by Karen Renee
With a grin, his arm shot out to wrap around my waist and he pulled me to him, “Know that Frankie, but I want a good-morning kiss.”
I scowled at him. “Why on earth would I do that?”
“Why not?”
“Seriously, are you crazy? It’s one more thing you can want, but you’re not going to get.”
He squeezed my waist. “You didn’t feel that way yesterday morning.”
My eyes narrowed on him. “Like I said last night, yesterday was a one-off kind of thing.”
“No, it wasn’t, and you know it,” he said and his head started coming closer to mine.
“Yes, it was. Now let me go,” I demanded, as I tried to squirm away from his iron-like grip on my mid-section.
He smiled at me, “Don’t remember you being so spunky, baby. You’re cute all of the time, but you’re especially cute when you’re resisting me.”
Oh hell! I was damned either way. If I argued, Vamp would get off on it. If I tried to be stoically silent, he’d probably take that as compliance. I exhaled sharply, then his free hand tipped my chin up. The look in his eyes was gentle and searching. I tried to keep my eyes perfectly impassive, but I had never been good at the ‘resting bitch face’ other women could pull off.
“Can I kiss you good morning, baby?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but apparently his question was rhetorical, because his lips landed on mine. His pierced tongue was firm as it snaked into my mouth. Vamp swirled his tongue around mine and I felt my belly drop with a warm feeling. It could be so good to have him back. That thought was so jarring, I immediately pulled away from Vamp’s kiss. My alarm must not have been written on my face, because Vamp didn’t find anything amiss.
His finger traced a path from my chin up to my earlobe. “Thank you, Frankie. It’s definitely been a good morning so far.”
CHAPTER 7
Vamp pulled into the parking lot of my office and steered my SUV to the far side of the lot, next to a navy-blue Jeep Liberty. I looked across Vamp to the other SUV and realized Henry was at the wheel. Little did I know, peering at the other vehicle with my face turned to Vamp was a big mistake. He followed my gaze, promptly turned back to me, and hooked a hand behind my neck. Then he laid a long and intense kiss on me. Had we been at my place, I might have participated in that, but I was awake and aware that we had an audience. I was proud of myself for not participating in his sneak attack on my mouth.
He pulled away and I gave him a dirty look. He just chuckled. Chuckled!
When he stopped, he said, “Can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but I’ll take any kind of kiss I can get from you, baby. Even when you don’t participate, kissing you is always better than any other kiss I’ve given or received before.”
That was so sweet and unexpected, that I took in a sudden but short breath and expelled it loudly through my nose. I grabbed my purse off the floorboard and opened my door.
As I began to step out of the vehicle, I said, “Don’t do something that presumptuous again. Got it, mister?”
Vamp had his door slightly open and his left foot ready to plant on the ground, but he was angled toward me and he arched his pierced eyebrow at me.
With a grin he said, “I got it, but that don’t mean shit, Rainey. You know that. It’s the biker way. We get what we want, when we want, however we want it. Told you last night, I want you. I just have to prove to you that you want me, too. Got it, baby?”
My eyes bulged. “Well, you can’t have me. I told you that last night too, so stop wasting your time.”
His grin intensified. “Wouldn’t lay down the gauntlet with me, if I were you. I get off on that shit, and you know good and well that I always have. Have a great day at work, sweetheart.”
I rolled my eyes at him as I got out of my SUV. When I walked past Henry, I gave him a small wave and he gave me a two-fingered salute back.
Twenty minutes later, Roxanne stopped by my cubicle. She was wearing a tan tweed pantsuit with brown leather woven flats. She leaned her hips on the far side of my desk and put her Styrofoam cup of coffee down next to her.
“Sorry I didn’t catch up with you yesterday. I spoke to HR, but they weren’t really able to give me anything firm if this guy should accuse you of something.”
I threw a hand out slightly. “How could they not know what to do about this?”
