“Damn right you do.” She offered a smile, to try and shake the sudden tenseness she felt. Maybe it was just her. Maybe she was making all that shit up in her head to try and justify something, to try and find answers to questions that weren’t really there. Maybe Jack really was just an asshole. The kind that lived life on their own messy, take no prisoner, terms. “Anyway, it’s not a personal question. I- or maybe it is. I want to know why you even work there. You don’t seem like the type of person who would- I- don’t know… be cut out for an office job. Or like- like it would be boring for you.”
He eyed her for a few minutes and she wanted to squirm under his gaze. She had to look away. She reached for her coffee and sipped at the far too creamy brew. When she dared to glance back up, she found a set of ice blue eyes leveled her way. Apparently Jack wasn’t intimidated in the least to be caught studying her.
“Right. Well, what kind of work do you think I’d be cut out for?”
“I- I don’t know,” she admitted, feeling utterly ridiculous. Somehow Jack had the ability to make a person feel that way with a single glance. Or maybe it was just her.
“Everyone has to do something to make a living. Don’t I seem like the type that was spoiled, an only child overly indulged, the kind that went to an Ivy League school because that’s what I was told to do? What else does one get there but some variation of something to do with business. Something entirely boring.”
Tia nodded slightly. “You know, now that you mention it, the whole spoiled rich kid thing makes perfect sense.”
Jack grinned, but a shadow passed over his face. It was gone as quickly as it came and Tia was pretty sure she just imagined it.
“Marketing though? How did you get into that? You do seem like the last person I would peg for it.”
He shrugged. He hadn’t touched his coffee and made no move for it. Probably because it was cheap grocery store generic grounds, not something gourmet or fancy. Jack also seemed like the kind of guy who drank whiskey or scotch, maybe even brandy, but only the expensive varieties. Now that he’d admitted how he grew up, it made sense. He had that commanding, self-assured presence of someone who knew he could get whatever he wanted.
“I didn’t start there. I have a Business Degree and was quickly thrust into a management position since the marketing department of the company was opening up. I had good credentials to back it up. I went with it because I thought it was something different. Something not so boring.”
“It’s still selling life insurance.”
“That may be, but it’s better than being the head of accounting.”
“You always pick on accounting. Why?”
Jack’s grin was easy. He finally reached for his mug and sipped at the dark roast. His eyes closed, but fluttered open just as quickly. “This is good. Real good.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Okay. So maybe the man is a walking contradiction. “As for accounting, I don’t know. Maybe I think the entire corporate world is… lacking.”
“Really? Sounds like a very unspoiled, un-rich thing to say.”
“Well- if you can’t tell already, I might have been one of those slightly rotten apples.”
“Oh? The kind with a couple bad spots or like- rotten right to the core?”
“I guess that would depend on who is doing the eating.” His gaze intensified and focused on her lips.
Tia’s stomach clenched hard. Damn him! The man was dangerous. He had the power to turn her inside out with a single look. Not to mention his touch. Her body tingled at the thought of his far too talented hands. No! I’m supposed to by angry with him!
“I- uh…” It was impossible to form any kind of words when he was looking at her the way he was. Like he wanted to consume her. No, he was consuming her, just with his eyes. Tia couldn’t help but think about her stairs, just down the hall… or Jack’s desk…
“So- Tia.” Jack drained the mug in one long, astonishing gulp and set it down. “What I really want to know, is if you could possibly find it in your sweet, gentle heart to let me take you on a date.”
She nearly fell over. It was the last thing she expected Jack to say. If he’d offered to throw her up on the counter top and fuck her senseless, she would have been less surprised. The gentle burn going on in her body intensified into a violent heat. She ignored the pooling of moisture in places she didn’t want to think about and the intense pounding of her heart.
“I- you- you don’t exactly seem like the kind of guy who takes girls on dates.”
Jack pretended to be wounded, but Tia didn’t miss the way his eyes actually darkened. “No? What kind of guy do I seem like?” He held up a hand. “No, don’t answer that. I think I already know.”
