THE OUTLAW’S BRIDE Read online

  This got him a little eyebrow crinkle in response, and he could tell just then that she didn’t know…anything. She was just pretending to. He sighed, bringing up a few fingers to the center of his brows, and rubbed the skin there before leaning back in an attempt to console himself from the fact that he had to deal with this.

  “Okay, well,” he said, starting carefully. “They’re a rival club. It’s all been playful in the past, but now it isn’t so much.”

  This made her lean in closer over the table, trying to bring her face closer to his so she could show that she was listening. This just made her eyes run over his lips, however, and she squeezed her eyes shut at the terrible feeling pulsing through her before looking away. “Why?”

  “I’m talking! Don’t interrupt me.”

  Fine. Right now she was more curious than anything, and she took her hands off of the mug so she could hold both of her arms as she watched him. He was fascinating, really. A complete douche, but maybe that was just from first glance. He did seem like he was concerned about her. And he was hot.

  She pressed her legs together at the thought of why she’d even had his number in the first place. If she hadn’t thought about fucking him, she wouldn’t have accepted that damn piece of paper, and they might not be in this situation. Or she might be dead.

  “Anyway,” he coughed. “One of the Broken Skulls’ boys got busted for possession last week. Cocaine. And,” he rolled his eyes like Victoria might, like even the idea of this was the most ridiculous thing ever, “they think we did it.”

  “We?”

  “Are you sure you’re following?” He looked at her briefly.

  Victoria was pressing herself as closely against the wood of the table as she possibly could, and she looked pretty hilarious. This was no time to be laughing, though, and Darren’s jaw twitched again. There was no way she was taking this seriously, and that was exactly what she needed to be doing.

  “Obviously. Do you think I’m not listening?”

  “I think you’re not taking it seriously.”

  “There’s no reason to be taking it seriously, I –”

  He raised a hand to stop her from talking right then and there. “Someone tried to kill you.”

  “That was a one-off.”

  He stood up from his chair, pushing it in towards the table and picking his mug up in one hand like he intended to bring it back to the sink in the kitchen. “Was it?”

  “No one has any reason to kill me.” Victoria didn’t like where Darren was going with this, and it seemed like every second she stayed in this place, the longer Darren seemed to think she needed to stay with him to be safe. She didn’t want to consider that that might actually be the case. She could take care of herself. She was a big, strong independent woman who only sometimes got shot at. Only once, in fact.

  “They do if they think you’re my girlfriend.”

  Victoria looked up at that, wanting to fight what Darren had said. Once her eyes found his, though, she knew he wasn’t joking; his eyes were dark and despondent, miserable in a way that she thought meant his mind was focusing on something else.

  A small shiver went through Victoria’s body, and she realized then exactly how little she knew about this man. She got up, pushed her seat in like he had, and grabbed her mug. When she walked past him, she put her hand out, palm up, and took his mug, bringing it to the kitchen sink so she could think alone.

  He grabbed her arm before she could get past him, and she hissed. Was there going to be a lot of physical contact between them in this place? She wasn’t sure she could take it, but, oh, how she wanted to. Everything about him sent her body into this weird mixture of feelings – something like anticipation and fear, submission and total arousal. She wasn’t going to just throw herself at him, but if he was offering himself up to her…

  “Do you understand what I’m saying, Victoria?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Darren.”

  She added on his name as an afterthought, but it still caught him a little off guard. “What was that for?”

  “I don’t know; why do you keep saying my name?”

  # # #

  Darren

  He took a second to look back at her again. Every time it seemed like he was going to be able to start to like this girl, she ruined it. That was alright. Her keeping him on his toes meant that he could have more fun messing with her too, and she seemed like she’d be easy enough to mess with. He leaned his face in close to hers, like he was about to kiss her, and he reveled in the splashes of pink that darted across her cheeks to the rest of her face. Did this girl really blush that much? He’d seen it a few times already.

  She hadn’t when they were in the bar. She must have just been in her element then. Take her out of it and the woman wasn’t the same person she tried to present herself as. Darren would even describe her as shy, bashful. He blew out a small breath towards her, watching her eyes close up quickly as she tried to hold back a flinch. Yeah, he would even describe her as skittish. And why wouldn’t she be?

  His lips were so close to her skin that, if he wanted to, he could’ve kissed her forehead right then and there. He got a little bit closer, so that his mouth just barely touched her when he spoke.

  “Because I like it,” he said. And then he pulled away.

