by Bella Rose
Thorn kept looking over his shoulder as she slow rolled behind him. She might not have made him ride right up to the front doors with her, but she wasn’t stupid, and she hadn’t been born yesterday. She watched and waited until Thorn entered the school building. Then she waited five minutes more to make sure he didn’t walk right back out. When she was finally certain that he was at school for at least homeroom, she headed on to work.
Leah arrived later than she liked to. The students were already milling about her first hour class. Some were clustered around the desks talking, others were quietly reading or messing around on their cell phones. The bell rang just as she reached the front of the room.
“Cell phones away for the hour, please.” She clapped her hands and saw most of the phone returned to their owners’ bags. “Now we’re going to be talking about the book we’ve been reading, To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Leah mentally checked out for the next forty-five minutes as she led the class in a Socratic discussion about the book. At this point she had taught the book, read it, graded quizzes and tests, and listened to students drone on and on about it until she no longer needed to pay any attention to what was going on. It was second nature. Mind-numbingly boring second nature.
That thought brought to mind Thorn’s accusation about her being old before her time. Her brother hadn’t put it like that, but the words were thought provoking. It certainly wasn’t how she had set out to be. She hadn’t started out that way.
In fact, Leah could vividly remember sneaking out the kitchen door when she was nine or ten and meeting Griffin and half a dozen other Hellfire offspring out behind the old outbuildings so that they could go jump off the railroad bridge into the creek. That certainly hadn’t been a bright thing to do. But she’d had so much fun on those lazy afternoons. They would play hide and seek, try to steal snacks from someone’s pantry, and tell each other secrets and big whopping lies.
“Uh, Ms. Rawlins?”
She snapped back to reality and realized that her students were looking at her as though she’d lost her mind.
“Did the bell ring?” she asked reflexively. A glance at the clock told her that she still had just enough time for that night’s assignment. “For homework, I want you to read the next three chapters and write an essay on how they illustrate what you see as the theme of the book.”
Thankfully the bell rang right then, which meant that Leah didn’t have to try to explain her vacant expression and complete lack of knowledge about what the kids had discussed in class. The students hurriedly left the classroom without a backward glance. Apparently she was going to give everyone but herself full credit for participation in today’s class.
“Hey.” Her friend Dana Richards peeked into the classroom. “This is your planning period, right? Do you have a minute? I need to talk to someone before I blow a gasket.”
“About what?” Leah tried to be supportive, but Dana specialized in making mountains out of molehills and anything else.
Dana walked inside and shut the door. Then she perched on the edge of a student desk and pressed both hands to her chest. “Rodney proposed last night!”
Leah raised her eyebrows. She wasn’t really surprised. Her friend had been dating the guy for nearly two years. They practically lived together. “Wow. That’s great, Dana! When’s the wedding?”
“Well, that’s the thing…” Dana paused dramatically. “I just don’t know if I’m ready!”
“Okay.” Leah did not add that Dana had been bitching nonstop that Rodney hadn’t proposed yet just last week. “So what’s the hesitation about? He’s got a great job. The man is so reliable he’s like the sunrise. He adores you.” Leah began ticking things off on her fingers. “He buys jewelry on special occasions and flowers when he thinks you’re feeling down. What’s not to marry?”
“He’s sort of boring,” Dana said suddenly. “Do I really want my whole life to be predictable like that?”
“Wow,” Leah mused. “That’s pretty existential stuff. Don’t you think that if you asked him for a little bit of spice or fun and you guys talked about it, that you could find things to make life interesting together?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to transfer to the guidance department?” Dana asked with a snort. “I suppose I could try something like that, but I’m afraid he’s just too vanilla to do anything interesting.”
The word vanilla conjured up memories of her own past dates. They were quickly superseded by an image of a naked Griffin from just a few days ago. Leah couldn’t help the blush that rose to her cheeks. There was nothing vanilla about Griffin. The weird thing was that Leah had always thought she needed a vanilla guy and a vanilla life. She had searched for the sort of man that Dana had managed to snag. Yet she had never found anyone that really appealed to her. Was it about boredom?
“What are you thinking about?” Dana wanted to know. “Your expression is weird.”
“I’m getting married.”
“What?” Dana shot to her feet. “I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone!”
“It’s complicated.” Leah realized that people were always saying stuff like that, but in her case, it was totally true.
“When?” Dana was practically vibrating with excitement. “Oh my God, we can dress shop together!”
“I thought you weren’t sure if you should accept,” Leah reminded her.
“I will though.” Dana shrugged. “I don’t want to end up alone, and Rodney is a really great guy. And you’re right. We can talk about how to spice things up. It’ll bring us closer together.” The Dana pointed at Leah. “But don’t change the subject. Tell me about this guy.”
Leah realized that she was going to have to tell people something. Better to start warding off the awkwardness now. “I’ve known him since we were kids,” she began slowly. “His name is Griffin Prentiss.”
