“I do. I wanna tell you how sorry …”
I cut her off. “Don’t, Rainy. You like coffee? I made some. Grab a cup out of the cupboard if you want. There’s cream in the fridge.”
Her head drops as she walks over to get a cup. “Anyway, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I hesitate, then add, “That’s what big brothers are for.” I remind myself of who she is and what type of person she’s supposed to be to me.
“And you’re the best, Bastien,” she says, then I feel her breasts against my back as she hugs me. “Really, thank you. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to me if you hadn’t taken care of me. It scared me when I thought about it more.”
My freaking cock’s thumping as it grows by leaps and bounds as her body is formed to mine. “Not a big deal, pumpkin.” I try to think of things that’ll make my hard-on fade away as I stir the eggs, but can’t seem to think about anything but her and how good her arms feel wrapped around me.
She lets me go and takes her coffee to the table. “It is a big deal. I can’t remember any guy from last night except you. I have no idea who the man was that had me. What if he’d taken me home? What if he’d raped me?”
My heart skips a beat as I think about that. “Well, I was there. Let’s not delve into what ifs.” I take the pan of eggs and put some on each of the plates I took out for us. Two pieces of bacon each are already on them, and the toast has just popped up in the toaster.
“I got the toast, Bastien,” she says as she grabs them, placing the bread on the plates. She picks up the plate closest to her and takes it to the table. Peeking into the half-empty cup of coffee I left on the table, she picks it up and refills it as I take my seat, using the table to mask the erection I can’t seem to get rid of. When she places the cup next to my plate, she kisses my cheek. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“Well, you need to stop,” I say, as the jeans are chafing my dick because that kiss she gave me made it twitch and I desperately need to adjust it, but that’ll be too obvious. Then I get a bright idea. “Can you grab the jelly out of the fridge?”
“Sure,” she says, and I take the chance to fix my cock problem.
Letting out a sigh as the pinching sensation eases, I find her looking at me with an odd expression as she places the jelly on the table. She takes a seat without asking me what the hell the long sigh was about, thankfully.
“So, no boyfriend, Rainy?” I ask, out of the blue.
“No,” she says, then stabs a mound of eggs with her fork. “I think it’s best to leave men to the side right now. I have to get college out of the way. Dad’s nearly going broke to pay for what the scholarships didn’t cover. I owe it to him and the rest of my family to get school out of the way and boys would interfere with that right now.”
A chuckle comes out of me as I shake my head, “Let me guess. Your dad told you that, didn’t he?”
“Well, yeah. But he’s right.” She takes the bite and moans. “So buttery, Bastien. Great job.”
The moan sounds sensual, and I kind of hate that she made it. There goes my cock again, jerking into an uncomfortable position. “I think I’ll change into sweat pants.” The way her eyes cut to me as she looks confused makes me chuckle again.
“I don’t recall you saying random things like you do now, Bastien.”
“I don’t, normally,” I say, then take a bite of the bacon to shut myself up. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me!
“Returning the favor you did for me by saving my ass last night, I’d like to help you out with some housework. I’ll do that sink full of dishes you have going on over there and your laundry, to make up for your help,” she says, and I suddenly feel like she’s got the wrong idea.
“Look, Rainy. I did what any old friend would do for another. Not that we were even friends. I wouldn’t even call us that. You were a friend of my little sister’s. I barely knew you existed. I don’t want you playing house with me. I can wash my own dishes and do my own damn laundry. I have for many years now. I don’t need or even want your help around my apartment. Do you understand me?”
With raised eyebrows, she puts her fork down and looks straight into my eyes. “I’m sure you do know how to clean, but you sure as shit haven’t done it, Mr. Moody! But have it your way. I won’t help you out. Do you think I want to play house with you? I just told you there’s no room in my life right now for a man.”
“And I’ll never be the man who’s right for you,” I blurt out.
“Who asked you to be my man?” she asks me, then takes a bite of her bacon. “Certainly not me. I wasn’t thinking in those terms at all. Forgive me for wanting to give back to you for doing something nice for me. Shit, Bastien!”
