Ultimate MC (Romance Collection), page 107
The hardest part would clearly be digging the holes to put the poles in before we constructed the roof.
“Is it just going to stay open like that?” Ryne asked.
Raf nodded. “Unless Hopper wants to put a canvas over the top, but that’s rare.”
“I don’t know; just give me the hammer and let’s get hacking,” I said. Raf laughed, and we set to work. Hopper was out for a while, talking to us and teasing us on our skills, but he was right. It soon got hot, and he retreated inside where he had A/C.
The three of us didn’t care. We had plenty of ice cold beer and water to keep us going through the day. No one cared to point out the alcohol was probably getting us even more dehydrated; we were having too much fun putting together the project to worry about anything like that.
It took the better part of the afternoon, but it was finally done. I had endured a bit of teasing from the guys during the construction, but they could sense I wasn’t loving the teasing as much as my usual resistance. Sloan was weighing in on my mind, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
When we called it a day, however, Raf offered a solution.
“Alright, boys,” he said. “I think it’s time we head over to Denver and grab a real drink.”
“You driving?” Ryne asked. “I’m not feeling the bike today.”
“My truck will fit all of us if you sit in the back,” Raf said with a grin.
“Fuck you,” Ryne said. “Fine.”
“You coming?” he asked me.
I shook my head, “I think I’ll head home and chill out on the couch.”
“Come on, that’s the worst thing you could do while you’re feeling as you are,” he said.
I shrugged, “I don’t know what else to do with my time.”
“Come with us to the bar. You never know who you’ll meet,” Raf said. “Besides, Callie’s working and you know she can cheer you up.”
“It’s open mic night, too,” Ryne chimed in. I shook my head. I knew what that meant. Khloe, Callie’s best friend and roommate, would be singing. I liked to hear the girl sing, but I knew Ryne was going because he had a crush on her.
And, by the way she received his flirtatious advances, it seemed like she might be interested, too.
“If there’s one way to get you out of your funk and over this stripper, it’s to get you interested in someone else,” Raf said.
“I’m not sure I want to be interested in anyone,” I replied.
“And that’s why you are obsessing over this one,” he said. “You need to have a real distraction so you aren’t going back and forth in your brain over what this girl is doing or what you’re doing with her. Come on. You never know what you’re going to find, and you might be surprised.”
He clapped me on my back and I hesitated. He had a point. If I didn’t know what I wanted to Sloan, it could be a good idea to find someone else. Someone who would break the spell I was under.
And the bar was a great place to do that. Not to mention, Callie and Khloe would both be there, and I enjoyed hanging out with both of them, even if they were interested in my brothers.
“Alright,” I said at last.
“Great!” Raf said with another clap on my back.
“That’s the spirit!” Ryne chimed in. I shook my head but couldn’t hide the grin.
At least these two guys cared enough about me to make sure I didn’t wallow over a stripper. I might not know what I wanted with her, but they were smart enough to know I couldn’t wallow in that. I had to pick myself up and move forward.
It was the healthy thing to do, after all. I couldn’t spend my life pining after someone I wasn’t sure about, and who wasn’t sure about me.
Maybe going to the bar was the right thing to do. I had been there enough times to know there were all kinds of women there.
And who knew who I would find?
Chapter 16
Sloan
I turned onto a lonely highway and just drove, and drove. I wasn’t going anywhere. I just needed a break from life, and this was the best way I could come up with to do it.
It was rare for me to not have work on a Sunday, and though Tesla had done everything she could to convince me to go to Hopper’s barbecue, I just wasn’t in the mood. It wasn’t anything against Hopper or her; I just didn’t want to see Kain.
He had been on my mind more than anything else lately, and I was getting tired of it. I had long sworn men out of my life because I didn’t want to end up with men similar to the ones my mother dated. I didn’t trust any of them, and even now, I had a tough time doing so.
It was strange that my job revolved around hanging with men, but it was what I loved to do, and men were just a part of the equation.
But Kain was a whole different story. Sometimes I thought he was someone I could trust–someone who was going to be there for me and protect me. There were times I had even entertained the thought that he might differ from every other guy I had ever met, and I might want to have something with him.
It was a hard thought to have. A hard thing to consider, even. I had spent so much of my time fending off advances that men made toward me. So when one I like comes along and sends so many mixed signals my way, I’m not sure if he’s the crazy one or I am.
My thoughts kept drifting back towards my mother as I drove. Well, not so much my mother as the men she used to date. I couldn’t shake their faces from my mind, or how I felt every time she told me she had found another guy she wanted me to meet.
By the time I was in my mid teens, I didn’t even want to meet them anymore. Well, I couldn’t say that I ever did, but I didn’t want to meet them at all then. I just wanted to be left alone, and she failed to get the hint.
More and more often, she would try to get me to hang out with her and whatever guy she was with, unable to see that they were pieces of shit since she was either drunk or high. Hell, it was only in the brief times of clarity that she could see for herself how much of an ass she was being. She could have gotten her shit together so many times, and she had tried more than once to do it, but it never ended up happening.
