Obsession (A Bad Boy's Secret Baby) (3 page)

All I could think about was that kiss. I didn't plan it, but I sure as hell couldn't control myself either. She just looked too perfect to not steal a kiss and then once I got a taste... Thoughts of how the rest of her tasted rattled around my head louder than my bike's engine.

Kait's interlocked fingers over my chest slipped apart and miserable cool air flooded between us. She had held me a lot tighter than she needed to, it wasn't like I was going all that fast. I didn't mind, of course. It just sucked that she had to let me go.

“Thanks.” Kait threw her leg over the bike and turned her back to me, hoping that I wouldn't see her check the front of her dress for a wet spot.

“My pleasure.” I couldn't keep the smile out of my voice.

“For the ride I mean,” said a flustered Kait, taking off the helmet.

“If you think that ride was good, you should try me without the bike.” I teased, but I wasn't joking. I didn't have any reservations about getting into Kait's panties. In fact, I had dreamt of that since the first day I moved into her house all those years ago.

That was so long ago, now. No other woman had captivated me as fully as Kait. All the women I'd met paled in comparison in every way that mattered.

“I figured you would've outgrown me by now.” Kait shook her head in disbelief. “It's like you never left.”

“I've always wanted you, Ness. That's not something I can ever shake.”

Kait snorted at hearing the nickname. When we were just kids she was so convinced that the Lock Ness Monster was real that I started calling her Ness or Nessy. She used to get beet red and punch me, but after a while for whatever reason it just stuck. The meaning evolved, and went from a tease to a term of endearment. But it was strictly our thing. One of my classmates heard me call her that and tried to taunt her with it once.

Once.

I blackened both of his eyes and bought myself two weeks suspension. It was worth it. I would always protect her any way I could. No one else ever called her that again. Except me.

“It didn't matter what you wanted.” Kait sighed, her expression darkened. “You left anyways.”

“You have to let me explain.”

“I don't
have
to do anything. Those days are over.” I could see that look in her eyes. She always hid behind those walls, saying things that she didn't feel. If she wasn't willing to give me a chance, she'd never have gotten on my bike.

“One drink.” I'd seen this play out before and I refused to repeat that mistake. I couldn't let her slip through my fingers again. Never again.

“I gotta go. They're all expecting me.” Kait left the helmet on my seat and walked away.

I grabbed her hand, stopping her. Never again.

“Afterward, when you're done here.” I ran my thumb over the back of her hand. “It won't make it right, but you deserve the truth.” Kait didn't pull away. “Please, Ness.”

The silence was crushing, but I wasn't holding on to her with much firmness. At any point she could leave. If she did, I wouldn't blame her. I'd just go back to my hotel, grab my stuff and leave this place.

I wasn't born in Springfield, I didn't even finish high school here. I did spend almost all of my teens here, but aside from a few friends there was nothing remarkable about this town. To me it was just one of the many places I was moved to against my will.

The only reason I ever gave this place a passing thought was because of the woman who stood before me. The beautiful, English, Scottish woman that always haunted my brightest and darkest moments.

Kait was well worth the trouble I'd stir up here.

“Midnight. One drink.” Her hand finally slipped from mine. “Don't be late.”

“Wouldn't dream of it.”

I watched as she carefully made her way through the open wooden fence and out toward the other guests. I blew the air from my lungs and ran a hand over my face. My heart was slamming against my ribcage. Fucking hell that was close. It would have destroyed me if she said no. I wanted to watch her walk to the lit pond where the rest of the wedding party had gathered for pictures, but cars were pulling in behind me.

I wasn't blocking the road or anything, but the last thing I needed was to be recognized. I put on the helmet I let Kait wear. I only wore it in states where it was the law. This wasn't one of those states, but it would protect my identity for a little while longer.

Whatever scent she was wearing still lingered in the helmet. I bowed my head for a moment and absorbed as much of it as I could. Something about the fragrance was so damn familiar...

Just give me one night,
I bargained to whomever might hear my prayers. I started up my bike and sped out of there.
One night with her then the town can tar and feather me for all I care.

