LA Shifters: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  She decided to stick with her clunky old car, and climbed back into the driver's seat. She put the four way lights on dutifully, hoping that somebody would pass soon to help her. The idea seemed impossible though – especially after living in the city for so long where nobody trusted anybody else, and for good reason. She decided to give it an hour of waiting before heading out to get some help.

  She tried to keep her mood light, knowing it wouldn't help anything if she got upset. Unfortunately as the hour ticked by, she ran out of ways to amuse herself and sighed. She locked her car doors and began walking. It seemed a little dangerous, but she had a can of pepper spray tucked into her coat pocket and had taken self-defense classes after one of her terrible boyfriends had decided to sucker punch her one day for not doing what he said. After years of dating good for nothing men, she felt like she could take care of herself.

  As she walked, the temperature grew cooler and she shivered even though it was summer. She tried to distract herself by staring up at the moon. She hadn't seen the sky so clearly in years and years, and the bright glistening stars above her were enchanting. She paused, stopping suddenly to watch a shooting star fall through the sky. It was mesmerizing, and she found herself wishing subconsciously for somebody to help her.

  A rumble of an engine met her ears and she turned around, squinting into the headlights of a motorcycle. It slowed to a stop, pulling over to the side of the road. The dark silhouette of a mammoth man stepped off the bike and walked toward her, his bootfalls heavy and clinking. He must have been wearing chains.

  “That your car back there?” he called out, squinting at her. When he was close enough to make her out he stopped moving, his breath caught in his throat.

  “Joy?” he asked incredulously.

  She would have known that voice anywhere.

  “Zak...”

  The two of them stood staring at each other in the motorcycle's headlights. Finally, he shook his head with a laugh.

  “When did you get here?” he asked, his voice rolling with pleasure and suppressed laughter. It was a sound she knew well – he was sincerely pleased to see her.

  “About a week ago,” she said, walking forward. “I heard you're an outlaw now.”

  Now he let his laughter escape from his lips, strong and rumbling, piercing her. She was finally close enough to see him and eyed him up and down. Kayla hadn't exaggerated – Zak had definitely put on some muscle. His arms were hard and his face had grown chiseled and lean. Whatever baby fat he'd had the last time she'd seen him had melted into a firm, handsome face and grown and expanded into rippling muscle. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. He'd grown a short beard, groomed tightly to his face, his dark hair grazing his shoulders.

  She noticed a tattoo of a snake around his huge bicep and she looked into his brown eyes, still gentle but with a hint of steeliness that hadn't been there before. It gave her the same feeling as seeing the old park being renovated had given her – a tightening of the chest, but this time, there was more. She was intrigued, wildly attracted to him. She suddenly found herself wanting to know everything – how he had become the way he was. What had happened to him while she was gone?

  “Yeah, in a manner of speaking. I prefer to see it as I don't take shit anymore.”

  His deep voice found her in the dark, and she moved a bit closer to him. His eyes were dancing in the moonlight.

  “So is that your car or what?”

  “Yeah,” Joy said. “That's my piece of junk.”

  Zak hopped on his motorcycle and she felt a pang of panic. Was he going to abandon her here, the same way she had abandoned him so long ago for a life in the city? But he just grinned at her.

  “Hop on. Let me give you a lift.”

  Would it be safe for her to get on the bike with him now that he was an outlaw? An outlaw who might feel like she had double crossed him? He had seemed to understand when she broke up with him, and gave her that same adventurous smile he had on now.

  “Conquer the world, babe,” he'd said to her then. And she felt that he'd meant it. If he knew what she had really done – been used and abused by every man she'd been with since him – he would be sorely disappointed in her.

  “Thanks,” she said, getting reluctantly on the bike. This was going to be interesting.

  Chapter 4

  “You ever been on one of these before?” he asked her.

  “No,” she said, sitting close against him. Gordon had a motorcycle but he had never let her near it. She shook the memory of him away, suddenly very aware of the raw masculine power exuding from Zak. His spicy scent surrounded her, and she found herself fighting the urge to kiss him behind the ear like she would have done ten years ago.

  “Right. Well just hold on tight, I won't let you go flying off anywhere. If you get scared just say so. You might have to shout. Keep your feet up.”

  He reached behind himself and gripped her hands in his, pulling them around his thick, muscled torso and not releasing them until she was gripping him tightly. The nearness of his body was surprisingly intimate, and she was glad that it was dark and she was behind him, or he would have seen the deep blush crossing her cheeks. That was something private, something that she was not ready to share with this man, who she thought she had known so well. Now it turns out they were perfect strangers.

  The whirring of the motorcycle engine filled the air, they attempted to have a conversation as they drove. She would yell close to his ear, and his deep voice would be carried by the wind to her.

  “So where were you heading tonight?" he shouted.

  “I want to go to the old diner for dinner, I hadn't been there in so long and Joey's fries sounded perfect. That's out of the question now, they're probably closed or something. Everything around here seems to have changed.”

  “Not necessarily," he said.

