by Hazel Parker
“Vance,” she moaned impatiently. Her kisses had become more like nibbling at his lip out of frustration and her fingernails were beginning to scratch at his back without her even noticing that she was doing so.
He smirked. “Alright,” he finally caved after several torturous minutes of teasing. He allowed her to get on top of him, straddling his hips carefully to avoid hurting his still-fresh wound even if it was the last thing he was worried about right now. Nina didn’t want to wait another minute, clearly, adjusting herself in a way that gave him no real choice but to penetrate her. Vance smiled a little at that—one of the things that he loved about her was this directness, this ability to take what she wanted without ever coming across as pushy or demanding.
Of course, he gave her what she wanted. He was powerless not to. She was the one who set the pace, her feet flat against the bed and thrusting upward at whatever pace felt comfortable to her. Even in this department, Nina wasted no time screwing around with the things that didn’t do much for her, which meant that every moment that he spent in bed with her was spent in almost pure ecstasy, with Nina shivering and moaning underneath him. When she finally began to tire, Vance took over, practically vibrating the bed as she finished with a climactic moan, then watching her as she settled back against the bed with a satisfied sigh. Just watching her finish was enough to get him the rest of the way there, too, and as soon as he did, he pulled away from her for just long enough to collapse into the bed. Both of them were breathing hard and sweating, and she rolled over to face him.
“That was amazing,” she whispered. Vance laughed lightly, pressing a kiss to her damp hairline.
“You’re amazing,” he replied. Her eyes went wide with surprise, clearly not expecting that. Had he really been so indirect in how he felt about her? Had he not made it clear that he thought she was the best person he’d ever met?
She closed her eyes tiredly and he decided that he’d just have to wait to tell her how he really felt. There was always tomorrow, and if he was lucky, there’d be a lot of tomorrows after that.
Chapter 29: Nina
Nina woke up slowly, naked in the bed and with Vance’s arm thrown over her. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and turned gently to admire him, still fast asleep. She wanted to run her fingers through his hair while he dreamt, or maybe even wake him up for some early morning sex, but cooler heads prevailed and she decided it would be best to let him sleep in. It had been almost two weeks since they’d ridden out to the desert together and they’d spent every night together since then. Whether they fucked wildly or just drifted off to sleep holding one another while watching crappy late-night talk shows, the best feeling in the world was falling asleep and waking up with Vance next to her in the bed.
Dragging herself reluctantly and silently out of bed, she took a towel from the closet and went into the bathroom for a shower. She didn’t bother to close the door all the way. The warm water relaxed muscles that were a little sore from sleeping on the hard mattress and the long ride to and from the desert yesterday. She took her time under the stream of water, washing her hair slowly and thoroughly. Just as she finished rinsing the soap from her hair, she heard rustling in the bathroom. Merely a second later, the curtain opened to reveal Vance standing there, naked and sleepy-eyed. Her eyes traveled from his tousled mop of long, dark hair to his chiseled face, then down his tattooed torso. Somehow, the bandage from where she’d sewed him up last night wasn’t even the first thing she noticed when she looked at his muscular body; it was drowned out by the abs and the tattoos. It felt like staring at the cover of a magazine that she would have hidden under her bed as a teenager, but Vance was real and standing in front of her nude.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked, and she smiled.
“Come on in,” she replied. Her eyes fixated on the now undressed wound for only a second so he wouldn’t know that she was staring at it, but it still hurt her heart to see. The stitches were uneven and probably too far apart, but it looked a lot better than it had two weeks ago. Shifting her focus away from the scar she knew he’d have there because of her became easier when Vance began to scrub her back down with soap, rubbing slowly in small circles and applying enough pressure that it felt more like a massage than a shower. She closed her eyes as he worked at the knots in her back and just tried to enjoy the tension melting away. He did that for several minutes before removing his hands and beginning to clean his own body, then his hair.
Once the shampoo was rinsed from his hair, he opened his eyes once more, carefully pushed Nina up against the wall, and kissed her. The tile was cold on her bare back, especially since she’d grown used to the temperature of the hot water, but she found that she didn’t really care. He kissed down her neck, sipping at the little droplets of water that ran down toward her chest from her hair. Vance was an expert at sucking the skin hard enough to make her break out in goosebumps but not so hard as to leave a mark. He didn’t feel the need to brand her as his, plus, they were both adults and he knew that she didn’t want to be hiding hickeys from her customers like a teenager who’d snuck out to a boy’s house after her parents had gone to sleep.
She reached around his torso to hold herself steady and to steal his warmth now that she was no longer fully under the stream of the shower. Vance kissed her breasts, playing lightly at her nipple with his tongue until she was practically digging into the skin on his back with her fingernails.
“We’re going to run out of hot water if you don’t stop,” she only half joked.
“Then let me warm you up,” he whispered huskily in her ear. She giggled, swatting him away playfully.
“Some of us have work to do,” she said. Vance let out a theatrical sigh, in response to which Nina rolled her eyes.
