Authors: Linda Wright
My long dark hair was wildly curling down my back and my blue eyes were bright as they stared back at me. I had color in my face that I hadn’t seen in a while. I looked excited and ready to take on the world. I took out my lipstick and dabbed it on, making my full lips shiny and pink, before opening the door and going back out to face Ramsey.
He was standing by the couch when I came out. He’d taken his leather jacket off, revealing a shirt much like mine, only the sleeves were ripped and there were a few holes in it. His gloves had been lost, too.
The visual effect of Ramsey was enough to take my breath away. I just stood there, staring at him, taking in the large arms and tan skin I could see through the holes in his shirt. He was a work of art.
“You look good enough to eat.” His deep voice was deeper then. His eyes settled on the bare skin at my waist and flashed hot. “Come here.”
My feet moved without any input from my brain. Before I knew it I was standing right in front of Ramsey with my arms hanging loosely at my sides. I looked up at him and bit my lip hard.
“You’re going to chew a hole through your lip if you keep that up.” His thumb came up to tug my lip out from between my teeth. “It’d be a shame.”
One crazy day. One crazy day with this beautiful man and I could get on with my life. Even as I chanted it at my erratic brain I couldn’t imagine how one day would be enough of him. I rested my hands on his chest and took a deep breath. One crazy day. “I thought you were going to give me self-defense lessons.”
His hands landed on my hips and tightened. “Lesson one. Don’t come home with a hungry biker.”
I was breathing heavily and couldn’t seem to look away from the heat in his eyes. “What happens if I do? What’s lesson two?”
He jerked me up and suddenly I was wrapped around his waist. His hands were on my ass, holding my core tight to him. “Don’t let him get you too close.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled the bandana off of his head. His hair was long, it fell to his shoulders, and lighter when it was dry. Dirty blonde locks tickled my fingers as I tugged on them. “Oops. What if I do?”
Ramsey grunted when I tugged on his hair and shifted so I could feel his impressive erection pressing against my core. “Lesson three is that you definitely shouldn’t let him take you against a wall.”
I gasped as he spun us around and pinned me to the wall behind him. I was just about to open my mouth and lose my dignity by begging him to touch me when I was saved by a knock at the door.
“Ramsey! Mike and Jake are at it again. Bo isn’t here to deal with it.”
Ramsey cursed vividly and set me down. “I’ve got to handle this. Stay here.”
He flew out of his house faster than I’d imagined his large body could move. I wasn’t a dog, though, so I didn’t stay. I followed behind him and another man as they stomped off to the clubhouse. I could hear Ramsey’s angry words and nearly giggled as I watched his stiff movements. No doubt he was still trying to lose the boner.
Ramsey ripped open the clubhouse door and I was on the heels of the man behind him. The new stranger tossed me a confused look over his shoulder but I just kept my eyes on Ramsey as he stormed towards two guys who were tearing the room to shreds. Tables and chair went crashing as they threw each other around.
I watched as Ramsey grabbed one of them and yanked him off the other one. It worked for all of two seconds. As soon as he let go they were at it again. My heart pounded in my chest at the sight of the fight. Blood was flying everywhere and there was a crowd of people cheering around it. The guy who’d come for Ramsey and Ramsey were the only two who seemed set on stopping the fight.
Ramsey caught a right hook to the chest that seemed to infuriate him. He growled so loud it felt like the walls were going to come down and then he tossed one of the men across the room. “Stay the fuck back!”
The men were wild animals, though, and nothing was working. They kept charging each other. I watched in horror as the smaller of the two men grabbed a chair and smashed it over the other man’s head. It didn’t faze the bigger guy. They were so wet with sweat that Ramsey couldn’t get a good grip on either of them.
I watched with growing anger until finally I couldn’t stop my frustration from bubbling over the same way it had when I was young. My arms stiffened at my sides and I opened my mouth wide as a shrill scream ripped from my chest and bounced around the room until the people closest to me had their ears covered and the two men stopped fighting.
When I stopped screaming everyone just stood there staring. I pointed at the two assholes fighting and frowned. “Stop being idiots. Look at the mess you made. Jesus. And you hit Ramsey! Are you crazy? He’s like four times your size. Do you want to be turned into a puddle on the floor? Do you seriously have a death wish?”
The smaller man looked at me in confusion and then to Ramsey. “Who’s the bitch?”
My eyebrows shot up to my hairline. “Bitch? That’s the second time I’ve been called a bitch today and I really don’t like it.”
Everyone was silent in the room, the only sound coming from a jukebox in the corner. Lynard Skynard played a song about giving someone three steps and I couldn’t help but feel like I could be in a situation where I’d soon be begging for my own three step advance.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Ramsey stepped forward and shoved the guy hard in the chest. “She’s with me. And she’s fucking right. You hit me. I should stomp the shit out of you. Clean this fucking place up. Both of you. If this shit happens again one of you isn’t going to like me very much.”
I rested my hands on my hips and glared at the smaller man. I had a desire to ram my hand into his nose. “And try being nicer.”
Ramsey turned to me and gave me an exasperated look that warned me to stop talking. It was too late, though.
The small man came at me faster than I liked and out of fear I shot my hand up and the bone at the base of my palm connected firmly with his nose. He bent over and screamed out as blood poured from his nose. “What the fuck?!”
I held up my hands and backed away. “You came at me! You shouldn’t have done that.”
Ramsey came over and grabbed my arms. “It’s time for you to leave.”
I assumed he meant that he’d be leaving with me but instead he jabbed his finger at a younger guy and nodded to me. “Get her the fuck out of here. Take the Durango.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and shook his arms off of me. He was giving me the slip. Only he was having someone else do the dirty work for him. “I’ll gladly leave. I just need to get my purse from your house. Is that okay or was this whole thing just a more elaborate purse snatching than what that guy pulled this morning?”
