BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) (160 page)

Chapter Two

Stratton

“Stratton, are you listening to me?” My mother’s eyes flashed in anger.

“Yes,” I said automatically. We were in the car; she was driving me to the airport.
Just a few more minutes
, I told myself.
Just a few more minutes and then you’ll be free of her for months
.

“What did I say?” My mother turned in the car seat so she was facing me. Nervously, I flicked my eyes to the road.

“You want to watch the road?”

“Fine,” she snapped, wriggling around in the seat. Her heft made the car move from side to side and I looked out the window, feeling carsick.

“Stratton, you can’t keep acting like a juvenile,” she lectured. “The fact that you were allowed to go back last year after getting arrested like some kind of thug should have really woken you up!”

“It did,” I said, trying to maintain a straight face. “And this whole summer was without incident, was it not?”

My mother glared at me. “If you can call staying out until the wee hours and coming home intoxicated without incident, then yes,” she answered me primly. “I think it you benefit you to reexamine your priorities, Stratton.”

“Stop treating me like a child,” I whined. “I’m twenty five, for fuck’s sake!”

My mother gasped at the use of profanity and resumed her frantic, white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. I took a deep breath and counted to twenty.

The whole summer had been like this. It was like nothing I could ever say was good enough. I was getting all As in my classes? Her response would be, ‘too bad, why didn’t you decide to have a career in law?’ No matter what I did, she looked down on me. I hadn’t told her the truth about why I was allowed back in the country. She thought that I had friends in high places at the embassy. Every time that I’d left the house, I panicked at the thought of her finding the marriage certificate. It was in the same bunch of paperwork as my student visa, and I didn’t think I’d be able to lie my way out of that one.

Even though my mother was getting on my last nerve, I wasn’t that enthusiastic about returning to the States. I’d had a great summer; some of my mates from primary school and I reconnected and worked as tour guides. It was the same standard fare, but this time I knew that it would be the last. Next summer, I wouldn’t have the same freedom. I’d be working somewhere, with a real job, and bills. I wondered how much the divorce with Leda was going to cost me; even though we’d signed a pre-nup, I still had a feeling that it wouldn’t be cheap.

We pulled up at the departing gates and my mom gave me a hard look. “Don’t make me worry so much this year,” she chastised. “And stay on top of your grades. You’ll never get into law school with such poor marks.”

I frowned. “That’s true, Mom, but I’m not going to law school so I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

She looked stunned as I climbed out the car and kissed her cheek. Her usual blend of strong woody perfume and talcum powder clung to my face for seconds after I’d turned away. She hefted my suitcase out of the truck with surprising strength and leaned in for another perfunctory hug. Then, just as quickly as we’d pulled up, she was climbing in her car and staring at the road ahead.

Inside the airport, I was relieved to finally be alone. I bought a book and a giant bottle of water for the plane and settled in at my gate, after the long drudgery of security. The conversation with my mom had once again brought Leda to the front of my mind. It wasn’t fair; I didn’t want to continue dwelling on her like this. But now it seemed impossible not to think of her. Her creamy skin, her big gray eyes. I loved how Leda almost hated to be caught smiling, as if it was something she didn’t think she should be doing in public. It had been so delightfully surprising to see how she was in the bedroom – just the right amount of restrained and passionate. The night we’d made love, I’d looked forward to several nights of the same magic.

My heart hardened when I thought about her and her ex. It was painful to think about her playing me the whole time, not even realizing that I was beginning to develop feelings for her. The whole shy girl thing must have been an act. I felt stupid for not seeing it sooner. I groaned inwardly as I thought about how it would feel to run into her ex in the house.
Matthew
. Even his name sounded wrong. It reminded me of my ex, Miriam. From what Leda had told me, they were both manipulative in the same way.

The best thing about the summer was that I hadn’t seen Miriam. She wasn’t living in Germany anymore, even though her parents still lived in the same city as mine. Some of the friends I’d run into had brought her up, but it was looking like no one had seen her in almost a year. I crossed my fingers and prayed that she’d forgotten about me. The last time I’d seen her, well, it hadn’t exactly gone well.

“Stratton,” Miriam whispered as she put her face in her hands. “Why are you leaving me?”

“I’m not leaving you,” I responded. “We can take a break, but I need to go to school. This is important to me, for my future. If I’m important to you, you have to let me go. It’s what’s best for us. If you want me to be responsible and take care of a family, I’ll need a degree.”

Miriam glared up at me, her eyes wrapped in tears. “You don’t understand,” she spat. “It’s not like that for me. My family won’t let me go to school, they want me to find a job until I can find a husband.”

“So lie and say you’ll meet someone in school?” I suggested but the hint of a joke was lost. Miriam threw herself into my arms and I stroked her soft blonde hair out of habit. She was small and slight and warm, and she always fit perfectly with my frame. But between her pestering me for marriage and whining about a long distance relationship, I wasn’t sure it was going to work out.

“Don’t try to be funny, Stratton,” she said in a dark voice. “You know I’m going to be miserable when you leave. You know I’ll want to kill myself without you.”

“Whoa, whoa,” I said quietly, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her bright blue eyes. “Don’t talk like that, okay? I know you don’t mean it.”

