Taming Crow (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) by Paula Marinaro Page B

his.
    “Watch your step,” he grabbed her hand and pulled her just a little too hard over the pile of lumber sitting in the middle of the floor. Melissa stumbled hard against him and his hands fell on the sides of her soft breasts before she righted herself. She blushed furiously. “You did that on purpose.”
    “Of course I did. You looked like you were going to fall and I caught you. You’re welcome.” Crow gave her a lazy, dangerous smile.
    “And you couldn’t do that without copping a feel? You just cannot stop yourself even for one day from …oh, never mind!”
    She huffed and turned to go.
    Crow reached for her, but pulled her back more gently this time. When he felt a shiver go through her, he knew. There was no getting around it. Whether she wanted it to happen or not, Melissa definitely got off when Crow touched her.
    But he knew she was not ready to admit that to herself…yet.
    Disappointment showed sharply in Melissa’s face when she looked at him. Before she closed up again.
    Shit.
    It was obvious to Crow that Melissa had been looking forward to the day ahead. And she had made an effort. The hair and the makeup and the new outfit did not escape his notice. His dick was leading him on that same merry chase. Again. And now the hard-won truce between them was almost broken.
    “Okay, you’re right. I promise to cut out the copping a feel shit.” He winked at her.
    Melissa looked uncertain and shook her head at him. She turned to leave, but just then the sun broke through a cloud, creating a kaleidoscope of color on the wall in front of her.
    “Oh! Look at that. Where is it coming from?” Awe filled her voice.
    “The sun is catching off the leaded glass. I put in some new panes, so when the light hits it at the right angle it does that.” Crow’s voice filled with pride
    “You thought of that? It’s such a beautiful effect. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I used to wonder what it looked like in here—peeking through the windows doesn’t show you much.”
    “Come here. I drew up some new blueprints,” he said to take advantage of her momentary distraction.
    “You know how to do that?” Melissa hesitated, but moved towards him.
    “Yeah. Turns out I'm not just a pretty face,” Crow grinned. He got busy unrolling the blueprints.
    “Wow. Impressive! I mean they look complicated, intricate, but I don’t really know what I’m looking at,” she said with honesty.
    Crow's broad hand moved over the blueprint and smoothed out the wrinkles. He explained his vision for the house and how the walls he had taken down would give it more natural light and lots of open space. As Melissa listened carefully and asked thoughtful questions, for a while all the tension between them disappeared and they became just two people talking.
    “So what do you think?” Crow asked finally.
    Melissa hesitated and leaned forward one more time to peruse the plans, then stepped back and looked around.
    “I like it. I especially love the openness of it—how one area leads into another,” she said. Then Melissa took a step back and surprised Crow by giving one more observation. “I like that there are no dark corners. No walls separating one life from another.”
    Crow turned to look at Melissa then. She was so goddamn pretty standing there. The rays of filtered sunlight set fire to the honey-colored streaks in her hair and her eyes lit up with traces of amber and gold.
    She smelled damn good too.
    They had been shoulder to shoulder for the past twenty minutes and in that time he had found it harder and harder to focus. He felt that familiar tightening in his crotch and thanked God that the table hid his reaction to her from view.
    Because so far… so fucking good.
    Crow grabbed the keys to the Harley and two helmets. When they got to the bike, Crow began to give Melissa some rudimentary rules on passenger safety. He almost choked on his own spit when she put up her hand in a halt motion, reached for the