"Oh...wow!" Why had she not noticed this before now? Rick had said this was his favorite room in the house and that in the morning she'd know why. Did she ever.
"Yeah, you understand now, right? It's the only bedroom in the house with this view."
Kelly was speechless. The window took up much of the small wall, and offered an unparalleled view of a lake surrounded by forest. Not another building was in sight, just a long dock extending out from the house and then nothing but trees and water. Birds — hundreds of them — skidded across the surface as they landed, while others peacefully paddled their way around.
"There's, like, a million birds out there!" Kelly didn't know so many birds could inhabit one spot. Sure, she'd seen some documentaries that showed bird breeding grounds but this was different. She felt like she was in the middle of a flock.
Rick chuckled. "Probably not quite that many, but there are a lot. They use this place as a refuge."
"Refuge?"
"Don't ask me how, but they seem to know they're safe here. It's all private property and no hunting is allowed."
"Just ...wow." She relaxed into Rick and gazed with wonder outside the window as birds flew back and forth, creating an idyllic scene just for them. His arm was wrapped around her shoulder, his thumb tracing lazy circles on her upper arm.
She'd always been self-conscious about her flabby arms, rarely wearing sleeveless tops and hoping her boyfriends didn't notice how much they jiggled, but she barely felt a twinge of insecurity lying in Rick's arms. It felt like home.
An alarm bell rang somewhere in her subconscious, warning her that she was venturing into dangerous territory — love territory. She ignored it.
"Want some food?"
Food? What's food? Who needed food when life was this perfect?
She wondered if Rick heard the bells, too.
~ * ~ * ~
In the daylight, the house seemed even more homey than the night before. Warm light cast long shadows here and there, accentuating the golden hues of the logs. They were snuggled up in comfy robes on a log-frame couch covered in puffy pillows and neatly folded quilts after a quick breakfast of steel-cut oats and fresh fruit. Kelly was tucked into his side as they discussed the day's ride.
"I know it's warm right now, babe, but you need proper gear for this trip."
She had insisted that riding in just her skirt wasn't a problem. The wind whipping across her legs was positively sinful, the occasional gust working its way up between them, cooling and titillating her at the same time. Plus, as ridiculous as it sounded, she was afraid bulky leathers would make her look fat. Of course she could never tell him that.
"Let's go into the back room," he was saying, pulling her up by the hand. "I think we can find something that will work."
The back room was filled with motorcycle gear, from parts to clothes to helmets. There was even a vintage Peterson-Knight in mint conditions, painted breathtaking midnight blue with lighter blue flames hand airbrushed on the gas tank. Rick went to a rack of well-worn leathers, selected a set and handed them to her. "Here you go."
She took them and looked around for a place to try them on. Rick leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms, smirking.
"Um, where can I..." Her eyes pleaded with him for mercy.
"Darlin', I've already seen you naked. Why on earth do you suddenly need privacy?"
Kelly flushed. What if they were too small and all her bulges hung out? The thought was mortifying, but he was clearly not letting her out of this, so she stepped into the bottoms.
She couldn't do it facing his grin, so she turned away and shimmied her ass into the pants, letting the robe cover all the jiggly parts. They fit perfectly, she was happy to discover, with maybe even a little extra room. She didn't even have to suck in her tummy to button them. Dropping the robe, she shrugged on the jacket, and it too fit, almost as if it had been made for her.
Delighted, she turned to face Rick, jumping when she saw he'd closed the gap between them and was standing in front of her. She was even more surprised to see his erection standing out proudly from his open robe, pointing right at her. And he still had that grin on his face.
"Damn, look what you do to me!" He grabbed the front of her jacket and pulled her into a hard, needful kiss. He ran his hands under the jacket and up to her breasts, skimming them before snaking around her back and hugging her close. His need for her slid across her bare belly, eliciting a small moan from her.
