Vegas Knights (7 page)

She shook her head, allowing her hair to fall in her face. "I'm just so...I just feel...I dunno."
 

Rick helped her upright and pulled her head to his shoulder, enfolding her in his arms. Breathing in his scent gave her strength. She composed herself and looked gratefully at him from glistening eyes, smiling. "You just blew my mind. Thanks."

He kissed the tip of her nose. "My pleasure. Now let's get rolling."

~ * ~ * ~

Rick dug out some underclothes for Kelly — wicking layers to soak up the sweat from being encased in leather gear for hours on end. He also found a few other items she might need along the way, and got the bike packed while she finished dressing.
 

She assumed they would just ride away from the beautiful log house, but Rick had other plans. Instead, he continued on down the access road that ran past the house. It turned out the road, such as it was, ran all the way around the lake. They stopped opposite the house and stepped off the bike to take in the view.
 

"Really, just...wow," Kelly breathed. Rick wrapped her in his arms, dropped his mouth next to her ear and said, "I couldn't agree more."

A Kelly lay in bed waiting for Rick to come back from his run, she boggled at how quickly the next couple of days flew by. Rick kept telling her he wished he could show her what the country really looked like but she was constantly amazed at the beauty of everything they saw. They sped through the mountains, thin air, heady scents and spectacular vistas taking her breath away. The desert had the same effect, though some of that was caused by the heat that shimmered off the asphalt.

Each night ended the same, with them making love until they fell unconscious. Each morning started the same, with Rick going for a run and coming back to wake her in the most delicious fashion. And each day they grew closer to Vegas. She knew he felt it, too; it was etched deeper on his face every day.
 

They shared their deepest fears and even some of their hopes. Over breakfast one morning — just yesterday morning, she realized with a smile — Rick had mentioned riding wherever he needed to go.
 

"So, you'll ride across country for, say, a business meeting?"

"That's what I'm doing right now," he responded with a wry smile.

Kelly shook her head in confusion. "I don't get it. Why spend all that time on the road when you could get there in a matter of hours on a plane?"

Rick's face darkened. He glanced away from her and said flatly, "I don't fly."

She wondered what had caused his obvious phobia but didn't want to press him. Instead she asked about the cabin again. She couldn't get it out of her mind. It was the kind of place she'd always wanted to call home. She'd been grilling Rick about its construction and design since leaving the place, which delighted him.

"I suppose you could easily sleep 30 in it," he answered. "Sixty if you were really close." He waggled an eyebrow at her and reached across the diner's table to tickle her.
 

She giggled, and thoughtlessly asked, "Does your family ever have that many guests at once?” She'd been so careful to avoid asking about his family because he seemed to stiffen every time.

Rick stilled and took her hand in his, watching intently as his thumb skimmed circles around one of her knuckles. "I guess I should just tell you. My mom passed away when I was 14 — cancer — and my dad died in a plane crash three years ago. I haven't been on a plane since."

Kelly was stunned by the revelation. Not just the fact of it all but that he shared such personal trauma with her, a short-term fling. "I'm so sorry, Rick."

"Thanks. It was rough. Dad and I were tight. We'd ride to all the rallies around the country together, and he taught me the biz. It'd been the two of us for so long, and then I was alone. I couldn't handle it."

His hand swept through his hair, which she now recognized as a sign of frustration. "I did some pretty stupid stuff. Drank...a lot, even smoked a little pot."
 

He laughed darkly. "People think I'm some badass druggie biker but, truth is, my dad would've killed me if he'd ever caught me smoking grass, much less anything stronger. I didn't even like it."

Out of the corner of her eye, Kelly saw their waitress start to approach their table but, noticing the moment they were sharing, changed directions and went back to the kitchen.

"I think I was drunk for about a month solid after the funeral." He'd been absentmindedly playing with Kelly's fingers as he talked, and now he began picking at one of her nails.
 

