INEVITABLE: An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Romance Book (3 page)

BOOK: INEVITABLE: An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Romance Book
13.76Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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As soon as I graduated from film school I never took another penny from him. I’d just bought my first house this past year…and a damn fine one it was. I owned two cars, all from the money I’d made on my first film. Now that I was doing the series the money would be consistent too…as long as didn’t break my contract and I went back for a second season.

I started the red Mustang and she purred like I knew she would. Daddy loves these cars. By the time I backed her out and made it down the long driveway to the main road, the skies opened up and the rain was coming down in buckets. I didn’t care though…I just needed to put distance between me and my father’s hateful, condescending comments. A little bit of rain wasn’t going to stop me.

I choked back a thick sob. In my father’s eyes I was a failure, washed up. It didn’t matter that I was the star of a hit television show. It didn’t matter that I already starred in two major blockbuster before I was twenty-four years old. It didn’t matter that I was adored by millions of fans. It didn’t matter that I’d been two thousand miles from home for five years supporting myself for the most part and since I graduated college I’d never once asked him for a dime. In his eyes because I wasn’t willing to stay in the south and become his version of a “Southern Belle” and a dutiful wife and mother, then I was a failure and I always would be.

Damn it! This drive was supposed to be about drowning his voice out, not pulling me further into frenzy.  I turned onto Old Gentilly Road, taking it a little too fast. I felt the car go up on two wheels for a second and then breathed a sigh of relief when I was back on four. That should have slowed me down, but it didn’t.

As soon as I was on a straight-away again I pressed harder on the accelerator. I leaned over then and turned on the radio. If the sound of the rain beating down on the roof of the car or the windshield wipers swishing back and forth didn’t drown out his voice, maybe the music would.

The first song I heard was a slow, romantic country song that Matt and I had danced to on one of our dates. He’d taken me to a place in Bakersfield that was named after Buck Owens. We danced to every song…and no one there recognized us all night long. We had so much fun and just before we got ready to leave this song came on and he pulled me in close and our bodies swayed together and then we kissed like lovers…like we did on-screen, but for real. That was the first night we made love….Damn it!

The tears had all but blurred my sight now and I reached up and wiped my face with the back of my hand before changing the station. When I glanced back up the car was off the side of the road slightly and headed for a steep embankment. I pulled my foot off of the accelerator and I jerked the wheel to straighten out. The back end fish-tailed and for a second I was sure it was going to flip over.

For that one second, I thought I was going to die out here, alone, in the rain. My heart pounded erratically and my chest was so tight that I could barely breathe. I couldn’t stop the tears and I couldn’t wipe them away fast enough to see clearly. The car began to slow down with my foot off the accelerator. I knew enough about driving in the rain not to slam on the brake. I covered it and tapped it a few times and as I realized I was out of danger for the moment, something about that made me cry harder. I had to stop. If I kept driving in my current state, it wouldn’t be long before I wasn’t safe again.  

I coughed a mouthful and wiped my eyes again with the back of my hand and looked around for somewhere to pull over. I saw a parking lot up ahead. Just as I was turning into it blue and red lights began to flash in my rearview mirror. Just fucking great! This is all I need tonight.

I continued into the parking lot and stopped abruptly. My shoulders slunk with defeat as I turned off the car. I watched anxiously and tried to stop sobbing as the cop behind me stepped out of his car. He was a big man, at least six three or four. All I could see was this huge silhouette approaching my window and I felt a surge of fear. Nothing about this situation was calming me down. By the time he got to my window I was a sputtering, sobbing wreck.

A few drops from the rain flew in to reach me. “Evening Miss…Can I see your license and registration please?” The parking lot wasn’t well lit and I could still barely see his face. He had a plastic cover on his hat and uniform, a towering mass that I had to crane to hear. I wondered how much he’d tack onto my ticket for making him stand out in the rain. I bit my lip to try and quiet my sob as I reached into my purse. I saw his hand slowly rest on the gun at his hip.

