Wicked Flower (13 page)

She smiled but it wasn’t real and
returned to serious in the next heartbeat. “What would you do if the girl you’d
been dating for a few weeks before you deployed told you she was having your
baby after you’d just declared you’d found your soul mate and were moving on?”

His left brow rose, in true
comic-book hero fashion, and he rubbed his lips together. Dani was so
distracted by that simple deed that she barely heard his next words. “Can I
think about that for a second and ask you something else first?” he said.

“Sure.” She wanted to blow out
all the air quadrupling in her lungs but practiced neat, even breaths all the
while taking him in. The more they talked, the harder it became to call him
arrogant and thoughtless. Friend didn’t seem that far a stretch to make.

“This in no way is meant to sound
judgy
, but how did you get pregnant?” he asked,
looking her over quite directly. Her body responded to those dark eyes. Her
body would send her off a cliff if she didn’t get a handle on it. She ignored
the warming and tingling and tensing, barely.

His face told her he was being
serious for once. Her face blanked and then she frowned with her brow, her
eyes,
her
twisted lips.
“Um, the
normal way.
Semen exchange.”

“
Oo
, sexy talk.
You can be very
funny,
and cute by the way, when you try.” He smiled and she nearly smiled back but
held it in because something in his eyes when he looked at her like that and
flirted the way he did promised things she now knew she couldn’t have. He
swallowed and smiled again. Dani needed to look away but couldn’t. “I meant did
you use protection and if not, why not?” he asked.

She couldn’t believe she was
having a birds and the
bees
conversation with Stefan
Calderon, Mr.
Sinfamous
himself, according to
Guitar Freak
. And now she was
embarrassed to admit how careless she’d been that one night with Thom.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Dani.” And
then his voice buried her in its deepness. “I’ve wanted it bad like that
before.
Many times.”

How could she not be self-conscious
with him staring at her like that? She felt a ramble coming on.

“He took me to the movies three times
before he even kissed me. I felt safe with Thom, like he wasn’t just trying to
get laid. On our fourth date, he came over and made me and your mom dinner.
Then he told me he was deploying. He’s younger than me. He never said it, but I
could tell he was worried about possibly not coming back. So that night I slept
with him.” Dani’s hands clapped together and then she rubbed her palms in small
circles. Stefan kept watch over her closely. “It was just one of those things
where we thought about protection but it would have meant stopping and a trip
to the store. It was stupid. But what’s done is done. It was my fault. I
practically seduced him. I kept pushing, knowing he wouldn’t be able to stop.”
She told Stefan the story, aware it was pretty dry and lacked passion.

Stefan rubbed his hands together
now, concentrating on the tops of his knuckles. He shifted in his seat and she
reacted accordingly.

“For the record, and you may not
believe this, but if I had been in bed with you, I would have stopped and gone
to the store for you.” All the joking left his voice.

“For some reason, I believe you.”

Although she didn’t want to
entertain it, she couldn’t help but to wonder if Stefan was more motivated by
being safe or getting sex. It had to be the first, right? Because the man could
get any woman he wanted. “Stefan, can I ask you something else?”

“If you insist,” his eyes
twinkled when he grinned, the cocky flirt back by her side.

“Why do you think I let what
happened between us this morning get so far?” she asked, curious to know what
he thought. Stefan had probably seen all there was to see in the world. Maybe
he had an answer for something that left her baffled.

He considered her for a long
moment. “Honestly?”

She nodded, readying herself for
his harmless teasing that shouldn’t excite and unnerve her but did.

“I think you were hurt and needed
a friend.”

It was not what she’d expected to
come out of those beautiful full lips of his. “You’re being too kind.
Which is weird because I think I like it better when you’re
teasing.
” She couldn’t allow herself to take too much from his words.
She shouldn’t be this close, confined again, feeling the chaos his nearness brought
to her nerves and flesh. She rubbed at the side of her neck.

“Why?
Because
I’m right this time?
Hey, there’s no shame in needing a hug when life
kicks you in the balls. Or a quick, hot fuck at the Pump-n-Go.” His boyish grin
shattered any modesty she might have faked at that. He said the craziest things
to her yet she loved it.

They shared a good chuckle after
a couple seconds of holding it in.

“You know, I was totally ready to
give you a hard time about this whole needing a special friend theory, but…”
She considered her words very carefully first, wondering if she truly believed
them. Funny enough, even if it was the most unrealistic thought she’d had all
day, she did. “I think you and I could be friends. Good friends.”

This time when he grinned it
turned softer at the edges. “I see some promise there. You could help me
understand all those
angsty
shows the kids are so
into nowadays and I could school you in all sorts of worldly adult interests.”
The grin was once again wicked and so unfair.

“Stefan, are you ever serious?”

“Always.”

But wait. Did he just look away
from her? What did Stefan Calderon have to be nervous about?

He didn’t need her upping his
cool factor. But it was nice of him to pretend. They needed to keep talking
because otherwise, her breath hitched at the other option.

She tried to tease him back. “Okay,
that ‘worldly adult interests’ sounded kind of creepy. I am most definitely an
adult and you’re not that much older than me. Are you?” she asked.

Did he just blush?

No, this man was not a blusher.

