Page 15 of Mile High With the Bikers
And it is. The shower feels like heaven. The water's hot and comes down in powerful streams that purge the grime and ash from my body. My little bag of carry-on toiletries isn’t great, but it’s enough to get my teeth clean and my face washed. I get a tired wolf whistle from the couch when I walk out with just the towel wrapped around me, but he seems mostly interested in getting himself clean, too. Not wanting to just take his bedroom without at least talking about it first, I sit on his couch and pull my legs up. My intention is to wait for him to finish, but as soon as I rest my head on my arm, I’m out like a light.
8
DIESEL
I wakeup to a soft noise in the bedroom. Senses on full alert, I slip my hand down the side of the bed and wrap my fingers around the butt of the gun I keep between the mattress and the box spring.
The noise happens again and I realize a few key details. First, I carried Rory into bed when I found her asleep on the couch, and I intended to go back into the living room and crash, but apparently I never made it. And second, she’s crying.
“Rory?” I reach out and run the backs of my fingers over her bare arm. The towel must’ve fallen off in the night when she moved around because she’s bare ass naked in my bed. Shit. I grit my teeth and try to avoid thinking too hard about that. “Wake up, baby.”
She curls in on herself, whimpering. I do what feels natural, which is to wrap myself around her, pulling her in with one arm and stroking her hair with the other. She’s shivering, but I don’t think she’s cold. Little by little, she relaxes, and I inhale, smelling my body wash on her skin. The sharp pine scent doesn’tmatch her personality if you ask me, but part of me does like knowing that I’ve marked her in some way.
“Diesel?” She jerks as she wakes up enough to sense what’s happening. Her fingers grip my arm, pushing it away for a second before pulling me closer.
“Just a bad dream, honey,” I murmur into her hair.
“But it’s not, is it?” she asks quietly in the darkness. When she turns to face me, there are tear tracks down her pretty cheeks. “It all happened.”
A brush a thumb over a sparkle of wetness on her cheek. “Talk to me. What did you dream about?”
“I left—” She shudders. “I left them all there to burn. My… my boss. All the others. And it wasn’t just a dream. It really happened and it’s my fault, isn’t it? It’s all my fault.”
“What? How the hell is any of this your fault? Did you blow a hole in the window? I don’t know who fired the first shot, but Sal was responsible for that, so I gotta admit, I won’t lose any sleep if he didn’t make it.”
“No, but?—”
I stroke a hand down her naked back, stopping when I feel the swell of her ass and holding her close. “You’re just a stewardess. Whittaker has bodyguards to keep him safe. If anyone fucked up it was them.”
“I wish it was that easy,” she whispers. Rory leans into me, resting her cheek right over my heart. “When things go wrong, sometimes it doesn’t matter that you were trying to do the right thing.”
“It should, but no… no it doesn’t. The road to Hell and all that, right?” I don’t think she’s talking about the crash anymore, and I wish I didn’t understand what she means.
I don’t think she fully realizes that after shifting around, she’s basically cuddling her naked body into mine, and I’m only wearing a pair of loose cotton shorts. I’m all for a good comfort fuck, but she’s real fucking close and I’m one good glimpse of her tits away from things getting real awkward.
“You okay?”
She shakes her head against me, her hot breath passing over my nipple as she does. Every extra drop of blood in my body is all headed to one place. Her voice is barely above a whisper. “I'm so far from okay right now, but I’m glad I’m not alone. Thanks for… for staying with me.”
“Shit.” I slide a hand up into her soft hair, combing it gently with my fingers. “I’m not good at this, but I’ll try.”
“I think you are.”
Who the hell does she have in her life that she thinksI’ma good shoulder to cry on? If the guys could see me now, they would laugh their asses off. Not at her, but at me trying to benice.It’s been a long time since I tried to be more for a woman than a good time, and it’s never gone well. Bull’s better at this shit, but she’s so fucking warm, and her skin is like satin. And I’m too selfish to correct her.
Rory looks up at me, chin resting on my chest. “Are you asleep?” she asks quietly.
I open my eyes and shake my head. No fucking way I’m falling asleep now without at least jerking off. “You said you’ve beenworking for Whittaker for a couple years, right? You pick up a lot of guys when you travel?”
She jerks back with a surprised noise. “What? Why would you ask me that?”
“I didn’t—fuck. I told you I wasn’t good at this.”
“You seem pretty good at implying that I sleep around, but I guess after how we met I deserve it, huh?” She rolls away from me, pulling the sheets with her. The bed feels fucking cold without her heat.
“No, Rory…”
She turns her face away.
