“I didn’t fuck her.”
“You want to.”
Harley sighs, not liking where this conversation is going. “No. But there was a time when she wanted me to. That was quite a few years ago now. We’ve had a good laugh about it since then, and everyone’s moved on.”
“You think so.”
Harley’s voice turns harsh and convincing. “I know so.”
“You’re saying you’ve never thought about sleeping with her?”
He tilts his head, bringing his face closer to hers. “She’s cute. If you like the leggy, blonde type.”
“And you don’t?” Aliah can’t help but smirk, as she hunches over and rests her elbows on her lap, happy to take any disruption from that gorgeous gaze.
“She came to work for me when she was eighteen. She was a misguided youth. I’m not attracted to her that way. She’s more like a daughter to me.”
“Skanky daughter you have there.”
“Says the girl downing shots with a random college kid at the bar.”
Aliah can’t stop smiling. “For the record, you downed those shots. I only wanted to.”
“Why?”
“Why?” She looks like she’s stunned that he doesn’t know.
He nods.
“I don’t know.”
“You know,” he presses. “You’re just too embarrassed to admit it out loud.”
Aliah lays flat out across the picnic table and closes her eyes, stretching her arms above her head. “Maybe I am.”
Harley leans backward and props himself above her. “You don’t seem like the type who embarrasses too easily.”
“You think you know me.”
“Am I right?” he persists, maintaining eye contact.
“Yes,” she admits, smiling.
“Thank you… for saying that. It’s the first step toward admitting that you’ve already fallen madly in love with me.”
“What?” Her voice screeches once, but it seems to echo infinitely into the endless night.
“It’s okay. You’re not ready to say it yet. I can be patient.”
She turns her head to smirk at him, and he flashes her a mouthful of pearly white teeth. “Smart ass.”
“You love it.”
She puckers her lips to feign a pout, but he can see her aversion to love unravelling between them. Harley pulls himself away, to lay down on the tabletop next to her. He curls his arm around her and pulls her close to his side.
He’s so warm. She only wishes that she can enjoy it. But he doesn’t give her another second to settle down, getting right back to the nit picking.
“You sounded pretty upset when you thought I was fucking the blonde. Why is that?”
Aliah snuggles back against him and she can feel him stirring beneath her thigh, now hooked over top of him. “Is it really that hard for you to figure it out?” Aliah rolls her eyes, but she won’t say it.
“Why won’t you just tell me?”
After a thoughtful pause, Aliah blurts it. “Because I want to be the only one fucking with you, okay?”
He rests his head back against the table and his smile disappears. “Not really the answer I was looking for, but it’ll have to do.”
“You don’t like me?” Aliah hates that she is turning into that girl.
She reaches for the end of the table to pull herself away from him, but he catches onto her hand.
“Oh, I like you alright.”
Aliah scowls at him. “Then why won’t you have sex with me?”
Harley returns her hand to the table next to her and retrieves his own. “Let’s see. You stand me up. You want to be the only one fucking with me. You won’t let me kiss you… on the lips. Should I go on?”
Even with him verbally prodding at her, she can’t stop her insides from quivering at the memory of just how good of a kisser he is, both on her mouth and between her thighs.
“Please,” she breathes, as if his words might be enough to send her sailing into an abyss of pleasure.
He turns his head to share his disbelief with her eye to eye, then he brushes a strand of hair away from her face. “I’d be good to you.”
His statement strikes her from her high horse. They lay there quietly for a long while, gazing into each other’s eyes, too afraid to face the emotions stirring between them. She hides behind their rainbow of physical chemistry and slides a hand up his muscular middle.
“Tell me again why you won’t sex me up.” She refuses to admit there’s more to it than raw, unguarded desire.
It sounds like he thinks about it before speaking. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”
Aliah steals her hand away. “You can’t hurt my feelings. I’ve little left.”
He leans into her, with his nose very near hers. His eyes are swimming, but he’s gazing right into her. Harley licks his lips and his eyes turn down to hers, looking like he wants to taste her mouth. But when his eyes slide closed and his lips descend on hers, she rolls out from under him like a ninja, acting like she hasn’t just dodged his kiss.
She retreats to his bike before he does something to make her regret ever getting involved with him. Shit. She is already involved, which is exactly what she was trying to avoid.
“Come on.” Her voice rings sharp, as a stab of guilt claws at her insides.
He remains facing the picnic table, with his eyes squeezed shut. Then he slams a closed fist on the tabletop, and it looks like he very nearly pummels a hole into it. He growls angrily, and it actually makes her feel bad. She’s frustrated too, but she can’t let her heart all in. She knows what happens when she opens herself to a man, and one broken heart in this lifetime is all this girl can handle.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Harley doesn’t understand what’s going through his mind. He wants to be the man to fit her life, whatever life she may lead. This idea would not please her. Hell, he’s not particularly pleased with himself at the moment. This was not the plan. No woman has ever wiggled her way into his empty chest cavity, the way Aliah has, but suddenly he’s feeling a little less vacant.
