Battling Troy: Devil's Knights Series (12 page)

“How about we compromise.
50 First Dates
? I get my chick flick, but it’s got Adam Sandler in it, so it’s at least funny.”

“Fine, but next time I get to pick the movie and it’s going to be whatever the hell I want it to be.”

“Deal.” I grabbed the pillow from the end of the couch and threw it at Troy.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Getting comfy,” I said as I laid my head down on the pillow in Troy’s lap.

“What if I wanted to lie down?” He looked down at me, a scowl on his face.

“Then lay down.” I leaned forward, letting him get up but his arm clamped around my middle and pulled my back down.

“I don’t want to.” He left his arm wrapped around me and kicked his feet up on the coffee table.

“You’re an ass. What the hell did you ask for?” I grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over me.

“Cause I’m an ass. Watch the movie,” he said, shushing me.

I turned over my side facing the TV and tried to focus on the movie, not Troy’s arm wrapped around me or how close he was.

Halfway through the movie I felt my eyes start to get heavy and cuddled up even more to Troy. I had planned on getting all touchy with him, trying to knock down his defenses, but it seemed like too much work right now.

Tomorrow I definitely was going to put my plan into motion. Tonight, sleep seemed all I was capable of. Five minutes later I was out.

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Chapter 16

Troy

It was seven o’clock and I was awake. What the hell? I never woke up before ten on Saturday. Hell, most days I wasn’t up before ten.

I had been staring at the clock on the wall for the past ten minutes, listening to Marley’s slow breathing. I had to pee like a god damn race horse but didn’t want to wake up Marley.

Half way through the movie she had fallen asleep and I wasn’t very far behind her by the time I passed out. Sleeping with my head tilted all the way back and cocked to the right gave me a pounding headache and a stiff neck.

I needed coffee and Tylenol, stat.

Marley’s eyes fluttered and she stretched out in my arms. “What time is it?” she mumbled, turning over to look up at me.

“Just after seven.”

“Ugh, I have to get ready for work. There’s a bridal party coming in at eight that I need to help with. Gwen will kill me if I’m not there.” Marley sat up, running her fingers through her hair and stretched her arms over her head. The back of her shirt rode up, exposing her smooth back. My fingers itched to touch her, but she was up and in the kitchen before I could do something stupid like grab her and never let go.

I scrubbed my hands down my face and stood up. Time to get the day started and try to keep my hands off Marley.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Marley

I looked out the shop window and saw Troy sitting in his truck, his sunglass covered eyes trained on the salon. After Troy had showed me my room, I had gotten dressed and ready in record time.

As I was walking out the door to my car, Troy scared the shit out of me when he grabbed my elbow and guided me over to his truck. He told me he would be driving me to and from work from now on.

After a five minute argument that basically boiled down to me calling Troy an ass fifty times and my butt planted in his truck while he drove me to work. Apparently Gravel had called while I was getting ready and told Troy that everyone was busy at the club today and he would need to be my personal bodyguard for the day.

Not exactly how I wanted Troy to be with me. I didn’t want him to start resenting me because I kept getting tossed into his lap.

“Is he going to sit there all morning?” Gwen asked, peering over my shoulder at Troy.

“More than likely. I should probably take him some coffee or something,” I murmured.

“Not a bad idea, although you have Mrs. Jenkins coming in during the bridal party. You might want to get your station set up. I can take him coffee.” Gwen grabbed an empty coffee cup, filled it and was out the door before I could say anything.

She pranced across the street and knocked on Troy’s window. Man, I wish I could know what Troy was thinking right now. Gwen was in rare form today. She looked like a sexed up fifties housewife.

Her hair was piled on top of her head and her face was painted flawlessly and her bright red lips looked amazing. The navy blue dress with white polka dots all over it hugged her curves in all the right places and made me wish I had the balls to dress like her. Gwen was a definite rockabilly with attitude to match.

I couldn’t see what Troy’s face looked like when he saw Gwen, but I’m sure he was impressed by her. Hell, I liked guys and I was impressed by her.

“Am I early?”

