All Chapters of Hard Curves (Dangerous Curves 2): Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

King watched Jax and Sarah on the darkened dance floor. His friend was holding the woman like she was the most wondrous thing in the world – and for Jax, she was. King felt a huge ache of loneliness building up inside him. He wanted Naomi to look at him the way that Sarah looked at Jax. He wanted her to step into his embrace, to rest her head on his chest, to just give over. He wanted her to be close to him. To trust him.He thought about his parents now. They’d just celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary, and King and his siblings, Oscar and Lori, had planned a huge party. Dinner, drinking, dancing. King had stood and watched his Mom and Dad dance that night, their arms wrapped tight around each other, moving together, smiling and chatting quietly, and he knew that he was looking at love.More than that, it was the kind of love that he finally understood that he wanted for himself. Permanent, and deep, and pure. The kind of love that gets you through the tough times, and makes

They arrived at his building, and they parked in the underground garage. He ushered her onto the elevator, escorted her down the long hallway to his apartment. When she stepped into Matt’s home, she looked around in surprise. It was warm and bright, and Callie’s art was displayed all over the place. His place was like hers, with an open-plan kitchen and living room area, though his was much bigger. He took her coat. “Go into the living room, OK? You want anything? Beer? Tea? Water?”“No, thanks. Nothing.”“Go sit. I’ll be there in a minute.”She wandered into the living room and sank down onto the sofa. She watched Matt in the kitchen: he removed his blazer, rolled up the sleeves on his dress shirt. At the sight of those huge, tattooed forearms, her mouth went dry. He just looked so primal, so strong, and in the oddest way, the elegance of the shirt only emphasized it, somehow. The man was pure animal with a veneer of playing-by-the-rules; his wildness was barely held in check. She

“I just want to be with you and I’m going to take whatever you feel ready to give me.” King touched her lips. “The most important thing… no, scratch that… the only important thing is your recovery. That’s it. Nothing else matters to me, and nothing else should matter to you, either. If that means that we spend the next six months talking over coffee and watching movies and I get to hold you sometimes, I think that’s a pretty fucking good deal, since it means you won’t be doing any of that with anybody else. I’ll take that with a smile. You hear me?”“Yes.” The word tore from her throat, thick and raw and vulnerable, and he heard it. “I just want to be with you, too. When you said that I’d never see you again after tonight, it scared me to death. I – I don’t want alcohol to lose me one more thing. I don’t want to lose you, Matt.”“You won’t, I promise you. Now come here.” He held his arms wide open and she moved into them now, with no hesitation. Naomi just rested on him, just let hers

Aidan jumped, and beer spilled over his hand. It ran off the edge of the bar and onto his boots, and he muttered a curse. He didn’t miss the gleam in Jax’s eyes for one fucking second, and he actually felt his face turning red.“Aidan?” Gabriela looked at him, and he loved the way his name sounded in her mouth; her faint accent gave it curves and made it music. “Um. OK.”“Well, I’d be delighted,” Aidan said, going all Southern and playing up his Texan drawl. He could turn the good ol’ boy charm on and off at will, and it came in awfully handy at moments like this. He walked around the bar, trying hard to ignore the knowing looks on the faces of the other men. “Let’s go, darlin’.”Gabriela looked up at Aidan, took in his golden hair and eyes. The man was nothing short of panty-dropping gorgeous, and she felt her breath hitch as those amazing eyes stared down at her, steady and bright. Gabi had never seen a man like this before – not in the flesh – and she seriously thought that the guy

“Oh.” She flushed. “Oh, no. You don’t have to…”“I know I don’t have to. I want to. Even though I highly doubt it’ll fit you.”She slid it on to her middle finger, twisted it around, tried her thumb. “No go.”“I’ll get you a necklace,” King said. “You can wear it around your neck. Like high school all over again.”She giggled, and he watched as her whole face lit up. “I never had a boy give me a ring in high school.”“No? What kind of dickheads did you go to school with?”“Oh, no. They weren’t the problem. I was.”“I simply refuse to believe that.”“It’s true.” Naomi turned the ring around and around on her finger, absently. “I had my hands full with my Mom. Dating wasn’t really on my radar.”King paused. “You want to talk about her?”Naomi opened her mouth to answer when the waiter came to their table. “Wine is included in the brunch,” he told them. “Shall I pour you a glass?”“No, thank you,” Naomi said politely. “Maybe another latté, when you get the chance?”“Of course.” He looke