Riding Danger (4 page)

CHAPTER NINE

There he is again!
Felicity fluffed her long, blonde hair up around her face, as she saw Blaine walking towards her. Well, not really towards her — he was probably headed for the kitchen table, and the beer that sat out on it.

Felicity eyed Blaine’s long, lean body. He was beyond handsome, and he wasn’t like the rest the guys that worked for her dad, either; but, she was not sure what it was about him that made him so different.

It wasn’t just his looks. There were a few good-looking guys who worked for her dad and rode with him, too. It was something else. She could see him looking at her, as he approached.

She knew he was interested, but he didn’t say anything. He just grabbed a beer and one of the sandwiches off the platters that sat about.

“Hi, I see you that you got George’s bike.”

Blaine wanted to stay completely silent. The girl talking to him was young, maybe twenty and the apple of her daddy’s eye. Greg had been very clear that Felicity was entirely off-limits, and by that, he meant entirely.

Felicity had no idea of what her daddy did for a living. She knew he ran the bar, and a few other businesses, but she was utterly in the dark about the shadier and steamier side of his financial endeavors. She was probably the only one who had no idea what her daddy was into, but Blaine knew damn well because he was neck deep in it, too.

“It’s a good bike.” It was as noncommittal a reply as he could manage. The sight of her was driving him crazy. Felicity had a tall, willowy body with natural curves in all the right places. She had full, ripe breasts and hips that belled out over her slim thighs below her taut waistline. Her hair hung almost all the way to her waist, and her eyes were the clear blue of summer sky.

“Yeah, it was weird. I don’t know why George decided to move to Chicago and leave his bike. He loves that thing.”

Blaine could have told her that George had gone nowhere near Chicago. It was not something anybody had talked about, or had to. Nobody left behind a bike like the one he had been given, especially not a hard-core rider like George had been. He didn’t know what George had done or what happened to him, but he was willing to bet that he was either floating in the river on the other side of town or buried somewhere deep out in the desert.

Felicity couldn’t help it. He was so handsome, and he had that air about him. She stepped a little closer, close enough that she could smell his cologne and said, “My favorite song is on. Do you want to dance with me?”

She expected him to say no, so it surprised her when he sat the beer and sandwich down, took a deep breath and muttered, almost below his breath, “Oh, hell. Why not?”

It was a slow song, and he gathered her into his arms. She could feel the tensile strength in his shoulders, as she rested her cheek on his broad strong chest. His arms came around her, pulled her closer — close enough that she could feel the hardness in his jeans prodding against her lower belly.

A delicious little shiver crept up her spine, and her eyes closed involuntarily. She knuckled her face closer into his chest and relaxed into the slow, soft rhythm. The song ended way too soon, and with the end of the music, sanity returned.

Blaine pushed her away, not hard but just enough so that she was not close to him—she was way too tempting. When he spoke his voice was gruff, and he had to turn away slightly to hide the erection beneath his jeans.

“I thought you were going out with your friends today.”

Felicity was flattered.
He asked about me!
“Who said that?”

“Your Dad. I take it he was none too happy about you staying home.”

“He doesn’t like me around when all of you guys come over.”

“I can’t say I blame him. You don’t belong around a bunch of hard cases and hard riders.”

“He doesn’t think I belong out of a convent.”

“He might be right.”

Felicity glared at him. “Do I look like a nun?”

She most certainly did not look like a nun. She was more like the girl who showed up in the pages of a magazine. A staple neatly placed between her belly button and tits. He said, “No, you don’t. Listen, we both know I can’t talk to you, not if I want to keep my…,” he had almost said balls, “…job. So I’m going to walk out of here now, and we’re going to pretend this never happened.”

“Nothing happened!”

“Exactly, and I plan on keeping it that way.”

Felicity asked, “Why is everyone so afraid of my dad? He’s such a nice guy.”

To you maybe.
“Yeah, well, see you around.”

He went to walk out, and as he did her lean, sexy hip touched his. A small spark jumped between them, and it was undeniable. His hand came out and landed on her shoulder. Felicity shivered and thought,
He is so strong!
She could just imagine him making love to her—his hard strong body taking hers over completely…

Blaine was having many of the same thoughts, but under that he was considering the odds of staying alive if he laid a hand on this girl. Those odds weren’t good, not by a long shot.

He grabbed a sandwich and a beer and walked out, leaving Felicity staring after him with a yearning look on her face and her belly quivering with excitement and fear, too.

The day was too long. Blaine would have given anything just to be able to walk out of the house and go to the little place he had rented over on W Street, not far from the bar. He was tired, and he had been up all night; but, when Greg wanted all of his guys, he wanted all of his guys. And today, he wanted all of his guys.

Something was brewing, but he didn’t know what. He figured that it had something to do with the higher-ups in the club, not him. He was just there because Greg had ordered the guys to come to a party.

He had not ordered them to show up, not exactly. He had just said he wanted them all there. In the organization that was an order though. Blaine was already getting a little tired of the whole thing, if the truth were known. This wasn’t like most biker clubs—this was a bunch of hired thugs riding under a guy who wanted nothing more than to get as much money as he could out of whatever schemes he could.

He missed the camaraderie of the open road, the guys who rode hard and had a good time but had lives to go back to when the road ended. Here, the road ended when it was yanked out from under you. He knew that no matter how good he was at what he did for Greg, eventually he would be just another forgotten member of his so-called club.

