Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (15 page)

Glancing at the closed bathroom door though, he
realized she was with him right then, right at that moment. And if
that was all he was ever fuckin' gonna get of her, he was gonna
make the motherfuckin' most of it!

*.*.*.*.*

I felt like I was in some kind of dream. A dream of
me and Dare naked, of me needing and him fulfilling, of me giving
and him more than willing to receive all I offered. Although the
reality of what we'd just done was better than anything I could've
ever come up in my wildest fantasies.

He was, I had to admit to myself, even better than
the Honeys had promised but the one thing they hadn't mentioned,
that no one had said when describing him was that having sex with
Dare was so…personal. As our bodies had pressed together, churning
belly to churning belly, our gazes fused in brown eye to aqua, it
was if we were the only people in the world. And that his warm eyes
on my body as he'd watched me move, sliding myself on his hot, hard
length would build something inside that went beyond our sexual
fusion and have my heart do its own sort of orgasm because of the
connection between us.

And that he kept up that link afterward by teasing,
laughing and talking with me?

Oh, holy Jay-sus.

Heaven.

The only bad part had been when he told me of my dad.
Goddamn the bastard! I couldn't even have sex with the man of my
dreams without my fucked-up, meddlesome pops putting his nose where
it didn't belong! I could talk to him though, get him to re-think
his viewpoint and as long as I stayed away from Dare, everything
would work out. I was sure of it.

While Dare was in the bathroom, I moved to get
underneath the covers and turned my mind a different direction,
reviewing the mechanics of what we'd done.

Twice in one night?

The fact that he'd been able to do it was amazing
enough but what was even more so was that I'd hit it both
times.

As in
hit it
in a screamingly, totally out of
control way.

Something I'd never done before. In fact, it was
usually cause for celebration if I even came at all when I was with
a partner. But to call what I'd experienced with others and those
orgasms was like comparing a small sneeze to…geez, I don't know
what. A hurricane? Some powerful force of nature that stole your
breath, buffeted your body and had tears leaking from its sheer
supremacy over you and your physical form.

"Need something to drink," he advised from the
bathroom doorway interrupting my train of thought. "Get you
anything?"

"Water would be good, thanks."

It was obvious that Dare had the same lack of modesty
in his own home that I did in mine, and I watched his thick muscled
thighs and glorious ass move as he walked away.

Wow
, my heart moaned at the view. His body was
absolutely stunning.

Funny. I really wasn't much of a visual person but
found Dare's body to be both exciting and inciting. Without
volition, I crossed my ankles in order to squeeze my thighs against
the now most tender part of me even as I dragged the sheet up
higher on my chest, abrading my still taut nipples.

He brought me a water bottle and then crawled slowly
over me before diving under the thick comforter and pulling me to
his side. "Fuckin' love having you here, Ryley."

I squeezed my thighs together again even as my heart
picked up its pace at his words. It was the most perfect thing to
say and offered at the most perfect time to say it.

But as the Honeys had said, Dare knew his shit.

So I tilted my chin up from its place on his chest in
order to see his face. And the truth I saw reflected there more
than matched the sincerity of his voice.

"Me too, Dare. Didn't know if it'd ever happen though
I never lost hope."

His fingers slid along my jaw line before capturing
my neck, pressing his thumb until my head was tilted just the way
he wanted it. And I could hear that same fervent tone as he
whispered, "me either," as he curled his upper body in order to
kiss me once more.

Chapter Fifteen

It was time. If that night was all that they were
ever gonna have, he needed to tell her. Needed to reopen the
conversation from the picnic table and let her know how he
really
felt about the week they'd first met.

Trying not to push her away, Dare rolled halfway up
and reached for his jeans, bringing his wallet out of the back
pocket, the chain that connected it to his pants clinking
softly.

"Here," he said, pressing the worn leather tri-fold
her way. "Take it, Ryley."

