Romance: Motorcycle Club Romance: Outlaw Biker's Baby (Contemporary Alpha Male MC Biker Romance) (Bad Boy MC Biker Pregnancy Romance) (50 page)

Eric stood there as the woman rambled on, and he suddenly felt as if he had
been deliberately thrust
into this woman’s life. “What does she do for a living?” he asked the woman.

“She works over at the shelter. You will find her there most times.
Otherwise,
she is at the thrift store or the hospital.”

“The hospital?” he asked curiously.

“Nurse’s aide or something of the sort. Listen, just check on her. She doesn’t have anyone else.”

And now Eric felt like he
was just invited
to the pity party. “Thanks,” he said as the girl waved and walked off. He didn’t know where to find her, but he felt he needed to keep a
look out
. After all, minus the red face and sweaty palms, baggy jeans and insecurity, she didn’t seem all that bad. She didn’t seem like wife material either. Maybe they didn’t need to get married; there may have been a mess
up,
and he simply needed to be her guardian until the third moon. Then, when it
passed,
he would be free.

The next day he lingered inside the coffee shop facing the shelter. This time she showed up, looking more dishevelled than ever. Eric clasped his hands on the table and watched her. She was working with the line staff, spooning food onto foam plates for the homeless and needy. She moved carefully, smiling all the time, and seemed to say something to everyone she encountered. Eric could hear
nothing,
so he ventured closer to her while avoiding her.

“Good day, Sir,” she said as she handed a cup to an old man in ragged clothing. “You look nice today.”

“Something must be wrong with your eyes,” the man grunted as he took the cup.

“Your clothes
ain’t
you. Have a good one,” she said and then moved along to the other in line. And for each one she encountered she had something nice to say and offered words of encouragement.

Until the line thinned and the food disappeared, and she grew nervous again. “Do you want me to follow you?” a large black man asked.

“No Cedric, I’ll be fine,” she answered as she removed the apron from around her middle. “I’m used to it by now.”

“Well, if you need my help, just call,” the man said with a concerned look on his face.

Eric watched as she smiled and nodded and took her purse from the table. “See you tomorrow,” she said and walked away.

She hadn’t gone one hundred feet when he saw a man reach out and grab her purse. “Hey give me that,” she said, but she made no attempt to get it back.

“Why don’t you come and get it, Miss Piggy,” another voice said.

“Where’d you get them clothes?” the one who had taken the bag asked. “The thrift shop?”

Then they all started laughing as they made fun of her. She stood there quietly, still asking for her
bag
when Eric intervened.

“Marissa, wait up,” he said as he walked over to her. “What’s going on?”

“She dropped her purse,” the man said and handed it back to her.

There was no need for words as he walked by her side to the thrift shop. After only a few glimpses of her, he had seen right through her to her very core. And the sight wasn’t a displeasing one.

CHAPTER SIX

He sat with her in the coffee shop, but she didn’t offer any words. And he didn’t ask. Not yet
anyway
.  He allowed her to eat, and she picked at the club sandwich she had ordered.

“You must think me an idiot right?” she asked as she pushed it aside. “I know you saw what happened.”

“Then why would I blame you if I did?  Those men were jerks. That’s what I saw,” he told her. “What I don’t get is why you let them get away with it? You don’t even have to walk that way to get to the thrift shop.”

Marissa looked at him suspiciously. “Have you been following me?”

“Not any more than you have been following me since I “saved” your life. Your friend told me,” he said as he sat back in the chair.

“I’m going to kill that wench,” Marissa spat and gritted her teeth.

“Hey, she thought she was doing you a favour. It’s not on her,” Eric said.

Then her face grew sad. “My life sucks,” she said and stood to leave. “It probably would have been better if you hadn’t saved me.”

“Whoa,” Eric said as he grabbed her by the arm. “Now what kind of talk is that? I watched you earlier; when you were serving those homeless people their meals. You had something nice to say to everyone you met. How come you don’t do the same for yourself?”

“I do,” she replied quietly. “It’s just that other people don’t.”

Eric felt both pity and something else towards Marissa as she stood there. “What happened to you?” he asked her. “Don’t you know people will only believe what you show them?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she sighed. “I gotta get to work.”

“Would you like to go out with me tonight? For dinner?” he asked. He had an inkling he had to stay close to her, or she would either do something stupid or sink further into depression.

“I don’t know...” she said. Her voice trailed off as she tried to come up with a fitting response to his suggestion.

“Come on, I know what will cheer you up,” he said and led her outside.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“There is one sure fire way to get any woman happy; take her shopping,” he told her as he grinned.

Marissa stopped dead in her tracks. “Look, Mr. Colburn, I
really
appreciate the gesture, but I like the clothes I wear just fine.”

“Does that mean you can’t have any more?” he asked. “Come on, before the stores close.”

“I can’t afford clothes,” she said to him.

“Lucky for you, I can,” he said as he sunk both hands into his pockets and whistled as he walked off again. When he looked around again, she was following, but looking all around like she was fishing for an escape.

Marissa seemed like a fish out of water in the store, and Eric found himself smothering her,
just so
she could feel better about herself.

“Eric?” he heard someone call from behind.

He turned and saw Amber standing there with a puzzled look on her face. “Hey,” he said as he scratched his head and looked towards the changing room.

“What are you doing here?  Into women’s fashion now?” she asked.