He had to get out of there, and soon. Greg would not let him go easily, but he could split if he wanted to. He had been working it out in his head lately. He could head north, go somewhere where nobody had ever heard his name or knew his face and just start all over.

Have a life, a real one.

CHAPTER TEN

Felicity popped into his line of vision. Today she wore a bright red dress that showed off her tanned skin and her beautiful, almost platinum, hair. He had been stupid to dance with her. Now that he had, he could not get her off his mind and that was beyond dangerous

Felicity really was naïve, and if her daddy had anything to say about it, she would stay that way.
How could she not see what her father was? How could she be so blind?

It was mind boggling and yet, in a way, it wasn’t. Greg went to church on Sundays and pretended that he was a businessman giving out second chances to hardened convicts, like doctors gave out lollipops to kids. She bought into it because…well, she was his kid. He could understand it, on that level.

He had to stop thinking about her. She was trouble, and he knew it. Wanting her was asking for trouble, but he did want her and had since the moment he had first seen her.

She was laughing at something somebody said and holding out the platter of sandwiches that had been on the kitchen table, playing the hostess to her father’s criminal cronies.

He thought,
I’m no better than they are. So why am I acting so jealous?
He had no right to her, and he knew it.

Felicity saw him watching her, and she was pleased by that. She liked Blaine, more than she maybe should. Dancing with him had been so exciting, almost decadent, and she wanted to dance with him again.

She wished he had kissed her, long, soft, and slow, then harder and more fiercely. If only he had taken her face in his hands and lifted it to his so he could put his mouth on hers and brush kisses across her forehead and cheeks before taking possession of her mouth.

Just imagining him kissing her made her heartbeat so fast that she felt like she would faint.
What was it about this guy that made him so different form the others?
She couldn’t put a finger on it, but it was there right on the tip of her tongue.

The day wore on. Blaine was tired, and the other guys were, too. If Felicity had been out of the house as she had been supposed to have been, things might have been a little wilder; but, he didn’t care about the lack of a party atmosphere. He cared that every time he looked at her he wanted to put his hand in that nipped in waist of her dress and pull her closer to him. He wanted to kiss her and talk to her, sit down over coffee with her or something like that.

Feleicity was nothing like Joy, the stripper he had been seeing off and on since he had met up with Greg and his crew.
Seeing
might even have been too strong a word. If Joy had paying customers, he could pretty well fuck himself for all she cared. He knew it and was okay with it, too.

But Felicity, now there was girl that would make a good wife. She was funny as hell and sweet. She was smart, too. He knew she had gone to college and wanted to get a job in a city far from the one that she lived in, but her father would not hear of it. She was not about to hurt him over it, either.

It was weird almost, the way she treated her father. It was like she loved him but was afraid of him, too. It was almost as if she did know somewhere deep under her placid surface that her father was not one to trifle with.

Felicity had decided to play hostess because she sensed that her change in plans had caused some kind of tension. Well, it wasn’t her fault. There were other women there, too. Mostly the wives and girlfriends of the guys who worked for and with her daddy.
It’s not like I’m the only girl, so why is everyone treating me like I am?

Lately, Felicity had started to wonder about a lot of things.

Blaine was coming out of the bathroom when he saw Felicity struggling to carry several trays back to the kitchen. Shaking his head, he went to her and took one without a word. She looked up at him, her soft, blue eyes filling with gratitude. Then, she said, “Thank you. I was afraid I was going to splatter mustard all over the walls if I dropped the rest of those sandwiches.”

“Now, that would be a tragedy.” He gave the green painted walls a meaningful look, and she burst into peals of bright laughter.

“It would look like a booger, wouldn’t it? Don’t tell my daddy that I said that—he loves this color green for some weird reason.”

Blaine started to point out that it was the same color as money but held his tongue. He followed her to the kitchen, watching her round bottom move below her skirt and her tanned legs glide across the hardwood floors.

She set the tray down and stepped closer to him, her eyes locked onto his. Neither of them spoke. They didn’t have to or want to. His arms pulled her tightly to him, and she nestled there against his chest. Her ear pressed against his broad expanse, so she could hear his heartbeat.

Blaine knew he should let her go, walk away now before things got too ugly and twisted, but he couldn’t. He was irresistibly drawn toward her, and he captured her mouth with his in a fierce, yet gentle, kiss.

They were both so caught up in the kiss that they paid absolutely no attention to what was going on around them. Neither of them saw Bennie come into the kitchen until he spoke, “Man, you better get your hands off of her. Don’t you know whose daughter she is? If you need a woman, go out and get one. Hell, go to the bar if you’re too worried about getting told no elsewhere. There is plenty of them there to choose from.”

Felicity’s eyes flew open, and she stepped back, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at Bennie. “Why can’t you just leave me alone? I’m a grown up now! I can do what I want!”

Bennie said, “Kid, I’ve known you since you were a toddler in diapers. You and I both know your daddy is not going to like you messing around with one of his hired hands.”

Frustration filled her and she snapped, “I am not a kid!”

“Yeah, you are. And you are your daddy’s kid. Nobody in their right mind is going to lay a hand on you. You in your right mind, Blaine?”

Blaine knew what he just done was beyond stupid. He had been able to avoid Felicity previously, although the last thing on earth he wanted to do was avoid her. If he wanted to keep breathing, and he did, this little incident could never happen again. “Yeah, I’m in my right mind.”