AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was right. I shouldn’t sit there torturing my cock any longer. I should go. I should leave her to her work. I should forget I ever met her and worry about how I was going to get out of here—for my own ass and hers. One amazing ass under that denim.
With a scratch at my stubble, I stood. “All right.”
I couldn’t help myself. As I limped by, I moved closely enough that my fingers grazed over her back pocket. Son of a bitch that I was, I relished in how she shivered just before she jumped away.
I winked. “See ya soon, Bou.”
9
Bou
With two plastic grocery bags gripped in each hand, I marched through the sliding doors into the brilliant Arizona morning. Hot wind blasted my face and whipped my ponytail behind me.
The delivery driver from Sysco skipped over. “Let me help.” Jorge reached for my saddle bags before I could reach my bike and shot me a cheesy grin. Cute smile with his one dimple. It reminded me of the loveable blond kid in that 80s sitcom rerun. Ricky something. Definitely too innocent for this area.
I smiled back and handed him two bags while I put the others away.
Mondays were grocery-delivery day at Mel’s, the only market and one of two business buildings in Park Ridge. I liked to come early to make sure I could get my hands on the best cuts of meat and the ripest veggies. Jorge had been buttering me up weekly for months, but he was an inch shorter than me. Every time he came over, I thought about the “must be this tall” signs at a carnival.
“Thanks, Jorge.” I peered across the street to the tables in front of Louie’s Diner.
He tried to duck back into my line of sight. “I’ve got some time before my next delivery. Maybe—”
With a quick, friendly pat to his name patch, I tilted my head. “You’re sweet. I hate to break the news, but sweet doesn’t stand a fighting chance out here.”
Jorge’s face fell again; always did when I said no. I skirted around him and crossed the street to where Celt was having breakfast with Doc and his wife Kim. They sat at one of the two round concrete tables, each with three built-in benches. Celt dropped his boot to the ground and dusted off the bench next to him. He hit it twice with a thick hand, offering me his footrest as a seat. Doc and Kim snuggled close to one another on the remaining bench. Good thing he was left-handed and she right, because they almost always held hands while they ate.
“Hey doll.” Kim lowered her coffee mug. “Heard you’ve got a wild one up at your shop.”
Doc kissed her neck. “Kimmers... thought I told you to keep that quiet.”
She giggled and pulled her shoulder toward her ear. “Don’t you think it’s about Bou’s time though?” Kim cut her gaze up to me and blinked. “Could be kismet.”
Doc and Kim were both about the age my parents would have been, but she had pixie-like features: wide eyes, pointy nose, and small pink lips. Though her words came across as motherly, she looked only a couple years past thirty.
“No worries.” She clearly hadn’t been clued into the extent of the gang stuff Wilde might be bringing to The Ridge. “But that’s a no-go, Kim. Doc, how long before he can ride?”
Doc chewed the last of his toast then said, “You heard that crunch when I set his leg.”
I fought the urge to wince over the memory.
“That bone’s gotta heal,” Doc continued. “Six weeks, min. He’d do better with eight.”
I traced a crack in the tabletop. “Nothing’s wrong with his right leg. Can we get him a truck, load up his bike, and send him packing?”
My brother was quiet for a change. He pulled the toothpick from his mouth and twirled it between his fingers, lips pursed.
“What gives?” I asked. “You were hot to have him gone yesterday.”
“Thinking.” He flicked his eyes up at me. “Still no sign he’ll hurt you?”
“None.” The word tumbled out quickly, reactively. I shook my head. My brother didn’t need to know about that brush against my jeans, or the purely visceral reaction I seemed to have every time I saw Wilde. And in only that towel. I lifted a hand to scratch behind my ear. “No signs, no. But still, he should go. A truck?”
Celt sighed. “Hard to bring a new vehicle through here without the MC or Rex getting wind of it.”
“Then drive it in from the north and send him back that way.”
My brother huffed. What wasn’t he saying?
