“Other than the few paychecks we issue, yes. I was wondering what to do for the rest of the day, actually.”
“Want to come see how the bar renovation is going?” I hope she says yes, because I’m pretty excited to show her what we’re building.
“Can I? I’ve been wondering how it’s going but didn’t want to ask because I know all of y’all are so busy.”
“Wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t okay. How about if we head out now?” I inquire as I quickly sign the checks. “Here’s yours,” I tell her, handing her her paycheck. “You can mail the rest out tomorrow.”
“Thanks. Okay, can we run by and let Lucy out?”
“Actually, I want you on the back of my bike, so we need to go by there so you can change. Shorts, tank tops, flip-flops and bikes don’t mix.”
She grins at me as she stands, grabbing her purse and keys before she leads me out the door. I follow her back to the motel and say, “You get changed, I’ll take care of Lucy.” The little dog doesn’t look like she wants to go out; she’s curled up at the top of the bed snoring. Gypsy grabs some jeans and socks before heading into the bathroom, giggling. “What’s so funny?” I holler.
“She’s not the kind of dog who likes her naps interrupted,” she yells back.
“Whatever,” I mutter. “C’mon, Lucy, time to go potty,” I say. She grumbles in her sleep and rolls over. “Lucy,” I cajole, “if you go out, you get a treat!” She opens one eye and peers at me, so I repeat myself. When she hears the word ‘treat’ again, she jumps up like she wasn’t just sound asleep and starts wiggling her tail like she’s a rocket ship about to take off. “Silly dog,” I say, clipping her leash on before I help her off the bed. I don’t like her jumping because she’s so small and have noticed that whenever she’s up there, Gypsy helps her as well.
Chapter Six
Luca
Her arms wrapped around me feels like heaven. I’ve always enjoyed the feel of the open road, but this is a whole new experience for me. I’ve had my sisters on the back of my bike, and of course, my best friend, Rae, but never a woman that I’ve been seriously interested in. I feel her body shake as she chuckles and throws her head back. Outside of her helmet, her hair flows freely around her shoulders reminding me of a goddess from painted portraits. She’s enraptured with the ride; I knew she was made just for me.
Talking through our helmet mics I ask her, “Are you enjoying yourself?”
“I’ve never had so much fun or felt so free in my life! We have to do this more often, Luca.” Her statement makes me a very happy man. I could use some company on my night rides. Those are the times that I enjoy the solitude of the towns and enjoy the coolness slapping me in the face.
“I like to take rides in the evening after the sun has gone down and most people are tucked into the safety of their homes. Would you want to go with me sometime?” I know she’s going to say yes, but the polite thing to do is ask anyways.
“I’d love too, Luca. Thank you for asking me. This is the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever experienced.”
“You a thrill-seeker, Gypsy?” I am praying she says yes. I love high rides at the amusement parks, jumping from airplanes, bungee jumping, zip-lining, if it goes fast, and is unpredictable, I want to do it.
“Oh yes! I love the thrill of the unknown. Going up high and not knowing how the ride down is going to affect you. The wind in my hair and the thrill of speed. Having something in your life that is not controlled, but the exact opposite. I’ve always been a dare-devil type of gal.”
“Then it’s a date,” I tell her. Her arms tighten around me in agreement and I find my mind wandering to the time when we’re alone, in a bed, with nothing between us. And... there goes my dick again.
By the time we pull up to the bar, I’ve managed, barely, to get it down, but having her hands on my shoulders as she gets off the bike has me thinking disgusting thoughts so that I don’t rise to the occasion. Tig would never let me live it down if he saw me walking in sporting a hard-on and he’s the type of best friend who would vocalize his thoughts. I won’t have him embarrassing Gypsy, so whatever it takes to keep that from happening, that’s what I’ll do. I grab her hand in mine and we walk through the front door.
