by Lauren Wood
“Thank you Joel. You clean up nice as well.”
He grinned at me and I noticed that he was wearing a leather jacket. Joel looked different and I knew that the jacket had something to do with it. He looked like a biker all of a sudden and it made me wonder what form of transportation he was going to be taking me out in. When he handed me a helmet and walked towards the bike, I knew that my fears were realized.
“We are taking this?”
His smile faltered and he shook his head. “I told you that I had a bike, didn’t I?”
Shaking my head that he didn’t, I was sure that I would have remembered such a thing. There was no way that I was getting onto the back of it. That was all I could think about. I was going to die, I was sure of it if I did get on.
“You don’t want to ride with me?”
About to answer him, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and I could tell that it was Carlos on his porch. He wasn’t usually home this late in the day, but of course he had to be there. I didn’t want him to think that I was a coward, so against all better judgement, I put the helmet on and got on the back of the bike.
It moved when I got on and it scared me for a moment, but I was happy that the helmet covered up my face and the expression on it. More regret came when Joel got on and my body naturally nestled up against him. It was too close and I could feel my face getting hot. This was supposed to be a night to get Carlos out of my mind, but it was only getting me in trouble so far.
I couldn’t ask him where we were going because of the loud bike, so I was left to hold on for dear life and hope that we didn’t crash on the way to wherever it was we were going. When we stopped at a particularly rough looking bar that was lined with other bikes like Joel’s, I started to wonder if I would have been better off in a wreck. There weren’t a lot of women there from what I saw and the few that were there were not dressed like I was. I was dressed to go out to a restaurant and eat, not this. What had I gotten myself into?
***
“This is Carlos’ place.”
“Carlos?”
“Yeah my cousin that lives upstairs.”
“Oh.”
Looking around, it started to make sense why Carlos was always gone when he was. His lifestyle was far different from mine. Curiously enough though, I didn’t see the man that Joel kept talking about. I could tell that the man admired Carlos and it wasn’t hard to see that there was a loyalty there. I liked that about Joel and it made me rethink Carlos if he had someone that thought that highly of him. Maybe I had seen him all wrong before?
“You still haven’t really met him yet?”
I was sure that Joel had heard about my comments the other night, so I told him that we had met when I had went over there.
“I wouldn’t really call it a social call though. It was three in the morning.”
Joel just smirked and shook his head. “I hope Carlos wasn’t too gruff with you. He has a tendency to be that way sometimes, but his bark is worse than his bite.
“He was actually pretty nice about it and they were quiet the rest of the night. He even brought me coffee the next morning, so that was nice.”
My words stunned Joel and I wasn’t sure why.
“That doesn’t sound like my cousin.”
“Why?”
Joel just shook his head. “Carlos usually doesn’t give in to anyone.”
The look on his face was different than before. Joel was looking at me strangely and I took a drink of the glass in front of me to break the eye contact.
“What are you two doing here?”
Speak of the devil.
“Just taking Eve out to see the place. She is still new to the city, so she had to come to the best place here.”
I agreed with Joel, but it was Carlos that took my attention. His look was similar to his cousins, but with Carlos it didn’t look like a want, it looked like a need that he had every intention on getting his way.
“You flatter me Joel. I don’t think that this is Eve’s kind of scene.”
His comment offended me, even though it was dead on. “You don’t know what kind of scene I am into Carlos.”
“Well you don’t fit in here. I think you need something a little fancier, like a drink with an umbrella in it.”
Taking Joel’s shot of whiskey I downed it and asked Carlos for another. I saw the brow go up on Carlos’ face and I thought I had made myself clear. I wasn’t some weakling like he thought. I didn’t have to be handled with kid gloves, but I seemed to forget that I wasn’t a very good drinker. Never had been and by the way I was feeling, I was never going to be.
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Always Mine
A Bad Boy Next Door Romance
ALWAYS MINE: A BAD BOY NEXT DOOR ROMANCE
“I knew once I saw you that I would make you mine. You were pure and a little dirty in the same breath. It was going to take a lifetime to know you, to really know you.”
There wasn’t a woman alive that I couldn’t have…and I wanted them all.
I knew that I had to have Cameron the first time that I saw her. She was beautiful and the fire in her eyes was hard to deny.
It was only a matter of time before I made her mine. With my hard body, bike and tattoos, I was irresistible and I had never met a woman yet that wouldn’t drop her panties for me. Once I got a girl in my head, there was nothing in the world that was going to save her from Joel Radici.
Sure she can fight it, think that she has a choice.
Cameron can tell me that she doesn’t like bad boys.
She can try and scare me off with that haughty look all she wants.
None of that matters to me one bit.
Because I already claimed that curvy body of hers and I was going to make her mine. I didn’t matter what the cost, Cameron was going to be underneath me soon enough, screaming out my name for more.
How could she deny me, when I know what it is that she really needs?
