Malik (Carter Brother Series Book 1) (15 page)

“Hmmmhmm, you taste so good,’’ he grins.

“So do you, have you had peppermint?’’ I question.

“Yeah,’’ he says looking down at me with soft eyes.

“He looks like he’d spunk the minute she touches him,’’ Mason growls close to us making me giggle into Malik’s chest.

“What the fuck bro?’’ looking horrified at his brother.

“Sorry,’’ Mason says, actually looking sorry, like he wasn’t meant to say that out loud. “It’s just that I feel sorry for her is all. She needs a man to take care of her and all that bullshit.’’

“Who?’’ Malik questions whilst looking at his brother like he’s grown two heads.

“No one,’’ he sighs sounding defeated before pulling his phone out.

Leaning in to give Malik one more kiss, I don’t notice the body walking towards us until it slams into me knocking me back a few steps. Thankfully Malik still has his hold on my waist, otherwise I’d be sitting inch deep in mud right now.

“Sorry,’’ I mumble, although it wasn’t my fault. It’s a habit I think everyone has. Someone shoves past you, immediately you say ‘sorry’, or if someone steps in your way, again, you say ‘sorry’, it can be a curse sometimes, like right now. 

“Move your fat ass out of the way,’’ Davis growls and I inwardly cringe. Out of all the people that could have bumped into me it had to be him. It probably wasn’t even an accident either. He most likely bumped into us on purpose just to piss me off.

“Watch where you’re fucking walking dipshit,’’ Malik growls, his whole body tense.

“Or what, Carter? You going to punch me around again? Oh wait, you can’t, you only have one brother with you,’’ Davis laughs.

“I don’t need my brothers to kick your ass,’’ he sneers, taking a step forward.

“Wow, calm down there bro, you don’t want to be taken out of the race over this whining little bitch,’’ Mason says, his eyes glaring at Davis.

Watching Davis closely while he’s focused on Malik and Mason, I take in his appearance. He looks laid back, comfortable with the confrontation, but I also notice the way his back straightens whenever Malik or Mason make a sudden movement. He’s scared; he just isn’t showing that to them and fair play I say, because Malik and Mason are big dudes. I wouldn’t want to go up against any of them. But then Davis deserves an ass kicking after all the shit he’s done to people.

“Yeah Malik, do what your big brother tells you,’’ Davis taunts.

“How about you just fuck off, huh?’’ Mason snaps, obviously losing his patience.

Must run in the family,
I muse.

“And why would I want to do that when I’m having so much fun here?’’ his eyes raking up and down my body suggestively making me cringe.

“Keep your fucking eyes off of her. You touch one more hair on her head and you’re a dead man,’’ Malik confronts him, and I clench my thighs together. Who knew Malik’s protectiveness would be a massive turn on for me?

“Don’t tell me what to do you fucking pussy,’’ Davis growls, his temper rising as he takes a step towards my direction. Not wanting to be in the line of fire, I take a step back behind Malik. Davis sees the move and gives me a creepy smirk.

When Davis leans over to say something to Malik my mind goes into a tailspin. I try to block out all the noise around me but it’s no use, I can’t hear what they’re saying to each other over the noise. It must be bad because Malik steps forward with his fist raised ready to throw the first punch.

“Stop,’’ I shout, grabbing a hold of Malik’s arm.

“Yeah, stop Malik,’’ Davis repeats in a whiny voice, giving me an evil smirk. He knows what he’s doing is going to rile Malik up and it’s working.

“Don’t do it bro,’’ Mason says to Malik before turning his deadly gaze over to Davis. “As for you, you need to watch who you spout shit off to. My brother isn’t going to lose his title just because some wannabe is jealous of him.’’

“Sounds right, you can only fight when you’re all together, I wonder if you all fuck together too? How has sharing Harlow been?’’ Davis chuckles, obviously in the mood for a fight.

“I said my brother wasn’t going to touch you, not that I wouldn’t,’’ Mason snaps just before he lands a punch to Davis’s jaw.

“You’ll pay for this,’’ Davis growls, looking to me with so much hate.

