To Have and to Harley

by Regina Cole

  “What can I do for you?”

  Bethany shivered.

  It wasn’t the night air. It was the way he stood, feet braced apart, shoulders square, arms loose and ready, body big and strong and near enough for her to sink into.

  If she wanted. Which she didn’t. Really, she didn’t.

  She cleared her throat. Focus, Beth.

  “That was…an interesting event.” She chose her words carefully. Though she’d clearly won, she didn’t want to make him feel bad. Weird, that. She didn’t want to make a liar feel bad for lying? What was wrong with her?

  “Thank you,” he said shortly, his stare direct. She fought the urge to squirm. She hadn’t done anything wrong. A little rude, maybe, but not wrong.

  “Now will you agree that you can’t handle Sarah’s wedding?”

  “No.”

  His short answer took her aback, and she blinked. “I’m sorry?”

  “I said no.”

  Her temper rose, blood heating as her pulse quickened. “That’s my best friend you’re talking about. You think you can get away with something like this for her? A wedding at a bar with shrimp and orange bagels and peanut-butter pickle boats?”

  Trey’s glare shot toward the bar. “Damn it, Stone, I told you to drop the pickles.”

  “You can’t do this to them. To Sarah, to Mama Yelverton. They’re trusting you, and you’re lying to them!”

  “I know!” he roared, and the sound was so loud and close that her heart jumped into her throat. “I know they’re trusting me! That’s why I’m trying to do the best job I can. And you’re always in the way and trying to ruin it! Why aren’t you letting me help them?”

  “Because I don’t trust you!” She went toe-to-toe with him, shoulders heaving as she stared straight into his glowering eyes. “You’re too—”

  “Too what? Too rough? Too mean? Too bad to plan a wedding?”

  “Yes! All of that! You don’t know what you’re doing, and you’re going to ruin things for them and take their money and break their hearts, and I won’t let you do it! I love them, and you’re not going to take advantage of them like this!”

  Trey stopped, his expression blanking. “You think I’m trying to take advantage of them? For money?”

  Bethany’s insides stuttered, uncertainty creeping into her voice. “Well, aren’t you?”

  He looked away from her, an unnamed emotion rolling off him in waves.

  “No. I’m not. I don’t want anything from them but a relationship. And I hope you understand that you’re doing your best to ruin any chance of that.”

  For the first time, the certainty that she’d held about Trey began to crumble. Standing there in front of her, with his strong, broad shoulders silhouetted against the parking lot lights, he looked—human. Angry and hurt and lonely, as if her words had peeled away the outer shell he presented to the world. His gaze swung back to her, and she saw in that moment just how shallow she’d been. How wrong. How prejudice had blinded her, how the exterior of the man in front of her had shielded her eyes from the true heart of him.

  “You were lonely. Weren’t you?”

  Her whispered question rocked him on his heels as if it were a gunshot.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I was. I thought I’d been dumped by the woman who’d given birth to me in a gas-station bathroom.”

  Her hand covered her mouth, and she just stared. As if a tourniquet had been released, words flew from him.

  “I had nobody. The system yanked me back and forth so many times, I had whiplash by the time I was eight. Nobody wanted me. Nobody—”

  He gritted his teeth and stared straight out at the horizon, as if by simply looking at it, he could stem the tide of emotions she’d unwittingly released.

  But they hung there, unspoken, and Bethany’s heart ached for him.

  She’d known love. She’d had the most amazing father for fifteen years. And after that? She’d had the Yelvertons to rescue her from her grandmother. Without them…

  Without them, she might know a little more of his pain.

  God, how wrong she’d been. Because he looked like a roughneck, she’d judged him as unfit for the Yelvertons. But now…now she could see a glimpse of the little boy he’d been once. Lonely, afraid, abandoned. She longed to comfort him, to heal him, to take away the pain her thoughtlessness had inflicted.

  Her father would be ashamed of her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, and without thinking, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. He was warm and hard, his body unmoving, like a living rock. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  For a moment he didn’t yield, didn’t budge, didn’t return her embrace. And then his big, broad hands swept up her back, and he relaxed into her embrace, taking the physical comfort she offered.

  With each heartbeat, she tried to communicate her true feelings to him. To return the kindness he’d shown her in the kitchen. To apologize for ripping open his decades-old emotional wound. To make amends for the fact she’d stood in his way when all he’d wanted was to get to know his family.

  But it wasn’t enough. She needed to do more.

  Of its own accord, her hand wandered up and cupped his cheek. As she looked into his eyes, twin mossy pools of pain and sadness, she did the only thing she could think of.

  She kissed him.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve hurt you, and I know what that feels like, and I’m so damn sorry.”

  The words went unspoken, but she prayed he could feel them in the brush of her mouth against his.

  As their lips touched, her heartbeat quickened. Though the kiss had started as a simple comforting measure, she couldn’t stop her body’s response to his nearness. The sweet cage of his arms around her quickened her pulse, and the scent of him made her blood rush. Her mouth opened to his, her body pressing against him. He took what she so willingly offered, his tongue sweeping deeply into her mouth as his hands cupped her ass and brought her hips in sharp contact with his own.

