Beast Untamed: Beasts of Bodmin Moor, Book 3 (9 page)

He had plenty to keep him occupied, to keep his mind off a certain human female who kept invading his head despite his best attempts to the contrary. Apart from work, he could use a little downtime to get started on plans for the garden extension he had in mind. He’d been considering an outdoor pool, and he didn’t particularly want another summer to come and go without getting the ball rolling on that.

He could also head over to Tynan’s place, work some more on holing up that corner of the landing they’d ripped apart.

Yeah. He had more than enough to keep him occupied.

So why in fuck’s name was he making his way down the high street and toward the coffee house on the corner?

The damn woman was like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Niggling away between his shoulder blades, squeezing into the space that connected his thoughts. What had happened between them felt like unfinished business, and for the life of him he didn’t know why she’d turned off the heat when he’d come back into the bedroom last night.

What was her problem anyway?

And what was his?

She might mean nothing to him, but he had the need to tape up those raw edges they’d left festering, to prove to himself that what had happened to him when he’d screwed her had been nothing more than that aberration, a crossing of wires.

Which meant if he saw her again and tied up those loose ends, he could walk away without a second thought.

He pulled around the back of the coffee shop, turned off the ignition and sat working on his strategy. He’d get himself a coffee. Tell her last night was good, thank her for her company and for a great evening. He’d wish her well and then be on his way.

Everything wrapped up in a tidy bow. Period.

He stepped out of his SUV and walked around to the front entrance. A glance in the window told him the place was pretty full and he almost backed out of his plan to go in. He hovered outside, stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked across the road away from the café.

Cursing himself for being a coward, he walked back. Shit. Anyone watching him would thing he’d lost the freaking plot.

Finally, taking a deep breath, he stepped inside the café and saw Erin immediately. She was laughing at something a customer said, while she stood there in her clichéd black skirt with frilly apron, her waitressing pad in hand.

Taking off his sunglasses, he stuffed them in his jacket pocket, and wondered what was under that skirt. Something flimsy, he hoped, easily disposed of so he could bare her to his gaze…and a whole lot more.

She laughed again, and he noted that the customer was male…and interested.

Fire rose up from his belly to his chest, and he fisted his hands to stop from going over there and ripping the guy’s throat to shreds.

Aware he was drawing curious looks from other patrons, he took a couple of covert breaths and walked to the nearest empty chair.

Erin glanced over and saw him, her smile fading like the sun disappearing behind a cloud. It pissed him off. She was happy to joke with some stranger intent on hitting on her, but all she had for him was a glower?

He made himself settle back in the chair. Assuming a casual look, he leaned his arm across the back of it and stretched out his legs.

She wrote on her pad, flashed the guy a smile, then hiked up that chin and came over to him.

“What can I get you?”

He almost grinned at her haughty tone, but he wasn’t quite ready to forgive the casual and easy way she’d been with that jerk who was still eyeing her up. “Coffee,” he said. “Black.”

She tapped her pen to the pad and started to turn away.

“Don’t I get a smile?”

Her frown was full of irritation. “What?”

“A smile,” he repeated, something inside him wanting to provoke her. “You seem pretty easy with them for everyone else.”

She wore big silver hoops in her ears that caught the light when she moved her head. “It seems I’ve used up my smile quota for the day. Now, if there’s nothing else?”

“What? Did golden boy over there exhaust your supply?”

Her frown deepened, and she shook her head. “What do you want, Nathan?”

“Seems you were getting pretty chummy when I walked in,” he continued with a glance over to jerk-face. “Lining up this evening’s entertainment?”

Her eyes flashed blue fire, but they stayed steady on his. “Well, I figure time’s running out if I don’t want to be on my own tonight. I imagine you got your own entertainment lined up hours ago.”

While he knew she was winding him up, he couldn’t stop the wave of annoyance that rose up on the tail of his earlier anger. “I did,” he confirmed. “Which means you can go tell asshole over there that you’re already spoken for because you’re having dinner with me.”

He didn’t know which one of them was the more surprised, but even though asking her out was the very last thing he’d had in mind, now he’d spoken the words, he wasn’t feeling totally averse to the idea. Dinner was always a nice prelude to dessert. And one more time around the block would really put her out of his system.

She glanced around, obviously checking nobody was eavesdropping on their conversation. It would have been difficult, Nathan thought, considering he could barely hear himself over the animated chatter. When she turned back, her expression was snooty and damn right imperious. “Now, why would you think I’d have dinner with you?”

He kicked back in the chair a little more, forcing himself not to smile. She hadn’t come right out and said no. “Because we had a good time last night.”

“We did,” she agreed, tapping her pen to the pad. “But I thought I made it clear last night that I didn’t plan on repeating the experience.”

Since they were both obviously talking about the same end game, he straightened up and leaned across the table toward her. “How about my place? Seven. You can be there before dark sets in.”

