Riding Red: A Fairytale Retold Steamy Romance

by Kiki Harlow

  Riding Red

  A Fairytale Retold Steamy Romance

  Kiki Harlow

  Contents

  1. Rowena

  2. Nikolas

  3. Rowena

  4. Nikolas

  5. Rowena

  6. Nikolas

  7. Rowena

  8. Nikolas

  9. Rowena

  10. Nikolas

  11. Rowena

  Did you like Riding Red?

  Subscribe to my newsletter

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Rowena

  It wasn’t a regular shift at Mama’s Italian Pizza without my boss, Al yelling at me at least once.

  And, boy, he was yelling at me something fierce tonight.

  Al was an asshole. The kind of asshole that announced they were an asshole upon meeting someone like it was a greeting and a warning at the same time. I’m sure you know the type.

  When it came to his looks, Al was all eyebrows. They were bushy and unkempt, like thick caterpillars perched over the top of two beady eyes. He was short, shorter than I was, and I was smaller than your average woman. He had a tendency to lean into your personal space, with his head aimed directly at your chest like a bull barrelling toward a matador.

  “You listening to me or what?” Al growled.

  I instinctively shook my head, tearing my eyes away from the beads of sweat that formed on the top of his head. It was the truth. I wasn’t listening. When he was angry, he got nasty and super personal, and I learned to tune out to preserve my sanity.

  “No?” He straightened. He raised himself up onto the tips of his toes, locking eyes with me. “You’re testing my patience, Little Red.”

  Little Red. He gave me that nickname when I started working at Mama’s.

  It was barely a nickname.

  I have red hair.

  That’s it.

  Creativity was not his strong point.

  Over time, as co-workers cycled in and out, I realised he gave everyone obvious, descriptive nicknames. I think that since so many people came and left Al didn’t bother to learn their names.

  Al snapped his fingers in front of my face.

  “So slow in the head,” he muttered. He breathed loudly through his nose. “You know what? Just take this.”

  He shoved the plastic bag full of food into my chest and a pizza box into my hand.

  I looked down at the address.

  Damn. Steelworks. It was a seedy area downtown, not too far away from where I got jumped on the job a few months back. My ribs still felt sore from that encounter. I told Al I wasn’t comfortable delivering food in the area, but it was like talking to a brick wall. What did my safety matter to him anyway?

  He snapped his fingers in my face.

  “What’s the matter? Why aren’t you leaving?”

  “I told you I didn’t want to…” I bit my lip. I really didn’t want to get into this with him.

  “Huh? What’s wrong now?” His caterpillar eyebrows bunched together. “Ah. Right, I see.”

  His eyes widened a little, and he waved his hand dismissively. “Nothing happened, you didn’t die. We all gotta work around here. Just do your fucking job. This one is important.”

  It wasn’t ‘nothing’. I had to get ten stitches. And how important could an order possibly be?

  Al started to nudge me along toward the front. He opened the door, the bell ringing as he pushed me outside.

  “But Al…”

  “No buts! Deliver it and do your job,” he yelled. “Or you won’t have one.”

  He shut the door firmly in my face.

  I sighed. The cold air filled my lungs.

  I need this job, I reminded myself. I don’t have a choice.

  It always came down to that. My old life was so far gone that I didn’t even remember what it felt like to have options.

  I placed the food into the pannier at the rear of my motorcycle and put my helmet on. As the bike hummed to life, I felt a tiny bit of satisfaction. Riding my bike was the only thing I liked about the job.

  I pulled out onto the street and rode downtown. The wind whipped against my body as I rode my motorcycle through the empty streets of the city.

  I loved this feeling.

  It felt like I was flying.

  It felt like I was free.

  Freedom. I hadn’t truly felt it since, well, since my parents died.

  Life changed so dramatically after the accident. And so many things had changed for the worst. But worst of all was that I lost the two people that believed in me and loved me. I had always been an introverted kid, being an only child I kind of felt lonely, but now I knew what it was to be alone. Sometimes it felt like I was lost at sea, like I was floating in deep empty water with nothing to tether me down.

  I was drifting. I was an overeducated music college graduate who kept quiet and took abuse for a living.

  Little Red: errand girl and punching bag for an insecure man with a Napoleon Complex.

  I shivered. There was something in the air, the biting cold perhaps, that didn’t let me feel too sorry for myself. I was alive and breathing. That was more than my parents had.

  I knew that I had to live for them, that’s what people say you should do when something terrible happens.

  Too bad I didn’t know how.

  I sped up a little. Just enough to feel a little bit reckless.

  The sleek modern lines of the city started to change the longer I rode, and the sidewalks and buildings became dirtier and more run down.

  The screen flashed on my phone that I mounted near the bars of my motorcycle.

  You have arrived at your destination.

  I pulled up to an old brick factory next to a newly built apartment building.

  Above me a neon sign screamed STYX.

  I shook off my helmet and rested it onto my bike.

