“Look,” Solomon began as he adjusted Kat on his lap to a more comfortable position. Shock was the only thing keeping her to him, but she knew Solomon was probably using that to his advantage. “Most of you don’t like me, and some of you feel the need to stand up for me now and demonize Kat because you didn’t do so when I was on my knees with a gun in my face.”
Kat turned her head up to him, watched his eyes scan the room and look into every eye. “But the past is the past. We need to move on. Jamison wouldn’t have wanted this infighting bullshit, and all of you know that.”
The room was deadly quiet, but Kat couldn’t tell if that was a bad thing or a good thing. What she did know was that Solomon was doing a better job being a leader than she was, and that pissed her off. She led the Free Guns, not him!
Pulling away from Solomon, Kat hopped off the bar and went over to the man who had pulled a broken bottle on her. “I admit that I’ve made mistakes; I’ve been thinking as if I am still a member of this club and not its leader. That ends tonight.”
She locked eyes with the man and took the bottle out of his hand, not caring that she cut herself in the process. “You want to hate me? Go ahead. You want to blame me? Go ahead. But understand everything I’ve done, and everything I will ever do, will always be because I love this club and I want to do right by it. If that means I have to become a monster, then I will be. I will do—and become—anything the Free Guns need because I am their president.”
The words were out and there was no way Kat was going to take them back now. She’d done it. Told everyone where she stood and what she was willing to do. If they didn’t like it… Well, she had some savings and an adventurous spirit. Kat might not want to leave, but she’d do it.
“Let’s vote.” All eyes swung to Solomon as he smiled like the Cheshire cat and hopped off the bar. “Kat and I will leave. You guys call us back in when you’re ready.”
Tense seconds passed before murmured agreement was heard around the bar and Solomon was ushering Kat out of the place. With his hand on the small of her back, Kat finally figured out what had been irking her about Solomon. The man was sexy as hell, smart, kind, and fucked like an animal. They should have been perfect together, and actually were pretty perfect together, except he tried to manage her.
It was the way he touched her, the way he spoke to others about her. Solomon Parker thought he had some kind of hold over her, and that was going to stop right now.
“We need to talk,” Kat said the second they were outside and well away from the bar. She moved away from him and whirled to face him.
In black jeans and an old Cowboys t-shirt, Solomon couldn’t have looked more fuckable. But, then again, the man always looked that way, like at any second he could have her pinned to a hard surface, driving into her until she screamed for more and doing it hard enough to leave bruises.
Get your mind out of the gutter! Kat’s subconscious yelled at her as she looked at Solomon’s relaxed posture and tried to mimic it.
For the last few days, she’d been feeling wild, out of control. It didn’t feel good; it didn’t feel like her. She wasn’t the type of person to pull a gun on someone or encourage violence. She also wasn’t the kind of person to be lead along and managed like some sort of fucking pet.
Somewhere along the line of Jamison dying, Solomon being persecuted and then let off, Kat nearly killing him and then fucking his brains out, she had lost herself—reverting back into the girl she’d been before the Free Guns. She’d stopped being Kat and started behaving like Kathy, the good little southern girl who’d had life served on a silver platter—all her decisions made for her and no culpability in any situation.
But I’m not that person, and I don’t want to be that person, Kat thought as she stared silently back at Solomon. Yet, in the back of her mind, Kat knew that if she stayed that was what she’d turn into. Solomon wasn’t about to let her go, and it had never been in her nature to deny herself pleasure, even if it was forbidden fruit. The best thing for her would be to leave, find the woman she’d lost, and then come back.
“I can’t do this, Solomon,” Kat whispered, biting her tongue to keep the anger and self-loathing out of her tone. She hated that she was turning back into the weak-willed girl she’d been, and more angry with herself for thinking that maybe she’d never lost that part of herself to begin with—just hidden it deep underneath bravado.
“Can’t do what, Kit-Kat?”
