by Fox, Nicole
The guys didn’t argue when I shoved my way to the desk first. After all, I had business to take care of. I arranged for a room without even hearing the jeers of the other men. When I returned to my bike, Bambi was exactly where I had left her. She sat stiffly on the back of the seat, her arms folded awkwardly in front of her chest. The ride had tattered the hem of her dress, the dirty gray of the road corrupting the stunning silver of the material.
I moved my bike down the parking lot so it would be in front of our room, and this time I gestured for her to come with me. I unlocked the door and shoved it open, standing aside to make room for her.
She entered the room stiffly, her brown eyes wide and her muscles tensed. She paused a few feet inside the room and stared down at the ancient carpet.
“Make yourself at home,” I said as I shut the door and latched the deadbolt. “We plan on being in Johnson City for a few days before riding on to the next place.”
“Oh, okay.” But she didn’t move. She just stood there, soaking in her surroundings.
I couldn’t blame her if she was disappointed, but these were the kind of quarters we usually got. Being on the road so much, we couldn’t afford some ritzy hotel with a hot tub and laundry service. Instead, we stopped at places like the Park Avenue Motel, which sounded nicer than it looked. The bed sagged slightly on one corner underneath its faded plaid comforter, and there was no telling when someone had cleaned the mirror last. The carpet crunched slightly underfoot, and I was sure the telephone next to the bed had been there since the place was built.
Still, there were fresh doughnuts and coffee in the office every morning, and the room didn’t cost much. We weren’t the types of guys who needed a lot of amenities or special treatment. We were used to living rugged.
“Just relax a little, Bambi. I don’t bite. Well, unless you want me to.” I raised my eyebrow at her.
She rubbed her arm with her hand and leaned away from me a little, looking like her namesake. “How do you know who I am?”
Grinning, I pulled the Peach Festival poster out of my back pocket and showed it to her. “You could say you’re a little bit of a celebrity in these parts.”
Bambi scowled at the paper and sidled a little further away. “Oh. I see.”
I watched her for a moment, feeling a little lost. I wasn’t used to women who were shy. She was playing coy. Okay, I could deal with that. I stepped toward her and put my hands on her hips, yanking her toward me and pressing her body against me. She was pliant in the moment of surprise, but she stiffened quickly. I looked down at her and tipped my head to the side. “What’s the matter, baby? Do I scare you?”
She didn’t respond right away, and I didn’t give her a chance. I pressed my lips to hers, bringing one hand up to the back of her head. Her hair was soft against my skin, and she tasted so good. Fresh. Clean. Not like the women I was used to, who smelled of old coffee and cigarettes. This was a girl from the right side of the tracks, a girl who had never run off with a stranger before.
Still, she relaxed into the kiss, her body finally pulling toward mine. Her lips were soft but determined as she kissed me back, parting at my insistence and allowing my tongue inside. I roved over the curves of her tongue and the ridges of her teeth, unable to get enough of this good thing.
We were finally on the right track, and I had waited long enough. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her since I’d seen that damn poster, which was now abandoned on the dresser. This was no longer just an image on a poster, but a woman in my arms. I wanted her, and I needed her. Expertly, I reached behind her back and found the top of the zipper that fastened her dress. Slowly, agonizingly, I began pulling it down.
Bambi was out of my arms in a flash, and I didn’t see her hand coming until I felt the sting of her slap on my cheek.
I grabbed her wrist, unsated and angry. “What the hell was that for?”
Her lower lip, swollen from our kiss, trembled. “I’m not that kind of girl,” she insisted. Her voice was high and sweet, like an angel.
“You could have fooled me, since you were the one who got on the back of my bike.” I raked my eyes up and down her body, trying to decide just how far I wanted to push this. Up close, she was even hotter than she had been on the back of that convertible. Her dress showed off her amazing figure, from her luscious breasts to her tantalizing hips. I instantly imagined myself underneath her, grabbing her hips while her tits brushed against my face. “Now then, let’s pick up where we left off.” I pulled her toward me by the wrist.
She twisted away. I could have held on, but I didn’t want to break the delicate bones of her arm. I let go, and she stumbled backward toward the bed. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” Bambi’s eyes were wild, fearful.
“Well, I thought I was going to have an afternoon of fun with a beautiful woman. It seems that she’s changed her mind.” I kept myself placed between her and the door. I wouldn’t hold her captive, not really, but I wasn’t ready to let her leave.
She slowly sank onto the mattress, tears in her eyes. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I was just trying to get away from my life and from my mother. I never should have come with you. I’ll just leave.” She stood and headed toward the door.
I intercepted her easily. “Not so fast. You were looking at me through that window. You were staring at me during the parade. You got on my bike. Now tell me how you can do all of that and then turn around and say it was a mistake?”
She pulled her shoulders in so that her arms hugged her body, unaware of the fact that it made the material of her dress show off a little more of her cleavage. “I said I was sorry. I just want to go.” Bambi reached for the door again.