He’d probably gotten some sun
from his fancy convertible. But was that a nervous twitch over his left eye?
Checking out his face so much, she began to see how he wasn’t chiseled from
stone, perfected to perfection. Stefan’s nose was just a little crooked near
the top of the bridge which made him look tough and he had a little dent near
his eyebrow, maybe from a chicken pox episode. When his mouth was relaxed like
it was now rather than grinning, his top lip was fuller than most men. Dani bet
he’d been teased about that in school just the same as she’d been. She tried to
remember his school photo hanging on Mrs. C’s wall and didn’t think his
shoulders had quite the size they did now. Much smaller than his full grown man
self, Dani wondered if he’d been picked on and if he’d fought? The more little
quirks she discovered about him, the more human he became. She smiled for no
apparent reason.

“God, you’re
gonna
love this. When you were born, your mom brought you to the house to show you
off. I, uh, I held you. I was knee deep into the sixth grade.”

“Ten, eleven
years then?
That’s not so bad. You don’t look it. You definitely don’t act it. I was trying
to figure it out today and I thought you were older, maybe in your forties.”

“Try twelve.
Not
forty yet but not too far off, sweetheart.”
He scratched his head. “How
did you not recognize me this morning? Honestly? You really had no idea who I
was?”

She made a face like she was still
just as clueless. “Well, I’m not really a fan. I mean, that’s not what I meant.
Not that I don’t like your band’s music … I’m sure it’s really good. I’ve heard
about your fans.” She’d heard some of Sin Pointe’s bigger hits on the radio
over the years. “I just … I mostly listen to country. Your mom talks about you,
but not the band stuff and the only pictures around her house are from when you
were little. When I saw your name on your license, it wasn’t the whole ‘band’
thing that got me.” Her gaze dropped with her air quotes.

“What? You have to tell me now,
after that little look.”

The band angle would be a cop out
right now when the real shocker had been that she’d nearly hooked up with the
man who paid her paycheck. Who called Gina Calderon mom. It would be blatant
disrespect for Mrs. C. But she went with something she hoped he’d appreciate
more. She’d been so attracted to him. Still was. Her heart raced a little as
she remembered her fingers stroking his face.
“Your beard.
You look more like one of those rugged Alaskan mountain man calendar guys than
a punk rocker.”

Had she offended him? What was
that eye roll about?

“Sin Pointe isn’t punk rock.”

“But you wear eyeliner and your
drummer has a
mohawk
.”
Things she’d learned just moments ago in that magazine.

“And all that being true, does
not make us punk.”

She must not look like she
believed him.
At all.

“Well, whatever. Hey, everything
being what it is, I had a shitty day. I’m sure yours has been mixed. I feel a
lot better and I really appreciate … this.” She held her hands up, realizing
there was no gesture for the distraction he’d provided her. They fell awkwardly
back into her lap, grazing her tiny baby bulge as she went. “You’ve been
surprisingly easy to talk to on a day when I really did need a non-
judgy
friend.”

“Ouch.” His face took on a hurt
look but she couldn’t tell if he was sincere or just bluffing to get his way as
he seemed so capable of doing.

“What?” she asked, afraid she’d
actually hurt his feelings.

He rubbed at his chin and she
watched his dark whiskers slide along his fingers. “Surprisingly easy to talk
to,” he echoed. “You may as well add that I’ve got a great personality.”

Dani felt the immediate need to
explain. “Usually I’m not real big on
surprises,
case
in point my being dumped this morning.
And being easy to talk
to is a good thing.”
God, had no one ever told him that? She supposed in
his rock star life, that was a big possibility. She felt very bad for him if
that were the case.

He rubbed her hand and she wished
she hadn’t just been thinking about her attraction to him. But even when she
was thinking of how nice it was to talk to Stefan, she was at the same time
wishing they were wrapped around each other, no matter who he was.

“So let me get this straight,” he
began. “You woke up to Thom Clueless-Pants’ email, then there were those
assholes in line who I nearly assaulted, by the way, and then there was me.”

“And then there
was
you.”

“Man, I’m really glad I didn’t
fuck things up for myself. I was this close to joining those losers.”

“Oh yeah, maybe it’s not too
late. You were saying you had something to yell at me about? Don’t think I
forgot about that.”

Stefan’s jaw worked. His eyes
flashed an intense dark before he blinked and they reverted back to the deep
chocolate brown again. “Because you’re feeding my mom Indian food and she hates
it.” For the first time, he took one quick glance down before pinning her again
with the confidence and assuredness of a man used to getting what he wanted.

She smiled then hiked up her
eyebrows. “Yeah, I think I would have kicked your ass if you’d have come at me
with that tonight.”

“I’m sorry now for even thinking
it. And uh, that’s not even the real issue I have with you, anyway.”

“I didn’t realize you had an
issue with me,” she said. “What’s the real issue, Stefan?”

Chapter Ten

This could either go really well,
or really
really
bad. Stefan could only handle being
locked in this car with her for so much longer. Her softness even smelled good
to him.
Whatever the fuck that smelled like.

Shit, what was wrong with him?

And there were only so many
sitting positions he could switch between before she knew his mind wasn’t
solely on talking. He shifted from his side and pushed his legs forward until
his knees locked.
Big mistake.
Oh well. She should
know what they were both up against.
The way he was holding
himself in check for her benefit.
He wouldn’t put himself through this
for just anyone. Why did he want her to come away from this knowing that?

“The issue is that I need you
back at Mom’s.
Mom
needs you back at
Mom’s. And I need you to use that gorgeous brain of yours and take your money
back. I’ve only been home a few hours and I can already see how hard you work.”

She shook her head. Okay, he
hadn’t insulted her with the not using her brains bit. But her pretty lips were
drawn damn tight.