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Authors: Shannon Stacey

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BOOK: All He Ever Needed
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Rose nodded. “I agree with that, but there are plenty of nice men in Whitford who’d love to have good sex with her. Men who are part of the community and want to settle down.”

“Well, I told Mitch he should go for it,” Fran said stubbornly.

“You’re becoming a meddling old woman.”

“And you’re not?”

Rose laughed. “Not yet, but I’m going to have to start if I ever want babies around, I think.”

“I’m telling you, I think it’ll be Mitch and Paige.”

Rose wasn’t up for arguing the point any further, so she simply shrugged. But Paige was a nice girl and she was smart enough not to get mixed up with a guy like Mitch. That relationship would only lead to heartache.

Chapter Nine

Paige was going to have to learn to nail down the specifics where Mitch was concerned. “You didn’t say anything about a motorcycle.”

“It’s a beautiful day.”

What was beautiful was the man sitting sideways on the seat of his big Harley-Davidson, with his arms crossed so the blue T-shirt was pulled tight across his shoulders, and his ankles crossed, which emphasized his long legs.

“You said we’re going shopping,” she reminded him, flailing for excuses, because she was afraid getting on that bike was going to be the beginning of the end for her resistance.

“It has the saddlebags. And I’m not planning to buy her a pony or anything. It’ll work. Hell, if we find the perfect thing and it’s too big, I’ll go back in the truck or have them ship. And I have two helmets.”

She was out of excuses, except one, and she didn’t really want to tell him she wanted to take the truck so she could keep a safe distance between her body and his body. There was no distance on a motorcycle.

“Give me a minute,” she said before going back into her house.

She rummaged through her purse and put her keys in the left front pocket of her jeans. Then she slid her license and debit card into her back pocket. The rest of it she left on the table, since a purse on a motorcycle was possible, but not practical. Then she ducked into the bathroom and took a few minutes to pull her hair into a French braid, which was the only method she knew to combat helmet hair.

Mitch was still in the same position, looking like the poster child for slightly naughty boys-next-door, when Paige walked back out and locked her door behind her.

“Where are we going?” She took the helmet he handed to her and put it on, thankful she knew how to buckle it already and wouldn’t have to feel his fingers brushing along her jaw.

“Thought we’d cruise the back roads into the city. More lunch options and places to shop.”

And more miles with her thighs wrapped around his ass. “Okay. Do you have any idea at all what you want to get? Christmas being so close, and all.”

He laughed and stood up straight so he could turn and straddle the bike. Short of clapping her hands over her eyes like a child, there was nothing Paige could do but watch and try not to drool. Then he fired the engine and kicked the stand out of the way. Once he had it balanced, he gave a little
come on
gesture with his head.

Taking a deep breath, Paige threw her leg over the short sissy bar on the back, settled on her part of the seat and set her feet on the back pegs. Then she faced the big dilemma. Hold on to the bar behind her, which become awkward and uncomfortable fairly quickly, or hold on to Mitch, which would also be awkward and uncomfortable, but immediately.

He started to walk the bike forward, cutting the wheel to miss her car, and Paige realized it had been a little longer than she thought since she’d been on a bike. As he rolled out onto the street, she put her hands on his hips out of sheer nervous reflex and, when it didn’t seem to faze him at all, left them there. He gunned the engine a bit heading through town, showing off, and she hoped the helmet hid her face well enough so the entire population of Whitford wouldn’t know within five minutes she was on the back of Mitch Kowalski’s motorcycle.

All it took was a few miles of open road to make her forget all about whether or not people knew what she was up to. It
was
a beautiful day, with the sun warm on her back, but the rushing wind keeping her cool. She watched the scenery go by in a way she never got to from the driver’s seat of her car, and breathed in the scent of fresh country air.

Her nerves had settled, but she kept her hands casually rested against Mitch’s hips. She could put them in her lap—she’d ridden with one of her mom’s boyfriends almost every day and he hadn’t even had a sissy bar—but she liked touching Mitch and he didn’t seem to mind being touched.

He turned his head a little so he could be heard over the wind and the bike’s engine. “You okay back there?”