It only took a little flick of my arm to stop her from grabbing the handle, not that she could have pulled it open with me standing in the way. “Hey, now. You wanted to come with me. Just what did you think was going to happen when you got on my bike?”
She shrugged, a lift of her pale shoulders that accented her frown. “I don’t know. I just wanted to run. You looked so … free.”
Realizing that this was definitely not the kind of woman I was used to, I laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I go where I want and I do what I want.” The words made her flinch, and I laughed again. “At least, most of the time. You must be pretty gullible if you thought we were just going for a joyride.”
Her sadness and fear swiftly turned to anger. She crunched up her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “I’m not gullible!”
“No? A beauty queen in a small town who thinks a complete stranger is just going to be nice to her because she asks him to? A young lady who’s trying to run away from her mother and thinks the best way to do it is to get on the back of my bike and ride to the next town? Sorry, Bambi, but you’re too eager to believe the world is a nice place.”
“I know it isn’t,” she sneered, but she took a step backward to increase the distance between us. “Even the tiny little world I’ve been living in isn’t very nice. My mother doesn’t let me do anything I want, and she never leaves me alone. Even the other girls in the Peach Festival Pageant are horrible to me, simply because I won. The people of the town want to pretend that I’m so loved and adored just because I won a crown, but I’m just their little puppet.”
Leaning against the door, I grinned. “Yep, you’re just proving my point. You’re gullible. You’re too innocent. You’re never going to make it like that in the world.” I had been young and innocent once. I was only twenty-five, but I had learned a lot of hard lessons and most of them had come early. My stepmother had been sure to teach me the ways of the world when I wasn’t yet old enough. I didn’t mind at the time, but I knew now what it was to be taken advantage of. Since then, I’d kept everybody in my life at arm’s distance or even a little further.
“That’s exactly why I’m trying to change!” Bambi insisted. “Maybe it was stupid of me to go with you. But at least I had the chance of making a mistake, which my mother would never let me
do. Now I know, and trust me, I won’t be going anywhere with you again.”
Maybe it was something about the way she looked when she was pissed, with her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. Maybe it was because I knew she was a challenge like I’d never had before. I couldn’t be sure, but Bambi was irresistible. I jumped forward to wrap her in my arms, pulling her tightly to me and kissing her once again. I expected her to squirm away, to slap me or punch me or try to kick me in the nuts. But to my surprise, she melted into me.
I let the kiss last a long minute as I explored the smooth planes of her back and the soft wisps of her hair. I pulled in the sweet scent of a clean woman, taking as much of it as I could. When I finally broke away, she looked up at me with softness in her eyes.
“Then why do you let me do that?” I asked.
She blinked, as though she had suddenly woken up and couldn’t remember where she was. “What?”
“If you’re so determined not to have anything to do with me, then why do you kiss me like that?” I didn’t mind, but I didn’t quite understand, either. “You talk like a woman who wants to leave, but you behave like a woman who can’t help but stay.”
Bambi closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. “I don’t know, Snake. I don’t know what I’m doing at all.”
Running my hand across my chin and feeling the stubble that had grown there over the last few days, I wondered just what I had gotten myself into. No doubt the rest of the MC members were in the surrounding motel rooms, listening at the walls. They would give me hell for a long time if they knew what was really going on in here. Still, I wasn’t the kind of guy to force myself on someone. No matter how much I would have liked to, I couldn’t do this to her. She was young and vulnerable, and this afternoon had already changed her entire life.
I stepped to the side, giving her free access to the door. “Then maybe you should go.”
She gaped at me for a moment. “You don’t want me to stay?”
I sighed. “Sweetheart, I don’t have time for games. You want to stay, you want to go, and then you want to stay again. You make up your mind and let me know.” One thing was for sure, I was going to run out of patience before too long.
“I just thought you were going to make me stay, that’s all.” Bambi took one hesitant step toward the door and then another. When she had her hand on the knob, she turned around to look at me. “Um, I don’t have any way of getting back to Myrtle Creek.”
For the trouble and the frustration she had caused me, I should have just told her she was on her own. Plenty of people would be thrilled to help a beautiful woman in distress, and she would have been able to bum a few dollars off anyone she met. But I found myself reaching into my back pocket for my wallet and pulling out a little cash. “Here. Get a cab.”
Bambi looked at me then with such love and adoration, her eyes wide and her lips soft, that I must have been her hero at that moment. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
I didn’t like being put in the spotlight, even if it was only between the two of us. “You need to go.”
She scrambled out the door and was gone. I stared at the closed door for a minute, realizing I had now lost the bet for sure.
Chapter 6 Bambi
I found a payphone at a nearby gas station. I knew I probably could have asked to use the phone in the motel office, but I wanted to get away from Snake and the rest of his men as quickly as possible. It wasn’t easy to make my escape in heels and on broken pavement, but I had been wearing tall shoes since before I hit puberty. I dialed a cab company and waited.
