave before you’re ready.”
“That’s true,” Verek agrees as he chews his gum and the idea over silently while considering it.
“I’ll go get changed,” I say before he can change his mind.
I hesitate for a few seconds when I open my closet doors, realizing I can’t wear my usual uniform of a sweater and jeans to the club. I’ll have to finally put on one my dresses that have been gathering dust for months.
I finally choose a black sweater dress with long sleeves to keep warm, with thick black tights and red heels that match my red leather purse for a touch of color.
It’s past time I shed my protective layers, and it’s easier than I thought it would be to put on something a little sexier, a little more revealing than usual, knowing Verek won’t let me out of his sight tonight.
Verek
* * *
Tessa in a dress and heels, having lost the layers of thick clothing, is like dangling heroin right in the face of an addict. God, I want her so bad.
I didn’t want to leave the apartment after she came out of the bedroom, preferring to stay here and have her sit her pussy right down on my face again. But the fact that she said she’s ready to go back to the scene of her kidnapping is a huge step for her, one I know I can’t postpone.
Besides, I need to check in and see how the books are looking, since I’ve been gone for so long.
Since it’s too cold to put Tessa on the back of my bike, even with the peacoat she added to her dress, I begrudgingly send her over in the SUV with Lucas and Jake, while I take my bike.
They drop her off right in front of Fluid, and since it’s the off-season, there’s no long line waiting to get in. Tonight there’s a much smaller crowd, mostly just locals hanging out, some trying to get in good with the Kings in the hopes of becoming a prospect or an old lady one day.
I get my bike parked quickly at the curb and hurry over to open the passenger door for Tessa, offering her my hand to help her down.
“You don’t have to do this tonight if you don’t want to,” I tell her. “Lucas and Jake can drive you around until I finish up or take you home.”
“No, I’m ready,” she says, her emerald eyes confident and determined when she takes my hand and steps onto the sidewalk.
Keeping her hand in mine, I lead her through the front, nodding in greeting at our bouncer Butch before checking Tessa’s coat, then taking her straight upstairs and right into my office. I shut the door, drowning out the club’s music and leaving us entirely alone. My plan is to let her take her time and do this revisit gradually.
“This is where you do your work when you’re here?” she asks.
“Yeah, mostly before the night even gets started. Then I stick around until a little after midnight to make sure there are no major problems – no fights, no beer shortage, no ABC inspections, then I leave and go home…” I trail off since most of the nights I worked here I would leave with someone. “You mind hanging out in here while I look over the books?” I ask.
“No, this is better,” Tessa says. “It’ll give me time to ease into everything.”
“That’s what I was hoping too,” I agree. By “everything” I know she means to get a handle on her demons, the nightmares that happened right after she was dancing here with me.
Pushing those depressing thoughts aside, I sit down behind the wooden desk to dig into the records Cannon and Conrad have been keeping while Tessa wanders around the small room, fidgeting with her hands like she’s nervous and not sure what to do with herself.
“You can sit down if you want. Over there across from me or on my lap. I bet you know my preference.”
“Okay,” she says in what sounds like relief before she comes around the desk and takes a seat on one of my knees. I wrap my arm around her waist with my left hand while using my right to flip pages in the ledger.
Once I’ve done a quick run-through of the books, I pick up the phone on my desk and buzz Damon, our head bartender, to come to my office.
“Yeah, boss?”
Damon asks when he busts into my office, opening the door without knocking first. His eyes widen when he sees Tessa on my lap. She starts to stand, but I keep my arm around her. “You’re fine,” I tell her, placing a kiss on her cheek. “You too,” I say to Damon. “Catch me up in ten minutes or less on what’s happened these last six months that I need to know about.”
“Oh, well…” He scratches his dirty-blond hair in thought, and then he’s off, taking us back to around June when I first left, and there were some issues with waitress schedules that took a few days to resolve and a few other minor problems leading up until this week. Nothing that Cannon and Conrad didn’t handle and nothing that put us in jeopardy of losing our liquor license, which was my biggest concern.
