Read Riding the Night Online

Authors: Jaci Burton

Riding the Night (4 page)

“Yeah? Thinking about settling back here in town again?”
AJ noticed Teresa watching him intently. “No. Just passing through.”
Teresa averted her gaze and moved down the bar. AJ wondered what her life was like now. Was she married? Did she have kids?
“Teresa’s done well. I can’t believe she bought this place.”
Joey grinned. “Yeah. She’s always been damn smart. Smarter than me, that’s for sure. When Todd got out, she stepped in and scooped this place up, cleaned it up, hired the sexy bartenders, and bikers started coming in here by the hundreds. She made enough money to expand and it’s still going strong.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He hesitated, but something drove him to know. “She ever settle down and get married, have any rug rats?”
“You want to know about my personal life, AJ, why don’t you ask me directly?”
AJ did a half turn on the bar stool to face Teresa, hadn’t realized she’d moved back into earshot again. Shit. “Just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”
“I’ve always been okay. Since the day you left ten years ago, I’ve been just fine. I didn’t need you then and I don’t need you now, so you can quit worrying about me.”
TWO
TERESA WANTED TO WINCE, TO TAKE BACK WHAT SHE’D JUST
said. She’d wanted to be cool and calm and unaffected by AJ, not take a bite out of him with her words. She’d wanted him to see her as a success, a woman who met life on her own terms, a woman who didn’t need a man—especially him—to be happy. Because, dammit, she
was
happy. Most days.
She’d never expected to see AJ again, figured when he left town all those years ago that was it, the end. When she looked up to see him at her bar tonight, her heart had done a flip-flop, her pulse double-timing it so fast she’d gotten dizzy. For years after he’d left she’d imagined what it would be like if she ever saw him again, had played the scenario over and over again in her mind. And each year that went by she thought of him less and less, until finally he’d disappeared from her thoughts. He was the past and he was supposed to stay there. Until tonight, when he showed up again, and everything they’d ever been to each other came rushing back, bringing with it a tidal wave of emotion.
But she could handle it. She wasn’t eighteen anymore and a lot had happened in the ten years since they’d last seen each other. What they’d meant to each other back then meant nothing now. She could smile and be nice to him and eventually he’d leave and everything would go back to the way it was.
She’d been doing just fine until she overheard AJ asking Joey about her, asking if she’d ever gotten married or had kids. Pain had ripped her inside and out, just like it always did when someone mentioned marriage and children, normal things a woman her age should be experiencing. Except there was nothing normal about her life. It brought back memories she fought hard to keep buried.
She pinned AJ with a hard stare, making it clear she didn’t appreciate the end run.
“Sorry,” AJ said. “I was just curious.”
“Not married. No kids. Satisfy your curiosity?”
He didn’t answer, just looked at her with sadness and regret in his storm gray eyes. She didn’t want his regrets, didn’t want to remember how simple and beautiful her life had been when he’d been in it, and how ugly it had gotten after he’d left.
“I didn’t mean to pry. It’s been a long time, Teresa. You look good.”
“She looks better than good,” Pax said, focusing a smile on Teresa. “She’s damn fine.”
Tingles skittered up her spine at the way AJ’s friend Pax looked at her. It had been a long time since she’d felt . . . anything. Pax didn’t know her past, didn’t know what had happened to her. He didn’t have preconceived notions, so he couldn’t have pity or remorse or revulsion. He just saw her as a woman. A desirable woman. She liked that look in his dark eyes. She liked the way he looked, period, with his spiked dark blond hair and his chiseled features and goatee. He was every inch a rugged, sexy biker. Who didn’t know a damn thing about her.
She winked at him, surprised to feel a little rusty in the flirting department. She flirted with her customers all the time, but that was meaningless. This . . . wasn’t. It felt like an awakening, which shocked her. “Thanks for the compliment.”
“I’ll bet you get them all the time.”
“I might. But I don’t necessarily pay attention to all of them. Or any of them.”
“Can’t say I’m unhappy to hear that, as long as you pay attention to me.” Pax’s gaze was intense. A woman could get lost in those whiskey-colored eyes. He could very well make a woman believe she was the only one for him.
“He’s full of shit, you know.”
Her gaze skirted to AJ, then back to Pax, and she lifted her lips. “I don’t doubt that for a second.”
“I’m crushed,” Pax said. “And AJ lies.”
“I don’t doubt that, either. And I can already tell you two are dangerous together.”
“Darlin’, you have no idea.” Pax picked up her hand and electricity sizzled up her arm. He pressed a soft kiss to the back of her wrist, then folded her hand between both of his very large ones.
Her belly fluttered, and that long-dormant area between her thighs sprang to life and dampened.
I’ll be damned.
She might not be dead down there after all. That was the first honest sexual response she’d had since . . .
She slid her hand from Pax’s. “I have work, and playing with you boys isn’t on my list of things to do.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” AJ said.
That was too bad. Having AJ back in town was bad enough. Even worse would be dredging up memories of what she’d once had . . . what they’d once had. Having Pax with him was a double whammy of testosterone and chemistry that had slammed into her and gotten her attention despite running around tending to her customers and taking care of business.
And if it happened while she was 90 percent distracted, what would happen if she gave them her undivided attention?
Scary. And interesting, too. She really hoped they’d decide to hightail it out of town before her turn on top of the bar tonight.
 
