Free CURSED - CHOSEN FEW MC ROMANCE: BOOK ONE by Nessa Connor Page A

could even get her safely to Canada. It was damn hard to keep a woman at a distance when you spent the day with her arms around you, her warm and desirable body pressed up against yours. He needed to change things around, redefine the relationship in a way that they both understood. Maybe she could accept just being a nice fuck. That would work. If not, he’d change things.
    After that, when he’d gotten her across the border, she’d be on her own, and vulnerable. He’d be on his own again too, and the thought gave him a horrid, gut-twisting feeling of emptiness. Was that what emotions did to you? He’d have to force himself not to think about what happened after they reached Canada.
    * * * *
    After some time around him, Audra came to the conclusion that Greg was simply a nicer person than Dirk. His sincere smile, and a real warmth, continually surprised her.
    She recognized this partly in contrast. Over breakfast, Dirk had seemed out of sorts and during the day he’d grown distant, speaking to her in monosyllables, making her wonder if she’d done something to piss him off. Something had changed in his attitude toward her since he’d come to her room the night before. What it was, she couldn’t imagine. It had been a beautiful night of lovemaking. And then again in the morning. He’d made her come and she thought she’d pleased him. He’d seemed more than satisfied.
    While it would be unfair to say he had seduced her, he’d certainly been willing to make love to her. He’d liked her well enough for that. Now, whatever it was kept him from carrying on a conversation, or even asking how she was doing. It was a giant step backwards from even the distance he’d put between them when they first met. He had to be having second thoughts about his feelings for her, or perhaps only been pretending to feel anything more than lust.
    No matter what was happening in his head, she was suffering.
    It wasn’t that Dirk acted nasty or rude—just curt. A chill had settled in between them. It hurt more because she had no idea what had upset him and therefore no clue what to do to heal it. With him unwilling to talk to her, she had to accept the possibility that this was permanent. She’d loved their night together. She’d assumed there would be more. Without that hope, when she wrapped her arms around him so they could cover the miles between LA and Buffalo, the contact made her feel incredibly sad and lonely.
    And his change wasn’t something she imagined. The guys had noticed Dirk’s attitude shift. Maybe it was some biker code, where he let them know he wasn’t interested in her any more, but they’d become more attentive, chatting to her when they stopped for gas or at a rest stop, offering to buy her a cool drink, or asking her silly questions. Greg’s change was the most dramatic. When he heard Dirk being short with her at one stop his face clouded over in a disapproving scowl and when they stopped for dinner that evening he apologized for his friend.
    “He’s in a real fucked up space for some reason or another,” Greg said. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but Cutter can be an asshole at times.”
    Despite the hard words, the calm in his voice soothed her. She took a good look at the man, really seeing him for the first time as a man and not just Dirk’s mechanic. She liked what she saw. Although not a hunk, like Dirk definitely was, he was attractive in a rough way. Of medium height, he was well built and had close-cropped blond hair and sad pale-blue eyes. When he smiled, which was often, lines crinkled around his eyes.
    “Does he ever get in a mood that’s better than just ‘good’? Is he ever really happy?”
    Greg shook his head. “Not so you’d know it. He rises from his dark shit for air from time to time though.”
    Looking at his face, basking in his sympathetic smile, she felt a strong affection for Greg and was grateful he wanted to listen, to help. And she wondered about his