Wicked Flower (4 page)

“I know
,
I saw you in line earlier. Are you okay?”

“What? Who? What are you doing in
here?” she snapped back. He was close enough to see her squint at him through
the crack in the metal doors.
Definitely pissed.
But
like a moth to the flame as the saying went…

“I know this is crazy, but I just
wanted to make sure you’re okay. Those assholes in line were just clueless
losers.” Why was he in here doing this? Trying to join that scumbag club he’d
just mentioned? His charms didn’t seem to be working and wouldn’t the guys love
a “
perv
in the women’s restroom stalking incident”
headline splashed all over the trash magazines if she reported him.

“You should leave,” she said, but
some of the bite was gone and he was sure he heard a sniffle.

Ah
man, not tears
,
he thought. He didn’t do well with those.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. So,
I guess that’s what I wanted to tell you, sweetheart. Don’t listen to pricks
like that. They don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.” Stefan waited
but this time she didn’t respond. He waited another few seconds. “All right,
well I’ll let you, uh, finish up.
Won’t bother you anymore.”

“Wait,”
came
her soft, shaken sounding voice.

All he could picture were the fleshy
plump lips that would have formed that one word. And in true old him form, his
mouth watered at the vision she’d left him at the pump and again in line.
A woman who didn’t want to be messed with who he couldn’t seem to
leave alone.

The stall door opened and she
held a wad of toilet paper up to her nose then tossed it in the trash. She had
been crying. Those douche bags must have kept at it when he’d left. Maybe he
didn’t care about making a scene if it meant satisfying his odd need to do
right by her.

“Hey sweetheart, what’s a
matter?” he asked. No woman should be left alone, crying. Stefan had no doubt
in his ability to cheer her up. If she’d let him, he’d take her to a very happy
place right alongside him.

“Men,” she said,
obviously trying to be strong in front of him with her throat clearing and tall
neck. “Not a big fan of them right now.”

He fought to keep himself from
grinning. She was serious, he should be too. Stefan found that he liked her too
much to piss that away.

“Me neither,” he
said. “They can be such dicks.”

He thought that would have made
her laugh but she just launched into a painful set of tears that made him shift
from his eyes to his feet. Stefan hated seeing women cry or be hurt. He
worshipped them way too much for that shit. It was uncomfortable and he needed
to make it stop.

“Hey, don’t cry. Come here.” He
wished he knew her name. Who in their right mind would insult such a beauty?
Jackasses.
The thing was she’d kicked that pump like a
hot-blooded woman, not some delicate flower who’d crumble because of a few
slimy words.

That being said, something had
happened to bring on the waterworks. He tucked her into his arm and led her
back into the stall, sensing she wouldn’t want to be seen like this by anyone.
He closed them into the cramped space.

Oh fuck, big
mistake. His cock leapt to attention faster than he’d expected.

“What’s wrong with me?” she asked
him blankly, distracting him from her tense, hot shoulders and the way he wanted
to surround her with his. She was curvy but he was still much larger than her. It
was a huge turn on and a call to the way he wanted to dominate her.

Should she be letting him get
this close?

It only took him a second to
guess that could be her problem. He’d seen it a thousand times.
The tougher the girl, the more fragile the self-esteem.
Those
girls—women, he corrected after glancing down her voluptuous body. Those women
got hurt the worst. He had to back off this one, now.
If not
now, as soon as he cheered her up.
Someone had already been here and
done that as far as causing pain went.

“Who says there’s anything wrong
with you, sweetheart? Not me.” He pardoned himself for the lie.
Kind of like he did on a regular basis with Will.
He might
have broken a few hearts in his time, but Stefan didn’t go around hurting
people if he could help it. That’s why it had always bugged him that his Mom
could think him capable of it.

“You don’t have
to say that.”

Shit, he wished
he might have been wrong but that rang of low self-esteem.