He chases after Aliah and tugs onto her shoulder until they’re standing nose to nose. He gazes into her eyes and considers telling her everything. The truth about him. The truth about how they came to meet. But as he moves to kiss her, she bolts again from his arms. Any progress he thought they’d made seems tarnished and she’s just as guilty as he is, if not more so. Telling himself this gives him a second wind.
“You lied to me,” he growls. “Why did you have to lie? A two second phone call.”
Aliah flips her hair over her shoulder. “I told you. I had to work late. That wasn’t a lie.”
“You told me you were going to work. Then you turned around and went to see your lawyer. If you’re in some kind of trouble, maybe I can help.”
Aliah’s eyes blink wide, as she stifles a laugh. “You truly are stalking me! That is so not cool. If we’re going to try this dating thing, then that’s got to be one of the boundaries.”
Even as she says it, he can see she’s cringing on the inside. But damn, he cares about her.
“I think you should just tell me what you’re charged with. The receptionist told me you were with Joshua Bailey. He’s the top defence lawyer in the City, Aliah. Admit it. You must be in deep.”
“Not exactly.” She smiles. And he can tell from the look in her eyes that he’s not done very good detective work.
“Why else would you go see a lawyer then?”
She raises her eyebrows. “You really don’t know?” She still can’t seem to get over the fact that he’d followed her.
“Tell me you aren’t dating the man, Aliah. He has to be double your age.”
She breaks out in laughter. “Some detective you are.”
He freezes in place. She’s got him now. His cover is blown. The world starts spinning around him, as he tries to catch his balance. No one finds out David H. Gates. No one.
Aliah stomps toward him as he crumb
les to one knee. She pushes him, until he falls backward landing on his ass. She mounts his waist and presses him into the grass, dirtying the knees of her expensive pants.
“Easy, boy. I’m not dating Bailey. He’s my boss.”
He squints up at her, through lazy, drunken eyes. “I’m confused.” He stares at her for a long few seconds. “Bailey owns Riley’s? I thought Mitchell Cavanagh was the owner.”
Aliah sighs out of frustration. “Yes, Mitchell owns Riley’s. I don’t actually work there. I was only helping a friend out. He was in a bind, okay?”
He closes his eyes and scratches his head, as a gentle finger skims over his lips. His eyes pop open to find Aliah with her tongue wetting her thumb. He swallows, as she smears the dry blood from the corner of his mouth. That touch right there shows him that there’s more to her than the desirous sex fiend she tries to act like.
“I’m not a bartender. I’m sorry if that disappoints you.” The way she says it has him thinking that it should.
“Then, what are you?” he asks.
As she sighs, she rolls off of him. Then she curls up in the crook of his arm and rests her head on his chest. “A girl,” she whispers.
The night is quiet and so are they. He’s surprised to learn that she isn’t the slutty bartender that disrupts his sweet dreams with wild fantasies. Was he so blinded by her beauty that he’d overlooked the basics of this investigation? Harley never drops the ball on research.
Jillian had suggested that Aliah is an educated woman with a real job and a large bank account, but he told himself that it couldn’t possibly be true. He was so sure she was a daddy’s girl, soaking him for money and working a petty part-time job for kicks. He hates to learn that she works in criminal law. He knows the kind of clients Bailey rides with. Just one more thing for him to worry about.
After a spell of silence, while he tries to process the new information she’s shared, they both find sleep. Aliah sleeps much lighter than Harley.
She awakes to a spot light being shone in her eyes. “Shit! Harley. You have to wake up. Harley!”
He doesn’t move a muscle. She thinks he’s out cold. In truth, he’s just not in the mood to deal with it right now.
Aliah scurries to her knees, wipes the dead grass from her pant legs and struts toward the unmarked police car. The cop’s window eases down and a handsome officer stares back at her.
“Is it even possible for you to stay out of trouble?” His accent is the only thing that indicates he is from England. Everything else about the man screams American athlete.
“Hey, Spence. Long time no see.”
She knows Spencer Caldwell personally? Maybe she is in deeper than he knows. Harley listens in on their conversation to figure them out.
“I seem to recall seeing you a couple days ago, speeding through a stop sign.”
“Oh!” Aliah snickers. “I thought that was you.”
Who snickers at a cop detailing their crime?
“You’re lucky that was me, or you’d be stuck with a sizeable ticket and a court date.”
“Do you want me to thank you?”
Oh, so she is smart like that with everyone. Harley can’t believe this girl.
“No. I want you to stay out of trouble. Speaking of… Who’s that guy you’re with?”
Harley resists clenching his fists, as he’s flooded again by the white hot spot light.
“He looks real lively tonight.”
Knowing Spencer all too well, Harley figures his motorcycle plate is good as run. Not that he needs a computer to tell him that it’s Harley’s bike. Spencer has been popping up a lot lately. Harley suddenly feels like he’s the one under investigation.
“Are you telling me you don’t know him?” Aliah asks, noticing the way Spencer smirks at her.
With Spencer’s attention surely focused on Aliah, Harley dares a glance in their direction. Spencer is smiling at her. Harley doesn’t like the way he smiles at her.
“I just wondered if you got his name before getting on his bike. That’s dangerous for a girl like you.”
“A girl like me?” Now she’s playing coy.
