by Opal Carew
It was getting late in the afternoon and Laurie’s stomach was rumbling. Steele had grabbed a handful of granola bars and several bottles of water on the way out of the cabin this morning, but the two bars she’d eaten weren’t enough. She wanted dinner and didn’t know when or where Steele would stop to get something to eat.
But she knew he would take care of her. She rested her head against his solid back, her arms snug around his waist.
Steele veered off the main road onto another road that disappeared into trees. Soon they turned onto another smaller road and drove for a while. The road split at a Y junction and as Steele continued, after a short time, the gravel road diminished into a dirt road, then soon became a narrower path with clumps of grass studding the surface. He pulled into a clearing and stopped the bike by a big tree, then dismounted.
It was a lovely spot by a small lake, trees surrounding them, giving them lots of privacy, though this far off the paved road there was probably no one around for miles. The sun glittered on the calm surface of the water.
He pulled off his helmet and opened the storage compartment on the back of the bike and tugged out a blanket and spread it on the grass, then handed her a bottle of water. She opened it and took a swig.
He settled down beside her and gazed out over the water.
“This is a nice spot,” she said.
He nodded. “We have several places like this across the country where we like to stop when we’re in the area. Sort of regular places to camp. This one’s well off the beaten track, so it’s a good place to go when you don’t want to be found.”
“Do you often not want to be found?” she asked.
He shrugged. “We’re not criminals, if that’s what you mean. But I like getting away from it all. I grew up in a city. Crammed into a little box called an apartment. Working all the time. I always wanted to get away. Ride the open road.” He sipped his water. “Be free.”
“So what stopped you?”
“Commitments. Time. Money.”
“What kind of commitments?”
He gazed at her, his expression somber.
“I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”
He sighed. “No, it’s okay.” He capped his water then stretched out on his side, head propped on his hand. “I had a little sister. Chrissy. Our mom…” He shrugged. “She took off when I was a teenager, leaving just Chrissy and me to fend for ourselves. I dropped out of school and got a job. Several, actually, while trying to keep Chrissy in school.”
“Where is she now?”
His eyes darkened in pain and she instantly regretted asking.
“She died of a drug overdose.”
Laurie reached out and placed her hand on Steele’s arm. “I’m so sorry.”
“She was sixteen, in with the wrong crowd.” He shook his head. “I tried to keep her safe, insisted she stop hanging with them, but she wouldn’t listen. When I was home, I could keep on top of things, but I often worked nights as a bouncer, so I left her alone too much. Wild Card would look in on her when he could, but”—his hands balled into fists—“fuck, she still managed to get into trouble. I scared the shit out of the guys she dated, to make sure she didn’t get pregnant, but…” He just shook his head.
She took his hand, her stomach tightening at his obvious pain. “You did the best you could.”
“If I’d done my best, she’d still be alive.”
She stretched out beside him, facing him, and stroked his cheek. “Sometimes things happen … people do things … you can’t control. It’s not your fault.”
He pursed his lips and said nothing. She knew he wasn’t convinced, and nothing she could say would change his mind. All she could do was be here for him. Listen if he wanted to talk.
Now she understood why he had tried so hard to keep her at the cabin. He couldn’t protect his sister, but he would do his best to protect her.
After a few moments of silence, he pushed himself to a sitting position and stared toward the sun hanging low on the horizon.
“The others should be here soon,” he said. “You want to go for a swim?”
She would love to go in the water, especially since she’d had no chance to shower this morning, but she had no bathing suit and really didn’t want to be swimming naked with Steele when the others showed up.
Though the idea of swimming naked with Steele was exciting. Of seeing him peel off his T-shirt and reveal that massive tattooed chest of his. And his impressive cock.
A shiver ran through her. She wanted to climb on top of him and ride him to heaven.
But the others would be here soon and she didn’t want to be caught in an embarrassing situation.
“I think I’d like to just relax.” She gazed at him. “You could go for a swim. I’ll watch.” She grinned.
He laughed. “I don’t know if I should just give you a free show.” He leaned down and brushed his lips on hers, then smiled, a gleam in his granite eyes. “Maybe you should entice me to take off my clothes.”
He lay down and pulled her in for a deeper kiss. His hand found her breast and he cupped it in his big, warm hand. She leaned into his palm, loving the feel of his big fingers caressing her soft flesh.
“That’s nice, but I don’t really want to … you know … get naked when the others might arrive at any time.”
He chuckled. “We don’t actually have to get naked to fuck. We’ve already proven that.”
He rolled her onto her back and prowled over her, covering her with his big, solid body, his rising erection pressing against her stomach. He tilted his pelvis, grinding his hard shaft against her mound, sending heat humming through her.
Oh, God, it felt so good.
But she pressed her hands on his shoulders and pushed.
“No, Steele, I’m really not comfortable with this.”
He gazed down at her, then frowned, but he drew back.
“Because the others might show up in an hour?”
“Or earlier. I’d be … embarrassed.”
He sat up. “If you’re going to be my woman and travel with the crew, you’ll have to get over that kind of thing.”
His woman? Travel with them? Was he serious?
