Rising Heat (Outlaw Biker Boys) Page 9

  “What’s not to like?” I finally said. “You know, she’s working two jobs and going to school. She wants to be a veterinarian. She’s got gumption. To tell you the truth, I’m feeling a little embarrassed that I’ve been so shiftless, wasted so many years just bummin’ around.”

  “Yeah, I get what you mean. It is about time that we both decided what the hell we wanted to do with our lives, isn’t it?”

  I offered a low chuckle. “Better late than never, huh?”

  Bones laughed. “Don’t you know it.”

  “I’ll be back here by nine o’clock. Want to come by? Have a beer?”

  “Sure,” Bones agreed. “See you later.”

  I disconnected the call.

  Even though I had tried to minimize my concern with the warnings that each of us had received, I also knew I needed to take them seriously. The fact that those three guys had followed Kathy from the mall — and I had no doubt that they did — made me realize things were not quite as copacetic as I’d previously thought. Maybe the gang suspected. Maybe they figured I knew too much about their upcoming plans and activities, as well as some past stuff. I shouldn’t be surprised that they were worried I might say something to the cops.

  I tossed another shirt into the charity pile. Maybe I was giving them too much credit. Making myself more important in their eyes than I was. I had never given anyone in the gang any indication that I was anything other than what I was: a man looking for a distraction, a sense of belonging. A man sowing his wild oats. Nothing more.

  “I’m an idiot,” I said aloud and I was, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I couldn’t go back and relive the past ten years over again. I had no idea if I would even want to.

  I tried to look at life as a learning experience. I’d made plenty of mistakes, no doubt about that. Now, on the back side of them, I could only learn from my fuck ups, not undo them. Of course, there was one huge and tragic mistake that I had made in my life that I wished more than anything I could undo.

  Damn. Why was I in my head so much recently?

  I decided to blame all my recent uncertainties and these odd glimpses into my psyche on Kathy. Not in a bad way either. Maybe I was just ready for a change. For now, she was a distraction, and a welcome one, no doubt about it, but I had no illusions. I was still surprised that she had agreed to go out with me again. Maybe she was feeling the same thing. Curious. Intrigued. Hopefully horny.

  I wanted to get to know her a little better, understand why she had left family, friends, and a lifelong home to move to a city where she had no relatives, at least none she had mentioned. Why was she living a life of isolation, too busy with work and school to even come up for a breath of fresh air? What made Kathy tick? What drove her?

  I found myself needing to know.

  And I needed to know why a chance meeting had triggered a need within myself to find some stability. Some balance. For that reason alone, I was captivated by her. Sure, she was pretty and I certainly wasn’t one to ignore pretty women. But it was this mental or emotional effect she had on me that had me so curious about her. That had prompted me to ask her out again. She should have said no and I had expected her to. But she hadn’t.

  Curiosity. The word reminded me of a phrase Becca used to say. “Curiosity killed the cat. Information brought it back.”

  *

  Early that afternoon I was on my motorcycle, ready to pick her up from the pet store. Of course, like always, people looked my way when my motorcycle rumbled into the parking lot. The noise had never bothered me before, but now I felt self-conscious. What the hell?

  I shook myself out of whatever it was I was feeling and turned off the bike, watching the front door of the pet store. I didn’t think she would want me to come inside. I didn’t want to go inside either. If I saw the manager who’d sold me that crappy fish tank in the first place, I might be tempted to give him a piece of my mind, and maybe something else to remember me by. I didn’t want to get Kathy in trouble, either by having a confrontation with the manager or by giving people the idea that she and I were dating.

  I’d just begun to explore that thought when the door opened, and she walked out wearing a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and a red t-shirt. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that swayed from side to side with every step she took. She quickly scanned the parking lot, spied my motorcycle, and then tentatively offered a wave. I couldn’t help it. I grinned as I waved back. She looked so… I wasn’t quite sure how to put it. Natural. No illusions when it came to Kathy. What you see is what you get. Like the other times I’d seen her, she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Of course she didn’t need any, but that didn’t stop a lot of young women from piling it on regardless.

