I wasn’t able to hide my surprise. “What? You knock back sex?”
“Yeah.”
I settled into my chair, enjoying this conversation because it was giving me a small glimpse at who he was. “Okay, so how often do you have sex?”
“I don’t fuckin’ count it, Carla. My point is that it takes a lot for a woman to interest me. I don’t just fuck someone because they’ve got a good set of tits or a hot ass. There has to be something more for me. Something to the woman.”
I let his words settle over me and soaked them in. Because what he’d just given me was a huge compliment. It made me feel good about myself, and I desperately needed that after this week.
While I processed that, he changed the subject. “Tell me why you’re so down.”
I expelled a long breath. “Do we have to talk about me? I’d rather talk about you. That’s so much more interesting.”
The waitress brought our coffee and cake at that moment, and I smiled at him when I saw what he’d ordered. “Wow, and you project such a badass image, Havoc. Who would have thought?” He’d ordered me a small piece of every type of cake they had except for fruitcake. There must have been six different mini cakes sitting in front of me.
“Shut up and eat, woman,” he muttered, clearly uncomfortable with my backhanded compliment.
I laughed, but did as he said. My mind spun in a million different directions. He’d managed to confuse me all over again. I’d kind of been relieved when his ex had turned up. I’d thought it was a woman he had something going on with and that thought helped me at the time to make a decision to cut and run. It was the decision I’d been trying to make where he was concerned, but I’d been having trouble following through. Since knowing who she was, and after he’d treated me to this other side of him, I was back to being confused.
We ate and drank in silence for a few moments. The cakes were so damn delicious, and I devoured them quickly. He smirked at that, and said, “I take it they were good?”
As I finished the last piece, I looked up at him, and answered, “They were divine. This café needs to be added to my 'favourite places to visit' list. Thank you.”
“Now you owe me.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I can only imagine how you plan to exact payment.”
Pinning me with his stare, he said, “As payment, I want to hear what’s causing you grief.”
I took a deep breath. “Fine. If you must know, I failed my semester at college, so when you add that to the fact I lost my job, it’s been a shit week.”
“The teacher you refused to sleep with actually failed you?”
“Yes.”
His face clouded over with anger. “What’s his name?”
I didn’t know Havoc well, but I knew it would be a bad idea to give him my teacher’s name. Nash would just hurt him a little if I let him loose on the guy. I hazarded a guess that Havoc would do a lot worse than that. If the club sent him to take care of problems, I could only imagine what that entailed.
Shaking my head, I said, “No, I’m not giving you that.”
I watched as his chest rose and fell in a pissed-off, jerky movement. It appeared as if he was fighting to control his anger. “I’ll get that name, sweetheart. It’d just be a lot easier if you gave it to me.”
I scowled. “No, Havoc, I don’t need you to fight my battles. Do not pursue this.” My voice was firm, but I doubted he was the kind of man to listen.
“That asshole needs to learn a lesson. Manipulating women into sex is disgusting. I hope you’ve reported him.”
There was no way he was letting this go; I knew that in my gut. “Havoc, I’m being dead serious when I say I don’t want you anywhere near this. I’ll get my brother to sort him out.”
He stood abruptly. “We need to go,” he commanded in that domineering voice of his that I hated to love.
Without waiting for me, he stalked out to his bike. I followed him, annoyed. When I caught up with him, I demanded, “What the hell’s gotten into you? I still had coffee to drink.”
Pulling me close, he rasped, “Listening to you try to boss me around turns me on. And, babe, what I want to do to you will give you more fuckin’ pleasure than coffee, but if you still want coffee once I’m finished, I’ll damn well go out and buy it for you.” He stopped for a moment and stared at me. “Now, are we good to go?”
Damn, I liked the way he thought. “Yes, Havoc, we’re good to go.”
8