I didn’t know why I was so mad but I was. I wanted to drive my palm into his nose, too. I’d decided to have one wild day and it was ruined. There went my chance at having a little fun before I settled into adulthood.
“Get the fucking purse and then get the hell out of here.” His eyes were hard when he said it.
I shrugged off the unexplainable hurt I felt and tossed a smile at him over my shoulder as I was leaving. “Good luck with your little club thing.”
The young guy introduced himself as Justin and let me grab my purse before escorting me into a SUV and then off the property. I’d been dismissed thoroughly.
The worst part was that while I’d been watching Ramsey try to separate the two buffoons who were fighting I’d been so impressed with how good he seemed. He was one of the only two people who seemed determined to not let the two men kill each other. He seemed to have a wide good streak.
I couldn’t explain why the good guy had just kicked me out of his clubhouse, though. So, maybe he wasn’t a good guy. Maybe he was pretending to be nice to get into my pants. I shook my head and tried to ignore all the thoughts. I barely knew him. It’d been a few hours. That was hardly enough time to decide if someone was good or bad.
Justin put on the radio and turned it up so that we didn’t have to try to speak to each other. He drove me back to my apartment at my instructions and before I knew it I was standing outside my door with the same amount of bad luck I’d possessed earlier in the day, if still being locked out was any indication.
I sighed and banged my forehead against the door. “Why me?”
As if someone had heard my silent prayers for things to look up and decided I needed more awful luck Paul opened the door and stared out at me. He looked like he’d been hard at work and I almost felt better.
“Why do you look like trailer trash?”
Did I say I almost felt better?
I shoved past him and went straight to the bedroom. He’d already emptied his closet and the bathroom. I sank into the bed and groaned. I’d been rejected so thoroughly by Ramsey. Even if I hadn’t known him for very long it still stung.
“What’s wrong?”
I glared at Paul for sitting next to me. “Nothing. I’m just tired. It was a long day. Can you please go finish packing?”
He just stared at me. “You look sad. I’m sorry I cheated on you, Kasey. Things had just gotten stale between us. We haven’t had sex in over two months.”
I let my eyes roll back as I thought about what he was saying. Had it really been that long? “I’m not sad because of you, Paul.”
As I said the words I frowned. I wasn’t sad because of Paul. He’d been my boyfriend for a while and he’d cheated on me and I wasn’t sad. I was sad over the stranger I’d met on the street and instantly felt attracted to. Something was wrong with that.
“Then why are you sad?”
I groaned and sat up. “You really want to know?”
He nodded.
“I went with that guy this morning to his house. He’s in a motorcycle club. He was so nice and everything was going great. Then there was a fight and he was trying to separate it. It wasn’t working so I took charge. I screamed and broke up the fight and insulted the guys fighting. Then Ramsey kicked me out. He even made someone else bring me home.”
“You broke up a fight in a motorcycle club?”
It was my turn to nod. “Yeah. Nothing was working so I took charge.”
He stood up and stared at me. “Who are you and what did you do with my girlfriend?”
“Ex.”
“Whatever. You’re the girl who wouldn’t let me order pineapple on my pizza because it was too different. You’ve shopped at the same store for your clothing for as long as I’ve known you. You don’t branch out. Ever. But suddenly you’re hanging out in a motorcycle club?”
I stared at Paul and frowned. Maybe he wasn’t the boring one. Maybe it was me. Why had I been so able to let go with Ramsey, then?
“You wouldn’t let me touch you if I hadn’t showered right before. Did you make Mr. Dirty Biker shower first?”
I flipped Paul off and stood up. “Out of my room. This was fun but I’m over it.”
He shook his head. “No. Explain to me why you treated our relationship like this clinical project you were working on and then you let this man get to you so much. Why aren’t you sad over me but you are over him?”
“I’m not sad over him! Just get out!”
He wasn’t budging. I didn’t want to fight with him anymore because I knew he was right. I felt more attraction to a man I’d barely spent any time with than I did to the guy I’d dated forever. I shook my head and moved to the bathroom.
“Finish packing and go, Paul. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how unhappy we were. I’m sorry if I hurt you with how clinical I was with you but seeing how easy it was for you to cheat and lie to me I’m glad I was. I’m going to shower. See you around.”
I closed the door and locked it before starting the shower and stripping. I kept Ramsey’s shirt out so I could put it back on when I was done. I went through the motions once I was in the shower and found myself frowning a lot.
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew what I felt for Ramsey was one hundred percent hot blooded lust but I thought that maybe I could like him. It sucked that he’d tossed me aside before I’d gotten a chance to see if there was anything between us. My pride also hurt. I wanted to think I was hot enough to make him sad to have me gone. It seemed easy for him to cast me aside, unfortunately.
I wasn’t paying attention in the shower and I’d just finished shaving my legs when I stepped funny and slipped. My head connected with the tile wall hard and I saw stars for a moment. I closed my eyes and steadied myself before cutting the water off and getting out of the shower so I could be on solid ground.
My head throbbed when I touched it but otherwise it seemed okay. Close call, I thought. I’d been too distracted by Ramsey to pay attention.
I dried off and pulled just Ramsey’s shirt back on. I tip toed out and saw that Paul was officially gone. I was pissed to see he’d left with my favorite coffee mug but I’d let him have it. I locked the door and curled up on the couch with the remote. I needed to relax and lose myself in some brainless TV.
I must’ve fallen asleep because it felt like I’d just blinked when there was a knock at the door. My apartment was lost in darkness which told me I’d been out for a few hours. I ran my hands through my hair and winced when my fingers brushed over a lump on my head. I recalled the shower slip and groaned. It wasn’t abnormal for me.