  She made her way to my bike, staring at it with uncertainty as she approached.

  “Hi, Ash.”

  “Hey, yourself.” I smiled. “Ready?”

  She offered a small nod but glanced quickly over her shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to just take my car? You can drive if you want.”

  I shook my head, avoiding the real reason I didn’t want to take her car. “On a gorgeous day like this?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “It’s a surprise, but I guarantee you’ll like it.” I reached behind me and unhooked the helmet I’d pulled out of the back of my closet. Full face with jaw guard and clear face shield. That helmet had been buried under a bunch of junk in my closet ever since I arrived in Denver. Colorado didn’t have a helmet law, but plenty of states did. I didn’t wear a helmet anymore, but that was my own choice. I’d never had a non-biker passenger before, but her safety was something I would insist on with Kathy… especially in light of other events in my past.

  Before I could dwell on that, I handed her the helmet. “Put this on.” It wasn’t a request.

  She glanced at the helmet, the buckles and the straps, then settled it over her head. It was big on her, but it would do. It was a tad loose after she tightened the straps under her chin, but again, it would do.

  “You told me you never rode a bike before, other than a scooter.”

  “Yes,” she said, eyeing the bike with a combination of anticipation and dread.

  “Hop on.” I gestured. “It’s not that different from a scooter. Only bigger and louder.” She settled behind me on the seat. “Put your feet on those pegs,” I instructed, pointing to the rear passenger foot pedals that extended from the chassis. She did. “Now wrap your arms around my waist or grab hold of my belt loops. It’s not hard to maintain your balance, but since you’ve never ridden before, it will give you an added sense of stability.”

  Again, she did as directed. She wrapped her arms around my waist, her breasts pressed gently against my back. My dick reacted immediately, and I tried to ignore it. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her away. I glanced over my shoulder. “Ready?”

  She nodded, her eyes wide, her lips pressed together. Almost as if she wanted to say “no, I’m not ready,” but she didn’t. Perhaps, underneath all that work ethic and studiousness, she did have an adventurous spirit. And if she had an adventurous spirit, I wondered what kind of an effect that sense of adventure would have on her in bed. Again, I pushed such thoughts out of my head.

  I started the bike, adjusted the throttle, shifted gears, and pulled out of the parking lot. I squelched a smile as her arms immediately tightened around my waist. We weren’t even going ten miles an hour, and she already had a death grip on me. I felt her legs tighten around my hips, her knees pressing against the outside of my upper thighs. I never had a girl like her on my bike. I wasn’t putting her up on a pedestal or anything like that. She was just different than the girls I was used to taking out. Again, I shook my head. Didn’t want to go there.

  All I wanted to do today was enjoy the weather, take Kathy for a ride, enjoy a casual dinner someplace, and then see what the evening would bring. Did I think about sleeping with her? Of course. It was natural to think it, at least fo
r me. Not that I was planning on it, but if it came up, I wouldn’t hesitate. I wanted to know what it felt like to touch her skin, to kiss those lips, to feel her hot breath on my—

  “We’re not going to go fast, are we?”

  I smiled and shook my head. In deference to her uncertainty and worry about going too fast, I didn’t head for the interstate. I didn’t want to scare her to death before we even got out of town. Being her first time on a motorcycle, any speed would seem fast, and taking her on the interstate would just be ludicrous. I slowly meandered toward the mountains.

  “You okay?” I said, turning my head so she could hear me. I wasn’t going so fast that I had to shout too much.

  “Yes! This is fun!”

  I grinned. As I left the city behind and the road wound higher into the foothills, coiling its way like a snake into the distance, I accelerated a bit. Not too much, but enough to give her a thrill. Remembering my first time on a motorcycle, I was trying to provide her with the same sense of freedom.

