It was him.
The man from the garage that her dad had hired.
Tank.
She pushed herself up to sit straight and pulled her coffee toward her. Her heart was beating faster and suddenly, she wished she hadn’t ordered all that food. What if he was staying for something to eat? He would think she was a right glut and that was the last thing she wanted him to perceive her as.
She turned back to her laptop and tapped it to make it come alive while she tried to think of what to do.
Should she acknowledge him?
Should she ask him why he’d taken the job?
Even though it was none of her business really, she couldn’t help but feel protective of her father and of their bread and butter. Surely, she had every right to try and find out what he was all about.
She looked back up toward him as he started to make his way toward a booth and he stepped in her direction.
“Hey,” she smiled, before she even knew the words were coming out of her mouth.
He slid into the booth behind hers but on the side so that they were staring directly at each other, without anyone to be a screen between them.
“Hi?” he asked, as if he didn’t understand why she was speaking to him.
“Erm, it’s Tank, right?” she said hopefully and with wide eyes.
His brow furrowed, and he nodded his head slowly.
“The one and only,” he said cockily and with a wry smile.
“I’m Rich’s daughter,” she smiled. “We met earlier at the car shop…”
He waited a moment before he let his brows rise and then he nodded his head.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I remember.”
Jessica smiled, and she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. He was making this incredibly difficult for her and he wasn’t giving her anything. It was almost as if he was actively trying to avoid having a conversation.
She chewed her bottom lip and looked from one side of the room to the other. They were basically staring right at each other, there was no way they weren’t going to be able to avoid each other’s eyes.
“When did you take the job?” she asked sweetly as she looked back to him.
Tank breathed in heavily and sighed, and then he closed the menu that was lying open in front of him. He leaned forward and locked his eyes with hers.
“I’m sure you already know that,” he said. “If your dad owns it?”
Jessica felt her face burning red with embarrassment, but she shrugged her shoulders and tried to remain calm.
“Sorry, I can tell you don’t want to talk to me,” she said as she raised her hands in surrender. “I’m just being friendly.”
His cold façade cracked slightly and he sat back and leaned against the rest behind him.
“I don’t mean to come across as stand offish,” he said genuinely. “It’s just been a long ass day, and I have to pick my kids up by four,” he rubbed his hands over his eyes and then ran them through his hair.
Jess couldn’t help but stare at his hands, how big and rough looking they were. It was as if he had been a hard worker his entire life and was desperate for some love and attention. Her heart did a little dance all over again and she felt a little smile flicker across her lips.
“Oh wow, you have kids?” she grinned.
Tank nodded his head and smiled back at her. She found herself instinctively scanning his knuckles for a wedding ring, but all she could see was a smattering of silver skulls. She felt a rush of relief.
No ring… Maybe that meant no wife?
“Two of them,” he said. “They’re five and seven.”
Jessica felt a little more warmth spread through her, this was music to her ears. A man like him raising two children? The idea was so incredibly romantic. He looked so rough and ready, as if he had seen all the bad that there had ever been in the world and had taken it all on board. How he could be the kind to also raise children just made her even more intrigued by him, and made her want to ask more questions she was sure he wouldn’t want to answer.
“Boys or girls?” she asked.
He’d been looking back down at his menu, but his eyes flicked up to meet hers and she saw a brief look of annoyance flash across his face. He was trying to have some quiet time, and there she was staring directly at him and grilling him.
She smiled and shrugged.
“A boy and a girl,” he said without breaking eye contact.
Jess opened her mouth to ask the next obvious question, but he cut her off before the words had a chance to fly out of her mouth.
“Ella and Jacob,” he said and glared at her with a there, are you happy now kind of expression.
She smiled at him nervously and nodded her head.
“Lovely names,” she said quietly.
And he smiled back at her for the first time and nodded.
He seemed warmer in that moment, as if his hardened exterior was just about to crack, if only he would let it. He held her eye contact for a moment more, before Arlene came blustering over with a huge plate of food and slammed it down on the table in front of Jessica.
“There you go, princess,” she sneered, before she turned her attention to Tank and glared at him. “And you, what do you want?” Her voice was so cold it could have cut ice.
Tank whistled, and his eyes widened.
“I see some things never change around here,” he said as he glared back up at her. And then he looked across at Jess and at the huge club sandwich on her plate and the big stack of fries. “I’ll have what she’s having,” he said and then he slammed closed the menu and passed it up to Arlene.
Arlene snatched it from his hands and then she shot both of them a look that could have been venomous. When she stalked back to the kitchen, Jess couldn’t help but crack a smile and laugh to herself and when she looked over at Tank, he was doing the same.
“She’s such a bitch,” Jess whispered, and Tank laughed and nodded his head in agreement.
“I’ve never known anyone quite like it,” he smiled. “A Slate Springs legend, right there…” he trailed off and then he looked down at her food again. “Good choice, by the way,” he said as he motioned toward her plate. “I never would have picked it, but it looks too damned tasty to ignore.”