Kait

––––––––

“I
'm sorry, are we boring you?” Mariela stopped dancing long enough to plant both hands on the table in front of me.

“What,” I looked up from my phone. I was enjoying myself, but the time crawled by. Like a buzzing fly trapped in my skull, thoughts of Mal and that drink later were driving me crazy. “No, of course not!

“Then why have you been checking your phone every thirty seconds for the past three hours?” Mariela cocked her head and eyed me skeptically.

Mariela was a tiny thing, even shorter than me, with smooth olive skin, bright eyes and black hair. She looked absolutely radiant in that Latin inspired wedding dress. It was a mermaid fit to just above the knee, below that was a split ruffled design that showed off her perfect legs and allowed her to dance unhindered. She loved to dance and occasionally she would drag me along, but I could never keep up.

“Then what is it?” She whipped a hand up, gesturing impatiently. “With all you've done for this wedding, it almost feels like it was partly yours.”

“It's nothing, I'm just—” Mariela gave me a look that cut me off. It was impossible to lie to this woman, but I couldn't tell her the truth either. I looked out toward the parking lot.

Mariela was probably my best friend, I always told her everything. I introduced her to my brother and since then we've all been pretty inseparable. But she's never met Mal. She'd only heard about him through Brendan and none of that was good. For as lighthearted as Brendan was he knew how to carry a grudge.

“You're waiting for someone!” Mariela face lit up. “Kait, why didn't you tell me?” She followed my gaze to the parking lot. “Why isn't he here? Does he not like us? Who is this mystery man?”

I laughed. Mariela had a way of getting excited and asking a million questions with barely a breath between them. Tonight even more so, she was still amped up from the wedding and the drinks.

The alcohol had me feeling pretty fuzzy. Mariela's family never seemed to stop with the toasts and before that I had been busy trying to drown my own nervousness about Mal picking me up.

“He's just a—” A what exactly? He's not really a friend or an old boyfriend. And although we were very close we had never actually slept together. We couldn't! He almost became my stepbrother, but that whole thing ended so horribly. “He's just someone I used to know, who's back in town.”

“Okay, Mina.” Mariela shrugged. Every once and awhile she'd slip back into Spanish during conversation but only when she was really drunk or really angry. Half the time she never bothered to translate. “That's fine. You can play coy. That explains why you changed. Can't go out on a date in a groomsmaid dress.”

I did have to change shortly after the pictures. There were no wet spot on the dress
thankfully,
but my panties were fucking ruined. I left a bag here with a change of clothes when we finished setting the place up this morning.

Just thinking of being that close to Mal, grinding against him, all that vibration and heat... I pushed my thighs together tightly under the table, my neck and face were so warm it felt like steam might stream out of my bodice.

“Nothing like that,
Mom
.” I flashed my eyes back at her defiantly, to which she held her hands up in the backing-off gesture. I still felt the need to explain myself further for some reason, but I was fortunately distracted by a lone approaching headlight and a low rumble.

The dance floor and tables of the reception were set in an open air gazebo, making it easy to see the whole farm and keep track of the dozens of children earlier in the day. The layout also made it easy to see who was arriving and departing.

Was it finally midnight? I glanced at my phone. Ten minutes till midnight, but that was close enough.

“Oh, a motorcycle. Kait got herself a bad boy. That's not like you, I love it!”

“Yeah, well.” I got up and straightened my cream dress. It was much simpler than the one I wore for the wedding, but had the same color and theme elements so I wouldn't look too out of place if I had to change into it. “When your brother is a cop your boyfriends can only be
so
bad.”

Mariela told me to have fun and all but pushed me out of my seat. I was so nervous and the walk over to Mal made it so much worse. Earlier it had been a surprise, and somehow, that made it easier. Now, I had worked myself up to the point of nausea.

“Hey,” Mal said, handing me the helmet. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” I lied. I was not fucking ready. But I was looking forward to wrapping my arms around him again more than I thought possible. Mal had changed out of his suit and was wearing just a printed T shirt and jeans. Deliciously ornate lines of tattoos raced down both of his arms and poked out from beneath his V neck collar.