“I’m better than okay,” she yelled back. Because she’d leaned forward so he could hear her, her breasts pressed up against his back and heat flooded her body, making her even more aware of the way his hips pressed against the inside of her thighs.

And that was why she shouldn’t have gotten on a motorcycle with Mitch. Because after two years of being fairly content to live her life without a man in it, she was once again aware of her inner thighs in a context other than wondering if they’d rub together if she made another run at the movie-night snacks. Damn him.

She leaned back as far as she dared and turned her head to the other side, checking out the roadside foliage, in an effort to discourage any further conversation.

As the miles passed, though, she relaxed again, and when he leaned back and turned his head to ask her where she wanted to eat, she didn’t bother freaking out over the close contact.

“You choose,” she hollered back to him.

After a while, he pulled the bike into the parking lot for a restaurant that was a little more upscale than what she was used to. She’d been there once, for a baby shower, but it wasn’t the kind of place she’d eat on a regular basis.

“Not really dressed for this place,” she said after he’d shut the bike off and they’d removed their helmets.

“You look fine and they don’t have a dress code.” He must have seen something in her expression, because his face softened. “Look, the service here is top-notch. You’re on your feet most of the day doing this, so let’s let somebody wait on you for a change.”

“Okay.” She wanted to point out it was a little expensive, but he obviously knew that if he was familiar with the service.

She had to admit, once they were seated at a table under subtle lighting with music piped in at just the right volume, that it was nice to relax and not be the one running back and forth to the kitchen for a change.

“When you go to a restaurant, do you spend the whole time comparing it to yours?” Mitch asked after the server had taken their orders.

“Not really. I don’t get out to other restaurants often, for one thing. And the Trailside Diner works well for me and for the town. That’s all that matters.” She took a sip of her iced tea, watching him over the glass. “When you go to a restaurant, do you spend the whole time wondering how you’d blow it up?”

He laughed and shook his head. “The last thing I do when I’m sitting across the table from a beautiful woman is mentally demo the building.”

Paige felt the heat spread over her cheeks and hoped the lighting was dim enough to hide it. “How did you end up destroying buildings for a living, anyway?”

“I’d always had an interest in buildings and engineering. During college I got a part-time job with a demo company. Small stuff, mostly. But I had an eye for it—the ability to see how any action would impact the structure. After I got my degree, I signed on with a good company and built up my résumé and my skill set until I could get the loan and backing to go out on my own. I get to secretly be a math and science geek and still have the coolest job in the room.”

“Do you still have to travel as much yourself, or do you have enough people now so you can relax and delegate?” When his expression changed—became a little more guarded—she replayed her words in her head and realized he might think she was fishing for signs he was heading toward settling down. “Sometimes I wonder if I’ll reach the point where I can hire a morning waitress and I can just be the owner. Or if I even want to.”

“I’m barely surviving this so-called vacation. It seems like I’m calling or emailing the office or Scott every half hour.”

“But you don’t have to, right? They’re doing okay without you, so you could take more time for yourself.”

“I don’t want to be hands-off. Northern Star Demolition doesn’t leave me a lot of time and energy for anything else, and I like it that way.”

Point taken, even if that’s not what she’d been going for. “How are things going at the lodge?”

He shrugged, but she noticed the lines in his face relaxed a little. “Hard to say. We can slap paint on it and fix broken boards all day long, but we haven’t sat down and figured out how to make it sustain itself financially. Or if it even can.”

“The economy will swing around again.” She gave a nervous laugh. “And here I am grilling you about work stuff when we’re in a fabulous restaurant.”

“You can talk about whatever you want, as long as you keep talking to me.”

Thankfully, their server chose that minute to show up with their food, because she had no idea what to say to that. She wasn’t even sure she
could
say anything, since everything inside her had melted a little.

She was in so much trouble.

* * *

Mitch wasn’t going to make it through the day without kissing Paige. He wasn’t sure how he was going to pull off the kiss, though. If there was one thing he’d figured out about Paige Sullivan, it was that moving fast would be like stomping his foot at a skittish cat. She’d flee and it would be a good long time before she let him get close again. But he wasn’t going to have a minute’s peace until he kissed her.

It hadn’t been his intention when he’d asked her to lunch. He’d seen Jean and Dana giggling together like idiots at the diner, and he’d seen Paige hesitate as she’d approached the table. No doubt Dana had trotted out the old sex-in-the-canoe story.