She eyed him with what he thought was curiosity, but there was caution there too. “I’ll get your coffee,” she said and spun away.

She hurried back to the counter, lightly bumping into the edge of a table as she went. Nathan couldn’t stop the smile now. She was still affected by him, which meant all he had to do was push a little more and she’d be at his house at seven. From there, it would be a short walk to his bedroom.

There was a kind of logic in asking her to his place for round two. Having her again would show that what happened last night after he’d fucked her had truly been an anomaly. He could prove to himself that she wasn’t anything special, that she certainly had no power over the control of his instincts.

Tonight he could keep his mind in neutral, and his body wouldn’t react in any way other than an expression of physical release. After which he could safely relegate her to the ranks of past conquests. And all this freaking angst he was experiencing about his loss of control around her would be history.

He watched her preparing two coffees. While he liked the frilly little waitress apron she wore—and fuck, maybe he could get her to bring that along tonight—he didn’t much approve of the crisp white blouse buttoned almost up to her neck. The material was so modest, he couldn’t even see an outline of her bra, let alone the curve of her delicious breasts.

All in good time, he told himself.

She came out from behind the counter carrying a tray holding the two coffees. She turned, heading for dickhead in the corner. Nathan drummed his fingers on the table, forcing himself not to react when the asshole started talking to her again. Erin laughed, said something in response that had the guy putting on a doleful expression which made her laugh again.

Erin turned away from him and made her way toward Nathan’s table. All signs of that laughter she’d so easily shared were now gone. “Coffee,” she said sliding it onto the table in front of him. “Black. Anything else?”

He grinned. “Still no smile for me?” When she only cocked a hip, he reached into his pocket and took out his business card. “Here you go,” he said, scribbling his address on the back. “Take the main road north out of Bodmin, then turn right and follow the road out to Golitha Falls.” He offered the card. “Have you got satellite navigation?”

She took the card, turning it over to look at his address. “It doesn’t matter one way or the other. I won’t be there.”

Since she’d slipped the card in her pocket rather than thrust it back at him or leave it on the table, she was obviously thinking on his offer. He wasn’t unduly concerned. Females often needed to go through the performance of feigning indifference before they did what you knew they’d do in the first place.

“Oh, you’ll be there,” he said with a cocky grin. “And I’m sure, sometime during the evening, I’ll do something that’ll earn me one of those smiles of yours.”

He gave a low laugh when she huffed and turned away. He followed the sexy sway of her ass all the way back to the counter and started counting down to the moment he’d have her naked and beneath him again.

Chapter Eight

Erin tried not to clock watch, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. Despite not having any intention of going over to Nathan’s place, she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the hour hand as it lumbered toward seven and then began its journey clockwise again.

By now he’d have some idea that she wasn’t coming. She hoped it pissed him off.

Damn arrogance of the man. Thinking he could come into her workplace and start making demands about where she would be spending her evening. It had reminded her of the early days with Justin, when he would call her and tell her that he’d made plans and that she’d better make herself available to him.

At first she’d found it exciting to have a man so seemingly wrapped up in her. She had basked in his admiration, his need for her. She had never been needed before, and the feeling was intoxicating. However, it hadn’t been long before everything changed and she saw him for what he was.

If she found Nathan sexy and fascinating, if she was drawn to his cocky arrogance and self-assurance, she had to temper that with reality. A man like Nathan was good for a casual fling, but anything more and she would be asking for trouble. It wouldn’t take long before she would find herself trapped in a relationship that was not only one-sided but potentially dangerous. No way did she want a repeat of her time with Justin.

She’d thought it was best to let Nathan realize that she wasn’t interested in taking things any further than the quickie they’d both enjoyed and had agreed was all they wanted. Except the man had appeared to have changed his mind and didn’t seem to be taking the hint.

That afternoon, when he’d made his demands, she had almost gone back to that guy in the corner and told him that yes, she would like to go for a drink with him. Except Nathan was giving him the evil eye as it was, and she didn’t want to stir up trouble. Nathan’s possessive nature, added to his demanding streak, were strong indicators not to get any more deeply involved with him.

She didn’t know what his game was, and she certainly wasn’t going to be a pawn in it. The only thing she could think of was that he hadn’t taken kindly to her being the one to basically throw him out of bed, as it were. If he was usually the one to get there first, then it was quite possible he planned to have a repeat of last night so he could rectify things, keep his record intact.

Well, he could go to hell. She had plans that night, and they didn’t involve Mr. High and Mighty getting between her legs again. Which meant all she had to do was convince her body, and all would be well.

At the sound of the timer going off, Erin grabbed the oven gloves from the counter and bent to take the brownies she’d baked out of the oven. She pushed Willa away as she came sniffing around. “These aren’t for you, baby. Chocolate’s not good for you. But if you behave, you can have an extra biscuit.”

