by K E Osborn
Do they service Steel?
I shake my head and fold my arms over my chest and huff out a full breath in annoyance as the doctor steps back over.
“I’ll get you fixed up in no time, love,” he says as I push my leg out for him to check.
I look down at the doctor and he’s handling my leg delicately and tenderly like how a woman would, but everything about him—even his name—screams that he’s a man. I start to wonder if maybe he’s transgender. I tilt my head studying to see if he has an Adam’s apple, and there’s nothing.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
I open my eyes wide in shock. “Like what?”
“Like you're wondering if I'm a male or a female.”
Shit! I don't say anything and remain quiet.
“I'm a chick,” Stevie says shocking me.
“Oh, wow! Really?”
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head as she applies a bandage to my leg. “Don't sound so surprised!”
“Crapsticks! Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just I'm not used to this kind of... atmosphere,” I say honestly.
She looks around the clubhouse and chuckles. “Yeah, the guys call me he ‘cause I work mainstream as a doctor, and if the medical board knew I helped bikers on the side, I could be deregistered. So they call me he to turn people off the trail… It can be daunting, but don’t let this get to you. Steel, he’s one of the good guys.”
I swallow hard and nod. “I sure hope so.”
“You hope what?” Steel asks walking over with his friend.
“She hopes this heals without a scar. I told her it would, it’s only a superficial burn and should improve within a few days. Nothing major. But if you’re going to be riding a bike again anytime soon I suggest pants,” Stevie tells me and for all her shortcomings, saving the day is a great attribute.
I glance at her and smile as she winks at me.
“That’s great news. I have some trackies that might fit you, babe. Come to my room and I’ll see if you fit in them.” Steel offers me his hand as he lifts me from the lounge. I smile at him and his friend looks at me and grins.
“Hey, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Spike, but call me Techie. My man Steel here has been pining over you for the last few days.” He looks up to the ceiling and Steel groans. “Psychologists studied data from over ten thousand speed daters and found most people make a decision on an individual's attraction within three seconds of meeting the other person. On another note, it takes only up to four minutes to decide if you actually like someone or not. According to the dilation of Steel’s pupils, the tall stature of his stance, the lingering looks he’s been giving you since you walked in here, and the fact he’s been a moody little fucker since he met you, I think it’s safe to say within three seconds he was attracted, and within four minutes, he adored you.” Techie smiles brightly and looks at me like he’s just given me the run down I’ve been needing.
I squeeze my eyebrows together at all his facts, and a small smile crosses my lips. “So Steel likes me, hey?”
Steel rolls his eyes and Techie frowns and furrows his eyebrows at me. “Yeah, that’s what I just said, weren’t you listening? She doesn’t follow too well, Steel,” Techie says making me giggle at his mini tantrum. He obviously has no sense of humour and can’t take a joke.
“Okay Techie, fuck off. Let me take my girl to get some pants on.”
He shrugs and turns back to me placing his hand out. I take it, and he brings my hand up to his mouth kissing the back of it tenderly. “Until we meet again, Willow. Little miss MC1R gene.”
I furrow my brows as Steel laughs and Techie walks off, his heavy boots thumping along the concrete as he leaves. “What’s the MC thingy?” I ask and Steel grabs my hand and pulls me to him.
“I think it’s your red hair gene. Don’t worry, it’s tech talk. You’ll get used to him. Let’s find you some pants, hey?” I smile and nod leaning on my toes and kissing him softly.
“Kid!” a bellowing voice echoes throughout the clubroom.
Steel groans and pulls away and places me behind him as if to shelter me from something.
“What?” Steel calls back looking over to the older man, who must be in his fifties with a long grey beard forming a triangle down his chest.
He looks scary and intimidating, like a real biker.
A bad biker…
CHAPTER TWELVE
“This some new club girl you forgot to talk to me about?” The scary man bellows storming over, it feels like the ground shakes with each of his thunderous footsteps.
