ROMANCE: MC BIKER ROMANCE: Bad Boy Biker's Baby (Bad Boy Alpha Male Motorcycle Club Romance) (Contemporary MC Biker Pregnancy Romance) (81 page)

“No Cedric, I’ll be fine,” she answered as she removed the apron from around her middle. “I’m used to it by now.”

“Well, if you need my help, just call,” the man said with a concerned look on his face.

Eric watched as she smiled and nodded and took her purse from the table. “See you tomorrow,” she said and walked away.

She hadn’t gone one hundred feet when he saw a man reach out and grab her purse. “Hey give me that,” she said, but she made no attempt to get it back.

“Why don’t you come and get it, Miss Piggy,” another voice said.

“Where’d you get them clothes?” the one who had taken the bag asked. “The thrift shop?”

Then they all started laughing as they made fun of her. She stood there quietly, still asking for her bag when Eric intervened.

“Marissa, wait up,” he said as he walked over to her. “What’s going on?”

“She dropped her purse,” the man said and handed it back to her.

There was no need for words as he walked by her side to the thrift shop. After only a few glimpses of her, he had seen right through her to her very core. And the sight wasn’t a displeasing one.

CHAPTER SIX

He sat with her in the coffee shop, but she didn’t offer any words. And he didn’t ask. Not yet anyway.  He allowed her to eat, and she picked at the club sandwich she had ordered.

“You must think me an idiot right?” she asked as she pushed it aside. “I know you saw what happened.”

“Then why would I blame you if I did?  Those men were jerks. That’s what I saw,” he told her. “What I don’t get is why you let them get away with it? You don’t even have to walk that way to get to the thrift shop.”

Marissa looked at him suspiciously. “Have you been following me?”

“Not any more than you have been following me since I “saved” your life. Your friend told me,” he said as he sat back in the chair.

“I’m going to kill that wench,” Marissa spat and gritted her teeth.

“Hey, she thought she was doing you a favor. It’s not on her,” Eric said.

Then her face grew sad. “My life sucks,” she said and stood to leave. “It probably would have been better if you hadn’t saved me.”

“Whoa,” Eric said as he grabbed her by the arm. “Now what kind of talk is that? I watched you earlier; when you were serving those homeless people their meals. You had something nice to say to everyone you met. How come you don’t do the same for yourself?”

“I do,” she replied quietly. “It’s just that other people don’t.”

Eric felt both pity and something else towards Marissa as she stood there. “What happened to you?” he asked her. “Don’t you know people will only believe what you show them?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she sighed. “I gotta get to work.”

“Would you like to go out with me tonight? For dinner?” he asked. He had an inkling he had to stay close to her, or she would either do something stupid or sink further into depression.

“I don’t know...” she said. Her voice trailed off as she tried to come up with a fitting response to his suggestion.

“Come on, I know what will cheer you up,” he said and led her outside.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“There is one sure fire way to get any woman happy; take her shopping,” he told her as he grinned.

Marissa stopped dead in her tracks. “Look, Mr. Colburn, I really appreciate the gesture, but I like the clothes I wear just fine.”

“Does that mean you can’t have any more?” he asked. “Come on, before the stores close.”

“I can’t afford clothes,” she said to him.

“Lucky for you, I can,” he said as he sunk both hands into his pockets and whistled as he walked off again. When he looked around again, she was following, but looking all around like she was fishing for an escape.

Marissa seemed like a fish out of water in the store, and Eric found himself smothering her, just so she could feel better about herself.

“Eric?” he heard someone call from behind.

He turned and saw Amber standing there with a puzzled look on her face. “Hey,” he said as he scratched his head and looked towards the changing room.

“What are you doing here?  Into women’s fashion now?” she asked.

Amber was the last person he wanted to find him here.  She had a big mouth, as creative as it got in bed, but in other ways as well.

“How about this one?” he heard Marissa ask.

He closed his eyes and turned around to her. Then he gave her the thumbs up and bit his lower lip so hard he could almost taste the blood. Marissa saw the look on his face, and the scandalous one on Amber’s as her eyes widened with excitement. She took that as her cue to leave.

“Well, well, well,” the woman said. “I didn’t know you like them chunky,” she said as she reached for her phone.

Eric grabbed her hand. “Just shut up, Amber. I was just doing her a favor because she has had a rough day. You know she isn’t my type,” he said. The look on Amber’s face told him Marissa was standing right there. “Marissa,” he said as he reached for her.

“It’s okay,” she said as she walked past. “I’m used to it.”

Amber was chuckling then, and Eric knocked her on the shoulder as he moved past in a hurry to catch Marissa.  “Marissa, wait,” he called. But she was already gone.

****

For days, Marissa refused to talk to Eric, and the obedient and faithful puppy that had followed him around after he saved her was now as cold and distant as the Arctic. Never did he think rejection could feel that awful until it was meted out to him. And from someone like her at that.

He lay in bed that night, tossing and turning as he kept seeing the hurt look in her eyes when the words left his lips. How did he get here? Eventually, when sleep refused to come, he threw the sheets back violently and got out of bed in a huff. He pulled on a robe and went onto the terrace. It was then that he realized it was a full moon. He only had two to go, and she was further away from being his wife than when they had just met.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I have something to show you,” Eric told Marissa when he showed up at the shelter the following day.

“I’m busy,” she said, then deliberately ignored him and continued with her task.

“I’m not leaving until you come with me,” he insisted. “Or I can talk very LOUDLY SO...”

“Okay,” she responded quickly as his voice increased in pitch. “I’ll be leaving soon.”

