them where they sat at the table, I set about making sandwiches for us to eat. When I occupied myself with something, it almost made me forget the disgusting things he did to me.
Almost.
~ Present Day ~
When I walked out of school the next afternoon, I was surprised to find Vincent parked at the bus stop again. I’d just been about to cross the street with Mariah to go to her car when I saw him standing by his bike waiting for me.
As usual, he was dressed in that way that bothered me—his jeans, shirt, and jacket all hugged his body in a way that made me stare for too long. It was like when you knew something was trouble, but it just looked so darn good that you couldn’t stay away. That’s what Vincent did to me.
“Oh my God,” Mariah said, her voice high pitched. “Vincent Madden is here.”
She said it as though I’d gone temporarily blind and couldn’t see the huge anomaly in my life. Vincent stood out like a Goth at a Justin Bieber concert—he wasn’t very hard to miss.
“Yes, I know, Ray,” I said, trying to get a firm hold of my emotions. Vincent had a way of making me feel things I didn’t want to feel. “I didn’t expect him to be here.”
That was the truth. I know he’d come to see me here yesterday, but I thought that that had only been a once off thing. I honestly didn’t think he’d come all the way to Statlen just to pick me up.
“He is so hot,” Mariah chattered on as we crossed the street together and approached Vincent, “in an I’m- going-to-pull-a-gun-out-on-you kinda way or a mess-with-me-and-I’ll-kick-you-in-the-phalange kinda way.”
Rolling my eyes at her, I lowered my voice so Vincent wouldn’t hear me. “You are so deluded by hot guys, it’s not even funny. You need a reality check. That is not hot.”
“Oh, come on, Estee! He’s hot in a dangerous, bad boy way. Even you have eyes. You’re the one who needs a reality check. I don’t see how you control yourself from ripping his clothes off.”
I let out a breath, feeling irritated that a part of me agreed with her. “Yes, okay, there might be a part of me that finds him attractive, but it’s not enough to make up for his mental imbalance. Therefore, my logic declares that he is not hot.”
“That’s not what your friend thinks.”
My face went hot at the sound of Vincent’s voice, and I turned to find him watching us with a knowing smirk on his lips.
Darn! He’d heard us! As if I needed another reason to feel awkward around him.
Quickly recovering, I flipped my hair over my shoulders and tried to control the heat that I could feel pooling in my cheeks. “My friend has brain damage. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. Therefore her comments aren’t valid.”
Vincent took off his aviators and hung them on the front of shirt, the smirk still playing around his mouth. “Let me get this straight; your friend has brain damage, I’m mentally imbalanced, yet you hang around with us, so what does that make you?”
“Clinically insane, obviously,” I blurted out without really thinking.
Vincent let out a laugh which sent tingles shooting through my stomach in ten different directions. This was not good. My body must be clinically insane for reacting to Vincent like that.
“I kinda figured that the first night I found you talking to yourself in a British accent.”
From beside me, Mariah let out a snort. “You speak to yourself in a British accent?”
Trying my best to ignore her, I gave Vincent a flippant look. “Well, I knew you were trouble the first night we met.”
“Of course I’m trouble. I’m Vincent Madden.” Vincent’s eyes twinkled as he leaned in closer. “But don’t change the subject. It’s okay to find me attractive. Most women do.” He gave Mariah a wink and I swear, she actually sighed dreamily.
Feeling flustered, I took a step forward, unwilling to back down. “Well, the fact that you’re in a criminal motorcycle gang makes you unattractive to me. I’m one woman who doesn’t find you attractive in the slightest.”
Vincent grinned. “
My eyes fluttered to his lips, and my heart was doing cartwheels. We were silent, sizing the other up, trying not to break eye contact. It was a silent staring match and whoever broke away was obviously scared of feeling something and, heck, I was feeling a lot of things.
The one thing I wasn’t feeling was fear. Or repulsion. Or disgust.
Vincent didn’t make me feel any of the things I’d felt two years ago. He made me feel warm, like somehow a part of him and a part of me just clicked into place. Which was strange because this guy was a Madden and he was definitely not the kind of guy I should feel comfortable around.
Luckily, Mariah broke up the stare down for us. “Jeez, get a room you two. You can stop screwing each other with your eyes now.”
And the embarrassment just kept coming.
I snapped my eyes away from Vincent and placed my hands on my hips as I faced Mariah. “Ray! Seriously, do you ever think about anything else?”
Mariah stuck her tongue out at me. “Hey, we were all thinking it. I’ll leave you two alone so you can continue your googly eye, staring thing. Call me tonight, okay?” She grinned at Vincent. “Thank you for not stabbing me or taking my money.” Despite the situation, a laugh escaped me as I watched Mariah walk away to where her car was parked around the corner.
When I turned back to Vincent, he was still watching me. Clearing his throat, he approached his bike and threw me the helmet.
“She’s…interesting,” he mused as he climbed onto the bike.
“That’s definitely one word to describe her, yes.” I climbed on behind him, wrapping my arms tightly around his firm, muscled body.
He gunned the engine and we didn’t speak as he headed to Penthill. The next thirty minutes went by in a blur of trees and fields. I loved the rural landscape that came with the outlying area of Penthill. Not that Statlen was a huge city or anything, but I liked the farms and dirt roads out here. Statlen was more of a suburban town; Penthill had a country feel to it.
I loved how I didn’t need to say or even think anything. There was just a sense of being alive on the back of this bike with Vincent that I had never felt before.
When Vincent pulled up into this driveway, I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to get off.
“You good, Stelle?” he asked, turning his head a little so I could see his profile. His lips were inches away from mine, and I could actually feel the air passing from his mouth.
Vincent’s dark eyes searched mine and it was like being pulled in by a magnet. There was an unspoken connection between us that made shivers erupt in the pit of my stomach. If he touched me, I was sure I would fall apart.
I felt myself nodding, my eyes were fluttering shut, and my mouth was drawing closer and closer to Vincent’s. I was trying to keep my thoughts pure, but I’d never met a guy like Vincent before and those lips of his were tempting me.
Then Vincent turned his head and swore under his breath, breaking the connection between us. “I told them to stay away when you’re here.”
What on earth was he talking about?
I was about to shoot him a strange look, but that’s when my eyes landed on the eight bikes neatly parked out the front of Vincent’s house that we’d both failed to notice earlier on.
“What’s going on?” I asked, hopping off the bike and approaching the house uncertainly.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt Vincent press his hand into the small of my back. He was only a few inches taller than me, so I only had to raise my head a little to meet his gaze.
There was a sheepish expression on his face, and he ran his free hand over his long hair. “Well, the boys
