“You want to go for a ride?” he asked, resting his hands on his hips.
“A ride? As in a motorcycle ride?”
He grinned. “Yes, a motorcycle ride.”
Motorcycles had always made me a little nervous ever since I’d attempted to ride a friend’s mini-bike when I was eight. I went over the handlebars and face-planted into their garden. Then again, I definitely wasn’t going to turn Brax down. “Sure, I’d love to.”
“Good. I’ll head home and grab a shower, and I’ll be back here to pick you up in an hour. Be sure to wear something relatively warm up top. It gets a little cool.”
The second he got into his truck and pulled away, I raced into the house, put my hair up, and took a quick shower. I debated calling Kara. We had talked every day since she’d dropped by, and I realized how much I had missed having such a good friend in my life. It was like time had stopped and we had taken back up again just where we’d left off.
She would freak out when she learned of the motorcycle ride. I tried on a dozen pairs of shoes before finally deciding on slip-on sneakers when I heard the sound of a motorcycle making its way up my street. I took a final look in the mirror. I wore a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Remembering the warning about getting cold, I slid on a fleece jacket, zipped it up, and peeked out the window just as Brax pulled into the driveway.
Oh my God, he just got better by the second. Dark sunglasses, a leather vest over his t-shirt, jeans, and black biker boots. He was walking sin. We were getting closer by the day. Not once had he done anything that would turn me off, or piss me off for that matter. Bad boy reputation aside, Brax was a really nice guy who was extremely talented with a hammer. He just happened to be drop-dead gorgeous as well.
“You ready?” he asked, his gaze shifting over me in a way that made my toes curl.
I walked toward him, and he helped me with the helmet. He smelled fresh and masculine. I was aware of everything about him as he secured the band under my chin and snapped it in place. He handed me a pair of dark-tinted glasses, and I immediately wondered who had worn them before me.
He straddled the bike and motioned for me to get on. I climbed on behind him and rested my hands on his waist.
“Hold on tight,” he said, and I did as asked, my heart pumping from a mixture of fear and excitement as he started the bike.
We pulled away from the curb, and I was aware of the fact that my thighs were pressed against his. Everything about riding behind him was intimate. My anatomy was flush against his back, and I was reminded of the sexy dream all over again. Leaning against him, I held on tighter. He didn’t get on the throttle too much, and I became more comfortable as we ate up the miles and drove down the road that followed the river. Taking a left off the main road, we rode past a tree-lined paved road that ended at a gorgeous park with a waterfall that reputedly brought out local hikers and tourists. Today being a weekday, there were few people around.
He took off his helmet before helping me remove mine. Setting them both on the motorcycle seat, he took my hand and we walked along a gravel pathway.
Excitement rippled along my spine, especially when he continued to hold my hand.
I watched him from the corner of my eye. Brax continued to surprise me. I guess I was looking for the bad boy I had heard Kara talk about. I admit that I was curious about the girls he had been with. Kara had sent me a picture of one—a trampy looking brunette with tattoos. Another was a blonde who looked like the typical girl next door. Apparently he didn’t have a type.
He squeezed my hand, and I smiled up at him.
I heard the water hitting the rocks before we rounded a bend to see the amazing waterfall. I stopped for a second and just took it all in. After living in the desert for so long, I had forgotten how beautiful my home state was and how much I had missed this part of it. To think I had grown up here and had never been to this beautiful little park was something I was glad I was finally rectifying with someone I really enjoyed spending time with.
Brax urged me closer and helped me manage the rocks until we were on a grassy knoll, the mist of the waterfall coming within a few feet of us.
“Thank you for bringing me here,” I said, the happiest I had been in a very long time. It was nice to get away from the house and home improvement, if only for a little while.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
I nodded and glanced at him, expecting him to be staring at the falls…but he wasn’t looking at the falls. He was looking at me, enjoying my reaction.
Going up on my tiptoes, I kissed him. I have no idea what possessed me to do that. He looked equally as stunned.
His lips were soft, his body hard as he suddenly pulled me close. I hesitated for only a second. My arms looped around his neck and I pressed into him, wanting more of what he offered.
I was the one who deepened the kiss, my tongue teasing the seam of his lips, urging him to open. And he did, with a groan that gave me goosebumps. There was a part of me that wanted to take him by the hand and lead him into the trees and have my way with him. Yet there was the other part that told me to be careful, to be cautious with this man who had the ability to shatter my fragile heart.
Long fingers cradled the side of my face, and I was stunned by such a sweet, caring reaction. Why did I assume that Brax Mitchell couldn’t be gentle? He had already surprised me in more ways than I could count.
I hesitated and he kissed me back. This time he deepened the kiss, his mouth demanding.
I smothered a groan. I had forgotten what it felt like to be desired.
In the distance I heard a cough, but I didn’t want to pull away.
However, Brax pulled away a second later, his green heavy-lidded eyes shifting from me to someone beyond my shoulder. He visibly relaxed, smiled, and nodded at someone behind me.
I didn’t look. I rested my forehead against Brax’s shoulder and laughed under my breath while he hugged me tight to him.
