Road Warriors (Motorcycle Club Romance Collection) (Bad Boy Collections Book 4)

by Faye, Amy

  She'd go by the hospital in a few hours, but first she was going to settle down with a book, and actually do some of the reading that she'd been hoping to do. That was what she hoped for, at least. Sometimes she got distracted doing other things. Like, for example, skimming through Twitter.

  There were plenty of things that she could do to pass the time, if she wanted to. But that wasn't what she was aiming for. She was aiming, if at all possible, to try to actually do something productive with her time, which was exactly what wasn't likely to happen.

  Her face dropped. Now she just had to figure out what else she was going to do while she waited. Her fingers rapped on the table, and she looked around. The bookshelf, sadly, was on the wrong side of the room, and after she'd forgotten to plug her phone in for the night, Caroline wasn't about to unplug it while she waited for Dana to get back.

  She could hear someone coming up to the phone. Another voice answered this time. "Hello, who's this?"

  "Hey, Shelly, it's Caroline."

  "Oh, hey, what's up?"

  "Do you see Dana around? She's supposed to be getting my schedule for next week."

  The woman on the other end of the line audibly sighed. "No, I don't, sorry."

  "Great." Caroline's eyes shut and she tried to quiet the sense of frustration that had long-since started building up inside her. "Thanks, Shelly. Hey, have a good day, will you?"

  "I'm trying my best," Shelly answered, her voice resigned. The shift change was only an hour ago, and people were likely only just getting into the groove. Six, seven hours from now, and everyone would be hours past worn out, but they'd at least be working efficiently. But for now, the tiredness of the day before still hadn't washed off, and the long hours hadn't yet put them into the mindset that there was nothing to do but to wait and keep working.

  "Yeah, thanks."

  "Oh, here she is," Shelly said, and Caroline could just about hear the voices speaking far away from the phone's mouthpiece. Too quiet to hear the words, but loud enough to recognize the voices. A second later, the sound of the handset being picked up again and Dana's voice spoke to her.

  "Yeah," she said, "Sorry. I had to go looking, it wasn't posted here."

  That was a mistake, but as Dana started to go on, another sound caught her attention. The sound of the bathroom door turning. Her eyes naturally flicked over, and as Dana started telling her that she was going to be working next Tuesday, Caroline stopped listening as her roommate, all six-foot-three of him, all hundred-and-ninety pounds of him, stepped out.

  Notably, there wasn't much else that stepped out with him. It wasn't the first time that she'd seen him without his clothes on; after all, the very first one had been in flagrante delicto.

  But it was the first time that he'd walked around the house without any clothes on. His hair, always dark, was almost black, matted to his hair by the water of the shower, and he walked more confidently than he had any right to past. She watched his ass, tight and muscular, sway as he walked.

  Then, right as he was about to step out of view, he turned to look over his shoulder and actually winked at her. Winked! Jesus! Caroline's face blanched, and then turned a deep shade of scarlet to match the red shirt she'd slept in the night before and hadn't bothered to take off.

  "I'm sorry, Dana, what was that? I was distracted for a second."

  "I'll say you were," Dana replied. "What happened, you see a unicorn?"

  "Uh, not exactly, no."

  Dana repeated the schedule. Caroline, for her part, wrote it down on a pad of paper and then read it back. Dana confirmed, and Caroline thanked her, and then they hung up the phone. Her heart was pounding in her chest. He'd known she was watching, that was for sure. Had it been intentional, or was he just not particularly opposed to her seeing?

  He certainly wasn't shy, she knew that much. She'd already seen enough of him that there weren't many surprises to find, before he'd ever even moved in. But that was a little bit different than seeing him wandering around, his cock dangling out for the whole world to see.

  Something inside her bent and threatened to snap. She couldn't walk around like that. She'd loved being naked, loved how freeing it all felt. Loved how much more convenient it was not to have to wash clothes that she only wore to keep herself covered in her own house.

  It wasn't really her house, of course, it was Dad's house, but six months by herself had given Caroline plenty of time to get used to the idea of running around in her skin, and she'd been the one that had to give that up for a roommate. Now he was doing the exact same thing, and to make matters worse he apparently thought it was something she wanted to see!

  'Wasn't it?' A voice in her head whispered. 'You certainly didn't seem too opposed to seeing him like that when he was fucking Deborah. You can't lie to yourself; you were thinking about what it must have been like. To fuck like an animal.'

  She pushed the thoughts away. That might have been true, at the time, but she wasn't about to let herself think it. She certainly wasn't going to let herself imagine what it would be like to have him behind her, digging at her insides with that long, hard...

  Think of something else, she insisted. Think about television shows. Think about food. Think about anything but him, because if she did, then she wasn't sure how long precisely she was going to be able to stay out of the spare room. And she knew, in spite of herself, that if she wanted it then all she had to do was ask.

  She could ask, of course. It wouldn't hurt anyone but her. It could even be fun, in its own way. She could get as much enjoyment out of it as she gave, and it wouldn't have to be surrendering to him. Something told her that there was never any other way with Shannen O'Brien. When he went for something, he never gave. He took.

