Authors: Marie Rochelle
“Well, you have to stop trying to kick me out of the door,” he told her before reaching for another bag on the counter. “Can you bring me more groceries bags over here? I want to put a few more items away before I leave.”
“Sure.” Amara grabbed a couple of the lighter bags and carried them across the room to Dante.
“Thank you.” Reaching out, he took the bags from her and his long fingers brushed over hers and a bolt of electricity shot through her body making her pussy throb. Amara jerked her hand back shoving it into the back pocket of her jeans.
She tried to throttle the dizzying current racing through her body, but it only grew worse as Dante’s gaze slowly and seductively slid downward and then back up holding her eyes with his striking gray-green ones.
Dante radiated a vitality that drew her like a magnet. Amara knew she had to get out of here before she embarrassed herself by drooling over him more than she already was.
“Am I making you nervous?” Dante asked, wrapping his hand around her arm.
“No,” she sputtered. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure about that?” he questioned, again. “You’re acting like you’re thinking of a way to leave at any second.”
“I wasn’t going anywhere. I only wanted to finish putting the food away. That’s all.” Amara lied. She got a feeling Dante didn’t believe one word coming out of her mouth.
The beginning of a smile tipped the corner of his firm lips as his fingers slowly slid away from her body. “I’m glad to hear that because I hate to think I was chasing such a beautiful woman away from me once again.”
As their eyes met again, she felt another shock run through her at Dante’s comment. Honestly, Amara was stunned by his cool appraisal. Instead of acknowledging his compliment, she turned away and went back over to the remaining bags on the counter while she gathered her thoughts.
When she woke up this morning, she never dreamt that she would be in this kitchen putting away food with Dante. Against her will, her eyes drifted back over to him and was surprised to still see that he was watching her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, placing the can of cream corn down on the counter. “Do you need some help?”
“No...nothing’s wrong. I don’t know how I ever mistook you for a boy or even teenage girl when I can see now what a beautiful woman you are.”
Amara stared wordlessly at Dante before finally speaking. “Looking younger on the streets helped me out more time than you realize,” she said.
Spinning around, she picked up the can and placed it back on the shelf. Dante would never understand what she went through for so long. He couldn’t unless he lived it like she had.
“I think it’s time for me to go because it seems like every time I try to strike up a conversation with you it goes wrong, so how about I let you finish this up for Pastor Allen,” Dante suggested from across the room.
An odd twinge of disappointment surprisingly swept through Amara knowing Dante was really leaving this time. At first, she was dying for him to leave her alone, but she kind of liked working side by side with him. Now, the kitchen would feel so empty without Dante once he left.
“Do you have to go? I didn’t mean to come off as unfriendly. I was enjoying talking to you,” she admitted, turning back around and staring at Dante. The sound of his voice was very sexy; it lured a woman to come closer to hear what he might tell her next.
Coming across the room, Dante stopped in front of her crossing his arms over his impressive chest. “I couldn’t tell you did from the way you just brushed me off. You acted like you were counting the seconds until I left you alone.”
Amara hated to admit it, but Dante was right. What woman wouldn’t be fascinated by his good looks? However, she couldn’t come right out and admit she had been drawn to him since the night he grabbed her.
If Dante was thrown by seeing her cleaned up then he definitely would be taken back by her surprise attraction to him. She was pleased but a little scared at the thrill he gave her when just weeks ago the mere mention of his name would send her into a fit.
“I wasn’t thinking anything like that at all,” she admitted, trying not to notice how good the black t-shirt looked stretched across his wide chest.
This was a first for her noticing the sexual chemistry between her and him, but she had to make sure not to get carried away by her own response to his magnetism. Without a doubt, more than one woman had fallen for his biker good looks, but she couldn’t allow herself to become one of them. She was working towards starting her life over, not finding a man. But if she was looking for one, Dante would be at the very top of her list.
“I guess I misread what was going on between us,” Dante said uncrossing his arms, “but I still have to leave and get back to the bar. I do have to admit I had a very good time talking to you. Maybe I’ll see you again the next time I come by to see Pastor Allen.”
“I’d like that a lot,” Amara replied before she could stop herself and felt her face growing warmer when one of Dante’s eyebrows arched at her. “I mean since we’re trying to be friends, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Great!
Why did she sound like she couldn’t wait to see him again
? She needed more practice at being nonchalant because right now she sucked at it!
Squeezing her arm, Dante grinned at her making his eyes shine even more than they already did. “I don’t see anything wrong with it either.” He gave her one last look before he let go of her arm and sauntered out of the room showing off his perfect ass in his well-worn jeans.
Against her will, Amara gave Dante’s tempting body one last
long
lingering look then sighed before she turned back around and started working on putting away the rest of the groceries.
She completely missed how Dante stopped in the open doorway and stared at her for a few extra minutes before spinning on his heel and finally leaving the kitchen.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A half hour later, Dante strolled through his crowded bar waving at customers in the booths as they called out his name; but he couldn’t give them his full attention because his mind wasn’t on the activity going on around him.
He hadn’t been able to get his wandering thoughts off of Amara since he left the shelter.
He never imagined in his wildest dreams she’d actually look like a beauty pageant contestant underneath all of that filth and grime. He could still feel the smoothness of her skin beneath his fingers from where he had touched her arm.
Even after he drove away, his thoughts kept filtering back to her so that he almost forgot to pick up Caleb’s cell phone like he’d promised. How was it possible for someone to change so drastically in such a short period of time?
Amara’s face was free of any kind of makeup and her outfit wasn’t expensive at all. All she had been wearing was a pair of jeans and a simple top but on her body it looked simply perfect.
As he continued down the back hallway to his office, Dante wondered if she was still thinking about him or if she’d gone on with her day and he was only a distant memory to her. He didn’t like the thought he could be so easily forgettable to her.