At the sound of
biscuit
, Willa’s tail started wagging in earnest. Laughing, Erin placed the brownie tin on the cooling tray and picked up Willa’s treat tin. “Why can’t I ever resist you, hmm?” In response, Willa plopped her butt down in eager anticipation. “Those big brown eyes and I’m a goner, aren’t I?”

Erin’s cell phone buzzed as she placed the lid back on the tin. She picked it up from the table where it was in charge mode, and frowned. She should have expected he’d call.

Her stomach gave a nervous pitch, as it always did when she thought of Nathan, but she ignored it and rejected the call. Ten seconds later, it buzzed again. She rejected it. That happened twice more, after which everything went quiet.

Satisfied, and assuring herself that not going to Nathan’s was the best plan, Erin set some water to boil and got out a packet of pasta and a tin of tomatoes. Since she wasn’t in the mood for anything fancy, she grated some cheese to pile on top of the pasta sauce.

A little over half an hour later, Erin took the tray with the half-eaten pasta to the sink. She dumped leftovers into the trash and piled the dirty dishes in her small dishwasher.

The sound of the front doorbell almost made her jump out of her skin, while Willa stared down the hallway on full alert. A chill ran down Erin’s spine, goose bumps breaking out along her arms. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and it was too late for cold-callers. Frozen to the spot, she swallowed, considering what to do.

She walked silently down the hallway and snuck into the living room. Thankfully, she hadn’t turned the lights on when she ate her pasta in front of the television, but the screen was still on. That meant she couldn’t pretend nobody was home and hope that whoever was at her door would go away.

Easing across to the far side of the window, she nudged back the blind and peeked out. She had a jolt of surprise, followed by a sort of heady relief, but fast on its tail was irritation.

What was
he
doing here?

The doorbell rang again, and this time didn’t stop. The bloody man was holding his finger on the bell. Willa came bounding down the hallway at the same moment Erin stepped out of the living room.

She grabbed Willa’s collar and walked her back to the kitchen, where she closed the door.

Erin stomped down the hallway and yanked open the door to find Nathan lounging against the doorframe with, yes, his finger pressed to the bell.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Erin slapped at his hand. “You’ll annoy my neighbors, let alone me.”

“What happened, sugar? Lose directions to my place?”

Since there was no way he was coming inside, Erin stepped over the threshold and pulled the door up behind her. “Not exactly, since I know precisely where they are. Currently residing in my trash bin.”

Still he lounged there, his easy-going posture at odds with the expression on his face. It seemed she wasn’t the only one currently pissed off.

“We had a date.”

God. The audacity of the man.

“At what time during that excuse for a conversation we had at my place of employment this afternoon did I give you any indication that I was under the impression we had a date?”

He pushed away from the doorframe. “I invited you to dinner. Gave you directions to my place. Most females would construe that as meaning they had a date.”

“Well, this
female
needs it spelling out a little more coherently. And she prefers being asked, not told.”

Erin moved back, about to slam the door in his arrogant face, when his palm flattened against the wood.

Fear trickled through her, memories of having a man force his way inside. Of being unable to withstand his strength…

“Leave me alone.” Gasping, Erin pushed harder against Nathan’s resistance. “Get away, or I’ll… I’ll call the police.”

Her throat dry, her heart beating too rapidly, she shoved herself at the door.

“Erin?”

Some quality in his voice trickled through her fear and brought her back to the moment. It wasn’t Justin standing on the other side of the door. It was Nathan.

She looked up, noticing his expression had changed. The irritation had been replaced by the same concern she’d heard when he spoke her name.

It must have been the questioning look in his eyes that made her step back into the hallway, her body trembling. She looked away from Nathan’s steady gaze, powerless to do anything but watch him close the door and move toward her.

“What the hell’s wrong, Erin. What’s happened?”

His soft, placating tone helped snap her out of her panicked state, and she made herself breathe. Her body shook, as if completely out of her control, and she wrapped her arms tight around herself. She’d overreacted. She’d allowed the memories to take her over.

“Nothing’s happened. I…I just don’t appreciate your strong-arm tactics. Can’t you take no for an answer?”

“Yeah, I can. But right now, I want to know what’s going on.”

He tried to touch her arm, but Erin shrugged away and made for the kitchen. She went to the sink and poured herself water while Willa snuck into the corner when she got a look at Nathan. Not for the first time, Erin worried that her own anxieties and fears added to Willa’s and she wasn’t doing her dog any favors by living in the past and being frightened of shadows.

She slugged down water, telling herself to calm down and deal with the situation. She needed to get Nathan out of her house, out of her life. A man like him wasn’t good for her, and it wasn’t good for Willa. But how many times in the last few days had she warned herself off Nathan? Too many to count. Yet still she’d slept with him, and look where that had gotten her.