I cling onto Steel’s biceps from behind for comfort.
“No, she’s not a club girl Dad. Flame is out-of-bounds for everyone… but me.”
Dad? This scary tattooed burly biker man is Steel’s father?
“You claiming her?” he asks looking at me and running his eyes over my body leeringly. I don’t like it one little bit, so I try to hide further behind Steel.
“I… shit… I don’t know. It’s too new for that yet—”
“Then why the fuck’s she in my house? If you haven’t claimed her, and she ain’t no club girl, get her the fuck outta here. She could be the heat for all we know.”
I furrow my brows at the way he talks down as though I’m not even here.
“Dad, stop! Flame isn’t the heat, she works at a fuckin’ child care centre.”
Steel’s dad scoffs and folds his arms over his massive chest. “A kid watcher, hey. And you think little Miss Scaredy-cat can handle this life? You’re a fucking dickhead, kid. Get her out of here. Now,” he blares and Steel huffs and stands a little taller.
“I just have to get her some pants. She burnt her leg on my Hog then I was taking her home anyway. Your precious club is safe, don’t be such an over-reactin’ fuckhead.”
His dad leans in closer to Steel getting right in his face. My heart starts to race faster watching Steel and his father face off over me.
“Get. Her. Out. Of. Here!” he spits each word with venom.
I grab hold of Steel’s hands and pull on him. He turns to look at me and winces. “Can you get me some pants so we can leave?”
“Listen to your whore, kid.”
My eyes open wide as Steel swings back around and stares down his dad, their chests coming together forcefully as their foreheads meet. It’s only now I notice the rest of the clubhouse has dropped to complete silence, and his mates are standing up and starting to inch their way over toward us.
“You ever talk about Flame like that again—”
“You’ll what?”
Steel clenches his fist, and I back up slightly as Techie and Jigsaw step in and pull the two men apart.
“Easy, Steel,” Techie says resting his hand on his chest and pulling him back to my side as he continues to stare at his dad with gritted teeth.
“Watch yourself, kid,” his dad says. Jigsaw grabs his dad and pulls him away into another room. The music is turned back on, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
That was intense!
“Go to your girl, she’s scared mate,” Techie says to Steel, and it seems to be just the wake up he needs.
He turns facing me, races across and takes my hands. “Are you okay?” I merely nod because physically I’m okay, but mentally? I’m not really sure. “C’mon, come back to my room, there’s too much testosterone in here.”
He pulls my hand walking off down a hall, and I don’t have time to think before I’m dragged off behind him. My mind is trying to comprehend what I’ve been a witness to since I arrived here, but everything’s a little overwhelming. We walk briskly down a hall, and the racing of my heart and the speed we’re walking isn’t helping me catch my breath. Steel stops at a door and walks in pulling me through. I follow, and once I’m inside he closes the door with his foot. I take a few deep calming breaths trying to gather my bearings as he walks off, to what I assume is the wardrobe, but I’m not really looking. I’m watching the floor and tryin
g to concentrate on the hole I wish would open up and swallow me into it.
“Willow?” Steel’s concerned voice slowly filters through my ears, but I don’t respond I’m too busy trying to breathe.
“Willow, slow your breathin’, babe. In through the nose, out through the mouth. You’re okay, I promise,” he says and then his arms wrap around me tightly. My head naturally falls into the crook of his neck and shoulder, and I wrap my arms around his waist and hold onto him needing some sense of comfort from the last half an hour in this place. His hand comes up and he gently starts to caress the back of my head, the tender motion relaxing my tense muscles and eases my breathing back to a normal rate.
“I’m so sorry, Flame. I never meant for you to be subject to any of that shit.”
I pull back and look into his ocean blue eyes. “I know. It’s just… this world… it’s so different to mine. I thought it’d be a little different, but to see women shooting ping pong balls out of their… um… girly parts…” he lets out a small laugh, “…and to see a girl barely legal sucking off an old guy’s… um, penis…” I duck slightly saying the word penis, “…well, this is not something I was prepared for.”
