BANG (30 page)

He had been seducing me.

Grooming me.

And yet for all my outrage, I realized that he hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

Not legally anyway. It was just… not very nice of him!

I took a deep breath and stood up.

“I’d rather not.”

“Now Frannie, don’t pretend this isn’t what you want.”

He reached for me, his hand stroking my arm. I jerked it away.

“It’s not actually. Have a-“

My voice broke as tears threatened to spill out of my stinging eyes.

“Good night!”

And then I ran.

Down the hallway, the stairs and out into the night.

That’s when I saw him leaning against his bike.

Jace.

He was still waiting for me outside. My stomach flipped over and I stopped in my tracks. He hadn’t seen me yet. I could still go somewhere else. Be alone. Lick my wounds.

I couldn’t bear to look at anyone right now. To be looked at… I couldn’t even stand to ride the bus.

I was just a stupid little girl who didn’t know a thing about men. And Professor Candel was a… a… dirty old creep!

I ran off down a darkened side street, not hearing the rumble of the motorcycle behind me.

Chapter Four

Jace

She was crying.

The girl was crying.
 

Frannie
was crying.

Not like a pretty girl cried to get her way or even the way chicks cried during movies.
 

She was bawling her freaking eyes out.

Fuck man, what the hell happened?

I was pretty sure she saw me before she ran off towards downtown. I was pretty sure she wanted to be alone. But I didn’t care.

Fuck me if I was going to let a girl who looked like that roam the streets alone at night. Never mind that I was pretty sure she had no cash on her. She was going to get herself into a bad situation.

I didn’t like the thought of that.

Not at all.

I started my bike and followed her at a crawl.

Fucking hell!

The chick was paying zero attention to which way she was walking. She was heading directly into a sketchy part of town. I told myself I was just keeping the girl from getting mugged, or worse.

The truth was, I didn’t want to let her out of my sight.

If you had asked me why I would have said it’s because I wanted to fuck her.

But it was more than that.

I just wasn’t sure what.

After about ten blocks she stopped suddenly, finally looking around. I guess she just figured out that she was lost. She turned and saw me.
 

In the darkness I could just see her eyes, big and wide and wet with tears. My heart lurched, feeling an overwhelming urge to pull her into my arms.

To protect her.

Fuck yeah this was about more than just sex.

Slowly I pulled the bike up beside her.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

She looked at the ground then back up at me. Her eyes were the only thing I could see. But they said everything.

“You were following me.”

I nodded.

“Why?”

“You looked like you weren’t paying attention to where you were going.”

She just stared at me. I grabbed the spare helmet and walked over to her.

“And you definitely were not headed for the bus.”

She glanced away defiantly but when she looked back at me she was biting her lip. Trying not to laugh at herself. In that moment I got her.

I got her completely.

And I got it bad.

She shook her head ruefully and lifted her chin so I could put the helmet on her head. What I really wanted to do was kiss her. Staring down at her face, lit up by the headlight of my bike.

I wanted to kiss her so bad it hurt.

Instead I pulled her hair back and lowered the helmet into place. She stared at me as I buckled the strap under her chin.

I knew it was the right thing to do. Not kissing her. The girl was clearly upset about something. It would be like stealing candy from a baby.

But I couldn’t help myself from rubbing my knuckles over her cheek.

She felt like silk.

Warm, living silk.

I stepped back quickly before I changed my mind. I climbed on, waiting for her to get into position behind me without a word.

She slid her arms around me and I took off, going faster than I had before. I wanted to put the streets behind us. I wanted to get her home.
 

Fuck, I wanted to go home with her.

I’d known this girl only a few hours and I already felt like we were in tempo, moving together on the bike like one person.

We rode for a half hour, heading toward her neighborhood on the far side of town. I was having trouble believing the girl lived all the way over here. It didn’t seem like a college area. Not that it was unsafe. It was just sort of… run down.

I pulled in front of the seedy looking apartment building and stopped, waiting for her to get off before I did. She handed me her helmet and I grinned, whipping off mine. She looked so solemn. But I wasn’t giving up yet.

“You’re not getting off that easy.”

Her big eyes got even bigger. Her lips opened. I was pretty sure we both had the same thing in mind at that moment. But I wanted to drag things out a bit.

Besides, I really really wanted to know what had freaked her out so bad.

“So, are you going to tell me what happened?”

Frannie

I stared at the gorgeous guy standing in front of me. He’d come to my aid already tonight twice. Maybe he was expecting something in return.

Like sex.

The crazy thing was… if I hadn’t been sure I would embarrass myself, I would have seriously considered it.

As it was I still owed him an explanation.

And a cup of coffee. Or a beer. Too bad I didn’t have any.

“Do you want to come up for a minute?”

His eyes lit up and I knew I’d been right. For whatever reason, this Adonis wanted to hook up with me. But it wasn’t going to happen.

Not like this.

For some reason I didn’t have a second thought about asking him upstairs though. He’d been polite all evening. More than polite.

He was a regular knight in shining armor.

It’s too bad I wasn’t a princess.

Or an easy tavern wench.

He nodded and I bent down to rummage in my bag for my keys. When I finally found them, I realized he was laughing at me.

“Why do you carry around all that stuff?”

I flushed.

“Oh, force of habit. I didn’t like to go home much when I was a kid so I got used to bringing my stuff with me.”

I almost kicked myself as soon as the words were out. I sounded like a freak. Or a runaway.

Not like what I was at all.

A spoiled rich girl whose Mommy and Daddy didn’t love her.

Nobody on Earth would feel sorry for me if they knew the truth.

I lived in a big house, with servants. I had everything a little girl could want and more. Horseback riding lessons. Ballet. Tutors for every subject.

And yet I dreaded going home every day after school. To the big empty house where nobody laughed. Nobody even talked.