  The look of a woman lured in by his charm flickered across Victoria’s face. Darren smirked, triumphant, knowing that he’d won. He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d won yet. Sex? Victoria was obviously interested in it, but she hadn’t exhibited any clear signs besides taking and holding onto his phone number. The look disappeared as quickly as it had come, and Darren wasn’t sure what to make of it. He’d just have to tease her more. That was something he liked doing, and Victoria was showing signs of responding well to it so far. He wondered how far she’d let him go, and how far past that limit he could get her to want.

  But then he was confused all over again as Victoria took another step away from him, despite the fact that he’d already created distance between them.

  He titled his head at that, watching her. “Nervous?”

  “I don’t like it when you do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “That…” She paused. “That thing you’re doing where you act like you’re the king of what’s going on! I hate being around you, and I hate that especially.”

  “You’d think that if you hated it so much…” He paused too, imitating the way she spoke. His voice was far more confident, though, and he loved the way she seemed to shake with nervous energy. “You wouldn’t have held onto my phone number. You do know why I gave that to you, right?”

  He smirked again.

  # # #

  Victoria

  Victoria didn’t want to return that smirk or acknowledge his question at all, though, so she just looked around the room instead.

  And unfortunately for her, there was nothing to throw at him there. The mug might have worked out, but she was getting a little attached to it and she didn’t want to be the first to shatter anything in this household. Not that Darren seemed like he would; he seemed way too composed, actually, and she hated him for it.

  But she especially hated him for the fact that he could call her out on all her bluffs. She and Darren Saylor would never, ever get along, but she couldn’t deny that there was something about being around him that made her body sing.

  So the solution was simple: don’t be around Darren Saylor. Take him out of the equation and everything would be solved, all fine and dandy. The feelings that he sent through her body might’ve been what a younger, more naïve person might describe as a crush, or even just someone her age who was more hopeful about the state of the romantic world. And yeah, maybe someone might try to claim this was a sign she could fall in love with the guy. No way. She was just going to stay away from him.

  Yeah. That would work. There was an entire cabin to investigate. She should focus on that instead, not on this guy that she so inconveniently had to be sharing t
his place with. If she could get him out of her head and forget that he was there, maybe this could even be like a well-deserved vacation.

  Victoria had never been on a vacation before, but something told her that she wasn’t just going to be able to relax like she was and ignore Darren’s presence there. Even as she walked away, she could feel his eyes burning through the back of her head.

  Chapter Eight

  Darren

  That didn’t work out.

  Darren loved watching her walk away. It’d only happened a couple times since they’d first met each other, but there was something about the way that she threw her hips into her walk that was so goddamn sexy. It had to be the fact that he hadn’t been with anyone in a while; that was why he was paying attention to her. That was it. It’d go away in a while, or as soon as he found someone new to fuck.

  But he was going to be stuck here for a while with her, and it was easy to tell by the way that she acted that he was going to get laid. Telling her this would only piss her off, but that was all the better. Victoria looked her hottest when she was angry. Darren had never had a woman tell him off before like she had, and the way she did it made him want to give her a condescending nickname to throw out at her in day to day life – and in bed.

  He didn’t mention this, either. As it was, he was content to watch Victoria just dart around the place. He knew where everything in here was, anyway. It wasn’t like there was any potential damage Victoria could do to herself.

  # # #

  Victoria

  Victoria was content to explore – but only for a little while. There was only so much she could get from wandering aimlessly around the rooms. After figuring out the layout of the cabin and where everything was, she had nothing else to do; there wasn’t even a TV here. It seemed like all of the electricity was used to power the lights and the stuff in the kitchen.

  A couple days had passed and Victoria had had way too much time to think. She wasn’t particularly a fan of being stuck with Darren, but he hadn’t really talked to her, even though she’d taken up shop on the couch in the center of the living room. For the most part, they ignored each other’s existence, except for when it was time to get food. Then they were both in the kitchen, trying to come up with ways to make things to eat.

  He really did need to go to the store, Victoria decided. The only reason he wasn’t going was because he was stubborn. That was it; that was the only reason, and the way her stomach growled at the thought that she’d only eaten some cereal and a few things of veggies in the past two days showed that it agreed with her. And as much as Victoria didn’t talk to him – and him to her – he was constantly around her, and it drove her crazy.

  Even all of the books in here weren’t a distraction from her situation. They were all dumb action novels, not the high-fantasy and dystopic novels Victoria preferred. She’d even have made do with some kind of mythology collection or a textbook (she was desperate!), but it seemed like the only things people were interested in around here were bombs, car chases, and realistic crime.

