Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
My mean streak flames to life. Anna scurries toward the picnic basket like she knows I’m about to chew her ass.
Smart woman.
“You can keep the picnic food if you want,” she says in a squeaky, high voice. “And the beer.”
I step into her path, blocking out all the sunlight. “You fucked up.”
Her throat bobs. “I um… I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Well you did, and it hurt her feelings, and now you deal with me.”
Anna gapes at me. A twitch develops in her chin.
“I’m sorry? It was an accident.” She shrugs.
Fuck. This woman is gonna make me break shit.
“You’re gonna make this up to her.”
Looking paler by the second, Anna glances around like she’s dying for a lifeline to rescue her from this conversation. “Of course. But I don’t know how.”
I let her see my real face. The one that makes people run for their lives. “You’ll hear from me. Be ready.”
The reality of my statement hits home and her chin trembles. “You’re not going to do those horrible things I heard about biker gangs to me, are you?”
Oh this should be good.
“Probably. What are you imagining?”
“Burning my house down at night. Or feed me to the pigs. Or run my car off the road?”
I raise an eyebrow.
We might have two faintings in one day. She crosses herself and murmurs, “Dear god, help me.”
While she’s having a panic attack, I snatch the flowers up.
I leave her staring at my back.
Katie’s standing next to my bike looking like summer in human form. I almost trip over my tongue.
Jesus, when I woke up this morning, I NEVER expected this mind-fuck to happen. Now I’ve got to figure out how I get a woman like her to come live with me at an outlaw biker clubhouse.
Right.
Dream on.
She smiles sweetly at me when I finally reach her. “The flowers are beautiful. I’m sorry I fainted and ruined the surprise.”
My heart runs laps as she takes them, cutely sticking her nose into the middle of them for a deep inhale.
“Anna brought them.”
“Oh. Well that’s okay. I wasn’t sure if I should bring you that beer anyway. And thank you for putting an end to that. I’m fine if no one ever takes my photo again.”
“Same,” I grumble. But I’m stuck in my head, trying to come up with a strategy for getting Katie from point A to point B. Letter B for my bed. Every night.
I want to wake up to her sunshine every single day.
“What’s wrong, Skull?” she asks in a gentle tone that no one has ever used on me.
I sigh, glancing away for a second. “I need to be honest with you. I wasn’t your date or your back-up date.”
For a second, Katie’s eyes go distant as she tries to solve the puzzle. “Wait, but…”
“The photographer stuck her foot in her mouth.”
Katie laughs. “Clearly. But what do you mean?”
I can’t keep my hand away from her so I reach beneath her hair and cradle the soft lines of her neck in my hand. “This was an accident. The whole thing. I wasn’t supposed to be your date. That asshole stood you up and Anna thought I should fill in. I was here for a… different reason.”
Her expression falls. “Oh. But why did you do this?”
“Because when I saw you, I knew I was in the right place at the right time.”
I do what I’ve been dying to do, I pull her forward and lower my mouth to hers again. “I meant everything I said.”