Whisper Falls by Toni Blake Page B

now, she hadn’t thought she could really, truly wish to pursue such a thing—because he was such a scary biker guy. But . . . she’d gotten to know him a little, hadn’t she? And she’d seen those softer sides of him that Rachel and Amy would never believe existed. So maybe he wasn’t so frightening after all. Maybe he was just . . . hot. Tattoos and all.
    As he’d held her, she’d looked down to see the arm anchored around her and she’d caught sight of those flames, and to her surprise, they’d thrilled her even more. She knew anyone could get a tattoo, but somehow the flames had reminded her how tough he was, how strong. Those tattoos surely told the story of Lucky. And she longed to explore that story.
    Still staring at the half-painted wall before her, she tilted her head, wondering: Did he have any other tattoos? Anywhere else?
    She wanted to find out. Bad.
    She wanted him to make a move on her.
    If he’d done so today, she wouldn’t have pushed him away.
    It was a confession of epic proportions—even if the only person she’d confessed to was herself. Because it meant . . . she was ready to make something happen here. To quit lusting and wishing and aching only in her own mind. She was ready to put herself out there and reap what life had to offer again. The very idea, the decision, nearly stole her breath and left her feeling as invigorated as if she’d just taken a step off an airplane and was plummeting through the air, waiting for her parachute to open.
    Except one big problem still remained. Lucky’s secrets.
    She blew out a long sigh and wished her heartbeat would slow down. She needed to think through this, carefully. Even if her head swam a little at the moment.
    Maybe, realistically, she didn’t need to know all his secrets. She wasn’t planning on marrying the guy, after all—just . . . having some wild little affair with him that would ease her sexual aches. And yeah, she’d have to deal with the fact that he’d still be her neighbor afterward, but she was a big girl—she could handle that. The real issue was—did she want to fool around with someone who might be doing something illegal? And was he doing something illegal?
    She glanced over her shoulder toward the hallway that led to the mysterious “storage room.” If she found out one of his secrets—the one she had access to—maybe that would tell her . . . enough. Enough to determine if she could, should , try to get lucky with Lucky. She knew he was out in the garage working now, so . . . maybe she could just sneak quickly down the hall, take a peek inside that room, and the big mystery would be over. And the door must not lock from the outside or Lucky wouldn’t have been so adamant about telling her not to go in.
    But . . . did she really want to go prying into someone’s private business when he’d asked her not to? Even if it had the power to tell her if . . . well, if Lucky was a good guy—or a bad guy? After all, she didn’t like people prying into her business. That was part of the reason she lived out here in the woods. She let out a sigh, then got back to work.
    By late that afternoon, she’d finally calmed down enough to finish painting the walls’ edges. Although, while at Posh, the hands-on work had mostly been done by subcontractors, Tessa possessed a lot of home improvement skills, and doing it herself kept costs low.
    And by then she’d also waffled over the mysterious door down the hall long enough to realize that, despite everything it might reveal to her about Lucky, she wasn’t going to open it. She wanted to, for her own peace of mind, but in the end, she just couldn’t.
    Sometimes it was hell being a good person.
    Upon finishing the first coat of paint in the living room a little after five, she decided to call it a day. Tidying up her mess so Lucky could sit in his living room tonight, she put on her shoes, headed down the hall past the Mystery Door, and peeked out into the