“Where, um, does he live?”
Wow, it just hit Tessa that Lucky didn’t know even the simplest things about Mike’s life. She could have told him, of course, but she’d purposely not brought his family up very much, not sure she should intrude. She felt as if Rachel, being Mike’s fiancée, somehow had more right. “He and I live in the house where you grew up.”
Lucky’s eyes narrowed. “Then where do my mom and dad live?”
“They moved to Florida,” Rachel explained.
And Lucky looked to Tessa. “You never told me any of this.”
“You never asked. I wasn’t sure you wanted to know anything about them.”
“You’re right,” he said, again letting a tad of vulnerability leak through his tough exterior. “I kinda . . . didn’t want to know, I guess. It’s easier for me to ignore the situation that way.” He shifted his gaze back to Rachel. “Uh . . . how
is
Mike?”
Rachel tilted her head, clearly thinking through how to reply. Then she told his brother, “He’s a gruff, stubborn, know-it-all cop who, deep down, still misses the family he used to have when he was a kid—but he’d never say that.” Tessa knew instinctively that Rachel wouldn’t have shared that with anyone but Lucky, and maybe it meant she already realized he wasn’t a jerk. “But other than all that, he’s doing well,” she went on, concluding with a smile. “And he’s got a great fiancée.”
Lucky nodded, looking somber. “I’m glad. And I agree on the last part—my brother did good finding you.”
Rachel appeared duly flattered, and when she glanced at Tessa, Tessa flashed an expression that said,
See? He’s not so bad.
“Only . . .” Lucky scrunched his eyebrows together, suddenly looking skeptical. “Aren’t the Farrises the family mine never got along with?”
Rachel and Tessa both laughed, and Rachel said, “One in the same. And Mike and I didn’t get along very well in the beginning, either. But over time, we worked all that out.”
When both drinks were set on the bar, Rachel started to reach for her purse—until Lucky said, “No—they’re on me.” Then he looked to his friend with the goatee. “And I think
I
need a shot of whiskey.” He laughed slightly as he said it, but still seemed a bit flummoxed to Tessa.
Feeling bad about it, she moved in closer to Lucky’s side. “Hey, I’m sorry—when I invited Rachel, I didn’t think about all that might heap on you.”
But Lucky was shaking his head—as he slid his arm comfortably around her, his palm pressing into the small of her back. “No—it’s fine. It’s . . . maybe even good. Just caught me a little off guard.”
His touch sent a hot ripple down her inner thighs and she instinctively leaned even nearer, wanting to explain more. “Still, I should have anticipated that. It’s just that Rachel is my only friend who would . . .”
“What?” he asked when she trailed off.
She offered him a small smile. “Well—who would come here with me in a million years.”
They both laughed, and Lucky assured her, “Don’t worry, babe—it’s fine,” then lifted the shot glass his bartender friend had just set before him. “Pick up your drink. What should we toast to?”
Tessa thought about the night ahead and all it might bring—to both of them. Then she suggested, “New beginnings?”
“To new beginnings,” Lucky said, clinking his glass with hers.
H
alf an hour after Tessa had arrived at Gravediggers, Lucky had introduced her and Rachel to Duke—and he’d purposely
not
introduced Rocker, deciding he didn’t like the way the younger guy flirted with Tessa.
He’d found out Rachel had moved back to Destiny from Chicago to be with Mike, and that the two of them had joined up with Rachel’s grandma to run the Farris Family Apple Orchard, a piece of land that had once belonged to Lucky and Mike’s grandfather—the same one Lucky had been named for. And Lucky hadn’t been surprised to hear Mike was a cop. Given Lucky’s past, Mike’s profession wasn’t the most convenient thing in the world, but he’d been getting ready to head off to the academy before Lucky had left town.
When Rachel had asked Lucky about
his
business, he’d explained he did custom paint jobs on motorcycles. He’d been getting more and more heated up ever since Tessa had walked in the door, though, and when she’d added, “You should see his work—it’s
so
amazing,” it made him a little harder than he already was. From a mere compliment. Damn.
