The Girl with my Heart (Summer Unplugged #8) (5 page)

Bayleigh gets a call from her mom just as we’re arriving at home. I hang up my truck keys on the hook by the door and then slip behind her while she’s talking on the phone. I slide my fingers under her hair and pull it over one shoulder, leaning in to kiss the soft skin on her neck.

She keeps talking to her mom, ignoring me, so I kiss her again, sliding my hands down her arms. Goose bumps prickle across her skin and I run my tongue down the side of her neck, stopping at her collarbone.

She draws in a sharp breath of air and tries to keep her voice steady. “Yeah, Mom. Sounds good. Okay…”

With my lips still on her neck, I slide my hands around her waist, gripping her hips as I pull her back against my chest.

“Okay Mom, I gotta go!” Bayleigh ends the call and spins around, glaring at me. “You are so bad, Jace Adams.”

I give her an evil grin. “I couldn’t help myself. So,” I say, touching her chin and lifting her head so I can kiss her. “What’d she say?”

“She’s leaving her house now so she’ll be here in 45 minutes.”

“That’s music to my ears,” I say, unable to hide my grin. “Care to join me in the bedroom?”

She grins and looks down at her feet. “Yeah, I suppose.”

“What do you mean, you suppose?” My brows furrow. “It’s fine if you don’t want to, babe.”

“No, I want to I just—ugh.” She throws her arms in the air and turns around, heading down the hallway.

“Ugh what?” I follow her into our bedroom and close the door. She twists her arms behind her back, unzipping the back of her dress. “Ugh what?” I say again. My heart has had enough weird confusion to last for decades.

“Ugh, because yeah, we can do it and yeah, I want to, but now it’s going to be weird because I told you how nervous I am about my body.”

“Ba-abe,” I say with a groan. “We should be over this by now. There isn’t a single thing wrong with your body.” I reach my arms around her back and slide the dress over her shoulders, then push it down her body and let it fall to the floor.

She cocks a foot out, one hand on her hip. She’s wearing a strapless bra and black panties and I can’t help but smile when she makes this sarcastic face at me. “See?” I say, holding out my hands. “You’re perfect.”

She rolls her eyes. And then she grins, taking a step closer to me. “I guess I can accept that you feel the way you do,” she says slowly, sliding her fingers up the bottom of my shirt. “It just sucks that I don’t understand what you see in me. There are so many other woman who are much prettier than I am.”

I let her pull my shirt up and over my head and then I slide my arms around her back, unfastening her bra. “Okay even if that was true, and it’s not, trust me—who fucking cares? I want you and I’m in love with you and I don’t really give a damn if any other woman on the planet is attractive.”

She runs her hands down my chest, her fingers bobbing over the abs I spend an hour in the gym each day to perfect. Okay, now I might get what she’s saying. “Does it bother you that I’m—uh…in shape?”

“Yeah,” she says quickly, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “If you were fat and frumpy like me then I’d feel a hell of a lot better.”

I can’t help but bust out laughing. “Oh my god, babe. I work out every day for you. I just want to be hot for you.”

“That’s sweet of you baby but don’t you see how it makes me feel like shit? I don’t work out. I guess I should start.”

I toss her bra away and cup her breasts in my hands. “Nuh-uh,” I say, my lips pressing against her soft skin as I bend down, kissing the space between her cleavage. “I fell in love with you the way you are…so don’t change.” I place a trail of kisses across her breasts, then pull her backwards two steps so I can sit on the edge of the bed, holding her body in front of me while I caress her abdomen with soft kisses.

She lets out a faint moan and tilts her head to the side, running her fingers through my hair. I squeeze her hips and take her nipple in my mouth, gently caressing it with my tongue. She grips my head harder and I slip my fingers under the top of her panties, sliding them down. She kicks them off and gives me a devilish grin.

That’s it. I rise to my feet and pull off my jeans in a flash. Then I wrap my arms around her and fall back onto the bed, pulling her on top of me.

“I love you,” she whispers with her lips brushing against mine. I slide my hands down her back, over her amazing ass and back up again.

“I love you more.”

