Heat Wave Box Set: Volumes I-III Page 12

  He shook his head. “Not really the wine type.”

  “I suppose being a bartender, I should have sensed that.”

  Working together we finished up fairly fast. Ryker moved at a much better pace than Gordy. Ryker actually talked less, but his silent glances made it much harder to concentrate on my tasks than a conversation with his uncle.

  Ryker headed over to the jukebox as I finished wiping down the counter. “I still haven’t heard you sing,” He combed back his long dark hair with his fingers as he perused the songs in the box.

  “I sang tonight. You missed it.”

  “Damn.” He pulled out two quarters. “Does the singer like to dance as well?”

  “This singer does like to dance, but she prefers slow dances.”

  “I only dance slow,” he said. “No reason to be out on the floor with a woman if you can’t hold her in your arms.” He glanced back toward the bar. “Now, I know you’re wearing the cowboy boots and jean skirt because that’s the uniform, but I’m going to guess that you are more rock-n-roll than country.”

  “Good guess.”

  He tapped the glass of the jukebox with his quarters as he stared into it. “This thing hasn’t been updated in awhile.”

  I hung up my apron and walked around to sit on a stool with my glass of wine.

  “Axl Rose,” he said without looking up from the music list, “turn on or turn off?”

  “Turn on.”

  “I could have guessed that too,” he said with confidence. He dropped in the quarters and November Rain flowed out from the speakers.

  I laughed. “You wanted not just a slow dance but a really long slow dance.”

  “Paradise City didn’t really work in this context.” He strolled to the center of the room and held out his hand.

  I took one more sip of wine and placed the glass down. Then I hopped off the stool and walked toward him. His large fingers wrapped around mine, and he pulled me close. He was solid and big as a brick wall as I leaned against him. I’d been slightly nervous the entire time we were cleaning, but I relaxed as soon as his arm went around me. In fact, I felt completely at ease with him as if I was used to being in his arms. And I had no idea why.

  We drifted over the still slightly gritty floor and listened to Axl croon out the lyrics to November Rain, feeling inexplicably comfortable in each other’s presence. It might have been because my first introduction to the man was cleaning and bandaging his wounds, but I felt as if I already knew him well. Of course, I knew there were probably a million things about the guy I didn’t know and probably didn’t want to know.

  He leaned back and lifted my chin with his fingers. “There it is— that curvy bottom lip,” he said quietly. “That plump bottom lip has been on my mind all damn day.” With that he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me. It wasn’t a hard, punishing kiss. It was gentle and coaxing. My knees softened with each stroke of his tongue. The kiss continued and got deeper, not rougher, just deeper, and with slow deliberate teases his tongue ran along my lips. I melted against him. He’d come straight off a road trip on a bike, raw, rough around the edges and frighteningly powerful, and, yet, his kisses made me feel as if I was being kissed by a prince from a damn fairy tale.

  I popped up onto the toes of my boots and wrapped my arms around his neck. His hands went to my waist as his kisses continued. His hands were calloused and strong as he slid them beneath my shirt. We broke from the kiss just long enough for him to pull the shirt off over my head. There I was in my lacy bra, standing in the center of the bar I worked in, with a man who was little more than a stranger, and one who I might not get into an elevator alone with if I didn’t know him. This wasn’t just me adapting to a new lifestyle where properness, elite attitudes and expected behaviors were no longer important. This was me being genuinely excited about spending time with a man who was completely different than anyone else I’d ever been with. I wanted him to take off every stitch of my clothing and do everything my dirty imagination could drum up.

  I peered up into his green eyes. His lids were heavier now as he looked down at me.

  “Has the ‘one day’ started yet?” I asked softly.

  “It has.” His fingers pushed the straps of my bra off my shoulders, and my breasts popped free.

  He reached up and rubbed his thumb over my nipple. It hardened against his touch. He unfastened my bra and pushed it off completely. “God, Emerie, you are beautiful.” He lowered his head and ran his tongue over my breasts just as he had with my lips.