Her hand reached but she'd turned her face up to his
before looking at what he offered. He shoved it at her again,
holding it out until she grabbed it. As soon as his hand was free,
he picked up the remote on the nightstand and turned on the stereo
in his room. He pushed the button to lower the volume before
shifting to glance down at her again. "Open it," he instructed in a
tight voice and saw her eyebrows crunch together in puzzlement.
"Pull out whatever is behind my license."

He bent an arm behind his head so he could watch her
as she opened the sides and then unfolded the braided threads that
barely held the once bright blues and purples in their faded
strands.

She went very, very quiet and he wondered if she was
caught in confusion or was held captive by the memory he was hoping
she'd remember.

"Here, Dare," she'd mumbled, tying the bracelet
around his much larger wrist and swallowing, which he'd learned
meant she was trying to wish her blush away. "I want you to have
something to remind you of me. Of us."

At her gasp and from the way her eyes shot to the mp3
player before going back to the worn and shredded bracelet, he knew
she got it. But it was fully confirmed when she went up onto an
elbow and let him fully see her stricken yet hopeful
expression.

"Yeah, Ryley. I remember," he murmured, captured as
her gaze turned into one of wonderment. He didn't say anything else
mainly because he couldn't over the lump in his throat. But he
turned up the volume so they both could hear all the songs that
they'd danced to in the equipment warehouse on a summer's night so
many years before as he held her body tighter to his side.

Her eyes bored into his as the player cycled through
the songs only breaking their gaze to look down at the strands in
her hand, the friendship bracelet she'd tied around his wrist
before leaving all those years ago.

"I thought you were the sexiest girl on two legs,
sugar. The way you danced, flipping your hair and fuckin' looking
up at me with all the shit working in your wicked eyes," Dare said,
lost in the memories of them in the equipment shed.

"You were the sexy one, Dare," she breathed and he
watched as her eyes moved from her palm that cradled the worn
thread in her palm, moving over his muscled stomach, his chiseled
broad chest until she hit his face. "I counted myself lucky to have
danced five songs with you."

"Would've gone a hundred, sugar, but needed to kiss
you so fuckin' much I could barely move."

Her eyes held his but they seemed unfocused, like she
was caught in the memory. The remembrance of them as they used to
be.

"So if your fuckin' brother hadn't interrupted us
right in the middle of the lip lock…" he tried to ask, his mind so
totally caught in the recollection of him and Ryley. Of him pulling
her into one of the darker corners and kissing her for the first
time. A kiss that had held the same magic and fuckin' importance as
the one they shared on the picnic table almost a decade later.

He felt her full body shiver. "It was my first
make-out session, Dare. But I think you know how it might've turned
out if Leif hadn't stopped us."

"He ain't here now, sugar." His voice quiet allowing
the music to punctuate his words. As their lips touched, Dare found
her mouth to be just as sweet, just as fuckin' juicy as how it'd
been when they were young.

She pulled back but their eyes couldn't seem to
disconnect.

By the time The Callings: 'Wherever You Go' came on,
he saw one lone tear spill from her wet eyes and he shifted until
he could capture it with his thumb. "Young, yeah. But not too
young, Ryley," he murmured roughly, feeling the thick lump in his
own throat when he swallowed. A lump that didn't seem to want to go
away. "That was the best fuckin' week of my life, bar none."

"Mine, too," she whispered back, her eyes so full of
emotion they were hard to look at directly. Feelings that called to
the ones he'd locked away for so fuckin' long, he could almost hear
the squeak of the rust on them as they shifted into exposure.

*.*.*.*.*

We were quiet as we stared into each other's eyes. I
couldn't imagine ever getting tired of looking at him. Jay-sus,
into
him.

"Stay the night?"

I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to but I knew it
wouldn't be wise to push my luck. Our luck. True, I didn't think
anyone really remembered where Lock lived but they knew it was in
town. So if I got a call and had to get back, I'd have a hell of a
time explaining why it'd taken me longer to arrive than just a few
minutes. "Sorry honey," I replied and meant it even though I
dropped my eyes. "I can't."

