BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) (85 page)

And he did it gladly. It was in his nature. Doing it the other way round to play the gentleman for a woman he disliked more than he was attracted to would have gone against his grain as a bear. As a human he might have sent her into the fray first.

Some of his friends looks up when he walked in and they cheered and lifted their beers. They’d been drinking since much earlier. On Friday’s they got off before sunset.

“Brucie!” Murphy called out in a sing-song voice. “About time you rolled on by, this beer right here had no idea what to do with itself.”

He held up a pint. But then Tara stepped through the door, and the place fell quiet. Everyone stared. The atmosphere was thicker than the smoke that hung in the air, and faces everywhere were turned to Tara. The only thing still going was that radio, and it felt like suddenly it was turned up so much louder.

“Well, this is just lovely,” Tara said and her voice was cheerful and bright. Different from the commanding voice she used when she was addressing the Family. Different from the demanding voice she’d been using on Bruce.

“This is Tara,” Bruce said, speaking into the silence. He felt her power push against him from behind. This had better work or there would be a hell to pay. He would have to leave his people if it meant they suspected something.

Somewhere in the back someone wolf-whistled. Tara giggled like Bruce had never heard before.

“Now boys, I came with someone,” she said and wrapped her hand around Bruce’s arm. When there was still no reply she put on an even thicker accent. “Can a girl from Rhodestown get a drink? Or does Williamsburg’s fellas really just live from the water from the mountain spring?” She pushed her hip out to the side and planted a hand on it.

“I’ve heard rumors, you know.”

Murphy pushed the pint of beer he’d held up to Bruce toward her.

“Can you hold your liquor?” he asked, looking her up and down. She did look small. She had a narrow frame and with her hair all blown out and pretty clothes she didn’t look half as wild as Bruce knew she could be.

“Oh, I can hold whatever you can give me,” she said and winked at Murphy. Somehow that broke the atmosphere. They laughed. Men nearby clapped Bruce on the back. Some women glared at her and her easy ways with men.

And then, at the very back, Bruce saw Jenna. Her eyes were on Tara, not on him, and they were filled with envy. Not jealousy, envy. She wished she had what Tara had.

Bruce sighed. If Jenna only knew how beautiful her own honesty and purity of heart was.

Tara had walked over to the bar and grabbed that pint. She lifted it to her mouth like a seasoned drinker and took a sip. Bruce knew she could go all night. Were-creatures couldn’t get drunk. Their quick repair systems and natural immunity against human ills meant that alcohol just didn’t have an effect. She could sit her drinking all night. So could he.

He just didn’t know if he could stomach it.

Jenna walked up to him and he wanted her to rather stay put. He shook his head ever so slightly, hoping she would get the hint. If she saw it she thought nothing of it. Instead she stood right in front of Bruce.

“You haven’t introduced me to your lady friend,” she said loud enough to be heard over the music. Bruce opened his mouth to answer, but Tara was suddenly next to him, and both hands were free.

“This is her, isn’t it?” she said, and the laughter was out of her voice.

Jenna frowned slightly, a question in her eyes, and looked at her.

“I’m Jenna,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you. The women around town have been wondering for years who was finally going to tie this free spirit down.”

It was a sweet opening line. Maybe jealousy was in there, but it was generous. Bruce wanted to hug Jenna and thank her for being nice about it. But Tara stepped closer to Jenna, close enough that they were almost chest on chest. She was taller than Jenna, but not by much. But her air was intimidating, and Jenna swallowed. She didn’t step back.

She should have.

“Tara, honey,” Bruce said, but Tara shot him a look that surpassed humanity. It was an animalistic stare that would have gone accompanied with a snarl if they’d been alone. He snapped his mouth shut and waited.

Her eyes hadn’t changed their color yet, but he could see the animal slide behind him when she looked at him, and he was scared for Jenna.

“Listen here, country girl,” she sneered. Her voice was so low only Jenna and preternatural creatures were sharper hearing could keep up with the conversation. Bruce’s skin broke out in goose bumps. Tara’s voice crawled over his skin like tiny ants and he could smell Jenna’s fear in the air.

Jenna could pick up on these things. Even though she didn’t know what she was feeling. Bruce knew she could.

“It’s written all over you, how you pine and swoon for this man. You better keep you seedy paws off him, or you’ll regret the day he came into this town. You’ll have to reckon with me, and I promise you, you’re not going to like it.”

Jenna swallowed hard and nodded with quick movements. Then she glanced at Bruce one more time, and turned away. It was a bad idea to show a predator your back, especially with the amount of fear radiating from her. Tara could see it as a running target and fall for the chase. But she behaved like any respectable woman from Rhodestown would and turned to me with a smile.

“Darling, you’re not going to let me drink alone, are you?”

Somehow the others had missed what had happened, but Murphy made a snorting sound now and someone else piped up from the back.

“Bruce can outdrink anyone here,” it came.

“Well,” Tara said and a smile played over her lips that made her look mysterious and coy instead of the monster she was just a moment ago. “We’ll have to see about that.”