“They are pretty good,” she said, still nervous to even reach for a French fry while he was looking at her in that way that could easily make her bones shake. She was going to have to try and calm herself down and act normal around him, he was making her feel so nervous and she didn’t know why.
“They look very good,” he smiled.
She forced herself to stay calm and let her shoulders relax as she nodded her head. “Well, I hope you won’t be disappointed,” she said genuinely.
His eyes seemed to flicker with fire for a moment, and he held her gaze so easily it was making her pulse race even faster.
“I’m sure I won’t be…” he said, and their eyes didn’t leave each other’s.
The air between them was filled with something raw and electric, and Jessica’s heart was racing hard, her fingers practically trembling as she reached down to try and pick up her serviette.
He leaned back in his seat and smiled wryly at her and then he nodded in her direction before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
“Enjoy anyway,” he smiled, his attitude a lot softer than it had been when he had first walked in. “I’ll leave you to it.”
She nodded her head slowly and smiled back at him, as she watched him pull his leg up into the booth next to him and turn to face the window. He held his phone up and tapped at the screen and Jessica couldn’t help but be entranced with him for a moment before she shook herself back to reality and finally allowed herself to eat.
But she couldn’t stop herself from letting her eyes skim him every few moments. She looked at him whenever she had the chance and savored every little detail of him. She drank him all in and committed him to memory.
Tank was trouble, she could tell.
But he was the kind of trouble she knew would be fun.
She didn’t truly know why her dad had hired him, and she didn’t know what exactly Tank hoped to gain from it either.
But what she did know, was that he had two children, and even though he was stand offish, he also had a warm side.
It was also evident that if he wanted to be, he could be a killer flirt.
Please don’t have a wife or girlfriend… she wished as she smiled to herself and bit the tip off a fry.
She had the feeling she was going to enjoy spending some extra time around Durrett’s Motor Inc for a change. And for the first time in forever, she couldn’t wait to get up and go in there early to help her dad with the accounts.
5.
The following morning, she was still replaying their meeting over and over in her mind. Tank had been cold and dismissive the first time they had met, but when he had walked into the diner, she had slowly warmed him up and they had ended up sharing something.
She wasn’t sure what it was yet, but she knew it had the potential to be something fun. He had come out of nowhere, and the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen much of him around town before… but then again, it’s not like she had been looking.
She smiled to herself as she stirred her coffee and opened her laptop. It was crazy early for her to be up and awake, but she knew she had a hectic day ahead. She had to fit all of her regular work in as well as heading over to the garage and helping her pop with the accounts and some admin. She had been reluctant to agree to it at first, but now that she had the added incentive of Tank, suddenly, it didn’t seem like such a chore.
She smiled to herself as she remembered how it had been the previous day in the diner. It seemed almost comical that it had been Arlene who had brought them together. If she had been a nice person, he may have never warmed to Jess and given her the time of day, but he seemed genuinely amused by her reaction to Arlene and her nasty, bitter ways.
When she had finished eating her food, his had arrived, and he had smiled over at her with wide eyes and gave her the thumbs up.
“How was it?” he’d asked her with a wry smile.
“As you suspected, it’s pretty damned good,” Jess had said as she rose to her feet and slipped her purse over her shoulder, before she lifted her laptop and tucked it under her arm.
“It sure looks it,” he said as his reached out and grabbed one of the huge, triple decker sandwiches between his rough, manly hands. The sandwich had felt so big to her, she had barely been able to hold it, but when she looked at it in his grip, it looked practically tiny.
She gulped.
Those hands.
“I hope you enjoy it,” she said, a crack in her voice which she had to try and disguise with a little, demure cough.
He smiled at her and bit into it, drips of tomato spilling down his chin… but it hadn’t put her off in anyway, it had just turned her on even more. He was such a brute, and she had felt flustered and had needed to get away.
“Bye then,” she had said as she raced toward the counter and paid Arlene before she’d headed toward the door.
“Goodbye, Jessica,” he had said as he looked back at her over his shoulder.
He knew her name.
He had actually remembered it.
And it had kept her going all night long.
She stirred the coffee again and then she let the spoon rest down on the counter in front of her as she stared into space, almost in a dream.
She could only assume he was going to be there at the garage that morning, and for that reason, she was already feeling in a bit of a fluster.
“What am I going to wear?” she said aloud to herself before she raised the mug to her lips and took a much-needed sip. “And more importantly, how am I going to act in front of my dad? What if Tank sends me into crush overdrive again?”
She laughed to herself, but then she tucked her head into her chest and tried not to scream.
She hadn’t felt like this in some time, and she knew it was stupid, but she just couldn’t help it.
He was far too old for her, for all she knew he could be already in a relationship, and he had two kids for Christ’s sake… and yet he was all she could think about.
