“I know,” Landon said. “I’m the one that proposed the bet.”
For once, my aim was true. I lined up my stick with the cue, struck the eight ball, and pocketed it. I turned to him. He could only hold up his hand for a high-five.
But it wasn’t just a high-five. He grasped my hand, wrapping his fingers around it. It felt real good; the rush that came was far better than anything else I’d had to that point. I wanted to linger, let the warm tingle spread from my hand up my arm and through my body.
And unlike before, we actually did linger for a bit. I could see the gears turning in Landon’s head. I knew right then that if he was going to kiss me, I would gladly do it.
“Lucky,” he said.
And then he let my hand drop. That didn’t seem very lucky to me.
“I’ll go get the beer.”
But despite my brief disappointment, our humor and great night continued. We only had two further rounds, but we became a lot more touchy and flirtatious by the time that we closed our tab—namely Landon’s. We came outside and walked to his bike, and I felt sure we would kiss now.
“You know, I haven’t had a night like that in forever.”
“You?” he said in surprise. “I’d think someone like you would never be single.”
“Oh, I am,” I said. I see what you did there. “And I could say the same for you!”
“Hah, as if I could be in any shape for anything else right now.”
I… am not sure what you mean there. But it’s not going to stop me.
“This was really fun,” I said. “Seriously! I haven’t had a night like that in a while. Let’s do it again soon?”
“How about…”
Please say soon.
“Tomorrow?”
Bingo.
“That would be delightful.”
He came over to me, and for a second, I thought he was going to kiss me. I even started to close my eyes.
But, as was the case for the night, he just wrapped me in a tight embrace. I didn’t let him go so easily, swaying with him, but when Landon pulled back, it was quite apparent he wasn’t going to actually kiss me.
“Have a great night, Caroline.”
I crossed my arms, the better to make clear my lack of amusement. But Landon either didn’t pick up on it or just ignored it, leaving me to wonder just what tomorrow would look like.
Oh, Landon King. You are something else.
5
Landon
I’m actually going to skip the club party tomorrow for what’s basically a date, huh?
Not that I really care.
And I genuinely didn’t. Now that Brock had given me permission to take some time off, I intended to very much take full advantage of it. So much so, in fact, that before I even got home, I knew exactly where I was going to take Caroline.
And it was nowhere in Romara.
I knew that the club members would give me shit, but I didn’t care. Finally, I was going to get the chance to explore my life and opportunities outside of this town.
Finally, I was going to have an idea of what I actually wanted to do with my life mine again.
I woke up the next morning around ten in the morning—far earlier than most of the other club members—excited and eager to get out of town. I also mentally readied myself to be a lot more assertive with Caroline when I saw her. I knew I’d acted like a nervous teenager around her, and while part of that was just the excitement that came with seeing an old crush, part of it was the fear of dragging her into a world she didn’t need to be a part of.
But now that I was going to take her outside of Romara and there would be almost zero chance of the Savage Kings’ influence reaching out to where we were headed, I could unshackle myself of that burden. I could be free. I could actually kiss her instead of being a little pansy.
But just before I left, I got a text from Brock.
“I’m moving up the vote to this afternoon so we can settle the new members situation quickly. I would really appreciate you coming so I don’t have to vote. You can do whatever you want after.”
Well, one vote wasn’t going to tie up too much of my time, and my date was going to be an evening one, anyways. I wrote back that I would be there.
Around four in the afternoon, I showed up at the clubhouse for the last time that weekend. For more than a few of the club members, it looked like they had just woken up. Figures.
“Alright, let’s make this quick,” Brock said as we all sat down. “We’re here to vote on what to do with the Anarchists who want to join us. As I’ve said before, I am abstaining from the vote to ensure we do not have a tie and keep pushing this off further and further. This is an issue that needs to be resolved immediately. Parker, start us off.”
“Well, ya ain’t need me to say it again. Nay.”
Thank God he didn’t feel like spending an hour talking about shooting their asses.
“Petey?”
“Yay,” he said. “People deserve a second chance. And I’m not going to judge a few guys who didn’t know any better. These aren’t officers crossing over. These are prospects and newer members of that club. They’ll be more easily included.”
“Zane?”
“Nay, man, can’t get behind it. Sorry.”
Well, better hope William is on board with this one. Otherwise…
“William?”
He shook his head. I had no idea if that was a head shake of disbelief at the idea of this being a question, or a disbelief he was going to vote a certain way.
“Let’s just take a moment to recognize this is a good problem—”
“William.”
“OK, fine, yay.”
That was it. I knew which way this was going to go.
“It’s like parenting. Better under our eye than out in the street. Yay.”
“So it’s settled,” Brock said. “Petey and I will start to introduce these guys into the club. I will bring them to the party tonight. Let’s get out of here and settled before the party.”
Brock concluded the meeting, even as Parker muttered something about this being bullshit. I didn’t wait for another word or movement for me to bolt out the door.