Chapter 4

The town was still asleep. When Friday nights started off like they did the night before, Saturday mornings were dead. Jenna was sure she was the only person up. She got up and got dressed, and walked across the road to her mom’s cabin to check on her.

When she knocked on the door, there was no answer. She pushed it open, and walked inside. The cabin was dark and quiet. Her mother, even though she was ill, was usually up early.

Jenna walked to her bedroom, and froze in the doorstep. Her mother lay on her back, eyes closed, the book she’d been reading fallen to the side. Her mother wasn’t sleeping.

Somewhere early in the night, while Jenna had cried about a lost love, she’d passed away. Jenna sat down on the edge of her mother’s bed and felt like her heart was going to break. First it was Bruce, and now this. The only two people she’d ever really loved, gone on the same night.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and she didn’t know who to turn to. Bruce was the person she would have run to with this. He was the person she would have called to help her sort out the body and arrange a funeral. But the chances that he was still asleep were good. They were even better that he wasn’t alone in his bed.

The idea hurt just as much as her mother’s death, and her chest tightened. It was hard to breath, and she finger combed her hair out of her face. She felt trapped and she tried to lighten it up, but the cabin was suddenly small. The town was small. Her world had suddenly shrunken to such a small place that her own existence was the only one that was left.

She walked to the Inn. It was open as it always was. Where Murphy found the time to sleep was a mystery often talked about. The Inn was just always open, and he was just always behind the bar polishing his glasses and ready with a beer tap to wash away anyone’s sorrows.

When she walked in through the door, Murphy looked up and smiled.

“There you are,” he said. “I was wondering where you disappeared to last night. You missed a hell of a party.”

“I’m sure,” Jenna said, but her voice sounded far off and small. She didn’t even want to think what had gone down the night before.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Murphy asked. He frowned at her, eyes concerned. Jenna closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. She tried to steady herself so that she didn’t cry, and then broke down in tears anyway.

“My mother passed away last night,” she said and when she opened her eyes Murphy had come around the bar. He stood in front of her, and then he stretched out his meaty arms and wrapped them around her, pulling her against his belly. She’d known him since she was a child. Everyone had.

Murphy was like the village’s grandfather. No matter how many people had left of passed away, Murphy had always been there.

Jenna cried. She cried about her mom, about the fact that she was alone now, with no one left to cling to. She cried because Bruce was gone, too, and in a way she mourned his loss more because unlike her mother’s it was so unexpected. She cried because Tara was so damn beautiful it hurt, and why would a man like Bruce not look at her? She cried because she had nothing else left in her.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he finally said, after he’d let her cry for a while. “I know it hurts. But we all have to move on someday. Your mother is with your father now. It’s time for her to find her happiness again.”

Jenna nodded. Her mother had been through hell after her father’s death. What Murphy was saying was right. She was happy again. She would see her father, and they could be together again, wherever they’d gone.

“It’s just me alone, left behind now,” she managed to say. She wiped her tears with the back of her palm and looked up at Murphy. “Will you help me?”

Murphy gave her a gentle smile and nodded.

They had the funeral the same day. There was no reason in Williamsburg to postpone it for weeks. There were no facilities to keep the body on ice, and there was no investigation that needed to be done as to how she had died.

The funeral was short and sweet. They marched the body to the other side of the valley where the crosses of other funerals stood. Three men dug the grave and the women of the church sung hymns that just made Jenna cry even more. Finally, when the preacher had said a few words and the ground was back in the whole on top of the wooden box they’d buried her mother in, the villagers trickled away one by one until Jenna was left alone at the grave.

She stood, looking at the cross and the mound of fresh earth. Her mother was buried next to her father, and it was as it should have been.

Someone cleared a throat behind her, and Jenna turned. Bruce stood a couple of feet away, and he looked like he felt he was intruding.

Jenna looked at him. He was tall and broad, and he looked strong and healthy as always. She noticed how handsome he was, how rugged and manly. And how unreachable he was now. Nothing about him had changed, and it still felt like there was a wall between them now.

“I’m very sorry,” Bruce broke the silence first. “I know what this must mean to you.”

“Thank you,” Jenna said and turned away from him, back to the grave. He took it as an invitation to join her. When he stood next to her she was aware of how close he was, and fought the urge to take a step away.

“I want you to know that if there’s anything I can do…” he started. He paused to take a breath, and Jenna took the opportunity to interrupt.

“Thank you, Bruce. I appreciate the gesture, but unfortunately you and I both know you’re making a promise you can’t keep.”

Her voice was harder than she thought she could make it, given how she felt, and he looked surprised. She was never hard with him. He looked at her like he didn’t understand, and that upset her.

“Your girlfriend made it quite clear last night that I wasn’t to come near you again. I don’t much care for her, Bruce, but I don’t feel like being humiliated in public again. I’ve lost enough.”

The last sentence had slipped out. She hadn’t meant to paint his relationship with Tara as a loss to her.

“I understand that you’re going through a hard time. But my relationship with Tara doesn’t change the fact that I still care for you, and I know what it’s like to lose someone.”

