Reinventing Mel: A Hellion MC Novel

  Reinventing Mel - A Hellion MC Novel

  by

  J.A. Hornbuckle

  *.*.*.*.*

  Published by J.A. Hornbuckle

  for Smashwords

  *.*.*.*.*

  Reinventing Mel - A Hellion MC Novel

  Copyright ©2014 by J.A. Hornbuckle

  Edited by: Laura Kinsley

  Cover Design: Faustino Gaitšn

  License Notes

  This eBook is license for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this novel with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please buy an additional copy for each recipient.

  No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information story and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical now known or hereinafter invented, with the express written permission of J.A. Hornbuckle.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction and is not a reflection or representation of any person living or dead. Any similarity is of pure coincidence. Although, if you recognize yourself in any character represented, maybe we need to talk…

  EPub Edition April 2014 ISBN: 9780991239139

  Chapter One

  "If you could just sign here, here and here, Mr. Davis we can be done and get you to Mr. Jovanovic's office."

  Jay-sus but there were a lot of forms to fill out in order to become an apprentice electrician at Hellion Construction. But at least Mel'd had the pleasure of being with the pretty receptionist for the last hour while he'd done it. He flexed his hand as told himself it had been worth the writer's cramp just to even be within smelling distance of her.

  He signed where she indicated again chancing a glance at her in between the pages. Her style was like Bettie Page, the pinup girl, with her short bangs and high piled hair fastened with a scarf that matched her dress. Although the color was interesting with pink around her hairline. Mel wasn't sure if he'd call it Easter Egg pink or just plain ol' fluorescent but it was definitely in the bright range. And somehow, in some way, just added to her sexy appeal.

  But the dress. Man, her dress was something else. An off-the-shoulder blue with black polka dotted number that even had petticoats peeking at the bottom which swished when she moved. The color of the dress was perfect against her lightly tanned skin and was a sharp contrast to the red hot lipstick which defined her full lips.

  She kind of wore a lot of makeup but on her it looked good. The black stuff she had on her top lids just showed off her rounded blue eyes…that were looking at him quizzically, a tiny frown disturbing her perfectly arched and penciled eyebrows. "Did you hear me, Mr. Davis?"

  "I'm sorry, ma'am. Can you say again?"

  "I asked if you had any questions for me before I take you to see Mr. Jovanovic."

  "Ah. No, I don't think so. Wait! What's your name?" Maybe by asking her something about herself she'd skip over the part where he'd been caught staring at her.

  She adjusted the neckline of her dress which only bared the briefest of her rounded cleavage as she beamed a smile his way. "I'm Miss Palmer. Lucille Palmer."

  "Nice to meet you, Miss Palmer," he said answering her smile while holding out his hand. He'd never seen someone smile with their whole face before, a combination of a wide mouth, perfect teeth, rounded pinkening cheeks and sparkling eyes. It turned her from beautiful to stunning and he had to resist a move to adjust his jeans.

  When she took his hand, he saw she'd painted her nails to match her lipstick. "The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Davis."

  They both stood at the same time and Mel saw she was only a few inches shorter than he was. Tall, he surmised since he was well over six feet. That was until she slipped by him, stepping almost close enough for their bodies to touch. He held his breath until she began to walk in front of him and he saw the height of her platformed shiny black heels. Which led upward to black seamed stockings and an ass that he would swear sash-shayed when she walked.

  Even from the back she was amazing.

  "On your left are the offices of Mr. Carter, Mr. Gentry with Mr. Bastian, the IT Manager, in the corner. On your right is Mr. Jackson's office." She detailed pointing out the different doors that were scattered around a long, wide open space. "That's the conference room and down here we have Mr. Kettering's and finally Mr. Jovanovic's."

  Pausing on the edge of the farthest doorway, she rapped on the open door. "Mr. Davis is here to see you, Brand."

  "Very good, Lucille. How are you settling in? Not ready to run screaming from the building yet, I hope." Mel was hard-pressed to shift his eyes from the woman in front of him to the big man behind the desk.

  The amazing smile she wore came through in her voice. "Thank you for asking! I'm very good especially since Trey talked to the landlord who is letting me move in tonight so no more motels for a while."

  "Our Lucille is like you, Mel. New to Missoula and to HC." Mel exchanged a glance with Miss Palmer. She hadn't given Mel permission to use her first name earlier and he didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with either his new boss or the lovely receptionist.

  He was going to stick with Miss Palmer and pray that'd change soon.

  "If there's nothing else I'll get back to my post then," she said cheerily with a little finger wave he found sexy as hell. Mel'd counted himself lucky to be included in her good-bye glance. The finger wave was just an added treat.

