Heavy: A Contemporary Romance (18 page)

I’d been dropped home from the lake, and all its ensuing tensions, at about six that night
. What had started off as a relatively fun day had turned into Thatch practically ignoring me and although I’d had fun with Rufus and his friends, I was thankful to finally get home again.

N
eedless to say, Bellamy managed to persuade me to show up for work the next day. It ended up being a rough one. It was so busy that Thatch even did some flash in between appointments.

That wasn’t what made it rough though
. I enjoyed being busy. What made the day awkward was Thatch’s continued avoidance of me. This was further exacerbated when an NBC reporter came in to take a little footage of him at work for
Ultimate Ninja Athlete
. Apparently it was just some quick shots of him at work to edit into the promo they worked on Saturday night.

As soon as I saw that
cameraman, I high-tailed it into Bellamy’s closed room. I’d been chatting with his client prior to her work getting done, and she had no problems with me coming in to watch the process.

“I’m just getting in the way of that news crew out there filming the great Thatch Reston as he tattoos,” I joked at her, and she laughed
.

Bellamy instantly
gave me a nod, knowing the real reason I needed to hide.

“Not ready for your fifteen minutes of fame yet
?” his client giggled.

“You got that right,” I sighed
. If she only knew.

The reporter and his crew were quicker than expected, and thirty minutes later it was safe to show my face again.

I kind of wished I didn’t have to. Thatch was in a foul mood. If he talked to me at all, it was a one-word response or a pissy retort. I wondered for a minute if he’d found out that I’d been in his house Sunday night while he was out. Or, maybe he knew Bell had shown me the painting? No, Bell would have warned me if that had been the case. But then again, Thaddeus
did
like to tell his daddy everything… I shook my head to stop the incessant worrying.

It was pretty obvious
that Thatch hated all the media attention that was connected to this endurance contest he was competing in. While much milder than anything I’d experienced myself, it was still a huge upheaval to his busy, yet quiet life.

I tried to stay well out of his way for the rest of the day
.

Right before I was about to take my lunch break, Steve from the gym walked in.

“Hey, Cali,” he grinned, “I missed you Friday night. You should’ve come out with us.”

“Hi, Steve
. Sorry, I couldn’t make it. I had plans I couldn’t get out of,” I lied.

“
I just wondered if I could persuade you to join me for lunch next door. I’m on my lunch break and figured you might have the time to take one, too?”

“
That’s really kind of you, Steve. I’m just not sure I can right now.”

“
Of course, you can,” Thatch interrupted, coming up from his station at the back. “You should absolutely go grab a bite with Steve. Take your time, too. We both know how you love to… socialize.”

Wait,
did he just imply what I think he did?

Fuck Thatch Reston
. If he wanted to play matchmaker just as my stepsister was so fond of doing… well fuck him!

“In that case, I’d love to join you for lunch, Steve. I didn’t realize what the time was
. Let’s go to that diner down the street though, you know, the one next door to the
motel
. I’m really in the mood for their All American Slam. It’s been ages since I had a good
Slam
.”

“Sounds awesome,” Steve beamed, completely oblivious to the double entendre
I added for Thatch’s benefit.

Thatch watched in silence as Steve and I left the shop.

Once alone in the restaurant with Steve, I regretted my decision to agree to this lunch ‘date.’

My God, Steve was boring
. He loved to talk. It was a shame it was only about himself. He droned on and on about the hospitality management program he was majoring in at UNLV. I suppose, to be fair, had I been in a better mood I might’ve found something interesting in how to run a successful restaurant or how to open up a new hotel, but I wasn’t, so too bad Steve. Actually, too bad me. I was the one having to sit through this long and one-sided conversation.

The hour dragged slowly and I was only able to eat half the salad I ended up ordering
. Yeah, they didn’t do All American Slams – that’s a different chain, or so I’d read. Steve never noticed or said anything about it.

“I could swear we’ve met before,” Steve said, bringing
me out of my thoughts and back into the conversation.

Shit, was he going to
put two and two together about who I was? I’d been working off the assumption that, take me out of my usual environment and I wouldn’t be recognized – as who’d ever believe the daughter of Brock Huntington was answering phones in a tattoo shop?