Dana drew back in obvious shock. “Griffin Prentiss the biker? Are you serious?”
“Oh.” Leah hadn’t expected that. “You know him?”
“More like know of him.” Dana’s expression was pure envy. “That guy is so hot he makes me want to drop my panties just looking at him! How are you marrying him?”
“It’s kind of an arranged thing,” Leah said lamely. “Because my dad was the leader of the Hellfire Crew.”
“Oh. My. God!” Dana gushed. She poked Leah in the arm and spun around in a little dance. “How could you keep that to yourself? I’ve known you, like, six years and I didn’t know that!”
“My parents split up when I was twelve. I have a younger brother. He’s sixteen.” This wasn’t really sounding better, but at least Dana was attempting to normalize the situation a bit. “Griffin and I are trying to co-parent my brother, and with all of the property issues and my brother’s living arrangement, it’s just easier if we legally marry.”
Dana frowned and bit her index fingernail. “So this isn’t a love match, I’m guessing?”
“I think he hates me, actually.”
“Nobody can hate you,” Dana said dismissively. “You’re way too nice. But I bet this guy is going to rock your world! I can’t even imagine it. You’re the most straitlaced woman I know.”
For some reason, that description offended Leah. She didn’t want to be the straitlaced spinster school teacher. “I’m not as boring as you think,” she said, feeling odd and maybe even a bit shy. “I was quite a hoodlum when I was young.”
“Seriously?” Dana did not look convinced. “So are you having a total biker wedding?”
“Oh God, no.” Leah couldn’t help but laugh. “We’re just going down to the courthouse. I told you, it’s a marriage of convenience more than anything else.”
“Yeah,” Dana prodded. “But have you slept with Griffin?”
For some reason Leah couldn’t just deny it and be done. She hedged, she looked around, and finally she nodded. “Once.”
“Oh my God!” Dana was now leaping up and down. “And?”
“It was good.�
�
“Only good?”
“What were you expecting me to say?”
Dana howled with glee. “That he rocked your world? That the two of you humped like monkeys for hours on end.”
“Really?” Now Leah was feeling exasperated. “You think I’m going to say something like that even if it happened to be true?”
“I hope you would!” Dana moaned. “I want to live vicariously through my friend who is sleeping with a super-hot guy.”
Leah put her face in her hands. This was going to be more complicated than she had first thought.
Chapter Ten
Leah waited outside the courthouse at three thirty p.m. the following day. She was alone. She hadn’t wanted Thorn to come even though he had made the half-hearted offer. A part of her wondered if she was a little bit ashamed of the pragmatic decision she was making. Still, no matter how bad a decision this marriage might turn out to be, she was doing it for Thorn. She would have done anything for him. For the first two years of his life, he had been hers.
Standing there now, she could remember every second of those first months of Thorn’s life. Her mother had been so depressed that she could hardly care for the little boy on her own. He had been so cute. The little bundle wrapped in blue with their father’s black hair and their mother’s green eyes. Ten-year-old Leah had taken the baby in her arms, and she hadn’t let go until circumstances had forced her to. She had been the one to get up in the middle of the night for feedings. He had slept in her bedroom, and she had cared for him like he belonged to her. For the first time in her life she had felt truly needed. She was important to this child. And considering the sorry state of their parents, Thorn had needed her desperately.
At twelve, Leah had been forced to leave him behind, and she had regretted it ever since. She hadn’t understood. Not really. And even now as an adult who could absolutely see that her mother had been protecting her, she felt so much sorrow that Thorn had been left with nothing but their father for a role model. Now she was determined to make that right.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t show.”
She turned at the sound of Griffin’s rumbly voice. Giving him a tight smile, she shrugged. “I told you I’d be here.”
“You sure you don’t want a wedding?” Griffin asked, surprising her with the strangely sensitive statement.
“Yes. That would be ridiculous under the circumstances, don’t you think?”
“Maybe,” he acknowledged. “But you always did want the big wedding.”
Leah gaped. How could he know what she had wanted once upon a time? Then a quick flash of memory left her almost speechless with shock. “That was you.” She pointed at him. “You used to…oh my God.”
“Yep.” Griffin bobbed his head up and down. “You used to marry me just about every weekend. You would steal a dress from somewhere. I never knew where they came from. Then you would make all of us play wedding with you, and I got to be the groom.”
“I’d forgotten that!” She remembered now, though, and it was embarrassing as hell.
He shrugged. “I just thought the girl who spent so much time planning her wedding ought to have one. That’s all.”
“Well I’ve grown up since then,” she said primly. “That was a silly, childish notion and nothing more.”
Griffin wondered if she realized that he could tell when she was lying and figured she probably didn’t. Otherwise she would have said nothing at all. Leah played things close to the vest these days.