Roxanne gave me a sympathetic look. “Well, it isn’t everyday you get someone forewarning the HR department about a possible sexual-harassment claim from a customer against an employee. Bottom line, at the end of my meeting with them, they said we’d have to wait and see what the guy does.”
Now I gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry they wasted your time, Roxanne. I really thought they’d have some idea of, well, I don’t know, a policy or something.”
She grabbed her cup and stood away from my desk. “It’s not your fault. Hell, I much prefer to have a heads-up on possible problems rather than dealing with shit right when it hits the fan. And with our luck, it will hit the fan right at the end of the month, or worse, at the end of the quarter when we need as many closed loans as we can get.”
That, right there, was exactly why I loved my boss. We both preferred to deal with problems head-on and in advance. I smiled at her and thought she would be on her way, but after a sip of coffee she asked, “So, what happened with that random walk-in appointment yesterday morning?”
Ugh, talk about a gift that kept on giving. I wished I could turn time back and never go to Ragtime Tavern on that fateful Monday night. I took a deep breath and winced at the pain in my ribs, then with a grimace I gave her the details on what I was calling the ‘bait-and-switch meeting.’
When I finished, Roxanne said, “Well, I’m grateful that friend was there spying. Would be nice to have her name and contact info. If this asshole decides to accuse you of something, then a third-party eyewitness to the attack would be helpful. Don’t take it the wrong way, you know I think the world of you, Frankie, but I’m kind of with the sister-in-law on this. If her friend would have gotten a shot of the douchebag in the act, it’d go a helluva a long way in this situation, both with our HR department and with the legal system aspect. But at the same time, I’m glad you got help as quickly as you possibly could that day. Try to get the friend’s contact info from her, ok?”
I nodded. Roxanne stuck around a little while longer to find out how much of my current pipeline was on target to close by May twenty-sixth. May was always a tricky month, depending on when the Memorial Day Monday fell in relation to the thirty-first. Unfortunately, the thirty-first was Wednesday this year, and between the three-day holiday weekend and a midweek end-of-month, many lawyers and realtors would not be working closings Tuesday and Wednesday. That meant much of my pipeline needed to close next Friday, in order for me to have a decent commission. I told Roxanne that I had a morning chock-full of dealing with various underwriting and appraisal issues, and one loan that might be getting held up in the closing department.
She nodded, then as she left, she said, “You need any back up with those three departments, do not hesitate to give me a holler, hear?”
For possibly the first time ever, I was happy to have multiple loans with underwriting headaches bogging them down. My morning was busy with calls to clients and calls to various underwriters to keep things on track. It prevented me from dwelling on the enjoyable sensations of Vamp kissing me twice this morning and twice yesterday morning. It definitely kept my mind from expanding on the crazy notion that it could be so good to have him back. If I had a Harry Potter-style magic wand, you better believe I’d have removed that thought from my brain permanently, like the shiny, squirmy snake-like thing I pictured it as.
My busy morning caused me to lose track of time. My cell phone rang, and when I pulled it out I saw that it was a number I wasn’t familiar with, and that the time was half past noon.
“Hello?” I tentatively asked.
“Yo, Lo-lo. You had lunch yet?”
“I have not had lunch. Why do you ask?” I replied.
Henry chuckled, “Me and a burly man you know would like to take you to lunch. You got anything against Applebee’s?”
I grimaced, not that he could see, but said, “Well, other than the slow service, no, I don’t have anything against them.”
Another chuckle from Henry and then he said, “You won’t need to worry about that with this Applebee’s. We’ll be there in about five minutes, that good for you?”
I was a little stunned at the quick timeframe, but said, “Well, I guess so. Are you driving right now?”
“Yep, we’re at the light at 103rd Street. See you soon, Lo-lo.”
*** ***
We had been seated for fifteen minutes. The waitress had taken our lunch orders and we’d slipped into an awkward silence. I was normally a very chatty person, and silence made me nervous; awkward silence made me nervous in the extreme.