“The hell ya goin’?” Parker shouted. “Ya got ya vote in and now ya runnin’ like a pussy!”
“Parker,” Brock said, but his voice was rapidly fading from my hearing. “Let him go.”
“The fuck he…”
But at that point, the words had become inaudible. It was no loss to me. I wasn’t going to miss Parker trying to act all macho to me ands how me up.
Damn, going to miss? So you’re already set on leaving?
I wasn’t. But it sure felt pretty telling that my mind was already thinking in past tense about some of the club members here.
I met up with Caroline at Porter Ridge Brewing on my bike. She had on a long, white dress with a brown belt around her midsection that accentuated the curves of her body perfectly. I had known her in the body she had since late high school, but it was still somewhat surreal to see her as a full-grown woman. The lady that I had started to crush on in middle school had now developed into a small business owner and an adult object of desire.
“So,” she said as I parked my bike. “Where are we headed? And how are we headed there?”
“Well,” I said as I hopped off my bike. “I was thinking that we could get out of Romara and go someplace that I haven’t been in some time and that I think you haven’t been in some time. Santa Monica beach.”
Caroline’s eyes lit up. I knew not only had she not been there, she had probably wanted to go there for some time. I had chosen wisely.
But the next part was going to be a little trickier.
“And as far as how, well, it’s a bit far for the bike. Can we take your car?”
Disappointment and surprise crossed her face. It crossed mine, too, that I was asking this question. But if I was serious about getting away from the lifestyle for a bit, if I really wanted to understand what
aspects of it I liked and which I didn’t, then I needed to have all the distance that I could get.
“Plus, you know, you in a dress—”
“Would be kind of weird, huh?” she said. “Yeah, no problem.”
“I can drive if need be.”
Caroline shrugged, handed me the keys, and led her to her Honda Civic.
“Not every day that I let just anyone drive my car,” she said. “I’m usually pretty protective of Civy. So be careful with her.”
“Oh, so your car has a name?” I said. “I didn’t know that we did that.”
“Of course! Civy and I are very close. So treat her well.”
I smiled and put my hand on the small of her back. I felt her shiver, a feeling that let me know I had to be doing something right. It was a bit presumptuous to ask for the car, but I really needed complete removal from the bike.
And yet, just a couple of miles into driving, I immediately knew I was never giving up my bike.
I didn’t yet know if I would travel a lot more or remain in the Savage Kings. I didn’t even know if I would remain in Romara. But I did know for damn sure that unless I went somewhere overseas, I was keeping my motorcycle as long as I could. It produced too much of a zen, calming feeling for me to just let it go.
Being in the car was just boring, and not in a calming way. Where was the white noise of the air around you? Where was the thrill of being outside and feeling the heat of the sun and the cold of the wind? Where was the feeling of being small enough to drive between lanes and fly in traffic?
There was none of that. I felt like I was in a goddamn prison driving in a Honda Civic. Even if we’d been in a Tesla or a Corvette or some other type of sports car, I somehow doubted that I would ever feel better in a car than a bike.
So that was that. I wasn’t going to completely abandon the lifestyle.
A lot of this, though, was easily brushed aside by the fact that I was with Caroline. Being with her made me feel at ease and in a playful mood. It was only in moments of silence or when I had to pay attention to the road that I became frustrated with the car. It was just something I would keep in mind for the next time.
Los Angeles never had good traffic, but the least bad seemed to be on this Friday night. I had to pay for parking, but the ten bucks that I paid seemed well worth it for the evening we were about to have. I’d driven so far away from Romara that it felt like I had gone to an entirely new state. I might as well have driven to Nevada or Oregon.
“So pretty,” she said as the beach came into view.
“I could say the same,” I said, staring directly at her.
I knew the way she looked at me—with the smile on her face, the blushing, the nice sigh that she gave, and everything else—that this night was going to go very well.
I had to say, this new lifestyle of leaving behind the Savage Kings was working out mighty well so far.
6
Caroline
For as much as we talked in the car, we didn’t say a word to each other as we approached the beach.
Both of us had found our happy place and didn’t need words to say anything. That, and admittedly, talking helped calm me down about giving Landon the car. I’d worried a bit that he might have treated the car like a motorcycle, but he drove about how I would—a few miles per hour over the speed limit, but nothing death-defying or seat-grabbing.
I kicked off my sandals as we walked on the beach, the better to feel the sand between my toes and the gentle prickles on the bottom of my feet. The water would be much too cold to do anything more than have the tide wash up over my feet, but that didn’t matter. The distant orange hue, the last remnants of the daytime, were the signal that we were about to shift into something much more fun than what we had so far.
“This is really nice,” Landon said. He sounded like a man who hadn’t had something “really nice” in some time. “I can’t even remember the last time I was on the beach.”
“Really?” I said. “Not even in the last year?”
“Can’t say so,” he admitted. “Maybe a few years ago? I’ve been in Romara so long. I’ve felt stuck there, honestly.”
