Mine Forever [The Perrines 1]

Chapter Three

Mayor, Mercy - Mine Forever (The Perrines 1) [Avidbook, Mainstream MF Conetmporary Romance] Chapter Three

Ronna loathed the idea of shopping for groceries but with a look from Nick which could dampen the spirit of weaker souls, she knew she wouldn’t win that argument. She had to choose her battles wisely and grabbing her rental car key, she headed out, intending to fill their fridge with two weeks’ worth of food.

As she drove, she kept telling herself that doing this for nine weeks shouldn’t hurt at all. She might even find it interesting and begin to look forward to it. Come hell or high water, she wasn’t going to let anything make her back down.

After all, there wasn’t anything to it and besides, it was food they would eat, and if it came out inedible, they could always order takeout. They were both on a much needed vacation and trying out the average lifestyle of the middle-working class seemed appealing when Ronna had come up with this idea.

She loved her family and there was no doubt about it. She also appreciated the fact that she was born into a completely down-to-earth family despite generations of old money. Family above all else were the principles they were raised on. Yet, there was a whole big world out there just waiting for her and she could put fashion on hold for a short while and give herself to it.

She had never been grocery shopping before and well, she’d had no reason to since that role fell to their housekeeper back at home. It was a new experience and quite… well, it was going to be something!

With a sigh, Ronna stepped into the huge and very spacious Shopping Mart. Near the doorway was the checkout counter. Long shelves were arranged in rows within distance of each other, and each of them was fully stocked and the place was teaming with residents of the town. Ronna grabbed a shopping cart from the stack at the entrance and pulled out the list she’d been handed then began heaping the groceries into the cart. It took a while, figuring out which ones to go with and where everything was but an hour and half later, Ronna wheeled a fully stacked shopping cart to the checkout point and began unloading everything onto the counter.

“Hi. You’re new in town right? I’m Nora.” The salesgirl said as she smiled at Ronna. Without waiting for a response from Ronna, Nora continued even as she began tallying up Ronna’s purchases. “This is quite a town isn’t it? Heard you’re from Baltimore. Quite the city girl I take it.”

Nora, the woman before her was a willowy tall woman with hair as dark as ebony and eyes as brown as coffee.

“How did you know that?” Ronna asked, shocked since they had just arrived.

Nora shrugged, “It’s a small town. The only thing worth doing is gossiping. Pretty much everyone knows everyone’s business in this town.”

“Small town life, huh?” Ronna responded with a nod.

“Oh, you have no idea. So how long are you here for again?”

“Couple of weeks.” Ronna said with a shrug, purposely being vague.

Nora nodded. “Yeah. Most city folks don’t last past a couple of weeks in small towns…” And with that, Nora launched into a long monologue about the town, passing along the current news in town and subtly digging for information about Ronna and her brother to which Ronna gave extremely vague answers.

Ronna stood, half listening to the woman and diverting personal questions asked of her. She waited, idly nodding along with a polite smile plastered on her face as she tracked how much longer it would take for her purchases to be completely tallied up.

Ronna wasn’t really listening to what Nora was saying and she could feel her cheek aching from keeping the smile from drooping. God! She needed to get away fast. She couldn’t stand such chatter and how anyone else ever put up with it was beyond her.

Unexpectedly, Ronna felt light-headed and she gripped the counter so fiercely, her knuckles turned white. Her face seemed to lose a little color as she stared at the hazy figure in front of her.

Nora’s voice seemed so far away. She shook her head, hoping to clear her distorting vision. She dragged in air slowly then released it through her mouth. She repeated this several times until she began to feel somewhat more stable.

“Hi Nora!”

A deep masculine voice came from beside her which nearly made her jump in surprise. She had been silently urging Nora to get the thing over with and controlling her breathing which came in short gasps that she hadn’t heard anyone come up behind her. From the way Nora stilled and grew silent, a surprise though a welcomed one from her earlier chattering, Ronna could tell that Nora was not particularly glad to see the stranger who’d come up behind her.

Curious to know who it was that had prompted a reprieve from the constant chatter, Ronna turned her head and had honestly not been prepared for the sight which greeted her. She had been expecting someone really intimidating whose features were enough to send everyone else running for the hills.