He exhales and nods. “I get it. This clubhouse has a lot of shit going on that I don’t like, that I don’t agree with, and that I don’t want you to see. I think it’s best if you don’t come here again. I’ll come to you, if you still want to still see me that is?” he asks suddenly looking unsure of himself. He starts to fidget with the pants he’s holding, and his gaze is darting around the room. It’s cute actually.
“I think that if I stay away from here, it’ll be fine.”
Suddenly the door swings open and a beautiful woman stands there in the doorway, her hair is long and fades from bright pink to yellow. Her stomach has tattoos of stars going up her ribs on her left side and she’s drop dead gorgeous.
“Oh shit, sorry. I heard you had a fight with Mad Dog. Just wanted to come and see that the cunt didn’t bang up that pretty little face.”
I blink and open my eyes wide at the way she talks, and my heart starts to race at the way Steel is looking from me to her like he’s worried about something.
“But I’ll come back later unless you’ll be busy all night?”
I look to Steel wondering why she’d need to come back later—she can see he’s completely fine.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” I ask. She smirks and chuckles walking in and right up to me then grabs my shoulders leaning in quickly. I think for a moment she’s going to head-butt me, but she leans in and presses her lips to mine forcefully and kisses me strongly. I flinch back as she chuckles and Steel groans pulling her back shaking his head.
“I’m Lunar, you must be the bitch he’s all cut up about. Nice to meet you, you do taste like strawberries.”
I raise my eyebrow and look at Steel and he smirks and shrugs tilting his head to the side.
“Anyhoo, I’ll let you guys get to whatever you’re doing. I’m here if you need me, Steel. Nice to meet you, Flame. Keep his cock nice and wet, he likes it that way. Oh, and lick his balls he likes that too,” she says walking out of his room. My mouth drops open, and Steel slams the door shut behind her breathing harshly out of his nose as my heart rate spikes dramatically.
Steel’s been with her… obviously.
How can I compete with that?
“So, she’s a club girl?”
He nods and rubs the back of his neck, his jaw tensing like he’s uncomfortable.
“Sooo… she has sex with the club guys?”
He exhales and looks down to the floor. “Yeah, she does.”
I nod and chew on my bottom lip. “Does she belong to just one guy?”
He slumps his shoulders and shakes his head. “Forget about Lunar, Flame. She’s friendly enough but she doesn’t know when to put a filter on it.”
I swallow hard as he hands me the pants and I take them from him. The cotton fabric feels like a grating sandpaper against my skin as everything is aggravating me right now.
“Flame?”
I take in a few deep breaths. “Does she sleep with you?” I ask putting the dreaded question out there as I step a leg into the pants.
He huffs and winces. “Babe, you don’t need to know this stuff—”
“Was it recent?” I ask, my heart jumping out of my chest and splatting all over the floor in a gooey, bloody mess in front of me.
I’m not sure why this hurts so much.
He’s not my boyfriend, so why should it matter?
“Define recent,” he says.
Exhaling, I slump my shoulders and look up at him as he winces. I step into the other leg of the pants and pull them up rolling the top over a few times so they’ll stay up. “Just take me home, please.”
He nods and exhales tramping to the door and gesturing for me to walk out. Taking a deep breath to prepare myself to walk back out through the clubroom, I take my first step, then another, and soon I’m hoofing it down the hall toward the room. Steel takes my hand and I don’t flinch away, even though I have mixed feelings for him right now.
We enter the clubroom and the party’s still in full swing. The music is playing and there’s men drinking and playing pool. A guy is pashing with a girl in the corner, and two guys are having an arm wrestle at the bar. It all seems pretty tame now in comparison to before. As we walk outside, the cool refreshing night air hits my face making me breathe a relieved sigh. I feel free of the stench of that place, and more like me again. Steel walks us to his bike and grabs a helmet for me, and I put it on. He steps in front of me and starts to do up the strap which I think is nice of him. There’s a sour silence between us and I can’t help but notice that were both breathing heavily.