Leaning against the side of the gas station, I went back over the events of the afternoon. I had gone from riding in a convertible and waving to a crowd to tossing my tiara from the back of a motorcycle. Snake wasn’t pleased with me, and I couldn’t blame him. In hindsight, there could only be one reason a man like that would ask a woman like me to come with him. How could I have been so stupid? I was just a dumb girl, like Snake had said.
I wondered just what I was going to do with myself. I couldn’t go home, not after the stunt I had pulled. Mother would be furious, and I didn’t have the strength to put up with her wrath. She would want to know every detail of what had happened. Even though things could have been much more complicated than they were, I didn’t want to let her into that little part of my life. I had rebelled; I had done something completely idiotic, and that hour was mine alone.
The cabbie jeered at me when he pulled up to the curb. “Hey there. You the one that needs a ride?” His eyes roved up and down my body.
I got in the back anyway. I couldn’t stay at the gas station forever. “Myrtle Creek, please.”
“You got an address?” He watched me in the rearview mirror.
With a heavy heart, I replied. “1220 Maple Street.” There was no choice but to go home. I had tried to run off, and it hadn’t worked out. I was back to my original plan. I would go home, make up well enough with Mother that we could tolerate each other for a few more months, get a job, and move out. I would wait until I had a safe place to go, a place all my own where I could do what I wanted.
The driver nodded. “You got it. Tell me, where’s a pretty girl like you going in a dress like that in the middle of the afternoon? Don’t get me wrong, I get all kinds in this cab, but you’re a little different.”
I was sure there really had been all kinds of people in the taxi, and judging by the state of the upholstery they hadn’t been very considerate patrons. Dark stains blotted the brown fabric, and several cigarette burns stippled the console. “It’s just been a very long day.”
“Whatever you say, doll.”
But when the cab pulled up to the curb, my stomach lurched. Full garbage bags sat slumped in the yard, and I recognized the clothes hanging out of them. Everything I owned—everything my mother couldn’t claim as her own—was out on the lawn. My hand was numb as it reached for the door handle. “Wait here for a moment, okay?”
“Meter’s running,” the driver reminded me.
I walked slowly through the lawn, staring at the scene before me and unable to believe it. The front door opened, and Mother was on the porch with her arms folded. “What is all this?” I asked.
“What do you think it is?” She didn’t bother trying to start off nice. Her shriek echoed on our street, and I knew the neighbors were probably watching. “I’ve done everything for you, young lady. I’ve sacrificed everything to give you the best life possible, and you go and ruin it all in two seconds. I’m done with you and your attitude.”
“Mother, you don’t understand. Look, I was wanting to talk to you about this. I think we need to change the way we do things around here—”
“That’s exactly the attitude I’m talking about!” she screamed, coming down onto the grass. She had dressed in a long, flimsy blouse and leggings, attempting to look younger than she really was. The afternoon’s makeup was smeared across her eyelids. “You think you run this place, but let me tell you something: this is my house. You aren’t welcome in it unless you’re willing to live under my rules.”
She was never going to change. She was never going to listen. Monique Bidwell was the same person she had always been. “I just need you to understand—”
“No! Don’t you dare go trying to make me the bad guy. You embarrassed the hell out of me, and you shamed the whole town with your antics. I didn’t spend the last nineteen years taking care of you just so you could be an impertinent slut.” Her arms were straight down at her sides, her hands fisted.
“You know, what? Fine.” I didn’t yell back. No matter how mad she made me, I just couldn’t. But I could stop this from happening again. “You don’t want me here, so I’ll go. You won’t have to put up with me anymore.” I turned on my heel and walked back to the cab.
“Don’t you dare leave, Bambi Jade Bidwell!” Mother’s screech raked down my back and howled in my ears. “You get your butt back here and apologize.”
Tears flooded to my eyes, but I knew
I was making the right decision. I could have my little fantasies about leaving on my own terms, but she would never let it happen. It would always come down to something dramatic like a screaming match in the front yard. I yanked the door of the cab back open and got in.
I looked out the window just in time to see Mother storming toward the curb. “Go! Please go!” I urged.
The cabbie obeyed, laying on the accelerator and taking off with a squeal. “Where to now?”
I didn’t really know, but if I didn’t find someplace to go soon I wouldn’t be able to pay the fare. “Um, Meadow Ridge Street. 309 Meadow Ridge Street.” I had to hope that this would work out.
Giving him the money from Snake when we reached the house, I didn’t look back as I headed up the sidewalk. The street might have had a pretty name, but the houses on it were far from beautiful. This neighborhood had been built decades ago when the town had boomed due to local coal mining, but it had fallen into disrepair sometime over the last twenty years. Large homes had been split into apartments, and old cars sat in front yards. It was the wrong side of the tracks, the bad side of town that I wasn’t allowed to go to. Still, that hadn’t quite stopped me from making friends who lived here, and I could thank a small public school system for that. I lifted my fist and knocked.