I turned around, seeing Mrs. Jenkins walking in through the back door. Mrs. Jenkins was Gwen’s upstairs tenant who owned the salon before Gwen took it over. She had owned the salon for over thirty years before she had to give it up. Gwen’s aunt lived in Rockton and was good friends with Mrs. Jenkins. When the salon had gone up for sale, Gwen snatched it up before it even went on the market.

“No, not at all Barb. Have a seat at my station and I’ll get you started.” I motioned, tearing my eyes away from the window. I was torturing myself watching Gwen and Troy together.

As I was chatting Barb up about everything that had happened the past couple of weeks, Gwen walked back in with the bridal party right behind her.

I glanced out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of Troy, but he wasn’t in his truck anymore. “Just one sec,” I mumbled to Barb.

I walked to the window and looked up and down the street trying to see Troy.

“Looking for something?”

I whirled around at the sound of Troy’s voice right by my ear. How the hell had he gotten in here without me knowing it? “How the hell did you get in here?” I swear to god I almost shit myself.

“I told Gwen I was going to walk around the building and check things out,” Troy smirked at me, knowing I should probably go check my pants.

“Did checking the building include scaring the ever living shit out of me?” I stepped back, trying to get away from him and backed right into the window. Ouch.

“Trying to get away from me, Marley?” He stepped forward, caging me in with his arms.

“No, I just have work to do.” Danger Will Robinson, DANGER!

“How come you sent Gwen out with coffee?”

Huh? I didn’t do anything. Gwen couldn’t get out the door fast enough. “I didn’t send Gwen, she’s just nice,” I mumbled. Gwen was nice, but her motive for wanting to take Troy coffee were anything but nice. More like to check out Troy.

“Hmm, not sure if I believe that.”

He just stared at me, not moving. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or what he wanted me to do. I was utterly clueless on everything. “I really need to get back to work, Troy. I need to finish up Barb and then help Gwen. I should be done around noon if you want to just wait for me out in your truck.” Yes, please go to your truck. Troy was a distraction I didn’t need while I was at work.

“I think I’ll just wait over there, can never be too careful.” Troy pointed to the small waiting area Gwen had at the front of the shop. Thankfully, from my station, I couldn’t see the waiting area, so that would work. As long as I couldn’t see Troy, I would be able to work. Maybe.

“OK. You sit over there, and I’m going to stay here. Or well, over there,” I muttered, pointing to my station.

“OK, Sunshine. After work, I have a surprise. You got clothes at my house that can get dirty, possibly ruined?”

What an odd question. I thought about what was in my suitcase. I guess I could scrounge up something that could work. “Sure. What are we doing?”

“It’s a surprise. Now, hurry up and make these women pretty so we can get the hell out of here.” Troy’s hand came up and tipped my head back. His lips hovered inches away from mine.

“I’m at work,” I whispered. I wanted to kiss Troy more than anything, but work PDA was not something I was into.

“I know.” He closed the gap between us, brushing his lips against mine in a quick kiss. “Hurry up.”

He turned away, walking to the waiting area and grabbed a magazine off the table and started flipping through it.

I looked around, seeing everyone's eyes were on me. Shit. There goes my rule of no work PDA. I cleared my throat and walked back over to Barb, trying to act like I wasn’t affected by Troy at all.

“Hold onto that one tight and don’t let him go, sweetheart,” Gwen quietly said as I walked by her station.

“Amen, sister.” Barb agreed.

Everyone burst out laughing and my cheeks heated and turned bright red. I glanced over at Troy to see if he had heard. A smirk was playing his lips as he paged through a magazine. A magazine, might I add, that was upside down.

Maybe Troy wasn’t as unaffected as I had thought.

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Chapter 17

Troy

“So are you going to tell me what we are doing?” Marley asked from the passenger seat.

After she had gotten off work, we headed back to my house where we both changed into crappy clothes that could get dirty and hopped back in the truck with Bandit sitting in between us.

“You’ll see once we get there.”

“I’m sure I will, but it would be nice to know what it is we are doing before we get there.”