  His eyes followed the sweet swing of her skirts until she was out of sight. When he turned back, he saw his boss smirking.

  "It is worth a second glance, yes?" The large man asked with a hand wave towards one of the chairs in front of a desk which took up almost half the room. "My wife calls Lucille's style 'rockabilly' or 'retro'. Although we managers simply call it 'distracting'."

  Mel laughed as he sat and felt his tension begin to loosen.

  "First off, call me Brand instead of Mr. Jovanovic. My last name is not easy for Americans and I would prefer not to have it butchered when Brand is so much easier."

  Mel nodded. That would be easy enough to do.

  "Secondly other than the brothers at HMC no one else has any knowledge of how you and I met or our affiliation outside of the club. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "I want to congratulate you on your coursework. The reports that came to us regarding the marks on your finals were exceptional. Well done." Mel was surprised to find the expression on his new boss's face supported his words. It had been a long time since Mel had received any kind of praise from someone and he found he was hungry for it.

  "It-it wasn't that hard, sir. Only six weeks and I didn't have an outside job or anything," Mel hedged.

  "But you still had to care for your brother and sister, correct? From what I understand, being a parent or even acting as one is a full-time job."

  "The Honeys helped a lot. Especially Miss Dee." Mel wasn't going to take credit for keeping Derek and Julie in line. Not when the women of the motorcycle club had done most of the running around to get them enrolled in school, rustled up new clothes and made sure someone was around to keep an eye on Julie after school.

  Derek, though. Yeah, if Der's screwed up attitude was anything to go by, Mel's parenting skills weren't worthy of mention.

  "They are the ones that set up your house as well which I am sure you are aware of." Brand's way of talking showed he wasn't born and bred in the States but someplace overseas. It wasn't mu
ch, but the 'r' sound had a catch to it and Mel noticed he didn't use contractions when he spoke. "I had heard there was some confusion when you first moved in?"

  "Ah. Yeah, you could say that." Mel felt his face heat as he remembered asking which room was theirs in the nice home he and his remaining family members had been taken to. The look on Miss Dee's face had been a picture. "Why all of it, Mel. The whole house is yours, Derek and Julie's! Each of you have your own room." His siblings had raced off to discover everything about the three bedroom, one bath house while Mel had just stared at Miss Dee surprised to his core at the generosity. "It got straightened out."

  "Good. Now let us talk about your apprenticeship. I have found that in the electrical field, a new hire just out of school will do better by completing a full inventory for two weeks before he is assigned to a crew."

  "Inventory? You mean like counting stuff, sir?"

  "Do not be fooled by how easy it will seem. You will, in fact, become very familiar and almost memorize the different electrical supplies and sizes Hellion Construction keeps on hand. This will be of vital importance when I have assigned you to a team."

  Mel could see the wisdom in that.

  "Between your schooling and inventory you will at least be able to understand what your crew leader and co-workers are talking about when you start the hands-on portion. Otherwise it would feel as if everyone around you were speaking a different language," Brand said with a rueful grin which led Mel to think the man had gone through something similar.

  Brand continued speaking giving Mel the hours he was expected to work, the rules of conduct which Mel had already read and signed when he was with Miss Palmer and described the uniform of all HC employees except for the beautiful receptionist.

  "Lucille will give you the t-shirts, thermals and flannel jackets but you must purchase your own steel-toed boots. Here is the card of the shoe store downtown where HC has arranged a discount." Brand paused. "I think that is it. Any questions?"

  "No, sir. I think you pretty much covered all of them."

  "Good. We will see you tomorrow at eight am but do not get used to the late start because once on crew, you will be expected to clock in no later than five-thirty."

  Mel stood and extended his hand, mindful that he should have offered it when he'd first come in. "Thank you for the opportunity, sir. I can't tell you what this means to both me and my family."

  The older man took it with a nod. "Glad to have you with us, Mel."

  *.*.*.*.*

  As I stepped from Brand's office, I realized I was panting and feeling my heartbeat in several unmentionable places.

  Cheese and rice, that Mel was hot.

  The kind of hot that made a girl very aware of her body parts and if she had lipstick on her teeth.

  A type of man that had your brain short-circuiting when just looking at him.

  And, man alive, did I look when he'd first arrived stating he had an appointment with Brand. Tall and broad shouldered, he stood before my desk in the reception area wearing just a button-downed light green shirt tucked into blue jeans. But it was what the clothes covered that had me practically drooling into my keyboard.