With an urgency that matched their first time together, Rick worked to get her bottoms off her hips. She helped by wiggling as he tugged. Ducking down to help her step out of them, he paused to press his face into her apex, his tongue slicking along her already wet slit. Her knees nearly buckled as his tongue explored her folds. She gasped as she reached behind her for something — anything — to support her in case the world continued to spin in such a pleasurable manner.
Taking pity on her, Rick slid his hands down her trembling legs to help her out of the pants. Finally freed of them, she moved to shoulder off the jacket but Rick stilled her. "Leave it," he growled, that wicked grin reappearing.
He pulled himself to his full height, towering over her like a predator. Shudders of desire, not fear, ripped through her, flooding her. And when he lunged at his prey, he met no resistance.
His lips crushed hers, his tongue forcing hers into battle, his body overwhelming her. Hands roamed every part of her body, confusing her senses. Were they running across her bottom or skimming her back or fingering her throbbing core or hefting a heavy breast? Her thoughts were too befuddled to follow each one's movements across her burning skin.
Breaking away from the onslaught, Rick spun Kelly around and bent her over the vintage bike, running his hands down the back of the leather jacket to her round ass. Holding a globe in each hand, he knelt and buried his face in her. She could feel his tongue probing her most sensitive places and lost herself in the sensation, moaning his name.
While his mouth was at work, his hands slid down her legs to her ankles, easing them apart, then skimmed back up to join his tongue in probing Kelly's every secret. She felt pressure building inside her. If he kept this up, she'd be over the edge within moments.
Almost as if she'd voiced the thought, Rick sucked at her pulsing nub one last time before standing, positioning himself behind her and working his tip into her dripping opening. With a fierce thrust, he was buried to the hilt.
Their mingled cries of pleasure reverberated around the room but were unheard by the lovers. His lust was so strong, so overpowering that it was all she could do to hold herself upright as he pounded into her.
With a groan, he pulled free of her but maintained his grip on her ass. "I can't hold out with you," he gasped. "You make me crazy."
He nestled his turgid cock in the valley between her cheeks as his rough hands skidded up and down her thighs and hips, making their way under her jacket to her dangling breasts. He pulsed against her ass when his fingers found her taut nipples. Letting go, he knelt again, spreading her apart.
"Everything about you..." His words trailed off as he lapped at her. She had no idea how he did it, but he managed to consume her completely from top to bottom in each mouthful, sending her into spirals of ecstasy. She whimpered with need for him. Just as she was nearing the edge, he pulled away and reentered her.
He moved more slowly this time, with more control. Kelly loved the position for the depth at which he could penetrate her, but she needed some friction to finish the job so she reached down between her legs. She let Rick's slick cock lubricate her fingers, causing him to groan loudly in the process, and then started rubbing her nub.
She matched his speed as he thrust, and she could feel him turning to steel inside her. The harder he thrust, the faster she rubbed, until they both cried out in unison and the universe evaporated.
The release of tension overwhelmed her, forcing her emotions to the surface. She'd never come so hard, never felt such passion, and wh
en he looked at her, she never wanted it to end. But she knew it would, and that was too much to bear. A sob wracked her body.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Rick's voice was full of concern. "Did I hurt you?"
She shook her head, allowing her hair to fall in her face. "I'm just so...I just feel...I dunno."
Rick helped her upright and pulled her head to his shoulder, enfolding her in his arms. Breathing in his scent gave her strength. She composed herself and looked gratefully at him from glistening eyes, smiling. "You just blew my mind. Thanks."
He kissed the tip of her nose. "My pleasure. Now let's get rolling."
~ * ~ * ~
Rick dug out some underclothes for Kelly — wicking layers to soak up the sweat from being encased in leather gear for hours on end. He also found a few other items she might need along the way, and got the bike packed while she finished dressing.
She assumed they would just ride away from the beautiful log house, but Rick had other plans. Instead, he continued on down the access road that ran past the house. It turned out the road, such as it was, ran all the way around the lake. They stopped opposite the house and stepped off the bike to take in the view.
