Read Online The Wicked Bad (Crimson Romance) by Karyn Gerrard - Free Book Online

bell tingled over the door as a woman and her daughter walked in. Julie put down her mug. “I’ll go help this lady.”
    Veronica sat, stunned. She learned quite a bit, even about her brother. She’d been away from home too long. It seems her
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brother kept things from her. What made her insides roil and lurch was the talk about Nick. She should’ve guessed.
Love ‘em and leave ‘em Nick.
Great. Is that what she really wanted? No strings attached — casual, hot sex? She thought so. Nick was — complicated, she got that already after one date. He knew what he was doing, the restaurant, not too expensive and not too cheap. The beach, the candles, the wine — and the rose.
The rose.
She would’ve happily fallen at his feet with that gesture. The big, tough biker was a romantic at heart when it suited him. Nick could’ve easily had sex with her on the beach, he had seduced her thoroughly and completely, and she would’ve done anything. Instead, he held back.
    Then to be waiting at her door to comfort her about Tyler, the tender way he held her and kissed her. It took her breath away. Showing up at her door the next night in that state, like he would explode if he didn’t have her was sexy as hell. That alone sent her over the edge, never had she been so — horny. A man wanted her that much. It was appealing, enticing, and downright satisfying.
    Who was the real Nick? He obviously wanted her to believe he was all those men rolled together, romantic, tender, wild, and dangerous. Veronica thought they’d connected somehow, that something happened between them. This was her downfall, she read too much into sex. Not this time, that is if Nick ever called again.
    Veronica took a sip of tea and looked at the phone. Would he call? Should she call? She shook her head and headed out back.
High school, they were in damned high school.
    • • •
    Across town, Nick arrived back at his bar. He did head into Delaware and drove straight to the ocean. The night passed quietly as he sat on the beach and watched the sunrise. He’d called his employee Kevin on his cell and told him to open. Nick hung around Bethany Beach and had an early breakfast. He did a lot of thinking. Lunch rolled around so he had a coffee and sandwich at the Kool Bean, and then decided to head back. Now mid-afternoon, he told Kevin to take a break, he would cover. Not many in the bar this time of day, a few barflies or the unemployed, probably laid off from the pulp mill. Nick inhaled, he should’ve showered first before coming in to work, but he supposed he smelled no worse than the guys propping up the bar. Maybe he wasn’t that anxious to wash off Ronnie’s essence.
    Nick picked up a few empties from the tables. What possessed him to go to Ronnie’s place like that? He must be obsessed. He wanted more, he wanted her. It would be breaking his own private covenant. He never slept with a woman more than once. Nick stood up straight.
    Except one time. Darla McGregor, school teacher. He closed his eyes. Damn. The woman was only four years older than him at the time, as she was a new teacher fresh out of college. Darla reached out to Nick innately sensing his self-imposed isolation and loneliness. She invited him to her apartment for dinner. He never should’ve gone, but he did. Someone paid attention and took the trouble to talk to him. He wound up in her bed more than once. Only the second woman he’d ever been with. He had been eighteen at the time of their affair, legally an adult. He thought he knew what he was doing. Yeah, right.
    Nick’s eyes snapped opened and he placed the empties in the crate by the back door. He thought he was in love. Darla showed him things and made him feel — damn. As if she could ever be serious about a troubled kid desperate for love. Pathetic really. Nick made a vow after Darla dropped him that he’d never let his heart be engaged with any woman ever again. His emotions were all over the place at eighteen. When