  I tangled my fingers in his long hair and held him against me, assuring him that I wanted his mouth there on my taut nipples. My head lolled back, and I was lost in the dizzying pleasure of his mouth, so lost that I hadn’t, at first, noticed that he’d pushed my skirt down to the floor.

  I stepped out of my skirt and stood in his arms dressed in just my panties and cowboy boots. He lifted his face and smiled down at my provocative wardrobe. “Shit, if Gordy let you serve drinks in this outfit, you’d make a million in tips the first month.”

  “Not sure if I need the money that badly. It’s one thing standing like this in front of you . . .”

  He grabbed me a little harder this time. His well-maintained restraint seemed to be crumbling now, and I was glad. “You’re right. You save this look just for me.” He kissed me again. “Just for me. Now leave the boots on and walk over to that barstool.”

  The wine and my new resolve to enjoy this gave me the courage to strut over to the stool.” I glimpsed back at him. He wore the expression I was hoping for, hungry and close to losing control.

  I stopped in front of the counter and rested my hands on it, jutting my ass out and giving it a shake just for fun. Fun, there was that word. Maybe I hadn’t lost the ability to have fun after all because I was having a damn good time. Loud footsteps closed in on me.

  I sucked in a breath as he yanked my panties down. The gentle, methodical approach had been replaced by a sense of urgency. I was feeling it too. My pussy was wet and it ached to be touched. I tried to turn around but he pressed my hands back against the bar. “Stick that beautiful ass out just like you were doing.”

  I sensed him kneeling behind me. My panties had me hobbled. The material ripped as he tore them off of me. My breath was coming in short spurts as his face neared my ass. I pushed it out, thinking of only one thing, him between my legs. I wanted him to touch me, to penetrate me, to make me come.

  “Spread your thighs for me, baby.”

  I moved my boot to the side and eagerly spread my legs open. He was on his knees behind me, and when his mouth pressed against my ass, I nearly lost my grip on the counter. His hand slid around to the front of my pussy. His fingers ran between the cream covered folds. I moaned as he found my clit. He massaged it with his thumb as his fingers slid inside of me. My knees buckled briefly, and I clutched at the bar to keep myself upright. But it wasn’t easy. As his fingers worked my pussy, his tongue slid over my ass. Then, without warning, he pushed a finger from his free hand into my anus. I clenched against the penetration at first, but he pushed his finger deeper. Then I found myself pushing against the penetration of his finger, while his other hand coaxed hot, slick moisture from my pussy. I rocked against both penetrations, the one in between my legs and the one coming from behind.

  “That’s it, baby, take me in deeper. I want you to come. I want to see your entire body spasm with an oragasm. I want your pussy to tighten around my hand.”

  His erotic commands, my complete exposure and the sensation of knowing that an incredible man was knelt down between my legs took me to a place where it seemed my mind no longer had control of my body, as if the pleasure he was producing was too intense for my brain to absorb.

  My fingers whitened as I gripped the counter edge. “God yeah,” I cried as I came, his fingers still deep inside adding t
o the waves of extreme pleasure that pulsed through me.

  One last shuddering gasp shot from my lips. My head dropped, and I thought I would crumple to the floor as he pulled his fingers from me. He caught me before my knees gave out. Ryker lifted me into his arms. I could barely focus on his face. My head was in a muddle, and it seemed the room was spinning around us.

  He kissed my lips. “And that was just the first fifteen minutes.”

  I leaned my head against his shoulder, wondering just how long it would take me to recoup. “Holy shit, I’m never going to look at that counter the same way again.”

  His green eyes looked darker in the dim light above the bar. “Have you forgotten him yet?”

  I smiled up at him. “Forgotten who?”

  “As much as I hate saying these words— get dressed, my little wanton, searching for fun, twenty-four hour play friend. We’re going on a ride.”