“No, I only moved to Vegas a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, nice. Where did you move from?”

Suddenly S
teve was all about hearing from me for the first time since we’d sat down.

“Damn, Steve, look at the time
! I’ve got to be heading back to the shop now. Thanks for joining me for lunch though. It was nice to have some company.” I stood up and handed him a twenty-dollar bill that more than covered my share of the check. I couldn’t help but notice he neither refused it nor gave me change after he paid up front. It’s not that I needed the money, but there are some standards when you invite a girl to lunch.

“We’ll have to do it again sometime,” he smiled,
as we made the short walk back to the tattoo shop.

“Absolutely,” I lied again
. I gave him a small wave as I went back into Reston’s and he watched me enter before heading across the street and back to the gym.

As soon as I walked in
, Thatch glared at me. I guess there had been little improvement to his mood. If anything, it looked like it was ten times worse, judging by the way he was noisily moving things around his now-empty station.

In an undisguised and deliberate way
, he’d pushed me onto a guy in a manner that was not unlike how Lake used to use me – only without the part that he got something out of it for himself.

Fuck that
. I stormed over to his workspace and placed a fifty-dollar bill on the counter.

“What’s that for,” he asked, anger still blazing in his eyes.

“That’s your cut, boss. I took out the motel room expenses and my service fee, of course, but that’s your share fair and square. Let me know if there’s anyone else you need me to take care of before I leave for the day.”

I turned on my heel, picked up my bag and walked straight out of the shop
. Fuck him. If he thought I was spending even one more minute with him in that small space, he could think again.

Of course, the bravado didn’t last too long once I was in my car and on my way home.

I pulled over on the highway, got out and threw up the salad I’d just eaten thirty minutes earlier.

Cali

I spent the early part of the evening with my neighbors
. Let me rephrase that. I spent the early part of the evening crying on Zak’s shoulder while Tony helped Hayley with her homework in the other room. I think I scared the little girl with all my carrying on. I told them about Thatch and the way he treated me today, but I think I was crying more because I’d forced myself to throw up.

I hadn’t done that in
almost three months. I also hadn’t told them about the car trunk full of potato chips and candy bars I had stopped to pick up on the way home. In fact, had they not come out and invited me over as soon as I pulled into the drive, I’d be sitting in a pile of junk food wrappers right about now. Thank God I’d had the strength of mind to call Bellamy and he eventually talked me down from my crisis point.

That was a couple of hours ago and I was in a different mind-set now.

At least, that’s what I told myself very determinedly.             

To be on the safe side, I was avoiding both the trunk of my car and the kitchen alike
. I was avoiding going into the house at all, if truth be told. After dinner with the Solanos and the long heart-to-heart that followed it, I came home through the side gate, stripped off my clothes and just started swimming.

I was on lap fifty-six when I noticed I wasn’t alone.

Thatch, May-He-Rot-In-Hell, Reston was sitting on my patio chair watching me.

The second I noticed him, I gave a start and swallowed a mouthful of chlorine water
. Coughing wildly for a minute, I managed to make it to the edge of the pool on his side of the patio.

“
What are
you
doing here?” I asked angrily, spluttering on the last bit of water caught up in my throat.

“Watching you.”

“Oh, no you don’t. You don’t get to watch me. People who treat me the way you did today do not get to watch me. That means, watching me swim is absolutely and one-hundred percent off the table.” I slammed my hand down on the concrete tile next to the pool for emphasis.

The slam splashed a small pu
ddle up into my face and I squinted. So not the emphatic look I was going for.

“We need to talk, California,” Thatch said, his face half in the shadow
s so I couldn’t read his mood. Although, I could tell it was a little better than it had been all day.

Was he going to ask me to get the hell out of his town
? Was he going to call me a whore in a roundabout way again? Not on my watch, he wasn’t.

“I don’t think there’s anything else to say, is there
? I think you covered just about everything this afternoon. Apparently I’m a self-centered, no-good, drug-addicted whore, not worthy to even be in the same room as you or your family.” Yeah, I was mad.