"I'd go to dance clubs, strip clubs, parties, anywhere there was booze and enough sound and lights to distract me. I don't remember most of those nights, one night in particular."

His green eyes flicked up at her from under his impossibly long lashes.
 

"This one morning, I woke up to find a pretty girl next to me. Wasn't really out of the ordinary during that time, but I usually remembered
something
about them. This one was a blank."
 

He chuckled again, without humor. "I remember sitting up and rubbing my face, thinking maybe I was seeing things, when I felt something weird. I looked at my left hand and there was a ring on it."

Rick brought his face up. What he was saying dawned on her. "You got married."

"I got married. Dumbest thing. That's when I snapped out of my funk or grief or whatever it was. My immediate thought was to get a divorce — they're almost as easy to get in Nevada as the marriage license — but then I thought about what my dad would say and I knew I had to at least give it a go."

He shrugged. "I tried to make it work, I really did. But we didn't love each other, never did. Plus she wasn't exactly an angel. In the end, she gave me good reason to leave...and get tested for STDs."
 

His sad, crooked smile made her heart break. She grasped his hand in both of hers. "That sucks."

He nodded and changed the subject. "What about you? Any cliched drunken weddings in your past?”

Kelly laughed. "No, closest I've ever come to walking down that plank was a boyfriend who thought I didn't notice him moving his stuff into my place little by little. Turns out he got booted from a house share and thought I wouldn't mind him living with me. I let him spend one more night, then while he was off doing whatever he did during the day — cuz I know it wasn't working — I neatly stacked all his shit outside and had the locks changed."

Rick brayed. When he could finally breathe again, he asked, "How'd he take it?"

"Not well," Kelly admitted. "But he was a little guy and he knew I could kick his ass if he gave me any trouble so..." She shrugged.

Rick could barely contain himself, he was laughing so hard. "Priceless!"

~ * ~ * ~

"Give me two minutes," Rick said breathlessly as he rushed in the door of the room straight to the shower. She loved that about him, how he always took care to be clean for her.

The time they'd spent on the road together over the last few days had been a dream, even if the places they'd been spending their nights in were the complete opposite of what she was expecting. When Rick pulled into a fleabag motel along the side of a busy highway the night they left the cabin, Kelly wondered if the bike had died.
 

"Is something wrong?" she'd asked through the helmet mic.

"Nope, just gonna grab us a room." Rick hopped off the bike and opened the office door, brass bells tied to the handle with hot pink yarn announcing his arrival. She heard loud voices and peeked inside to see Rick giving a big hairy guy a man-hug and slapping him on the back.

Kelly had barely pulled the helmet from her sweaty head when he was in front of her again with a key. "Let's go."

"What about the bike?"

"Bike's fine. Manager's an old buddy." He gave her a wink. "No one's even going to so much as look at it without meeting Mr. Remington."

"How good of a friend can he be if you call him 'Mister'?"

Rick stopped mid-stride to look her full in the face. The motel's ancient neon sign flickered silently behind him as he regarded her. Then he burst into laughter.

Kelly's back went stiff. She was about to ask just what the hell was so funny when he wrapped her in his strong arms. "You're something else," he chuckled, bending down to nuzzle her neck. Her defensiveness melted away as he delivered a series of sweet kisses along the outline of her ear. She could have stayed there all night in the parking lot of that grimy motel with Rick nibbling her various parts, but modesty got the better of her and she pulled him toward the single-level bank of rooms.

As it turned out, Rick had biker friends in just about every part of the country. The ones that ran motels treated him like family and kept a careful eye on his custom bike, so it was no wonder he preferred them over anonymous chain hotels.

Once she got over the initial surprise of it, Kelly had no problems with the rooms. After all, they were no worse than her rathole apartment back home, and in this rathole she had a gorgeous man who wanted to do all sorts of wild and wonderful things to her body.

And now that man was out of the shower, dripping wet and hard as a rock.

~ * ~ * ~

"I wish we'd had more time," Rick whispered in her ear as he slowly stroked her body.
 