  Muscles! Lots and lots of glorious rounded muscle that were clearly defined even through his shirt. Arms so big I didn't think both my hands would meet if I tried to wrap them around his bicep. And his triangle, that ratio between shoulder and waist, found me holding my breath as he took the chair next to my desk.

  Fabulicious was the word my mind screamed in seeing his thick thighs flex as he sat down. And then I lost the ability to breathe again when I was finally face-to-face with him.

  I don't know why I expected him to have rough features, something along the lines of brutish which would've matched his physique. But his countenance wasn't like that at all. Taken one by one, the individual pieces were almost average in appearance, a high, broad forehead with slightly curving eyebrows that were only a shade or two darker than his caramel colored, short cropped hair. A straight nose and a mouth that was neither too wide or too small. But when they were seen all together along with his amazing leaf green eyes with the golden starburst around the pupil…he was simply gorgeous. Absolutely, stunningly , panty melting.

  So much so, I caught myself crossing and re-crossing my legs as I had him fill out the paperwork. A move I needed because of the pressure that had built in just looking at him, but had the added benefit of having his eyes zero in on me as Lulu, the woman, and not Miss Palmer, the efficient HC fellow employee.

  I tried to keep it professional but it was hard. He was just too much of everything I liked all wrapped in one package for me not to react to. So when all the paperwork was done and it was time to take him back to Brand's office, I made a point of sliding by him as close as I possibly could without actually grazing my chest across his. Even though if I'd breathed deep, I probably would have.

  It was a bold move and not one that I'd normally even consider making but I wanted to see if he smelled as good as he looked. Plus, I'd recently determined that a girl needed to go after what she wanted and not just sit on her hands waiting for it to drop into her lap.

  So I'd done the old 'squeeze by' which gave me a nostril full of manly ambrosia which made the move a complete success even though that meant he had to follow me instead of the other way around.

  I'd wanted to see if the backside view was as good as the front and didn't get that opportunity until we were in Brand's office. But found that Mel looked just as fantabulous from any side and was absolutely my perfect fantasy-man come to life.

  Fanning myself, I opened the door to the stock room in order to get his work apparel sorted although I was having trouble keeping my mind focused on what needed to be done.

  I stood in the tidy supply closet and looked over the stock of HC wear available. He looked to be either an XXL or in the three X range because of his massive guns, those arms that made my head spin in just thinking about them.

  Size-wise, he would fit right in at the construction company which had me wondering if being built big was a requirement in getting hired.

  But that couldn't be true because Trey Jackson's fiancé, Dallas, worked for Silo as a plumber, even led a crew, and wore a girl's medium. She was the exception, though. By and large all the men I encountered were at least an extra-large if not in the multiple 'X' range.

  I found myself running my palms over one of the t-shirts I'd chosen for him wondering if I could talk him into trying it on before he left. Or would that be too forward? I could use the excuse of getting the size right, but even in my mind that seemed a little bit…cheesy. And he'd seemed a little too reserved for something like that although he might have been just quiet.

  Yep, the new hire had really revved my motor since I was a sucker for tall, beefy and green-eyed. The type I'd never really even got to see back home, much less have the opportunity to talk with. Although Mel seemed a little on the young side, a little bashful but that might have been because of being at a new job. His application had said he was twenty-three, just two years younger than me. But I'd be the first one to tell people not to believe everything on an employment form much less a resume.

  Take for instance my own. About the only thing completely truthful on it had been my name and social security number. Everything else, while not an out and out fib was, well, fudged.

  But just by a little bit.

  Like giving my last address as L.A. and my last employer as Design, Unlimited. Listing my cousin's address and work-from-home startup company added flair and a diversion to my whole work history. And changing just one digit in the phone number of my old Albuquerque job was just a little misdirection.

  From the way Mr. Bastian had tried looking down my dress during the interview, I hadn't been worried about my little white lies. And when I'd aced all the tests he'd given me in typing, on the MS Office Suite programs and phone etiquette I knew I had it in the bag. Although I'd been sure to turn super-professional when he'd asked me out afterw
ard.

  Although handsome and built, Bishop (as he'd asked me to call him) was entirely too old for me.

  I went back to my desk with my arms piled high with Mel's new gear. HC seemed to be unstinting when it came to their employees. I wouldn't have had to pay for my clothes either but when given the choice between 'street' clothes or the unrelenting black and gold of the construction company's colors I'd just had to go with my own.

  Plus designing and sewing my own clothes was a hobby and something I was very good at even if I did say so myself.

  "Hellion Construction, Miss Palmer speaking. How may I help you? Mr. Gentry? Yes, sir. Who may I say is calling? Can you spell that? Thank you, sir." I pushed the buttons on my phone for Dare's office.