He wants to talk.
I want to speak.
But neither of us knows what to say.
He turns putting on his helmet and then moves to get on his bike. I climb on behind him and he starts the engine. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I hold on for dear life as he pulls back on the throttle and we’re off back toward my villa.
The ride is quiet and it clears my head some. Being on the back of the bike and feeling the wind on my face is a good way to relieve the intense negativity. Sure Steel has slept with Lunar, sure it was recent, but I’ve only known him since Friday. That’s four days. So recent could be a week ago, but it could also be this morning. But again, I’m not his girlfriend, we’re not exclusive, so I can’t tell him that he can’t sleep with another woman.
Or can I?
Can that be a part of this relationship while we’re dating?
I wonder how that will go down with him. Would it be a deal breaker? I guess there’s only one way to find out.
STEEL’S POV
The silence between Willow and me is deafening as I walk her to the front door of her villa. The only thing I can hear is the faint chirping of the crickets, and the thrashing of my heart in my chest. Taking her to the club tonight was a fuck up. I knew there was a party on, so the boys would be in all their glory and I didn’t think about it before I acted. I just wanted to get her leg seen to by Stevie. I wanted her burn to be okay. The insatiable need to protect her from harm stopped me from thinking about the mental harm I could cause her by taking her to witness the sights she’s seen tonight.
I’m such a fucking dick!
We arrive at her door and I have no idea what to do. I’m pretty sure after seeing what she has, and the awkward silence that’s killing me right now, that she doesn’t want to see me again. So I lean in and kiss her cheek. Feeling her silky skin beneath my lips for the last time sends a tightness through my chest as I clench my eyes tightly and breathe out harshly. Pulling back, I take one final look at her. She’s watching me drawing her brows together, and I mentally punch myself in the head and turn around to walk back to my bike.
“What? That’s it?” she asks her voice high pitched and laced with venom.
Turning around, I notice her arms folded acros
s her chest as she stands her weight on one foot tilted to the side, brows furrowed, nostrils flaring, and eyes glaring daggers right through my soul. It shocks me slightly. She’s obviously pissed off.
I raise my eyebrows at her and shrug.
She scoffs.” Well, don’t you think we need to talk about what happened?”
I swallow a lump in my throat and shrug again. “I just assumed you’d hate me and we were done. I’m surprised you want anythin’ to do with me right now?”
Her stance softens and she exhales dropping her arms down to her sides. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to judge me? Come in for coffee?”
“Really?” I ask sounding more surprised than I want to let on.
“C’mon in biker boy.” Turning toward her door, she fishes around for her keys from her bag and finally opens the door.
Shaking my head in utter bewilderment, I take a deep, steadying breath and follow her inside. As I close the door behind me, I’m greeted by a running and squealing Petunia as she storms up to me and snuggles into my leg. Willow laughs as she follows behind and I chuckle feeling the weight of the situation lifting as I bend down to pet the tiny fucking pig.
Willow continues through the front room into the kitchen, and after making friends with Petunia, I follow her in to watch her putting on the coffee. Leaning my back against the bench she glances up at me and purses her lips like she wants to say something but is holding back.
“Spit it out, Flame.”
She exhales and looks away from me. “I don’t want to know how recently you slept with Lunar, but I like you, and if you’re going to continue dating me then I think we need some rules.”
I smirk and nod. “I’m listening.”
She glances at me and then looks away again like she’s embarrassed. “No having sex with other people.”
I chuckle and nod. “Agreed.”
Her body slumps and she looks at me and smiles. “Okay, now you make a rule.”
“You have to try something different every time we see each other.”
She opens her eyes wide and nods. “Okay… agreed. You have to do a good deed as often as you can.”