"So you're gonna cut our night, maybe our only
fuckin' night together, short?" I caught myself frowning at his
question. Why did it hurt so much to be reminded of the fact our
time together was limited, restricted.

"It's too dangerous, Dare," I cautioned. "There's too
much at stake for us to try and…"

"I asked you at the beginning, Ryley. Asked you
straight up if life as we know it would fuckin' end with us getting
together."

"I know you did, but…"

"But, nothing. If we only get this time, this fuckin'
now
, then I want all of it. Fuckin' every second, dig?" His
voice, so deep and so sincere cut me up inside.

"I really need to check in about the bar-b-que
tonight and everything. But I guess I can stick around a while
longer." He just didn't need to know that the 'everything' included
the shitload of messages from my dad telling me in no uncertain
terms to get my sweet ass back to the club. But I knew what Dare
was saying, was asking. And that knowledge broke my heart.

Quiet descended again and I wondered what time it
was. I'd promised him a couple of hours but I needed to see about
getting myself put back together in order to go to Lock's place.
"Can I take a shower?"

The hand that had been rubbing my back stilled.

"Only if you fuckin' share it," he answered and I
felt the covers shift from what was moving below his waist even as
I heard the challenge in his chuckle.

"I think that's do-able if there's enough room." I
was glad we were both back to smiling and hoped he, like me, had
pushed aside the thoughts of when we had to part.

He threw back the covers and pulled me off the bed
with a laugh.

But the move that captured my attention, that had my
jaw dropping in delighted awe, was when he snagged another condom
before leading me into the bathroom.

Chapter Sixteen

Dare drove Ryley back to where her Escalade was
parked in the forecourt of the Hellion property but he did it with
a heavy heart.

In his mind, he should've been doing it with fist
pumps about finally knowing what they felt like when they were
fuckin' naked together. But, surprisingly there was none of the
elation in having done the deed.

No.

Their joining had only created more of an ache to
keep her glued to him and never let her go. To know more about her
and her life, to see every single fuckin' side to his Ryley and the
woman she was compared to the young woman he'd been ga-ga over. And
who he suspected was the one woman in the world who could capture
his heart.

But because of her fuckin' father…

Christ!

He turned the engine off and coasted his bike in
order not to wake whoever had spent the night on property, feeling
his heart stutter when he realized she'd be leaving him
shortly.

God, this was hell
, he thought even as he
applied the brakes.

He'd already worked out that she hadn't needed to go
to Lock's for the reason she'd given but because of Gus and his
threats. The man had always hated the idea of him and Ryley
together, which had only gotten worse as they'd gotten older. He'd
never been able to figure out the particular stick that was up the
old man's butthole, but it obviously had something to do with
Dare.

Or more correctly, Dare with Ryley.

And for the fucker to threaten to pull Spokane
support was the one card Dare knew would keep his ass in line. And
keep Dare away from his princess.

He felt her hand heavy on his shoulder as she climbed
off his ride. The early morning light caught on her fresh-scrubbed
face and he felt his heart do a double-thump.

"Thank you," she whispered and he knew he'd never be
able to get the vision of her, just as she looked at that moment,
out of his mind. "Yesterday and last night were…"

"Amazing," he finished for her, swinging his leg off
the bike. "Absolutely the fuckin' best."

The smile that spread across her face caught on his
heart so hard he didn't feel he could fuckin' breathe. "So kiss me
again, Ryley. Give me one that's gonna last until I'm in my
grave."

"God, Dare," she whispered, leaning into him.

And those two words, almost moaned, were fuckin'
music to his ears.

*.*.*.*.*

My mind was on the memory of bracelet I'd made myself
and how I'd tied it around his wrist years before as he took me
back to the compound. A memory I'd treasured and re-watched on the
screen of my mind a thousand times.