  With every movement of his mouth on hers, he possessed her, took over the body that had betrayed her at the first sight of him. Her body molded to his hard planes, her mouth and tongue tangling wildly with his as her hips and breasts pushed against him, seeking greater, deeper contact.

  “Boss?”

  A voice behind them made Bethany jump, but Trey didn’t release her, lifting his head only long enough to growl at the intruder, “Get lost.”

  “But the bride and groom are ready to—”

  “I said get lost, Dean.”

  The sound of a door shutting in the distance finished breaking the spell, and with a sigh, Trey released Bethany. She swayed on her feet, but he steadied her.

  She bit her lip, looking into his eyes, not knowing what to say. The parking lot that surrounded them had disappeared while he was kissing her, but now she realized just how exposed they’d been, there beneath the light of the parking lot, where anyone could walk by and see them.

  What had she been thinking? Easy. She hadn’t.

  “I’ve got to go,” Trey said, stepping away with obvious reluctance. “Are you coming back in?”

  “I need to get going,” Bethany said, reaching into the pocket of her dress for her car keys. “I’ve got some stuff to think about. And…I’m sorry. Really.”

  Trey nodded, and without another word, he strode toward the door of the bar, leaving her alone.

  She looked after him, her insides curiously cold and warm at the same time.

  What was she supposed to do now?

  * * *

  She couldn’t get him off her mind. Not that night when she went to bed. Not the next day when she cleaned her apartment like some kind of possessed Merry Maid. Not when she slammed her laptop shut after another fruitless job search. And especially not Monday, when she was on her way to dinner with Mama Yelverton.

&
nbsp; Her teeth caught her lower lip as she pulled into the parking space at the restaurant.

  He’d basically confessed that he wasn’t a wedding planner. But at the same time, he’d shown a glimpse of vulnerability that she hadn’t expected.

  She cut the engine and let her forehead rest against the steering wheel.

  She’d been so hell-bent on exposing him. So determined that he was out to screw the Yelvertons over. If not for that little glimpse of something else in him, she’d be walking in there right now to ruin his charade.

  So what was stopping her?

  With a deep breath, she reached over and grabbed her purse and exited the car.

  She still didn’t know what to do. Not when she walked to the door, not when she pushed it open, not when she smiled and waved back at Mama Yelverton, who was sitting in a cozy booth toward the back of the restaurant.

  “Hello, dear,” Mama Yelverton said as Bethany sank onto the bench opposite her. “You feeling okay? You look a little pale.”

  “Oh, I’m totally fine,” Bethany said with a quick smile as she tucked her purse beside her.

  “Good. I was worried that I might have been overburdening you with wedding planning on top of your job search.”

  Bethany thought she’d hidden her wince fairly well, but apparently not well enough to conceal it from Mama Yelverton. She reached over to pat the back of Bethany’s hand.

  “Sweetheart, if it’s too much, Trey and I can take over ourselves. I’m sure he can help me with everything.”

  Bethany shook her head. “No, no, I’m enjoying the wedding planning…really. The job market is pretty dismal at the moment, and I’ve got enough to live on for a good while, so it’s a nice distraction.” She glanced away for a second, drawing a deep breath in through her nose. “I’m glad you brought the wedding planning up actually, because I wanted to talk with you about that.”

  Mama Yelverton poured Bethany a glass of wine, looking at her curiously as Bethany searched for the right words.

  Your son is a fraud. The Iron Knot doesn’t really exist. I want to see Trey romantically.

  God, all of it was so wrong to say out loud. And where had the last part come from?

  “Beth?”

  “I just wanted to say that I think it’s going to be wonderful. I talked with Trey this weekend, and he’s got some unique ideas that I think will really work well.”

  Mama Yelverton’s smile lit up the whole restaurant. “That’s so great,” she said. “I’m so happy that you think you can work with Trey. I have to admit, I was a little worried that you didn’t like him.”

  Bethany gave a nervous laugh as she took a big swig of her wine.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t like him—quite the opposite. She wanted to strip him naked and let him do increasingly decadent things to her.

  Even though he’d shown her a glimpse of his true self out in that parking lot, she still couldn’t shake the worry in her gut that things weren’t right. But was she such a monster that she would rob a man who’d been stolen from his family the chance to get to know them?

  The sympathy and doubt warred within her, causing her hand to shake a little as she took a sip of her wine.

  Whatever else she was feeling, her mistrust didn’t justify wrecking what Trey and the Yelvertons were trying to build together.

  As Mama Yelverton began talking to the server who’d just appeared beside their table, Bethany pretended to be really interested in the menu. But her mind’s eye was filled with a tall, broad, sexy-as-hell biker who’d shown her a glimpse of something she couldn’t resist.

  For the good of the family—for him—she’d work with him. Her crusade to prove him to be a fraud was definitely over.

  She didn’t know why, exactly, but she was convinced that helping him succeed was the right thing to do.

  Hopefully, he and that crew of tattooed bodybuilders could get organized enough to not screw up Sarah’s wedding. And hopefully she could keep her libido under control enough to keep her hands to herself.