With a sigh, I pulled off the highway, and into another small town. It was even smaller than Derby, but there was a little park that had caught my eye as I got on the ramp to turn around. I was just going to head home and hide at my place, but I decided it would be a good idea to sit there for a while.
My phone was on but it was in my purse, and I didn’t bother to even check it. There wasn’t anyone I wanted to talk to. I felt like Tesla would try to reach me; ask me where I was and whether I was coming.
She liked to mother me at times. I suppose she could sense the lack of direction my mother had given me, and she took it upon herself to be that in my life. Even though I knew she had the best intentions while doing it, it was still annoying.
It wasn’t her place to tell me to come to the party or hound me if I didn’t. She invited me, and I wanted to leave it at that. I didn’t care to be there today, and I didn’t want to explain why.
There was a part of me that contemplated telling my boss to make sure I was on the schedule every Sunday, just to make sure I’d never be pressured into going to another barbecue. I didn’t want to be that way, but I didn’t want to see Kain, either, and I wasn’t sure how to say that.
The mixed signals were too much for me to handle. I didn’t want to end up like my mother, and I really hoped the genes hadn’t been passed down. I would drink, but I was careful not to drink too much. I didn’t want to be an alcoholic like she was.
I never did drugs, and I never went out with guys. It was such a rarity for me to even speak to a guy outside of work unless he was already a friend, so I felt rather betrayed Kain hadn’t realized how important he was to me.
Then again, I didn’t know much about him. For all I knew, he might be like the men my mother used to date. Maybe he wasn’t doing anything different from he ever did, and I was the one who had been blinded by his good looks and mysterious, aloof ways.
With a sigh, I rose from the bench I’d been sitting on and wandered back towards my car. It was getting late in the afternoon, and I wanted to get back to Derby in time to grab something from a small café for dinner. I wanted nothing fancy, just a grab and go so I could retreat to the safety of my place and forget about the world for another night.
I pulled out my phone and wasn’t surprised to see Tesla had texted me a couple of times. I made a mental note to get a hold of her when I got back to Derby and tell her I was fine, but I was too tired to come to the barbecue that week.
I knew she’d read between the lines, but that was something I could deal with later as well. I just wanted to get to my couch.
Blasting the radio on the way home, I was able to push some thoughts of Kain out of my mind. I had all but decided that I would not keep pursuing him. I couldn’t. It wasn’t healthy for me to keep thinking he might be different, only for him to leave me in such confusion all the time.
I had heard so many times in my life that if a man was interested, he would make it happen, but he clearly wasn’t making it happen. He seemed to get jealous at times, but didn’t pursue me at others. It made no sense to me, and I couldn’t do it anymore.
I’d just reached Derby and was about to pull into the nearest café when my phone went off. I was sure it would be Tesla again, but shook my head when it was Kain.
Curious to know what he wanted, I opened the text.
We were worried when you didn’t show up to the barbecue today so I made you a plate of food. I’ll drop it off in about twenty minutes.
Once again, there wasn’t any asking on his part, just telling. But once again, it worked like magic on me. I sighed. It was nice of him to do that, and I didn’t want to insult that kindness by buying food. I pulled back out onto the street and headed home, arriving just minutes before he did.
He walked through the door with the plate in his hands, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I just wanted to have a ‘me’ day today.”
He looked at me, then down at the plate of food, “Well, if you’re hungry there’s food.”
I hesitated. He looked so good standing there in his shirt and vest and jeans. The fact that he cared enough to drop off food for me melted my heart, and I didn’t know what to say. Then I realized, there was nothing to say.
On an impulse, I stepped forward and kissed him. I didn’t say a word, I just rose to the tips of my toes and pressed my lips to his. He seemed surprised at first, but didn’t hesitate to kiss me in return.
The passion was there right from the start. The need that we both had for each other. The heat in the room flushed both of our skin, and I felt electricity run through me at the touch of his hand.
Clothes were falling to the floor as we made our way to my bedroom. I was walking backwards, and he was kissing me, stripping me as I stripped him along the way. A trail of garments lay in the hall, but by the time we reached my bed, we were both naked.
I fell backward, and he nearly landed on top of me, stopping himself with his hand before he did. His rock hard cock slid against my thigh, making me even wetter than before. He kissed down my neck and went over to my tits, sucking my nipple and making me moan. I closed my eyes and writhed on the bed, sliding up further so he could get on top of me.
He climbed over me, his face mere inches from mine. All the doubts I had about him flew out the window as I only thought about what he did to me–and what was coming next.
I reached down and took his cock in my hand, stroking him for a moment before guiding him into my pussy. I was filled with such desire, I couldn’t wait for him any longer. He took over, taking himself in his hand and pressing himself into me until his cock disappeared.
We both let out a moan as he held himself deep inside me for a moment, then he started to pump in and out of me. He kissed me, holding me in his arms as his cock slid in between my legs. I was so wet, it was easy for him to slide back and forth.