“Thanks, Damon,” I tell him. “I may be leaving soon, but I’ll be back tomorrow night.”
“Yes, sir,” the bartender says before he slips out of the office, shutting the door behind him.
“So far, so good,” I tell Tessa.
“Are you disappointed they didn’t miss you?” she teases.
“No, I’m glad they didn’t. If this place got shut down because of my absence, Roman would’ve tracked me down and probably murdered me in my sleep,” I joke. The club is one of the MC’s biggest moneymakers. The rental properties have a lot of upkeep, taxes, and insurance expenses, the Harley dealership has to spend a ton of money in advance to keep great inventory in stock, while the club is mostly pure profit since we own the building.
“Are you ready to head out to the main floor, maybe dance with me a few songs before we leave?”
“Sure,” she agrees when she climbs off my lap.
When I take her hand, it’s shaking slightly as we make our way to the dance floor that’s about a quarter full compared to the last time Tessa was here in the spring. The two prospects are the only guys sitting at the bar not drinking. Instead, they’re both just staring over at us, so I flip them off in greeting.
“This good?” I ask when I stop in the middle of the floor to pull Tessa close, my fingers circling her hips.
“Yeah, this is good,” she says, resting her hands on my shoulder and upper arm. It’s not a slow song, but that doesn’t matter to us. When Tessa rests her face against my chest, I wrap my arms around her a little tighter.
“What are you thinking about?” I ask after a few more songs come and go, while she doesn’t budge.
I assume it’s the kidnappers or how they hurt her, so I’m surprised when she lifts her face to mine and says, “Sometimes, I think that if I had gone home with you that night, you would’ve forgotten my name before the sun came up. That you’re only drawn to me out of guilt.”
“Sweetheart, I could never forget you,” I assure her while pushing a lock of her beautiful red hair behind her shoulder. “And yes, I feel guilty about that night, and I always will. I won’t ever stop trying to make it up to you.”
“We had just met and were complete strangers. You didn’t owe me anything.”
“I beg to differ,” I reply.
“And I was engaged. I told you I was leaving to call my fiancé, the man I was supposed to marry in two weeks. So when you took someone else home, you didn’t do anything wrong, Verek.”
“I wish you had come home with me,” I tell her truthfully. “But then I know that would’ve ruined everything for you too. So I can’t help but think I should’ve turned you down when you asked me to dance. If I had refused, you would’ve gone on with your life as planned, gotten married, maybe be working on having a kid by now with Paul.”
“If you had turned me down, I may have gotten married, but I don’t think I would’ve been happy. The way I see it, you did me a favor.”
“A favor?” I repeat with a scoff. “Sweetheart, please. I came on way too strong, even after I knew you were engaged. Everything that happened, it was my fault. I just wish there was some way to make it up to you.”
“You really want to make it up to me?” she asks.
“More than anything,” I tell her, knowing I’m asking the impossible.
“Then take me home with you tonight, to your place,” Tessa says, making my entire body, heart, and soul freeze right there in the middle of the dance floor.
“What?” I ask in shock.
“Take me home. I want us to finally do what I wanted that night, before I walked out.”
“Are you sure, sweetheart? We don’t have to rush…” I start to say before Tessa presses her fingertips to my lips.
“We’re not rushing. We’ve waited eight months for this moment. I’m ready, Verek. Please?”
It’s the “please” that does me in. She could ask me for anything, and I would gladly give it to her. And this particular request? Hell, she’s right. I’ve wanted her for eight long, torturous months, more than anything.
Tessa
* * *
Being back in the club with Verek was easier than I expected. It’s really been cathartic because the memories it brings back are the ones of dancing with him after we first met, and fortunately nothing else. Which is why I want to take that last step with Verek, finally. He’s been so patient, and I know he would keep waiting, no matter how much longer I asked him to wait. But I don’t want to wait any longer.
“Verek?” I say when he doesn’t respond.