Instead, the male was the most breathtakingly gorgeous she’d ever seen, and she had seen enough gorgeous men to last a lifetime, what with working in the fashion industry.

He stood several inches taller than her with her head coming up to his shoulder. His hair which was as black as ebony fell slightly across his forehead, and she was captivated by those incredible emerald green eyes of his. He had very long eyelashes most women would kill for and she watched, mesmerized as it swept down then back up while he regarded her silently.

His features was aristocratic with his high cheekbone, pointed nose and chiseled jaw. He made a striking piece of artwork photographers and artists would beg the honor of capturing. A dark mole finished off his look just above his lips, adding to his male beauty.

He was strikingly, down-to-earth gorgeous in blue jeans and white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his forearm. She just knew from his appearance he was the type of male that made the clothes and would look gorgeous in anything, more preferably, his birthday suit. She ran her eyes through the whole length of him noticing just how his shirt strained against well-developed muscles, his figure athletic and lean without an ounce of fat to be found anywhere.

Done scrutinizing him, she raised her eyes and let them settle back on his face, catching his knowing gaze on her. From his physique alone, it wasn’t hard to know that women everywhere probably found him devilishly attractive. If he was this gorgeous with a broody look, how much more would he be when he smiled? Really, he was a hazard to women everywhere and should have come with a warning!

One thick dark brow rose the moment their gaze collided and the look he gave her made Ronna feel her legs weakening and desire curling in her stomach, as attraction slammed into her, hard.

The stranger was doing some looking of his own. After all, he’d been startled to see her give him a thorough once over only to reveal the same look of appreciation he received everywhere he went. It was only fair that he returned the favor and saw how striking, she was.

His gaze swept over her, noticing the way her blonde hair fell straight down her back and brushed her shoulder. She was a sight to behold with her unusual eyes, the shade of violet with streaks of blue surrounding the iris. She filled out in all the right places with her blouse molding itself like a second skin onto her body and her shorts exposing creamy long legs.

Her skin looked delicate, like silk and her mouth which was full just begged to be kissed. She was the kind of beauty men would lose their minds over and it took all the will-power he possessed to break off eye contact with her and focus on Nora once more.

Ronna didn’t know she had been holding her breath until she let it go the moment he looked away from her. She had never before felt such sensations cascading through her at the sight of a man. But then again, it wasn’t her fault she found the man smolderingly attractive. A lot of women probably did.

She was immensely grateful that he’d broken eye contact for she didn’t trust herself not to do something stupid which would have embarrassed them both. It had given her time to get her emotions under control and functioning properly again. She drew in a sharp breath then focused on the mutual dislike flying between Nora and the man.

He stood not more than five inches away from her as he also began loading his supplies on the counter. Ronna was too preoccupied with the heat of the man behind her to notice that Nora had shoved her purchases to one corner and began tallying up the man’s. He reached past her and handed his credit card to Nora.

“You probably ought to give your advice to Mrs. Gritty. Saw her trying to figure out which bakery to go with.” His deep masculine voice said from behind Nora.

Looking past him, Nora could see the old woman at the far end of the supermarket. When she handed him his credit card, she stalked away without uttering a single word. Picking up his stuff from the counter, the man began dropping them one by one into the paper bags he grabbed from the counter.

He glanced at Ronna briefly. “You might want to make a run for it while you still can.” He gave a significant pause and looked at her briefly with raised brows. “Unless you prefer to have your ears chewed out once she returns.”

“I have to pay…” Ronna motioned with her hands.

“I already did. Don’t ask and don’t thank me.” He broke in.

“O-Kay.” She whispered, turning it into a two-syllable word. She then grabbed a takeout carrier and began loading her own purchases into it. “But I could have easily done so myself.”

“Is this the ‘I’m an independent woman’ scenario women love saying?” He asked with a raised brow.

“It’s not a scenario and besides, I don’t know you which means, I don’t intend being indebted to some unknown stranger.” Ronna countered.

Pausing in loading up his purchases, he regarded her with raised brow, frowned then said, “In that case, have lunch with me sometime and I’ll consider us even.”

Ronna eyed him, “Was that supposed to be a pickup line?”