She devours the eggs then, and I can’t help but laugh. “Glad to see our little quarrel hasn’t affected your appetite.”
“Why should it?” she quips, then takes her empty plate to the sink and washes it and only it, careful not to touch the towering stack of dirty dishes that’s been there for three days.
I should’ve kept my damn mouth shut and let her clean them for me. There really is something wrong with me.
Rainy
Going out in the light of day dressed like a hobo, I feel more awkward than I ever recall feeling. My dress and heels in one hand, I follow closely behind Bastien as we go out to his car. When he unlocks it, it makes a chirping sound, and I look up to find a badass, shiny blue machine. “Wow! You really do have a badass car!”
“You like?” he asks me as he opens the passenger door for me.
“I do,” I tell him as I slide in and the smell of leather hits me, lulling me into a daze as I look at the intricate dashboard that resembles what I’d expect a high-tech airplane’s to look like.
He gets in and grins at me. “You rode in this last night and, I have to say, you were rendered speechless.”
My cheeks heat with embarrassment as he reminds me that I was knocked out. “I bet I was.”
“Tap your address into the computer there, and we’ll get on our way,” he says as he gestures to the screen that’s on the dash between us.
“Cool. I get to be your co-pilot,” I say with a giggle, then punch in my address.
Bastien grabs my hand just as it leaves the computer screen, and pulls it to his lips, leaving a kiss on top of it. “Thanks for doing the dishes while I changed clothes, Rainy. I was an ass and way out of line for saying what I did.”
I smile and wish heat wasn’t pooling between my thighs with the sweet kiss and how handsome he is as he looks at me with those sparkling green eyes. “You forget that I know you, Bastien. That broodiness you have is a thing I’m accustomed to.”
Letting my hand go, he gives me a wink and a nod then we take off. I know I’m not supposed to think about him in any terms other than he’s a guy from my hometown. A man who isn’t into being in serious relationships. A bad boy with no remorse for how badly he hurts a woman when he uses her for sex, then leaves her wanting more. But damn, I wonder what if he could be different with me? What if he could settle down and be with one woman, that woman being me? What if he and I could fall in love, get married, and have a family?
Who am I kidding? I’m too vanilla for his taste. And too naïve to understand what a man like him really wants in a woman. I’d disappoint him, and he’d eat me alive.
The engine revs as he stops at a red light and I look over to see a woman giving him the eye as she sits in the passenger side of a BMW. He looks out his window at her and gives her a slight wave. She licks her lips, seductively and I feel a chill run through me as anger heats my entire body.
Is this jealousy?
Sebastien
Some rich tramp is trying to turn me on as she licks her swollen lips. Too much collagen. I hate fake parts on a woman.
Rainy’s all natural and beautiful.
Whoa! I have got to stop thinking like that!
Rainy is a sweet, young, innocent girl. She’s doing as her daddy to
ld her to and staying away from boys so she can focus on school. She’s a good girl.
Not my type at all!
I take off from the stoplight and glance at Rainy, who’s looking at the woman too. “What a piece of work she is, huh, Bastien?”
“She’s probably a bored housewife,” I say as I speed up to get the hell away from the other car.
“If I wasn’t with you and her husband wasn’t driving her around, would you be tempted to pull over with her and have a little rendezvous?” she asks me, making me laugh.
“She’s not my type. She’s phony. And believe it or not, I’m not into screwing total strangers. I need to know the women I mess with a little bit before I go beast on them.”
I hear her gasp and glance at her again. Her cheeks are bright red, and she’s looking down as she nervously smooths out the shorts she has on. I’ve shocked her, and so damn easily!
She’s more innocent than I thought she was. If that muddled her, then what would she do if I kissed her? What would she do if I held her close and looked into those hazel depths of pure innocence? What would she do if I showed her what it’s like to be with a real man?