He would have to find a way to make sure he saw her again before the week was over; it was only fair for him to check in and see if she had any problems putting the rest of the food away.
Opening his office door, Dante walked inside and closed it behind him glancing at Caleb who was hanging up the phone. His friend leaned back in the chair then frowned at him.
“Where have you been for two hours?” Caleb demanded. “I thought you were coming straight here after you dropped off the food at the shelter and picked up my cell phone at
Inked
.”
“I got caught up with something,” Dante said, walking across the room. He handed Caleb his cell phone. “Besides, I wasn’t aware that I had a time limit to get back here.”
Standing up, Caleb shoved his phone into his pocket. “You didn’t, but what held you up? Did Pastor Allen give you another lecture about working too hard again? I know that’s what happens every time he sees me. The last thing I need is a lecture from him when he knows nothing about my life. I think he’s just a nosy old man.”
“You need some guidance from someone. Why not from Pastor Allen? He’s lived a lot longer than both of us, but no, he wasn’t the one who kept me. We only talked to each other about ten minutes and then he left to take care of something else,” Dante answered.
Moving away from his friend, Dante took a seat behind the desk flipping through the paperwork stacked on there. He picked up a fax hoping this is what he had been waiting for.
“Is this the information for the last two teams entering the pool tournament?”
“Yeah, the fax came through about forty minutes ago and they sent the entrance fees to the bar’s PayPal account, so they’re ready to go and all of the slots are full now.”
Dante was glad everything was finally taken care of. Now he could start working on the brackets for the teams, along with the tournament rules including the number of games per match. It was detailed and the more time he had to get all of it in order the better.
“I’m not going to let you dodge my question. I told you about the fax now let’s get back to who kept you at the shelter for so long?” Caleb watched him closely.
Tossing the paper down on the desk, Dante looked at his buddy. This conversation wasn’t going to end until he got an answer. It wasn’t any of his friend’s business but he would tell him anyway and without a doubt the information would get straight back to Griffin.
“I saw Amara. She’s staying there now,” he answered, watching and waiting for a reaction.
“Amara...as in the homeless girl you’ve been trying to help? How did she get there?” he questioned. “Don’t they have an age requirements for those shelters? Shouldn’t Pastor Allen have turned her over to juvenile services?”
“First, Amara isn’t as young as I thought she was. She’s twenty-four. I don’t know who got her to go there, but I’m glad they did because I confronted Ike the other day about talking to her.”
Dante didn’t miss the worried expression that quickly passed over Caleb’s face. Everyone around town knew how Ike made his money. It wasn’t a secret and he didn’t try to make it one either.
“I guess you’re telling me she wasn’t scared of you this time. You must have worked your Braden charm on her. You know Keira almost fell for it until Jim stepped in and put a stop to it.”
“I don’t know what Braden charm you are talking about,” Dante said, “and I was never a threat to Jim’s relationship with Keira. We’ve always been friends and nothing more.”
“Now you are, but back then I think you were having other thoughts about the future Mrs. Russell and it was okay. She’s very sexy. I know I’ve taken a couple of looks at her myself.”
Dante was done talking about this nonsense with Caleb. He had a lot of work to get done before he left for the night and his buddy wasn’t helping.
“Aren’t you going to be late for work?” he asked, hoping his friend took the blatant hint to leave him alone.
“I do have an appointment coming in about forty-five minutes, so I better go,” Caleb admitted. “However, you still didn’t tell me what it was about Amara that held you up for so long, but don’t worry about it. I’ll find out. You know that always do.”
Spinning around, Caleb walked across the room and went out the door. Before the day was over, Dante bet that his phone would be ringing and Griffin would be on the other end wanting his own questions about Amara answered too, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He had more important things to take care of first.
Reaching for the mouse on his desk, Dante moved it around on the shiny surface then clicked on the folder named tournament pulling up the brackets, so he could add the final two players. If this new venture for him was a crowd drawer as he planned it to be, it could rack in hundreds of new patrons, along with thousands of dollars for the bar.
At the beginning when the idea was brought up to him, he did feel somewhat ill-equipped to undertake such a task especially after he learned what was entailed, but he researched it some more and figured out how to make it a huge attraction for the bar.
Now with the whole thing falling into place easier than he imagined, his adrenaline levels were starting to rise and he loved the feeling of being pumped up. It was the greatest rush in the world.
Well...maybe not the greatest but since he hadn’t being with a woman in months, this had to do until he found the right one to share his bed. All he had to do was find a female who made him think about her more than his work. Sadly, it was easier said than done.
What about Amara
?
The thought flashed through his mind before Dante could stop it making him pause for a moment then he shook it away. He saw that Amara found him attractive, but that didn’t mean anything except they had good chemistry.
Sexual chemistry had gotten him in trouble time and time again. He wasn’t going to be sidetracked by it again, besides Amara had only accepted his friendship a few hours ago. She didn’t hint at wanting anything else from him and why would she?
They barely knew each other but that could change and secretly Dante wished it would since he found Amara to be very captivating. He wondered what else was buried deep inside of her that needed to be coached to the surface by him with soft words and understanding.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“When were you going to tell me that Dante kissed you?” an angry voice accused. “I thought he had gotten over his crush for you. I might need to have that talk with him after all. He needs to find a woman of his own and leave you the hell alone.”
Keira stopped working on the list for Trevor’s birthday party and stared at Jim standing by the table glaring at her.
Where in the world had that question come from? Why was her husband asking her such a ridiculous question?
“What are you talking about?” she asked, placing her pen down on the dining room table. She didn’t know what Jim was talking about. “Dante didn’t kiss me,” she denied, vehemently.