Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(18)

Isaac winked at Marie. “Thanks, hon. You mind leaving the pot?” He needed to f*cking mainline the coffee today. His days of pulling all-nighters with impunity were behind him.

Marie set the pot on the table. “You bet, Ike. Let me know if you need anything else.”

As soon as Marie walked away from their booth, Lilli started pushing the hash browns away from the rest of her breakfast, as if they were a contaminant. Isaac thought it was cute as hell, and he sat and watched her. She looked up, and he smiled and held her eyes for a second.

Dropping her gaze to his plate, she gestured with her fork. “I didn’t think you ordered.”

“Marie knows my order.”

“You have the same thing every day?” She grinned at him like that was the craziest thing she’d heard today.

He just shrugged. A girl who didn’t like potatoes didn’t get to judge anybody’s food quirks. “How’s your breakfast?”

She had a mouthful of waffles. “Really good, ‘cept for the hash browns.”

He rolled his eyes at her. She was f*cking cute.

oOo~

By the time they’d finished their breakfast and were on their way out, the diner had filled just about full, and every eye on the damn place was on them. They had to run the gamut, greeting everyone. He introduced her as Lilli Carson, who’d just moved in to the Olsens’ old place. Lilli was gracious and beautiful, but he could see that she was uncomfortable. So was he. They were being thrown together in a way he hadn’t calculated, and they still hadn’t known each other for even one day.

When they got out of the diner, Lilli turned to him, sliding her sunglasses back on, and said, “Thanks for breakfast. I’ll see ya,” and walked quickly to her car. He almost let her go—they had an audience. He didn’t need to turn back to the diner to know he’d see a window full of faces. Anything he did to say goodbye to her in a way appropriate to the morning they’d spent together would further heat up fevered town fantasies.

But he didn’t want to leave it that way. Besides, he needed to keep her close. There were things he needed to learn about her. Couldn’t have her sneaking up on him. So let the town tongues wag. Fuck—give them something to wag about. He caught up with her in four long strides, just as she was reaching for the door handle. Déjà vu. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and, with his other hand on her shoulder, pushed her against the car.

“Where you goin’ so fast?”

She nodded toward the diner. “We have an audience, and I have shit to do. But thanks, really. It’s been a good time.”

He slid his knee between her legs and moved his hand from her shoulder to her neck. “Told ya we’d have fun together. Don’t think I’m done with you yet, Sport.”

She smiled, just a little upturning at the corners of her sweet mouth. “Might be done with you.”

“Are you?”

She looked up at him, that little smile still lifting the corners of her mouth. He pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head so he could see her bright eyes. She hadn’t answered. “So, are you?”

By way of reply, she hooked her hand in the open throat of his shirt and pulled him down. When his lips touched hers, she opened her mouth wide to him. She was so damn hot. Forgetting the audience, forgetting the secrets, even forgetting the bullshit he was going to have to spend the rest of his day dealing with, he leaned his weight into her, letting her feel how incredibly turned on she made him, and kissed her like he was ready to have her right there, standing in the gravel lot of Marie’s, the cross on the steeple of St.

John’s Methodist Church making a shadow over them. Because he was. They made out much longer, and he might well do it.

With a frustrated growl, he pulled away. “You get to your errands. I’ll see you. Soon, I think.” He smiled and leaned down again, trying on the sound of her name as a whisper in her ear. “Lilli.”

She cocked her head and gave him an appraising look. Then she pushed away from the car, got in, and drove away.

Isaac went to his bike without even bothering to look back at Marie’s.

oOo

Bart was sitting at the bar with two laptops open. The clubhouse had a powerful satellite dish, so internet was not a problem there. Neither was TV. They had a huge sest on the wall and threw open the doors to the town for sports events. The big fights and races. Football. Baseball. Hockey. A lot of people were fans of some or all of the St. Louis teams, and they came to the clubhouse to watch and drink free booze. Just another public service of the Night Horde MC.

Isaac walked up and put his hand on Bart’s shoulder. The youngest member, he was their intelligence officer. Very handy, scary smart, and a serious gadget geek. From what Isaac could tell—and he knew his way around a computer okay—Bart was a gifted hacker. He’d not yet encountered intel he couldn’t get his hands on. So Isaac was concerned to see that he looked stressed out.

Part of that might be the six empty Red Bull cans on the bar. Bart was a big guy—nowhere near as big as Isaac, but six feet, probably 200 pounds, mostly muscle—but six Red Bulls was a shit ton of caffeine.

“Tell me, bro. What’s the deal?”

Bart raked his hands over his dusky blond crew cut. He spoke quickly, his voice shaking. He was practically tweaking on caffeine. “This wall is military grade, Isaac. Fuck, it’s practically weaponized. I’m worried that I’m gonna get tagged poking around too much more. I’m in full stealth mode, but I feel like I’m leaving a little bit more of my ass hanging out every time I go at that f*cker. I don’t get it. If she’s got a secret that needs this kind of security, why did she put a f*cking neon sign on top of it? Took me three minutes to find out her history is faked. I been at this wall fourteen hours straight, and I’m nowhere. No.