“Why? You off to get your big brother to come sort us out,’’ Mason laughs using the same tone Davis used with him. “There’s a difference between you and us Davis. We’re not bullies, we don’t pick on the weak, and we certainly don’t gang up on people. When you fight one of us, you get one, but it doesn’t mean the rest of us won’t be standing there watching, making sure it’s a fair fight and having each other’s backs. So run back over to your little group of friends and leave my family alone.’’

“Don’t worry, I’m going. Watch your back out there,’’ he sneers to Malik making my heart race. Does that mean he’s going to do something to Malik while he’s racing? Gah, I hate not knowing anything about all of this motocross shit. I have no idea if there’s rules or not or if what Davis just threatened can actually be done with no consequences.

“Babe, ignore him. I need to go get into position, but wait for me. My race is first, but we usually stay around until the end. If you want to though, we can head over to Chris’s, the party is at his tonight.’’

“Okay,’’ I say, leaning up to give him a kiss. “Good luck,’’ I smile, not knowing what else to say.

“Don’t need it babe,’’ he winks before strutting off in his sexy as hell gear.

I watch Malik leave until he disappears into the crowd making me sigh. He’s just left and I’m already missing him. This can’t be normal. I have to keep reminding myself it’s too soon to be this infatuated with someone you’ve known for so little time.

“You’ve got it bad girl,’’ Denny says coming up beside me.

Turning I give her a grin, but the grin slips when I see the guy next to her, clearly not the one she was talking to earlier. I give Mason a quick look to see him watching Denny with a frown on his face. I let out a quiet chuckle before sorting myself out. These two are comical. The sexual tension in this field is enough to wake up a nymph from the dead.

“This is Carl; he goes to the local college here. Carl this is Harlow, she just moved here,’’ she introduces. Carl gives me the once over making my skin crawl and I have to fold my arms around my stomach to cover myself from his sleazy eyes. I seriously do not like this guy. His hair looks like it needs washing days ago, his lanky frame makes him look like he hasn’t eaten for weeks and his clothes look like they should have been binned a few decades ago. I’m not a superficial person, but he could go to a charity shop and find something better than what he is wearing right now. There’s no need for him to be like this, which means he chooses to.

“Yo, it’s nice to meet ya. About time we got more fannies around here,’’ he grins showing his crooked teeth. Nice. It looks like he’s been brushing them with butter.

“You too,’’ I lie giving him the head nod everyone seems to do around here.

“Do you girls want a drink or anything?’’ he asks and warning bells go off in my head. My dad’s voice booms in my head so clearly I have to take a small step back from them.

‘Never take a drink from someone you don’t know or people you don’t trust and never leave a drink unattended. There are bad people in this world my sweet girl.’

My dad had said this to me the week before he died before I went to a friend’s birthday party at a club. She had just turned eighteen.

Thankfully her dad owned a club in town and had wristbands for the kids that weren’t old enough to drink yet. I’d only gone because it was the big One Eight. I’d have preferred to have stayed in. I hated bringing attention to myself and knowing me I would have gone in last season’s clothes or something. Not that I cared what I wore, I wore for myself, not for others. I just never wanted to give the school bullies more ammunition to pick on me.

“No,’’ I say rather loudly making everyone’s head turn to me. Mason laughs behind Denny making her turn around and glare at him. While her back is turned Carl’s eyes appraise me again, instead of folding into myself I straighten my back and give him a glare, warning him that I’m not going to take his shit. If he’s here with Denny then he should be paying attention to her. What Denny is doing with someone like him is beyond me when she could do so much better. She’s freaking beautiful and if it weren’t for her shortness she’d be a runway model. I’m sure of it.

“No we’re fine Carl, we’re going to go stand over there because Harlow’s boyfriend is about to start his race.’’

“Oh, are you dating Davis? We hang out, we should all go out together some time,’’ he says not waiting for an answer when he turns to eye Denny’s tits up again.

