Twisted Desire (The Twisted Series) (4 page)

Aliah escapes that conversation by the nick of her
teeth.  It’s no wonder she hates hanging around the ladies.  They
always have to pry at her personal life.  She hates nothing more than
discussing relationships, marriage and love.  Those aren’t things she ever
intends on finding and so there is no point in acting like she cares to hear
about it.

What she really needs is a fun man-friend who can meet all
of her sexual needs.  Then again her friend Abby had tried that with Edwin
and look where that got her.  Regardless, she isn’t Abby and she has
measures in place to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself for her.

She wonders when it became so difficult to find a man who
can appreciate a casual, detached relationship.  Her sex toys had helped
her get through the first few months after Hunter Wight had dumped her, back
when she knew that spreading her legs for another man would never mend her
broken heart.  But she needs a backup plan, for when she’s looking for
something more than a cold, trembling dildo.

After a long, lonely year, Aliah had finally drummed up the
courage to give other men a try, but they were deficient in many areas. 
She has only hit up the best looking ones, even the ones she had a few years
on, but they were substandard lovers.  She supposes there were a couple of
guys who might have lived up to her standards, with a little practice, but the
bastards always break the rules.

Aliah doesn’t want to meet the parents, or cuddle on the
couch to watch a movie on Saturday night.  She doesn’t need dinner or
shiny trinkets to fill the void in her heart.  She doesn’t need showered
with gifts of flowers or chocolate.  All she needs is an experienced sex
god to tease and please her and hit the road when he’s done lighting her bed on
fire.

Is that too much to ask?

All those other things lead to one thing.  The one
thing she plans on avoiding at all costs.

Falling in love.

Aliah Brooklin will not be making that mistake again.

She can’t believe a whole year has passed since she has
gotten laid though.  She has already burned out two vibrators, and has led
a lot of men on, but she can’t seem to go through the motions again. 
She’s afraid, though, that if she doesn’t find a friend soon, she’ll die a
lonely, old spinster, complete with crotchety cobwebs.

It isn’t until her lifelong friend, Mitchell Cavanagh, finds
himself a woman that she realizes how dire a situation it has become.  Her
and Mitchell go way back, that is true, but they’re just friends.  He does
not fit the bill to be the man in her life, and she’s just not attracted to him
that way.

It’s no secret that Mitchell has always had the hots for
her, and it’s true that she’s always known it, but they’ve never let that get
in the way of their friendship.  They are buddies.  And apart from
Abby, he is her best.

Aliah pulls into the parking lot across from Riley’s
Pub.  She glances across the main street at the warm brick building and
the double wooden doors.  The patio is surrounded in black rod-iron
fencing and protects a number of tables with beer-branded umbrellas hanging
above them.  Despite the fact that it’s a beautiful night, the patio is
nearly empty.  The heat from the afternoon has scorched the brick, and
almost everyone seems to be hiding inside to take advantage of the
air-conditioning.

By the time Aliah reaches the front door of the place,
perspiration glistens off her exposed chest.  She pushes the doors open
and instantly sees that there is a lively crowd filling the seats at the
bar.  Her prospects are looking promising. 
She smiles at them all and acts like she owns
the place, rounding the bar to grab herself a refreshment. 
All the
bartenders are so busy filling orders that they don’t even notice.

After bumping a willing young man out of a bar stool, Aliah
takes her new found seat.  Mitchell peeks out from the cold storage room
and smiles at her.

“Hey, you,” he hollers, stacking a few cases of beer in the
refrigerator.

“Hey, yourself.”

Mitchell wipes down the bar with a meaty hand and smiles at
her.  “Have you eaten?”

She pulls her stool closer, ignoring the fellow drooling
over her shoulder, and reaches for her draft beer.  She lifts it up and
smiles at Mitchell.

“Aliah, you have to eat something.”

“If you say so.”

Ten minutes later, a plate is being slid in front of her. 
As Aliah finishes her meal, she drops her napkin on top of her plate and walks
to the end of the bar with her dirty dishes.  Mitchell hasn’t reappeared
from his office in the past 15 minutes, and the place is packed.  He isn’t
one to spend much time in there, especially when he’s clearly needed on the
floor.  She decides to check up on him.