“Or any other girl, for that matter. Downright stupid.”
“His name is Harley – er, David, maybe,” she blurts, then pauses.
Harley realizes then that he’s never told her his last name. And with good reason.
“What else do you know about him?”
“Not much. Only that his sister is staying with him. He owns a house in town, has a tongue that rocks my world, and that’s his Harley right there.”
Harley tries not to smile, but that has him beaming with pride.
“It’s a nice bike.”
He’d better not touch my bike.
Spencer glances at his phone and Harley fears the worst. Information.
“Did you know that Harley is his middle name? I didn’t even know that one.”
Aliah doesn’t seem to pick up on the connection. She acts like she doesn’t care, but on the inside it bothers her how little she knows about him. “I didn’t know that. Why? Do you know him? Is he a criminal or something?”
Oh, no.
“Don’t you recognize him? Take a closer look, love. His face is plastered across every other sign downtown.”
She draws a blank, while Harley holds his breath. She shrugs her shoulders. “His name is Harley. That’s all I know.”
“Maybe his full name will ring a bell. David H. Gates.”
“No.” She shakes her head erratically. “That’s not him.”
“It is.”
She glares at the sky, trying to place him. “But he’s so bad ass.”
Spencer snuffs unattractively. “You only think he is.”
“No. He is,” she mumbles, unwilling to accept the truth.
Spencer chuckles. “I’ll give him ruthless. Cunning. Conceited even. But bad ass?”
“Okay. I get it. You can shut up now.”
“Maybe next time you’ll do a little digging before spreading your legs for a guy.”
“Fuck you, Spencer.”
“Easy, love. Or I’ll have to arrest you. Don’t think I wouldn’t enjoy every second of getting you into the cuffs.”
She wants to provoke him; to say something that would wash that smirk right off his pretty boy face. But she bites her tongue. “If you’re done making fun of me…”
He gives her a curt nod. “You might want to consider getting the hell out of here. The park closed at midnight.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Well, now you do. So get a move on.”
“Yes, sir.” Aliah gives him a mocking salute.
“I mean it, Aliah. Collect up your boyfriend and move on for the night.”
“Okay. Okay.”
“I mean it. Get out of here,” he urges.
Spencer scans her with his icy eyes, as he puts his car in reverse and pulls away from the grass. Aliah lifts a hand to wave at him, but he ignores her. She promptly returns back to Harley and crouches by his side. She proceeds to gently shake his arm.
“Harley. We have to go.”
He springs to his feet and pulls a gun from his pants, but he doesn’t aim it at anyone. He keeps it hidden beneath his suit jacket. Aliah jumps backward, with both her hands raised, like she’s a criminal.
Harley scans the perimeter with eyes of a hawk. “Get on the bike.”
She takes a second to scowl at him and then stomps back to his parked motorcycle. “Fine. But you can put the gun away. Are you trying to kill someone?”
“Aliah. I swear to God. I’m not going to say it again. Get on the bike. Now.”
She yanks the keys from his hand and starts it up. “What an ass,” she grumbles.
When she looks back at him, he can see she’s not very happy that he still has his gun drawn. He keeps it hidden inside his jacket. But he’s not putting it away. It’s for her own protection. And his. They’re surrounded. If they don’t get out of there fast, they
’re both going to be laid out on the pavement, bathing in blood.
He climbs onto the bike and wraps his body around her. “Someone is watching us,” he whispers in her ear. “Don’t act funny. Just go. And don’t stop until I tell you to. Can you do that?”
Aliah gulps and whimpers softly when she nods. It is obvious she has never found herself in a similar situation before, which begs the question: Why are these people following her?
She takes off a little too fast, nearly losing him off the back. But it’s good enough to get them away from the park before the trackers can respond.
“Now you can give it a little gas,” he purrs, trying to keep her calm.
They were already speeding, but he needs her to go faster if they are going to avoid an untimely accident. In a matter of seconds, headlights appear behind them, down an otherwise blackened street.
“Now, Aliah!”
She gives it more gas and winds back into town.”
“What are you doing?” he shouts.
“Losing them.” She looks so determined that he can’t argue with her.
The way she maneuvers through the downtown roads, he knows she’s done this before. She seems to have mapped the fastest route to her house, and she manages to skip any other vehicle interaction on the way. It is impressive, and has dick aching to claim her again.
Aliah wheels into her driveway and Harley holds up the motorcycle as she pounds the code into the keypad for her garage door. He rides the bike inside, as she runs into the house and presses the button near the door to close up the garage. They both stand there, frozen, waiting for the door to seal shut, as if the bad guys might appear out of nowhere and attack them.
The idea isn’t completely far-fetched, and so when the door clicks shut, they both take a deep breath before entering her house. Harley slides the gun into the back of his slacks and smiles while he double checks the deadbolt on her front door. “Where did you learn to ride like that?”
Aliah climbs her stairs, two at a time, and flicks the light switch on. “I know these streets like the back of my hand. My dad’s the City fire chief. He knows the fastest ways to get across town, and so do I.”
Harley nods, still smiling about it.
Twisted Desire (The Twisted Series) Page 10