I grabbed my wallet quickly, opened it to my I.D. and handed it over to him. I reached for the glove compartment then and spoke in a voice so thick with tears and intermingled with sobs it was barely understandable. “Officer I’m - I’m just going to reach in here for the registration.”

He was looking from the I.D. in his hands back to my face. He squinted against the rain in disbelief. “Jacqueline Manning?”

Shit! He’s a fan. That might be worse than a ticket tonight of all nights. “Yes sir.”

“Step out of the car please.”

“What?” I thought I’d heard him wrong.

“Please miss, just step out of the car.” Fuck.

“Why?” Could this night get any worse? What the hell? I pulled off my seatbelt and angrily stepped out into the parking lot. I was shaking all over as he walked around the car and stood in front of me. He flipped open an umbrella and handed it to me. A soft, deep voice was directed my way, “Are you okay Jackie?”

Jackie? I jerked my head up and looked at his face. His full lips smirked but his eyes looked genuinely concerned. I know this guy
.
Holy. Shit
.
“Charlie?”

“That’s Officer Charlie to you.” He tipped his hat and I thought a saw a playful hint of a smile.

“Oh my God! I.. I can’t... it’s you.”

He laughed. “You’re the big star. Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?” I wiped at my face and his smile turned into concern again. “Come on,” he said, closing his notebook and heading back to his patrol car for his keys.

“Where are we going?” I grabbed my purse and trailed after him.

“You don’t want to argue with the law now do you?” He turned off his car and started across the nearly abandoned lot.

I laughed with an uncharacteristic snort. Aw, just fucking great. I had a crush on Charlie Bennett all the way through middle school. It went away in high school because I had other interests and I was tired of waiting for him to ask me out. But still…blowing snot on him was not cool.

He was polite enough to act like he didn’t notice as he led me inside the Waffle House. I hadn’t even realized that was the parking lot I pulled into. Inside it was warm…and dry but I couldn’t stop shaking. Charlie pulled off his raincoat and jacket and put the big coat securely around my shoulders. “I need a minute...”

“I’ll order us coffee.”

Like I was in a trance,  I spun quickly and pushed into the small bathroom at the end of the hall. When I saw myself in the mirror, I was mortified. I had mascara running down my face and my hair was plastered to my head from the rain. I splashed some water on my face, wiped off the raccoon eyes, brushed my hair with a little brush I carried in my purse and called that the best I could do for now. Before I left the bathroom I slipped the coat he’d put over my shoulders back on. It was huge on me, but it was warm and by the time I got back out to where he was sitting, I’d almost stopped shaking.

Charlie smiled up at me and I realized that although he’d been really cute back in school, now he was drop dead gorgeous. He had taken off his hat and ran his fingers through his short black hair so it had that sexy, “just got out of bed,” look to it. His biceps flexed underneath the short sleeves of his police uniform every time he moved and his hazel eyes were so warm that by the time I sat down across from him I no longer needed the jacket. How had I not noticed him before?

“Hey there, feeling any better?”

I forced a smile. I was suddenly mortified that he’d seen me like that. “I’m okay,” I said. I picked up the steaming cup of coffee and held it to my face. “Thank you for this.”

“Not a problem. We can’t have one our most famous citizens freezing out in the rain.” I smiled again and took a sip of the coffee. It felt good going down. He looked like he was waiting for me to say something and when I didn’t he said, “So, are you... just home for a visit?”

“Something like that.” I didn’t want to talk about any of that right now. I wanted to just enjoy the warmth of this place, the coffee and... Charlie. “I se
e
you’r
e
still hanging around this little one-horse town.”

He smiled again. Damn, he is so fine. He easily rivaled some of the models in Hollywood, except he had an easy down-to-earth way about him. “I like it here. It’s home and I have everything I need.”

“Are you married?” Now why in the hell did I blurt that?