Aliah carries her dishes to the dishwasher and smiles. 
“Is he in there?” she asks the girl in the kitchen, pointing at the closed
office door.

“Yep.  But I wouldn’t go in there, if I were you. 
I think he’s taking care of business.”

Aliah barges into the room and catches Mitchell with his
back to her, facing the wall.  He’s shouting into the phone.  It
sounds like an all-out screaming match.  He must be truly mad too, because
it takes a lot to get this brother to holler.

“Tanya.  That’s enough,” he shouts into the
phone.  Then he peers over his shoulder and hints for Aliah to close the
door.  “This is not acceptable in my book.  Three strikes you’re out,
honey.”  He hangs up the phone, as the door clicks shut.

Aliah can’t stop smirking.  She takes the seat from
across his desk, lifts a heeled shoe and props it on the top of it.  “Who
the hell was that?”

“Tanya,” he answers.  Then he sighs and wipes a weary
hand over his face.

“Tanya, the waitress, Tanya?”

“You got it.  She was supposed to be here half an hour
ago.  But she was a no-show.  That’s the third time this month. 
So I called her.  If she had told me she was on her way, then I was going
to give her one last chance.  But we’re swamped here, we’re understaffed
tonight as it is, and she’s out partying with her boyfriend.”

Aliah nods, agreeing with how outlandish some people can be.

“I hate to let her go, Ally.  But I can’t let her act
like that and get away with it.  The last thing I need is the others
thinking I’m a pushover.”

Aliah gets up from her chair and walks around his
desk.  “You’re not a pushover,” she teases, as she shoves his shoulder
backward.

Mitchell smiles, giving her the response she was hoping for. 
“Come here,” he says.

She slips into his outstretched arms and gives him a great
big bear hug.  “If you need help, you know I’m here for you.”

“Really?  You would do that for me?”

“Yeah,” Aliah answers.  “I can help bus tables, or fill
beer orders.  But no dishes.  Not looking like this.”  She waves
a hand between them.  She always dresses like a pop star, whenever she
walks out of the house after dark.

Mitchell’s smile grows even bigger.  “You know I would
never do anything to harm your beautiful reputation.”

She slaps at him and breaks away from his arms.  “You
ass.”

Mitchell chuckles, as his girlfriend knocks on the
door.  When Aliah glances over her shoulder, she sees Brandee peering
through the window, like a nosy principal ready to scorn the teacher inside for
canoodling with a student.

Aliah heads for the door and grabs the handle.  “It
wasn’t locked.”

Brandee’s eyes are so narrow that they can barely be called
open.  “You looked like you might have been busy in here.  Was
my
boyfriend
keeping you busy?”

“
Your boyfriend
was giving someone the boot.”

“And Aliah was so kind as to offer her help,” Mitchell adds,
merrily.

“How sweet of Aliah,” Brandee moans, forcing an unattractive
smile onto her face.  “I have to run an errand.  Do you think you’ll
be alright while I’m gone?”

The look Brandee gives Aliah is amusing.  No one needs
her for anything.  She must know that.

All three of them make their way to the bar.  Aliah’s
the last of them to pass through the kitchen.  As Brandee tugs Mitchell to
the door, Aliah glances up.  A flash of light catches on the door and a
man appears from out of the darkness.

Her eyes get hooked on this dude who’s standing there,
looking all bad-boy sexy.  His look is complete with a tight pair of jeans
and a soft leather jacket that fits perfectly over his sculpted muscles. 
When he peels off his jacket, it only gets better.  Every inch of that
body demands her attention.  All six feet of it.  His tattooed arms
bulge from his shirt and she just wants to grab onto that ass and maybe take a
bite out of him.

The guy nods at someone who’s across the room and she tries
not to gawk to see who it is.  No one she knows.  Then he finds
himself a bar stool, at least four away from her, and casually glances over at
her, snaring her eyes again.

“Hey,” she shouts, finding it difficult not to talk to him
now that he’s caught her gawking shamelessly.

“Hey.”  His reply is short and curt.

Annoying.

