by Lora Leigh
And that meant staying close to her, no matter what he had to do to get there.
Hey, some jobs came with bonuses. And if he had to climb in bed with Ava Vargas to do his job—well, there were worse things he’d done in the line of duty.
He checked out the clock on his phone—it was almost seven-thirty. Would she be awake yet, or sleeping in? He went to the hotel phone and dialed her number, though his first thought had been to go straight to her room to see if he could wake her up.
The tightening in his jeans told him that would be a great way to start the day.
She answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Did I wake you?”
She let out a soft laugh. “No. I just got dressed. I’m dying for some coffee so I was going to head downstairs.”
“I’ll go with you. Be there in a sec.”
He hung up, surprised to find himself eager to see her.
Which was probably just his dick talking. Anticipation and all. He knew what was going to happen between them. It was just a matter of time, and hopefully some finesse on his part.
She came out of the room just as he approached her door, looking fresh and pink-cheeked and well rested, though as late as they’d finished up last night and as early as it was now, she couldn’t have gotten much more sleep than he had.
“Tired?” he asked.
Her cheeks darkened. “A little.”
“You could have slept in.”
“You would have woke me up with your phone call anyway.”
“Good point.”
They walked down the hall toward the elevator, awkward silence echoing around them. Rick felt it rise up between them like a thick, invisible cloud, shattering the ease they’d started with.
And he knew why.
So when they got to the elevator, he pulled Ava into his arms and slammed his mouth down on hers, giving her a kiss that told her exactly how it was going to be between them.
And damn did she taste good in the morning, all soft and pliant and breathless against him. She tasted fresh—like toothpaste, her mouth cool and inviting. She made his dick hard in record time. He broke the kiss—reluctantly—as the elevator doors opened.
Her eyes were wide pools of stormy gray, her lips parted in surprise.
“I had a really good time talking to you on the phone last night.”
She swallowed. “So did I.”
He wrapped an arm around her and led her onto the elevator, and pushed the button. “So don’t go all quiet and embarrassed on me now. I think we’re past that.”
She tilted her head to look at him, and he couldn’t resist taking another taste of her lips. She didn’t balk at being kissed in the elevator, and she didn’t push away when the doors opened in the lobby. She kissed him back, her hand on his chest, her body resting against his.
When she stepped back, she smiled.
“All right?” he asked.
She nodded. “All right.”
He took her hand and they headed into the coffee shop and found a table. The waitress came right over and they both ordered coffee and breakfast. As soon as coffee arrived, Ava wrapped her hands around the cup and lifted it to her lips, closed her eyes, and took a drink.
“Oh, God, that’s good.”
Rick watched her, admiring her sensual appreciation of even the smallest things. He wondered if she realized what she was doing. “I think you said that last night.”
Her eyes shot open and she blushed. “It was good.”
“I thought so. Not as good as the real thing, though.”
“Maybe we’ll get to experience that … soon.”
Rick took a long swallow of coffee. “Definitely soon.”
By the time the waitress brought their breakfast, Bo and Lacey had come into the restaurant. Ava waved and Lacey dragged Bo over.
“Girl, you look as tired as me,” Lacey said as she pulled up a chair and turned over her coffee cup for the waitress. Lacey slid her glance from Rick back to Ava. “So, you and Rick hit it off well enough to stay up late last night?”
“We … talked for a while before we went to sleep.”
“Talked? That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Rick added.
Bo shook his head. “Man, you’re gettin’ rusty.”
Ava hid her smile behind her coffee cup, then quieted while Lacey whispered to her.
Rick was going to do a little listening in on their conversation, but Bo yanked on his jacket.
“Hey, while the ladies are gossiping on the other side of the table, I wanted to let you know that your background checked out.”
Rick leaned back in his chair and put on a knowing grin. “Was there any doubt?”
“Not really, but I have to be careful about who I trust with Hellraiser secrets, ya know.”
“I understand. So now that you know I’m legit, what kind of secrets are you going to let me in on?”
“Well, none yet,” Bo said with a sly smile. “But trust me, there’s plenty going on.”
Dammit. Rick wanted to know what and he wanted to know it all now. But he had to play it cool or his cousin would be suspicious. “Anything up my alley?”
“Maybe. I saw you did a little time for possession.”
“Yeah.”
“Joy drugs or business?”
“I don’t do drugs, man. I like to keep a clear head. There’s more money in selling them. Costs money to take them.”
Bo nodded. “Good for you to follow the money. Better to earn it than to spend it.”
“You got that right.”
“Then maybe I’ll have some work for you.”
“Good. I don’t like to lay low for too long. Makes me itchy.”
“I always knew you’d be good for my business, Rick.” Bo slapped him on the back. “Welcome home.”
“Thanks.” Now Rick was even more curious about what kind of business his cousin was involved in. But he couldn’t push Bo or he’d get suspicious. He’d just have to ride, relax, and wait for Bo to come to him.