I shook my head and didn’t say anything. I had no idea if Marley was going to like my surprise. I guess it was kind of a test to see if she was a chick I could see myself being with.

“Can you at least tell me if I’m dressed OK?” she demanded.

I looked at her ripped jeans and black Henley and knew she was dressed perfectly for what I had in mind. “You’ll do.”

“Ugh!” Marley sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and turned to pout out the window.

This could get interesting.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Marley

“Where are we?” I asked as we drove down a dirt road.

“Just keep watching.”

This was ridiculous. Why the hell couldn’t he tell me where we were going? I had gone along with his little game this long, I guess five more minutes wasn’t going to kill me, although it sure felt like it would.

The gravel road was surrounded by trees and brush. It was fall and all the leaves in the trees had turned red, orange, and yellow and it was beautiful. We crossed over a wooden bridge and then came to a clearing where a huge garage stood.

“I still have no idea what we are doing.”

“One more minute, Marley, and you’ll know. You really don’t handle surprises very well.” He laughed, shaking his head.

That was an understatement. I hated surprises unless I was the one giving the surprise. I hated being out of the loop, not knowing what was going on. “Fifty seconds,” I called as he got out of the truck.

He walked over to my side of the truck and opened my door. “How open minded are you?”

“Very. To a point.”

“What the breaking point of not being open to things?”

“Surprise threesomes.”

Troy’s jaw dropped open and he was speechless. “How did… has someone…wow, that’s…” Troy sputtered.

“Is there a threesome waiting behind that garage door Troy?” I asked, trying not to laugh.

“Hell no!”

“Good, now get out of my way so I can see what the surprise is,” I insisted, trying to push him to the side.
      

“No. Just stand in front of the overhead door. I need to go in and open it from the inside. Promise me you’ll wait.”

His eyes held mine captive, waiting for me to promise. “Haven’t I waited long enough?”

“You have, but it’ll be a better surprise if you wait.”

“Dammit, fine. You go, open the door and I’ll wait here like a good little girl.”

Troy leaned in, “Don’t you know good little girls always get rewarded?” His lips touched mine, giving me what I had been craving. I reached up, delving my fingers into his hair and held on.

His lips caressed mine and I moaned. God dammit could Troy kiss. “This isn’t part of my plan, Marley,” he whispered against my lips.

“Oh well. Forget your plan.” His arms were wrapped around me and his fingertips were drawing lazy circles on my back. I turned on the seat, putting a leg on each side of Troy and pulled him flush against me.

“Why can’t I say no to you? Even when I know I should,” he mumbled, pressing kisses along my neck. I tilted my head to the side, giving him better access and hummed under my breath. No matter what Troy’s surprise was, it wasn’t going to be able to top this.

“Because I can’t say no to you either. Maybe we should both stop trying.”

“First your surprise and then no more saying no to me.” He placed one last kiss on my neck and stepped back.

“How long is the surprise going to take?” I asked, catching my breath. I repeat, kissing Troy was incredible.

“Depends on how much you like it. Could be ten minutes or hours.” He held his hand out and helped me down from the truck and slammed the door shut behind us.

“Now I want to know even more what it is. Go open the damn door,” I ordered, pushing him away.

Troy laughed and jogged over to the side of the building and disappeared. I glanced around seeing we were surrounded by beautiful trees with trails cut into them, taking a person Lord knows where. There was a tire swing hanging off one of the trees and a couple of chairs gathered around a fire pit to the left. It was gorgeous and peaceful.

“You ready?” Troy yelled from inside the garage.

“Hell yes! Open the door!” I yelled back.

The door slowly raised revealing Troy standing on the other side. I shielded my eyes from the sun and peered into the garage.

“Your messy garage is my surprise? Don’t tell me you brought me here to help organize it. I will walk my happy ass back to town if that’s the case,” I ranted.

Troy threw his head back and laughed. “No, Sunshine, I did not bring you here to clean the garage. Besides, it’s not messy.”

“Mhmm, sure.” I nodded my head and smirked.

“You’re surprise is right here.” Troy walked over to a four wheeler and patted the seat.

“We’re going four wheeling?” I asked excitedly.