My facial expression could only have looked like someone who is about to be sick, turn into The Hulk sucking on something sour. I’m utterly disgusted by his presumption of me dating Davis. Not that I know how many people are in the race, but Davis? Seriously? He’s a creep. Why would anyone want to date him?

“Um, no I’m certainly fucking not,’’ I snap before walking off, leaving Denny to talk to him, but as I get to where Mason is now standing, Denny is right beside me.

“Uh, what a creep,’’ she says fake shuddering.

“I’d say. Why the hell were you with him?’’

“Honestly?’’ she asks, looking over towards Mason. “To make him jealous. Guess it got thrown back in my face huh?’’ she chuckles.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure his eyes were going to pop out of their sockets when you walked over with him,’’ I laugh.

“God, why does he have to be so freaking good looking? I just want to...’’

“Stop right there misses,’’ I chuckle.

She laughs, linking her arm through mine as we finally stand next to Mason who is talking to a bunch of friends.

“Hey. Malik is up now, look,’’ he says pointing over the field where I see Malik and four other racers lining up their bikes. My eyes follow the track, and they go wide.

“What the hell? Is that safe?’’ I ask, pointing to all the humps and hills that I never really noticed before.

“Yeah,’’ Mason chuckles, his eyes flickering to Denny before coming back to me. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. He’s really good. They have loads of safety measures in place to avoid any accidents. He’s just finished walking the track and he’s already checked the bike for faults and whatever other procedure he and his sponsors do to prepare, so it’s all okay.’’

“If you say so,’’ I mumble not feeling so sure, especially when I start to get a sick feeling in my stomach.

“I’m not going to lie Harlow, this sport is fucking dangerous and he’s only ever been in one accident that wasn’t his fault, another rider...’’

“What?’’ I shriek.

“Chill, it was the parents fault really. They pressured their son into taking the sport, I guess his head was elsewhere when he was out there that day,’’ he shrugs.

None of this even occurred to me when we arrived. Most lads are into playing football and shit. My dad even played golf a time or two, but nothing like this ever occurred to me.

When I get home later the first thing I’ll be doing is watching other races on YouTube and Googling this shit until my eyes bleed.

“Ladies and gentleman, the race is about to begin, are you ready?’’  A man roars through the mic. The whole crowd goes wild, and my heart is beating so hard I’m afraid my chest is going to burst. Anyone would think it was me out there ready to start a race.

The noise around me is deafening from the roar of the bikes and the screams of the crowd. Behind me there’s another race going on for younger kids. I block them all out as I keep my eyes on Malik and the people surrounding him.

When a man walks out onto the track my heart starts beating a million miles an hour. Holding up a card, the lads all start reviving their engines, the noise of the crowd going wild like they know something I don’t. My eyes stay focused on Malik, then on the gate at the front of his bikes tire. When it flips down everything happens so fast, one minute they’re reviving their engines, the next they’re speeding off, the noise of their engines deafening.

I don’t realise my whole body has moved closer to the track until I feel Mason come to stand next to me, with Denny on the other side shouting things to Malik. Why? I don’t know. I’m surprised he can hear his own thoughts over all this noise let alone whatever she’s shouting at him.

My whole body tenses and a silent squeak escape’s my mouth when I see Malik fly over the first dirt bump.

“Oh my God,’’ I gasp, feeling my eyes water. This can’t be safe. He’s going to get himself killed. “I can’t watch this.’’

“He’s fine. He’s doing really fucking good,’’ Mason says, pride filling his voice.

What’s scary is I only have their word to go by because I’ve never seen one of these races before, in fact I’ve never even seen a horse race let alone a bike race. All this is new to me, I don’t even know what to expect.

My eyes close once he gets to a row of dirt bumps on the track; flying over the first two skilfully. He makes it look so easy, but I can only imagine the muscles he has to use to pull some of these jumps off. No wonder he’s so freaking big.

When I open my eyes he’s just going round a corner with another rider on his tail. The bike tilts to the side, and the dirt kicks up around him. Once he clears the corner I let out a puff of air I never realised I had been holding. Watching him like this is scary as hell; I’m terrified he’s going to come down from one of his jumps and lose his balance or something.