She turned, prepared to ask him to leave, but the words stuck in her throat when she heard the chair scrape behind her. Nathan held it out, inviting her to sit. She stared at the chair for long moments before giving in to the need to get off her unsteady legs.

Nathan sat opposite her at the small square table. He said nothing, just watched her with those steady, unrelenting green eyes until she felt compelled to offer him at least some sort of explanation. “I was in a relationship before I came here. He was very controlling and expected me to adhere to his needs. If I didn’t, he’d act up and throw his weight around.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.” She told herself it wasn’t a lie, because physically Justin hadn’t really laid a finger on her. “Like I said, he was controlling.”

A deep scowl settled between his eyebrows. “Then why did you look terrified when I wouldn’t let you close the door in my face?”

“Any woman would look terrified if a man’s trying to force his way inside her home.”

She looked away from his implacable gaze and down to where she’d clasped her hands together on the table. His palm settled big and comforting over them. “Did he use his hands on you, Erin?”

Erin swallowed, glanced down at Willa, then made herself look at Nathan again. His expression unsettled her even more than the old memories reverberating through her mind. “No,” she said firmly. “He wanted to exert his power over me, bend me to his will.”

His fingers cocooned her hands, and she reveled in the reassuring touch. It would be so easy to simply let herself be comforted by Nathan, to let him work his magic and take away all her demons. But then she would be right back at square one.

A relationship with him might start well, but it wouldn’t be long before she might find herself in a similar situation to the one she had run from. From his comments, physically hurting a woman was anathema to Nathan, but there were many ways to control and manipulate people.

“Have you eaten?”

His question was so out of context, it took her by surprise. “What?”

“Eaten. As in food, plate, table.”

She slipped her hands from beneath his, not sure she liked where the conversation was headed. “Yes. Pasta.”

He glanced over to the counter. “That dessert?”

She followed his gaze to the brownies she’d turned out onto the cooling rack and forgotten about. “I…em…”

He waggled his brows. “Got any ice cream?”

Did she? She couldn’t rightly remember. All she could focus on was getting him out of her house before they sat down together for a chummy chat over brownies and ice cream.

“Nathan…I…”

“I’m not going to hurt you, Erin.” His hands settled above hers again. “If you want me to go, fine. But I don’t want to leave while your hands are shaking and you’ve got the fear of God in your eyes.”

There was no point denying what he’d said, considering it wasn’t just her hands that were shaking, it was her whole body. But she was slowly calming down and able to think rationally again. Once he saw she was okay, he’d leave.

She swallowed, nodded. “The ice cream’s in the fridge.”

Nathan stood, shrugged out of his leather jacket and slung it over the back of his chair. He went over and opened her refrigerator. “Shit. You’ve got less in yours than I’ve got in mine.”

There was no point wasting food if she had to make a hasty escape from Bodmin at any time. “I don’t like waste,” she improvised. “I just buy what I need.”

He pulled out the small carton of ice cream from the freezer section and brought it over to the brownies. “Plates?”

“On the shelf. Above.”

He retrieved two dessert bowls and popped a brownie into each one before spooning in ice cream. It gave her a jolt to notice how at home he seemed in her kitchen, and how big and masculine he looked while moving about the small space. But then he seemed to take up any space—large or small—and managed to completely fill it with his imposing presence.

The man even looked masculine and sexy doing something prosaic like preparing a dessert of brownies and ice cream. Before she could resist, her gaze dropped to his gorgeous ass tightly encased in well-fitting jeans. She moved her attention up to his broad back and wide shoulders, his thick neck and short dark hair. He was certainly a well-put-together package. Was it any wonder she found him almost impossible to resist?

Except she had to. For all the reasons she’d told herself, she couldn’t chance being with him again. And that was what would happen if he stayed. She didn’t seem to have any restraint when she was around him. The damn man could talk her into anything.

He brought the filled bowls to the table, went back to rummage in the drawer for spoons, then sat where he had before.

At the smell of food, Willa sauntered over to Erin, eyeing Nathan and giving him a wide berth.

“Still don’t trust me, do you, girl,” Nathan said to Willa, but Erin had the distinct impression his words might have been for her benefit too. “Don’t blame you,” he said. “Always best to get your bearings before plunging in.”

He scooped up ice cream and popped it into his mouth, then brought his gaze to Erin’s. Leaving her ice cream untouched, Erin cocked her head. “What does that mean?”

“What?”

“Best to get your bearings before plunging in.”

He shrugged and scooped up more dessert. “Doesn’t mean anything. Only that once you know what you want, and find it standing right in front of you, then it makes sense to just dive right in.”

“You’re not referring to Willa, are you?”

His eyes glittered green fire. “What do you think? This is good, by the way. Excellent brownies.”