Free Bird: A Biker Erotic Romance (2 page)

He pulled away and wrapped his arm around the small of her back, just above her enticing backside. “Glad you could make it! Let’s go up top! It’s quieter!”

As they headed upstairs she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and he grinned
. I like this night already.

***

Joelle relaxed in Liam’s hold as her heart pounded.
Did I kiss him too soon? It wasn’t on the lips... but why did I do it in the first place?
Even though they still had to go through a mass of people to get to the stairs, she felt different from when she had first walked through the crowd in the bar.

Having Liam lead her through, effortlessly passing through the sea of humanity, just made her feel better. Whatever people were thinking didn’t matter with him at her side. Those little judgments, venomous glances, and hushed words used to mean the world to her, but now they were like wind.

He made her safe. And yet not safe from him.
He didn’t say anything about my clothes. Maybe he’s one of those types who doesn’t say anything until he doesn’t like it?
She had hoped to impress him and at the same time not stand out too much from the other women.

At school, like in the bar, women would say nothing if she was covered up. Just a big girl who knew her place in the herd. But once she revealed her deep cleavage and wore tight jeans, then came the snide accusations of “slut,” cruel laughter to the words “fat” and “stupid.” She had stepped out of the box they had put her in and grown into her weight, accepting her curves.

Whether anyone from her school was in the crowd, she didn’t know, and didn’t care. Liam was here.

On the bar’s balcony it was as silent as a cave, compared with the ear-straining cacophony below. The few people there got a lot quieter once Liam came into view. From the balcony stretched the long highway and the desert, trampled by the stretched shadows of the waning sun as it dipped below the horizon.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Liam as he slipped a cold beer into her hand and rested his arms against the balcony.

“Yeah,” she said absentmindedly, her eyes mesmerized by the reddish purple shadows saturating the golden dirt like ethereal paint.
Don’t be stupid, say something more!

“You must be very lucky, getting this kind of view all the time.” It occurred to her how little of the real world she saw nowadays, how her life the last few months had consisted of sitting in bed, then sitting in a car, and then sitting on a couch.

“Give my thanks every day that I get to breathe this air, see this sky,” he looked across to her, “kiss these women.” He took a swig of his beer. “Could’ve spent my days looking at metal fences, waking up to Bubba and fightin’ off rapes and shit.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that is an improvement.” She watched him drink and gaze out across the sky and was reluctant to interrupt his peace, his “moment,” but her question could not be contained.

“How did you know my dad?”

“Ol’ Lorenzo?” He smiled and set his beer on the balcony. “Come here.”

She set her drink down and felt his rough hands wrap around her waist. Her groin rubbed against his and his hands settled around her backside. “Lorenzo was the next best thing to a dad I had. My real one got knifed over some dumb shit and my Ma ran off when a man like me came along.” His steely gray eyes glinted like knives in the dim light. “History repeats itself, you could say.”

Wow, that’s messed up.
“Wait... how old were you when you met him?”

He picked her up by her legs and then sat down on a nearby chair. She sat in his lap, her breasts now level with his face. But they did nothing to break his concentration.
Admirable.

He smiled. Whether it was at her question or for being so close to her ample chest, she couldn’t tell. “I wasn’t some young innocent kid, if that’s what you were expecting. By the time we met, I was a rip-roaring, dyed-in-the-wool drunk who didn’t give a fuck. A mean son of a bitch. Or at least I thought I was.”

He stroked her long auburn hair and kept an arm around her soft waist. “Ya see, he was the only one who saw why I was getting in so many fights, tearing places apart. ‘Cause I had nothing to lose. No responsibility.” His hands skimmed down her voluptuous curves, lightly plucking at her senses with a tantalizing touch that seemed alien coming from a man like him. “Nothing to call my own.”

She gasped at his touch and her heart fluttered. “And,” she gulped, “he gave you a bike? A motorcycle?”

He chuckled. “Oh! You know this story!?”

“Yeah, I mean he told me a long time ago he gave a man a bike once–”

“He gave that man his life and his freedom. Then again, he always had a habit for understatement. Guess my embellishments make up for it.” He reached behind and retrieved his beer, finishing it off in one smooth gulp.

“Granted, the thing finally kicked out on me years down the road. But I’ll never forget it, or the man who gave it to me.”

“Neither will I. I wish I knew him more.” Her face fell into a sad smile. “All my life I wanted to get away from home, away from his doting. And now that I’m back, I want nothing more. He was my home, the glue that held us all together.

“I know it sounds stupid or clichéd, but it all has to be for a reason. Has to be. No one loses what I have for it all to mean nothing.” She stopped when she saw Liam’s face. For once, he didn’t sport an amused smirk or a devilish light in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you didn’t invite me along for my rants. Just chug a beer and look happy, right?”

He smiled and rubbed his hands around her soft hips. “I can get a woman to chug beer and
look
happy anywhere. Honesty, on the other hand, is like drawing blood from stone.” He paused, his brow furrowed in thought. “Maybe... maybe you lost one home to find another.”

She sighed and laid her head on his leather jacket, reveling in the supple material. “I wish life was like that. Maybe it is. But not here. Not in this town.” Liam’s scent was primal and masculine and sent a soaring heat across her skin. So many men smelled like nothing, or worse, even sweet. This man’s musk made her arch her back like a feline. She tried to contain herself and subtly grinded forward in his lap to ease the delicate throb between her legs.