“This!” The answer was ripped from her as she threw her hands up. “I’m not this person! I don’t have regrets. I don’t second-guess myself. I don’t fucking sleep with men who could be murderers. I’m not this person anymore, and I don’t ever want to be this person again.”
Seconds stretched into minutes as she looked into Solomon’s rainwater eyes; looking for any indication that she could somehow be the person she was before him and still be with him. But the man wasn’t wired like that. It was almost like he kept her on a string, giving her just enough rope to run free, then pulling her back only to tie her down with sex.
Kat didn't want that.
Striding past him, she ignored the hand he reached out to grab her and pushed open the doors of the bar. Conversation halted as they turned to look at her.
Taking a deep breath and holding her tears at bay, Kat did the one thing she’d never thought she’d do. “I’m pulling out of the presidency, and…” her voice shook on the last words as she looked across the room for the people who’d been her friends for years, “…leaving the Free Guns.”
***
Five months later
Five fucking months. Twenty and a half weeks. Too many days to count, but Kat was finally back in Cross Roads, Texas. She was parked out front of the Cross Roads biker bar, watching the sunlight glint off of a few down-parked bikes from the cool comfort of her SUV.
Five months of traveling, facing her demons, meeting new ones and conquering those. Kat was finally able to face the big baddy of them all: the people she’d left in her own selfish quest to find herself. The man she’d loved and left.
It had been two months into her little trip when she’d finally faced her emotions on the toilet seat of a truck stop bathroom with a pregnancy test held between two fingers. She loved Solomon Parker, and she’d left him because she was scared of what he was doing to her, how he was affecting her body and mind. Five months ago, Kat had been a coward and an idiot; too worried about how others wanted her to be than how she actually was.
She’d been so much more than just a biker bitch; so much more than what she’d labeled herself as.
But a lot changed in five months, Kat only hoped some things stayed the same.
"I love your daddy," Kat said proudly to her rounded stomach as she stroked her hands in soothing circles. "I love the Free Guns and I love your daddy. I just hope they can love me, too."
The words helped her gather her courage and push the door wide to exit the car. Dry heat hit her brown hair and frizzed it instantly, but Kat smiled and reveled in the heat. She'd missed this place, these people; missed the hot days and cool nights.
Walking towards the bar, Kat held her head high and pushed the door open. Some heads turned, but most were still glued to the TV or the card game a group of guys were playing in the back.
Still, the people that did turn to look at her were quick to have everyone do the same. "Holy shit!" Solomon's kid brother gasped from behind the bar as he swung a rag over his shoulder and cocked his hip to look at her. "If it isn't Kat."
Conversation came to a grinding halt as chairs tipped over and feet scuffled against the worn wooden floorboards. In 10 seconds flat, Kat was engulfed in a series of bear hugs sure to break her back. She was just about to tell them to be careful when a voice beat her to the punch.
“Don’t touch her like that, can’t you see she’s pregnant!” The voice washed over her and instantly made her horny, though few things didn’t do that. Pregnancy had done wonders for Kat’s libido, just not much else.<
br />
Like the parting of the Red Sea, big, burly bikers stepped back so Kat could get her first glimpse of Solomon Parker. She didn’t like what she saw.
Miley and Roxie, her old friends, hung off his body like cheap jewelry while Solomon looked cold and relentless. Even from a distance, she could see dark circles under his eyes. He looked skinnier, like he hadn’t been eating much.
“Solomon,” Kat’s voice was strong, her feet sure as she walked towards him and stopped a few feet away.
Neither Solomon nor the women draped over him so much as moved a muscle, but then again Kat hadn't thought they would. She’d been surprised she’d gotten this far. Pregnant or not, Solomon had been viciously angry when she’d left. Kat had heard about it all from Mindy, who had been keeping her informed after she’d left, telling her about the goings on in the club and how everything was shaping up. It was only because of her that she was back anyway.