He wears a sleeve of tattoos on one of his arms and a look
of danger on that sexy face.  He isn’t wearing a ring on that finger, but
he certainly isn’t giving her the time of day.  She doesn’t know what it
is particularly about this guy, but she just wants to lick him.

She moves closer, drawn in by his careless attitude. 
“Can I get you something to drink?”  That seems to get his attention.

“Are you buying?”  He’s smirking and she just then
realizes it’s because she’s standing on the wrong side of the bar.

“Sure.  Why not?”  She walks around the bar, pulls
out two bottles of beer and slides them to the middle of the bar.

He watches her every move, but doesn’t comment.  She
hands him one of the bottles and he takes it, but he doesn’t thank her.

What an ass!

She is sure he can read her thoughts, because he is smiling
again, and that’s good for him.  But she wonders why it’s getting her
blood pumping so hard.  He lifts his beer, twists off the cap and slides
it over to her, pressing it into her hand.  Then he reaches over the bar
and cracks open the second one.

“It won’t kill you.”  He clinks their bottles together,
and keeps his eyes on her as he draws a long, slow gulp from his own.

She sees the way tattooed-sexy wraps those lips around the
bottle, and the way his eyes promise a whole night of dirty fun.  It sends
a shiver passing across her heated flesh.

“The name’s Harley,” he says, reaching out a rough masculine
hand.

“Where’s your motorcycle, Harley?” she answers, thinking
she’s
so
smart.

“What makes you think I have a bike?”

“Are you saying you don’t?”

“No.”  He raises a brow and it is so damn sexy.

She can’t stop her mouth from smiling really hard. 
“That’s what I thought.”

After a moment of silence passes, she decides to take a sip
from her beer.

“You here often?” he asks her.

Aliah loves how he cuts to the chase.  She can just
imagine how much fun it would be to tumble around for a few hours with this sex
stick.  “Once or twice a week, if you must know.”  She answers like
it’s a bother for her to talk to him, but that doesn’t seem to affect him one
bit.

“I haven’t seen you around here before.”

She gives him a devilishly sexy look.  “I guess today’s
your lucky day then.”  The way he watches her makes her very conscious of
her tongue when she speaks.  His eyes continue to sear her parted lips.

“I’m surprised a beautiful girl like you is still single.”

“Did I say that?”

“I just thought…”

“Well, aren’t you smooth?”  She pauses for dramatic
effect and loves the way his name rolls slowly off her tongue.  “
Harley
.”

That seems to get his wheels turning.  She loves the furrowed
brow he gets when he thinks a little too hard.  She serves a couple of
customers and finds herself on his side of the bar again.

“So, you’re not single?”  He just keeps pressing.

“I didn’t say that.”

He lifts his hands in defeat.  “I don’t know who hurt
you, but he’s obviously ruined it for the rest of us.”  After he says the
words, she can actually see a look of regret in his eyes.  It’s like he
hates that he’s letting her get to him.  She loves it.  Him? 
Not so much.

“The rest of who?” she asks, peering over her shoulder at
the locals lining the bar behind her.

“Men in general.  Your future husband, maybe.”

Hah!  Good One! 
“Who said I ever plan on
getting married?”

“I just assumed…”

“You know what they say about that.”

It’ll make an ASS out of U and ME.

He chuckles and swipes a hand across his face, then looks at
her again.  “I just thought that most beautiful women your age will have
found a man to have a kid or two with by now.”  He fumbles over his words
and that makes Aliah smile.

“My age?”  She loves how she’s always one-upping him.

He doesn’t know how to handle her.  “I just
meant…  Forget it.”  His eyes touch her all over.  “You don’t
really look like the marrying type.”

Aliah narrows her eyes, even while a wave of excitement
floods her limbs from his slow perusal of her body.  “You really need to
learn when to shut your mouth.”  She slides the serving tray onto the bar
so she can prop her hands on her hips.  If she ever decides to have a kid
someday, it’ll be one kid.  But it’s not exactly a dream of hers. 
“Not everyone validates themselves by the number of babies they’ve popped out.”

Now he’s the one becoming defensive.  “I never said
that.”  His voice is firm and demands her attention.

Aliah ignores him.  “I have no intention of wrecking this
hot little body any time in the near future.”