The idea of traveling with Steele was exciting, but could she really live that way?
She’d moved a lot as a kid, with her dad in the army, and she’d always wanted a real home. When her parents had died when she and Craig were still young, they’d gone to live with her grandparents in Jasmineville. She had been about thirteen and found it difficult to make friends in a new town, still suffering from the loss of her parents. She had longed to have friends who knew her, whom she could talk to, share her deepest secrets with. She wanted a stable home, with a network of people who knew and cared about her.
She wanted roots.
She had started to build that dream. She had friends, though none as close as she’d like. She still seemed to keep up barriers, but she was working on that. And she’d bought a town house six months ago. Her own real home.
She was already worried about losing her job—a job with one of Donovan’s companies. He could, and probably would, have her fired, and she could forget about getting a good reference for a new employer. Her chest compressed. She had no savings, and without a good job, she didn’t know how she would pay the mortgage, but she knew she had to find a way. She would not lose her home.
She frowned. No matter how appealing it might be, she couldn’t just take off and ride with Steele and his crew.
Anyway, she’d only met Steele a few days ago. She had no idea if they’d be compatible in the long run. Her common sense told her they wouldn’t be. What did she have in common with a tattooed, nomad biker? She liked her stability, and was horribly unsettled by this whole situation.
She sat up and hugged her knees, tipping her head to gaze at him, and decided to ignore his comment about being his woman to delve into a more troubling issue.
“Steele, what do you think is going to happen?
About the charges against me, I mean. If they arrest me, won’t they put me in jail for a long time? That necklace must have been pretty expensive.”
“No one’s going to arrest you.”
“How do you know that? We can’t keep running forever.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “Because I won’t let them.” He kissed the crown of her head with a soft brush of his lips. “I told you. You’re my woman.”
She sighed. She should probably set him straight, but it felt so good in his arms like this. She felt so protected.
He lay back on the blanket, taking her with him, and she snuggled more deeply into his arms and felt herself dozing off.
* * *
Laurie awoke to the roar of engines. She opened her eyes and glanced up to see two men towering over her. She blinked and, in the fading light of the setting sun, she recognized Wild Card and Shock staring down at her.
“You two lovebirds hungry?” Shock asked.
The smell of food tickled her nose. “I’m starving.”
She sat up and glanced around. Rip and Raven walked toward them with paper bags from a fast-food restaurant in their hands. Magic spread a blanket beside the one she and Steele were on and the others sat down. Dom pulled containers of fries and wrapped sandwiches from the bags and passed them around.
Laurie unwrapped her burger and bit into it. Shock handed her a bottle of beer, and one to Steele. It was cold. She twisted off the cap and took a sip.
Soon they were all settled on the blankets, enjoying their meal.
“So Shock is an odd name,” Laurie said. “Why do they call you that?”
He grinned. “It could be my shockingly large cock.”
Steele laughed. “Your shockingly small one, you mean.”
Shock snorted. “Not fair comparing me to your behemoth.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Dom said. “You may have noticed that Shock likes to cook. Well, he used to share a place with Steele, Wild Card, and me, and someone had left behind this old electric griddle and he’d cook pancakes on it every morning. The thing was old and the wiring faulty so he got a shock every time he turned it on. But he insisted on using it every day.”
“It had really even heat and browned the pancakes perfectly,” Shock explained defensively.
“So they call you Shock because you got an electrical shock?”
Wild Card laughed. “Yeah, I think it’s more because of his resemblance to a housewife rather than a biker dude.”
Shock threw a crumpled wrapper at Wild Card’s face. “Yeah, you want to take over the cooking?”
Wild Card grinned. “I wouldn’t think of it, sweetheart.” Then he puckered up and sent him a kiss.
“And talking about big cocks…” Raven said with a grin.
“Were we?” Rip asked. “Or was that just in your mind?”
She laughed and squeezed his knee. “You want to know how this one got the name Rip?” Raven grinned. “He told me it was short for Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”
Laurie watched as Raven stroked Rip’s thigh affectionately.
“Of course, I assumed it was because…” Raven’s gaze dropped to his crotch and she grinned. “But it seems that Steele should have gotten that name.”
“Yeah,” Shock said. “What Rip never told you was that he got the name because someone caught him reading the Ripley’s book. I think it was to win a bet, but maybe he’s just a bookworm.”
Raven gazed at Laurie and winked. “Either way, I think I got stuck with the wrong biker.”
Rip laughed and pulled her tight to his body. “Baby, I haven’t heard you complaining when we’re together.”
Her eyes glittered in delight. “Well, I do get a taste of Steele’s generous member on occasion.”
Steele cleared his throat. “And Wild Card. He’s just trouble brewing. Just when you think things are going along fine, he’ll pull a Card Trick … do something totally random … to throw everything off.”
“Like kidnapping me?” Laurie asked with a smile.
Steele slipped his arm around her and pulled her close. “That was one of his better tricks.”
Laurie gazed up at him. “And how did you get your name?”
“You haven’t figured that out?” Raven asked.
