Page 8 of Riding Bare

I turn around and walk toward the small dining room. He follows behind me. I reach for the chair, pulling it out slightly before I sink down. I smile as he places a bag in the center of the table, then I blink as he places another bag down.

Tilting my head to the side, I shift my gaze up to meet his. “Two bags?”

“It’s The Dillinger,” he states, as if that should make perfect sense to me.

Now I’m excited for what’s in those bags. As much as I want to reach into them, I wait for him. My stomach twists and growls the moment he opens a bag and the scents reach my nose.

Whatever is in that bag, I need in my mouth… immediately… if not sooner.

“Are you ready to have your mind blown?” Dare asks.

Shifting my gaze up to meet his, I stare into his green eyes. They are mesmerizing, and I notice that there are flecks of gold in them. Maybe they aren’t green so much as hazel. Whatever they are, I imagine that when he’s turned on, they’re absolutely amazing.

When Dare begins taking things out of the bags and opening the containers, my entire body trembles. Every single container he opens contains food that looks better than the last. There are a couple of burgers, sweet potato fries, Parmesan-covered fries, a tuna melt, and desserts.

“How are we going to eat all of this?” I ask, shifting my attention between the open containers.

He snorts. “Mama,” he grunts, “this won’t be nothin’. It’s The Dillinger.” I see now that it’s a big deal. At least to my nose, it’s a huge deal. “We’ll eat family style or whatever,” Dare announces.

He stands and walks into the kitchen. A few moments later, he appears with a knife. I watch as he cuts both burgers and the tuna melt in half, then sets the knife down. Dare reaches for half of one of the burgers and brings it to his mouth. He takes a bite, no fucks given, and begins to chew.

Reaching for the other half of the burger, I bring it to my lips, open my mouth, and sink my teeth into the soft bread, biting back a moan the moment the juicy meat and sauce touch my tongue.

The Dillinger, indeed.

It’s amazing.

Next, I reach for a Parmesan fry and moan when the taste of truffle oil touches my tongue.

“Good?” he asks. With burger in one cheek and a fry in the other, I shift my gaze up to meet his.

“Amazing,” I murmur.

Dare chuckles, his pretty, green-and-golden, glittery eyes dancing as he watches me. He’s making it very hard not to be attracted to him right now. Not that it’s hard not to be attracted to him all the time.

He’s hot as hell.

Him being hot quickly takes a back seat as I begin to shovel food into my mouth. Sweet potato fries, truffle fries, burgers, tuna melt. My god, I’ve never had so much amazing food from take-out containers in my life. And that’s saying a lot because Vegas has some outstanding food.

I can’t wait for dessert, though. I think I smell a hint of peanut butter somewhere.

CHAPTER

SIX

DARE

I watch Chassis eat, and as I do, it dawns on me that I’ve never actually watched a woman eat before. Kaitlin didn’t eat. She did a lot of drugs, but she didn’t eat. And at the time, it seemed normal because I wasn’t necessarily clean, either.

We were young and partying until she ended up so deep in her addiction that it was clear she couldn’t dig herself out of it. It began to rule her life and take complete control of every part of her. No matter how hard Wrath and I both tried to dig her out, she didn’t want to quit, and she sure as fuck didn’t want help.

I can’t believe that Kaitlin even entered my thoughts and so deep into them in just a few seconds’ time. I’ve spent years trying to forget she even existed, that my part in her fate existed, but she keeps coming back to haunt me, which, to be fair, she probably should.

It wasn’t a good time in my life, and I’m not proud of what I did to her. I was desperate, Wrath was desperate, and in the end, so was Kaitlin. I had no way of knowing how to deal with her addiction, though. And I had no way to fix her.

“You look a million miles away,” Chassis murmurs.

I take the last fry, pop it into my mouth, and chew a few times before I swallow. My body jerks slightly as I’m brought back to this reality, and I am able to lock the past away.