Henry filled the silence by saying, “You let Vamp kiss you this morning.”
Of all the things he could say to make the moment less awkward, that was not the statement I expected to hear.
“I didn’t let him,” I argued.
His lips quirked a little. “You didn’t pull away,” he countered.
Damn it to hell.
“It didn’t occur to me to do that,” I said.
“Of course it didn’t,” Roll put in.
I looked to the big man, “It doesn’t mean anything. Especially since I didn’t participate.”
To that Roll said, “Heard there was a kiss yesterday morning and you did participate. You need to give him another chance.”
I turned my face away from them both and rolled my eyes as I did so.
Returning my gaze to them, I said, “There’s a saying, ‘Do me wrong once, shame on you, but do me wrong twice, shame on me.’ I’m not setting myself up for that all over again.”
Roll and Henry exchanged a look and then Henry said, “Yes, but you’re so wrapped up in protecting your ass that somehow you’ve managed to get involved with seven other cheaters since Vamp. Not so sure you’re doing the right thing or choosing the right guys, Frankie. What would it really hurt if you gave Vamp another chance? Cal’s told you, and others have told you, that he’s changed lately. It’s true. You might need to loosen up enough to give him the benefit of the doubt long enough to give him another chance.”
Thankfully, the server arrived with our meals and we all dug into our hot food. We lapsed into small talk about our food and things going on in Jacksonville on the whole. I wasn’t exactly the slowest eater around, but Roll had finished his food a good five minutes before and Henry was down to his last bite; I still had half of my plate in front of me. I was feeling pressure to eat quicker.
Foolishly, I had assumed we were done discussing giving Vamp another chance. Then Roll said, "Men can be jerks, and women can be bitches. But bottom line, the younger you are the more likely you are to be not only stupid but also a bigger jerk. Did it ever occur to you that Vamp was both when he was twenty-six?"
"Be that as it may, he nearly destroyed me. Not a chance in hell that I'm setting myself up for that again, thinking we'd go the distance only to have the rug pulled out from under me."
Roll lifted his head in an almost knowing nod like fashion before he asked, "So, in your line of work, do you give up this easily?"
I scoffed, "No, but that's comparing apples and oranges."
Roll enjoyed throwing a few of my own words back at me, "‘Be that as it may’, but you went on about how important your job is. I'd say this is a fuckuva lot more important. Especially if it means you're both happy. Anyway, finish your food. ESPN Classic's runnin' old Bama games this afternoon, so we need to wrap this up."
I forked some of my salad, but before putting it in my mouth, I asked, “So, why didn’t Vamp attend this wonderful lunch ambush?”
Both men leveled looks at me, but Henry said, “He had club business. Speakin’ of that, what time do you plan to leave from work?”
I swallowed and said, “Um, not sure, but definitely before seven. Why do you ask?”
Henry swallowed some iced tea and said, “I’m gonna follow you home. I’ll be on my bike, but I know your vehicle, so I’ll be waitin’ nearby.”
I nodded, feeling relieved because it sounded like a reprieve from Vamp in my home and in my business. I had a difficult time shutting his kisses this morning out of my mind. I knew I needed a break from him for tonight, if not for good.
*** ***
Before I went to my desk to get back to work, I decided to call Vamp and stopped off in a small conference room. I wasn’t sure that it was a good idea, but at the same time I felt certain that Roll and Henry taking me to lunch was an idea Vamp put in their heads. Considering that he was on club business, I figured he would be busy and I’d get to just leave him a message.
Vamp answered his phone on the second ring. “You got great timing, babe; if you’d called thirty seconds later, my phone would have been shut down. What’s up?”
I hated having to have this conversation, but launched right in, “Look, I know you’re on club business right now, but –”
Vamp asked, “And how do you know that?”
Blowing out a sigh, I said, “Roll and Henry told me at lunch. So, anyway—”
“Henry? Who the fuck…oh, Volt,” he interrupted again.