Those were new too. I found myself wondering what other tattoos he had and a not-so-small part of me hoped I'd get to see them all.

Mal started the bike up and just like before, the rumble sent a shock wave through my lower body. I'd never been on a motorcycle before today and now I feared I was getting addicted. Or maybe it was Mal I was getting addicted to.

Either way that wasn't good.

Before we left he turned to me and said something, but the engine was too loud for me to catch it.

“What?” I raised the helmet's visor, hoping that would help.

“That dress looks nice on you,” Mal repeated. It was a small, sweet gesture. He didn't wait to see my little embarrassed smile, he just twisted the throttle and we were off.

I started to get worried when we turned away from downtown. I thought he said he was taking me for a drink. Mal sped up on the highway, pushing us a little faster than I was comfortable with. Where we going? When we skirted the city limits and pulled off onto a dense tree-lined back road my anxiety began kicking in.

What the fuck was I doing, riding off into the night with a man a barely knew? I hadn't even told anyone who I was with or where I was going. What if Mal had changed in a scary way? He still seemed as sweet as he was in high school, but eight years is a long time. That's not to say that he was a sweet guy back then. In fact, he was kind of an alpha male jerk to everyone else, but never to me.

I sighed, calming myself. He was always sweet to me. I mean, he
could
be a psycho, murderer, cannibal, but that felt silly. I didn't feel scared on the back of his bike, with my arms squeezing him too tightly. I felt the opposite. Whenever I was with him, Mal always made me feel safe.

A sign blurred by too quickly for me to catch it, but things were starting to look familiar. He turned us down a broken gravel road and more signs whipped by. I could've laughed when I figured it out. I knew exactly where we were. I was surprised he remembered.

Mal wove the bike between a few rock outcroppings and trees and parked us right along the sandy bank of the watershed area. We used to come here as kids to go swimming.

Looking back, it was kind of a horrible thing to do. It was the town's drinking water after all. I couldn't feel too bad about it, since we only swam once or twice and the water does go through the processing plant.

“This doesn't look like any bar I've ever seen.” I remarked once I was free of the bike and helmet. I was just glad my panties weren't soaked through this time. It would've been terrible if I got that wet every time I rode a bike. Although the alternative was that it only took a few words from Mal, plus him being that close, to make me wet.

I wasn't sure that was better either.

“I don't remember saying anything about a bar.” Mal slid off the motorcycle with practiced ease. He pulled a large chilled bottle of champagne out of one of his saddlebags. “I said a drink.”

“Okay, wise guy, where are the glasses then?”

“Glasses? I knew I forgot something.” Mal feigned confusion, then popped the cork with a knife he kept in the other bag. “Shit,” he jumped back from the sudden spraying liquid. The surprised smile that was plastered across his face reminded me a lot of the Mal I loved when we were kids. It was a slightly goofy side of him that he never showed anyone else. It made me feel special.

Mal laughed and clasped a hand over the bottle to stem the spray. “Looks like we're gonna have to kill it.”

He took a sip and handed me the bottle. The fizzing had died down, but I still managed to spill some on my dress. I was still mad and hurt, but I was also glad. A long forgotten part of me was at ease, it was a nice feeling.

“You know this is technically illegal.”

“Good thing most of the cops in town are drunk off their asses at a wedding.” Mal shrugged, looking mischievous.

“Are those grease stains?” I took another drink and pointed out the dark splotches on his chiseled forearms.

“Ah, yeah...” Mal wiped his arms down with a rag he had in his back pocket. “I was doing some maintenance work on a friend's car. Hey, do you remember the last time we were here?”

“How could I forget! My brother occasionally runs into the cop that chased us out of here. Officer Danvers. He's still on the force, you know.” I laughed; the fun, old memory bubbled to the forefront of my mind. “I still can't believe you used Matt Mackenzie's name when they questioned us.”

“Yeah, he was pissed because his parents didn't believe him when he said he didn't do it.” Mal kicked his boots and socks off then laid his bedroll on the dirt for us to sit on. He fished his vibrating phone out of his back pocket and answered it. “Hey, little killer, you ship out yet?”