She frowned at me defiantly. “That’s just how much you know,” she snipped. “If you really paid attention to me, you’d know how depressed I feel when we’re not together.”

That had been the theme of our last conversations. Every time I brought up leaving, she would threaten me like that. Eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that she was manipulating me. Sure enough, after I broke things off, she was fine. I got some drunk emails during the first couple of months and then, nothing. It was almost hard to believe that she’d completely forgotten about me, but with a wince of guilt, I realized she was completely right to forget.

The plane began to board and I shook my head to clear myself of Miriam. She was in the past. Just like almost everything else from my life before. And, if I thought about it in a year, where Leda would be as well.

Chapter Three

Leda

“Sorry, can you hold on a second?” Megan was staring at me, holding up a handful of colorful dresses. “I just got this email from the landlord, I want to check it out.”

Megan rolled her eyes but obediently set the dresses down on a chair. She watched me intently as I pulled my phone out of my bag and clicked on the new message.

“Hello Ms. Leda,

Yes, yes, Stratton has signed on for another year. In the event you’re interested in breaking your part of the lease, I would need 50% of the total amount up front, which amounts to $2,600.

Derek Holmes”

“Ugh,” I groaned, flopping down in the chair on top of the gowns. Megan made a face and yanked me upright, saving the precious fabric from wrinkling.

“You’ll crush them!” She chastised me. “Bad news?”

I shook my head. “Not really. I mean, kind of, but I wasn’t expecting to hear anything worse.”

“Sorry,” Megan said as she scrunched up her face. “Do you like any of these?” I watched as she held up the dresses in a staggering feat of grace. I studied them carefully. They were all pretty much the same: floor-length halter gowns in different shades of blue and green.

“They’re all pretty,” I said unconvincingly. “Whatever you want me to wear is fine, honestly.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “That’s not the point, Leda, no one does matching bridesmaid dresses anymore! Everyone picks their own now.”

“Sorry, sorry,” I said through a wave of giggles. “I’m just so used to those movies from the 80s where everyone looks terrible.”

Megan shook her head. “Just try these on and see which one you like,” she said. “Or you can wear gold, if you’d prefer. I thought this color would be more….you, though.”

I blanched at the thought of wearing gold. “No, this is great,” I said. Megan dropped all of the dresses in my arms and the weight of them made me stoop over.

“I’ll be right here!” Megan sang, settling into a chair. “My appointment’s not until next week!”

I groaned as I stripped off my jeans and sweater. The first of the dresses was irritatingly difficult to wiggle into, and I had to suck in to pinch the fabric closed in order to zip it up.

Stomping out of the dressing room, I glanced at Megan. “How do I look?”

She burst out laughing. “Leda, that’s on backwards,” Megan said through a hale of giggles. One of the store attendants shot a glare in our direction. “Sorry,” Megan called. “My friend doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

I felt a hot blush spread over my cheeks. “Megan, shut up,” I hissed. “Help me!”

Megan followed me back into the dressing room and tugged the dress around until it was facing the front. She slid the zipper up my side with ease and stood back with her hands on her hips.

“You look great,” she saw. “I bet you can’t wait for Matthew to see you in that!”

“What are you talking about?” I narrowed my eyes. “Why would he see me in this?”

Megan frowned. “Leda, I thought you guys were getting back together,” she said slowly. “That’s what he told me, at least. And didn’t you have lunch with him before you left for the summer?”

“I did, but it was so bad,” I said, yanking the zipper down and stepping out of the dress. “God, and we haven’t talked all summer so I didn’t tell you! He broke up with his fiancée and he wanted me back, but he was so arrogant that I couldn’t deal with him. He acted like it was my fault that he cheated on me in the first place.”

“Wow,” Megan breathed. “I’m so sorry, Leeds, I had no idea. That explains a lot, though.”

I frowned at her again. “What are you talking about? Did Matthew say something? Did he tell you that we’re back together? If he did, he’s totally lying and I’m going to kick his ass.”

“Easy, tiger,” Megan said. She patted me on the head. “He didn’t exactly say that. I haven’t heard from him in months, don’t worry. Sorry I thought wrong. It did seem weird that you hadn’t started talking about him, though. I thought you were doing a good job of being coy!”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said flatly. “Did you say anything about this to anyone else?”

Megan tapped her manicured fingernails on her chin. “I don’t think so,” she said after a pause. “Maybe Tyler? But he and Matthew are friends, so I wouldn’t worry. Oh! You know, I did tell Stratton that you and Matthew had lunch before the end of the summer.”

My jaw dropped. “Are you kidding? You did?”

“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t know it was such a big deal,” Megan said flippantly. “You and Stratton don’t even like each other, why does it matter?”

I clapped my hand to my forehead. “Nothing,” I lied. “It’s fine.”

Megan changed the subject and I changed into another dress, thinking about Stratton the whole time. Everything made sense now. Before, I didn’t think he had a legitimate reason to be angry with me. But now I understood. No wonder he was icing me out: we had sex and then he thought I went running back to Matthew the next day. My heart was pounding, I couldn’t wait to talk to him! I knew it was going to be awkward, but better awkward than more of this bullshit.