“Oh my God, Luca, this is gonna be awesome!” I smile down at her exuberance. We wanted a bar that everyone would feel comfortable at, so we set up a main, u-shaped bar off to the left, and then put in a smaller one at the back of the bar itself. We have a stage area that hopefully, we’ll get live cover bands in on the weekends. Tig has also mentioned doing a karaoke night or two, but I’m concerned about how that will go over if a bunch of drunk bikers get up and start belting out heavy metal.
We put a porch off a side door for the smokers in the place in order to comply with the local codes. Tig did his research and it has an air purification system that prevents any smoke from coming into the main bar itself. We also put in a state-of-the-art kitchen based on Gino’s recommendation so we can have a small ‘bar type’ menu, burgers and wings, that kind of shit.
“Well, looks like the boss man has come to grace us with his presence,” Tig says, walking up to us.
“Shut up, fucker,” I reply, flipping him off. “Looks like Maddox’s crew is gonna be done sooner than he anticipated.”
“He’s still got the offices, the bathrooms, the walk-in freezer and pantry area. Plus, what do you think about doing a concrete stain on the floor instead of hardwoods? The clean-up aspect would be easier, but I don’t wanna fuck with the look we have going on.”
“Do we have samples?” I ask.
We’re sitting around a table going through various sample books and having a few beers. I notice that Gypsy is getting a bit giggly and worry that we might not be able to take the bike back to the motel. I’m about to say something when she stands and goes behind the bar then comes back with a glass of ice water.
“I like this one the best,” Gypsy says, pointing to a light dove gray stain that has a swirl pattern. I nod and Tig folds down the page. “Have you decided on a name yet?” she asks.
“Well, Coyote Ugly has already been used, so what about Tig’s Place?” Tig asks.
“Really? Tig’s Place? Jesus Fucking Christ, Tig, that makes no sense at all!”
“What about the Dirty Rebel?” Gypsy questions.
“Wait now, I shower every day. Well, almost every day,” Tig mutters.
“Don’t need to know about your hygiene habits, brother,” I reply. “But if you’re not showering daily, that explains why you don’t have women beating down your door to see your micro-penis.”
“Fucker. Okay, how about Dirty Rebel Bar and Grill? Since we’re offering burgers and wings.”
“Wait, does Tig really have a micro-penis? I’ve never seen one of those,” Gypsy sputters. Great I need to sober her up or she’s gonna fall off the damn bike.
“I can send you a pic if you’d like,” Tig offers, “or hell, I can just show you right here and right now.” He goes to stand, and I shove him back into his seat and cover Gypsy’s eyes. Tig has zero fucks to give and has no morality issues when it comes to sharing his package with the female variety.
“The fuck you will!” I growl out. Gypsy is full out laughing, clutching her stomach as tears start falling. “Look at you, you made my woman cry with your threats! None of us have a microscope on hand, you moron. She wouldn’t be able to see it anyways.” Take that, you fucker.
“Your woman?” Tig questions. “Since when?” That motherfucker would pick up on that one word and run with it.
Fucking hell.
“Not up for discussion, your inability to remember when you’re in the presence of a lady is what I wanna address right now, fuckface.”
“Wait, can we go back?” Gypsy asks, raising her hand. “I wanna know what you meant, Luca.”
Shit. Fuck my entire life! I need to learn when to keep my damn mouth shut. She picks up on everything – especially when Tig points it out to her.
“Because you said that I’m your woman. What does that mean?” Dammit, she’s like a dog with a bone.
“Yeah, Luca, what does that mean?” Tig asks, a grin on his face. I’m killing him. I need another vice president A-S-fucking-A-P.
“Can we discuss this later?” I don’t mind discussing what I want with her, but I won’t do it with an audience, that’s for damn sure.
She sighs and I gear up for a major discussion that I’m not prepared to have right now. “You probably don’t want Tig to hear, huh?” she asks, unfortunately not low enough to where Tig doesn’t hear what she says.