  To her surprise, he speed up the motorcycle and before she knew they were parking in the parking lot of the old diner. She didn't know how she felt about having dinner with outlaw, but there was so much that she wanted to ask him about his new life, and it had been so surprisingly intimate to be with him on the motorcycle. She was reluctant to part his company, and found herself grateful for the excuse to spend more time with him and have a conversation where she wouldn't have to shout for him to hear her.

  “Joy!” Joey exclaimed. “I haven't seen you in years. Come now, order anything you'd like on the house.”

  Joey simply nodded at Zak, and returned to waiting on a couple who were at the counter.

  Zak and Joy sat down comfortably at a booth, the same one they used to use in high school.

  “This brings back memories," Joy said with a smile.

  “Yeah,” Zak said. “Hey, isn't this where you dumped me?"

  She looked up at him, her face falling in surprise and shame, but he was grinning and his tone was playful.

  “Anyway, that was a long time ago. That doesn't matter. I'm really proud that you were able to go out and live your life. It's not something that most people from this stupid town are able to do.”

  “Honestly sometimes I wish I would have just stayed put. You know they say curiosity killed the cat?”

  He nodded.

  “You've had a rough go at it, huh?” he asked her, his eyes suddenly gentle and serious.

  “That's one way to put it,” she said.

  “Well for now try to forget about that stuff. I want to hear about the good stuff. There must have been something you loved about your freedom right? Otherwise you wouldn't have stayed out there so long.”

  Zak was right about that. She looked at him, searching her mind for the things she thought he might want to hear about.

  “I loved that nobody knew who I was, or had any expectations of how I should act because of it. I was never confined by anybody else's rules. Except maybe the cops," she said with a laugh. His voice rumbled with deep laughter, and she realized how much she had missed him. “Tell me about you. Rumor has it you’re a no good
outlaw. But what does that mean exactly? Am I going to get in trouble just for sitting here talking to you? Is a cop going to show up and arrest you?”

  His eyes sparkled and his lips pursed into a small mischievous smile. She recognized the look from when he was about to beat her at a hand of cards, and he was happy but felt guilty about it because he wanted her to win too.

  “I'm not sure you could handle all that over one little dinner," he said with a wink. “Besides, it's bad dining etiquette to talk about your felonies over the table.”

  “I see. The strong silent type. How mysterious," she said wryly.

  “Well, you don't really have to worry about me getting arrested. Me and the cops have kind of an understanding. I can help them do their job a little bit better than they can, and nobody around here causes trouble because we take care of things. We want to keep this town clean, so that's what we do, no questions asked. I do have a warrant out in a few other counties though, so I've got to keep my head down. Otherwise, I'm free as a bird."

  “That sounds interesting. Thank you,” she said as Joey brought her huge plate of fries. Her stomach rumbled loudly and the three of them laughed as she dug into it immediately. It seemed that he remembered her favorite order and swiftly followed by bringing out her favorite cheeseburger and beer for Zak.

  They quietly studied each other as she ate. He was thicker, but not fat. He had developed some strong, lean muscles and a chiseled face. His blonde hair looked really good grown out to his shoulders like that, and she found herself fighting the urge to touch it and tuck it behind his ears. He was wearing a cut off leather vest and a tight white V-neck T-shirt that showed off his strong pecks. His green eyes followed her wherever she went, the same way he would study her while they were dating in high school.

  “So what is it like being back?” He finally asked her once she had cleared most of her plate.

  “I've been staying with my sister and my niece,” she replied.

  “Oh, I see them around sometimes. Your sister has a really cute baby.”

  “Thank you, I think so too.”

  Joy remembered fondly that Zak had a very soft spot for children. It seemed so strange that he would be a criminal now. She wondered what kinds of crimes he was involved in, but she was glad to know that he was keeping the town clean. His brother had overdosed and died when they were kids, so she could understand why he would take it upon himself to keep drugs out of their town. She just couldn’t fathom how he might do something like that, not the sweet kid that she had known so long ago.

  She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but she had his full attention. The way he looked at her made her feel exposed, naked and vulnerable. It was nothing like the way they had looked at each other as kids. Both of them were more experienced now, with everything, and had become the people they always dreamed of being. She had taken a lot of effort to change as much about herself as she could, and she could tell that he had done exactly the same thing. He had seen himself as vulnerable and weak, and he had done whatever he could to change that.

  Now he was feared and respected all over town, when most people had not even known his name. It was quite a difference, and for some reason, she had never been more attracted to anybody in her life. She wondered if it was just because of their history together, but she couldn't get enough of him. The way he looked at her and laughed. His strong, capable hands taking hers and squeezing them as if he could read her thoughts. His deep, soothing voice and the gentleness of his green eyes, the ferocity of his body and the way those eyes could harden in a heartbeat. She never wanted her meal to end.

  He seemed to feel the same way. After they left the diner, they lingered under the moonlit sky in front of his motorcycle, quietly contemplating the strangeness of being so near to each other once again.

  “Where should I drop you off?” Zak asked finally, after riding around in silence for a couple of blocks. They were both enjoying the peaceful night air and he hadn't wanted to ruin that. “I don't really know where your sister lives these days. I don't make it my business to stalk people the way some small towners seem to do.”

