I was so caught off-guard by this that I had no response.
“Let me say this, though,” he said. “You’re a good listener. Even if you don’t want to work for us, I find you to be a fair, open-minded individual that I enjoy talking to. Why don’t we meet up again?”
That question carried some serious undertones of courtship.
But what was quite possibly worse was that I was experiencing some serious undertones of interest.
And I had no idea how to feel about that.
“Fucking hell,” I said, not caring to hide my confusion. “You’re serious?”
“Absolutely. And if you don’t want to, no worries.”
It just made it even more confusing that he was so at ease with not pressuring me into anything. Like, seriously, how the hell was a biker this comfortable with no?
“Well,” I said, drawing a breath. “Tell you what. I like you enough that I’m willing to meet you again. Don’t get your hopes up, though, for anything work-related.”
What did I just say in response to that?
“I won’t,” he said.
“You say that, but many a man have ignored that before.”
Wait, am I talking about dating or his request?
Michael picked up on my slip, too, because a smirk filled his face that left me pissed at myself.“I like you enough… don’t get your hopes up for work?”
What am I saying when I say that?
“By the way,” I said as I started to stand before I let a weird situation get even more bizarre. “Why me? Why not any of the other nurses?”
Michael chuckled.
“Honestly, I went to you because Axle fucked up so badly with you, I wanted to make amends,” he said. “But now that I’m with you, I think the club needs a woman like you. Someone who’s not going to take any shit from anyone. Someone who’s going to stand up to an injured Reaper and tell them not to be such a baby. You seem like you could be that kind of person. But you being that kind of person could very well mean you won’t take this job.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Have a good night, Michael.”
“Wait. Your number?”
I grabbed a napkin, pulled a pen from my pocket, scribbled it in, and shoved it his way. I nodded to him before walking around and back to my car. It was a bit of an abrupt exit, yeah, almost rude.
But there was a problem, one made evident by my slip up about men ignoring my request before and that I liked him. I was starting to see him less as a painting to admire from afar and more as a man I was enjoying interacting with.
That would have been a terrible mistake, and it would’ve been a repeat of the one that my older sister had made with her last boyfriend. I would be walking down a similar path and likely be meeting the same fate if I let myself fall into it. So, feeling it all coming, I walked away.
And yet...
Michael was different. No matter how I spun it, he was different. I couldn’t help but wonder how he had gotten me to offer myself up as I had, but he’d done it.
Now, as I began driving home, I started to have a lot of questions about Michael. How did someone like him wind up in a group like the Black Reapers? What had led him to this small town of Springsville? He didn’t seem like a born-and-raised type of guy here.
And most of all…
Hot?
Or attractive?
I hated that I was getting curious. But I knew I’d hate not knowing even more—especially since, by the sounds of it, the hospital was going to be treating the Reapers a lot more soon.