“You don’t… do you? Take people out, normally?”
He hesitated. His eyes flicked down to his empty mug then back up to her. “No,” he admitted.
Tia was a little surprised. She hadn’t expected him to answer that- at all, let alone honestly. “I guess since all the men I’ve dated have been rotten eggs, you’d fit right in.”
“Rotten apples,” he corrected. “There’s a difference. Not so smelly. Still good for something. Applesauce or cider or whatnot.”
Tia giggled. She expelled a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “I guess one date wouldn’t be that bad. I suppose that if I say no you’d show up at my house with boxes of endless doughnuts and keep calling me.”
“Of course. I do drive a bike as well, so I’d come and interrupt you at all hours of the day and night with the noise. Your neighbors would be quite aggravated. They’d probably beg you just to give in and let me take you out. I can be quite charming when I want to be.”
She didn’t doubt that. Unfortunately. He’d shown up at her house and won her over effortlessly. Now she’d agreed to a damn date with him when she’d pretty much sworn off men altogether.
“Tomorrow night then?”
“What?”
“Our date. Can I take you out tomorrow night?”
“Do you really have a bike?” Somehow it seemed at odds with the Jack she thought she knew. The Jack who wore suits. The Jack in a demanding leader position. There was clearly much more to him than first met the eye.
“Yeah.” Jack leaned hard against the counter. He seemed so much closer than before, so much more… commanding, arresting, so much more… everything. All the oxygen in the room seemed to have vanished right along with his subtle movement.
“Bring it then. Tomorrow at seven.”
“Deal.” He didn’t offer a hand to shake. He didn’t touch her at all. “And I’ll make those calls. By the time I show up here tomorrow night, I’ll have several job opportunities for you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Tia protested, even though she knew she’d be damn thankful if he did.
“I do,” he grinned wickedly. “Because I did get you fired, and I can’t let you hold that over me. I can’t give you a reason to hate me.”
If only he knew, that wasn’t possible. She’d damn well tried and come up empty handed.
Chapter 20
JACK
“You know, Jack, I think I have you figured out.”
It wasn’t exactly first date conversation, but then again, they were technically past first date material.
Because he’d been trained, over the years, to hide his emotions, no- he’d been trained not to feel anything, he kept his features carefully neutral. Underneath the table, his hands gripped the dark jeans he’d donned for their evening out.
He was doing the whole traditional thing. He’d picked Tia up at seven, like she’d instructed, on his bike. He’d even remembered the extra helmet, which of course ruined her hair. Not that it made a difference. He liked the way it looked, flat and messy. He liked how she’d run her fingers through it after, mussing it further.
Tia still had that wide eyed, windblown, fairy child look. She’d worn jeans, since they’d gone for a ride on his bi
ke first, tall black boots that rode nearly to her knees, and a red blouse. God, she looked good in red. It reminded him of that dress she’d worn the night he’d first seen her. The color only emphasized her alabaster skin and brought out the honey flecks in her eyes.
“You do, do you?” He raised a brow in question and allowed a sardonic smile.
He couldn’t give away how panicked he felt at Tia’s proclamation. It wasn’t what he was expecting when they’d sat down and she opened her menu. They hadn’t even ordered a damn drink yet. It was way too early to skip to the heavy parts of the conversation.
“Yeah. I think that this is your first real date ever.”
“Really? That bad, am I?”
Tia’s coral lips rose up in a dazzling smile. Their waiter finally came around, offering drinks. Jack cursed the fact that he’d been the one to drive. He settled for a water and a soda, while Tia ordered a glass of white wine. The place wasn’t classy, but it wasn’t a dump either. It was middle of the road. He’d picked it on purpose, so that they didn’t have to arrive all fancy and make a show of being someone neither of them were. Not that he had any damn idea who he really was anymore.
“No, you’re not bad. I was just- well, some people don’t like to date, or don’t do what they’d consider dating. Some people just stay friends or go for something more casual.”