The sweat pants I changed into begin to move as my thoughts bring about the rise of the beast. I move my hand to rest on my thigh to hide it, if possible.
If Rainy sees that thing, she just might faint!
“Have you ever had a real relationship, Bastien?” she asks me, then looks at me as she waits for my answer.
“Um, well, I did see this one chick when I first moved here. I think we hung out for a couple of weeks together. But then I found myself growing bored and moved onto another conquest. You see, Rainy, I like the challenge of getting new girls. It never gets old for me. I suppose I’m messed up.”
“At least you’re honest,” she tells me. “That should compensate for your bad behavior.”
“An honest man-whore, huh?” I ask with a chuckle.
“Are you upfront with your conquests?” she asks as she looks me over.
“Most of the time.” I give her a wink. “But if it’ll hurt my chances, I leave that part out. You know what I mean?”
“I think so. You do and say what you need to in order to get the girl into your bed.” She looks out the window and taps her fingers on her knee.
“Most of the time, yeah.”
And now I feel pretty fucking shallow. Like there’s an abyss inside me where a soul should be. I’d like to have more inside myself than that. I’d like to be more than I am, a bouncer at a nightclub run by the mafia. A man they nicknamed Ladies’ Man because that’s exactly what I am. A man who takes the ladies with ease. It’s almost too easy most of the time.
Then I look at Rainy who’s sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window, and I know there’s more going on in her head than there’s ever been in any of the women I’ve wasted my time with.
What if, Rainy is the one woman who’ll keep me working for her love? What if she can keep me on my toes? What if she could expect more out of me and I worked hard to make her proud of me?
What if she fell into my little world for a reason?
What if I did what I wanted to and made a play for her and found myself bored soon after I got what I wanted from her? What if I broke her heart? What if I made her into what I am, a person with a vacant heart because it doesn’t know what love really is?
Rainy
As we pull into the parking area of my apartment, I see Kyle leaning on his pickup truck and tapping at his cell phone. Mine rings, and I find it’s me he’s calling. “Hey, Kyle.”
“Hey, where’re you at? Tilly told me some guy took you home.”
Bastien pulls into the space on the other side of the truck as I say, “I’m here now.”
“Where?” he asks as he walks toward my apartment that’s on the ground floor. “At home? I knocked and knocked.”
“No, we just pulled up, Kyle,” I say, and Bastien cuts his eyes at me. “I’ll meet you at my door. Bye.” I end the call and find Bastien pulling his sunglasses down.
He peers over them at me. “I’m walking you inside. I wanna see this apartment of yours. And who’s Kyle?”
“A guy I work with,” I say as I open the door. “Come on. He’s not a boyfriend or anything like that.”
“K,” he says, then gets out too. He follows behind me, his hand on the small of my back. It’s kind of odd how sparks shoot all through my body, and I feel like he and I are together. Like he’s showing Kyle that we’re close.
Kyle looks Bastien up and down as we approach him. He sticks out his hand. “Kyle Bennet, Marine Biologist, Los Angeles Zoo. And you are?”
OMG! How formal!
Bastien takes his hand, giving it a firm handshake. “Sebastien Breden. You work with Rainy?”
“I do,” Kyle says.
I grab my keys out of my little purse and have an issue getting them out. Bastien takes my purse away and fishes them out for me with ease, then unlocks my door, gesturing for me to go inside first.
Going in, I turn on the living room light and see him setting my keys and purse on the table by the door right where I keep them, and I think that’s kind of cool that he knew that.
Kyle seems uneasy as he puts his hands in the pockets of his baggy khaki shorts and appears to be waiting for me to ask him to take a seat. “You can sit anywhere you like, Kyle,” I tell him.
“K,” he says, then sits down on the sofa.
Bastien sits on the loveseat and pulls me down to sit next to him. “Rainy and I grew up together back in Greensburg, Indiana. We met at the club I work at last night.” He takes my hand, which I find weird, but I like it. “When I saw her in a bad state, I took her home with me. Her friends were about to let some guy take her home.”
