“Hmm.” Was all she said, putting out a small bowl full of mixed nuts out on the black granite bar top.
“Hmm? What is that supposed to mean?” Adrien demanded, restocking bottles that didn’t need to be restocked.
“It’s just ‘hmm’, that’s all.” Morgan said, her voice overly nonchalant as she continued wiping down all the tables, and then the chair and stool seats.
“Well, it sounds like something more to me.” Adrien looked around the already ready bar, frustrated that he didn’t see one single thing that needed his attention.
“I suppose…it just doesn’t sound like that good of a prank.” Morgan shrugged while she finished off the last table. Just then, the bell over the door jangled loudly as their first customers of the night came in and Adrien could have jumped for joy as he opened his mouth to welcome them.
“Hi there, Ted, Linda.” Morgan said, her voice sweet and cheerful as she spoke before he could get a single word out. She invited them to take a seat where they would like and then took their order, leaving them both laughing as she come over to bar with the ticket in hand. Adrien grabbed it from her with slightly more force than necessary, ripping the ticket in half on accident. Heat suffused his face as embarrassment flooded his system and he tried to cover it by clearing his throat, squinting at his half of the ticket to read the order.
“I’ll get started on the Manhattan.” Adrien mumbled, aware to the tips of his toes that Morgan’s green eyes were locked on him and his jerky movements as he grabbed the shaker and a bottle of liquor. “And just for your information, it’s going to be a great prank. As soon as I find the perfect woman to be my fiancé.”
“Your fake fiancé.” Morgan said, walking around the bar with a sigh to mix the other half of the order, the tail end of the ripped ticket still clutched in her hand.
“It’s going to be hilarious.” He said as he grabbed the shaker, filling it with ice. He didn’t like the way she emphasized the work fake, but he wasn’t sure why so he left it alone. They worked in silence for a minute, but it stretched like hours between them. He never understood why it was always like it with her and no one else. Whenever they were close there was a tension that grew between them thick enough to swim through. Sometimes so thick he though it might choke him. But oddly, he found himself missing it on days when he worked the bar alone, or just with the young bar back Jimmy.
“Yeah, hilarious.” Morgan said as she reached out to grab the cocktail from him. Their fingers barely brushed but it was like a lightning strike crashing through him. It was always like that when he let his guard down, slipped up and accidentally made skin to skin contact. The thought of her skin sliding against his was like a firework going off inside him and his breath stalled in his lungs for a long moment. He felt the animal side of him raise his head, could see him in his minds eye, a great brown bear with tawny colored fur, sniffing as if testing the air. A low grumbling groan threatened to roll out of him but he broke contact just in time, hastily turning away.
There was a new stiffness to the set of her shoulders as she headed back to the table with the drinks but he missed it as the ring of the bells had his head whipping toward the door. Thank god, more customers. He hoped to hell it would be a busy night. He was sure he would need the distraction to keep his mind off of the delectable minx Morgan Fevereau.
His wish was granted, and they scrambled for the next several hours, too busy with the crush of customers to have any more awkward encounters. Although that didn’t stop his heart from racing whenever he looked over to find her green eyed gaze on his, or when their fingers would accidentally brush when handing off drinks. Which seemed to happen more often than normal, he was pretty sure.
Eventually though, as the clock struck one o’clock and then two, the crowd died out, and even the late night drinkers and partiers crawled their way out of the door and presumably to their homes or to the beds of whoever they had picked up that night.
Adrien sighed at the thought. He had spent so many years living that life. Floating from one girl to the next without ever stopping, without really becoming invested. He never wanted to feel the pain of abandonment again, he knew just how deeply that could cut. And if you never risked your heart, it would never get damaged.
But he had started to tire of that life years ago, and now at twenty seven it was rare for him to bring home a one night stand. The last ‘relationship’, if he could even call it that, had ended badly, despite his attempt to keep things light and casual. Karla had thought he wanted more than he did, even though he had said upfront that he wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, or even a steady date. She hadn’t believed.
The vibration of his phone in his pocket brought him back to the present, and all of the problems that is carried, which was more than enough. He didn’t need to go dredging up the past.
He checked the caller ID and felt a spark of relief when he saw it was Grant. He glanced up at the nearly empty bar. Morgan was in the process of checking out the last customer of the night so he ducked into the back room which he had once slept in, but now was converted into the bar’s office.
“Hey, please tell me you got something.” Adrien said immediately.
“Actually…” Adrien could tell by the way Grant stretched out the word that he wasn’t going to like what was coming next. “I don’t. I’m sorry man, I’ve tried everyone I can think of, even crazy Karla,” Adrien flinched at that, but his friend continued, “either they laughed in my face, where out of town, or in Karla’s case, told me to go to hell.”
“Well, it could have been a lot worse,” Adrien thought, finger the scar over his left eyebrow where the teacup Karla had thrown at him landed after he’d told her they where over.
“Really? I thought it went pretty shitty, honestly. I’m sorry I couldn’t find anybody. No one in the tribe would do it. What are you going to do?” Grant asked, and not for the first time, Adrien felt a wave of gratitude for his friend, for the honest concern in his voice.