  The street was relatively empty for a Friday night but I could hear the music thumping from inside. In and out. I told myself as I took the food out from the back.

  Simple. Everything is going to be perfectly fine.

  Chapter Two

  Nikolas

  I swirled the whiskey in my glass, staring down at the golden liquid.

  I’d been sitting here nursing the same glass for what seemed to be hours.

  I’d been here at STYX for what seemed to be a lifetime.

  Ten plus years as Babushka’s right-hand man. I’d see the good, kicked out the bad, and got down and ugly when I was ordered to be.

  I knew this club like the back of my hand. I didn’t have to look up to know who was where. The business ran like clockwork. Security, the bar staff, the regulars, it was the same every night at STYX.

  I couldn’t believe that it was all mine.

  Babushka, my surrogate mother. The former proprietor of this not-so-fine establishment. My mentor. She was gone.

  Babushka took me in, a foster kid that aged out of the system, and gave me a job. She gave me a life and gave me guidance as only she knew how.

  In the end, she gave me everything. Her money. The club.

  The afternoon before she passed, she took my hands into hers, her grip as strong as a grown man.

  “You won’t want for a thing again,” she had said, her rheumy eyes boring into mine. “You’re free.”

  Free.

  How was it that I felt more trapped by my circumstance more than ever?

  I had grown tired of this life, even when she was living. How was I going to honour her and step into her place when all I wanted to do was walk away?

  I was such an ungrateful little shit.

  I took a sip from m
y glass and let the liquor warm my insides.

  “Niko...” I heard Kelly’s voice behind me and felt her long fake fingernails trailing over my arms. I flinched.

  Kelly was a regular at the club. Babushka didn’t like her much, but the other regulars did.

  Especially the men.

  There was a time where I was interested too. Kelly and I had a fling, many years back, when I was a lot younger and to be honest, a lot dumber.

  Kelly was a fun girl. She liked to have a good time, and she had a fucking riot of a time with everyone. Men. Women. I didn’t hold a grudge when our one-night-stand amounted to nothing. I expected it.

  Since Babushka died she was different. Kelly’s interest was back with force, and I wasn’t naive enough to think it was because of my good looks or charm.

  “When are you going to take me out? I’ve been waiting for you to ask me,” she said with a coquettish smile.

  “It never crossed my mind,” I replied, folding my arms across my chest.

  “We could go out tonight,” she continued. She rubbed her index finger against her lips.

  “I’ve ordered in,” I sighed. “It should come soon. Go and find your own.”

  She started to pout, her lower lip jutting out at me. “Can’t I have some?”

  “You won’t like it, it’s terrible food.” I pushed my glass aside and stood up.

  “If it’s bad, then why did you order it?” She frowned at me.

  I didn’t answer her. I started to walk toward the stairwell to the back office.

  “Come on, Niko,” she continued. I could feel her trailing me up the stairs.

  “Go find someone else to play with,” I said, dismissively. I stopped at the landing right before the doorway to my office. “There’s plenty of people downstairs.”

  “I want to play with you,” she replied. She pressed her hand against my chest. “I hoped that I had made that obvious. Can I come in?”

  Her plans were plain to see.

  I was no longer a forgotten conquest.

  I was the multi-million dollar prize to be won.

  I clenched my jaw. I looked Kelly up and down. I hadn’t had a woman in months.

  It was a bad idea but the shithead bastard in me relented.

  “Suit yourself.” I unlocked the door and let her in.

  A knowing smile spread across her face.

  I walked to my desk and switched on the lamp.

  She took off the shimmery jacket she was wearing and placed it over the leather couch. She turned to me, her green eyes almost predatory in the dimly lit room.

  Her breasts, ample and certainly fake, were close to spilling out of her lacy singlet top.

  I could feel myself harden but only slightly. I was disturbed my apparent disinterest. The stress had taken a toll on me but had it taken that much of a toll?

  I winced.

  “Let me just…” she pawed at my crotch through my jeans. “Make you more comfortable…”

  I stilled her hands with mine. I needed to get this situation under my control fast.

  “Get on your knees,” I commanded.

  Her eyes flickered with heat. She slowly knelt down in front of me.

  “Unbuckle my belt.” I leaned back.

  Her fingers made quick work of my zipper. I felt her hands slip into my pants.

  My cock stirred.

  “Are you going to put me in your pretty mouth?” I asked.

  She licked her lips and nodded.

  Chapter Three

  Rowena

  “A delivery for..” I looked down at the receipt and back up at the stern-looking bouncer. “Mr Liekos?”

  The bouncer glanced at the food and raised his eyebrow.

  “Inside,” he replied, opening the door behind him.

  I ducked under his outstretched arm and went through the doorway.

  It led into a dimly lit stairwell. The walls of the stairway were painted to look like a forest. Tiny yellow lights in the wall blinked, like eyes of little creatures in the night.

  Oh, well, I thought to myself. A bit weird. Just walking down into a spooky forest. What’s the worst that could happen?