“Yeah, Tilly told me all about it,” Kyle says then looks at me. “You okay, Rainy?”
“Yeah, thanks to Bastien. He’s my hero.” I tug his hand, and he smiles back at me.
“I couldn’t let anything bad happen to you,” he says as he touches the tip of my nose, then looks back at Kyle. “So, you came to find her?”
“Yeah, when I called Tilly and heard what had happened, I tried to call Rainy and left her a few texts, telling her to let me know she was all right. I was worried about her,” Kyle tells Bastien, then he looks at me. “And why didn’t you answer me?”
“My phone was in my purse in Bastien’s bedroom and I was in the kitchen. I guess I didn’t hear it. And I didn’t check if I had missed calls or messages. I was doing his dishes after we ate breakfast,” I explain and find Bastien frowning at me.
“Not that she had to. I told her not to do it. But she jumped on them as soon as I left the room,” Bastien adds.
“Rainy is one hell of a hard worker,” Kyle says. “Let me tell you. This little lady is one smart and helpful person. A great one to have on your team. We’re all hoping she decides to take a position at the zoo when she finishes college. I’d love to get to work alongside her for years to come.”
“Bet you would,” Bastien says with a low and somewhat growly tone. Then he looks at me. “Go change into something comfortable. I’d like to take you to the zoo and see what it is you do.”
I jump up with excitement and clap my hands. “Really? Great! It’ll only take me a minute to change and pull my hair into a ponytail, and we can go.” Then it hits me how rude I’m being. “Oh, but, Kyle, what about you?”
He looks at me as he gets up. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay, Rainy. I’ll get out of you guys’ way now. You are okay, right?” He puts his hand on my shoulder, and I see Sebastien get up and come up behind him.
He’s twice the size of Kyle, and his presence at his back doesn’t go unnoticed. “She’s great. I’d never hurt her.”
Taking a step back as he turns to look up at Bastien, Kyle says, “I’m sure you wouldn’t. It’s just that she’s pretty special, and I’d hate to see her get hurt in any way.”
“Yeah, I get that,” B
astien says then walks over to the door and opens it. “Nice to meet you, Kyle.”
Kyle looks at me with wary eyes. “Bye, Rainy. See you at work on Monday.”
“Yeah, Monday,” I say, and turn to go to my bedroom to find something to wear.
I hear the front door close, and I’m not impervious to what just went down out there. Bastien exhibited some basic domination tactics, and I can’t help but be happy about that. Even though I know, I shouldn’t be.
Throwing on a cute pair of blue jean shorts, a white lacy top, and a pair of flat sandals, I pull my hair up into a ponytail and head back out to find Bastien sitting on the loveseat, flipping through the channels on my television.
He looks at me as I come into the room. “Wow, that was fast.”
“No need to get gussied up to go for a hike at the zoo. And I’m going to take you behind the scenes. You’re going to get the tour most never get.” I grab a couple of cold bottles of water out of the fridge and put them into a tote bag, then go shove my little purse and keys into it too. Grabbing my sunglasses off the table that my purse and keys were on, I place them on top of my head and notice that Bastien is wearing clothes that are much too hot for the walking we’re about to do. “We should make a pit stop at your place so you can change into shorts, a T-shirt, and some tennis shoes.”
“I guess we should get going then,” he says as he turns off the television and gets up. He comes up behind me, putting his hand right back on the small of my back, and out the door we go. “This should be interesting.”
“Oh, it will be,” I say with excitement etching my voice. “I’m so happy you wanted to take me there.”
“I’m happy you’re happy,” he says with a chuckle.
The sun’s shining, the birds are chirping, and I’m going on a first date with a man who I doubt dates much at all.
Lucky me!
Sebastien
After a quick stop to let me change clothes, we made it to the Los Angeles Zoo where Rainy showed me all kinds of things, many of which I had no idea existed. I found myself holding her hand most of the time and feeling the healthiest I’ve ever felt.
The Midnight Club Page 123
