"It's a good plan."
Satisfied, I waved Miriam back over. Her shoulder felt warm through the thin fabric of her tee shirt. “We’ve got everything worked out. You’re going to be safe. Will you trust me for a little while?”
Mutely, she nodded. She still seemed stricken by everything going on, and by the obvious betrayal of her friend, but the fact that she was willing to lend some trust to me gave me hope that she would make it through this.
That we would make it through this.
Just as we were about to walk out the door, I thought of something.
"Reggie, I need to borrow Rosa Linda from you."
At this, he started to shake his head. "No way—"
"Man, I'm pretty sure they know my truck by now. You don't want us to get killed before we can even start to have our fun, do you?"
Reggie growled low in his throat. Then he tossed me a set of keys. "You better take care of her."
I turned to Miriam. “We can’t trust your people, so now you're going to have to trust mine." I smiled at her. "Besides, you heard him tell me to take care of you."
Reggie, walking back behind the bar, said, "No, I told you to take care of Rosa Linda."
I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I'll take care of you, too."
"Who the fuck is Rosa Linda?" she whispered back.
I opened my mouth to tell her, then thought it best if I let Rosa Linda explain for herself.
“You’ll see.”
We left through the door we come in. Our first time through the back lot, Miriam hadn't said much. Now, as we walked toward the garage, she looked about little more carefully. I saw her take in the stack of folding chairs propped against the side of the building. And then her eyes fell on the ring.
It was a pretty basic affair. Four steel posts set in a square. Heavy ropes suspended between turnbuckles at the corners. Instead of a mat, the floor was packed earth.
"What's that for?" she said
I shrugged. "People fight in that."
She made a face. "Like, when they get mad at each other in the bar?"
I had to laugh. "No. For money."
She looked again at the ring. Walked up to it and shook the top rope with her hand, as if testing its strength. She looked back at me, and realization dawned in her eyes.
"Your knuckles." As if in sympathy, she rubbed the back of her own hand.
I shrugged again.
"Do you…fight in there very often?"
"Once or twice a week."
She walked back up to me, looking me up and down as if she were seeing me for the first time. "When you attacked that guy at the diner, it was like you didn't even have to think about it. Like it was just second nature to go after him."
"It's a gift," I said.
She sucked her teeth. "Yeah, but he was gonna kick the shit out of you."
I barked a laugh. "Everybody loses sometimes. You fight when you have to fight. Even if you’re not necessarily going to win."
The garage had two doors. My truck was behind one. I unlocked and raised the other door. Rosa Linda practically glowed. Cherry-red. Lots and lots of chrome parts. She wasn't one of those modern Camaros that just looks fast. It was a sixty-seven model. Four-oh-five cubic inches of engine. She was a fucking beast.
If anything happened to Reggie's car, there was no doubt in my mind that he would kill me. I opened the passenger side door.
"Fair lady, allow me to introduce Rosa Linda. Your chariot." I felt a moment of satisfaction when her mouth dropped open.
“She’s beautiful.”
I got in the driver side. Ran my hands over the leather steering wheel. Breathed in the smell of the car.
“Yes,” I said. “But not as beautiful as you.” I didn’t look at Miriam, but heard the sharp intake of her breath.
Instead of the engine turning on, it roared when I turned the key.
"Where are we going"?" she said, her voice breaking with something I was sure was more than nervousness.
I backed out of the garage and turned Rosa Linda around in the dirt lot. "We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Tonight, we’re going to rest up.
I pulled out of the parking lot, and got the car on the road.
* * *
Just For Safety
Miriam / Emma
What was it I expected, really? For the country boy to take me home, introduce me to his mom and show me around the family farm?
Truth be told, I guess that sort of is what I expected. Some kind of made-for-tv movie interlude scene where we got away from the dangerous stuff and took a quiet couple of scenes for reflection and appreciation of our lives. Something homey. Something comforting.
Instead, he drove us a couple of miles down Interstate 820, pulled off again, and guided the car into a Best Western parking lot.
Killing the motor, Ryan turned to me. “We’ll be safe here.”
I didn’t look at him for a moment, and he took my hand. I looked up, and his eyes were warm. “There is nothing to worry about here. Not right now. Right now, you’re safe.” I felt myself nod.
So this wasn’t what I expected, but then, what should I have expected?
It didn’t occur to me until his door closed behind him and he was walking across the parking lot, lean and sure, that I was about to share a hotel room with Ryan. That we would be alone, and safe, for the first time since he and I had spent the night together in his apartment. That thought, suddenly, made me feel slightly un-safe.
A few moments passed. I could see him through the sliding door, talking to the clerk at the desk, then filling out paperwork.
It was somewhat presumptuous, really, the idea that because he had rescued me (three times now, but who was counting?) I would share a bed with him. He might be a badass who liked to fight, and a hot piece of tail who, let’s be honest, was better in bed than anyone I had been with in my life. He might be a lot of things, but that didn’t mean I was going to sleep with him again just because he decided it was time! Who did he think he was, anyway?