  She imagined for a moment what that must be like. Her stomach twisted up and she forced herself not to think about it. Again. And hopefully, maybe, this time it would actually stick for a second.

  Her body tingled in the space between her hips. She squeezed them together, checked the charge on her phone, which was barely adequate, and decided that whatever she was going to do, she'd need to be able to concentrate first. That meant that she had to get certain things out of her head, and the only way she was going to do that was either in his bedroom, or in the privacy of her own.

  She headed for her room, locked the door, opened up her laptop, laid her head back against the headboard, and tried to think about anything other than her tenant as her fingers started to move, started to tease out feelings that she knew deep down that she couldn't keep going without for much longer.

  She wasn't sure that she succeeded, but she could certainly keep pretending to herself, at least a little bit longer. Her eyes closed, the laptop laid aside, and she moved her fingers and imagined being fucked by someone with a startlingly familiar body, a startlingly familiar face, and an attitude that would, hopefully, be enough to keep her from testing the fantasy out in real life.

  8

  Caroline Rice was past the point where ignoring him was going to work any longer. There were other things she needed to consider, and as much as Shannen O'Brien walking through the hallways with his cock out and every muscle on his body, as well as every bruise and scrape and scar, was distracting as hell and not something that she wanted to remotely condone, she had to be an adult about it.

  After all, she wasn't about to get away from him by doing anything else. If she were being realistic, if she were looking at things like an adult would, then she had to recognize that at some point, it was pointless to have a roommate to cover things like rent and food when you never collected their rent.

  And if she continued to avoid him, then she was going to have to make a decision about whether or not to let him stay rent-free. Since that wasn't going to happen, not in a million years, there were other things that she had to consider instead. Like, for example, whether or not she was going to talk to him, or wait for him to bring up his rent by himself.

  She'd never had any luck with waiting for thing
s to go the way she wanted. He had been the exact same way, so far. Then again, she didn't exactly know what it was that she wanted, only that whatever it was, she wanted the hell out of it.

  Her stomach twisted up in a knot and she forced her eyes shut, in spite of herself. She'd have to talk to him. It had been a week, and by now he had probably forgotten the whole thing, except for the fact that she was the one who no doubt kept reminding him.

  If she didn't, then he would have ignored the entire incident, and she would have been just as happy if he had. That was really all that she wanted. Instead, he'd been looking at her with increasing interest. She wasn't a woman any more; she wasn't even a landlord, to Shannen.

  She was a mountain to climb. A fight to win. He was here to take the belt from some guy that she didn't even know about, and now he apparently was going to take her 'belt,' as well, if he had his way. All because she was making herself a challenge. She was letting him under her skin, and furthermore she was letting him know about it, and that was always going to be a losing combination with a man like him.

  She ran her fingers through her hair, shaking it out and loose and hoping that she didn't look like a complete psychotic. If she went to check a mirror, though, it would feel like she was actually worried what Shannen thought, and that was an entire different set of problems.

  She shook her head, letting her hair fall, pushed it behind her ears, hoped again for luck that it would be enough, and then forced herself to move. Shannen O'Brien was a great many things, but he wasn't intimidating. She was a nurse, now. Or, she was almost a nurse, now, and it paid to get into the mindset before she was stuck adrift at sea with nothing to rely on but an attitude she'd utterly failed to develop.

  How would Sarah have dealt with him? Firm, severe, and not an ounce of nonsense. That was how Sarah would have done it and it had to be how Caroline was going to do it because she wasn't going to let him walk all over her, no matter what he thought he was going to be able to get away with. She promised herself that, even if it didn't count for a good god damn when it came to actually doing it.

  He was in his room, like he usually was. He rarely left the room except to leave the house, but that was even more true once she had let it be known that she was pissed at him, and she was intending to ignore everything about him, with every fiber of her being.

  She knocked at his door and waited for him to answer. He didn't, not right away. Not the way that she'd expected, at least. He seemed to wait, as if that was somehow going to put him in a better position to throw her off-guard. As soon as she started thinking that maybe he wasn't in there after all, he answered the door. He was wearing pants this time, at least. The jeans fit tight in the thigh, but his belt was tight around his waist and made the waist of the jeans inside them scrunch up like her scrubs.

  "Is something wrong?"

  "It's the twenty-sixth," she said simply.

  He looked at her dully for a minute, and for an instant she thought he might just have every intention of not paying, in spite of the fact that he'd been more than ready to promise to pay extra as long as she didn't try to kick him out.

  Then his eyes lit up. "Oh, right. Yeah. I've got the check right here."

  He turned and grabbed something from the table. True to his word, it was a check, one with her name on it, and one that had the words 'Nine Hundred Dollars and 00/100' written on it.

  "Thank you," Caroline said. The surprise must have touched her voice because he looked at her impassively, as if he might have actually been offended. Nothing that Shannen had ever showed up to that point indicated that he felt anything other than pride and greed, but now he seemed downright upset that she thought he would forget.

  "Yeah, right. No problem."

  "Hey, I didn't mean it like that."

  He shrugged and turned away, closing the door with one hand. The pose was surprisingly dynamic, she thought sourly. A man's body shouldn't be allowed to look like that, not when there were women around, trying to maintain one single ounce of their dignity and self-control.

