Page 10 of Resurfaced Passion
He knew she was attracted to him. He’d have to be dead not to recognize it. She was shy and friendly, and they’d forged a kind-of friendship over the years that Reaper himself had sought out deliberately. Some happy coincidences were not coincidences at all.
He half smiled and winked and held a hand up to tell her bye.
He wouldn’t saysee you tomorrow.More likely it would be later, just as soon he got finished collecting the gambling money.
There was so much he’d wanted to say for a long time and no matter how he worded it in his head on those drunken nights he felt extra pathetic, he never said any of them. He wanted to lay it all out there for Paige to see … to understand and Reaper—for the fucking life of him, couldn’t find the beginning of that sentence.
There hadn’t ever been a time he’d tried to stay away from Paige.
As hopeless as it was, he needed these moments.
Some people took pills for their illnesses.
Reaper took Paige in, one greedy glance at a time.
He liked her and she liked him.
Anyone would question Reaper where the problem was and why wasn’t she in his bed already.
How long do you have?He’d ask them.
CHAPTER THREE
“When one door closes and another one doesn’t open? Just climb through a window.” - Paige
“So, how was it today?” Paige’s best friend and fellow crafting hoarder asked, leaning both elbows on the counter. The day crowd had thinned out some, but the diner was never truly empty, it was why she’d hired Lucie a few months ago to help between her college classes.
The town librarian, who happened to be Paige’s second most favorite person ever, was a horrible gossip ever since she stepped up her campaign to get Paige as blissfully in love and happy as she was with her own biker.
Winter was gorgeous with her silver hair and curved, pregnant body and laughing eyes. She dressed like one of those 1950’s pin up girls and they had a standing date to get together most days during their lunch breaks to gossip.
Until now it was just about Winter’s boy and all the damn sex they were having.
But ever since Paige confessed tolikingReaper, Winter loved nothing more than quizzing Paige on every sighting and meeting she had with him in order to help her non-existent relationship to bloom.
“Winter, I told you, I’m over that little crush.” Paige informed with her head firmly tucked down over the milk she was frothing so Winter couldn’t see the lie on her face.
She thought of the very big and casually brutal looking biker with his jaw-length sandy-colored hair always tucked into a beanie hat. His stubble face that appeared as though he was two days late shaving and his supple looking lips she wanted to bite.
Not to mention his straddle-worthy hips and hands like shovels that looked so damn capable of holding …anything.
Her belly flipped and flopped. Especially when she thought about how good healwayssmelled. He had perfect white teeth and clipped nails and perfect veins on the back of his hands that rolled right up his muscled forearms. He dressed simply in jeans and long-sleeved shirts, but he owned the look and she loved it.
Yeah, she was over that crush. It had moved onto the next level, but no one needed to know that.
It was sooooo embarrassing. Who developed crushes at her age? On celebrities, sure! They were unattainable and safe. But her crush, the one who made her knees weak and her panties soaking wet. Every. Single. Freaking. Day, he walked in and out of her job and gave her the most intense stares of her life. And the urge to grab at all the unsaid words he had hiding in his eyes became somewhat of a problem for her.
And sometimes he gave her a sexual look that made her inner thighs quiver.
“Okay, Pinocchio. Then it won’t matter to you that he’s across the street talking to a hot girl and they lookveryfriendly?”
Paige nearly broke her neck, her ankles and lost the jug of milk in her haste to look out of the window. And see nothing of the sort.
She turned back around to see her friend cackling. “Look at that, I think the crush has resurrected.”
“You’re a bitch,” she laughed. “Okay, fine. I like him more than ever. But it’s not going to happen, you know this. I know this. It’s hopeless. I did have a few connections on the dating app, though.”
Nerves bit through her stomach lining. Most of the guys messaging her were looking for a straight sex hook-up and the way they’d spoken was kinda vile. Didn’t they know what romance was?