Of course, the few minutes he’d spent talking to his brother’s fiancée about his family had been weird, bordering between painful and . . . well, twisting his heart in a way he hadn’t expected, just to be thinking about them, hearing about them. But that shot of Jack Daniels had done the trick, numbing him to nothing but the good stuff, and that included the fact that Tessa had pulled a stool up next to his now, so close that their thighs pressed together under the bar. He never consciously decided to touch her, but somewhere along the way as they all talked, he’d eased his arm around her and kept it there. Maybe the Jack had helped with that, too—made him quit measuring his every action with her so much, made him just do what came naturally. Now he could smell her perfume, and he could feel all the sexy femininity just pouring off her in waves.
When Duke said to Rachel, “You’re the best looking thing to ever walk into my bar,” Lucky had to break it to him that the woman was engaged to his brother.
But it spurred Tessa to ask, looking back and forth between the two guys, “How do you know each other so well? Were you friends before Lucky left Destiny?”
Lucky just exchanged a look with his best friend and said, “No, we met out in California. Duke’s like a brother to me, though.” Then he glanced in Rachel’s direction, adding, “No offense to Mike.”
“Well then, Duke,” Rachel began, pausing to sip on her drink, “how did you end up living
here
, in Lucky’s home area, when
Lucky
didn’t even live here?” Then she turned to Lucky. “And where were
you
while Duke was
here
?”
The fact was, when they’d left the Devil’s Assassins, they’d decided it would be safer to split up. As for the places they’d both settled, there were additional reasons, which would make a good enough answer now. “We were traveling together and passed through here,” Lucky explained—and in fact, that was when he’d hooked up with Sharon—“and Duke liked the area.”
“I’ve got family in eastern Indiana,” Duke explained. “This is close enough without being
too
close, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Rachel said emphatically, giving Lucky the idea that maybe more people had family issues than he realized. Of course, few could have family problems as big as his.
“And guess I was ready for . . . something quieter,” Duke went on, “after living in California awhile.”
Lucky picked up where Duke left off. “And
I
wasn’t ready to, uh . . . be back home yet, so I ended up in Milwaukee. Back then, I liked being in a city, where it was busier.”
Where it was so much easier to blend in and less people asked questions about you—like this one.
“Plus, since Harley Davidson’s headquarters is there, it has a big biker population, so I figured it would be a good place to start my business—and I was right.”
“Then . . . what brought you home?” Rachel asked.
Good question. Which only Duke and Tessa knew the answer to. “Just . . . time for a change,” he finally said. He already liked Rachel and didn’t enjoy holding back the truth, but he’d grown used to it over the years, and this wasn’t the time or the way for his family to find out he had a child.
Though in response, his brother’s fiancée made a teasingly suspicious face. “
That’s
a mysterious answer.”
And Lucky just tried to keep smiling even as he lowered his gaze. “Guess I’m just a mysterious guy.”
Just then, big, bald Spider Conway marched up on the other side of Rachel, leaning in to plant his face directly before hers. “Hello, you sexy thing. If you’re lookin’ for a man who can take care of you right, you just found him.” Sounded to Lucky like Spider had had a few too many.
Behind the bar, Duke just shook his head and said, “Rachel, this is Spider.”
And Lucky waited for Rachel to cower in fear—God knew the man was intimidating, even in the biker crowd—but instead she boldly replied, “Thanks for the offer, Spider, but I
already
have a man who takes care of me right.”
Only Spider didn’t appear to be convinced. “Not like
I
can. Does he have one of these?” Lucky cringed, worried about what the hell he might show her, so it was a relief when the big man spun around to flash the black widow tattooed across the back of his head.
“Uh, no,” Rachel said, then turned toward Tessa to mouth,
Thank God
.
“Then what’s so great about this guy? What’s he got that I don’t?” Spider demanded, promising, “I can give you good lovin’ all night long, baby.”
Lucky was just about to stand up and suggest Spider move along, when Rachel replied, “Well, I love that he’s a cop. A really mean, protective one, too.”
Spider immediately took a step back, throwing his hands up like he’d just been attacked. “Hey now, I never laid a finger on you, so don’t go threatenin’ me.”
“Spider
,” Duke said firmly. “Go say hi to Gypsy. She looks lonely.”
A glance across the bar toward the chick everyone called Gypsy revealed that she didn’t look lonely at all—but she
did
look as drunk as Spider and like someone who might welcome his advances. Spider looked Gypsy’s way, then wordlessly started toward her. At least the dude was easy to distract.