Amber was the last person he wanted to find him here.  She had a big mouth, as creative as it got in bed, but in other ways as well.

“How about this one?” he heard Marissa ask.

He closed his eyes and turned around to her. Then he gave her the thumbs up and bit his lower lip so hard he could almost taste the blood. Marissa saw the look on his face, and the scandalous one on Amber’s as her eyes widened with excitement. She took that as her cue to leave.

“Well, well, well,” the woman said. “I didn’t know you like them chunky,” she said as she reached for her phone.

Eric grabbed her hand. “Just shut up, Amber. I was just doing her a favour because she has had a rough day. You know she isn’t my type,” he said. The look on Amber’s face told him Marissa was standing right there. “Marissa,” he said as he reached for her.

“It’s okay,” she said as she walked past. “I’m used to it.”

Amber was chuckling
then,
and Eric knocked her on the shoulder as he moved past in a hurry to catch Marissa.  “Marissa, wait,” he called. But she was already gone.

****

For days, Marissa refused to talk to Eric, and the obedient and faithful puppy that had followed him around after he saved her was now as cold and distant as the
Arctic
. Never did he think rejection could feel that
awful
until it was meted out to him. And from someone like her at that.

He lay in bed that night, tossing and turning as he kept seeing the hurt look in her eyes when the words left his lips. How did he get here? Eventually, when sleep refused to come, he threw the sheets back violently and got out of bed in a huff. He pulled on a robe and went onto the terrace. It was then that he realised it was a full moon. He only had two to go, and she was further away from being his wife than when they had just met.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I have something to show you,” Eric told Marissa when he showed up at the shelter the following day.

“I’m busy,” she said, then deliberately ignored him and continued with her task.

“I’m not leaving until you come
with
me,” he insisted. “Or I can talk very LOUDLY SO...”

“Okay,” she responded quickly as his voice increased in pitch. “I’ll be leaving soon.”

Eric smiled and leaned against the wall at the end of the line until she was through. “Now what?” she asked as she got to him.

He didn’t answer her on the way to his car, and she followed obediently in silence. She didn’t seem the least bit impressed by his
Jaguar
, and it only forced him to see her depth even more. She sat quietly next to him as he sped along, and when he pulled up outside the spa, her eyes bulged.

“Are you sure you want to
be seen
in public with me? I’m not your type, remember?”

“That was a mistake,” he told her as he slid from the car. Then he knocked on the roof and urged her to get out. “Come on now.”

Marissa crawled from the
car,
and it leaned to her side when she did. “I know I’m fat, and apparently that doesn’t sit well with others. You don’t have to feel the need to babysit me or be nice to me. I can take care of myself.”

“I’m not babysitting you. I’m treating you nicely for a change. Someone has to make a start,” he said and winked.
“Plus, you don’t look so fat to me.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked him, and he could see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

“Because you deserve it,” he told her.

She was problem free after that, and Eric waited in the lobby while she got powdered and pampered in the other room. He was flipping through more magazines of more things he was hardly interested in when she walked out. He didn’t notice her at first, but when she stopped before him, he dropped the magazine and gaped.

“Wow,” he said as he flew out of his seat. She had gotten a haircut, and where her hair was a tangled mess before, it was now a layered bob that fell to her shoulders. She had on
makeup,
and her skin was glowing under the sparse lighting.

Marissa blushed as she witnessed his reaction, and she smiled then. But this time it wasn’t a defensive shield as she was prone to display before. Now it came from the inside and radiated around the room. It grew even brighter when she saw the admiring guests
looking on
.

“Come on,” she said as she yanked him from the chair.

“I think we have one more stop,” he told
her
and made a hard right that brought them to a department store. “Here we go,” he told her, and this time she didn’t protest.

Eric no longer cared what others thought; he only cared about how Marissa felt. It seemed his joy was now hinged to hers as he accompanied her inside the boutique. The store clerk was friendly, and Marissa was unable to tell if it was just store policy or if it was to
be attributed
to her new look.

A half hour later and she was lugging several shopping bags after her, and when Eric picked her up later that night, she took his breath away. He couldn’t contain himself any longer, nor could he resist the urge to stare at her.

“Stop,” she said as she was made painfully aware of his staring.

“I can’t help it,” he told her.  “You look amazing. Would you like to dance?” he asked as he held his hand out for her. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

Marissa went with him, and for the first time since he had bumped into her on the street, they touched. Eric held her to him, and he could feel her heart racing in tandem with his as they moved to the rhythm of the music and their adrenal rush. When Eric brought her home, it seemed inevitable that he would have the urge to kiss her. She stood there paralyzed as she realised what he was doing, but then she closed her eyes as she held him, and their lips danced to their
own
song right there on the front porch.

When they separated, they both shared the same heady
feeling,
and her eyes fluttered open again. “Did you kiss me because I now look acceptable?” she asked as she indicated her new appearance.

“Yes,” he told her matter of factly. Her face started turning bitter as soon as the words left his mouth and she hung her head. “But not because I think you look beautiful now. I did because now you believe you are. You are an amazing woman with a big and kind heart, and you hid your beauty away under faded jeans and baggy outfits. That’s not you, and you didn’t know
that
or didn’t show it. Now you allowed yourself to, and it warms me inside to see you do it. That’s why I kissed
you
because words escaped me.”