“I suppose we should go inside then,” he suggested. Gesturing with his arm, he was careful not to touch her—more for his own comfort than out of respect for her personal space. She affected him strangely. Even being this close to her left him unable to focus on the important stuff.
She didn’t say anything. She just marched ahead, leaving him to bring up the rear. He had visions of her trying to be a domineering wife. She was going to come to the fast realization that he wasn’t the type of man to let a woman rule him. But then he’d be happy to show her exactly what that meant for her just as soon as they had their wedding night.
Up the steps to the courthouse and then inside and down the hall to the judge’s chambers they went. It seemed to take very little time before they stood in front of the black-robed old man who was frowning so hard at Griffin that it appeared he might be in danger of an aneurism. Of course, Griffin had been in front of this particular judge more than once for other reasons. That was no doubt why the man was frowning.
“Griffin Prentiss, do you take this woman to be your wife?” The judge spoke in a clipped tone and used as few words as possible. Griffin suspected it kept him from alluding to his true feelings on the topic.
“I do,” Griffin said with a lazy grin.
“And Leah Rawlins, do you take this man to be your husband?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Are you certain, young lady?” The judge’s towering frown grew more intense. “Because this is a binding legal agreement.”
“I know. But I have a prenup in place, and I’m sure I can take care of myself, Your Honor.”
The judge actually relaxed a bit, the bastard. Griffin had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying a few choice words about the man’s priorities.
“Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.” The judge narrowed his gaze on Griffin as if daring him to do something inappropriate.
Griffin leaned down and gave Leah a chaste peck just to see what she would do. He was barely able to hide his smirk when she looked disappointed. Had she perhaps wanted a little bit more? Maybe that was the way to handle this woman. He’d leave her wanting so badly that she came begging on her hands and knees for what only he could give her. Leah might want the rest of the world to think she was a straitlaced good girl. Griffin knew better.
Griffin watched Leah stalk ahead of him. She kept her head up and her spine straight as she headed back down the front steps of the courthouse. Soon enough she would be back in her car, hiding from him again. He could tell she was still pissed off about the kiss. He quickened his pace and caught her just as she reached their vehicles.
“I’ve made arrangements for Thorn to stay with Hobbs and Curtis tonight.”
“What?” She frowned at Griffin, confused. “I want to make sure he does his homework.”
“Hobbs will take care of it.”
“I hardly consider him an acceptable tutor or guardian,” she said drily.
Griffin smirked. “And I hardly think I want your sixteen-year-old brother around on our wedding night.”
“Excuse me? You don’t get to make decisions like that without consulting me!”
Oh, yes. She needed a lesson or two in what happens when you lock horns with an alpha male. “Watch me,” he told her with as much arrogance as he could muster.
Her outrage was instant and fantastic to watch, mostly because he couldn’t believe how quickly she snuffed the entire thing out. She affected a completely unconcerned shrug. “Whatever. If you want to waste a hotel room or other such nonsense, that’s your business. As far as I’m concerned, we got married for mutually beneficial reasons and as such, this is a business arrangement.”
“Yeah. You tell yourself that,” Griffin retorted. “The rest of us aren’t so deluded.”
“The rest of you?”
“Yeah. Like everyone else on the planet.” Griffin put on his sunglasses and started walking toward his bike. If this was how she wanted to play it, he wasn’t going to waste his time arguing with words. Not when he had a more effective weapon to use later.
“What planet are you living on?” Her words dripped sarcasm as she skipped quickly after him. “Hey! You can’t just say something like that and then walk away.”
“Yeah. I totally can. It’s really easy.” He straddled his bike and settled himself on the seat.
“No! You don’t get to just leave.”
“Then hop on and go for a ride with me.”
Leah stared at the motorcycle and wondered why she was even considering it. The things were horribly unsafe. It would be irresponsible for her to ride with him even just around the block. What if something happened to her? What would become of Thorn?
But a tiny, traitorous portion of her brain remembered exactly what it felt like to hang on for dear life with the wind whipping through her hair. She remembered the rush of adrenaline through her veins and what it felt like to laugh as the bike dipped low around a corner.
“Come on, Leah,” Griffin coaxed. “Live a little.”
Perhaps that was what decided her. Not that she was going to get on and “live a little” as he said, but that she was sick and tired of everyone passing judgment on her life. Just because she didn’t act like an irresponsible idiot did not mean she didn’t know how to live!
“Yeah. You go live your life,” she said derisively. “If I’m lucky, you’ll do something predictably stupid and wind up a smear on the pavement somewhere.”
Something flashed behind his blue eyes. Was that hurt? Leah found it difficult to believe that he would feel something like that. And especially because of her! Surely he was far beyond that sort of emotion. The guy was so testosterone-saturated she’d be shocked if he could recognize an emotion if it stood up, waved, and then shot him in the face.