“He’s harmless, by the way,” Duke informed Rachel, then dropped his gaze to her near-empty glass. “Another sex on the beach?”
She appeared to consider it, but then said, “I’m driving. One’s probably enough.”
So Duke drew his chin down slightly. “You’re not leaving
already
?”
When Lucky saw Rachel glance at Tessa, as if seeking guidance, he quickly volunteered, “I can bring Tessa home, if you’re ready to take off.”
And as Rachel cast a calm but knowing smile to say, “That’s okay—I don’t mind staying awhile longer,” he sensed that his brother wasn’t the only protective one. Rachel was still sizing him up, still deciding if it was okay to leave Tessa here with him.
But he didn’t mind—he was glad Tessa had people who cared about her.
Of course, at the same time, he was dying to get her alone, too. Though maybe . . . hell, if Rachel had no intention of giving him any private time with Tessa, maybe that was fate or God or something telling him to stick to the plan. The plan he’d always stuck to. The don’t-get-involved-with-a-woman-who-could-get-hurt-because-of-you plan. He knew what he
wanted
to do. And maybe it was the shot of whiskey he’d consumed added to a couple of beers, or maybe it was the talk he’d had with Duke earlier, but he
wanted
to just forget the past and give Little Miss Hot Stuff what they both craved. He just didn’t know if he
could
. If he could
let himself
.
Yet at the same time, he also wasn’t sure he could resist any longer. The little bit of red lace peeking up out of her top was too tempting—teasing him, beckoning him, and every time he caught a glimpse of it, his erection stiffened further. He’d been trying to avoid getting this close to his sexy neighbor—but now that he was . . . shit, he was only human.
“Hells bells,” Duke muttered, out of the blue.
“What, dude?” Lucky asked.
Duke stared toward the front door but shot Lucky a quick glance. “Red just walked in.”
“I’ll be damned,” Lucky said. And when Duke met his gaze, longer this time, he knew what they were both thinking: It would be just like Red to come up to the bar and start spouting shit that could give Tessa and Rachel a lot more clues about their past in California.
“Who’s Red?” Tessa asked, leaning into him slightly. Damn, he liked when she did that.
“Nobody important,” Duke said.
But since Duke had made him
sound
important, Lucky added, “Guy we used to know. And don’t like. That’s all.”
Duke continued eyeing Red unhappily. “Maybe I oughta just kick his ass out. I thought I’d pretty much asked him to move along the last time he showed up. I didn’t think he’d be back.”
But Lucky shook his head, his arm still comfortably around Tessa. “I’m painting the guy’s bike, remember? I gotta deal with him some more.” Then he decided
he’d
take care of it. So he reluctantly withdrew from Tessa—God, her curves were warm and sweet to hold onto—and got to his feet. “Going to the bathroom. I’ll be back.”
On the way there, though, he deliberately passed by Red, who just stood leaning up against the front wall of the bar. And after they exchanged greetings, Lucky said, “Uh, listen, Red, do me a favor and hang back here, huh? Don’t come up to the bar.”
Red’s brow knit. “Why’s that?”
“Thing is, Duke doesn’t like you, and you’d best stay clear of him, not piss him off.”
As Lucky might have predicted, Red appeared to be more hurt than angry. “Oh. Well . . . hell—don’t know what I did to him, but all right. Sure don’t wanna make him mad.”
Lucky gave him a short nod of approval. “It’s nothing personal,” he lied. “You just remind him of somebody he used to know.”
There. One bullet dodged. If he knew Red, he’d do exactly as Lucky had asked and not come anywhere near Duke—or Tessa and Rachel. Sometimes with a guy like Red, you just had to be blunt and spell things out.
And now that he no longer had to worry about Red spilling the beans about his life as a Devil’s Assassin, he could concentrate on something much more pleasant—Tessa. But the question still remained: Would he or wouldn’t he give in to the lust coursing like wildfire through his veins?
“W
ell?” Tessa whispered to Rachel as Lucky headed across the bar.
Rachel didn’t even pretend not to know what she was asking. “Okay, yes,” she said, even if she sounded none too happy about it. “He’s hot. In a big, scary biker way.”