“You might be surprised.” His hands, large and powerful, traced down her back and settled on her hips..

Please God, no more surprises. I’m tired of getting my ass kicked, even if it all means something.
She realized she had been feeling him up in silence and her cheeks flushed. “Oh yeah my bad. Sorry. Your jacket feels good.” She gulped back extra saliva and blinked her eyes.
Was I drooling?

“It better. You’d think it was padded with coke for them to charge what they do.” He brought her down closer and pressed her full breasts against his chest. His eyes fell to his wrist, taking in the digital glare of his watch. “Hey, it’s about that time for a ride,” he whispered in her ear and she shuddered.

He can’t mean right here, can he?

She felt his mighty heart beat and his strong hands against her hips, moving her up and down his jeans. “My bike’s been waiting all night.”

Yeah. That’s right. Just a bike ride between two acquaintances... nothing more.

She got up off his chest and breathed deeply, reluctant to be away from his scent and reassuring embrace. “That sounds–” her right pocket vibrated and a cutesy jingle floated in the air, saccharine against the heavier music blaring from inside the bar. “Hold on a sec.” She pulled out her phone while Liam reclined back in his seat, arms behind his head.
Does nothing surprise him?

On the other end of the line was Jimmy, up and about, his voice healthy but still in as much trouble as ever. A laundry accident was in the making. The washer had seized up and spewed water across the linoleum. Within the hour, Joelle would have a new surprise.
Swampy carpet.
She told him to watch it and then hung up. “Shoot. I’m so sorry, but my dumb little brother messed up again and my sister is out with Prince Charming. We can’t ride tonight.”

Liam shrugged. “Do what ya gotta do. I’ll come by on Sunday. Then we’ll have our ride.” His eyes glanced over to the cross hanging within her decolletage “There’s another world out there, Joelle. It just needs to be seen through the speed and wind.”

A handsome grin stretched his rugged figures and pronounced his square jawline. “Can’t wait to show it to you.”

As they both got up, she felt his hands linger on her bottom and then fade away. She smiled in turn.

Sounds like a date.

***

For the rest of Friday night and all through Saturday, Joelle fretted over the upcoming ride. Jimmy’s issue with the washer had been easy enough to fix and Josie was in a peaceful period with her man. All the cards were stacked for a good, easy time. No interruptions, no screams… it was peaceful.

The last time she had been so relaxed and happy-go-lucky was when she had come down to visit her father. Just being around Liam had taken her into the past, to a simpler time. Content and full of zest. Another part of her was not so sentimental, but craved his masculine touch. He was as unbending as an oak, stable and confident, and yet in his eyes she had seen the primal cunning and hunger of a wolf.

“Hey, like, when is your boyfriend coming around? ‘Cause Mike is coming and we kinda want some alone time,” said Josie. She eyed her sister and took in her coiffed tresses shining in the family room’s amber light. “Wow, you’re really dressed up for a motorcycle ride.”

Joelle took her eyes away from her motorcycle magazine and met her sister’s gaze. “Thanks. But for Liam? I dunno. Sometime soon.”
That’s a good question. He never does anything too specific, does he?

Josie scoffed and walked off while Jimmy’s videogames blared from his room. Joelle’s heart leapt with joy when she heard a knock on the door. A frantic knock.
Weird. Didn’t hear his motorcycle.

“Hey Josie! What the fuck!? Open the fuckin’ door!” Mike’s voice slurred from the front.

Joelle’s joy withered like winter leaves.
Oh god. Please behave, please behave.

“I’ve been working all goddamn day, tired as a dog and my girl changes the locks like a two-timing bitch!”

That’s ‘cause you broke the last set, idiot.

She considered warning her sister off, but it was too late. Josie already had her hands around the locks, her happy face now timid but expectant, as if the evening would still turn out as she hoped. “Hold on baby, I’m here.”

The second the locks came undone, the door smashed open with enough force to send chills down Joelle’s spine. Her muscles tensed and she sucked in her breath. Mike came through the open space like an enraged ox, his hands around Josie’s shoulders.

“Here I am, breakin’ my fucking back on the job to support us and I hear you had lunch with Pete!” His jaw grinded and he pushed Josie against the kitchen counter. Joelle reached across the couch for the home phone but it did no good. Mike’s head snapped to the side like a rabid dog, catching her with his peripheral vision. “You leave that phone right there!”

Tears streamed down Josie’s cheeks. “I swear, baby, he meant nothing by it! It was just lunch!” Her sob broken words incensed Mike further. He slapped her across the cheek and her tender flesh throbbed red. More cries erupted from the kitchen.

“You don’t have lunch with other men when I’m your man! I swear to God if you go out with that little fruitcake again I’ll gut his ass and leave him out to dry in the desert. You get me!?”

Josie looked down but Mike held her face up by the chin. “Yes, baby, it won’t happen ag–” She stopped when a looming silhouette filled the doorway. Joelle, too, saw a dusky shadow fall across Mike’s back. In the silence, Mike turned around and let Josie collapse to the floor.

Mike’s back straightened and his fists balled up. “Think you got the wrong house old timer, now fuck off.”