Eric smiled and leaned against the wall at the end of the line until she was through. “Now what?” she asked as she got to him.

He didn’t answer her on the way to his car, and she followed obediently in silence. She didn’t seem the least bit impressed by his Jaguar, and it only forced him to see her depth even more. She sat quietly next to him as he sped along, and when he pulled up outside the spa, her eyes bulged.

“Are you sure you want to be seen in public with me? I’m not your type, remember?”

“That was a mistake,” he told her as he slid from the car. Then he knocked on the roof and urged her to get out. “Come on now.”

Marissa crawled from the car, and it leaned to her side when she did. “I know I’m fat, and apparently that doesn’t sit well with others. You don’t have to feel the need to babysit me or be nice to me. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m not babysitting you. I’m treating you nicely for a change. Someone has to make a start,” he said and winked. “Plus, you don’t look so fat to me.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked him, and he could see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

“Because you deserve it,” he told her.

She was problem free after that, and Eric waited in the lobby while she got powdered and pampered in the other room. He was flipping through more magazines of more things he was hardly interested in when she walked out. He didn’t notice her at first, but when she stopped before him, he dropped the magazine and gaped.

“Wow,” he said as he flew out of his seat. She had gotten a haircut, and where her hair was a tangled mess before, it was now a layered bob that fell to her shoulders. She had on makeup, and her skin was glowing under the sparse lighting.

Marissa blushed as she witnessed his reaction, and she smiled then. But this time it wasn’t a defensive shield as she was prone to display before. Now it came from the inside and radiated around the room. It grew even brighter when she saw the admiring guests looking on.

“Come on,” she said as she yanked him from the chair.

“I think we have one more stop,” he told her and made a hard right that brought them to a department store. “Here we go,” he told her, and this time she didn’t protest.

Eric no longer cared what others thought; he only cared about how Marissa felt. It seemed his joy was now hinged to hers as he accompanied her inside the boutique. The store clerk was friendly, and Marissa was unable to tell if it was just store policy or if it was to be attributed to her new look.

A half hour later and she was lugging several shopping bags after her, and when Eric picked her up later that night, she took his breath away. He couldn’t contain himself any longer, nor could he resist the urge to stare at her.

“Stop,” she said as she was made painfully aware of his staring.

“I can’t help it,” he told her.  “You look amazing. Would you like to dance?” he asked as he held his hand out for her. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

Marissa went with him, and for the first time since he had bumped into her on the street, they touched. Eric held her to him, and he could feel her heart racing in tandem with his as they moved to the rhythm of the music and their adrenal rush. When Eric brought her home, it seemed inevitable that he would have the urge to kiss her. She stood there paralyzed as she realized what he was doing, but then she closed her eyes as she held him, and their lips danced to their own song right there on the front porch.

When they separated, they both shared the same heady feeling, and her eyes fluttered open again. “Did you kiss me because I now look acceptable?” she asked as she indicated her new appearance.

“Yes,” he told her matter of factly. Her face started turning bitter as soon as the words left his mouth and she hung her head. “But not because I think you look beautiful now. I did because now you believe you are. You are an amazing woman with a big and kind heart, and you hid your beauty away under faded jeans and baggy outfits. That’s not you, and you didn’t know that or didn’t show it. Now you allowed yourself to, and it warms me inside to see you do it. That’s why I kissed you because words escaped me.”

Marissa was on the verge of tears when Eric was through. She quickly wiped the tear that was about to fall and averted her eyes. “I appreciate you doing all you did, and for seeing me for who I am, and not what I pretended to be. For so long...”Her words were cut short as she started sobbing.

“It’s alright now, Marissa,” he told her and held her to him. “I’ve got you.”

Eric held her in his arms this time, as she cried and released her pent up emotions, and he realized then that for all the time he had spent trying to make her feel better about herself, he was exposing himself more to her beauty. It was then that he realized it was another full moon, and he smiled inwardly and out. Three moons would work after all.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Several dates later and Eric was growing devastatingly in love with Marissa Evans. He could be seen everywhere with her, and she was not the same woman since. It was after dinner one night that she finally decided she would spend the night at his apartment. Eric’s heart raced like he had never been with a woman before, and she did the same for she couldn’t remember the last time she was with anyone.

She trembled each time he touched her, and when his lips found her bare skin, it was like electricity coursing through her veins. Eric ran his hand along the length of hers as he pressed himself against her. His lips began tracing the outline of hers, and his hands moved from hers to places on her long forgotten by a man. Her body was firm and taut, and she smelled like a sunny day as he drank in her warmth, making it his own. Her breasts lay bare before him, and he cupped one while sucking the other.

Marissa twitched when she felt his icy cold tongue, still chilled from the champagne, as it covered her peaks, and she moaned. Her legs started sliding up and down the silky sheets, and she grabbed a handful when he lowered his head and began licking the tender spot at her throat. She held onto him now as he made his way south, carving out a path on her with his tongue, or rather, making abstract art as his head bobbed and weaved as he moved. His thumb found her pulsating center, and as he strummed her like a guitar, he suckled her breast and slid his middle finger inside her.

Eric started moaning when he felt her juice flowing over him, and he stroked, gently at first, and then more vigorously after. Then, when she started screaming, begging him to take her, he lost control. She held his manhood firmly in her hands, impatient for him, and guided him inside her. Eric bellowed as her walls closed in on him, and then he grew wild.  He pressed her legs apart, and then drove into her, directly, then side to side, gyrating as he did. She started moving beneath him, welcoming him, and, at the moment, she gripped him with her walls, he pressed further into her.