Chapter 8
King/Dante
“So, you gonna tell me what’s goin’ on with you and Ella? I heard you asked Sinner for her number earlier and he told you to man up and get it your own damned self.” Cowboy’s shit-eating grin turned to a chuckle as I glared at him across my desk.
After returning from a lunchtime workout with Trick at our MMA gym, I had just filled him in on the situation with Mandy last night, then Cowboy had started riding my ass about my love life.
“You two are some gossipy fuckers, you know that?”
Cowboy just shrugged. “If you’re chasin’ after a woman, news like that is gonna get around.” He paused, then raised a brow. “So are you?”
“Am I what?” I asked, exasperated.
“Chasin’ the lovely Ella?
“You worry about your own woman, and leave mine alone,” I told him grumpily.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “She’s your woman? Gotta say, I’m shocked to hear those words comin’ outta your mouth.”
I was pretty fucking shocked myself, actually. Normally the idea of being in a relationship was about as appealing aschopping my balls off and feeding them to my neighbor’s yappy chihuahua.
“We aren’t there yet, for Christ’s sake. I’m just starting to get to know the woman,” I denied flatly.
“But you’re interested in more than just a hookup with this one?”
I rolled my eyes at his shock, then grudgingly admitted, “There’s something about her that’s different. I don’t know what it is, or what the hell I’m doing, but I can’t stop thinking about her. So yeah, I want to figure it out.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. I never thought I’d see the day that you wanted anythin’ more than a quick suck and fuck,” he said with a laugh. He laughed even harder when I picked up the stapler from my desk and tossed it at his head. He caught it with ease, then sobered as he studied me.
“They aren’t all like Christy, you know. There are good women in this world, and I think Ella’s one of ‘em.”
I scowled at the mention of my ex-wife. God, our marriage had been a fucking disaster from day one. So much so, that I’d sworn to never get involved with another woman for anything more than sex. I’d kept it that way for twenty years now, but now here I was already breaking that self-imposed rule with Ella after only two days. The crazy thing was, I beginning to be OK with it.
“I know she is, brother. Now, if you’re done bustin’ my balls about her, I need to go check in with Viking about that new custom build they’re starting on this week. Unlike you apparently, I have some actual work to do.”
The sound of his laughter and catcalls followed me as I walked out of my office, and I shot him the bird over my shoulder, hearing him laugh even more as I did.
I ended up spending over an hour at the bike shop, working through the details of the new order we’d received to make sure we were ready to roll with it. On my way back into the clubhouse, I passed Lincoln in the hallway, and remembered that Sinner had sent him over to Ella’s a few times to take care of some minor maintenance.
“Hey, Linc, any chance you have Ella’s phone number?” At his blank look, I clarified, “Eleanor, the lady who rents the house next door to Sinner.”
“Oh, yeah, I think so,” he answered as he fished his phone out of his back pocket. He tapped the screen a few times, then I heard my own phone chime with a text.
“I just sent her contact info to you.”
I thanked him before walking off, grateful that he hadn’t questioned why I was asking for it. He clearly hadn’t heard the gossip from his dad yet.
I closed the door to my office and settled back in my chair, eager to speak to the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about. I saved her contact under the name “Sugar”, then pressed the button to connect the call, hoping she wasn’t busy at work and could speak to me for a minute.
“This is Ella Chadwick, may I help you?” I grinned at her tone – professional, yet slightly husky and sexy as hell.
“Hey, sugar, this is King. I hope you don’t mind, but I got your number from Lincoln. I wanted to see if you were free for an early dinner tonight.”
The resulting silence had me pulling my phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.
“Ella?”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Ever. I don’t date men who are in a relationship.” Her tone had gone from professional and sexy to downright frosty within seconds.
