by Meg Ripley
He eyed Lance, who was sitting in the front row. Mona walked past the troublemaker, lifting her nose in the air a bit as she sat beside him. She wanted to be close to Ryan, close to the front in case her input was wanted. But what she ended up getting was ogles and leers from the Running Hill Riders’ red headed problem child.
“And now that she’s here,” Ryan said. “I’d like to welcome Mona to the front. She is, after all, the owner of our little club. Any of the decisions I make will be made with her full backing.”
Everyone clapped as Mona stood and went up beside Ryan. When she looked out into the small crowd that had gathered for this sign-up, she recognized several of the club’s trusty members. Weasel, Ryan and Arthur were there. They spanned the generations since Benny had started the club. Weasel was a few years older than Mona, Ryan was in his early forties and Arthur had to be close to her father’s age. She appreciated all of them for showing up. “Hi, I’m Mona Myers. For those of you who don’t know, my father Benny started the Running Hill Riders back in the mid-seventies. I have been entrusted with continuing his legacy. Ryan here has been put in charge of leading our group, but that doesn’t mean he’s the one who’s responsible for everything. What I’d really like is for all of us to have input. All of us to work together to keep this club successful and to keep my dad’s dream alive. I know that I can count on each of you here to carry on the club’s good name. We are like family. Any of you newcomers here today, I urge you to consider signing up. You won’t be disappointed.”
She went back to her seat to a round of applause.
“So, with all of that being said—”
“Wait just a minute,” Lance said, standing up from his chair. He looked around at the assembled group, smirking, full of contempt for the people he chose to spend his time with. “As Mona said, we are all allowed to speak our minds here. Isn’t that right?” He looked at her.
She was loathe to listen to him, but she couldn’t deny that she’d just claimed that everyone who signed up would be allowed their say in things. She gave a curt nod of the head. She hadn’t been thinking of him when she made that statement…
“Good,” he said. “Now, I say that there’s no reason to stick to the plans of an old hippie. We’ve got bikes with power, built to race and built to impress. Why do we always have to perform stunts at charity shows? Why must we continue to be seen as nothing but circus acts? I think that Benny’s dreams should be buried with Benny.”
Ryan cleared his throat. “We are a motorcycle club, Lance, not a motorcycle gang.”
Lance shrugged, appealing to the startled and confused expressions in the crowd. “There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference to me. People come to see these races and pay good money. Why not give the paying people want they want and have some real races? I for one am tired of these peaceful, exhibition shows.”
“The people who come see the shows are largely veterans with PTSD, you prick,” Mona argued.
There was suddenly a hush.
She saw it as an urge to continue. “My dad started this club as a group of vets trying to raise money for more vets. He and his friends rode in Roaring Thunder, in tours across America, racing each other and raising awareness about the consequences of war. Well, the wars have continued and so the Riders must continue to do their good service to this country.”
“Here here!” Arthur called over the clapping.
“If a club that promotes violence and crashes is what you’re hoping for, then Lance I think you’re in the wrong club.”
Grabbing his chair, Lance overdramatically knocked it over to the floor with a clang. He stormed down the aisle and out of the restaurant. He’d always been the most hot-headed asshole that Mona and her dad had to deal with. She couldn’t help rejoicing inwardly that he appeared to finally be gone.
“So… With all that being said, unless anyone else has a…complaint,” Ryan said, pausing to look around and make sure no one else stood up before concluding. “Please come to the table to my right and sign the sheet confirming that you’d like to be a member. Thank you.”
Everyone clapped. He came towards Mona in her chair, gesturing for her to accompany him at the sign-up table. She got up without question and joined him, sitting beside him as everyone wrote down their names and email addresses.
“We’re going to need to have a race soon,” he told her once everyone who wanted to sign, did. About thirty of Benny’s original forty or so members re-signed. The rest, Mona supposed, had joined the dark side with Lance.
She nodded. “What did you have in mind?”