  Chapter 8

  I’d pulled on a sweatshirt, jeans and high top tennis shoes. Not terribly sexy but more practical for a night ride on a Harley. The air had cooled off with a mild night breeze. The moon and stars stood starkly in a lacy black sky as we pulled out onto the highway. Without hesitation, I’d climbed onto the back of the motorcycle, thinking just how right he looked on it with his big shoulders hunched over the handlebars and his long, thick thighs straddling the bike’s chassis.

  I wrapped my arms around him. His stomach muscles were tight as steel beneath my fingers as the bike vibrated beneath us. It was still a few hours before dawn, that eerily quiet section of night after the bars had all cleared out, and only people who worked at night or people who preferred night to day were still out and about. In college, I’d dated a guy named Chuck who rode a motorcycle, but this was a whole different experience. Ryker was a whole different experience too. The erotic moments in the bar had left me almost breathless with anticipation.

  After a few minutes of watching the asphalt race by, I relaxed enough to rest my body against his back. Hard, strong and invincible, much like the man, it was the type of back that could make a girl feel safe.

  I should have been dead tired, but I was too damn excited. I only hoped I wasn’t diving into something so amazing that I was going to miss it dreadfully when it was over. And, with a man like Ryker, it would no doubt be over the second another woman caught his eye.

  We pulled off the highway and headed up a long, semi-paved road. The moon peered down from above as if it was directing us to our destination. Through the thin cotton of my sweatshirt, I could sense that the temperature was dropping quickly. There was more moisture in the air. In the few weeks that I’d been working at Gordy’s, I hadn’t really ventured out of a five mile radius of the bar. I had no idea where Ryker was taking me, but the distinctive smell in the air reminded me of a lake that my parents had always taken me to for summer vacation.

  The farther we traveled, the taller and greener the trees grew. I couldn’t really sense the altitude from the back of the bike, but the pressure in my ears and drop in temperature told me that we were climbing to a higher elevation. Ryker turned the bike onto a long dirt road, and we parked in front of a small cabin. Behind the cabin moonlight reflected off water.

  We got off the bike and I stared up at the cabin. “I love it.”

  Ryker smiled proudly at the quaint log structure. “My grandfather built it about fifty years ago. The club uses it sometimes, but most of the time it’s vacant.”

  “The club,” I repeated. “What exactly does this club do? What do you do, for that matter? Other than riding from bar to bar saving the honor of innocent women.”

  “We have some businesses,” he said.

  “Uh huh.” I raised a brow his direction.

  He lifted his hands up. “Hey, they are all legit. The last generation of Horsemen used to be more of an outlaw club, but we’ve straightened up a lot. Better to be making money without watching your back and waiting for the bullet or jail sentence with your name on it.”

  I nodded. “That’s nice to hear.”

  “After what just happened in the middle of my uncle’s bar, and your workplace, now you’re asking? If I’d told you that we were dealing in illegal guns, would you have asked me to take you back to town?”

  The truth was I was relieved to hear that he was making money legally, but I was so fucking intrigued by the man I wasn’t completely sure I would have turned around and headed home. I looked up at him. “I promised you one day without asking, didn’t I? The hours are slipping away.”

  He nodded. “Right. I guess we won’t be needing the fireplace though which sort of sucks.” He turned to me and pulled me into his arms. During the ride, being pressed against his back with his hard stomach muscles flexing and moving beneath my hands had brought back some of the urgency I’d felt just hours before in the bar when he’d so deftly brought me to mind-blowing climax with just his fingers and his mouth.

  His hands slid beneath my sweatshirt. “But I’m sure we can entertain ourselves even without a blazing fire. In fact, the warm air makes complete nakedness much more inviting. And I’m always all for complete nakedness.”

  I dragged my fingers across the black stubble on his strong jaw. “It occurs to me that while you’ve seen me completely naked, I’ve only seen your bare chest, and that didn’t really count because you were so covered in blood you might as well have been wearing a shirt.”