Finally, I glanced up.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude,” said an older man with a dog. He stood ten feet away, holding a camera with a professional lens.
“No worries,” Brax said.
“You mind if I take a few shots of you two?” the man asked, lifting his camera.
Brax glanced at me and I shrugged.
“I have a blog that I started after I retired. It’s about places off the beaten path,” the man said, already snapping a few pictures.
Brax slid his arm around my shoulder, and I rested my arm at his narrow waist. Once again, I was reminded how much taller Brax was than Ross had been and how we seemed to fit together perfectly.
I’d never been one to have my picture taken, and the only pictures that did turn out well seemed to be candids where I wasn’t even aware of someone taking the picture. But I was really happy, and I had a feeling the pictures showed that happiness because I couldn’t stop grinning. I was glad I had been spontaneous and kissed Brax.
After the man was finished taking his pictures, I handed my phone to him and asked if he’d take our picture for us.
“Of course.” He snapped a few pictures and then handed me the phone back.
“Is that a Nikon D90?” I said, motioning to his camera.
“Why yes, it is.” He looked pleased. “You certainly know your cameras, young lady.”
I smiled. “I took a photography class in high school and really enjoyed it. Maybe one day I’ll take it back up.”
“Would you mind?” the old man asked, handing me the camera and hunkering down beside his dog with the waterfall behind them.
“Sure.” I took a dozen photos and handed the camera back to the man, who immediately looked at the photos I’d taken. “You have a good eye, my dear. Very good, indeed.”
I appreciated the compliment more than he would ever know. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time someone had said I was good at anything in particular.
Brax grinned and reached for my hand, squeezing it.
<
br /> I slid my thumb over his. I could get used to this, I thought.
“Well, we’d better get back before it gets dark,” Brax said to the man. “It’s been nice talking with you. You have a good evening.”
“You two as well,” the old man said, walking off, letting his dog lead the way.
We walked toward the bike and I glanced at the picture of us. As expected, I looked giddy, and Brax looked happy, too. This was happening. This was actually happening. We had crossed a line today. Holding hands, kissing, flirting…
Where would it all lead? I wondered.
Once again, Brax helped me with my helmet. This time, instead of staring straight at his chest, I watched him, taking in every detail of his handsome features, his full lower lip, the slight stubble on his jawline.
The corners of his mouth lifted as his gaze met mine. “Be careful. That look might just get you in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble would that be?” I asked innocently.
Leaning toward me, he looked me dead in the eyes. “The kind of trouble that will keep you up at night. The kind of trouble that causes a deep ache right here,” he said, his palm flattening against my belly, the tips of his fingers on my crotch.
I swallowed hard.
He was daring me.
Looking around and seeing no one, I went on my toes and whispered, “Bring it on,” and then proceeded to tug his earlobe with my teeth. “How fast can you ride?”
A low-throated moan vibrated in my ear. “Get on the bike and hold on.” He had his helmet on and secured in seconds.
I snuggled close, to where there wasn’t any space between the inside of my thighs and the outside of his. My arms tightened around his narrow waist and I relaxed, enjoying the steady hum of the bike, the wind rushing past us, and the strong man in front of me.
The sun had just set when we pulled into the driveway, and for some reason I started second-guessing myself and what I was doing.
If we had sex, would he immediately dump me? Kara had said he had commitment issues. Pump it and dump it had been Ross’s buddy’s motto in college. I didn’t want to be the girl who had been pumped and dumped.
Plus, there was the little thing about him being my brother’s best friend. How would Toby feel about that? Not to mention the fact that we were looking at an almost two month renovation. What if our relationship went stale and we ended up hating each other? I didn’t want to be left with a half-finished house.
Oh my God, I was totally overthinking it.
And yet, as I got off the bike and walked toward my house, hand-in-hand with Brax, I panicked.
All the excitement and anticipation I’d been feeling fled as we approached the front door. Once we were on the other side of the door, my back was against the wall and he was kissing me.
I had fantasized about this moment from the second we had locked eyes, but now that fantasy was becoming reality, I wasn’t so sure I was ready for this.
I would rather spend a lifetime of wondering what could have been rather than to have done it and lived to regret it.
“Stop,” I said against his lips, putting a hand on his chest.
He immediately stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. I mean, Toby’s your best friend…” Oh my God, I sounded so lame.
He must have thought I was joking, because the side of his mouth lifted. Then seconds passed and the heavy-lidded look changed, and he took a step back. “I’m sorry…I mean, I thought we both wanted this.”
What the hell was I doing? I was so confused. I honestly didn’t know what I wanted. “I did. I mean, I do…but I don’t want to ruin anything between us.”
He ran both hands through his hair, and then he nodded. “It’s okay, Mandy. I understand.”
Although he said he understood, I wondered if he really did.
He smiled and lightly brushed his thumb over my lips in a gesture so unlike what I imagined a bad boy would do. “Good night, Amanda.”
The door opened and closed behind him, and I stood frozen where I was. Hearing his boots hit the porch, I wanted to call him back and tell him I didn’t mean it. But I didn’t move even as I heard the motorcycle fire up.
