Obsession (A Bad Boy's Secret Baby)(7)

“Then what is it?” She whipped a hand up, gesturing impatiently. “With all you've done for this wedding, it almost feels like it was partly yours.”

“It's nothing, I'm just—” Mariela gave me a look that cut me off. It was impossible to lie to this woman, but I couldn't tell her the truth either. I looked out toward the parking lot.

Mariela was probably my best friend, I always told her everything. I introduced her to my brother and since then we've all been pretty inseparable. But she's never met Mal. She'd only heard about him through Brendan and none of that was good. For as lighthearted as Brendan was he knew how to carry a grudge.

“You're waiting for someone!” Mariela face lit up. “Kait, why didn't you tell me?” She followed my gaze to the parking lot. “Why isn't he here? Does he not like us? Who is this mystery man?”

I laughed. Mariela had a way of getting excited and asking a million questions with barely a breath between them. Tonight even more so, she was still amped up from the wedding and the drinks.

The alcohol had me feeling pretty fuzzy. Mariela's family never seemed to stop with the toasts and before that I had been busy trying to drown my own nervousness about Mal picking me up.

“He's just a—” A what exactly? He's not really a friend or an old boyfriend. And although we were very close we had never actually slept together. We couldn't! He almost became my stepbrother, but that whole thing ended so horribly. “He's just someone I used to know, who's back in town.”

“Okay, Mina.” Mariela shrugged. Every once and awhile she'd slip back into Spanish during conversation but only when she was really drunk or really angry. Half the time she never bothered to translate. “That's fine. You can play coy. That explains why you changed. Can't go out on a date in a groomsmaid dress.”

I did have to change shortly after the pictures. There were no wet spot on the dress thankfully, but my panties were fucking ruined. I left a bag here with a change of clothes when we finished setting the place up this morning.

Just thinking of being that close to Mal, grinding against him, all that vibration and heat... I pushed my thighs together tightly under the table, my neck and face were so warm it felt like steam might stream out of my bodice.

“Nothing like that, Mom.” I flashed my eyes back at her defiantly, to which she held her hands up in the backing-off gesture. I still felt the need to explain myself further for some reason, but I was fortunately distracted by a lone approaching headlight and a low rumble.

The dance floor and tables of the reception were set in an open air gazebo, making it easy to see the whole farm and keep track of the dozens of children earlier in the day. The layout also made it easy to see who was arriving and departing.

Was it finally midnight? I glanced at my phone. Ten minutes till midnight, but that was close enough.

“Oh, a motorcycle. Kait got herself a bad boy. That's not like you, I love it!”

“Yeah, well.” I got up and straightened my cream dress. It was much simpler than the one I wore for the wedding, but had the same color and theme elements so I wouldn't look too out of place if I had to change into it. “When your brother is a cop your boyfriends can only be so bad.”

Mariela told me to have fun and all but pushed me out of my seat. I was so nervous and the walk over to Mal made it so much worse. Earlier it had been a surprise, and somehow, that made it easier. Now, I had worked myself up to the point of nausea.

“Hey,” Mal said, handing me the helmet. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” I lied. I was not fucking ready. But I was looking forward to wrapping my arms around him again more than I thought possible. Mal had changed out of his suit and was wearing just a printed T shirt and jeans. Deliciously ornate lines of tattoos raced down both of his arms and poked out from beneath his V neck collar.

Those were new too. I found myself wondering what other tattoos he had and a not-so-small part of me hoped I'd get to see them all.

Mal started the bike up and just like before, the rumble sent a shock wave through my lower body. I'd never been on a motorcycle before today and now I feared I was getting addicted. Or maybe it was Mal I was getting addicted to.

Either way that wasn't good.

Before we left he turned to me and said something, but the engine was too loud for me to catch it.

“What?” I raised the helmet's visor, hoping that would help.

“That dress looks nice on you,” Mal repeated. It was a small, sweet gesture. He didn't wait to see my little embarrassed smile, he just twisted the throttle and we were off.

I started to get worried when we turned away from downtown. I thought he said he was taking me for a drink. Mal sped up on the highway, pushing us a little faster than I was comfortable with. Where we going? When we skirted the city limits and pulled off onto a dense tree-lined back road my anxiety began kicking in.