"Really, just...wow," Kelly breathed. Rick wrapped her in his arms, dropped his mouth next to her ear and said, "I couldn't agree more."
Chapter Five
A Kelly lay in bed waiting for Rick to come back from his run, she boggled at how quickly the next couple of days flew by. Rick kept telling her he wished he could show her what the country really looked like but she was constantly amazed at the beauty of everything they saw. They sped through the mountains, thin air, heady scents and spectacular vistas taking her breath away. The desert had the same effect, though some of that was caused by the heat that shimmered off the asphalt.
Each night ended the same, with them making love until they fell unconscious. Each morning started the same, with Rick going for a run and coming back to wake her in the most delicious fashion. And each day they grew closer to Vegas. She knew he felt it, too; it was etched deeper on his face every day.
They shared their deepest fears and even some of their hopes. Over breakfast one morning — just yesterday morning, she realized with a smile — Rick had mentioned riding wherever he needed to go.
"So, you'll ride across country for, say, a business meeting?"
"That's what I'm doing right now," he responded with a wry smile.
Kelly shook her head in confusion. "I don't get it. Why spend all that time on the road when you could get there in a matter of hours on a plane?"
Rick's face darkened. He glanced away from her and said flatly, "I don't fly."
She wondered what had caused his obvious phobia but didn't want to press him. Instead she asked about the cabin again. She couldn't get it out of her mind. It was the kind of place she'd always wanted to call home. She'd been grilling Rick about its construction and design since leaving the place, which delighted him.
"I suppose you could easily sleep 30 in it," he answered. "Sixty if you were really close." He waggled an eyebrow at her and reached across the diner's table to tickle her.
She giggled, and thoughtlessly asked, "Does your family ever have that many guests at once?” She'd been so careful to avoid asking about his family because he seemed to stiffen every time.
Rick stilled and took her hand in his, watching intently as his thumb skimmed circles around one of her knuckles. "I guess I should just tell you. My mom passed away when I was 14 — cancer — and my dad died in a plane crash three years ago. I haven't been on a plane since."
Kelly was stunned by the revelation. Not just the fact of it all but that he shared such personal trauma with her, a short-term fling. "I'm so sorry, Rick."
"Thanks. It was rough. Dad and I were tight. We'd ride to all the rallies around the country together, and he taught me the biz. It'd been the two of us for so long, and then I was alone. I couldn't handle it."
His hand swept through his hair, which she now recognized as a sign of frustration. "I did some pretty stupid stuff. Drank...a lot, even smoked a little pot."
He laughed darkly. "People think I'm some badass druggie biker but, truth is, my dad would've killed me if he'd ever caught me smoking grass, much less anything stronger. I didn't even like it."
Out of the corner of her eye, Kelly saw their waitress start to approach their table but, noticing the moment they were sharing, changed directions and went back to the kitchen.
"I think I was drunk for about a month solid after the funeral." He'd been absentmindedly playing with Kelly's fingers as he talked, and now he began picking at one of her nails.
"I'd go to dance clubs, strip clubs, parties, anywhere there was booze and enough sound and lights to distract me. I don't remember most of those nights, one night in particular."
His green eyes flicked up at her from under his impossibly long lashes.
"This one morning, I woke up to find a pretty girl next to me. Wasn't really out of the ordinary during that time, but I usually remembered something about them. This one was a blank."
He chuckled again, without humor. "I remember sitting up and rubbing my face, thinking maybe I was seeing things, when I felt something weird. I looked at my left hand and there was a ring on it."
Rick brought his face up. What he was saying dawned on her. "You got married."
"I got married. Dumbest thing. That's when I snapped out of my funk or grief or whatever it was. My immediate thought was to get a divorce — they're almost as easy to get in Nevada as the marriage license — but then I thought about what my dad would say and I knew I had to at least give it a go."