  The faster I went, the harder I felt the helmet press closer and her breasts squish tighter against my back. Her thighs squeezed against mine. No way in hell was I going to make it up to Aspen sporting a hard-on the entire way. I decided that we might head toward the Flatirons above Boulder. Not too far. She wouldn’t worry about being so far away from downtown Denver, but it was far enough to let her feel as if she were out of the city.

  After a while, I finally pulled off into a large dirt turnout. Above us, the hills rose up toward the sky, the afternoon sun glinting against the rocks shooting straight up from the ridge. Below, the entire valley spread out below us, and beyond, the plains. Off in the distance, I could see Denver, and make out what I called the “cash register building” silhouetted against the gorgeous blue sky. Off to the north were the dark brown buildings of the University at Boulder.

  I turned off the engine. Kathy struggled to undo the buckles of the helmet. She finally gave up, grabbed onto my shoulders, and stepped off the bike, focusing again on the straps holding the helmet in place. I watched for a moment, then reached to help.

  “Here, hold still. Sometimes the straps will tighten up.” My fingers began to work at the buckle, brushing against the soft flesh of her jaw and then her neck. Once, my hand accidentally brushed up against the soft flesh of her upper breast. She sucked in her breath but didn’t move. My cock did. In fact, I wasn’t sure if my jeans would be able to hide the signs of my hard on.

  Maybe she wouldn’t notice.

  She sucked in another breath, and I realized she had. Kind of hard to miss, the bulge extending downward from the crotch of my jeans. She didn’t say anything, just stared at it, then up at me, and then pointedly looked at something over my shoulder as I continued to work at the straps. The moment I got them unfastened, she yanked the helmet off and set it on the bike’s seat. Then she was gone, walking quickly to the outer edge of the overlook.

  I gave her a moment by herself, willing my dick to behave, then casually moved to stand beside her. “Don’t get too close to the edge,” I warned. “Sometimes they give way without warning.”

  She took a step back. “It’s a beautiful view,” she said. “I’ve been in Denver for months and months, but this is the first time I’ve really gotten out of the city and had a chance to visit the mountains.”

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to ignore the desire burgeoning in my groin. “Sometimes it can be hard to truly appreciate where you are when you’re smack dab in the middle of it.”

  “What’s this place called?”

  I grinned. “Lookout Point. Lover’s Lane. Make-out Turnout. Take your pick.” I paused, glancing toward the far side of the turnout where a couple of picnic tables were situated. “Wanna go over there and sit down?” I didn’t wait for her answer but moved toward the picnic table, hoping that my hard-on wouldn’t frighten her. I couldn’t help my arousal. And I was doing my best to keep my distance.

  I sat down on the bench, leaning my back against the table, stretching my arms out against its rough surface. I didn’t make an attempt to hide what was going on in my pants. It was what it was. My legs were slightly spread, my feet extended and relaxed, my boot heels digging into the dirt. I took in the view, inhaling the scent of pine, dirt, and a slight hint of skunk.

  “What’s that smell?”

  She sat down on the bench beside me. Not really close, maybe a few inches apart. That was a good sign. She could’ve sat on the opposite side of the table, refused to sit down altogether, or purposely sat at the opposite end of the bench. I glanced at her with a lifted eyebrow. “You’ve never smelled skunk before?”

  Her eyes widened a bit as she glanced around. “There’s a skunk here?”

  I gestured with my chin down into the trees. “Could be down there. The rumble of the motorcycle might have alarmed it.”

  It was quiet up here; the whisper of the breeze moving through the tops of the pine trees. Birds chattering. In the trees I saw a couple of squirrels scampering, chasing each other around and around a tree trunk. Kathy also watched the antics, smiling. When she turned to me, her eyes were shining with excitement.

  “Thanks for bringing me up here, Ash,” she said. “I know I need to get out more. I want to, really I do, but I don’t like to go out alone.”

  “That’s smart,” he said. “Denver’s pretty safe, but it always pays to be cautious.” She looked at me. What did she see?

