Bad Company

Making Off Like a Bandit

"Wait, wait, wait," I laughed, shaking my head in disbelief and raising my hands in his direction. My eyes were wide as I stared at the unrealistically gorgeous man driving my beat up truck. A wide smile was stretching across his lips, and there was a glimmer of entertainment behind his baby blues. "You own this development? But how? Why?" Colt merrily shrugged his shoulders and offered a soft hum. "Humming isn't an answer, Blue!"

He spun the steering wheel and pointed Sam down a cul-de-sac where a single house sat about a hundred yards away, tucked cozily into a thicket of woods.

The house had two floors stacked neatly on each other, and softly flickering candles illuminated the clear panes of each window. Neatly trimmed gardens blossomed around the perimeter of the house and trailed on either side of the front walkway. The driveway was a brick path which curled in front of the house before looping back around towards the street in an almost teardrop shape. The house itself was composed of grey stone, and the bright splash of red on the door offset the black shutters. The porch was a wide wrap around style, like the kind you would have seen on an old, colonial house in the Deep South.

My eyes were wide, and I could only open and close my mouth uselessly as Colt brought Sam to a stop in front of the towering home. Of course, he had the most elaborate of all the homes, but this? I was not expecting anything like this at all.

"It's absolutely beautiful, Colt," I murmured, tugging on the door handle and hopping out of the vehicle. Suddenly, I was painfully aware of how antiquated Sam was compared to everything else around us, but I couldn't manage a sad smile, not in the presence of a home almost as breathtaking as its owner.

A low grunt had my attention swiveling back to the intimidating biker toting a lavender luggage with three sets of hand prints lining the bottom of the top flap--my momma's, my daddy's, and my prints. Green stems dropped from the bottom of our colorful marks, making them appear like flowers. Momma had helped me make it for one of my birthdays; although, I couldn't remember clearly which one, perhaps my fifth?

When my eyes snapped back up to Colt, I had wanted to laugh so badly at the hulking, burly biker holding my dainty luggage, but I couldn't with how at ease he looked with it in his hands. I tilted my head to the side with furrowed eyebrows and a gentle smile. "You never cease to surprise me, Colt. Most men would look like their manhood was being shredded just by holding that thing, yet there you stand as cool as a cucumber."

He lifted his shoulders in another uninformative shrug while chuckling lowly, dragging the petite, lilac bag behind him as he made his way up the sidewalk. His voice was calm as he responded with an easy, "Why would I feel like my manhood's threatened when purple's my favorite color?"

I didn't even try to surpress the laughter passing over my lips, rolling my eyes skyward before letting my gaze fall back to Colt. "I don't get you, Blue, but I guess that's what makes this all fun, right? I see you as an open book, closed book scenario."

His cerulean eyes caught mine in a questioning glance as I passed by him into the stunning interior of his home. The walls were light tan in the hall but deepened into a slate blue as I entered the living room. A flat screen perched on top of a stone fireplace with yawning windows stretching upwards on either side, giving a panoramic view of the front yard. The carpet was a plush, and awe-strikingly spotless, white carpet. A black leather couch was placed in the middle of the room with matching, overly stuffed chairs that I could imagine myself curling into with my favorite book. A tall coffee table stood behind the couch, stretching the length of the furniture adjacent to it with a lamp and strategically placed magazines resting on its smooth, mocha colored surface.

I turned back to Colt with a dazzling smile before hurrying over to one of the chairs and plopping down on it. Before I could even find a comfortable position, an unbelievably soft blanket was spread over my frame, engulfing my body from my toes to my shoulders.