I didn’t even want to be talking to him, and he was making it worse, damn it. So, I was not quite as calm as I would have liked when I said, “Anyway, you aren’t playing fair, having your brothers gang up on me.”
“I’m not playin’, babe.”
“Pardon me?”
“I’m not playing. I’m fighting, and nothin’ about the ways I fight are fair. Mainly because I fight to win the war.”
War? What? I didn’t ask any of those questions. Instead, I said, “There is no war, Vamp.”
He chuckled. “Oh, yes, there is. The war is to make you see, and baby, you’re gonna enjoy seeing what I want you to see. Best part is there are no losers in this war, just win-win.”
I blew out a breath. “Whatever, mister. You’re delusional. I’ll let you get back to it.”
I had the phone away from my ear to end the call, but still heard Vamp’s voice say, “Later, babe.”
I went to my desk and checked my voicemail. Two messages were waiting for me. The first was from Reggie, just checking in with me. My back shot straight and my hands got clammy when I heard Mark Stillman’s voice in the second message.
His voice was smooth, actually too smooth, as he said, “Frankie. Surprised I did not catch you at your desk. I’ve heard that you’re well-known for working through your lunch hour at your desk. But, I’ll get to the point. Call off your dogs and do it tonight, or I’ll have a nice chat with Alex Willis about how one of his loan officers is sexually harassing me. Be in touch.”
Unfortunately, I had to listen to the damned message a second time, because I couldn’t believe I heard him correctly. On the second listen, I found I actually had heard him right. He had dropped the name ‘Alex Willis’, who was Roxanne’s boss. I listened to the robotic female voice advise me on how I could delete, save or forward my message to another party.
I forwarded it along with my own precursor message to Roxanne, “Hey, Roxanne. Sorry to have to send this to you, but my harasser left this message for me while I was out for lunch. Apparently he knows Alex Willis, or at the very least he’s good at name dropping. Either way, I wanted you to have the heads-up. Thanks.”
Almost an hour later Roxanne called me, and asked me to swing by her desk. She was also in a cubicle, but it had higher walls than mine for privacy. When I arrived at her cube, she stood up and led the way to Alex Willis’s office. As in, a genuine of
fice with four walls and a closing door. Roxanne shut the door behind us, and we both took seats in front of Alex’s desk.
Alex looked up and focused on me, and I saw the surprise on his face. He was not someone I routinely ran into in the halls during the day. Since I had been in a branch yesterday afternoon, this was undoubtedly the first time he had laid eyes on my marred face. My black eye was in the rainbow stages of healing. The deep violets and blues were lightening to shades of bluish-green and yellows. His eyes slid down to my hand in my lap and his lips thinned when he saw the cast.
Shoving his rectangular half-rimmed glasses up his nose, he said, “Roxanne’s message said this individual attacked you, and has threatened to accuse you of sexual harassment.”
There was nothing to say to that, so I just nodded.
“What have the police had to say about this?” he asked.
“Well, sir, I didn’t tell the police that I knew who did it. He said if I told the cops anything, I’d pay. Him not acting on his threat to my job is contingent on me continuing our relationship, which is not happening, because the day he attacked me was also the day I found out he was married.”
Alex gave me an assessing look. “Then who are the ‘dogs’ he wants you to call off of him?”
Well, gee, I used to run with an Outlaw MC member and those are the dogs he wants called off. Yeah, that was not going to be the response I gave to the strait-laced VP of home loans. I really wished I had never set foot in Ragtime Tavern those many weeks ago!
“I have some people looking out for me. Stillman came to my house right after I got home from work. He saw me go inside with an old friend of mine. My friend wouldn’t let Stillman come inside or even talk to me. Those would be the ‘dogs’ he’s referring to in his message, and I’m not inclined to call them off under the circumstances,” I said, holding up my casted hand in front of my face, even though it was my ribs I was really thinking about. They had been killing me all day.