Which hopefully wouldn’t be long. If his cousin really was heavily involved in the drug trade, there was always something going down. Especially at an event like bike week, where deals could be made by the hour.
Yeah, Rick expected to be useful before the end of the day today.
And that meant he might have to juggle undercover drug work with Bo, and handling Ava.
The assignment had just gotten a lot more interesting.
Riding on the back of a motorcycle gave Ava a lot of time to think. It was sweet mindlessness, the kind that required no concentration.
She enjoyed it, because she had a lot to think about, mainly having to do with Lacey. Okay, not so much about Lacey. More about the tall, leather-clad biker who rode the bike she was sitting on.
She sighed and felt just a little foolish and lovesick.
The kiss Rick had given her in the elevator this morning had shaken Ava to the core. But it had also relaxed her. While Rick hadn’t exactly said how things were between them, the kiss was an unspoken bond, his way of saying there was definitely more between them than one-time phone sex.
Not that she’d been at all worried about it. After all, if that’s all they’d shared, she would have just chalked it up to a new and unique experience and moved on.
Moved on to what, exactly, she didn’t know, but she was here to spend time with Lacey. Though doing that was proving difficult since Lacey seemed to spend most of her time with Bo, either plastered right next to his side or on the back of his bike. Which gave Ava more free time than she’d expected.
Fortunately, Rick seemed to want to spend his free time with her. And she couldn’t complain about that. The more time she spent with Rick, the more she could find out about the Hellraisers—and about his cousin, Bo. So being with Rick served a useful purpose.
Like making her breathless, hot, turned on, and quivery. She wondered if all bikers had this kind of effect on their women, or if it was just Ric
k and the fact she wasn’t exactly the most experienced in the men department?
Surely it wasn’t just her. After all, Lacey certainly seemed entranced by everything Bo. So maybe it was the whole biker mystique. She supposed at the end of this week she’d have it figured out.
Maybe.
Rick didn’t seem to be the kind of guy any girl could figure out. He was chivalrous and kind and at the same time mysterious and aloof. And oh so sexy. Like the kind of guy every girl had a crush on in high school. The bad boy kind of guy, the one you wanted to redeem with your love.
But was he really bad? She didn’t know the answer to that.
There were a lot of things she didn’t know the answer to. Maybe she should start thinking with her head instead of the other parts of her anatomy that had seemed to take prevalence since she’d met Rick.
Or maybe she should have sex with Rick, get that out of the way, and then she could start thinking with her head.
She liked the latter idea a lot better.
They’d taken a long ride in the desert after breakfast, and the view in the daylight had been breathtaking, nothing at all like the blind ride in the dark last night.
She’d lived in Las Vegas her entire life, had ridden through the desert hundreds of times, but there was something about being exposed to it from a motorcycle point of view, where the air whipped in your face and you could see everything more clearly because you weren’t bound by glass and metal on all four sides. This way made her see it for the very first time.
The desert was burnished copper and sage and golden sunlight, a cascade of color that painted the landscape of this place she called home—a place she’d taken for granted and had never appreciated for its awesome beauty until now. Maybe it was because on the bike she wasn’t just seeing—all her other senses were in play, too—the smell of the earth rose up to meet her, the sound of a hundred motorcycles seeming to wake the desert’s primal beauty and put on a spectacular show. Whenever they slowed down, Ava would spot lizards or other creatures hiding among the tall rocks. Soaring birds overhead seemingly kept pace with the Hellraisers.
They rode for over two hours, and it was exhilarating. She’d never enjoyed seeing the desert more.
They stopped at Joey’s house again. This time Ava could see it in the light. It was a huge place, two stories with a wraparound porch on both the top and bottom floors. Behind the house was a barn and several sheds. And he had horses.
Ava climbed off the bike and immediately headed over to the fence to watch the horses that had gathered around the shaded areas. At least there were plenty of trees to shield the horses from the blistering desert heat.
“You like horses?”
She nodded at Rick. “I rode when I was younger. My dad used to take me to this place that would give rides. I even took lessons. I wanted to own a horse ranch.”
“You did?”
She laid her arms on the top post and rested her chin on top of them. “Yes. A child’s dream, of course.”
“Why did it have to be a child’s dream?”
“I don’t know. Just not feasible, I suppose.”
“Anything’s doable, Ava. You just have to want it, then work for it.”
She turned her head to the side. “Other dreams replaced that one.”
“Like becoming a social worker.”
“Yes.”
“When was the last time you saddled up and rode?”
“Oh, I haven’t ridden in years.”
“Let’s fix that.” He walked away and Ava turned around, not sure what he meant by that.
Until he flagged down Joey. The two of them talked and Rick motioned to the horses, then to her. Joey nodded.
Oh, no. He hadn’t.
But when he came toward her with a grin on his face, she was afraid he had.
“Let’s saddle up.”
“Are you serious?”
“Sure. You want to ride, don’t you?”
“Uh, I guess so. But really, you didn’t have to do that.”
“Sure I did. Come on.”