“Why the hell not? He and I are best friends. We share pretty much everything!” Tig retorts. Sometimes we share too much. I don’t need to have dick pics delivered to me via text messages or instant messenger. There was something that happened to Tig as a teenager that caused him to go from a serious personality to a jokester like Smokey and Bandit are. That’s his story to share, however. I’m not one to break confidences so I’ll let him share that with Gypsy on his own time.
“Are we done here?” Now I’m looking at damage control. Get Gypsy back to the motel and pray to everyone I can think of that she drops this particular subject until I have it straight in my head. I mean, I know I want her, but there’s still a lot that we don’t know about one another. Do I know enough about her to weather anything that she hasn’t told me? I hold my hand out and she grasps it as she stands. “Let’s make sure you’re okay to ride, Gypsy.”
“What do you mean?” Her cuteness that comes with her confusion has me biting back a smile.
I start out by having her close her eyes and alternate touching her nose. When she manages to do that without poking her eye out, I have her walk a straight line, then have her balance on first one leg then the other. She starts to topple over on the second leg, and then gives me a look, saying, “I told you, I’m a klutz, Luca!” Since she seems pretty steady, I nod and lead her over to the bike.
Operation Avoidance is now in session.
As we meander through the town, I decide to take various side roads and when she says something, I state, “Figured you haven’t been out that much, so I want to show you around the town we’re living in.”
She snorts in my ear and I hear her mutter, “Sure, right, Captain Obvious. I bet you’re hoping I forget what you said earlier.” Okay, she needs to get out of my head, dammit.
“I haven’t forgotten, Gypsy. Just reckoned we’d wait until we were back at the motel is all.” Liar, liar. If my mom heard me right now, she’d be putting tabasco sauce on the tip of my tongue to, as she would tell me, ‘keep the lie from sticking to my mouth.’
I won’t lie to her, but I am nervous about spelling it all out. She really doesn’t grasp what being claimed by a biker means and I’m worried that if I tell her too soon, she’ll head for the hills.
Gypsy
He’s stalling, I know a good stall tactic when I hear one. I am the queen at them after all. I’ve done it all of my life, especially when I was trying to prevent punishments for acts my mother and her boy toys would accuse me of. I hated them all...yes, that includes my mother as well.
I might not fully grasp this MC world I find myself in, but if him calling me his woman means that I could possibly have what his parents have someday, count me in.
You’ve got a lot to tell him first, my subconscious whispers. He doesn’t know what really brought you to Corinth and he has no clue about the hell you lived in with your mother.
This conversation probably needs more alcohol, so now I’m thinking that I am okay if he wants to stall. I can wait. I mean, he might change his mind when he finds out that the few times I’ve had sex were extremely underwhelming. I mean, the first jerk was barely inside me before he was shuddering and yelling my name, telling me he was coming. Hell, I sure as fuck didn’t feel anything that I thought I was supposed to feel. And none of the others measured up to anything I’ve read or seen on television.
I feel the bike slowing and realize that we’re in the parking lot of the motel. He helps me off once he’s shut it down, and I remove the helmet and hand it over to him to put in his saddlebags. Thank goodness for the shows I’ve watched; at least I know what those are called.
He walks with me to my room, lacing my fingers with his. I find that I like how my hand feels encompassed in his, safe and secure. In fact, that’s how I’ve felt around him since we first met. My heart does a little flutter when that thought hits me, because after how my mother was with regard to her constant revolving door of men, I swore I’d never let anyone in.
Once we’re inside, Lucy comes running over, wagging her tail. “C’mon, Lucy, I’ll take you out,” he says, grabbing her leash.
“Do you wanna reheat some of my left-over Chinese food? I ordered a lot the other day. My eyes were so much bigger than my stomach,” I inform him.
“What’cha got?” he asks me, bending down and petting Lucy behind her ears. You pay special attention to that area and you’re her best friend for life. She’ll always come and see you and beg you for some loving.