  There were a few bookshelves decorating the sides of the living room. In another room, off of the hallway and down from the one bedroom she’d scoped out earlier, there was a library full of books. And, naturally, they were all these stupid crime novels.

  She sighed, grabbing two off of the shelf. She wasn’t going to read them, but flipping through the pages might distract her from the feelings flipping through and knotting her guts.

  “I thought you hated those.”

  Victoria hadn’t even noticed Darren come into the living room, and she turned quickly. The book was already closed by the time she was face-to-face with him, but the damage was done. The smirk was on his face and the blush was on hers, and then she was scowling at him as his smile just spread all the wider. So he had been watching her this entire time! She was going to kill him.

  And then she saw that he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

  It’d been difficult to pass the time without thinking about him that way, but it had helped that she had no images of him in anything but his clothing. Now her eyes were free to roam his body; the top half of it, in any case. His chest was chiseled and muscular, but not in a sharp way. His skin wasn’t nearly as pale as she was expecting, and actually had a slight golden tint to it – at least, where the dark ink of his tattoos didn’t contrast with it.

  Her eyes went to his neck again. From there, she looked down to his pecs, to the planes of his chest, his abs, and then down to his naval and his little happy trail that led to his…

  “Like what you see?”

  Victoria mentally pinched herself a few times. Dammit! Why had she ogled him when he could so clearly see her doing so? It wasn’t like he hadn’t done the same to a bunch of other women, though, so maybe she should just ogle freely and let him get a taste of his own medicine. Yeah, that’s right. She met his eyes as confidently as she could.

  And then she dropped them.

  There was no way she could do this.

  “Are you just not going to reply, Victoria? I thought you were all about sass.”

  “And I thought you were all about some common decency,” she managed to get out over the lump in her throat. Why does he have to be so hot?

  “What was that?”

  Oh, no.

  Oh, no, oh, no, oh no.

  Shit.

  Had she asked that out loud? She tried to play it off cool.

  “What do you think I said?”

  He strode across the room quickly, grabbing the closed book from her hands and then placing it down on the coffee table in front of the couch. “I think you asked why I was shirtless,” he said, turning around to wink at her. So that meant she’d never know if she’d just really embarrassed herself. Great. That was her favorite thing to do. He was such an asshole.

  “Yeah, well. If I did ask that,” she let her eyes go down to his hard abs again, “would you tell me?”

  “Yeah, but it might not be the truth,” he whispered, making her strain to hear what he said. “I’d probably say that it was for protecting you.”

  “But it’s really for…?”

  “Teasing.”

  He grinned at her, and the way she wanted to pinch herself turned into wanting to hit herself as she eyed his perfect jaw. It seemed like the longer she stayed here, the more she was starting to lust after this guy. Her hands went to her hair, and she adjusted it quickly even though she couldn’t see it. If she was starting to feel this way – and she hated this guy, really, she did – maybe he was feeling the same.

  The thought of it made her legs start to shake, and she pressed them against each other again to make it less obvious. But being around him more was starting to make her open up to him, figuratively, in ways she hadn’t planned, and now her body was pulsing.

  She grabbed the books off of the coffee table, getting ready to go put them back on the bookshelves where they belonged. She could feel Darren’s heat close to her body as soon as she went over to the coffee table. She knew that one couldn’t really tell when a person entered the room, but she could work it out with Darren. It was super obvious to her when he was just nearby, too, and her skin felt hot at the idea of him being so close.

  She looked over. He’d moved to sit on the couch just a few feet from the coffee table, and he was…

  Looking right at her.

  She brought the books to her chest and glared at him, noticing his eyes move upwards from her chest to her eyes as she blocked the view. “What?”

  He repeated the question back to her before asking, “Do you think I’m doing something?”

  “You’re up to something.”

  “A man can be shirtless in his own house, V.”

  His use of the nickname didn’t seem right, and it made her bristle. “Are you saying this is your house?”

  “Well, yeah.” He moved his arm like he was telling her to move, pretending that there was a TV behind her that she was blocking. Why even have a couch if there’s
nothing for it to sit in front of, anyway? “Did you think it belonged to someone else?”

  “Yeah. Like…I don’t know. Maybe someone more important.”

  “Are you going to add anything else to that statement?” His focus was entirely on her, and, for maybe the first time in all these hours, she noticed just how intense his eyes were even when he was completely calm.

  “You know, originally I was going to say ‘in your club,’ but then I decided it was probably true enough without that bit.”

  This got a laugh from him, but he cut it off abruptly and his eyes went from her eyes to her nose to her lips. “Watch yourself. You’re stuck with me, you know.”