“Really? Are you telling me that I could have got away with that?”
“Not a chance.” Tia feigned a wounded look. “Don’t you think that I’m worth going on a date with?” She lowered her voice. “Or would you prefer to keep me as a fuck buddy?”
Jack actually had to clear his throat. He couldn’t remember the last time someone unnerved him so much. Tia got under his skin, and not in a way that was necessarily bad. He just wasn’t used to it and it was uncomfortable because it wasn’t familiar. Walls. Those were familiar. Lies, those too. A hard front and an even harder interior. That he could do. He was good at just fucking, but when it came to feeling, when it came to anything else, he was completely lost.
“That’s slightly vulgar, isn’t it?” he asked when he could squeeze out a few words.
Tia winked. “It might be.”
“You mean you’d settle for that?” Part of him was a little disappointed. He’d tried to do the right thing for the first time in his life and there she was, trying to tell him she didn’t want it?
Tia shook her head. “No way. I- I just…” she opened her menu and pretended to look at it. “What’s good here?”
“Tia…” Jack warned. She was nowhere near a master of evasion.
Her eyes met his and her lips slowly parted. Her tongue swept out and moistened them, which succeeded in making him hard as a fucking rock underneath the table. Jack shifted, trying to ease the pain in his groin, but of course, no position was comfortable.
“What? I just- I don’t know what we’re doing here, Jack. I wanted to ask you that later and not ruin the date, but it turns out that I’m pretty shitty at pretending like I don’t care. I’m so anxious right now that there is no way I can actually eat anything.”
“Really?”
It was nice to hear that she was as nervous as he was. Jack was so wound up he’d completely missed the signs. Tia had seemed carefree on the bike ride over, but then again, that could have been the exhalation of the ride. He knew what that was like, that rush of adrenaline and simultaneous sense of peace. Now that he knew, it was easy to spot the signs. Tia’s fingers trembled on the menu. Her shoulders were arched forward, her spine straight. Her eyes never stayed in one place for long. The truth was, she looked as nervous and confused as he felt. Which made him feel a little bit better.
Tia blinked hard. “Yeah. Yeah, really.”
“I- I don’t’ know what we’re doing.” He leaned forward and spoke in low tones. “You’re right. I don’t normally do this. I think we both know that. I can’t promise anything. I was just damn tired of sitting at home thinking about you all the time.” The words came out of nowhere, forced from some unbidden hole inside himself.
Tia looked just as surprised to hear it as he was to say it. Slowly, her lips curled up in another soft smile. “Really? You thought about me? Or is that just some line you’re feeding me to go along with the false vulnerability?”
Jack slowly shook his head. “It’s hard to forget a woman who throws doughnuts at your head.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
It felt funny hearing her say that, like she’d already come to the conclusion that though she admitted to being skeptical about relationships since her previous ones had been with losers- a fact that he couldn’t reconcile, given what a damn prize she was- they were going to spend a significant amount of time together in the near future.
“Absolutely not,” Jack ground out. Is that what I want? A future with her?
“Well…” Tia went back to scanning the menu, or pretending to. He wasn’t sure how much she was actually reading. She spoke without looking up. “I guess we can just take it one day at a time. No sense in getting our hopes up when I’ve only ever attracted the wrong kind of guy and you’ve- well- you’d rather fuck a girl on her stairs than take her out to dinner.”
Tia’s statement, said so casually and so cheerfully, as though she was listing off menu items, winded him. Jack wasn’t used to being the one who lacked in composure. Even on the odd chance someone did get to him, he kept the situation under control. As in, he was used to telling himself he felt nothing and reflecting that.
“I guess we can do that,” he agreed. “I- the thing about the stairs. And work…”
Tia’s head shot up. “Don’t apologize for it. Dear god, that was the best- well- you know. Other than getting fired, which I am never going to let you live down, I don’t have any regrets. And you’ve partially made it up to me.”