“The Flag Day festival,” he said readily. It was clear that he’d been thinking it over for some time. “It’s not as big of a deal as Independence Day or anything like that, but it’s enough of a reason for people to be interested in showing their patriotism and support, you know?”
Mona smiled. “You’re pretty good at this.”
He smiled back. “Thanks.”
She stood up from her seat and was just about to start heading out when he placed his hand on top of hers on the back of her chair. “You know, I couldn’t help noticing that you didn’t write your name down…”
She looked at him quizzically. “I thought it went without saying.”
He chuckled a little. “Not about being a part of the club, but about riding with us.”
Blushing, Mona flashed him another smile. “I’ve been on the fence these past few days. I was kind of hoping you might make up my mind about that.”
“Oh really?” Ryan asked. “And how would you like me to do that?”
“Come home with me and I’ll show you.”
He waggled his eyebrows a little at that. As if he would turn down that invitation.
****
Mona drove in her Mini, making sure that Ryan and his black Harley stayed in her mirror at all times. She had a giddy, school girl sort of feeling about inviting this gorgeous man back to her house, even though she’d extended the invitation with the purest of intentions.
At the time, anyway.
As soon as she’d pulled into her driveway and watched as Ryan parked his motorcycle beside her Mini, she smiled at him. “Follow me.”
He unfastened his helmet and placed it into the storage compartment on his bike. As he followed her up to the front door and into the house, he gave her looks of curiosity and confusion. “I can’t tell if you’re about to tell me a huge secret or if you’re planning to murder me,” he joked.
Mona laughed. “No, silly. I just wanted to show you this.” She opened up the garage door off of her kitchen and walked down four steps before standing beside the sparkly old Duke. She gestured towards it with her arms outstretched as though she was presenting a prize on a game show. “Tada!”
“Whoa,” Ryan said, coming towards The Duke but too reverent to dare touch it. “You have The Duke? I mean, of course you do. It makes sense that you’d be the one that got it. It’s just…”
“It’s just that I don’t ride motorcycles,” Mona finished for him. “But your proposition got me thinking. I have this motorcycle anyway. I just don’t know how to ride it… I’d hate to crash or even ding it. But I thought that maybe you could show me how to handle it?”
He looked into her eyes. She could tell that he was touched by her saying that he would be the best teacher for her. Suddenly, instead of saying anything, he had his arms around her.
Ryan hugged Mona’s lithe frame to his body and kissed her for a full minute, though it felt like no time at all. She looked slimmer and her skin was a little more pale than usual, but her smile was as earnest and dazzling as it had always been. After they got over their giddiness—which took quite a few wordless minutes filled with urgent, breathless kisses—he said, “I would be happy to show you the ropes.”
She blushed, smiling shyly at him. “I never knew you liked me like that…”
Unless she was crazy, Ryan was blushing slightly as well. “I’ve liked you for a long time,” he replied. “
But you’ve been so supportive of me over the years, Mona. So caring. I want to be that for you. I would love to help you with this, and with anything else you need.”
Gazing into his beguiling green-blue eyes, Mona kissed him again. It was a sweet, little kiss. After all, this was her school girl fantasy coming to life. “You’ve always been the strong, tough guy among the club members,” she said, batting her lashes flirtatiously. “Are you going soft on me now, Kirby?”
Ryan smiled and pulled her close, whispering into her ear. “I’ve always been soft for you, Myers.”
Mona burst into laughter, and Ryan felt heat rush to his cheeks. “Wait! I meant—”
“I know what you meant,” Mona said, chuckling. “And that’s not true, at all.” She pressed her hips against his and gasped softly. “Especially not right now.”
His cheeks were bright red, but he made himself gaze into Mona’s deep blue eyes. “No. I guess I’m not letting you down that way, huh?”
“No, you aren’t.”
They gazed at each other a moment longer, and then Mona smiled wide.
“What?”