By the time he walked back out through the doors, I was just about ready to punch him myself.
He slid back into Rosa Linda (for some reason I was unable to think of it just as the car), saying, “We’re all set.”
“Who do you think you are, anyway?”
He pulled away from me as if I’d slapped him, which was difficult to do in the close confines and resulted in him bumping his head on the window.
“What?” He seemed about as perplexed as I’d seen him today, and I’d seen him plenty perplexed.
“The audacity, that’s what. You think driving me in here like some knight in shining armor is going to get you laid?”
His face started to turn red, and he rubbed the back of his head where it had struck the window. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
I pointed at the hotel, suddenly furious. “I know what’s going on here, Ryan Calder. We’ll be sharing a room ‘just for safety,’ but next thing I know you’ll be wanting more than just a good night’s sleep, and I might give in to that and I might not, but it’s fucking presumptuous of you to assume it!” I didn’t realize my voice had risen to a yell until a woman walking in the parking lot looked our way, her mouth hanging open.
Hers wasn’t the only hanging mouth. Ryan looked at me as if I had gone insane and that he would very much like to also be out in the parking lot, inadvertently listening to me rant to an empty car.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out something, which he held out to me.
“What’s this?” I said, taking it.
He snatched his hand back as if I might bite it. “It’s your room key.”
There were two plastic cards in a little envelope. Pissed as I was, I knew we were stuck together for at least the evening, come what may. I took one out and held it out to him.
Ryan raised his eyebrow and shook his head. He took another, identical, envelope from his pocket. “I have my own. To my own room.”
/> “You—?” Now it was my turn to just stare with my mouth hanging open. “Oh, shit.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
I turned and stared out the window. “So you didn’t think—?”
“No.”
“I’ve never been so embarrassed.”
He laughed. “I sure would be if I were you.” He put the car back in gear.
“Hey! That’s not nice.”
He bit his bottom lip as if trying to hold back laughter. I found the look sexy and frustrating. “You’ve had a long, rough day,” he said, “so I forgive you.”
That was better. “Than—”
“You fuckin’ psycho,” he said quietly. Then, unable to hold back any more, he burst out laughing.
“Still not nice,” I grumped.
As southern hotels go, it was relatively nice. The doors all opened on the inside of the building, so that was a plus. Our rooms were next door to each other.
“Not that I want to interfere if you have a man over, or something,” he said, seeing me into my room. “But if you need anything, I’m close enough.” I must have looked confused, because he said, “What?”
By this time it was early afternoon. It seemed as if the day had gone on forever, but my body was only just catching up. “Were you planning to just call it a day?”
He nodded. “Not much else to do.” He leaned against my door jamb, and I could suddenly think of several other things to do, not the least of which involved pulling him into my room and being presumptuous. But there were other concerns.
“I’m starving,” I said.
He scratched his neck. “And now you’re looking to further prey on my generosity and convince me to feed you.”
“My wallet is back at the diner—”
“That certainly is a problem.”
“Plus, if we’re going to do—whatever we’re going to do tomorrow—I’ll need a change of clothes.”
He grinned, eying me up and down. “You look good.”
I threw up my hands. “But I won’t smell good for much longer!” I said in desperation.
Ryan had the audacity to yawn. “All we’re doing tomorrow is taking out some bad guys. Trust me, it doesn’t matter how you smell.” He turned to go, and the door started to swing shut behind him. I had to run across the room to catch him before he disappeared into his own room.
I caught his arm right before he got in his door, pulling him to face me. It was completely unexpected, but he turned to me, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me. He took his time, his lips roving over mine, soft and hot. We breathed one another’s breath through our open mouths.
When he lifted his head again, I was dizzy. “Well, that was—” I began.
He put a finger over my lips. “Let’s go get something to eat.”
***
Two hours later, I tumbled back into my room, breathless again. He had pressed me to the door, kissing me until all I could feel or think was the warmth of his body pressed against mine. This time, when he broke off I grabbed him and tried to pull him back to me.
“Who presumptuous now?” he said with a laugh.
“Don’t you throw my words back in my face.”
“Why not? They were pretty good words.” He stopped, considering. “As long as you weren’t on the receiving end of them.”
I looked at his chest, ran my fingers up one of his arms. “I’m sorry.”
He threaded his fingers through my hair. “Don’t be. It’s been a stressful day.”
And he kissed me again, hard, and then, without warning, turned and left me leaned against my door.
“Hey!” I called.
“I’m going to take a shower,” he laughed. “You’re not the only one who can smell bad.”
“Bastard.”
He had taken me to Texas Roadhouse and then made fun of my salad.
“Why the hell would you eat that when there’s perfectly good steak on this menu?” he said, tearing into a roll and smearing a pat of butter on it.
“Because this,” I motioned down the length of my body, “is a temple. And I take care of my temple.”
He let his eyes rove across me. “I saw you feeding eggs to that temple this morning.”