A thousand different emotions rushed through me, most of all regret.
“You’re a fool, Amanda,” I said to myself, sliding to the floor. “You’re a goddamn fool.”
***
Brax
I was a fucking idiot.
What the hell had I been thinking? In the past week, I’d slowly earned Amanda’s trust. We’d shared an amazing week forging a friendship that we’d never had before, and I had to go and blow it by kissing her and flirting with her?
Granted, she had kissed me first, but it had been innocent, and of course I had turned it into something different. She was incredibly vulnerable. I knew that better than anyone. What she had gone through would bring most people to their knees, and yet she had slowly picked up the pieces.
I wanted to go back to her house and tell her I was sorry, but yet I was home and pulling into my driveway. I cussed when I saw my dad’s beat-to-shit car sitting across the street.
The asshole had been an absentee father my entire life, but the second I had turned eighteen, he suddenly wanted to be a dad. Yet from the first meeting it was pretty clear to me that he didn’t know how to be one. He was trying to be a friend, doing his best to show me how cool he was.
In the past four years, I couldn’t count the number of times he had called me or dropped by for money. ‘Hey, bud,’ he’d say. ‘I just need a twenty to get through the week.’
I quit keeping track of how much money I’ve given him in the years he’d been coming around. At first I had no idea why, at the age of forty-six, he didn’t want more out of his life than working part-time dead-end jobs and dating women half his age. Now I realized he had zero aspirations. He was just existing…floating from one job to another, going from one woman to another, and thinking only of himself.
His head popped up from where he’d been lounging in his car.
“There’s my boy,” he said, stepping out of his crappy car.
The words made me cringe.
He slid his hands into his pockets. “Long day at work?”
“Yes,” I said, opening the front door. I just wanted to be by myself and not have to deal with his shit.
“I told you that you should give me a key.” He dropped the cigarette he’d been smoking and crushed it beneath his foot. “That way I can let myself in.”
“It’s my house, Carl.”
He flinched. “I told you before, I want you to call me Dad.”
I could never call him Dad. He didn’t deserve the title. I shut the door behind us and turned to him. “What do you need?”
Carl’s brows furrowed. “What the fuck? Is that any way to talk to your old man?”
Taking off my vest, I hung it over the back of a chair and set the helmets on the table. Normally I’d put everything away before crashing, but tonight I didn’t care. It could wait until tomorrow. “I’ve had a long day, and I have an even longer day tomorrow.”
“Me, too,” he said, sitting on the couch. “I’ve been working on the old bridge off of Meyer Road. Christ, that thing just needs to come down. Rickety piece of shit.”
“So you’re still working for Haskins?” I asked, still standing, hoping he would get the idea I didn’t want to talk.
“Nope, I’m with a different outfit now. I still don’t have benefits, but hopefully one day.”
Yeah right…
“You still with that one chick?” He leaned back, crossing his arms behind his neck. “The redhead?”
“No.”
“She was a hot little number.” He whistled and flashed a greasy smile. “Great heart-shaped ass and big ol’ titties.”
Heather was pretty but lacked everything else. I had grown bored really fast. In fact, I had a tendency of growing tired of every girl I dated in a short period of
time. Why was that?
Was I more like my dad than I had originally thought? The man went through women like underwear. Now, the older he got, the younger his girlfriends were. And sleazier, too. Mostly trampy bar girls. Last time he’d been here before his latest stint in rehab, he had told me about banging three different women in a tavern restroom on the same night.
If he wasn’t my father, I’d fucking detest him. Actually I do, but we don’t get to pick our family.
“I’m tired, Carl. What can I do for you?”
He stared at me in that hard way—mean-mugging me like I was some little kid that would run away with his tail between his legs. “I’m a little short this week, and I owe my roommates for rent.”
Why was it that he had roommates and a job and yet he still couldn’t afford rent? I pulled out my wallet and took out a hundred dollar bill. “This will have to do.”
His eyes lit up. “Thanks, son. I really appreciate it. I’ll get it back to you with interest.”
I almost laughed. I hadn’t seen a dime back from him from the first twenty he’d “borrowed”.
He took the hundred from my fingers and slid it into his front pocket. I looked at him, and it was like looking into a mirror…but adding twenty years. My mom had once said that it had been hard for her to look at me sometimes because I looked just like my dad. I didn’t want to be him. I swore I’d never be like him, and yet at twenty-two, I already found myself slipping into what my father was. Not able to commit to a woman, to run the second things started to feel a little too close or familiar. Granted, I’d never had a woman that I felt like I wanted to settle down with.
But Mandy was different from any other girl I’d dated.
She was better than me in every way. From where she’d come from—a secure, loving home with parents who still adored each other, to graduating from college and having a good career. And she’d spent seven years with one man. From what I understood, she’d been incredibly loyal to Ross. The perfect girlfriend who would have been the perfect wife, and no doubt she would have been the perfect mother.
“You alright, son?”
I hated when he called me son. Gritting my teeth, I nodded. “Yeah, like I said, it’s been a long day.”
Bad Boy Rebound Page 5