She didn’t answer him. Instead, she pulled away and took off her leather jacket, tossing it over the handlebars of her dad’s prized motorcycle. She was wearing a black tank top, and it clung to her firm waist and the heavy swell of her breasts, her nipples poking through the soft fabric like an invitation to reveal them. His eyes dropped to her hands, and his heart started to pound when he realized she was wiggling out of her jeans.
“Mona!”
“Ryan,” Mona responded, and her voice was so full of need that he took a few steps forward, looking over his shoulder nervously as she turned around and placed her hands against the wall of the house’s garage. They were alone in the house, amongst Benny’s most prized possessions. Hell, Mona was Benny’s most prized possession! He’d kill Ryan if he wasn’t dead…
She turned her head and smiled coyly as he finally moved to stand behind her, the front of his jeans stretched tight by his erection.
“Please? I’ve finally got you alone with me. Let’s do something a little naughty.”
“A little?”
“A lot,” Mona allowed, waving her round behind in his direction. “Please, Ryan? And then we’ll go upstairs and do it in bed.”
Ryan laughed and started to unzip his jeans, relishing the heat that rushed to Mona’s eyes when he pulled out his rigid shaft. He slipped her briefs off and pocketed them before steadying her waist and leaning forward to nestle himself between the curve of her cheeks. Mona shivered and arched her back, closing her eyes as Ryan pressed the head of his member against her soft, wet opening.
“I love you,” Mona said quietly, looking back at him as he pushed himself inside her from behind. She gasped as he filled her walls, and Ryan gripped her waist as slow waves of pleasure started to roll through his body.
“I love you, too,” he whispered in her ear. The sensation of her tightness wrapping around him was so intense that he couldn’t keep himself quiet, and his words came louder than he meant them. “I never thought I’d find out this way...”
Mona was pushing her hips back against him to meet his strokes, making small noises of pleasure as his head pressed against her sensitive G-spot. He slipped his hands under her shirt and cupped her full breasts, delighting in the low moan he drew from his lover’s lips and he pulled and twisted on her nipples.
“Ryan!” his name sounded like an incantation on her lips, and it sent a bolt of electricity through him, wrapping his muscles in a sweet, sizzling heat that deepened his pleasure. He threw himself against her harder, pushing his length as deep within her walls as her body would allow. “Faster! Faster!”
Ryan wrapped his arms around Mona’s waist and held her against him as tightly as he could. She took one of his hands and placed it on the swollen nub of her clit, and as he massaged it, her breath quickened and started to come in soft shrieks. Mona grinded her hips against his harder and harder, driven to desperation by the ecstasy flooding her body as Ryan slammed into her in perfect rhythm again and again.
“Oh my God! Baby, I’m coming!” she shouted, as Ryan felt himself reach his peak simultaneously and with mind-shattering force; his long, thick shaft exploded deep inside Mona’s wetness, just as she spasmed, gripping every inch of his thickness tightly, as they both fought to remain standing. They stood together for a moment, then the sound of a car in the street outside the garage startled them apart, and they dressed quickly in their embarrassment, the headiness of the explosive sex they just had still fresh in their minds.
They’d both wanted it, clearly. And now that it had actually happened, Mona felt like pinching herself to be sure that it all hadn’t been a hot dream.
“Wow,” she said as she zipped her pants. “Just as good as I always imagined.”
“You always imagined that?” Ryan asked, feigning surprise. “But…You never told me.”
She laughed. “You never asked.”
Ryan gasped as though she had just said the most mystically baffling thing in the world, and they both burst into laughter.
****
After the hot episode that they shared in the garage, Mona wasn’t quite ready to hop on the back of a motorcycle. She was feeling giddy and slightly embarrassed, which wouldn’t help her focus on the road. “Do you want to come back inside and have a coffee or a beer or something?”
When the going got awkward, she could always rely on her barmaid and hostess skills.