“I don’t know yet. But you know me, I’ll figure something out. I always do.”
“Yep, that’s the truth.” Fisher said before saying a quick goodbye with an admonition to keep him posted and then hanging up. Adrien walked back up to the front of the bar, lost in his own deep thoughts and barely caught himself as he barreled straight into Morgan.
“Oh damn, I’m sorry, I…” He trailed off, aware with a sudden intensity that his hands where on either of her arms, almost embracing her, holding her just a hairsbreadth away from his chest. Heat flared off of her in molten waves that him swallowing against the sensation. He had to fight the urge to draw her closer, so much closer, until their bodies were pressed flush together, until she was writhing against him and he could hear her panting cries in his ears.
With a shake he pulled his hands away as if burned, taking a hasty step back. And then another, just to be on the safe side.
“It’s okay.” Morgan said, her deep green eyes wide on his own amber.
“What?” He said dumbly, unable to look away.
“You said sorry, I said ‘it’s okay.” Morgan said slowly, she was talking to a child or someone with diminished mental capacity, which at the moment he definitely qualified for the latter.
“Oh, oh right.” His words trailed off, and still he couldn’t make himself look away from her mesmerizing gaze.
“Okay, well, I closed up for the night, so, I’ll um see you tomorrow, yeah?” She finished, and for the first time he noticed that her voice was a little unsteady and she tripped over her words as she turned to clock out.
She grabbed her purse and was almost out the door when the thought struck him like a freight train.
“Wait, Morgan!” Her name rolled off his tongue like a caress but he didn’t notice. He was filled with a mix of desperation and excitement when she paused, turning back towards him with that damned eyebrow raised in question.
“Yeah?” Was all she said, and he almost swallowed his words then and there. He w
ished he knew why it was so hard to be a normal, articulate human being around her. Well, mostly human. Half anyways.
“I was wondering,” He paused, for a moment reconsidering, but then spit the words at her in one bit rush, “I was wondering if you would maybe want to pretend to be my fiancé possibly?”
Morgan just stared at him with those eyes for a long moment before a small, slightly wicked smile grew. That smile had things tightening in his body and he had to look away for a moment to get himself back under control. If that was even possible when he was within thirty or so yards of the too tempting woman.
When he thought he couldn’t possibly take it anymore, she answered.
“I’ll think about it.” Morgan cast him one more smile before flashing out the door and into the warm Nevada night, leaving him standing their, speechless, with his mouth hanging open. She would think about it. She would think about it? What the hell did that mean?
Chapter 4
Morgan watched the door swing closed behind her, trying to calm her racing heart as she walked to vintage ’77 Honda Rebel that was leaning on its kick stand, gleaming black and gunmetal in the moonlight. Normally, she drove the beat up old pick up truck that had belonged to her grandfather, but in the warm summer months, nothing was better than flying down the open highway, the wind blowing through her hair as she cruised down the road on two wheels.
She grabbed the shiny black helmet off the back and smashed it on top of her head, threw her leg over the bike, just small enough for her to handle at just over five feet tall, and sat there. Morgan didn’t put the key in the ignition and drive away, she just sat, her thoughts tangling wildly together as she replayed the events of the night.
Her pulse still pounded like drums in her ears and she could hardly believe that she was able to get any words out at all after he had shocked her with his question.
Ever since she had taken the job at the Kingstown bar, Adrien had mystified and attracted her. Frustrated her to no end, as well. She had tried flirting with him, but every time they spoke it was like he put a wall up between them, and she never understood why. There was a spark between them, more than a spark if she told the truth, but he kept his distance.
Maybe it was because they worked together, he was her boss and he didn’t want to jeopardize that. Or maybe it was something else that she couldn’t begin to understand. Lord knows, Adrien Black was enough to confuse the wits right out of any woman.
She thought again of his outrageous question, if she would pretend to be his fiancé, and again she wondered why. His answer didn’t make one bit of sense, and she wasn’t buying it for a second. On the other hand, it would give her the chance to get close to him outside of work, to see if there really was something worth pursuing between them. She had a feeling there was, if the warmth still burning inside her from that near miss collision had anything to say about it.
Morgan pressed her hands across her middle, still very much aware of the feel of his hands on hers, his bright golden amber eyes turning molten as he stared down at her from mere inches. She could see the desire swirling in them, he had wanted to kiss her. But then he had jumped away before things could go any further.
With a sigh, she felt the hundredth of the night, she turned over the engine, listening to the sweet purr rumble out into the otherwise quiet night. She stared up into the sky, like a big sheet of dark velvet spread out above her.
Morgan kicked up the stand and pulled out of the tiny gravel parking lot, her decision made. She took off with a roar into the night, a smile spreading across her face.
*
Adrien watched the door close slowly shut after Morgan left, his thoughts whirling around his head like kites caught in a thunderstorm. That woman always had that effect on him. He hated it, but he found a grin of his own teasing the corner of his lips despite himself. That little minx.