***
Chapter 1
Cameron
“Hold the door?”
I looked back at the tall man in a leather jacket that was talking to me in such a gruff voice. He had his hands full, but the problem was that I didn’t know who he was. The door was usually locked for safety reasons and I didn’t want to be the one to let him in.
“I’m sorry Sir, but if you don’t live here, I can’t let you in.”
“I am moving in today, so hold the door.”
He gestured to all of the items in his hands and there was a moment that I thought it would be best if I did let him in. But there was another side of me that was sure that he didn’t live here. I had lived in the building for many years and I would have remembered a man like him. He was hard to forget with his tattoos and dark brown eyes.
“I’m sorry, but you should have a key then. I can’t let you in, but I will give you a number to call the manager if you want.”
He looked at me as if I was a little crazy and I ignored the look that he gave me. I closed the door behind me and there was a bit of noise when I did so. I looked back over my shoulder once to catch his dark gaze. If I would have been wax, I would have melted right then and there from the stare. It was clear that he wasn’t the least bit happy with me. The man’s dark brown eyes bore into me until it was hard for me to speak, let alone go up the stairs to my own apartment. What if he was telling the truth? There was no way that we were going to be friends or anything short of enemies.
I tried not to think about it again as I opened the door to my apartment. The city wasn’t as safe as it had been and if I was wrong, there was no telling what could happen. Besides, he looked a little rough for this neighborhood. Whoever the man was, he didn’t look like he belonged. It was men like him that I tried to stay away from.
That was why I lived in a place that had better security than my last place and I paid a premium in rent.
Forgetting about the man from the door, I took a shower and got ready to go out for the evening. Carol had invited me to drinks and it had been one of those weeks that I needed one. It wasn’t long before I was making my way back down the stairs and I stopped short when I saw the landlord and the rude man from before. I cringed inside. Of course he was telling the truth.
“Cameron. How are you doing?”
I smiled at the old man and told him that I was fine. I tried my best to ignore the look that I was getting from the dark-haired man standing next to him. It was obvious that he wasn’t very happy with me and I didn’t blame him now. In my defense, I didn’t really know who he was. He could have been anyone.
“I wanted to introduce you to the new complex manager Joel. You know that I am getting long in the tooth, so I finally hired someone that will be taking care of everything for me.”
It was getting worse by the minute and all I wanted to do was scream a little inside. It was my luck that he was the new manager. That meant that it was going to be impossible to get anything fixed, not when I hadn’t let him in.
“Nice to meet you Joel.”
I moved to shake his hand and there was a moment that I thought he wouldn’t take it. Mr. Johnson was standing right there though and must not have known about us meeting earlier.
“We have already met Ron. This is the one that wouldn’t let me in earlier and made me call you down here.”
Mr. Johnson chuckled and the grip on my hand was a bit tighter. I pulled away after a moment and bid them both a goodbye. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I was more than a little embarrassed and I knew then that I wasn’t going to be calling for anything unless it was an emergency.
“Oh, Cameron? When do you want Joel to come up and take a look at that air conditioner of yours?”
I had forgotten about it and I turned around slowly. “You know, it is working better now. I wouldn’t even worry about it.”
“Now come on. You have been telling me about it for a month. I had meant to come over, but my old knees have been acting up. That’s part of the reason that I had to hire my nephew, Joel.”
“Really, don’t worry about it.”
“Are you sure? It is going to be hot next week.”
I hadn’t seen the forecast, but in New Orleans in the middle of July was always hot. I was just going to have to deal with it. I told him that I was sure and retreated into the muggy air outside before he could say anything else. Why hadn’t I just let him in? There were so many apartments in the building. It wasn’t like I would have known everyone. It was a mistake that I was going to have to pay for by sweating this summer with no air conditioner.
Looking back before I moved down the sidewalk, Joel was looking after me and I thought to myself how much of a shame it was that earlier had happened. I was more than a little attracted to the man, even when he was giving me a dirty look and now it would amount to nothing. He wasn’t my type, not by a long shot, but a guy like Joel could make a woman forget for a little while that fact.
Pushing it from my mind, I tried to focus on the night and called Carol to see where she was. She was supposed to be here already and since I now had an enemy at the door, I decided to have her meet me away from the apartment. Walking to the bistro, I waited a few minutes before I saw her silver car pull up and I took her out a drink that I knew she liked. There was no better way to start the night of dancing, then with a White Russian to go.
“Cameron, what is going on with you? Why are we meeting here?”
I told her about the man at the door and the new manager. I was frustrated and I knew by the look on her face that I was blowing it out of proportion. I wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the way he looked at me, but I knew that it was going to be a problem.
“So it’s the landlord’s nephew?”
“Yeah, just my luck.”
“Well was he cute?”