“Your pop would go mad,” she warned herself. “You’ve got to think about the consequences of your actions Jessica, you’re an adult and there’s no excuse to be acting like a lovestruck teen.”
And yet, that was exactly how she felt.
She felt as if she was experiencing her first crush all over again.
He was older, sexy as hell… and totally inappropriate for her. But she couldn’t push him from her mind.
A wild, lawless biker…
One who was about fifteen years her senior.
And she wanted him more than she had ever wanted anyone.
She bit her lip and smiled. She was going to have to be very good indeed, because if it was one thing she knew and was determined to stand by, it was to never mix business with pleasure.
As the morning wore on and she worked through her to-do list, she also began to think about wrapping up her work for the big boss in the city and heading on over to Durrett’s. It wasn’t a weekly thing for her to go over and help her pop with the accounts, but with her carving out a career as a virtual assistant, it seemed ridiculous for him to hire anyone else or to try and do them himself. Jess was the ideal candidate and she was more than happy to help once a month or as needed.
She closed her laptop and sipped her water before she rose to her feet and looked at her reflection in the mirror behind her. She looked flushed and excited, and she knew she was going to have to get a hold of herself. She wandered out of the kitchen and up the stairs before she took a turn into her bedroom and flung open the closet doors. The sun was high overhead, much like it had been the day Zack had decided to play his cruel joke on her, and she felt a rush of nausea pass over her entire body.
She hadn’t heard from him since his last attempt at contact, and for that, she was grateful at least. She just hoped that he wouldn’t try his best to harass Kiara as well.
Jess’s eyes scanned the rows of clothes and she pulled out a pair of cut off shorts and a baby blue t-shirt before she threw them down on the bed behind her. She had spent the morning working in her PJ’s, and although it had felt novelty at the time, she was now wishing she had got up and showered before she had begun working.
She turned on the shower and began her daily beauty routine, by the time she was finished, she was feeling much calmer and she felt a lot more refreshed and revived. She slipped herself into the shorts and t-shirt and spritzed herself with perfume, before she scrunch dried her hair with her hands and a dryer.
When she was finished, she looked at her reflection and realized that her nerves and the butterflies had returned, and she wanted to slap herself straight across the face.
“You’ve got to get a grip,” she said to herself sternly. “You’re acting crazy.”
Now she felt nothing but annoyed with herself, and she grabbed her purse and swung it onto her shoulder.
As she left the house and began to walk toward Main Street and the back alleys that weaved their way around into the other parts of Slate Springs, she looked up at the blazing sun and felt angry all over again.
How had Zack had the nerve to do that to her?
Maybe her dad did have the right idea in hiring someone new to be around the garage, at least then they knew things were being looked after if her pop was away. The thought of Zack sneaking around there when he had been out of town made her skin crawl and her blood boil.
She turned the corner and the familiar sign of her family business came into view.
Durrett’s Motor Inc.
Outside, there was a selection of trucks and battered old cars, some of them in various stages of customization, and the others in various stages of repair. But, that day, there was also something noticeable that Jess ha
dn’t seen there before…
There were about five massive, glinting Harley Davidson’s lined up along one of the sides of the alleyway, and she felt her heart bounce.
“Oh wow,” she said underneath her breath as she stepped a little closer.
Her eyes immediately found Tank, as he was bending down next to one of them with a dirty rag over his shoulder and a smoking cigarette dangling from his lips.
She stopped in her tracks and swallowed hard.
He had a certain way of disarming her that was alarming and frightening, but she couldn’t stop herself from being drawn to him. She wanted to feel what he had to offer, and she wanted to know more.
She bit her lip.
She stood there watching him for a few moments before he realized she was there, and it was only when he rose back to his feet and turned on his heel that he did a double take and his eyes zoned in on her.
He reached up and swiped the cigarette from his lips before he threw it down on the ground and crunched it out with the big tip of his huge, black boot. He shrugged nonchalantly and glared at her from under a furrowed brow, and she felt as if he was annoyed that she had seen him smoking.
“Trying to quit,” he said as if he was reading her mind. “It’s a filthy habit.”
Her mouth sagged open a little and she found herself mimicking his actions and shrugged too. She didn’t know what to say. It was none of her business, but she had to admit, it had shocked her to see it.
He seemed too well held together to do something like that. As if he was the kind of man who had complete control over his life and wouldn’t let a habit dictate him.
She smiled to try and reassure him.
“How did you find the sandwich?” she asked him without thinking about how dorky it would sound. She found herself cringing the second the words had flown out of her mouth.
He smirked and nodded.
“You were right, pretty damned good,” he said with a glint in his eye.
Jessica smiled back at him and she felt herself moving from one foot to the other, kind of like she was dancing on the spot. She felt so nervous around him that she didn’t know how to hold herself. Her body suddenly seemed like a huge burden, as if it was giving her away with each little move she made.
TANK_Forsaken Riders MC Romance Page 4
