As I sat and watched Bree ice skate on Tuesday night, I wished I’d taken it up when I was a kid. She seemed to really love it, and it looked like so much fun. Hell, maybe I should take lessons myself. It’d kill two birds with one stone—fun and exercise. There were plenty of adults out on the rink taking a class, many of them older than me. Bree was about fifteen minutes into her lesson, and I’d spent that time watching both her and a man who had to be at least sixty. He moved like he was my age. If he could do it, surely I could.
A waitress interrupted me when she delivered my order of hot chips to the table where I sat in the tiny café at the rink. The heating in there coaxed me in. I’d rather watch Bree from the warmth than sit on the bleachers and freeze.
“Thanks,” I said as she placed the bowl of chips in front of me.
“Just let me know if you want anything else, love. I’m serving hot food for another half hour and then closing down the kitchen.”
“Will do.” I wouldn’t want anything else, though. God, I shouldn’t even be having these chips. I’d hit the gym at lunchtime, so I was probably undoing all that work. Story of my life.
As I watched her walk away, I caught a glimpse of a guy entering the café—the kind of glimpse that made me keep looking. I did a double take when I realised it was Hyde. What the hell was he doing at an ice-skating rink? He didn’t strike me as the type of man to skate.
Oh, God, my belly started doing somersaults. And all I’d done was look at the man. I needed to get myself under control. But damn, these kinds of somersaults weren’t common for me. Why, why, why did he have to cause them?
He took a few steps into the café before turning to look out at the rink. I watched intently as his gaze stayed pinned there and his mouth curled up into a smile. He wasn’t here to skate; he was here with someone.
I looked away and focused on my chips and Facebook. Anything to take my attention off him and those muscles of his that made me want to do dirty things with him. Not to mention that ass. Fuck, I wondered if his cock was pierced.
Stop it, Monroe.
Enough.
He is not the man for you.
A girl could daydream, though, right?
Scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I discovered my sister had started another online marketing course that day. Savannah was a twenty-nine-year-old uni dropout who had quit her teaching degree about a year ago after coming home from two months of overseas travel and declaring teaching wasn’t for her. She’d decided to try internet marketing instead, and was convinced she’d make her fortune in that field. Our father was concerned about this change in direction, and that she was throwing money away by buying a multitude of online training courses, but Mum told him to let her be. Mum believed that everyone eventually found their calling in life, some just found it later than others. Dad didn’t agree, but he’d let it go for now. This new course had to be, by my count, her sixth one this year. I kinda believed the same as Mum—Savannah would find herself eventually.
“This seat taken?”
My head snapped up at the sound of Hyde’s deep, gravelly voice. Oh dear Lord. Mother of all things holy. This man had it all going on. Especially when he flashed that smile at me that he was currently flashing.
“It’s all yours,” I said against my better judgement. But really, it’d be weird if I told him to find a different table to sit at. The café was tiny and there were only about four other spare seats.
He pulled the chair out and folded his huge body onto it, his long legs stretched out in front of him and his arms crossed over his chest. “I figured you’d say no after that tongue lashing you gave me the other day.”
“Trust me, I wanted to.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could censor them.
His lips twitched. “I like a woman who’s honest.”
“Yeah, well I’m not sharing my chips with you, so don’t ask for any.”
This time a smile spread out across his face. “Message received loud and clear, sugar.” He uncrossed his arms and leant towards me. “You should probably know, though, that you’ve got tomato sauce on your face.” Taking hold of my jaw, his thumb swiped the sauce from under my lip. He then placed his thumb in his mouth and sucked the sauce from it while I sat mesmerised by his moves. The man made cleaning my face look sexy as hell. I wanted to squirt sauce all over my face after that.
“Thanks,” I said, but it came out like a bloody croak. What the hell was happening to me? I didn’t get nervous around men, but Hyde made me act all kinds of weird.
His smile turned into a grin, but he didn’t say anything else. He simply lounged back in his seat and crossed his arms again.
I ate a few more chips in silence and tried to focus all my attention on Bree, but just having Hyde sitting next to me made that difficult. As much as I avoided looking at him, I could smell him and sense his presence. And he smelt so bloody good with whatever scent he was wearing. Damn him.
“Who are you here with?” he asked, giving me a reason to turn back to him.
I found him watching me closely, which I both loved and hated all at the same time. “My friend’s daughter, Bree. You?”
“My daughter.”
Colour me shocked. That was the most unexpected thing to come out of his mouth. I hadn’t picked him for being a father, and certainly not one who spent Tuesday nights taking his kid ice skating. But I loved that he did. “How old is she?”
“Sixteen.”
“Oh God, you must be in hell. Bree’s fifteen and she’s more of a handful than she’s ever been. How are you even managing to look so cool and calm? I mean, we’ve spoken a few times now and besides being a bit of an asshole the last time I saw you, you didn’t seem run down or beaten to a pulp by your kid.” God, I was fucking rambling. Would someone take a shoe and shove it in my mouth to shut me the hell up?
He chuckled, and that surprised me too. Hyde always seemed so intense and serious. I had to admit, I liked this side of him. A lot. “She lives in Melbourne with her mother, so she hasn’t had the opportunity to beat me to a pulp yet. I’m sure it’s coming, though. We’ve already gone two rounds today.”
“Any bloodshed?”
“Only mine so far.”
I laughed. “When did she arrive?”
“Three days ago.”
“Oh man, strap on some combat gear. You’re in for a wild ride.”
“Yeah, I figured that after the first day.”
“How long have you got her for?” It wasn’t school holidays, so I wondered if she’d moved in with him.
“Her mother will be here tomorrow, but I’m not convinced Charlie wants to go home with her.”
“Her name’s Charlie? I love that.”
“It’s short for Charlotte.”