Bruce took her last statement as the loss of her mother alone. It made Jenna feel better about it. But his words were wrong, and that made them hurt that much more.

“I’m sorry, Bruce. We both know that’s not as true as you’d like it to be. You may care for me but that will be limited. As it should be, keeping Tara happy is your goal now.”

Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but the tears were so close Jenna was scared she would cry in front of him. And that wouldn’t do. So she shook her head.

“I can’t do this. It’s been a long day, Bruce. Don’t make it longer.” She turned her back on him and walked away. She could feel his eyes burning into her back until she disappeared into the trees, and even then she felt like he was following her. But when she stopped and turned around she was alone in the trees.

The hair on her arms stood on end. The atmosphere between the trees was palpable, like something was there, watching her. A shiver ran down her spine and she hurried on. She had to get away from the trees, away from the feeling of foreboding. Away from the sorrow that the weekend has brought with it.

She walked back to the Inn. There were customers sitting around now, but it wasn’t as busy as it would get later. Murphy looked up when he saw her and nodded. She walked to the bar.

“I wanted to thank you for your help,” Jenna said. “It’s been a hard day and you’ve just made it easier for me to deal with it.”

“Of course, sweetheart,” he said. “It hurts me that I’ve helped you bury both your parents.”

Jenna nodded and sat down on a stool.

“What are you going to do now?” Murphy asked. She shrugged.

“I don’t know. There isn’t much left here for me. I could leave if I want. Find a new home, a place where I could belong. Where I could have a family again that I could call my own.”

Murphy nodded, picked up a glass and started polishing.

“You could do that,” he said, looking at his glass. “But that would mean leaving the only place you’ve ever called home. You belong here, sweetheart, don’t you know?” He glanced at her. “Don’t let a pretty face scare you off.”

Jenna snapped her head up at Murphy. He looked at her for a moment.

“Oh, I’ve seen how it’s been around these parts. Hearts break over lost people, whether they live or die, all the time. You just need to decide if you’re going to be defined by someone else, or if the value of your life is going to make them so regretful of losing you they’re living the hell intended for you instead.”

Jenna smiled. A small smile, with little happiness behind it, but it was a smile.

“Thank you, Murphy,” she said. She slid off the barstool and walked out the Inn. Because, of course he was right. This was home. And she was here long before Bruce, or Tara, or half the other people she’d come to love.

Jenna walked the winding road through the cabins until she came to the last one. She knocked on the door and waited. She was just about to turn and walk away when the door opened and Bruce appeared. He looked confused and bleary, his voice thick with sleep.

“Jenna?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were sleeping.” She looked up at the sun. It was well into the afternoon. But it was a Saturday, and her mood darkened when she realized he must have had a long night.

He shook his head. “I was just feeling under the weather. What’s up?” he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she could trace his individual muscles as they rippled under his skin when he moved. She forced her eyes back up to his so she wouldn’t be rude and stare.

He was the best looking guy she’d ever seen. A lot of other men also worked as lumberjacks and they didn’t have bodies like Bruce’s.

She took a deep breath and focused on what she’d come to say.

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior this morning. I know that my dislike of Tara shouldn’t affect my friendship with you. I could have been more polite about it.”

“Jen, you just lost your mother. I’m not going to hold it against you.”

Jenna nodded and her eyes trailed down to his pecks again, his abs. She stopped herself when she reached his belt and looked down at her own hands. Safer that way.

“I know that you think Tara is the woman for you, and I want you to know that even though I really can’t stand her,” she felt like an idiot for admitting it, “I will try.”

“Thank you,” Bruce said. “That really means a lot to me.”

“I’m trying for you, not for her,” Jenna added. “Because if you ask me she doesn’t fit in here. And you don’t belong with her.”

“Jenna…” Bruce said.

“I know, I  know,” she interrupted. “None of my business. Just don’t let her get all up in my face. You know that I won’t look for trouble. It’s not necessary for you to let her run me off like a dog when this is my town, and she’s the outsider.”

Bruce nodded. “Sorry about that,” he said. “She has jealousy issues.”

“I didn’t notice,” Jenna said and it was dripping was sarcasm. But Bruce smiled, and somehow that broke the tension. The atmosphere suddenly became soft and warm between them, the way it used to be. The way it had always been. It was almost like nothing had happened at all. Except for the fact that when she looked at his body again, she knew that it belonged to someone else now.

She couldn’t dream about it anymore. And that someone else had probably already had that body, and she would never be able to touch it the way she’d wanted to. She shook her head, got rid of the thoughts. It didn’t matter anyway.

If Bruce really was the man she thought he was, and Tara was the bitch she looked to be, then it wouldn’t last long, anyway. She’d known Bruce long enough to know that he didn’t put up with people’s crap for long. And Tara had a lot of it.

When she said her goodbyes and turned away from the cabin she sighed. She knew that most of that was wishful thinking rather than a hunch that it wouldn’t last. But a girl could dream. A girl could always dream.