“Let’s see, I know I have some sesame chicken, vegetable egg-rolls, fried rice, low-mien and crab rolls. Any of that sound good to you?” I hope it works for him, because I’m tired of him paying for everything and would like the opportunity to offer him something. For once.
“Got any duck sauce or sweet and sour?”
“Yep, I had them give me extra.” Inside, I’m cheering because this means I get to be the one in charge for a change, at least as far as tonight goes.
“It all sounds good to me. If you wanna heat it up, I’ll be back inside probably before you’re done.” I highly doubt that because this is Lucy’s ‘long time’ outside, but I don’t say anything, I just smile and nod. When the door closes behind him, I snicker into my hands...he just has no clue how long her nighttime potty time actually takes. She has to take a long walk, sniff everything in sight, turn in a few circles and lord forbid if you’re looking at her. She’ll just sit there and stare at you until you turn around. She’s a lady after all and doesn't appreciate someone’s eyes on her while she’s taking care of her business.
Thirty minutes later, he comes back in with Lucy wagging her tail and shaking her butt, tongue lolling out as if she’s grinning. I’ve got dinner all heated and have a movie playing on one of the movie channels we get. While I was waiting, I replayed the whole day and I can’t keep the grin off my face. I got to spend time with Luca, ride on the back of his bike, see the new bar, and now I’m going to find out what being his woman means.
Chapter Seven
Luca
It’s been a month since Gypsy and I took our first bike ride together. Every night, we’ve gone for a long ride, letting the troubles of the day go. We’ve grown closer, but we haven’t had that conversation I need to have with her. Instead I’ve decided to enjoy spending some time with her and getting to know her better, on a more personal level, before I completely throw her to the wolves, so to speak. I’ve jacked off so much I’m afraid I’ve developed calluses on my hand.
I haven’t pushed anything physical because she seems to tense up whenever I get too close which makes me worry that something bad happened in her past. But I’m done waiting and plan to at least kiss her tonight so she realizes what my intentions are toward her. Plus, I am dying to know what her lips taste like and I’m tired of waiting to find out.
We’re planning to hit up the Italian restaurant in the next town over. They have five-star reviews, plus a little bird told me it’s her favorite meal. That flying source is none other than my beautiful, intelligent, amazing mother. Who happens to speak with the object of my affections on a daily basis, she even has now begun speaking with Lily. I feel like they spend more time together than she and I do and it’s begin
ning to make my patience take a flying leap. I’m a little possessive of Gypsy’s time, and my family stealing time away from me doesn't make me a happy man – my little guy downstairs hasn’t been too happy either.
“Are you ready to go?” I ask once she opens her door. I admire how she looks, dressed in black skinny jeans, black motorcycle boots with silver rings on the sides, and a girly-girl tank top underneath the leather jacket I got for her since we ride so much. I should probably take her in her car, but I honestly hate being in cages after the shit I saw and experienced in the service. I’d rather be able to see what’s coming and being in enclosed spaces brings back too many bad memories.
“I am, do I look okay?” she replies, doing a little spin that gives me a glimpse of her delectable ass in those jeans. I quickly adjust myself before she turns fully around and nod, before I take her hand in mine and lead her out of the room.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her as I lock the door to her room.
“I hope my hair holds up under the helmet.” I don’t know what she’s done, exactly, but my sister and Rae have done the same with their hair when they’ve gone riding, so I’m sure she’ll be fine.
“You’ll be fine, Gypsy,” I say as I hand over her helmet. Once she has it on and strapped down, I double-check it to be safe.
We talk through the mics as I maneuver us from Fallen Creek to Lost Eagle. She’s giggling at Tig’s latest dumb move. Somehow, the dumb fuck managed to do a video while drunk telling all the single ladies where they could find a well-hung biker. Only, it went viral because he hit the ‘live’ button. Not only did it make its way to all the moms, but it made the media in our local town. I thought he was going to shit a brick when Twisted walked into the bar and replayed the video for him, telling him that while the moves were good, his execution needs more work.
Reviving Luca: New Beginnings Page 5