  “You weren’t naked either,” he said. “You were wearing boots, a look that has now become etched into my memory forever. In fact, just thinking about it now makes me wish you’d kept those damn boots on.” He lowered his arms and took hold of my hand. “Come on. Now that we’ve been talking about it, I need to get you naked, and fast.”

  The inside, like the outside, was a mix of cozy and rustic and man. The lamps in the cabin showered a warm, ivory glow over the small room, which was more brick hearth than anything else. The fireplace took up one half of a wall and the used brick mantle and hearth were the focal point of the room. There was a small overused leather couch and easy chair opposite the brick fireplace. It was more than obvious that the club members spent a lot of time there. A pyramid of beer cans stretched along one wall from floor to ceiling.

  I laughed and looked back at him as he opened the sliding glass door leading to a deck, a swath of grass and a lake. “Let me guess— ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall?”

  “More like nine hundred and ninety-nine and those are cans.” He took my hand and spun me toward him. “Now, about that nakedness.”

  I stepped back. “Nope, you first. I’ve already bared all but I could take off my shoes and show you my feet just for argument’s sake.”

  Ryker reached back and yanked his shirt off over his head.

  I couldn’t stop myself from releasing a sigh. He heard it and grinned.

  I walked up to him and pressed my fingers against the wound I’d been cleaning blood from just days before. He’d taken off the bandages. “It’s healing nicely,” I said.

  “I had a good doctor.” He reached for the button on his pants, but I stopped his hand and moved it away. I unbuttoned the fly on his jeans. A line of black hair ran from his rock hard abdomen down below his fly. His breath halted as I ran my finger along the line of hair, underneath his underwear, finally stopping just above his cock. His thick erection strained against the fabric of his boxer-briefs. He stood still as a statue, only his chest moving up and down with short breaths as I pushed the jeans down below his hips. I curled my finger around the waistband of his briefs and pulled them down.

  This time the sound from my mouth was a gasp, a shocked gasp. His cock, massive and hard, gleamed in the warm light. I peered up at him. He stared down at me from a curtain of dark lashes, his pale eyes now dark with desire.

  I wrapped my fingers around his cock, and his eyes drifted shut. He allowed me the lux
ury of stroking his magnificent erection for a minute then he took hold of my wrist. “As much as I love you touching me, in fact, because I love you touching me, I’ll be spent before you’ve even taken your clothes off. Which you should do . . . now.”

  I stepped back. He stood with his pants down below his hips, his glorious chest and his even more glorious erection shining in the cabin light, and he waited for me to undress.

  I reached down to my shoes and looked at him for approval. He nodded. I took them off. Then I shimmied my jeans down and stepped out of them. I gazed straight at him, realizing that having him watch me take my clothes off was as much fun as having him take them off. I lifted my hands questioningly.

  “The panties,” he said with a deep, low voice.

  I turned around, gripped the top of my panties and bent all the way over as I slid them to the ground. Before straightening, I looked back at him over my shoulder. I’d definitely gotten the reaction I was hoping for. His fingers had curled into fists, and I was sure at any second he would shoot across the floor and grab me. I stood back up and turned around. The hem of my t-shirt hung over my naked bottom half, outlining and highlighting my naked pussy, but I didn’t need anything to draw his attention there.

  Without taking his eyes off of me, he slipped off his shoes and took his jeans the rest of the way off. Even scarred, he was perfection, dangerous, powerful, almost scary perfection.

  I lifted the hem of my shirt slowly and pulled it off over my head. Then I reached up and unhooked my bra, dropping it onto the pile of clothes on the floor. “Now what?” I asked.

  “Drink?”

  “That’s not quite the answer I expected, but do you have wine? I don’t really like the hard stuff.”

  Completely naked and completely hard, he walked over to a small cabinet near the table in the kitchen. “A bartender who doesn’t like the hard stuff?”