Ryan nodded, giving her a shy sort of smile. “Yeah, that sounds good.” He gave The Duke one last, lingering look before following her back into the house. They went into the kitchen and he sat backwards in one of the chairs at the small, white table while she got out some mugs and prepared the coffee maker.
“So, what’ll it be, coffee or beer?”
He chuckled, gazing at her. “Whatever you’re having is fine with me.”
She could see, from the corner of her eye, that he was checking her out. His eyes were focused on her butt. She smirked at him. “Do you like hazelnut coffee? I could make you another kind.”
“Aw, no, hazelnut’s fine.”
She put enough spoons of coffee grounds into the filter for two, then turned the maker on. While it brewed, she leaned against the counter, looking at him and scratching at the back of her neck. Her pixie cut sometimes itched her there, but never enough to make her regret the hairstyle. It made her appear more like one of the club members, someone who belonged with them. At least, to her. “What do we do now?” she asked him.
“Would you like to go out with me?” he asked her without hesitating. “We could go see a movie, get dinner somewhere…?”
Mona laughed. “I meant about the motorcycle club.”
Ryan looked down, smiling embarrassedly at the tabletop. “Oh. That. Well, if you want, after we’re caffeinated up, I can take you out for a ride. You probably don’t want to start just driving The Duke. You want to ease into it.”
She nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Get a feel for it before taking control. I still am not sure if I’d be able to race with you guys, but…”
He looked up at her and smiled. “No one expects or wants you to race. You’re the group’s lovely owner. If you got hurt or something, it’d be all over.”
That made Mona scoff. She didn’t want to be thought of as a precious flower or anything, even if she was hesitant to ride a bike and risk injury. “I can handle myself.”
Ryan raised his hands up defensively. “No one doubts that you can. We’d just rather keep you as our Supreme leader.”
She smiled, nodding a little. “Supreme leader,” she repeated. “I could get used to that.”
The coffee pot let out a beep to alert Mona that it was done. She went to it and carefully poured them each a cup of coffee. “Milk and sugar?” she asked him. “I only have artificial sugar. I hope that’s okay?”
He smirked at her. “That’s fine. Thanks. Are you watc
hing your calories or something?”
“I’m not,” she said, pretending to glare at him. “My dad was. He was a big guy, as you well remember I’m sure. He was afraid of getting diabetes. But you can see how that worked out in the end anyway…” She frowned slightly, stirring the fake sugar into the coffee cups.
Ryan gave her a sad look. “I’m sorry. I was just teasing… I didn’t realize he’d been such a health nut.”
Mona guffawed at that. “He wasn’t a health nut. He loved packing away the burgers and ribs at Hog’s Grogs. He just—I don’t know, I guess he felt some kind of a sign that he needed to be careful.”
She added a few drops of milk straight from the carton and then placed Ryan’s mug in front of him before sitting beside him at the table with her own.
The mug she’d given him said ‘World’s Greatest Dad.’ He looked over at her curiously before taking a sip. The hazelnut coffee was heavenly. It tasted kind of like Nutella, but liquefied.
Setting down his mug, he continued to look at her in a concerned, thoughtful sort of way. “Mona… How have you been holding up?” He placed his hand on hers. “I get the feeling that no one’s really asked you that. Everyone was so in shock and sad about what happened to Benny.”
She looked into his eyes, surprised that he was asking about how she was doing. It seemed as though everyone assumed that their grief was her grief and that she didn’t need anyone to confide in about it. After all, she was Benny’s tough girl. She was taking care of herself. But sometimes taking care of oneself did not mean that one was feeling ‘okay.’
“Thank you for asking,” she said, looking at him and giving a vague, little smile. She wished that she could reassure him that she was fine and everything was taken care of, but honestly, she felt like she was broken up inside and had no way of letting that out. She had cried, of course. She cried a lot, these days. But she also tried to keep most of her feelings inside. She was Benny’s strong little girl. She couldn’t reveal how weak she actually felt now.