Hard Rider

With the comfort of my Devil’s Dragons leathers around my torso, I grabbed my keys and took to the streets again.

It must have rained overnight, because there was a rolling fog along the Metairie streets. It cast a supernatural glow around the town, and I felt pleased in having already familiarizing myself to the local land.

There were still four days left before I could meet my contact. I knew what to expect, but couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling that things weren’t going to be as easy as I had been told…

I shook my head to clear it, but the empty space was filled with thoughts of Kate. Neither of us had spoken on what we were doing together. It had been natural to scoop her up with me on my way out of Lafayette, but now that we were here…

What are we doing?

The building sexual tension between us was thick enough to cut with a knife. I had to drive away thoughts of ramming into her against the bedroom wall, before dragging her to the bed and mounting her like an animal…

I knew she felt it too.

She’d been careless in challenging me. Kate should have known better than to play games… I took control, and I kept it.

I’d won our standoff in the shower the other morning. She hadn’t dared to try that again, and I suspected it was because she couldn’t trust herself in that situation.

Maybe I didn’t, either.

Never would I ever lay a hand on her that wasn’t welcome… but it was hard to keep from fucking her senseless.

Get a grip, I growled to myself.

If you’d just tell her what happened you’d already have had your way with her, as often as you fucking wanted.

I shoved my thoughts down and tried to mentally run on autopilot. It was only after a few minutes that I realized I’d left Metairie.

In fact, I’d left the greater New Orleans area. I was heading north on the Interstate, which meant crossing Lake Ponchartrain. And that meant that I was in for a trip.

The lake spread out like a sea beneath me, stretching into the distance against each and every horizon. After my time in the desert, I marveled at the size of the thing.

The Lake Ponchartrain Causeway was a great concrete thing, stretching out in front and never-ending. I understood it to be the largest bridge over water in the world at more than 20 miles long.

I hadn’t really looked up anything more than that, never expecting to go over the thing. But thanks to distraction…

The long drive across in late morning traffic took an hour to cross. Hitting the mainland again, I paid the toll and then had to turn straight back around. The causeway connected the cities of New Orleans and Covington, but that other one didn’t have anything necessary to me.

That said, the long drive sure as shit worked for clearing my head. By the time I finally hit New Orleans again, I had over two hours of fresh air in my system.

Since I was apparently up for a field trip, I took another drive around New Orleans. Instead of scoping out the outlying districts, I drove for the downtown area.

Poydras Street cut through the center of the business district, offering immensely tall buildings and endless businesses. Hell, they even set up some weird geometric art in the median for a good stretch.

I wondered what it would be like for this place to be a common sight for me. My entire adult life had been spent in deserts – one across the ocean, and one here.

The city sure as fuck looked nice.

Maybe I could get used to this.

At a red light, I imagined the Devil’s Dragons fanned out around Hunter. It was almost too ridiculous a thought, and I cracked a small smile.

Those fuckers, in a city like this? The business down here, with luck, would be ripe for the taking… But would the gang adapt to the concrete jungle?

My eyes trailed up the towers that surrounded me. Glass windows coated great steel behemoths that scraped the Heavens, dressed in advertisements and all special snowflakes unto themselves.

A horn blared behind me, and I glanced forward. The light had gone green without me. I quickly hit the gas, leaving these thoughts behind at that intersection.

I continued onward. My eyebrow rose when I saw a sign for Tchoupitoulas Street, a landmark road that cut straight across Poydras.

Fuck me sideways, I thought to myself. How the hell are you supposed to say that one?

Curious, I hooked a right and took a look at this. The street was peppered with small restaurants and bars, but nothing terribly exciting.

I hooked a right at the end, met back up with Poydras Street, and went back the way I came. Once I was on the Interstate again, I headed back west towards Metairie.

There was so much to think about.

Hunter’s place here, with the club…

Kate’s place in my life…

I hated it when things were beyond my control. Kate could change her mind and pull a runner at any moment, although I trusted her to stick around. But this limbo that we lived in… I knew that I would have to show her I cared if I wanted to keep her near.

Which meant coming clean…

I resolved myself to tell her soon.

But the Devil’s Dragons still preyed on my mind. The more I thought about meeting with my contact, the worse I felt about it. The lack of confidence was startling to me, but it was growing harder to shake the feeling that I was going to be in it for the long haul here.

You’re only supposed to be here a few weeks, I reminded myself.

Sure, Hunter Hargreaves had left the timescale open-ended, but that had been my doing. I liked my ass covered in case something went wrong.

And nothing is gonna go wrong, Grizz. Everything’s gonna be fucking peachy, you’ll see. I allowed myself a grin when I realized that I almost even convinced myself.

But I had been wrong.

Dead wrong…

Kate

It felt like something big was coming.

That said, the next couple of days passed without incident. I decided to cool it on pressuring Grizz, and we fell into a comfortable routine together.

But that didn’t mean I was putting the breaks on driving up the tension.

We showered together naked again, without touching one another, and I was sure to lather myself up and milk the moment for all it was worth. Neither of us went as far as touching ourselves, but we certainly took heaping eyefuls of each other.

It was Tuesday evening, the night before his big meeting with his contact. Grizz and I had grown even more comfortable together, although I was pushing my limits with him.

And I was about to push them harder.

Grizz was seated on the couch. From the start, he had graciously left me the bed… insisted on it, even.

So I’d taken him up on it.

But this time…

“You know, you don’t have to sleep out here if you don’t want to,” I mentioned to him while I stood in my bedroom doorway.

Grizz glanced over my way, clicking off the television. “Do you mean that?”

“Wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it,” I scoffed at him across the communal area of the house. “If you want to sleep in here, then come on. Don’t keep me up.”

I closed the door behind myself as got ready for bed. It wasn’t more

than a few minutes later before Grizz popped the door open, letting the light into the dark room.

“Light off,” I grumbled.

“Sorry,” Grizz apologized as he closed the door again. I could hear his footsteps retreating, and knew that he was wandering over to check the locks on the door again.

He always did that before getting comfortable at night, but besides that one time we fell asleep together on the couch, he always did it again before heading to bed.

It was endearing how protective he was.

Grizz popped the door open again, but before I could sleepily protest, he’d already cut the light switch. I moved over in bed as I felt his presence around the bed. He kicked off his clothes to the floor and slid into bed beside me.

“What made you change your mind about me sleeping in here?”

“Technically, I never said you couldn’t,” I teased him. I meant to continue the charade, but the warmth coming off of him lulled me into a sense of hunger.

I wanted him.

Which wasn’t good for me, given the choice I’d made right before bed…

Grizz brushed against me while trying to get comfortable with the bedding. In the instant, he paused, daring to touch me again with faint fingertips that stroked down my side.

“You’re…”

“As naked as the day I was born.”

He groaned. “Why are you doing this?”

“To give you another little taste of what you’re missing by not talking to me,” I smirked smugly.

Grizz let out a deep sigh.

“Don’t get all sad on me,” I reassured him, running a hand down his strong chest. “I’m not going to push you into doing it. But I just thought you could stand to be reminded of what’s on offer.”

“The offer was very clear,” he grunted.

“No harm in underlining it,” I whispered. “Anyway, I think it’s about time that I caught some shut-eye…”

Grizz lay in bed next to me like that for maybe ten seconds, but then he shifted his position. It was only when it was too late that I realized he’d shucked his boxers off again.

Here we are, I groaned on the inside.

He was still moving, and that’s when I realized he’d gone back to the same damn tricks. Just knowing that I’d given him a rock-hard erection was sexy…