“What are you doing here, Kathy?” he forced the words out through clenched teeth though he tried to make it look like he wasn’t angry. Kat could still see the difference; see the clench in his jaw, white knuckles, and slitted eyes.
And what she was about to do next wasn’t going to make it any easier.
Turning her back on Solomon, Kat smiled at the group of bikers around her—friends and enemies alike. As soon as she locked eyes with every biker—saw where she stood in their steely gazes—she turned back around to Solomon.
“I’m here to challenge you for presidency of the Free Guns.”
***
Laughter erupted in the bar, nearly shaking the lights. “How…” one of the members broke off as beer spurted out his nose with how badly he was laughing, “…are you going to do that? You’re fucking pregnant! Shouldn’t you be taking care of your kid?”
Kat ignored him and kept her eyes trained on Solomon, watching his sides shake as the women in his arms laughed. If it was possible, his eyes narrowed further until Kat could barely see them. “Shut up!” he roared out across the bar.
It was a few more seconds before things quieted, and then Kat spoke. “Riley,” she whipped to the man who’d spoken. “While I’ve been gone you’ve gotten two girls pregnant, and currently aren’t with either, or even helping out. Let’s not have the pot calling the kettle black, okay?”
Riley’s jaw dropped as she aired out his dirty little secret, and since she’d been gone the secrets had gotten worse. Solomon was losing control of the club; it was one of the other major reasons she’d come back.
“While I’ve been dealing with my shit, it seems like everyone has just decided to add to their own. I’m here to fix that and make sure this club returns to its roots.” Kat smiled at Solomon wide and put her hands on her rounded hips. “Starting with a new president.”
Read on for an excerpt from Hell Ride, the sequel to Burnt Asphalt.
Laughter erupted in the biker bar, deafening and completely obnoxious. Kat ignored it as she stood with her hand on her pregnant belly, one incredulous eyebrow rose in Solomon Parker’s direction.
Suppressing a laugh under a cough was the only thing that Kat could do when Solomon suddenly slammed his fists down on top of the table he was sitting at. The bar quieted so quickly that a few members actually hiccupped uncomfortably.
In the months Kat had been gone, a lot of things had changed, but one thing remained the same with the Free Guns Motorcycle Club, Solomon Parker could still quiet a room easily. It was one of the things that had attracted Kat to him in the first place, and why she was in the predicament she was in now. Former member and almost president of a Biker Club, now she was five months pregnant, drove a safe and sturdy Volvo, and had a regular nine to five as a writer.
It almost hurt Kat to admit to herself how boring her life had become. It was as if the life had been sucked out of her. Seriously? She shook her head as she rubbed a hand over her stomach. Perhaps it wasn't the life that had been sucked out of her, but Kat knew that there was something missing.
Passion? Excitement? Love? She couldn't help but trail her eyes over Solomon as he stared back at her as if she'd suddenly turned purple and started dancing around naked. Though Kat supposed he should be looking at her like that.
Six feet and some odd inches of tanned, muscled man stood only a few feet from her. Blue eyes the color of rain water, or maybe a rain storm considering how he was looking at her, were framed by thick black lashes that Maybelline would have been jealous of. A strong jaw with a dark five o'clock shadow matched the unkempt wavy strands of black hair that fell down to his shoulders. Solomon Parker still looked like hot sin and rough sex, though there were small changes. He'd lost a little weight, black circles rested under his eyes, and a new tattoo was curving its way up from his back to his neck.
Wicked. The man looked more wicked than the last time she'd seen him. Solomon Parker had the look of a man who wanted to fuck her and kill her all at once, and it excited and terrified Kat. Though she knew that he had every reason to be furious with her. She'd left him. No notice, no forethought. She'd left the Free Guns, Texas, and Solomon Parker.
But now she was back. And that was all that mattered.
Enjoyed the preview? Hell Ride is available for purchase in the Kindle Store!
Burnt Asphalt: A Biker Erotic Romance (Free Guns MC) Page 2