  “Well, you could take me to the mechanic's, I can pay for them to tow the car and then call my sister to pick me up.”

  “All right,” he said with a smile. They lingered for another couple of seconds, neither of them wanting to ruin the still perfection of the space between them.

  Finally, he mounted the bike, waiting patiently for her to sit behind him. She did, wrapping her arms intimately around his waist. She felt him tense up at her touch and then relax into it, sighing softly before he started his bike and took off down the road.

  As he drove, the air felt cool and soothing on her hot skin. She laid her head heavily on his back, imagining how different her life might have been if she had just stayed put in her rural hometown and allowed him to marry her and make her the happiest housewife on the block. It just wasn't a fate she could envision for herself. Although it seemed to work well for her sister, she just didn't think that it was what she wanted. It seemed that she was missing something; the urge to settle down with a man and live a normal life that the other girls seemed to share was something that she never had.

  But having him right there, holding him tightly, feeling his familiar body so close to hers again made her close her eyes and breathe him in as she thought of how different her life might be. Would they have had their own house? A white picket fence? Dogs and children? The idea seemed absurd, but strangely enough, not unpleasant. But look at him now – there was no way he could balance any kind of home life with the lawless lifestyle he was living. There was no way it was feasible. She would have to get rid of those fanciful thoughts and just focus on the present.

  The crisp night air rushed over her body, making the warmth of Zak's even more desirable. She held onto him, squeezing him as if making sure he wasn't a dream and he wouldn't disappear. He held one large hand over hers for one delicious moment before they pulled into the body shop. Zak dismounted, and she couldn't help but notice Zak's jeans, tight against his ass; how they curved into the forbidden V of his crotch. She forced herself to look away, hopping off the bike herself and standing on unsteady legs. The ride had left her feeling a little dizzy.

  “Hugo!” Zak called.

  A small, balding man that Joy recognized from high school popped out from nowhere.

  “Hey Zak,” he said, a little too cheerfully. He must have been afraid, he was eyeing Joy and the motorcycle nervously.

  “Listen, this pretty lady's car broke down out on N, do you think you could do a tow?”

  “Oh sure Zak, no problem. Anything for an old friend.”

  Hugo disappeared into the body shop and Zak turned to Joy.

  “What he really means is, I owe you and I know it but let's not talk about it in front of the women folk. It's degrading.”

  “Why does he owe you?” Joy asked, suddenly intrigued.

  “Let's just say he was messing around with the wrong people and we helped him out. But only because he asked. Wrong place, right time I guess.”

  “You mean that little pipsqueak tried brawling?” she asked with a bright, surprised laugh. It brought a grin to Zak's handsome face and she quickly quieted down before Hugo had a chance to come back and wonder what they were talking about.

  “Something like that. He was flirting with the wife of one bad fucker.”

  “That's pretty bold for someone so...”

  “Mouse-ish?”

  “Exactly.”

  They'd been together a little over two hours and they were already finishing each other's sentences. She sighed up to the moonlight as Hugo returned, carrying a large ring full of keys. They clattered loudly as Joy and Zak exchanged meaningful looks, both of them quietly amused.

  “You're going to give it a good look, yeah?” Zak said, squinting at Hugo menacingly.

  “Of course, buddy, no problem.”

  The too-cheerful smile on Hugo's face made them both flinch,
and Joy had to hide behind Zak to keep from revealing the laughter trying to burst onto her face. When they were finally ready to leave, Zak revved the engine and sped off, and she finally crumpled into his back and cracked up. Zak couldn't help but join her, and they drove together, laughing like lunatics under the full moon.

  Chapter 6

  “Oh wow, the old lookout point,” Joy said breathlessly. She'd never been there on a motorcycle before, and they stared out over the scenery. It looked more beautiful than ever, the tiny town beneath them and the moon bringing an icy glow to the trees and the wildflowers as they perfumed the air with their intoxicating countryside scent. He'd taken a spontaneous turn toward their old favorite destination, now made a hundred times more captivating without the roof of a car to confine them.

  “I thought it might be a good night to see the sights,” he said with a wink, hopping off the bike and offering his hand to help her do the same. He suddenly gestured to the sky and she looked up just as a shooting star flashed out of their sights. “Make a wish.”

  Joy closed her eyes, thinking hard about what it was that she really wanted. All she knew was that she didn't want this night to end, not the perfection of the sky, the warmth of Zak's body as she embraced it. She couldn't think of a more perfect way to have spent the evening, even though it had started out feeling pretty bad. She wished that the feeling she had then would be able to last forever – or at least visit frequently. It was a peace she had been missing for ten years.

  Suddenly, Zak's strong arms were enveloping her from behind, his warm lips sending shivers down her neck as he kissed her gently, savoring every bit of her as if he was afraid she might just disappear from him again. She moaned despite herself as his strong, experienced hands gently rounded the perfect curves of her body, not holding back or apologizing about their desire; just feeling the push and pull of her as she swayed against him in pure bliss. She suddenly felt the pressing of his longing against her backside and inhaled sharply as an overpowering desire to have all of him, right that moment, engulfed her.