Kelly moaned. Their lovemaking was taking a slow and easy turn, a sweet change from their typically frenzies of lust. "We have all the time in the world, baby."
 

"No, I mean for the trip. It's almost over."
 

"What are you talking about? I thought we had two weeks?" Panic started rising in Kelly's chest. Any thought of catching a bus home had left her that very first night. She knew she needed to enjoy as much time as she could with Rick before their little road trip ended, even if it meant a broken heart. Could he be ending it now?

"We do, we do." He continued stroking her length, soothing her. "But we're just a couple hours out of Vegas now, and I'm going to get pretty busy."

Relief washed over her. "Oh, I don't mind."
 

"Well, I do," he snapped. Kelly's brow furrowed. He'd never used a harsh tone with her before.

Taking a deep breath, he tried again. "Sorry, I just want
this
part to continue. I want to show you all the cool places off the highway. Like the Grand Canyon. Ever been there?"

She shook her head.

"Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, the Pacific Ocean. I want to take you there, let them inspire your art."

Kelly's heart lurched in her chest. He had no idea how inspired she was just being with him. Colors were more vivid, shapes more clear. She didn't know what Vegas would bring, but she knew already it wouldn't compare to their time on the road.
 

"And at the end of a long, dirty day on the road, I want to make love to you, hold you." His voice caught in his throat with those words and he stopped caressing her. "I just don't want this part to end."

Kelly wasn't sure what to say. More than anything she wanted to tell him that she felt the same way. That no matter how sore her ass was at the end of a long day of riding, no matter how mangy a motel was, no matter if his buddies were missing half their teeth, she'd sit behind him wherever he wanted to go. That she was hopelessly head-over-heels in love with him.

But she knew this was too fast. The speed of it all terrified
her
, she couldn't imagine how he would feel if she confessed her growing feelings.
 

She knew he cared for her, maybe even liked her a lot, but she also knew that he'd jumped into a quickie marriage that had ended badly. If she told him how she really felt, he'd drop her at the next bus stop and burn rubber to get as far away from her as possible. It was only natural, under the circumstances.

As the moments dragged on, with him tucked in behind her waiting for her response, Kelly decided the safest choice was to simply whisper her agreement. "Me neither."

He hugged her close and held her for a moment. "I'm hoping I can get everything dealt with quickly in Vegas. Maybe after, we can take the slow way back to your place."

Kelly's stomach cramped and tears started to prick her eyes. As the long hours on the back of Rick's bike sped past, fantasies of happily ever after teased her heart. She'd secretly hoped Rick would never want to let her go, but here he was already planning the trip to get her home. Reality slapped her in the face, and it was all she could do to nod into his shoulder.

Rick pulled her face up to his in a soulful kiss.
Thank God his eyes are closed so he can't see me cry
. Their lovemaking that morning was more tender than it had ever been, full of caring and sweetness, and it nearly broke Kelly's heart for what couldn't be.

~ * ~ * ~

Rick pulled the bike off to the side of the dusty desert road and pressed his mic. "Well, there it is. Sin City. Are you ready, beautiful? It can be a rough town."

Taking a deep breath, Kelly answered, "Ready, loverboy.” She was already as beaten down as she could get. What could be worse than knowing the love of your life was going to drop you at your front door in a week and a half and never look back?

She had no idea.

A thrill shot through Kelly as they roared past the iconic 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign. She'd never been to the infamous town — or anywhere, really — and she was excited to explore it with Rick. She knew he'd have to spend time at work, but surely he'd have his evenings free. He could show her the town, take her to casinos and shows, maybe ride on the New York, New York roller coaster. She couldn't wait to see inside his life.

But as they made their way down the traffic-riddled Strip, Rick tensed beneath her hands. Throughout their ride across the country, he'd been relaxed, at ease, even after driving for eight hours. But now he was inching farther and farther forward until he was sitting bolt upright, like the bad guy in the second Terminator movie.