  “Yesterday, I asked if you came from around here and you said no, but you didn’t elaborate. Since we’re on what I would, in any other situation, consider a date, don’t you think it’s about time we got to know each other a little better?”

  I hid my surprise. She considered this a date? Did she really want to get to know me better? “I came from back east a few years ago. That’s a start, isn’t it?”

  She made a face. “I have a feeling that dragging any kind of information out of you is going to be a challenge.” She turned her face into the breeze, several loose strands of hair blowing around her eyes.

  I barely resisted the urge to reach up and tuck those wayward strands of hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I’m just not used to—”

  “I get it, Ash,” she said. “I don’t talk about myself much either. It’s not like I have any friends I go out with. Sure, I know the people at work, and a few people at school, but I haven’t really made friends with any of them. Not the kind of friends that you hang out with after work or school, go out dancing with, that kind of stuff, you know?”

  “You’re a loner,” I said, and she nodded. “You feel perfectly comfortable being by yourself. Once in a while, you yearn for companionship, but you’re not necessarily lonely.”

  She blinked. “You’re a loner too.”

  I nodded.

  “What do you do?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, where do you work? What do you do for a living?”

  How to answer that question without seeming like a total flake? “I’ve just been bumming around the last couple of years,” I admitted. “I came into some money and decided to take a road trip.” None of that was exactly a lie. There was a bit of truth to both of those statements. I had been bumming around, but it had lasted more than a couple of years. I had come into money, but it wasn’t from an inheritance. I was born into it, a trust fund baby. My bank account was fat. Money was something that I would never have to worry about, and I hadn’t spent much of it in the past decade.

  She frowned, apparently finding the idea difficult to wrap her head around. “So what do you do all day? If you don’t have a job, what do you do with all the hours in the day?”

  I shrugged. “Sometimes I come up here. Sometimes I go camping. Hang out with a few friends.” Okay, that was an exaggeration. I had one friend.

  She turned back to look at the view. “Don’t you get bored?”

  Did I? Come to think of it, I didn’t. I rarely got bored.

  She turned toward me, her knee brushing up against my l
eg. I didn’t move and neither did she. The contact sent sensations racing from my thigh and once again initiated niggling movements in my cock. Her eyes searched my face. Looking for what, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t turn away, allowing her to take in her fill. I got the feeling that she was looking for something deep inside that I’d been looking for myself.

  “So what is it you do when you’re not bumming around? What do you want to do with your life…?”

  I shrugged. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I envy you your ability to focus on a specific career path. But I just haven’t found a place yet. Where I fit in.”

  “You have family out here? In Denver?”

  I shook my head.

  “No family in Colorado?”

  “No. You?”

  “No, mine are in Southern California. My parents, I mean. I’m an only child. What about you? Did you leave a big family?”

  “Not really,” I shrugged. “My parents and a twin sister.”

  Her eyes widened. “You have a twin sister? Identical or fraternal?”

  “Uh, fraternal,” I replied, wondering if she was pulling my leg. “Why?”

  She grinned. “I was thinking that if you guys were identical, she’s awfully tall and awfully handsome.” She laughed, and I was relieved to know that she was smart enough to realize that only same sex twins could be identical. I was worried for a minute.

  Her face flushed deeply at her joke, or was it because she called me tall and handsome? Whichever it was, she turned beet red. I couldn’t help but laugh. She looked adorable. She looked sexy. And that made my sudden urge to kiss her all the more overwhelming.

  I leaned slightly forward, my face closer to hers. She didn’t pull away. I studied her for a moment, then looked down to her lips, then back up again. Her breath hitched. Her pupils dilated. Then, probably unconsciously, her tongue moistened her lips. In anticipation? I had no idea, but she hadn’t rebuffed me, so I leaned closer. When my lips almost touched hers, she closed her eyes in expectation. I hesitated only a second, then succumbed to my desire to explore those lips, to see what kind of reaction I would get.