He looked down at the ground, like he was ashamed to admit it.
“What do you mean?”
He sighed, kicked a bit at the ground, and chuckled.
“It sounds ridiculous, so just tell me if so, but I just want to break away from the King name,” he said. “My entire life, the King name has stood for something. I mean, it’s literally baked into the club name. There was a clear expectation that when my father died, Brock and I would take over the business. I sort of figured that by the time that happened, I would have gone on my own path for so far that it would be clear Brock would take full reign. I don’t think we ever had any doubts about him being the main guy to take over.
“But for my father to die so young… well, you saw what happened. You saw how I clammed up at school. You saw how I withdrew.”
“You became someone else.”
I didn’t mean for it to sound so harsh and simplistic, but it wasn’t wrong.
“I know,” he said, relieving me of the worry I’d insulted him. “But that person I became was the real King. Kings carry a burden to them. We have to oversee a club, fight off rivals, and avenge the family name. I have never wanted any of that, even as I felt a duty to do so. I’ve stuck with the club as long as I’ve had, but…”
He trailed off, snorting and looking up to the stars, but never at me. On the one hand, I understood it. His family didn’t exactly have what one would call normal dynamics.
But on the other hand… family was all that we had. Mine had been my rock throughout the years. Part of the reason I’d moved back to Romara was so that I could be closer to them. And now here was Landon, saying he wanted to detach himself from it?
“I can get wanting to get away from the bad stuff,” I said. “But are you also saying you’d want to, say, change your last name?”
Landon knew better than to answer that in the affirmative, though it was telling to me that he didn’t immediately reject him. I didn’t judge him for it, but it did make me curious to better understand why he felt the way that he did.
“There’s a lot that goes into being a King. Brock seems to handle it with aplomb. I’d just like to redefine what it means to be a King, I guess.”
I was about to press him a little more on it when I remembered what had happened the previous two times we had seen each other. Every time that I pushed a little further, he pulled back. It didn’t matter how gentle I pushed or how subtly I did it; Landon was just at a spot where pressing him to reveal more was going to cause more trouble than it was worth.
So I pivoted. Instead of pushing, I decided to flirt a bit.
“Well, I like this new King, if I may say so myself.”
“Yeah?” he said.
Finally, he turned his attention to me.
“Yeah,” I said softly, walking closer to him, hoping he would get the hint and put his arm around me. “The old King was just a boy. This new King is so grown up.”
“Oh, now, in some ways,” he said with a chuckle.
But then he did something better than anything he could have said. Finally—finally—he put his arm around me. I immediately fell into him and leaned my head on him, wondering why it took so long for him to get the hint.
“I think you’re grown up in all the right ways,” I said.
“Well, you’ve definitely grown up in every way, and every way is right for you.”
“Aww,” I said.
I pulled my head away from his shoulder and rested my chin on him. He looked down at me. If this was too aggressive of a move for him, then nothing was going to work. I had to take a risk.
For a moment, it seemed like that was going to be the case. Hesitation crossed his eyes—but for what? We were away from the town. We were away from the club. No one was going to know about this except us. Maybe it’s just habit. He’s so used to being closed of
f…
And then he closed his eyes and rapidly moved in, kissing me so quickly that I didn’t have time to close my eyes at first.
But fortunately, he was not a pecker. He was a genuine kisser. I had the chance to close my eyes and fall into the kiss.
This was more like it.
No more dancing around the subjects. No more silly advance-retreat nonsense. We could finally just act on our mutual interest for one another.
“Damn,” he said when he finally finished. “You know, I’ve been waiting for that kiss since I was fourteen.”
I could only laugh at that. What else was I supposed to do? I was so giddy that I couldn’t help but act a little silly.
“Yeah? Me too.”
“Don’t mind if I don’t wait a little longer for the next one,” he said.
Once more, he went in to kiss me. But it was so much hotter, so much nicer without him having to hesitate in any way. The second kiss was much more arousing, much more passionate, and much deeper. Our tongues moved in on each other, dancing and touching.
This wasn’t the ideal of Landon that I’d had in my youth. This was better. I was getting the Landon who had overcome his insecurities and issues—enough so, at least—to share a moment like this with me. It made it that much sweeter to know how much he had overcome to make this happen.
“Yeah, please never wait to kiss me again,” I said with a giggle. “You’re too good of a kisser to not kiss me.”
“Oh, well, in that case.”
And again, we kissed.
“Sorry it took me taking you to the beach to make that happen,” he said. “I just… I guess I have some hangups with Romara. And I’m so used to pushing away intimacy, I guess I needed a change of scenery.”
“It’s not anything to worry about,” I reassured him. “So long as you are honest with me, we can work on it.”
“Then that’s all I—”
His phone started to ring. He apologized and ignored it, hitting the button to silence the ring tone.
“That’s all I need.”
Lost Soul: An MC Romance (Savage Kings MC Book 13) Page 3