It’s hard to focus on the road as I drive to work the next day. My thoughts are filled with Bayleigh, and trying to come up with ways to let her know that I love her so unconditionally that it hurts. Actually, no, not that. I need to find a way to show her that she’s truly beautiful, that she’s so not fat and that however many wavy lines are on her thighs—I don’t pay attention to that. I don’t notice them and I don’t care. It doesn’t change her beauty in any way at all.

If only she’d just believe me.

I pull into the long gravel roadway that leads into Mixon Motocross Park, mentally going over each client I have scheduled today. There’s only four, so half of my day will be free. That’s not good for business, but it’s good for getting some practice time in on my dirt bike.

My truck radio morphs into the call screen, connecting to the Bluetooth on my phone that’s stashed in the backpack on the seat next to me. “Hey man,” I say, answering the phone with a push of a button my steering wheel. I freaking love this new truck.

“What would you think about me moving there to Mixon?” Park says in what is surprisingly a serious tone of voice.

“You serious?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh,” I muse, pulling into my parking spot and cutting the engine. I stay seated so I can keep talking. “Why on earth would you leave the beautiful beaches of Cali to come down to po-dunk Texas?”

Park is one of the wildest guys I know. At least he used to be, before he started dating Bayleigh’s best friend Becca.

He sighs into the phone and I can’t tell if he’s frustrated or excited or what. “Why do you think?”

“Becca?” I sound like a squawking bird, but I can’t believe my ears right now. “Are you fucking serious?”

“What’s wrong with Becca?”

I laugh. “Nothing, man. She’s great and Bayleigh loves her. I’m questioning you. You don’t settle down with girls for more than a month and you sure as hell don’t move across the country for one.”

“Tell me about it,” he says. “But this isn’t some crazy spur of the moment thing. I’ve been wanting to do it since our first date.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Beside me, Natalie’s red Camaro slides into a parking spot. I glance over, just because there’s movement and not because it’s Natalie. She’s already looking at me though and she throws me a seductive wink as she leans over into her passenger seat to grab her purse. Ugh.

“Say something,” Park says.

I turn my attention back to the steering wheel. “I think it’s cool. And I’d love having my best friend live here, hell I can probably get you a job.”

“That’s actually what I really wanted to talk about,” Park says.

I lift an eyebrow. “You want a job? You know I’m happy to do it.”

“Not exactly. What would you think about starting a business with me?”

After I give my first two riding lessons of the day, I head back to my office, eager to read the email Park sent me. He had briefly told me on the phone about his idea to buy some cheap land between here and Lawson, Bayleigh and Becca’s hometown, and start our own motocross training facility.

I’m practically skipping to my office, reveling in the blast of cold AC that flows in through the vents after spending the whole morning outside. The thrill of going into business with my best friend, doing something I love no less, has almost made me forget about the drama in the corporate part of my job.

My assistant.

She sits in my office chair when I arrive, her bare feet kicked back on my desk, painting her nails the same bright red color as her lipstick. She’s wearing cutoff jean shorts so fucking short I could see her pubes, if they weren’t waxed off. Her black tank top has the word
bitch
across the front in sparkling letters.

Yeah, I’ll say.

“Hey there,” she says sweetly, like she’s just a regular girl next door type.

“Get out of my chair,” I bark.

She sits up quickly and caps the lid on her nail polish. “Sorry, Jace. I thought you were with a client until noon.”

“How the fuck did you know that?”

“Whoa,” she says, holding up her hands. “Can I get you some coffee or something? You’re awfully crabby today.”

“Yeah, actually. Get me a coffee.”

Her smile widens. “Sure thing, boss.”

I let out the mother of all sighs when she fucking finally leaves the room. I hate this girl. She’s unprofessional in every aspect of the word. I hang my head out of the door to my office. “Mr. Fisher?” I call toward his open office door.

No reply except for the churning of the mini fridge in his office. He must be out. I slide my phone out of my pocket and send off a text without reading over it. I’m too pissed to take a deep breath and think logically.

This bitch has to go. If a slutty skank is the only option, then I don’t need an assistant.

I power up my computer and focus on the start screen when Natalie walks back in, a cup of coffee in her hand and a plate of cookies in the other. “Coffee and cookies,” she says sweetly, in this voice that’s so damn fake I almost laugh. She’s like a greeting card come to life. “I made them myself.”

I lift an eyebrow, staring at the perfectly round chocolate chip cookies layered neatly on the plate.