His response is wordless. He hugs me so tightly that my feet lift momentarily off the floor, making me laugh before he puts me down. Then, he takes my hand to lead me downstairs. He’s as excited as I am. Or at least I was excited before it hits me how much pressure is on this moment. It’ll be our first time. What if it’s awful?
No, that’s impossible. Just kissing Verek is off-the-charts hotter than Hades.
But what if it’s not good for him? His record of conquests is a mile long while mine is so short. What if he’s been waiting and waiting, and then when it’s over, he doesn’t want to touch me again because he’s disappointed?
I’ve always thought I only kept Verek’s interest for this long because I didn’t sleep with him. After I do, what happens then? Will things stay the same between us, or will he finally move on?
God, what am I thinking?
Where are all these negative thoughts coming from?
Verek deserves more credit than that. He loves me, even if he’s never said the words. I can tell. He’s not going to walk away from me afterward because he cares about me too much. He knows how important this step is for me.
We’re downstairs standing next to his bike before I can even blink. I look behind us, and not even Lucas or Jake were able to keep up.
“I know it’s cold, but do you think you can stand it for just a few minutes? My town house is less than a mile away. We’ll be even colder if we have to wait out here for the prospects to get the SUV from wherever the hell they parked.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I agree.
Verek puts his helmet on my head, and then I’m climbing up on his bike in my dress, my coat still inside where I checked it. But my skin feels like it’s overheating at a million degrees.
I wind my arms around Verek’s waist tightly before he even cranks the engine. A moment later, we’re flying down the strip, right past the stores I walked past that night before I was taken. I squeeze him harder, knowing that I shouldn’t be scared of this part of town anymore. Those men can’t touch me again. They’ve invaded my nightmares and daydreams for far too long, even though they’ve been dead for months thanks to Verek.
It’s finally time for me to let those monsters rest, to stop letting them control my every waking moment.
Taking a deep breath of the cool night air, I exhale and relax into Verek’s backside, knowing I’m completely safe with him.
His town house is only a few streets back from the main strip just as he said, six brick two-story units on one side of the street, six on the other.
Killing the engine, Verek says, “This is it. How bad was the ride over?”
“It was fine,” I tell him, even though my hands ar
e frozen solid. He climbs off the bike first, then helps remove my helmet before offering me a hand.
I try and calm my nerves when Verek takes me up the couple of steps to his door and unlocks it. Then I’m standing inside the living room of his bachelor pad where he’s been with tons of women, waiting quietly as he flips on some lights, revealing a cozy living room with dark brown leather sofas and a few paintings on the walls. It’s not the dirty, messy bachelor pad I expected. No wonder women want to screw his brains out when he brings them here to his home that looks like it’s just waiting for the right woman to come along and be a part of his domestic haven.
“This is it,” Verek says while I stand there and stare at the furnishings.
“It’s very nice. More than I expected, like a page from Home & Garden.”
“What? I don’t know about all that!” he says with a chuckle. “I’m guessing you expected scattered beer bottles and takeout boxes?”
“Something like that,” I agree as I take a peek into the kitchen that’s equally perfect before finally asking, “So where’s your bedroom?”
Smiling he turns and says, “This way.”
I follow him up the carpeted stairs, then past a bathroom and room set up like an office before we get to the master bedroom. Of course his four-poster wooden bed is huge since he’s not a small man. The thick blue-and-cream Sherpa comforter looks warm and inviting with big fluffy pillows. Even the bedside tables and dresser are oversized and manly. It looks just like I would picture somewhere Verek sleeps, even though he hasn’t spent a night here in six months.
“What do you think? The place needs a good cleaning. I dusted and vacuumed a little the other day, but I was in a hurry to get back to you,” he rambles when he comes to a stop at the foot of the bed and turns to me, looking just as nervous as I am.
“It’s perfect,” I tell him, walking over to him. Going up on my toes, I press my lips to his while my hands reach for the sides of his cut, pushing it down his arms and off, not wasting any time.