  At the bottom of the stairs, I pushed open another door onto a large dance floor, complete with flashing strobe lights, a smoke machine and a mess of people, dancing and grinding up against each other.

  I made my way toward the bar and I tried to catch the attention of a bearded barman.

  I stumbled a little as a rough looking man pushed past me. He wore a leather jacket that had the words Road Rebels and an image of a flaming skull embroidered onto the back. He shoved a wad of bills onto the counter.

  I was annoyed but obviously not dumb enough to start something, so I simply shook my head and turned my attention to another bartender nearby.

  “What can I get for you?” The tall brunette smiled.

  “I don’t want anything,” I replied. “I just want to deliver this.”

  She looked at me quizzically, taking the pizza box from me.

  Her eyes scanned the receipt. “Oh, you want the boss. Upstairs. Through the door.”

  She pointed behind me at a stairwell tucked in the corner of the room.

  I gave her a thumbs up and I pushed through the crowd. I started up the stairwell. The noice of the crowd dimmed behind me. I found a door slightly ajar and pushed it open. I walked into the room. A large slatted wall divided it and I could see shadows moving behind it.

  The hairs on my arm stood at attention.

  I tried to form the word “Hello.” But the sound of a man groaning stopped it in my throat.

  It was a deep, warm sound. I felt it rumble through my body.

  “What strong legs you have…” The woman said. “And such a big...”

  He groaned again.

  A big…?

  I moved toward the divider. My curiosity taking over. peered through the slats to catch a glimpse.

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

  Through the slats, I could see a woman kneeling in front of a man. He was leaning against an ornate wooden desk. His dress shirt was half-open and his head thrown back, his eyes closed as the woman bobbed her head back and forth.

  He was gorgeous.

  Incredibly gorgeous with his tousled dark blond hair, full lips, and an angular stubbled jaw. His broad shoulders and hard defined chest made him almost look unreal like some demigod come to life.

  I couldn’t look away. I was a deer in headlights, rooted to the spot where I stood, I knew I should turn around and leave, but I was mesmerised, and, to be honest, more than a little aroused.

  I wasn’t a complete innocent. I was a virgin, but I had watched some porn like every other young person. He didn’t look like the strange-looking men in porn though. He was something else.

  Leave the food on the floor and go, a more rational part of my brain said.

  It wasn’t a bad idea.

  I took one last look and…

  He was staring at me.

  Holy freaking crap.

  I drew in a short breath.

  The feeling I felt right then as his hazel eyes locked onto mine was indescribable. It felt like the first time I rode on my bike. But ten times more intense. Hundred times more maybe.

  He looked away.

  Maybe he didn’t see me.

  I held myself completely still as if it would render me invisible.

  His eyebrows furrowed, an expression of incredulity coming over his face.

  “Little Niko likes that, huh,” the woman said. “I was wondering if I had lost my touch.”

  He stared into my eyes again and chuckled. His soft laugh as warm as his groans. “Stop, Kelly.”

  He gently nudged the woman. She moved backward a little, exposing him to my gaze.

  My mouth dropped open.

  He was big. Thick and glistening. She murmured and gripped him again with two hands. It was all too much now. I was going to overheat with arousal, shame and fear. I looked away.<
br />
  “I said stop, Kelly.”

  She made a frustrated sound. “What? Why?”

  “We have an audience,” he said. My eyes shot back up to his. He was staring at me through the divider. His stare unblinking.

  I could barely think.

  “You can come out now. Don’t be scared,” the man said, pulling his pants up. “We won’t bite.”

  He laughed to himself.

  Reality hit me like a freight train. Maybe I could plead with the man to not complain to my boss about me being a creepy peeping tom.

  I had no idea what I could say to convince him but I couldn’t hide here forever. Even if I wanted to.

  I steeled myself and shuffled to the side.

  The kneeling woman had turned around to glare at me.

  “Who are you?” She hissed.

  Her pretty face looked less so with the snarl on her face.

  The man rested a hand on the woman’s shoulder. She seemed to want to lunge at me. He helped her up. He turned to me. Surprisingly, he didn’t look angry. His gaze lazily moving up and down my body.

  “Your food,” I squeaked. I held up the food to show the pair. A look of recognition dawned in the man’s eyes. He opened his mouth to speak.

  All the apologetic words that I was supposed to come up with escaped me.

  Fuck it, I thought.

  I put the food on the ground and ran.

  Chapter Four

  Nikolas

  “Don’t you think?”

  Yasmin snapped her fingers near the front of my face. She was a long time friend and bar manager at STYX, and I hadn’t heard a word she said.

  “Hello?!” She exclaimed.

  I frowned at her. I hated it when people came too close to my personal space. I moved my head back.

  “What?” I grumbled.

  “I was talking about the Road Rebels, ” she said, frustration evident in her tone. “They’ve been getting bolder about hanging around here since Babushka died. You’re going to have to deal with it. Sooner rather than later.”