 
PAX WATCHED TERESA TEND BAR. SHE SEEMED TO ENJOY HER
customers, gave them her attention, laughed with the other bartenders.
That laugh—wow. It was full-on throaty and loud, as if she enjoyed life. And Pax liked a woman with passion.
But there was also something guarded about her, a shadow that crossed over her face in the midst of those happy moments, after she turned away and she thought no one was looking. Pax was always looking. He didn’t know what had put that shadow on her face. Maybe AJ had.
And maybe it was none of his goddamn business. They were just passing through. Teresa was part of AJ’s past, not part of their future. Playing with and sharing women was a fun way to pass the time for Pax and AJ, but Pax didn’t think this woman would be one AJ would want to share.
But Pax sure would. Her first smile had struck the match and lit his fire. Too bad she was AJ’s old flame, the one he’d told Pax about, the one woman AJ’d had real feelings for.
And AJ didn’t get “feelings” for women any more than Pax did. He liked them and respected them just fine, treated them all good. They both did. But loving them? Pax didn’t do the love thing. He enjoyed his freewheeling lifestyle way too much to fall in love with one woman. Not when there were so many women available. Monogamy just wasn’t his style, which was probably why he enjoyed sharing women with AJ. Less likely to fall in love with someone—or have a woman think you were going to go one-on-one with her—if you were doing two-on-one.
But he wasn’t going to get to do two-on-one with Teresa, so he settled against the bar and just watched her, his gaze flitting to the two other bartenders. They were fine, too. One with short brown hair and a full curvy body, the other a curly headed blonde with big tits and a low-cut shirt that clung to those babies like she was damn proud of them. The blonde gave Pax the once-over . . . more than once.
But Pax’s attention kept moving to Teresa, watching her work the bar, her brows knit in concentration as she poured shots or popped open the tops of beer bottles. She laughed with her customers, was good-natured about it when she had to push away guys who got too close, moved in a rhythm that said she was comfortable with who she was. And okay, he liked watching her hips move, the easy way she swayed across the floor. He liked her ass and the sweet spot where her jeans met the skin of her lower back, that pretty tattoo there where he’d like to press his lips.
His jeans tightened as his cock twitched to life.
Down, boy
. He took a long cold swig of beer to douse the heat.
“Don’t even think about it, man. We’re not going there.”
He slid his glance over to AJ and grinned. “I know we’re not going there. But I’m still going to think about it.”
“Yeah,” AJ said, shifting his attention to Teresa. “Me, too. But too much history there. It wouldn’t work.”
“Too bad. Because she is sweet.”
“That’s the problem. Too sweet for you and me.”
Just then the sounds of women squealing and men hollering, clapping and catcalling drove Pax’s attention to the bar, where the beer bottles were being cleared from one end to the other. A new song came up, something sexy with a hard rocking beat, and the blonde climbed up onto the cleared-off bar top and sauntered down to the end, swiveling her hips to the music. As soon as the beat picked up, she headed their way.
The bar soon crowded in with guys pressing up to see the blonde dance in her cutoff denim shorts and cowboy boots, her feet stomping on the scarred wood. She shimmied down to a squatting position, then back up again.
The girl could move her ass. She moved from one end of that bar to another, leaving dragging tongues in her wake as she slid those tanned legs out and shook her ass in front of some hungry faces. Then she jumped off the bar.
And Teresa jumped up.
Though the music was deafening and the noise of the other bikers clapping and shouting around them drowned out just about everything, Pax was sure he could hear AJ’s hard swallow as Teresa made her way down to the other end of the bar.