It wasn’t something that I was really thinking about. Joel was cute, really cute in a bad boy sort of way. But that wasn’t the point. Carol was a little man crazy, so I figured that she would want to know about him for that reason.
“I guess he is, if you like that biker sort of look. He is just not my type.”
As we drove to the club, I sipped on the drink and thought about Joel. He was cute, but I knew that it was going to be trouble. I was already thinking about the heat and what I was going to do about the air conditioner. I could do a lot of things, but fixing mechanical things was not one of them. I was just going to have to find someone else to help me or replace the whole unit.
“Man, you are quiet. He must be a little more than cute.”
I looked over at Carol and shook my head. “I wasn’t even thinking about him. I was just, I don’t know.” I wasn’t a good liar, so I stopped while I was ahead.
“Well stop thinking about it or whatever it is that is making you frown. You know that is just going to give you wrinkles.”
She was right and I wasn’t sure why I was so worried about him. I was out to have fun and it was something that I needed. “You’re right. I guess he just put me in a bad mood.”
“Well drink some more of that and we will be there in a minute. There isn’t anything that some liquor and a little dancing will solve.”
I knew she was right and I tried to do what she said, pushing the man from my mind and not thinking about him anymore. I wasn’t going to think about the dark-eyed man that was now thrust into my life. I was going to focus on the drink and the night ahead of us.
Chapter 2
Joel
There was a racket out in the hallway by the front entrance that woke me up from a deep sleep. I lay in bed with my eyes cracked open and a soft, warm body snuggled up to me. Trying to will whatever the noise was to stop so that I could get back to sleep, I pulled the girl next to me closer. I didn’t remember her name, though I knew that she had told me the night before.
It had been a longer day than I had expected and with all of the work I had to do the next day, I was sure that it was going to be even longer. Staying up hadn’t helped and now it was clear that a restful night was going to be harder than I thought.
Finally I sat up because whatever the banging and rattling was, it wasn’t going to stop. It reminded me of my cousin Carlos and how loud he used to be when he was coming in from a night at the bar. If I didn’t know any better, I would have had to guess that someone was drunk in the hallway just like he would be. It brought back memories of Chicago and the old life that I was trying to leave behind.
Pulling a pair of jeans on, I went out of the apartment to see what it was that was making all of that noise. I was trying my best to get back to sleep, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen until I did something about it. My mind went to the blonde in my bed. Maybe I would wake her up when I got back.
I smiled when I saw what it was that was going on. The person in question was the rude woman from before and since she hadn’t seen me yet there was a moment where I thought about just walking away. It was its own kind of poetic justice.
When she saw me, her face fell and even though I was right about the drinking thing, it seemed like she wasn’t so drunk as to not have a reaction to me. Walking towards the closed and locked door, I smiled back at her and her face fell. She was not happy to see me and that made my grin a little wider on my face.
It was a shame she was so difficult because the woman was so beautiful. When I had first seen her, I had thought of Eve, a woman that I had fallen for the year before. I didn’t win her heart, most likely because I was too nice of a guy, but things were different. I wasn’t the same guy that my wife divorced and I wasn’t the same guy that lost the girl. Moving to New Orleans was my change of scenery so that I could be someone else. Taking notes from my cousin Carlos, I had learned that nice guys really do finish last.
“Fancy seeing you here, on
that side of the door.”
She didn’t smile back at me and I had to chuckle a little at her discomfort. I could tell how much she hated me right then.
“Do you need help?”
It was clear that Cameron was trying to get in the building. She had a big keyring in her hand and I wasn’t sure if she was too drunk to get it into the keyhole or if she had forgotten which one it was that she needed.
“No, I am fine, thanks.”
“Well you woke me up with all of this racket, so now I am here. I can tell that you are going to be a problem.”
“Sorry.”
“I bet. I bet you are wishing that you had let me in before, don’t you?
The words were slurred and so help me she sounded adorable. What was it about this woman that set me off so much? I shouldn’t help her, not like she had helped me at all, but I wasn’t going to get any sleep if I didn’t. Every time I was around Cameron, she caused me trouble. Someone needed to bring her down a notch.
Pushing the door open, Cameron almost fell in because she was leaning on it. I had to move to catch her and there was an instant attraction when her body fell into mine. I don’t think that I was very worried about if she fell or not, I was more worried about getting a feel of her soft curves that I hadn’t been able to ignore.
“Thanks, sorry about that.”
She was pushing herself off of me and for a moment I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted her against me as she was, but I had a feeling that it would just make things worse between us. There was the surge of curiosity of what she would do if I copped a feel. Pressing off of her, I made sure to brush my hand against her large breasts. She didn’t even seem to notice.
Watching her start towards the stairs, she was wobbly and it made me nervous. I didn’t want to be responsible if she fell and then tried to sue my uncle. I needed the fresh start and the job that was on offer. I wasn’t going to let her hurt herself because she was too stubborn to get a little help.