“Partially?” His cock hammered under the table and he cursed the fact that jeans were just about the worst thing he could have worn. Especially the pair he had on. They were new, tight and uncomfortable since they didn’t have that buttery soft worn in feel. Which meant that his dick was currently trapped in them at a painful angle.
Tia’s eyes sparkled. “Yup. You’re going to have to spend a long time making it up to me. A long time.”
Those words, the way they were said and how Tia looked at him like she wanted to know if he was on the menu, did little to help him. He was surprised, honestly. In just a few short weeks, Tia had transformed from someone who was obviously not at all comfortable and confident in their sexuality to someone who stared at him and told him, in no uncertain terms, what she wanted.
Fuck me, that’s sexy as hell. He’d like to claim responsibility for her awakening, but he probably had a lot of assholes from her past to thank. He wasn’t that talented. Although, his damn aching cock liked to think otherwise. It responded eagerly under the table and he had to shift again.
“I- I can- right.” He picked up his menu, wondering what the fuck was happening to him.
How could Tia, in a matter of minutes, undo years of training? He could have gathered up all those fallen bricks and assembled them back into a hard wall. He could have walked away. He didn’t have to go to her house and apologize or take her on a damn date.
He didn’t have to do any of those things, but damn him, he wanted to. Percy offered him a few choice words of advice and they’d really sunk in. If he was tired of being lonely, it was about damn time he grew a set of stones and did something about it.
“And here we go. One glass of wine and a soda.” Their waiter, a young kid, probably twenty years old with short cropped dark hair and an awkward, gangly stance that made him look more like a boy than a young man, swept out of nowhere. He set their drinks down and stared at them pointedly. “Are we ready to order?”
Jack was about to stammer something about needing a few more minutes, but Tia closed her menu and said, with all the confidence in the world, as if the evening and the conversatio
n was easy for her, that she’d have the chicken primavera.
When the waiter turned to him, because he didn’t know his ass from his damn face at the moment, Jack muttered something about having the same. Even though he hated chicken. And pasta. Most of all, he hated the feeling of being completely fucking lost at sea.
After the kid left, Tia smiled at him. She reached across the table and it actually took him a full few minutes to realize what she wanted. Slowly, he slid his palm onto hers. Her fingers tangled around his and they were warm and slender and didn’t bite him back. He relaxed just a little.
“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “I know this is all new. It’s a big leap for me too. This kind of thing always is. We don’t have to know what we’re doing. We don’t need a label or a name. I- I want to mean something to you, but as long as we have a good balance between this, going out- and uh- staying in, I’m happy. And it’s just you, Jack. That’s all I want. Is that alright?”
“Yes,” he said with conviction he didn’t have to force. The thought of being with someone other than Tia made him feel like he’d just been kicked in the stomach. Which was completely shocking and entirely terrifying. “Of course. You’re a beautiful woman, Tia. Any man would be a fool to treat you badly.”
She smiled wistfully, that soft, sad kind of smile that made him want to find the asshole that had cheated on her, because he knew he was out there, and pound him into the fucking ground.
Her hand squeezed his a little tighter. “Then… relax. Everything is going to be alright. I have no expectations. I just- I might have wanted to stop thinking about you as well.”
Because he couldn’t resist, he twined his fingers through hers, his charm and confidence was back, because this part, at least, he could handle. He grinned and he knew it was about as shit-eating as it could get. He probably looked like the devil himself at the moment.
“Oh you thought about me? Just all day, or at night too?”
Chapter 21
TIA
Tia didn’t exactly know what was most shocking about her and Jack. That it had been a week and a half and neither of them had fucked it up, or that they both seemed to be enjoying it. She was actually hopeful. The guarded kind of hopeful that waits for the other stupid fucking shoe to fall. Despite their somewhat unconventional and rocky start, they’d settled into a kind of rhythm that felt oddly- domestic. If Jack didn’t fully enjoy it, he did it for her and that meant everything.
Lonely Rider - The Box Set: A Motorcycle Club Romance - The Complete Series Page 24