“Oh, shit,” AJ whispered, his voice hoarse.
Pax just grinned and enjoyed the show. Where the blonde used her sexuality as a lure, Teresa was more natural when she moved, like she felt the music inside her. She didn’t play to the crowd, but kept her focus straight ahead as she swept her hips from side to side, knocked her boots hard on the bar, and stormed her way toward Pax and AJ.
It was only when she got to them that she tilted her chin and looked down, a wicked smile on her face. Pax looked up and grinned at her, letting her know that he liked the show just fine. He’d like to feel her moving against him like that, wanted to feel her hips sway from side to side while he held her against his throbbing cock.
AJ tilted his head back and stared, his expression unreadable.
Teresa cocked a brow, kicked up her heels and shimmied down the bar, lifting her arms over her head and turning her back on the crowd, sliding her ass down to meet the heels of her boots, then jumping off the bar to let the brunette take over and finish the song.
“Damn” was all AJ said as he kept his gaze glued on Teresa. “Never seen her do anything like that before.”
“She was a kid when you left here before. She isn’t now. Lots of things change when you’re gone for ten years.”
THREE
ALL AJ WANTED TO DO WAS FIND OUT EVERYTHING TERESA HAD
been doing in the ten years he’d been gone. Everything about her was different, from the way she looked to the way she talked to the way she danced to her expressions and demeanor.
Did he seem that different to her? He wanted to ask her. But what did it matter? He and Pax weren’t staying. He wasn’t taking up with her again, couldn’t. He and Pax had places to go after their vacation was over, and that didn’t include coming back home and settling in with Teresa, who hadn’t made any moves in his direction anyway. She’d been friendly, but wary, just like she would be with any customer.
And what had he expected—for her to scream and cry with joy because he’d finally returned, then throw herself in his arms and declare her undying love?
Yeah, right. Nice fantasy, but what he wanted and what he was going to get were two different things.
Story of his life.
He and Pax finally shoved away from the bar and played pool with Joey and Russ, Joey’s good friend and the second in command of the Thorns. AJ had known Russ when they were younger, too. Good to see he’d stood by Joey all these years. Russ hadn’t changed much since high school, either, though he was the polar opposite of Joey. Where Joey was short and round, Russ was tall and rail thin, with freckles on his face and his hair a mixture of strawberry blond and brown. Russ still looked like a kid even though he was pushing thirty.
Pax sank the last ball, and AJ grinned at Joey. “You still suck at pool.”
Russ snickered and patted AJ on the back. “Some things never change, do they, AJ?”
Joey glared. “I don’t suck at pool. Obviously you and your friend have careers as hustlers. And since you and Pax won all our money, you can buy the next round of beers.”
AJ laughed and bought beer. Having a pool table at Wild R iders headquarters meant they got a lot of practice. And AJ was pretty sure Pax had hustled pool when he was younger, though Pax denied it. Probably so he could win every time they played.
“Is that how you guys earn a living, sharking us poor unfortunates?” Joey asked as they sat at one of the tables eating pretzels and drinking beer.
Pax raised his brows and, with a smile, tipped the bottle of beer to his lips.
“I thought so.”
“And how about you, Joey?” AJ asked. “What are you doing these days?”
“I own that garage down on the corner of Munich and Davis. Russ and a few of the other guys who ride with us work there, too.”

Other books

It'll Come Back... by Richardson, Lisa
One April Fool by Amity Maree
A Dad for Her Twins by Lois Richer
Electric Engagement by Sidney Bristol
Witness of Gor by John Norman
The Other Side by Alfred Kubin