It felt like a tomb.

Instead, I’d spent every weekend at my best friend Nevada’s house. I’d basically lived there from the age of eight to eighteen. Nev and her mom didn’t have much back then, but they had each other. Their little apartment was always filled with laughter and music and cheesy old movies.

I loved it there.

I
felt
loved there.

It was pretty much the only time I’d ever felt that other than when my Gram was looking after me. And she’d been in a home since I was in seventh grade.
 

So, not a lot.

Either way, this insanely good-looking guy did not need to hear it. But when I stole a glance over my shoulder at him, he looked thoughtful. Not bored.

Not judgemental.

Also, he was staring at my legs.

He caught me looking and smiled as if staring at my legs was perfectly natural. In one night I’d now been ogled by two men. After twenty-two years on Earth, with not a single solitary glance.

What the heck was going on?

The most interesting thing was that I didn’t seem to mind Jace looking. The creepy crawly feeling I’d had with Professor Candel was nowhere to be found.

Jace’s eyes on me created another feeling altogether as I climbed the stairs.

A warm feeling. Very, very warm.

“This is me.”

I unlocked the door, wondering for the hundredth time what had gotten into me. Professor Candel. The car. Jace.

Rescuing me.

Twice in one night.

He followed me inside, saying nothing as I switched the lights on and opened the windows, turning on my precious fan. No AC, so that fan was basically my baby. Especially now that it was the start of summer.

“You want something to drink? I’m going to get a glass of water.”

“Okay.”

I waited for him to elaborate. He stared at me, his face expressionless. The man was stoic with a capital ’S.’

“Water.”

I shook my head in amusement. Jace was a man of few words, to say the least. Of course if I looked like him, I wouldn’t say much either.

I wouldn’t have to.

I pulled out the water filter and sighed. It was empty. Of course.

I refilled it and carried it over to the coffee table with two cups.

“It will just take a minute. My roommate never refills it.”

I sat down. He looked at me, then sat down on the couch next to me. Not too close. But not too far either.

We both stared at the water filter as it slowly dripped. Or I did. Jace was staring at me.

“So… uh… that was my last paper. I’m done.”

“With school?”

“Yeah, until grad school. If I go. I’m in a program next year that pays you to teach English abroad. And then maybe I’ll go back for my masters.”

He raised his eyebrows at me.

“That’s not why you were crying.”

“Yeah...”

I reached out and poured him the tiniest glass of water ever.

He took it, his lips twisting in a wry smile. Clearly he thought I was ridiculous. Which I was.

He also knew I was stalling.

Also true.

I took a deep breath.

“The paper was for my favorite professor. Linguistics. He uh…”

I trailed off. Feeling incredibly foolish. Jace took pity on me, prompting me to continue.

“He didn’t like your paper?”

“No- he did. I mean, he gave me an A. Without reading it.”

He frowned.

“Is that normal?”

I stared at my hands where they rested on my knees.

“No.”

I looked at Jace.

“It’s not normal. In fact, it really pissed me off. Then he-“

Jace leaned back in his seat.

“He hit on you.”

My mouth opened as I stared at him.

“How did you know?“

He shrugged, looking at me like I was a curious specimen.

“Come on, like that doesn’t happen to you all the time.”

“It- it definitely doesn’t!”

He frowned at me, belatedly realizing he had a glass in his hand. He took a swig and I stared at his throat as he swallowed. He had a… really nice throat.

A nice throat?

Get a grip, Frannie!

He finished the measly bit of water and put the glass down. Then he turned his head, staring at me.

“So you were surprised.”

“Yes.”

“And offended because… he’s married?”

“I thought he was but apparently he is not.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“And you weren’t interested?”

“Ew, no!”

“He’s old?”

“Kind of.”

“Ugly.”

“No.”

“You have a boyfriend.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I wish.”

I clapped my hand over my mouth. I’d gotten so comfortable I forgot I was talking to a hot guy and not Nevada or Becky, my sometimes roommate.

He laughed, not unkindly.

“You’re a funny girl, Frannie.”

He stood up to leave.

“Thanks for the water.”

“No problem. I- uh- should I give you a check now?”

He shook his head.

“It’s okay. I don’t even know what’s wrong with it yet. It might take a few days.”

I nodded eagerly, ready for this awkward moment to be over. As soon as he left I could collapse into a puddle. And hopefully figure out exactly what was going on here.

At the front door he paused, staring at me intently.

“This guy- did he hurt you? Or do something he shouldn’t have?”

I shook my head, realizing that Jace was asking for a reason.

He was asking to see if he needed to beat somebody up.

For me.

It sent a thrill through me, I can’t lie.
 

“No he just… creeped me out.”

He cracked his knuckles like a thug in an old time movie.

“Too bad.”

He smiled then and turned away.

“Later Frannie.”

I watched him walk down the hallway and take the stairs. He kept his eyes on mine as he walked down them. He had a funny little smile on his face.

There was something about it that reminded me of Nevada’s fiancé Clay.

I closed the door before it hit me.

It was arrogance.

And something else.

He looked… hungry.

Chapter Five

Jace

I flexed my hands, resting them lightly on the steering wheel. It was dark out here behind the old cannery. Once this had been a bustling factory. But now it was silent, except for the sound of souped up engines.

I was using Flannery’s car tonight. With his permission of course. We had an arrangement now. After the first time I’d won.

That time had been without his permission.

To say that my mother’s youngest brother had been pissed would have been an understatement.

But since I’d split the pot wit him, he hadn’t stayed angry for long.

Besides, he liked it when his cars won. Even if he wasn’t behind the wheel.

Flannery had been born with an innate ability to pull things apart and put them back to together. Motors specifically. He’d also been born with a club foot and a degenerative neurological disease. That meant he twitched and limped.