Laurie stared at her, then at Steele, wondering if she was missing something. Some sexual innuendo? Because he grew hard as steel?
“Doesn’t he remind you of someone? Someone famous?”
Laurie stared at his features. “When we first met, I did think he looked a bit familiar, but I couldn’t place him.”
“Think Remington Steele,” Raven said. “Like in the old TV show.”
A young Pierce Brosnan flickered into her mind and she realized Steele looked like a very rugged version of him, with his glossy dark hair swept back off his face, his square jaw, and extremely handsome face. “My mom used to watch that show.” Laurie smiled. “That’s it. That’s where I’ve seen you before.”
Steele just rolled his eyes.
“This is fun,” Laurie said. “And Magic?”
“Well,” Magic said, “that story’s a little crude and has to do with the fact that I’m bi. Let’s just say, people say I work magic.”
“Okay.” But Laurie couldn’t help wondering what he meant specifically. Maybe he would tell her sometime. She turned to Dom. “And you, Dom?”
Was it because he was a Dominant? She’d seen him command Raven. And Magic.
Dom laughed. “My name is Dom.”
Laurie nodded. “I know.”
“No, I mean my name is Dominic. Dom for short. The fact that I like to order people around is just a happy coincidence.”
“And me…” Raven pointed at her head of long, glossy black hair. “Raven hair.”
Steele stroked his hand along Laurie’s hip. “We’ll be keeping an eye on what ride name to give you, so keep that in mind.”
Because she was his woman and he assumed she’d be riding with them, a thought that warmed her heart, and at the same time, sent dread through her, because she knew at some point she’d have to set him straight.
“What about Tempest?” she asked, just because she liked the sound of it.
“You can’t pick your own ride name,” Rip said. “We pick it for you.”
Raven winked. “So be careful you don’t do anything embarrassing, or they’ll pick a name to forever remind you of it.”
They finished their food. As they cleared everything away, Wild Card and Magic started a fire, then they all sat around it and had a few more beers.
“So how did you all get together?” Laurie asked.
“Steele and I go way back.” Wild Card was laying on the other blanket they’d spread out and leaned back on his elbows. The breeze stirred his spiky blond hair. “We met Dom on a construction site we were working one time and the three of us hit it off. Started sharing a house together.”
“The one with the shocky griddle?” she asked with a grin.
“Yeah, that thing was in there for a year before Shock showed up and started using it.”
“Him we met in a bar fight,” Dom chimed in. “He was new in town and being a bit belligerent and five guys jumped him.” Dom shrugged. “We thought we’d even out the odds.”
“I was holding my own,” Shock said.
Steele laughed. “Yeah, sure you were.”
“And Magic?” Laurie asked.
Wild Card plucked a bright yellow dandelion flower and twirled the stem between his fingers. “Oh, one day on the road we went out drinking and the next day, Dom just showed up with him. He’s been with us ever since.”
“Sort of like Rip showed up with me?” Raven smiled.
Dom and Magic were sitting cross-legged, side-by-side, and Dom put his arm around Magic’s neck and pulled him close with a chuckle. “Yeah, a lot like that. But he came with his own bike.”
Laurie sipped her beer. She loved the camaraderie between these men. And the easy acceptan
ce of the intimate relationship Dom and Magic obviously shared.
“You said you were all in a house. Where is it?” she asked. “Do you all live there now?”
If they were just traveling around temporarily, maybe Steele would be amenable to the idea of settling down. Could she convince him to come and live in Jasmineville? Her house could easily accommodate the two of them.
She knew it was probably a crazy idea. Steele didn’t want to leave his crew, but if he was open to the idea of moving, maybe they could figure something out.
“No, that place is back in Chicago,” Shock said. “We’ve been on the road for a year now, and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.”
“Steele and I always talked about hitting the open road,” Wild Card said, “but we had to earn a living. Then Shock came along and changed all that.”
“Really?” She gazed at Shock.
“His family’s got money.” Magic took a swig of his beer. The thorny tattoo around his wrist, designed to look like sharp thorns were tearing into his flesh and making it bleed, still disturbed her. “He doesn’t like to talk about it, but he’s got access to funds and doesn’t mind sharing.”
“Don’t get us wrong,” Steele added. “We don’t live in the lap of luxury, but Shock covers the basics. We live simple.”
Laurie’s hopes of settling down with Steele came crashing down. He’d always wanted to be a drifter, and she wanted roots.
It was getting cool and she shivered. Steele noticed and slid his arm around her. She leaned into his warm, solid body.
“I think it’s time to turn in,” Steele said.
Rip stood up and walked to his bike, then opened the compartment on the back. He tossed Steele two sleeping bags. “We stopped and got one for Laurie, too.”
“Good thinking.” Steele unrolled the two bags, but zipped them together to make a double. He pulled back one side and climbed in, then patted beside him.
Laurie glanced around a little self-consciously, but noticed Raven climbing into a sleeping bag with Rip. Laurie slid in beside Steele and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to his hard, muscular body. And his thick, hardening cock. She stiffened, but he rubbed her shoulders with his big hands.
“Don’t worry about it,” he murmured against her ear.