“Fine,” he caved, “just let me finish up showering.” Nina kissed him once more before reaching out of the shower for her towel, then wrapping it around herself and exiting the bathroom to hunt down her clothes from last night as Vance showered. Sitting on the bed, Nina got dressed, then worked at towel-drying her hair, something she hadn’t done in a long time, and brushing it out so she could finally go open the office for the day.
She needed to get off the bed in Vance’s room and back to work. The day off had been less than relaxing and she really wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed with Vance and sleep the day away, but she knew that she couldn’t do that. The reality was that even though she might be associated with the Rebel Kings now, even if she and Vance were linked for the foreseeable future, that didn’t mean that he wanted her in any way other than sexual. He’d fought for her, just like he always did, but it was because Vance was a good person, not because he cared for her in the same way that she cared for him.
How did she care for him? For the majority of her time with Vance, she’d been dating Adam. She’d had to put blinders on, even if they didn’t really work the way she wanted them to, so she could block out the possibility of seeing something better, someone new. That person had been Vance. Now that she was singe, she was able to admit to herself that she’d fallen for Vance a little bit the very first moment that he’d walked through her motel door, cracking jokes and hitting on her shamelessly; and she’d fallen for him a little more every day since then. However much she told herself that she couldn’t like him more, he found a way to prove her wrong with a surprise trip on his bike or a moonlit kiss in the parking lot or by saving her life, which he’d done probably more than once and definitely in more than just the obvious way. Sure, he’d scared off that robber months ago, but if she hadn’t met him, she knew that she would have just gone through with her relationship with Adam, probably ending up marrying him out of fear that starting over wouldn’t be worth the trouble. Vance had made her realize that a little risk was okay, that it could even pay off and become the best thing that ever happened to her. She had to take a chance to gain a reward, but now that she was ready to take the leap of faith, to exist in a limbo between frightened and exhilarated—well, she
’d probably blown it already. Vance’s opinion of her was probably that she was just too meek to ever be with him. He needed someone brave, and she’d taken so long to realize her own bravery that she probably would never be able to convince him she could handle whatever life they’d make together.
Shaking those thoughts off because they were too depressing to dwell on, Nina thought that perhaps this would be another good day to clean. It hadn’t been done in over a week, stripping the sheets and taking them to the laundromat, and though she’d planned to do it tomorrow, it was a good task for her to do when she needed to clear her head, and she definitely needed that right now. She finished getting dressed, lacing up her sneakers and zipping up her jacket, then stood up to go get the laundry cart from the shed.
As she circled around the back of the motel toward the new shed, she noticed something that she hadn’t seen last night: there was a bike in the parking lot. Its owner had probably ridden in while she and Vance had been in the shower, and though she didn’t yet have confirmation that it was anything to worry about, she felt a seed of uncertainty plant itself in her gut and begin to take root. This could be just a regular motorcyclist looking for a place to stay, she tried to tell herself, but she knew that she was rarely so lucky, and something was familiar about that bright red paint…
Since there was no one outside the locked motel office and no one standing near the bike, instinct told her to go around the back, still heading for the shed but this time with much more urgency. She hustled around the building and stopped when she saw the motorcycle’s owner leaning against the wall of the shed with her helmet under her shoulder.
“Melly,” she greeted, earning a glare in response.
“It’s Amelia,” she corrected, and Nina nodded.
“Fine,” she accepted, “whatever you want. What are you doing here?”
Amelia tapped on the side of the shed and let her helmet clatter to the ground, bouncing a few feet away from her feet.
“You’ve rebuilt,” she said benignly, a confession without confessing. Nina had naturally been suspicious, but now it seemed clear that it had been Amelia herself, not just any member of the Devil’s Disciples, who had set the fire. She managed to keep her face calm as she nodded.
“I did,” she replied. “So, I guess you’re here to start another fire?”
She shook her head, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, one which made Nina’s stomach turn slightly.
“Not today,” she said. “And not another fire. That would be too predictable. Next time, it’ll be something else. And the time after that, something else, still. Until the Rebel Kings give us what we want.”
Nina took a step toward her and crossed her arms. “They’re not going to do that,” she said. “I won’t let them give up just for me.”
Amelia blinked in surprise. “What are you talking about?” she asked. “You have no stake in them.”
“I do, actually,” Nina corrected. “I’m running with them, now. I’m not a biker, but I am an equal. You can’t use me as leverage anymore, because I’m just as much a Rebel King as any of the others.”
“You’re bluffing. Vance wouldn’t let you do that,” Amelia accused, but Nina didn’t back down. Instead, she simply took a step toward her, her expression softening into one of empathy and understanding. Amelia had been hurt, and badly, by her relationship with Vance. Nina had been able to see that since the beginning, and from the few things that Vance had told her about their relationship, she had every right to be pissed about it. They’d both been kids and both of them had made some bad choices, but since Amelia had left to join a different club and he hadn’t done anything at all to stop her, she must have felt like he hadn’t cared for her at all. Maybe that was why she was trying so hard now to get his attention—perhaps she thought that if she could just convince him to care a little, to look at her for a moment and see her for who she was, that he’d love her like he’d sworn he would back then. Nina, however, knew that sometimes, plans fell through, and that if two people weren’t right for one another, there was no amount of coaxing or perseverance that would make it work.
