One Wild Ride (Lords of Mayhem 2)

Moose parked his bike in the driveway and grinned when the door swung open moments later.

Joey locked the house quickly and jogged over to him. She leaned in and devoured his lips, making him moan.

That’s the kind of welcome I want to see. He brought his hand up and clutched the dark silk of her hair. Her mouth tasted sweet and addictive, like an apple turnover, fresh out of the oven. She sucked on his tongue and his jeans grew tight.

After a week on the road, all he wanted to do was slip into her tight sheath, but they had somewhere to be. He ended their kiss, nipping her bottom lip as he pulled back. “You keep that up, and we won’t make it to the movies.” He grinned. He’d been forced to leave town after their heart-to-heart and hadn’t been one hundred percent on what he’d be walking into with her.

“Afterward?” she asked.

“All the dick down you can handle.” Moose gave her a wink.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” she said, shaking her keys. “Ready for me to be the one behind the wheel?”

“I don’t know, never seen you drive before,” he teased as he swung his leg over the bike and got off, following her to the sedan parked on the street in front of her house. They’d bought tickets to a horror-movie marathon at their local drive-in. The chance to see the Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula on the big screen was an opportunity neither of them wanted to pass up. He was cursing that decision now. Her ass looked fucking edible in the body-hugging dark jeans, and the maroon leather jacket set off her mocha-colored skin.

On the way to the drive-in, she turned on classic Metallica and he relaxed in the seat, almost grateful for the reprieve from being the one in control. The trip up north had worn him out. Reconfiguring routes for gun trading and meeting with other MCs to negotiate new terms had them all stressed.

“How was your…business trip?” she asked.

Moose snorted. “Long, tense and draining,” he said.

“Sounds like a barrel of fun,” she said with mock excitement.

“Oh yeah, a male version of a beauty spa.”

She laughed. “This is why you’re my favorite person. You don’t just get my humor you revel in it with me.”

“Your smart assery is what caught my eye in the first place. Well, along with that banging ass you’ve got,” Moose said.

“Such a romantic, careful or you’ll give me the vapors, sir.” She fanned her face.

He burst out laughing. “You’re fucking crazy, you know that?”

“May have been told it a time or two, but I think it’s in my blood.”

“Trying to pawn it off on the gene pool?” he joked.

“If you met my mom, you’d understand. She’s not exactly ’fifties housewife material. Still, I love her to bits and pieces and wouldn’t trade her for the world.”

Her words triggered the orphaned child inside. In that instant, he missed his mother more than he had in years. Memories of the sweet smells of baking, her kind voice and constant encouragement to get out and explore the world assaulted him. Confined to a wheelchair in the last years of her life, the once vibrant woman had become a shadow of her former self. Stifled, embarrassed and beaten by the disease that stole everything, she’d been nothing but a shell toward the end.

“It’s good you appreciate her. You never know how long you have with the people you care about.” His soft-spoken words were out of his mouth before he could think better of saying them. Fuck.

“You sound like you speak from experience.”

“Yeah, I do. My mom passed when I was pretty young. She was actually the catalyst for my move down here. She lived in the States before and always talked about how amazing it was. I figured, I should come and see what

the hype was about,” he said.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said.

His body tensed as he waited for the third degree to start.

“Do we live up to the hype?” she asked.

I’d better be careful, ’cause I could fall in love with this girl. She read him like a book, which was no easy feat.

“I think so. Miss the free health care though.”