  Maybe not that last one. If there was ever a resolution she hoped to fail to keep, it was that one.

  * * *

  The week wore on uneventfully. Honestly, by the time Thursday rolled around, Bethany was climbing the walls of her apartment.

  She wasn’t used to all this free time. At least today she had to go by Hudson’s to pick up her final paycheck. Helping with Sarah’s wedding was a decent distraction, but there was only so much she could do. It certainly wasn’t a full-time job, especially with two other people in on the planning. She’d sent her résumé out for positions at six different companies, none of which had called her back. Disappointing, but it was early days yet. She’d just have to make the best of her unplanned sabbatical.

  She was walking toward the front entrance of Hudson’s when her cell phone rang.

  Trey’s name was flashing across the screen. Bethany looked around, glad there were no employees or customers outside the doors at that point.

  Gosh, she was acting like a twitterpated teenager.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Bethany.” Her name rumbled through the phone like velvet over gravel, sending shivers down her spine.

  “Trey,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She leaned against one of the concrete pillars near the main entrance of the department store. “What’s up?”

  “I told you I’d contact you when I had some updates on the wedding.”

  “Ah, yeah. You did.” A little disappointment crept into her voice, damn it all. For some reason she’d been hoping he’d call because he wanted to talk to her.

  Idiot.

  “Are you free now? I’ve got some things to show you.”

  She glanced toward the door, noting the way the store name on the glass was starting to peel slightly. She should—

  No, it was somebody else’s problem now.

  “I’m running an errand at Hudson’s. Maybe we could meet at the Starbucks that’s nearby when I’m done. I’ll only be a minute. Do you know where that is?”

  “Yeah. I’m not far. I’ll see you there.”

  The call disconnected, and Bethany let her cell fall into her bag.

  Phew. Okay. Seeing Trey today wasn’t something she’d mentally prepared for, but she could handle it. She just had to remember to treat him like a brother, and everything would be fine.

  Of course, stopping herself from wanting to kiss him was an impossibility. Wanting to kiss him wasn’t the problem, though. Actually following through was the mistake.

  Probably a mistake. Yeah. Definitely a mistake.

  “Hey, Kate,” Bethany said as she passed the customer-service counter. “I’m just here to pick up my paycheck.”

  “Oh!” Kate looked surprised, then a little panicked as her cheeks flushed, and she picked up the phone. “Hi, Bethany. It’ll be just a few minutes, okay? Mr. Junes wanted to talk to you.”

  Bethany stifled the urge to roll her eyes. “I don’t really have anything else to say to Mr. Junes.”

  Kate’s next words were directed into the phone. “Yes, sir, she’s here. Okay. I’ll ask her to wait.”

  The handset clicked into the base as Kate looked at her, a bit of sympathy in her brown eyes. “He wants you to wait in your office. Well, the office.”

  Bethany stiffened her spine. “Can’t you just give me my check? I really don’t want to have to hear him go on and on about this anymore.”

  Kate shook her head. “Sorry. I would if I could, but it’s not with the others. He’s got it.”

  A heavy sigh escaped Bethany, and she adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder. “Okay. I’ll wait.”

  Not like she had a choice. But he needed to hurry.

  There was a big, burly, sexy man waiting to talk wedding plans with her.

  Chapter Niner />
  Trey was most of the way through an overpriced coffee when he looked at the time on his phone for the sixth time.

  Where was she? She’d said a quick errand, but it had been over half an hour. He’d texted her, but she hadn’t responded.

  Damn it.

  Draining the rest of his coffee, Trey stood, ignoring the nervous looks that the two old ladies at the table across the way gave him.

  He tossed his paper cup in the trash on his way by and stalked through the parking lot toward his pickup. The threatening rain had kept him off his bike today, and now he wished he’d just taken it anyway. His frustrations blew away much faster when he could ride into the wind and forget them all.

  Nothing like being stuffed into the cab of the old Ford that Doc kept running for him.

  The door creaked as Trey slammed it behind him.

  The department store she’d mentioned was just across the street and down a block or two. He’d have walked there, but he didn’t want to take the chance of passing her on the way.

  He wanted to get this over with.

  Their encounter at Ginger’s wedding had left him feeling shaken—a sensation that he didn’t care for in the slightest.

  He hadn’t meant to show his hand that way. Certainly not to Bethany, who hadn’t exactly made a secret of thinking that he was full of it. But God help him, she did things to him that no other woman had. She made him stupid, and stupid men did stupid things. Like basically admit that he was a lying asshole.

  By the time he cut the engine in front of Hudson’s, he was good and pissed off at himself.

  What was he doing? He should have just texted her a picture of the invitations. But his dumb ass wanted to see her, and so here he was, waltzing through this store like he was looking for a long-lost girlfriend.

  Idiot.

  The store was quiet, the weekday morning not exactly the height of shopping frenzy. The entrance he’d chosen wound right past the empty customer-service desk, with a door behind it marked “Employees Only.” And from behind there he heard raised voices, one of which was familiar. Bethany’s.

  His blood heated instantly, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he stepped closer to the counter, trying to make out what they were saying.