“Well,” she says with a laugh, “My mom helped.”

Even though I love chocolate chip cookies, especially the homemade ones Bay makes, I throw a look of distain toward the plate and take the coffee. I wish I could scorn the coffee as well, but I really need it if I’m going to stay sane. “Did we have a power outage?” I ask, shaking my mouse and wishing the damn computer would power up already.

“Nope,” she says, placing a hand on the corner of my desk. She’s somehow managed to get a foot closer to me in the last few seconds.

“Weird. I didn’t turn off my computer this morning. Damn thing must have crashed.”

She turns on her heel, still barefoot, and walks toward my door, shaking her hips like she’s in some kind of girl band music video. “No…I don’t think that’s what happened.”

I look at her questioningly. “What happened to my computer?”

She shrugs. “I think it just had some sensitive material that needed to be protected.”

“Protected?”

She nods toward my computer monitor, which now displays the log in screen. “
Password
protected,” she says with a coy smile.

I frown, wondering what the hell this girl is on about now. I start to type my password when there’s a knock at my office door. “What the hell is it?” I say, not looking up.

“Damn, is that how you greet a friend of twenty years?” Park steps into my office, holding up his hands like he’s surrendering. “I mean, I expected some cursing, but not like that.”

“Shit, man, I’m sorry.” I stand up and throw my arms around him in a big ass, but still manly, hug. “I’ve had shit day.”

He glances at his watch. “It’s only noon. How much bad shit can happen in a few hours?”

“It’s mostly just one bad thing—that bitch of an assistant.”

Park glances over his shoulder, but Natalie is long gone. “
That’s
your assistant?” He lets out a long breath of air, shaking his head. “I thought she was some kind of prostitute.”

I laugh and it feels good to laugh after being so high strung and stressed around Natalie just now. “Trust me…I don’t want her working for me. Mr. Fisher was obligated to give her a job and he hasn’t given me a choice.”

Park sits on the corner of my desk, studying his cell phone—no doubt texting Becca while we chat. “And what does Mrs. Adams think about this? I can’t imagine Bay being okay with you having an assistant, much less that one.”

My lips slide to the side of my mouth and I shake my head, turning back to my computer. I lean forward and type in my password, which is written on a sticky note on my monitor. “She doesn’t know, and I’m hoping to get rid of her before Bay finds out.”

“I won’t say a word then,” Park says, looking up from his phone.

“It’s not that I want to lie to her, but she’s going through a lot with the baby now and it’d kill me if she knew about Natalie. She’d take it the wrong way even though there’s not shit going on with this bitch.”

“I hear you,” Park says with a nod. As if this kind of thing happens all the time. And for him—the four time national supercross champion—I’m sure it does.

I press the enter key on the keyboard and nearly throw up. “What the fuck?”

“Holy shit!” Park nearly falls off the corner of my desk.

I kick, rolling my office chair back a few feet, if only to get away from the filthy image that has been set as my computer’s wallpaper. There, behind the handful of icons, taking up the entire nineteen inch monitor, is a photo of Natalie, bending over my office chair and hiking up her skirt, showing off her severe lack of panties. She stares in what I’m guessing is her attempt at being seductive, into the camera, holding up a photo of me, with her tongue grazing across my two dimensional lips.

Park’s hand slides down his face. “You definitely don’t want Bayleigh to see that.”

My jaw clenches. I want to throw the monitor out the fucking window. But that wouldn’t solve the problem. In order to get rid of the offensive image, I’ll have to look at it while I change the background setting. My blood boils as I sit rigid in my chair, right-clicking and choosing the default blue screen image to replace the wallpaper. When it pops into place, removing Natalie’s disgusting crotch from my screen, I realize that this might not be the only picture on here.

“That girl needs help,” Park says, sliding off the desk. “She knows you’re married right?”

“Believe me, I’ve told her.” I throw a hand toward the silver frame on my desk, the photo of Bay and me. “If anything, I think she likes fucking with me even more because I’m married. It’s some sick game for her.”

I click on the pictures folder and scroll through, my heart racing as I hope that I won’t find an array of unwanted photos. Luckily the wallpaper was the only photo I can find.

“So,” I say, leaning back in my chair with a heavy sigh. “Let’s talk about this business idea.”