  The tiny muscles that wrapped around his ribs were surprisingly visible. They shouldn't have been, she thought. It seemed like a fighter ought to have had a little bit of fat on him. Wouldn't that have absorbed the blows a little easier? But he was careful with his food, and he the whole day at the gym, almost every day.

  The days he didn't, he stayed in his room, and she could softly hear the sounds of his training even then. She shivered and put her hand on the door before it could close.

  "Wait," she said. He turned and looked at her. His expression was flat and surprisingly puppy-dog-esque.

  "Something else?"

  "I don't mean to be a bitch," she said, and smiled hopefully. Maybe that would be enough to convince him at least for a minute that she wasn't a complete God damned psychopath. That was enough to hope for, anyways.

  "I never said you were one."

  "That's why I said it," Caroline said. She tried to keep up the hopeful, bashful expression and hoped that it worked on him. What she hoped that it would do, she didn't much want to think about, but she hoped it did something, anyways.

  "Well, you're not a bitch. You're right to stay away from me, boss."

  His words were soft, kind, even. But nothing else about him was, she thought. He looked like he was tightening up and loosening all over again every time he moved. When he moved, nothing jiggled, not even a little bit. Well... there was one thing about him that did, and she'd seen it twice now, and it occupied a much larger part of her mind than she wanted it to.

  "I want to apologize anyways."

  "Apology accepted," he told her, and pushed the door again.

  "You want to grab something to eat tonight? I'm not loaded, so it'll have to be something, you know, easy. But I'll buy."

  He looked at her for a long time. That look showed itself on his face again. That expression that he was looking at her like a mountain climber looked at the Rockies. Hungry for something that she wasn't remotely ready to tell herself to give him. Something that she was desperately afraid that she would, if she lost control of herself for an instant.

  "Tonight, then," he said. She watched his jaw tighten. His eyes flicked down to look at her. She didn't enjoy it, she told herself, but that tingling feeling between her legs made the lie clear for what it was.

  "Tonight. See you in a little bit, I ought to go, you know. Get ready, and stuff."

  "Sure, no problem," he said. She moved her hand and he shut the door and she tried desperately not to let herself think about what a mistake she was probably making. Because if she did, she might not let herself make it.

  9

  The call from the cops, at least, was a surprise. There was nothing that anyone needed to talk to her about. Nothing at all, as far as Caroline was concerned. She was a nursing student, and Dad was in the hospital. If Shannen had done something, then it wasn't impossible to believe that someone would come by looking for him.

  But asking for her specifically, that was a surprise.

  "Caroline Rice?"

  The man looked like all men in uniform did; a little more attractive and a lot more impressive than maybe she should have thought they were. Knowing that she shouldn't have found it so enticing didn't change anything, and no matter how much time Caroline spent in her room, having Shannen running around, shirt or not, pants or not, was a long way past grating on her. Every moment felt like she was dangerously close to pulling a hair trigger on something that she wasn't really prepared to think too hard about.

  "Yes, what's the problem, Officer?"

  "You're Thomas Rice's daughter, yes?"

  "That's correct," she said. Her face twisted up into a frown. Dad was fine, she assured herself. He was at the hospital. If he was starting to take a turn, then someone would have called her to tell her to come in. She hadn't missed any calls, and there was no reason to be worried. There had to be no reason. She was sure of that. Whatever he was going to say, it was obviously going to be a
mistake. Right?

  "Do you know of your father's business on Stark road?"

  Caroline frowned. "I'm aware of it, yes; why, is there a problem?"

  "I'm afraid there is, ma'am. May we come inside?"

  She blinked. If they came inside, if she invited them inside, then they were free to look around. And if Shannen had done something, then there was going to be a lot of trouble for her to deal with, and all of it was going to come down on her head.

  "Um. I'd rather not. Is there something I should be worried about? That shop should be closed down, Officer. I don't think that there's any trouble for it."

  He took a breath and looked up at the sky, as if any moment there was going to be something coming down from it. As if he were expecting trouble at any second.

  "Yeah, I hear you, ma'am. Maybe it'd be better if you just followed us. Do you have a key to the store, or no?"

  "I can get one, yes."

  "Alright, you had better come along with us, then. It's easier that way."

  Caroline's face contorted in confusion and nervousness, in spite of herself.

  "Okay, then," she agreed. It was better than nothing, she supposed. That was what she had to tell herself, anyways. Because the alternative was that she sit down and try to figure out what they were doing, and in the end she was just going to go to Dad's shoe repair place anyways to figure out why they'd come along. She could at least follow behind them in the Toyota.

  "Got it," she called out. As if they were worried that she might not have, or something. The thought didn't really occur to her until she'd already said it how weird it must have sounded. By that point, the words were already out of her mouth.

  "And you want me, what, to follow you to the store?"

  "If that's no trouble."

  She looked down at the watch on her arm. It was trouble if it took more than another two hours, before supper. But if it didn't, or she just left when it became trouble, then no, it was no trouble at all.

  "I mean as long as I'm free to make my dinner date."