I liked the way he was looking at me. There was a part of me, a big part, to be honest, that wished everything about this situation was something normal, and we were just two people about to eat dinner, and that something normal could happen after that, and then another normal thing. Everything having a next thing that followed it, and all of those things just being…boring.
I shrugged. “What else do you eat at a diner?”
“Not the fucking salad,” he agreed.
When he paid, he drew a fat wad of bills out of his pocket.
“Is that supposed to impress me?” I said.
He peeled off a couple twenties. “Yeah. Is it working?”
I nodded. “Sure. It makes you look like a drug dealer, and that’s totally hot to the right kind of girl.”
Now, I threw the Walmart bag on the floral bedspread. Tore open the small bag of panties and pulled the tag off the bra.
Then I showered. For a while, I didn’t even think about soap, just let the water flow across me as hot as I could stand it, scalding my skin and flushing all the terrifying parts of the day away.
Every time I closed my eyes I could see Felix Martel staring at me, his eyes impassive, his grip tightening. There was a bruise on my upper arm where he had grabbed me. My heart started racing, and I could feel myself slipping into a panic attack. I forced myself to breathe, to slow down. To think about other things.
I unwrapped the small cake of hotel soap and began to lather myself. As I washed, I thought of Ryan Calder. Ryan, who had fearlessly charged into a battle for me. Who knew next to nothing about the situation he was involved in, but who kept going anyway. And somehow that led me to think about his muscular shoulders and wide chest. His lips on me.
My breathing quickened again, but not in panic this time.
I made up my mind to tell him the truth.
* * *
Come To Devour
Ryan
I lay on the bed after my shower, my hands folded under my head, staring at the popcorn ceiling and thinking about how Miriam baffled me. One minute she was standoffish, the next she liked me (well, not necessarily the next; there was some running from thugs in between). Then she was almost hostile to me, and immediately after that she was affectionate and seemed like she wanted something more from me than just protection.
And what the hell was I doing, for that matter? I had a simple life. I liked my simple life. What the hell was I doing throwing everything up in the air to defend a woman who had made it clear that she didn’t like me…until that wasn’t clear at all and maybe she did? Talk about fucking confusing. But who did that “protecting” thing, anyway? Like I’m one of the Avengers or something. I’m not.
What you are, said this quiet voice in my head, is a fucking United States Marine. You are a highly trained killing machine, made for the sole purpose of making bad guys stop doing bad things. What goddamn good is that if you don’t use it for something good?
Fair point. But damned if I wasn’t conflicted.
A knock on my door set my heart trip-hammering in my chest. Part of me though maybe the blast from Miriam’s past had somehow tracked us down. But no, if that were my real concern I wouldn’t find myself breathing hard. The greater part of me, the believing part of me, knew it was someone else knocking on my door.
I stood, checking myself in the mirror to make sure I didn’t have anything hanging out my nose.
When I opened the door, she just stood there a moment, staring at me. Her hair was still wet from the shower. She wore the yoga pants and plain white tee shirt I had bought her. No shoes. From the perky way her nipples pressed against the fabric of the shirt, I could tell she didn’t wear a bra, either.
Goddamn, she looked good.
And the way she was looking at me
. Like she was a deer caught in my headlights, but also as if she was a lioness come to devour me. It was the hottest look I had ever seen. Her eyes were on my shoulders, my arms, my chest. And then her hands were on me, following to all those places.
I couldn't think of anything to say, so I put my arm around her waist and drew her into the room. The door swung closed behind us with a click.
* * *
What Kind Of Girl
Miriam / Emma
When I knocked on Ryan's door, I hadn't I hadn't been entirely certain what I was going to do. But when he opened it and stood looking out at me with those serious blue eyes and that questioning smile on his face, I knew exactly why I was there. It didn't help that he stood there all self-assured with no shirt on and his hair still damp from the shower. I found myself staring at the thatch of hair on his chest, and then further down where the small patch of hair below his navel disappeared into his jeans. I bit my lip and let my mind wander a bit from there.
Then, his arm was around me, his head was lowering to mine, and his lips were pressing against mine again. My wandering mind returned to once again reside fully in my body, aware only of the warmth of his mouth and the feeling of his rough hands as they roved down my back, and then again up my sides, this time inside my shirt. I pressed myself to him, my breasts smashing against his chest.
Our tongues danced together, stroking and thrusting into one another's mouths. His teeth clicked on mine, and I giggled. He laughed too, and then in one smooth motion he cupped my ass in both hands and lifted me off the floor. I squealed in both shock and delight, and wrapped my legs around him. When I felt his rigid cock pressed against me, hard against my own sex, I gasped.
I thought he would take me immediately to the bed, throw me down, and have his way with me. The thought of that—of being manhandled and ravished—should have turned me off after the day that had transpired, but instead it excited me even further. I wrapped my fingers around his head, running my nails across his scalp. Our kiss became a fierce interplay, almost a fight between our exploring lips, our jousting tongues. My breasts against his chest tingled, and a heavy warmth settled between my legs.
The Next Thing: Bareknuckles Brotherhood Page 5