Stefan rubbed at the whiskers covering
his jaw allowing him anonymity. She trusted him, or was jacked up enough to be
letting him close for now. If Stefan Calderon of Sin Pointe had shown up, he
could guarantee this would have played out much differently. It always did. For
some reason, he didn’t want to be that guy with this girl.
His
attraction to her lingered thickly between their bodies.

“Look, I don’t
know what assholes you’ve been listening to, but they’re not worth your time if
that’s why you’re in here crying. You’re a beautiful young woman.” He didn’t
have to tilt her chin with his fingers to make her see him.

On her own, she looked at him,
rather fiercely, and her dark brown eyes held him. She wore desperation like
night old makeup. Maybe that’s all this was. Stefan understood intense,
depraved need better than most.

“Now you sound
like my ex,” she said and continued to pin him with those eyes.

Bingo. The
asshole who’d hurt her. “How ex are we talking about?” he asked.

Her mouth worked like it wasn’t
something she wanted to share. She held up her hands and her shoulders hiked.
“This morning,” she said,
then
let her shoulders fall
limp.

Hell. What kind
of…? “Dumb ass motherfucker,” he said, finishing his thought out loud.

She shrugged again, like it was
just one of those things and he shouldn’t be surprised. Then her shoulders
began to really shake. “I hate him most of all because he’s a good guy.”

In other words, she hadn’t seen
it coming. Fuck, how many times had he pulled that shit?

And right now, her grace was
right up there alongside Will’s. She should be cursing this so called good guy
to go bald or for his dick to shrink. Most women he knew fresh off a breakup
would have been doing at least that. Her hand went to her stomach and she
rubbed it like she was trying to soothe hunger pains.

“Hey, if I run out real quick, do
you promise to be here when I get back?” he asked, an idea brewing in his head.

“Um, I don’t know,” she said with
fresh wrinkles from where she frowned so cutely. He wished he hadn’t used the
word promise and he couldn’t get over how hot it was that she continuously blew
him off. “How long?” she asked. He caught a trace of fear slide from the corner
of her eye when she looked sideways. “How long?” she said again.

“I’ll be right back. Just wait.”

Stefan left—something told him she’d
stay—and made his way to a secondary, smaller snack area near their end of the
truck stop. Thankfully he found what he was looking for quickly and there was a
cashier manning the register. He paid for her treat, something she’d had in her
hands when he’d seen her in line, and made his way back to her stall, grateful
no one seemed to have found out about their secret hideaway. He took a look at
his phone. No text from Will yet.

“You still in there?” he asked as
he tapped his knuckles gently against the metal door. But he knew she was
because the kaleidoscope of colors on her snakeskin clogs stood out. “It’s me.”
He nearly spit out his name but held back. When a woman didn’t ask for it, they
almost always had their reasons. He didn’t blame the ones not caring who he
was, only wanting sex, because sometimes that’s all he wanted too.

The door made a metallic sounding
groan as she opened it and let him back in.

“Here,” he said.
“For you.”

Stefan started to hand
her the
package of grape licorice but when her face lit up,
he pulled it back. Curious that such a simple thing pleased her so much, he
didn’t mean to tease her, but couldn’t help it.
Until she
frowned.

He wouldn’t be mean for long but
he craved her strange reactions to him. Stefan bit a corner of the plastic
wrapping off and pulled out one piece. Would she tell him to grow up or insist
she didn’t like being teased? The sweet, distinct smell overpowered their small
space. He held the purple candy stick out to her and rather than furthering the
play by taking his offering into her mouth, she tugged it from him with her
fingers and then fed it to herself. Which, fuck, was even hotter. He just
smiled, hiding the heat exploding under his skin.

