Page 27 of Savage Lust

I idled out of the driveway, careful not to rev the engine too much until we throttled out of the neighborhood. At the last stop sign, I grabbed her hands and tugged her arms tighter around me—forcing her even closer. My palms lingered on her soft skin, the warmth of it drawing my attention, and the rest of my body reacted.

If she’d dropped her hands, I’d have embarrassed myself.

I cautioned a glance at her through my mirror.

“You ready?” I shouted over the throttle pop and watched her eyes light up in anticipation.

But it was the way her tongue darted out between her lips that sent me roaring off into the night. I grinned when I hit secondgear hot and she squeezed so hard it felt as though she might crawl into my cut with me.

Archer’s place was near two separate highways. We were out of Dry Valley in less than ten minutes. I didn’t relax until I was hitting eighty and the city lights faded behind me. The more distance I put between us and my problems, the more like myself I felt.

I slowed when we crossed the county line. My reach out here if I got pulled over would only go so far without calling Preacher or AP. I damn sure didn’t want Preacher to know I was out like this, riding with Riley.

He didn’t need to know shit about her.

The defiant protective streak shot through me like a forty-five, ripping at ideals that had been all but pounded into every fiber of my being. No woman before the club. Brotherhood above all else.

I’d only known her a week. The reaction was stupid. I put a few miles of deserted interstate between myself and that feeling. Archer would expect me to protect Riley and I would. The quicker I could get her out of here, the easier all our lives would be.

She shifted behind me, laying her helmet against the back of my shoulder. We’d been riding for a while and were in familiar territory, so I took the next exit and headed toward a diner that meant something to me and might mean something to her.

I recognized the little red sedan parked out back and couldn’t help the little niggle of pleasure. Sometimes—like Archer’s funeral—official club shit got in the way of things. Like spending time with the people who came that were important to me.

Riley didn’t need my help to crawl off the bike when I parked, and she was smirking when I moved to help her with her helmet.

“Hang on? You didn’t tell me riding with you would be like having my stomach sucked out through my throat. It definitelydidn’t feel like that during the funeral.” Her hazel eyes twinkled with flecks of green and gold like the river over rocks after a rain.

Everything here was so dry and barren in the urge to dive in jarred me.

Fuck.This bitch made me poetic.

I laughed anyway, enjoying the happiness riding with her made her feel. My knuckles brushed against her throat as I popped the snaps and dropped the helmet on the seat.

“She’s fast.”

“I hope you mean the bike.” She tossed me a snark-filled side eye that made me want to kiss it off her. “Because I saw what you sent packing, and I don’t have the gear-ratio for that.”

I laughed again. Who was this woman? “Where the—”

“Archer has all these bike magazines everywhere; I’ve been reading them.” She blushed a little and looked away. “It helps since you guys speak such a different language.”

She wanted to know. It was cute. And more, she was still talking about me kicking out Krystal and the other chick. Man, the things I could tell Riley—but she might hate me.

Could be a good thing.

I smiled to myself and held the door to the diner open. No one else was around—too early yet for the working people and too late for the drunks.

“Boy, you’re the best-looking thing I’ve seen all day.” A chirpy woman’s voice blurted out across the empty restaurant.

The tall, skinny woman with dyed red hair and dark eye shadow wrapped me in a hug that took me back to the only good memories I had of being a kid.

“Ro.” I squeezed her tight. She wasn’t as frail as she had been last time. “It’s good to see you.”

“I wish you saw me more,” she choked out but didn’t cry. “Who’s this?”

I pulled from her embrace to introduce them. “Riley, this stunning woman is Robbie. Ro, this is Riley Bowman.” I gave her a minute for that to sink in. “Ro was my mom’s best friend back in the day. Helped raise me and introduced me to Archer.”

Robbie rolled her eyes. “I never should have.”

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