“That’s not exactly what
—”

“Well, it might just as well have been.”
Pouting: not a good look on me – or anyone for that matter.

“
I just want to talk,” Thatch repeated as he stood up and walked into the pale light of the one solar-powered lantern that came on automatically every night. He stopped right at the edge of the pool above me.

My God, he was beautiful
. I never found layers of bulky muscle to be attractive, and Thatch’s slim, toned, well-defined athletic build was perfection itself. His hair was tousled and his dark eyes flashed with a curious mixture of desire and sorrow. He may want to talk, but despite his words earlier today, I don’t think either one of us had complete control over this overwhelming pull of attraction between us. Maybe that’s what had him so riled up earlier.

I was going to be strong though.

I think.

“I’m naked,” I said in a small voice.

“I noticed,” he answered with a crooked smile.

I took an empowering breath
. “So if you think I’m going to have a conversation with you while you’re lording over me and I’m down here naked... think again, Sunshine.” I rested my chin on my hands, which were flat on the concrete, and my elbows spread either side of my face. I pushed my body in flush against the side of the pool. The free peep show ended now.

“Fair enough,” he replied
. “I know how we can level the playing field.”

Before I could even begin to form the words of protest in my mind, he had shucked off his shoes, jeans, T-shirt and underwear
.

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, not believing what
was happening. I heard the splash as Thatch jumped into the pool next to me.

“Okay, so now we’re both naked and vulnerable,” he said in a low voice.

I opened my eyes to see Thatch standing about five feet away from me. I was right at the part of the pool that began to slope into the deep end, and I could still reach the bottom with the tips of my toes. Thatch was standing in the shallow end, the water coming up to his waist, his upper torso on full display.

I couldn’t stop my eyes from traveling across
his body as rivulets of water meandered down the contours of lean muscle and through the ridges, dips and crevices of his chest and abs.

“If you keep looking at me like that, we aren’t going to get much talking done now, are we?”
There
was that cocky grin I remembered from the hotel room three months ago. I hated the fact he still had this hold over me.

Or
, so I told myself.

He
walked over to the corner of the pool nearest to him that housed the steps. Thatch turned and sat down on one of the middle steps, positioning himself so only his upper abs and chest were above water.

“So, who wants to go first?”
he asked, his dark eyes locked with mine.

Thatch

A n
aked heart-to-heart in a pool – maybe not one of my best ideas. California’s dark blue eyes glowed a purple-black in the low light, and my body hardened from the way she was looking at me. There was determination and a hint of anger in her gaze, but also, despite her efforts to conceal it, a desire burning there, too. I rested my elbows on my knees to conceal my arousal.

“You go first,” she whispered in a husky voice.

I paused and took a deep breath.

“I need to know why you’re here, California
. You’ve seen into my life, you’ve met my son, you know I can’t do casual relationships apart from one-night-stands. I also can’t do relationships of any kind with drug users.”

“I
see,” California whispered across the water to me.

“Do you though
? Do you really understand how hard it is for me to talk to you about this?”

“Yes,”
came the simple answer.

California inched her way up the slope dividing the shallow end of the pool from the deeper end, hugging the wall as she moved nearer to me so she could listen
.

“Why did you come looking for me, California?”
I almost held my breath as I waited for her response.

“I came to say sorry and maybe to explain myself a little bit
. I didn’t like the way we left things on the night that we met.” California paused. “I also haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.” This last admission came out a little rushed, and she followed it quickly with another question. “Why did you call me?”

“Oh, so you did get the message that I’d called?”

“Yes, about two weeks ago when I was already on my way to Vegas. My stepmother never told me and I heard from someone else way after the fact.”

“She told me you were in Europe for a few months.”

California gave a dry laugh. “Of course she did. I was in rehab. She’d never tell a stranger that. In fact, she probably wouldn’t admit it to friends either.”

By this point, California had edged her way along the wall until she reached the steps I was sitting on
. Careful to keep everything below her shoulders under the water, she leaned her back against the side of the pool. The ends of her long hair floated around her.

She was breath
taking in the moonlight.

