Page 14 of Cutter's Hope

“You got health insurance with you?” he asked. I frowned.

“What?”

“Health insurance,” he repeated.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“Florida helmet laws, Sweetheart, you gotta be at least 21 years of age and have at least ten thousand dollars in health insurance coverage to operate or ride on a bike without a helmet.”

“No shit?” I asked. That sounded totally stupid but at the same time, kind of awesome.

“No shit.”

I shrugged and got on behind him without missing a beat and he started her up. It was definitely a different sound than my baby gave off.

“Done this before, huh?” he called out over the growl of the engine.

“A time or two,” I said, unwilling to admit that I wasn’t used to being a passenger.

“Well hang on, Sweetheart,” he said grinning and I wrapped my arms around him and he put us in motion.

There was seriously something different about riding with no helmet. The wind in my hair, the feeling akin to falling knowing there was no safety net… it was exhilarating. He was showing off a little but that was fine. I would too if I had a machine like his. I made sure to stay snug up against him, partially because he felt good and partially because short skirts traveling into the wind with no panties was a recipe for disaster. I hugged my arm in close to my body, crushing my purse to me, the hard outline of the gun digging in reassuringly.

We got on the highway and the air whipped past, rushing along my skin, filling me up and blowing out the back, taking all the stress and frustration and hopelessness with it. Cutter was warm, and solid and though I couldn’t see his eyes from the wraparound sunglasses he was sporting, I could see his face in the side view mirror and the little smile that tinged his lips. I couldn’t help but feel the little caress of one of my own on my lips which immediately took me back to the sensation of his mouth on mine. Of his trim beard burning my cheek, his strong jaw beneath my fingertips.

If I were less of a badass I would have swooned again, instead I leaned forward and called out, “Well your chances of getting in my pants are improving!”

Cutter laughed, “Is that so?” he yelled back over his shoulder.

“It could happen,” I yelled over the cacophony of wind and traffic. Cutter’s smile turned into a grin and he took the next exit. We’d been travelling maybe fifteen or twenty minutes by now.

We didn’t have to go far off the highway to reach the bowling alley. Like so many of them this place looked as dilapidated as they got and there were several bikes and a Jeep or two parked out front. A man in one of the Kraken leather vests took a cigarette out of his mouth and exhaled. He was blond, like light blond, almost white and his hair stood stiff but at the same time soft looking off his scalp in an almost-fro. Like dandelion fluff.

“Captain’s here!” he shouted into the dark, cave like atmosphere of the bowling alley behind him. Cheers and applause drifted out of the darkened door way. Cutter put down the kickstand to his bike and shut it off. I climbed off carefully and managed to preserve my modesty… you know… if I had any.

Inside was dark and hot, like it didn’t have any air conditioning hot. I blinked and realized what light there was came from those camp lanterns, their hiss loud in the dark, the white hot light glowing from them like captive stars.

“Are we trespassing?” I asked with a laugh.

“We do what we want, Princess,” the blonde woman from earlier called out. I glanced at Cutter and realized by his guarded look, that this was some kind of a test.

“It’s hot as fuck in here, anybody have a cold beer?” I asked, raising a brow. I was rewarded by a secret smile from Cutter and a cheer or two from some of the guys and a couple of girls.

A cold bottle was thrust into my hand and a younger guy wearing a vest that had no emblem on the back, the bottom rocker reading ‘prospect’ went jogging down the lane to set up empty bottles for pins. He stayed down the lane and off to the side and Cutter came up behind me, his breath almost cooler on my shoulder than the ambient air, which was saying something.

“Ladies first,” he murmured and pressed his lips against the back of my shoulder, just to the side of my dress strap. I shivered and it had nothing to do with the temperature in the room, which really was just this side of Hades’ balls.

I threw my hair up off my neck into a messy bun using the hair elastic I kept at the ready around my wrist. I set my purse to the side on a dusty chair and took the proffered bowling ball someone had found, from the man offering it. He wasn’t bad to look at either. Tall and slender but not without his own strength, he was blond too, shoulder length and sported a goatee, his blue eyes cynical. The name tag on his vest said ‘Marlin’ and below that Vice President. Interesting.

I handed Marlin my beer, vowed not to drink from it again after I took it back, and tried to keep a watch on him out of the corner of my eye as I lined up. I took my slight running start and let the ball go, it rolled through the grit on the lane and demolished all but two of the bottles. Cheers went up. The prospect cursed and went after the ball and rolled it back to me down the gutter.

Music was started out of an old boom box and we bowled. Cutter sucked at it, and in a total role reversal, I found myself pressed to his back showing him how to do it right. The touches lingered, the glances held weight and we did this careful dance around each other that was equal parts flirtation and trying to get to the bottom of one versus the other. We flirtedhardand I learned names and listened to stories.

“Hey, Hope! Where you going?” Radar called. We’d been here a couple of hours and I’d had more than one beer. Marlin had started drinking my original without thinking about it so I’d gotten another for myself.

“If they haven’t shut off the water yet, then the bathrooms might still work!” I called back, and purse over my shoulder I went looking for it. As luck would have it, the water hadn’t been shut off and there were still paper towels! Score.

As I came out of the bathroom, he caught me slightly off guard, but not enough to warrant me fighting back. His energy wasn’t malicious, I don’t know how I can explain it but when someone comes at you with mal-intent; it feels different than what this was. As I came out of the bathroom, Cutter was just suddenly there, pressing his body the length of mine, driving me back into the wall. I gasped and his mouth was on mine and my fingers wound into his hair which was falling out of its ponytail.

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