I closed my eyes, gripping my sheets with my hands and taking in the moment. I had to be wrong about him. He wasn’t like the men my mother used to date. He differed from that. He cared about me, and I had to admit, I cared about him, too.
I could let my guard down around this one. It might not be easy, but I could. He was fucking me like a God, and I spread my legs further apart, needing him to go deeper. I lifted my hips, pressing myself into him and rocking with him on the bed.
He was in so deep, and I was so wet; I knew it wouldn’t be long before he made me cum the first time.
And I was right. He had hardly been in me for two minutes when the tension that had grown inside me burst, and the waves of pleasure rushed to my finger tips and toes. I let out a loud moan, letting my pussy squeeze harder on his cock than before.
But, he wasn’t going to let me finish that easy. Taking his fingers, he sat up higher on the bed and continued to thrust in and out of me, this time using his thumb against my clit as well.
No one had ever done that to me before, and I thought I might explode from the intensity of the moment. Kain was watching me the entire time, enjoying the look of pleasure on my face as he thrust in and out of me.
As he made me cum the second time, it was more than he could take. The look on my face as my body shook with the orgasm pushed him over, and he came hard.
He pushed into me one final time, moaning loudly as he did.
Chapter 17
Kain
“So I think we should make the flag prominent at the beginning, but do you think we should bring it back at the end?” I asked, looking at Hopper sideways.
“I don’t see why not? It would be a great way to honor all the veterans around,” he said. He was looking over the paperwork and the emails I had been sending back and forth, working out the charity ride for the disabled veterans.
“So how far do you want to go with this?” he asked.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” I said. “Boss.”
“We could go big. I’m thinking one town to the next,” he replied.
“We could go up to Denver. That would garnish a lot of attention when we all enter,” I told him.
“But we’d have to deal with the traffic on the highway. We might be better off going with the quieter streets,” he replied. I shrugged.
“You know we want to get attention for this, so I’m thinking the bigger the better,” I told him.
“But you have to keep in mind the safety of the public, and the people riding in the event,” he reminded me. “When you get that many choppers out on the road, and you’ve got so many other vehicles to contend with, it can turn into a disaster pretty fast.”
I paused. I hadn’t thought about it that way.
“We don’t want to be the disabled Golden Eagles,” he said with a laugh.
I joined in with his laughter. It would be ironic, “Okay. Let’s head south, then join the other towns.”
“I like the way you think,” he replied. “We can get the mayor involved and go down the Main Street of each town to garnish the attention we were looking for by heading up to Denver. I’m sure a triple town stretch would be the way to go about everything.”
“I’ll be in touch and see what I can get arranged,” I promised.
We were about to wrap up the meeting when Hopper caught me off guard.
“So about this Sloan girl,” he said. I winced. I knew he liked to keep himself in the loop over the things that were going on in the MC, but I didn’t know he would go so far as to get into that side of my life.
Then again, I knew Sloan and Tesla were best friends. I had broken down and asked Tesla how she knew Sloan when she was talking about her at the barbecue when Sloan didn’t show up.
She told me the story how she had been looking for a reason to come to Colorado, and during that time she met a girl looking to do the same thing. Move somewhere and start life over. Since they both wanted a fresh start, they decided to move together.
Neither of them had ties holding them back where they were, and both wanted to disappear. So they packed their bags and took off, ready to make a change. Though Sloan was younger than Tesla, the two of them got along well together, and that helped them settle into an apartment.
It was then that Tesla met Hopper, and when they started dating, Sloan had kept the apartment to herself. Though Tesla had moved out of the place, the two maintained their friendship through thick and thin, and to this day they still considered themselves to be best friends.
Knowing the backstory between the two really helped me understand why Tesla was always around Sloan, and why she was knowledgeable over so many of the things that were going on between the two of us.
I knew women liked to talk, and I wasn’t about to tell Sloan not to tell Tesla about the things we were doing. She was an adult, and if she wanted to include her best friend in anything that happened in her life, it wasn’t my place to tell her not to.
But it still caught me off guard when Hopper brought her up to me.
“What about her?” I asked. I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. I didn’t want Hopper to know the turmoil I was facing over the situation. Then again, there was little doubt in my mind that Sloan would have told Tesla about the mixed signals I was sending, which I also felt bad about.
I wished things were more black and white in my mind myself. It wasn’t anything I was trying to do to her, it was just a reflection of my own insecurities. I knew it wasn’t fair to Sloan to be yanked back and forth in everything, but that was how I felt about things, too.
There was a time when I wanted her, and a time when I didn’t. Neither seemed to last very long, and I was in a constant battle with myself over everything.
“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” Hopper asked.
“What do you mean?” I replied.
“I mean are you sure that hooking up with her is the right thing? You don’t seem to want to commit, but when she’s in trouble, or you sense there’s any kind of danger, you’re right there. It’s confusing to everyone involved, including yourself,” he said.