“Listen, you’re not just
beautiful,” he told her as she chewed and then took another piece when he held
out the package. “And this ex of yours might be good, but…” She wouldn’t be
pleased if Stefan insulted this guy, no matter that her heart was broken. He
could sense that much. “He’s obviously not too bright. You’re fucking sexy as
hell, and yeah it’s an old cliché, but any guy would be lucky to have you.” He
pinned her with a stare and waited to see how she’d take that last bit. Damn,
he must really want in her pants because even Stefan knew he was laying it on
thick. She took out another piece of licorice but to his surprise, she offered
it to him instead of eating it herself. The smell was way too sweet—not his
particular liking—so he smiled, showed her the gum he was chewing between his
teeth and offered the licorice back to her. Now if she’d have offered to let him
eat it from her mouth, he’d have downed the whole package, no matter how nasty
the sweet grape would have made his cinnamon gum.

She shook her head and wiped her
nose. The cute but reddened tip of it rose and she said, “Prove it.”

Come again?

Had he heard her right?

His cock had, crystal clear.
Stefan shifted, trying to find a comfortable spot for his junk. Damn, it wasn’t
happening and her eyeing him only taunted and grew him more.

“Prove it?” he
asked, his voice rumbled in his throat, not quite the growl he could have let
out but close.

A sniffle
sounded when she breathed in. She dared him with her eyes.

Fuck, Will probably had his pizza
by now and who knew what other gift shop oddities. But no way could he leave
her after what she’d just said.
Old him, new him.
In the middle him.
This was about her.

Self-esteem wasn’t her problem.

She had a wild streak, and she’d
just dared the wrong man. He stared, hard and direct, committing to take her on
with each second that ticked by between them. The package of licorice fell to
the floor. Heat made everything smell sweeter in their four by four metal box.

“You don’t mean that,” he said
into her face, allowing her the time to back off and recant if she’d just been
fooling with him. If all she’d wanted were the words of praise he’d already
given her and nothing else. More often than not, the good ones did that, no
matter how curious they were about him. He knew he gave off a strong sexual
aura. Intimidating to some, he hadn’t always been like this.

He waited, ready to play but
expecting her to call game over any second now.

Chapter Three

Prove
it.

In her head, Dani had thought
those two words would have been the things to send Sinister Superman running.
But here he was, inching closer. The four metal stall walls absorbed nothing.
Not his smell that splashed itself on her skin like expensive cologne and none
of his sensual intensity that scorched her throat. What had she gotten herself
into with this one? She licked her teeth, hoping they weren’t purple with licorice
bits stuck in the cracks.

“I meant it,” she said, not
letting herself chicken out now that he’d pulled her in with those sexy but
tender eyes and the candy gesture. Thom might not want what she had to offer,
but something told Dani this guy did. That he’d take it greedily and not
apologize afterward. But then his eyes narrowed like he didn’t believe her. If
he was rich like she suspected, that unrepentant air shouldn’t come as a
surprise.

“You want proof?” he asked. He
took his aviator sunglasses from that crown of dark waves on top of his head
and coolly set them down on top of the toilet paper dispenser. Dani followed
his hands as he did so, admiring his movements and the crisp precision of his tattoos.
“You sure about that?”
The way he looked down at her
caused Dani’s skin to shiver.

He was giving her an out, wasn’t
he? He went so far as to back away from where he’d been standing over her and
leaned against the furthest stall wall, still only a foot away. This close up,
she could see the stitched detail of his white shirt, the tiny little squares
making a mesh-like pattern over a thicker under layer. There wasn’t a smudge on
it anywhere but it clearly showed the muscles of his chest where he was broad,
and then it was loose near his waist where he was undoubtedly narrower. He held
up his colorful hands as if saying she could pass by him freely and she noticed
a small black cross on his palm at the base of his thumb. She hoped it was a
sign that he feared God or at least had faith in something. At this point, she
didn’t think he would hurt her although to be honest, what did she know about
men? But something told her his gesture of letting her pass was genuine and
maybe his biggest flaw was that he was simply horny. If she was having a change
of heart, she’d better do it now because each slow blink of his eyes with those
long dark lashes reminded her of the time ticking by. Something about him and
this crazy situation fired her already heightened hormones to life.