“No, I haven’t found the one yet. How about you?” His eyes shone with curiosity too.

I raised an eyebrow. Had he really not heard? “No, I’m uh not married.” I left it at that…for now. I was about to ask about his parents when the waitress interrupted us. She sat a plate down in front of me. It was a waffle with a happy face made out of whipped cream and strawberries. I laughed and looked up at Charlie. He was grinning.

“It looked like you could use some cheering up,” he said.

“Thank you, Charlie. This was exactly what I needed.”

“So how are your folks and your little sister? I haven’t seen them in a while.”

I didn’t want to talk about them either, but I politely said, “They’re doing well. How about yours…and you have a brother, right?”

He nodded. “My parents are good. They still live in the same house they’ve lived in for forty years. My brother is good too, but he’s kind of a hell raiser. I was always the good one.” He gave me a small wink.

I laughed. “So how long have you been a cop?”

“I joined the force after coming back from overseas. They put me through the academy and here I am.”

“So you were in the army…” I noticed a flash of something in his eyes, like maybe I was looking down on him. I opened my mouth to try and fix it but he spoke first.

“No. Marines. There was a lot of combat where we were...” His eyes clouded over with pain before he let it fade. “I was honorably discharged and now here I am... I heard you went to USC?” It was clear he wanted to talk more about me. My heart ached a bit for him.

“Yeah. I wanted to be an actress and Daddy wanted me to go to college. He agreed to USC just because I insisted on going to California one way or the other. They have a great acting program though so I ended up being glad I went.”

“And you like the acting thing?”

I tried not to frown. “Most of the time.”

He noticed but glanced down at my plate. “Are you going to eat that?”

Relieved I laughed and said, “I’m not really hungry, but looking at it made me happy. Do you want it?”

“Yes, it’s been hours since I had my last donut and I’m starved.” I rolled my eyes at his attempt at cop humor and passed him the waffle.

While he ate and I sipped my coffee I couldn’t help but wonder what life would have been like for me if I had come home after college the way Daddy wanted me to. Would I be married to someone like Charlie and have a couple of kids? Would that b
e
s
o
bad?

“So what do you do for fun around here, Charlie? It looks like nothing much has changed.”

“Nothing much ever changes around here, but if we run out of trouble to get into around here, the city is less than an hour away.”

“True, I got into plenty of trouble there as a kid.”

He laughed, a beautiful sound. “Not me, I was the good one remember?”

I found it hard to believe he didn’t get into any trouble as a teenager. I tried hard to remember seeing him at any of the parties I went to…or even hearing who he was dating back then, but I couldn’t. The fact was as much as I hated to admit it; I was kind of self-centered back then. I was just about to ask if he was dating anyone now and the radio he was wearing crackled to life.

“One Alpha-6 this is dispatch. We have a non-injury accident out on Old River Road. I’m sending the coordinates to your GPS now. Please respond. A tow truck is enroute.”

He looked disappointed but he put the radio to his sexy lips and said, “One Alpha-6 responding. Seven minutes en route.” He smiled at me as he stood up. I craned up to watch him, feeling my cheeks flush with heat. He was raw masculinity and power, an toxic mix that I wa
s
no
t
used to. Pulling a twenty out of his pocket and placed it on the table, his golden eyes never leaving mine. “Will you make me a promise?”

“Uhm sure.”

“Stay here for a while until the rain slows down…and don’t speed going home.”

“I’m not sure if I can promise that officer.”

He quirked an eyebrow but his soft smile was amused. “Why’s that?”

“Well look what I got for driving in the rain and speeding. I think you’ve just positively reinforced my bad behavior.”

His smile was dazzling as he took a pen from his pocket. Writing his phone number down on a napkin he said, “Next time you’ll be punished severely.” Then he winked. I gulped. “Take care of yourself Jackie and call me if you need anything while you’re in town.”

BOOK: INEVITABLE: An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Romance Book
13.76Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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