She followed him toward the barn. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Joey said the horses need to be ridden. He said we’d be doing him a favor by taking a couple out.”
There were already a couple horses near the barn, and they were very tame, came over willingly when Rick called them. Ava couldn’t resist drawing closer to one, a chestnut mare with a white star-shaped mark above her eyes. She was simply gorgeous. Ava lifted her hand to the mare’s muzzle and let her get a whiff of her scent so she’d get used to her.
“She likes you,” Rick said as he came over with a saddle. “You want to ride that one?”
“Yes.” She went to take the saddle from Rick. “Here, let me do it.”
“Do you know how?”
She rolled her eyes. “Some things you never forget. Do you know how?”
He grinned. “Of course.”
“And how is that? I thought you grew up in Las Vegas. And then spent time in Chicago. Sounds citified to me.”
“You grew up here. How do you know how to saddle and ride?”
“Good point.” And yet again he’d avoided revealing anything about himself. He sure liked being a man of mystery.
After they’d saddled their horses, Ava mounted hers, realizing it had been a very long time since she’d ridden. But oh, it felt great to be seated again, to feel the strength of a horse underneath her. She was so ready to ride.
They took a slow walk out of the barn and down the road, taking it easy while the horses got used to them. Ava slanted an occasional glance over to Rick, who seated his horse like he’d been born on one.
“Where did you ride before?” she asked.
“I had a friend with horses when I was a kid,” he said. “I helped him out as much as I could, mucking out stalls, brushing the horses. His folks liked me so they taught me to ride.”
“That’s nice. But you didn’t have any of your own.”
He snorted. “Uh, no. Barely had a roof over my head.”
“No wonder you enjoyed spending time with your friend who had horses.”
“Anything was better than being at home.”
“That bad, huh?”
“That bad.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
He looked at her. “What do you think?”
“I think sometimes it’s good to exorcise the pain of the past by getting it out in the open. Do you ever talk about it?”
“Nope.”
“Then it still festers inside you.”
He laughed. “Yeah, you can tell I hold a ton of anger.”
Okay, so he did look relaxed, and he was almost always calm and in control. She’d never seen him angry, but then again she hadn’t known him all that long. But he didn’t project that kind of chip on his shoulder like some men did. The man was a mix of complexities and incongruity. She couldn’t figure him out.
“I’m not a textbook case, Ava. Don’t look for problems that don’t exist.”
“Everyone has problems, Rick. Some just bury them better than others.”
He pulled up on the reins and slowed. She did, too.
“And some of us might be playing at being a social worker.”
She lifted her chin. “I am not.”
“Good.” He clicked the reins and started his horse on a trot.
Ava kept up with him, giving her horse some leg, which she seemed to enjoy. It was exhilarating to bounce in the saddle, reminding her of what it was like when she was a kid. When Rick passed her, she urged her horse on, and soon they were galloping into the pasture. The horses seemed to love going at full tilt. Ava certainly did.
They finally pulled up under a group of trees near one of the small ponds. They climbed off and tied the horses up to give them some time to breathe and get a drink. Rick sat under one of the trees and Ava joined him.
“I’m not making you an experiment, you know.”
He uncapped a bot
tle of water and handed it to her, but didn’t say anything. She took a long drink and handed it back to him. “I don’t like talking about my past.”
“It’s easier to put it behind you if you do.”
“I’ve already talked plenty about it. I don’t want to do it again.”
She turned to face him, crossing her legs over each other. “So you had counseling?”
His lips curled. “You could say that.”
“Did it help?”
He shrugged. “It forced me to face some things I didn’t really want to examine again.”
“Like?”
“There you go again … probing. Maybe you should have been a psychologist.”
Funny he should mention that. “That was Lacey’s major.”
“Was?”
“Yes. She dropped out midway through her master’s.”
“Why?”
“Because she met Bo and joined the Hellraisers.”
“You don’t approve.”
Her head shot up. “What makes you say that?” His smirk irritated her. He seemed to be able to read her so well. Was she that transparent?
“The tone of your voice.”
“Oh. Well, it’s not that I don’t approve.”
“Maybe she didn’t want to be a psychologist after all.”
“I guess not.”
He tilted his head and studied her. “But you don’t believe that.”
She leaned against the trunk of the tree, wondering how the topic had drifted to Lacey, when what she really wanted was to talk about him. But she supposed having someone to talk to about her best friend wasn’t a bad idea. “Honestly? I don’t know what to believe. She had a complete personality transformation in the past year.”
“Since she met Bo.”
“Yes.”
“Falling in love can change someone. Maybe meeting Bo switched her priorities.”
“It shouldn’t.”
“Bo’s lifestyle is a lot different than Lacey’s. Maybe he introduced her to things she’d never known before, forced her to examine the life she had and she found it lacking. Maybe she prefers the life of the Hellraisers to one of academia.”
Huh. She’d never thought of those things. Now it was her turn to study him. “You’re very smart for—”
He laughed. “For what? For a biker?”
“I’m sorry. That didn’t come out like I meant it to.”