He shrugged. "I tried to make it work, I really did. But we didn't love each other, never did. Plus she wasn't exactly an angel. In the end, she gave me good reason to leave...and get tested for STDs."
His sad, crooked smile made her heart break. She grasped his hand in both of hers. "That sucks."
He nodded and changed the subject. "What about you? Any cliched drunken weddings in your past?”
Kelly laughed. "No, closest I've ever come to walking down that plank was a boyfriend who thought I didn't notice him moving his stuff into my place little by little. Turns out he got booted from a house share and thought I wouldn't mind him living with me. I let him spend one more night, then while he was off doing whatever he did during the day — cuz I know it wasn't working — I neatly stacked all his shit outside and had the locks changed."
Rick brayed. When he could finally breathe again, he asked, "How'd he take it?"
"Not well," Kelly admitted. "But he was a little guy and he knew I could kick his ass if he gave me any trouble so..." She shrugged.
Rick could barely contain himself, he was laughing so hard. "Priceless!"
~ * ~ * ~
"Give me two minutes," Rick said breathlessly as he rushed in the door of the room straight to the shower. She loved that about him, how he always took care to be clean for her.
The time they'd spent on the road together over the last few days had been a dream, even if the places they'd been spending their nights in were the complete opposite of what she was expecting. When Rick pulled into a fleabag motel along the side of a busy highway the night they left the cabin, Kelly wondered if the bike had died.
"Is something wrong?" she'd asked through the helmet mic.
"Nope, just gonna grab us a room." Rick hopped off the bike and opened the office door, brass bells tied to the handle with hot pink yarn announcing his arrival. She heard loud voices and peeked inside to see Rick giving a big hairy guy a man-hug and slapping him on the back.
Kelly had barely pulled the helmet from her sweaty head when he was in front of her again with a key. "Let's go."
"What about the bike?"
"Bike's fine. Manager's an old buddy." He gave her a wink. "No one's even going to so much as look at it without meeting Mr. Remington."
"How good of a friend can he be if you call him 'Mister'?"
Ri
ck stopped mid-stride to look her full in the face. The motel's ancient neon sign flickered silently behind him as he regarded her. Then he burst into laughter.
Kelly's back went stiff. She was about to ask just what the hell was so funny when he wrapped her in his strong arms. "You're something else," he chuckled, bending down to nuzzle her neck. Her defensiveness melted away as he delivered a series of sweet kisses along the outline of her ear. She could have stayed there all night in the parking lot of that grimy motel with Rick nibbling her various parts, but modesty got the better of her and she pulled him toward the single-level bank of rooms.
As it turned out, Rick had biker friends in just about every part of the country. The ones that ran motels treated him like family and kept a careful eye on his custom bike, so it was no wonder he preferred them over anonymous chain hotels.
Once she got over the initial surprise of it, Kelly had no problems with the rooms. After all, they were no worse than her rathole apartment back home, and in this rathole she had a gorgeous man who wanted to do all sorts of wild and wonderful things to her body.
And now that man was out of the shower, dripping wet and hard as a rock.
~ * ~ * ~
"I wish we'd had more time," Rick whispered in her ear as he slowly stroked her body.
Kelly moaned. Their lovemaking was taking a slow and easy turn, a sweet change from their typically frenzies of lust. "We have all the time in the world, baby."
"No, I mean for the trip. It's almost over."
"What are you talking about? I thought we had two weeks?" Panic started rising in Kelly's chest. Any thought of catching a bus home had left her that very first night. She knew she needed to enjoy as much time as she could with Rick before their little road trip ended, even if it meant a broken heart. Could he be ending it now?
"We do, we do." He continued stroking her length, soothing her. "But we're just a couple hours out of Vegas now, and I'm going to get pretty busy."
Relief washed over her. "Oh, I don't mind."
"Well, I do," he snapped. Kelly's brow furrowed. He'd never used a harsh tone with her before.
Vegas Knights Page 5