It burned his ass a little, to have Paige have to hear that crap about him. He’d been sixteen at the time and they hadn’t actually had sex. They’d rounded the bases in good style, but he hadn’t slid into home, so to speak. But that didn’t make for good lunch gossip twenty years later.

He’d made up his mind right then he was going to get Paige out of Whitford. It didn’t matter if it was only for a few hours—he wanted to spend some time with her away from the grapevine.

Now he had her, in the romantic lighting with the soft music, and he never wanted to take her home. They talked about music and books and movies, though television shows didn’t go far, since she didn’t have cable and he didn’t watch much TV.

He didn’t care. She could talk to him about the weather or floral centerpieces and she’d have his full attention. Away from the diner and the people who knew everybody’s business, Paige was totally relaxed, and he liked her that way.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Paige said, pausing with a forkful of strawberry cheesecake halfway to her mouth.

He’d suggested the cheesecake mostly as a way of prolonging lunch, but he was glad he had. Watching the expression on her face as she slid the fork out of her mouth made him wonder if she’d gone without fine desserts as long as rumor had it she’d gone without a man.

Once he’d run out of reasons to keep her all to himself in the restaurant, they went back out into the late-afternoon sun.

“Do you have any idea of which store you want to start with?”

It took him a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about, then he laughed. Christmas shopping.

She gave him a suspicious look. “You said we were going to look for Rose’s gift today.”

And he didn’t want to confess it had been the first, admittedly ridiculous, reason to accompany him he thought she’d go for. “I’m too full to shop now.”

“I know what you mean. This may have been a late lunch, but I won’t eat again until breakfast tomorrow.”

“What do you say we blow off shopping and cruise around on the bike?”

When she told him that sounded like a great idea, he turned toward the Harley so she wouldn’t see him grinning like a love-struck teenager. He rarely took women out on the bike—as in
almost never
. His own opportunities to ride it were few and far between, and he used the time to think things through and clear his head.

He liked having Paige on the back, though. She was comfortable enough that she didn’t have a stranglehold on him, and he could enjoy the feel of her thighs pressing against his and her hand at his hips.

Mitch took a different route out of the city and cruised the back roads, pointing out interesting bits of scenery here and there. The bike was a bit loud and, with their helmets on, talking was difficult, so mostly he just burned up the miles and enjoyed the feel of her behind him.

It took over an hour to reach one of his favorite spots in the area. It wasn’t much more than a wide spot in the shoulder, but he pulled the bike in and parked it near the tree line. Bracing his feet, he waited while she put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself and climbed off, then he leaned the bike onto its stand.

“Where are we?” Paige hung her helmet on the sissy bar and pushed at the wisps of hair escaping from her braid.

“Just wait.” After hanging his helmet from the handlebar, he led her to a narrow path in the trees and reached out his hand. “It’s a little steep.”

With Paige’s hand in his, he walked along the short trail and a mild slope down to the river. A huge slab of rock extended out over a brook and he stepped on it, tugging her along with him.

“A little steep, huh?” Paige asked, amusement in her voice.

“I just wanted to hold your hand.”

She didn’t pull away, which made him ridiculously happy. Instead she looked around, so he did the same, taking in the way the fading sun shone through the trees and hit the water in splotches of gold. There was just enough current in the water that it gurgled through the rocks, and birds chirped from the cover of full summer foliage.

“It’s beautiful.” Paige didn’t whisper, but her voice was soft and low, as if she didn’t want to disturb their surroundings. “I bet you bring all the girls here.”

“Nope.” He’d never brought a woman there before, though he wasn’t sure why. And he wasn’t sure why he’d brought Paige. “I don’t come here very often. Maybe that’s what keeps it special. I came the day after my dad’s funeral, though. Laid on this rock and looked up at the sky for a while.”

She squeezed his hand. “It seems like a nice place to be alone with your thoughts.”

It was an even better place to be alone with her, though he didn’t say that out loud. There was a fine line between flirting and getting mushy, and it was bad enough his mind had even gone there. He wasn’t about to share it.

BOOK: All He Ever Needed
4.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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