I shuffled a little uncomfortably on the step and moved a little nearer to her
; I couldn’t help it. It was like we were laced together with an invisible piece of ever-shrinking elasticized string. I wanted to talk and tell her we could never have a relationship. I wanted to feel her skin warm against mine even more.

“So, why did you call?” she repeated her question.

“I had a moment of weakness.” I immediately regretted my words when I saw the anger flash across her face. It was not what she wanted to hear. It also wasn’t exactly what I meant.

“No matter what I say, or how much I change my life – which just for your information I’m doing for me and not for you – I’ll always be the drug-addicted whore, right?”

“No, that’s not what I meant…”

California pushed herself up off the wall she was leaning on and stood glaring at me; all thoughts of modesty wiped from her head.

“Come on, Thatch, it’s
exactly
what you meant. We had an unforgettable night; it affected us and maybe even changed our outlook on life a little, but now it’s over. You’re nervous about relationships and I’m never going to be relationship material as far as you’re concerned. I get it. I get it and I hear you loud and clear.” California’s eyes blazed at me and if it was possible for a body to create smoke, fumes of it would be coming out of her ears right about now.

“I wasn’t going to put it quite like that,” I answered, unable to take my eyes off her breasts proudly on display now that she was standing upright
. “But, now that you have, I guess that’s that then. It was a moment we shared and now it’s done.”

“Exactly.”

“So we’re done?” I asked, standing up from my seat and taking a step toward her.

“Oh, we are so done it isn’t even funny,” California said emphatically as her eyes traveled down my chest and beyond.

I can’t say for certain who exactly jumped who, but within seconds her legs were wrapped tightly around my waist and her lips were locked onto mine.

Cali

I can honestly say there
is no bigger turn-on than angry kissing. Angry kissing just made its debut into my top three list. Sorry, grocery shopping, but we all knew something as mundane as you couldn’t hold out in that spot forever.

Angry
kissing is a lot like regular kissing – only with a lot more violence. Not the I’m-calling-911-on-your-ass kind of violence, but more a passionate, sexy kind of violence. Hair-pulling, mark-leaving biting, blood-drawing scratching, and, most of all, rough grabbing. I wanted to tear Thatch’s skin off of his body and wrap it around mine. I wanted to tear out his heart and crush it between my fingers for telling me I was a whore. I hated him. I hated that I’d spent the night filled with self-doubt and even lower self-esteem – and now was enjoying the welcome intrusion of his tongue in my mouth. I hated myself for wanting more. More angry kissing and anything else it was definitely going to lead into. I hated the fact I wanted him this much – that I would die right there on the spot if he stopped what he was doing to me, or made me stop what I was doing to him.

By the time we finally wrenched our mouths apart, my back was up against the side of the pool again and Thatch’s hard body was pressed up against mine
. I could feel his heart pounding and the vibrations from it alone sent shimmers straight to my core.

“Tell me to stop before it’s too late, California,” Thatch said hoarsely, fighting for control
.

“Don’t stop,” I whispered, my eyes locked with his
. ‘Don’t you dare fucking stop.” Yeah, I was lying when said I hated him.

Giving a low groan, Thatch lifted me out of the water and set me on the concrete at the side of the pool
. Placing the heel of his palm in between my breasts, he gently pushed me back until I lay flat with my feet still hanging over the edge and in the water. His hand moved to first pinch my nipple hard, then squeeze my breast as I gasped and arched my back into his touch. Using his hips, he opened my legs, grabbing one of my ankles and lifting it up until my foot had purchase on the concrete, still warm from the afternoon’s sun. Spreading me wider still, he nipped and licked his way down the inner thigh of my raised leg, stopping right before he reached his intended destination.

“Is this what you want, California?” He asked in a
husky voice.

“Yes,” I panted.

“Tell me what you want, and I’ll do it,” he said with a cocky gleam in his eyes as his fingers moved sensuously up and down my inner thigh.

“Fuck me with your tongue,” I answered
breathlessly. If he thought he was talking to someone who was afraid to voice what it was she wanted, then he had the wrong damn girl.

“Oh
, don’t worry, beautiful girl, I’m getting to that part real soon.”