The smile never left his face the entire time as he finished cleaning and closed up the bar. He flicked the lights off with one last, long look at the place that had come to be his adoptive home before heading out into the warm air.
He stopped for a moment, inhaling deep of the clear, pine scented air. He looked out past the winding road to the forested tree line silhouetted in the distance at felt a sharp pang at what might have been, at what once was.
Slowly, he started walking towards the small apartment that sat above the bar. The place he had made his bed for the last ten years. Memories of that fateful night rose like ghosts in his mind, drawing him ever backwards.
He had been seventeen, on the bridge between child and man but at the same time neither. His father, Dominic, had been leader of the Long Pines tribe, which encompassed over two hundred bear shifters in the North Nevada Valley. Normally solitary creatures, his father had united several smaller clans under his leadership, and they had prospered. They had come to love and trust the ruler, and that was the man Adrien had grown up knowing. He knew it was never just father, and it never could be.
His mother had died giving birth to him, and the only parent he had ever known had always been the distant leader, the infallible ruler. Adrien had never known anything different, not until he had met the Fisher clan, a rowdier bunch of bears he had never seen. But there had been true love and affection between them, and seeing Grant with his family had opened a hope and yearning in Adrien that he had never felt before.
He had grown up as the heir, called ‘prince’ behind his back by the other cubs and even the other adult bears had treated him different, as if he was something apart from the rest of them.
The night of his father’s accident had changed his young life forever. He had come home from the Fisher’s house, where he spent most nights those days, to find absolute chaos waiting for him. A crowd of people had been yelling outside of his home, demanding answers which never came. He could still remember the sounds of their voices raised in the night. The smell of ash in the air. The hint of chill in the autumn breeze that told of the winter to come.
They had made their life in the wilds of the Nevada Valley, caring for it in turn as it provided them with nutrition, shelter, and most importantly, secrecy. They all learned to live a double life early on, hiding the animal side of themselves, showing the world only the human side.
That night, one voice had raised above all the others. The voice of Harris Demarion. He had called down Adrien’s father as a traitor and said he was holding back the tribe. And as he’d watched in absolute shock, the people had listened.
Those cries of sadness had turned to anger in the blink of an eye and he had barely waded through the riotous crowd just in time to see his father’s prone body. Adrien had yelled out, in shock, in terror, in grief at the sight of his father’s lifeless body laying just outside his door.
That cry had caught the attention of Harris and Adrien would never forget the look in his eyes when he turned to him. He had pointed and as if hearing some unspoken command, the crowd of people had converged on him. In a surge of panic, Adrien leapt to his feet, not even letting himself look back as he had fled into that fateful night, the angry shouts of his people echoing after him. He had never truly found out what had happened to his father that night, what had occurred that had so indelibly changed his own life.
That was the last time he had seen Harris, at least since that morning when he had been unceremoniously ordered to appear before him, like he was some kind of goddamned king. And that throne! What was he trying to prove with that anyways?
Adrien may not have seen Harris but he sure had heard the rumors, and they had painted an ugly picture of the beast over the past decade. He had torn down all that his father had tried to build, with his greed, with his violence and temper and paranoia.
Most of the rumors he heard through Grant, which he knew he had to take with a grain of salt, but they still told him all Adrien needed to know. He recalled the story Fish had told him that had happened a few years ago.
Harris attracted all sorts of people, most of them foul, and
more than half of them bullies. It was the first time he had ever heard the name Theodore Renault. Most people knew him simply as Theo, or as Harris’ right hand thug. Not big on thinking, though, and it got them both into a fair bit of trouble when Theo accidentally killed a younger cub he was sparring with.
‘Teaching him how a real bear fights’ is the excuse he had given, and both had said that it was just an accident but Grant had been there, had seen it all happen, and to hear him tell it, it had been no accident. Of course, the rest of Harris’ goons were more likely to trip over their own shoelaces than cause anyone else harm so most of the tribe tolerated them.
But their numbers continued to grow and Adrien knew the clan was getting restless, tired of the way Harris led them. He didn’t eve have to be a true part of the tribe to be able to sense it. There was a feeling in the wind, a feeling of change. And Harris knew it as well as he did.
Adrien climbed up the narrow flight of stairs to the front door on the second floor, barely paying attention to what he was doing as he grabbed his keys from his pocket and put it in the doorknob. The door opened with the slightest bit of pressure and Adrien stopped, staring at it. He was almost positive he had locked up when he’d been summoned that morning. He thought the word ‘summoned’ as sarcastically as he could.
Finally, with a bad feeling growing in the pit of his stomach, he pushed open the door all the way. The inside of the apartment was dark as pitch and he hastily felt for the light switch to the right of the door, threw it up to illuminate the empty living room and kitchen. It was an open floor plan so he could see everything except the single bedroom and the bathroom that was attached to it.
Grabbing the first thing he could find in the small kitchenette, he crept towards the bedroom with the meat tenderizer grasped with both hands. Holding his breath, Adrien swung open the door, prepared for some ninja attacker to leap out at him, but all he found was his empty bedroom. Well, not all he found.
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 52