The man shrugged as though not caring either way. “If not, then consider your debt nonexistence.”

Realizing that he was really serious, Ronna asked, “Lunch?”

He glanced at her once more than nodded, “Just lunch.”

She was quiet for a minute then said, “You’ve got yourself a lunch date Mr.—”

“Kress. Shane Kress.”

Silently, she loaded the last of her purchase into the carrier bag then gasped when Shane lifted the heavy purchase and dumped them into his shopping cart where he’d already placed his own purchases. Shane wheeled the cart as they exited the mall and they walked together in silence until Ronna finally broke it. “Nora seems fun.”

“Yeah?” He replied wryly.

“She was filling me on what goes on in town.”

“I thought as much. Unless she was talking about herself.” he said dryly.

“I like her.” She said in a not so convincing voice.

He glanced at her, then brought the cart to a stop and turned to face her, one dark eyebrow raised in question. “Okay, so let’s be honest with each other. Did you honestly enjoy talking to her?”

“I dreaded every minute of it.” She said with an honest smile.

“Well, at least you were lucky. After all, I did come to your rescue. I usually do a U-turn when I see her around.” he said as he resumed walking.

She looked at him, the humor lurking in her voice. “Why didn’t you do the same today?”

“It was necessary for me to have these before noon and besides, I had a damsel to rescue.” He grinned and she was struck by the transformation in his face. Just as she’d known, he really was gorgeous when he smiled and a lethal weapon to a woman’s system. “With your being new here and all, it’d be a shame having to spend almost an hour trying to pay for your groceries.”

She peered into the cart, noticing packs of French fries and ice creams on top of all the other merchandise which weren’t hers. “For someone your age, you sure do eat a lot of junk food.”

He followed her gaze, “The age is twenty-eight and I don’t, not usually. I bought these for my sister. She’s coming over for a visit.” He explained. Though why he was telling all this to a complete stranger, he had no idea. “And besides, teenagers love this stuff right?”

“I doubt it.”

He looked uncertain. “You think she’ll disapprove?”

How should she know? She didn’t know anything about the girl in question and it was his sister for crying out loud. Wasn’t he supposed to know the likes and dislike of his own sister? But then again, they might not be all that close. In her own opinion, older brothers were supposed to be overprotective of their younger sisters just like hers were but of course, she couldn’t judge every family by her own family’s standard.

Shrugging, she questioned. “She’s your sister. Do you think she’ll like them?”

“I don’t know. It’s been a while since I last saw her. I doubt she’d even remember me. But, my mother can be very persistent when it comes to family.”

“So, you’re the wild one huh? It’s kind of hard to picture.”

Smiling, he said “Is it?”

His smile was lethal to her body’s equilibrium. She hadn’t expected the churning it wrought on her insides as she stared at the transformation it made to his face all over again. She had just been recovering from what the last one did to her and now, it suddenly seemed useless as her body responded to his charms. It was just so unfair that a stranger she probably wouldn’t meet again had to have a killer smile which would imprint itself on her mind for a very long time.

Stopping beside his truck, he patted it to indicate that it was his ride, “You need a ride?”

“No. I’ve got one already.”

“Oh.” Shane asked with a raised brow.

“Right here.” She said patting a blue Corvette which was thankfully parked beside his truck.

He helped her unload her groceries, unloading his at the same time. Once they were done, he wheeled the cart the short distance to where the other ones were stacked then came round to the driver’s side of his truck. “I’ve got to get to the airport to pick up my little sis.”

The way he said the ‘little’ revealed his nervousness at meeting the girl. He seemed the type who valued his independence from his family, the same way she also did until one of her dear brothers challenged her or led her to challenge them to one of their infamous bets.

“Think we could make that date sometime next week? Not sure when I’d be able to get away.” Shane called over the head of his truck.

“Sure. I know you said not to say thank you but, thanks anyway for saving me back there. I really appreciate it. See you around?” Ronna got into her car, turned the engine and with a brief wave, drove off.

The encounter had left a Ronna in a good mood and with a feeling that something amazing was just beginning for her. All in all, she was glad she’d made this trip. If only to get to meet such a fascinating man.