“It wasn’t up to him. Plus, I think you need to let him go,” Nina advised. Amelia scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“It’s not about him,” she maintained, but the flash of hurt in her eyes was too apparent for Nina not to notice. Amelia hesitated. “I mean, I don’t want him back, that’s for damn sure.”
“I know it’s not about him,” she agreed. “It’s about you. Proving that you’re competent even though he ignores you. You’re trying to prove to him that you’re better than him, but you don’t have to do that. I get that turf wars are turf wars, but I think that targeting the Oasis was personal.”
Amelia didn’t speak to confirm or deny that accusation, and that was enough of an answer for Nina.
“You need to look at your own priorities,” she said. “Do you really want to waste all this time and energy on someone who doesn’t love you? Is it really worth it?”
As Nina expected, Amelia became defensive at that, picking up her helmet and backing away.
“You’re wrong,” she argued, “about me still loving him.”
“But I’m right about you wanting to use me to hurt him, aren’t I?”
Amelia stopped for a moment, looking almost like she was going to answer before turning sharply away from her and heading back to the front of the parking lot. Nina followed her to the front of the motel, half afraid that she was going to do something crazy to the motel, but she didn’t: she just hopped back onto her bike with Nina following closely behind her.
“You watch yourself,” Amelia called over her shoulder. “One wrong move and we’re not going to hold back.” As she started her bike and drove off, Nina realized that in that threat had been a sort of resignation, the implication that she would not see any of the Disciples again so long as she stayed in her place. Of course, she’d need to keep her eyes and ears open, and the Rebel Kings would help her to do that, but for now, at least, it seemed as though she and her motel were safe.
Now feeling a little less agitated than she had before, Nina turned to begin her chores once more. When she turned around, she caught Vance out of the corner of her eye, standing in the open doorway of the motel room they’d slept in last night. He’d finished his shower and gotten dressed in the time that she’d been talking to Amelia and was looking at her with concern in his eyes.
“Is everything okay?” he asked. “What the hell did she want?”
Nina laughed lightly, shaking her head. “its fine,” she reassured. “She… was going to threaten me, I think, but I handled it.”
He squinted, clearly not really believing her. “Look, Nina, I know you don’t want anybody to get hurt, but if she said anything, you need to tell me so that I can—”
“—Vance,” she interrupted, taking a step toward him and kissing him lightly on the lips. “I’m serious. I handled it. Everything is okay.”
“You handled it,” he repeated as though he couldn’t comprehend it. “How?”
“I just talked to her,” she shrugged. “I don’t think she’s coming back, at least not for a while.”
Vance shook his head disbelievingly, chuckling to himself. Nina cocked her head to one side.
“What?” she asked, and he smiled.
“You,” he replied, like that cleared anything up. “You’re a cool chick, you know that?”
She couldn’t hold back the bark of laughter that statement elicited.
“Right,” she said. “You ride a motorcycle in a leather jacket and launder money at a bar, and you think I’m cool.”
He nodded sincerely. “I do,” he said, “because you’re nothing like me. You’re nothing like Amelia, either, or any of the other guys. Really, you’re different from anybody else that I’ve ever met.”
Nina flushed pink.
“You’re just saying that,” she accused.
“No,” he insisted, “I’m not. You�
��re smart and kind and, really, the bravest person I’ve ever met. You didn’t sign up for any of this, but you’re kicking ass dealing with it. I tell you all the time that I can protect you, but you know that you don’t need it, and I’m slowly learning that, too.”
She shook her head. “I’m not brave,” she said. “I’m afraid all the time. Of all of this.”
“Which is why you fight so hard to keep yourself and your motel safe, plus you saved me,” he added, “which is the definition of brave, in my eyes.” He pushed off the door and reached out to touch her, brushing her hair away from her face with a gentle hand that lingered caressing one cheek. “You don’t see it, but I think that maybe if you gave me some time, I could convince you.”
Nina couldn’t find any words to reply to him, but she ended up not needing them as he leaned in and pressed his lips firmly to hers, kissing her with an intensity and passion that she hadn’t felt before. It felt like trying to hold lightning between her lips, and though he wasn’t pushing necessarily hard or being rough, something was different about this kiss than any she’d ever shared with anyone before. She needed more of it, craved it. She wanted to breathe him like air, keep him in her life for good and have kisses like these for the rest of her life. There was no way that she could have conveyed her feelings to him anywhere near as clearly as this kiss had, and by the time they pulled away, they were both breathing hard.
“I love you, Red,” Vance confessed. “Nina, you’re amazing, and I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she breathed, her eyes welling up slightly with tears as he leaned in once more to kiss her before pulling her back through the open door and into the motel room.
She closed her eyes and kissed him again, chastely but desperately, several times trailing from his mouth, down his jaw, and to the collar of his shirt. She stopped there and took the fabric lightly between her fingers to tug at it.