Burning Desires (Blue Bandits MC Book 4) (4 page)

“Hi, little sis,” Hanna giggled into the phone.

Kelsey felt a smile tugging at her lips when she heard Hanna’s voice.

“Hanna, I told you not to take my phone! I don’t want her mad at me,” Greta was yelling in the background.

“Stop hitting me, I’m just calling to tell her we looovve her,” Hanna said, still giggling. Kelsey couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her at Hanna’s silliness. She liked to play jokes on Greta and Kelsey and it drove them both nuts but you could never say that Hanna wasn’t fun to be around.

“You two are a mess, I hope you know,” Kelsey informed Hanna.

“Ha, just Greta, not me. She takes things too seriously.”

“I am trying to get ready for my date. Can’t you two figure this out without me on the line?” Kelsey asked as she grabbed her two-inch heels from the rack along one wall of the small walk-in closet. Walking back into her room, she sat on the edge of the bed to put them on.

“Yeah, about that. Please be careful and call us if you need us,” Hanna said, suddenly sobering.

“I will. I love you two weirdos.”

“We love you too,” Hanna said before yelling, making Kelsey pull the phone from her ear in order to save her eardrum.  “Stop hitting me, Greta! Geez, you’re a pain in the ass.”

“I’m hanging up now. Try not to kill each other and I’ll call you when I get home,” Kelsey told them when she was able to put the phone back to her ear.

“Sure thing, little sis, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“Don’t tell her that, Hanna! There isn’t much you wouldn’t do.” Kelsey snorted out a laugh at Greta’s cry.

“I know,” Hanna replied and Kelsey could almost see the way Hanna’s brows would wiggle at that.

“I’m hanging up on you two. Hammer will be here any minute and I need to finish getting ready,” Kelsey told Hanna, shaking her head.

“Bye,” Hanna said and Kelsey hung up, grinning at their antics because she could still hear Greta yelling at Hanna to give her the phone back. Moving to the dresser, she found a pair of glittery hoops. Putting them on, she smiled at her reflection before heading into the living room to wait when she heard the doorbell.

Kelsey walked to the door, pulling it open to find Hammer wearing tight jeans that clung to his hips and meaty thighs like a second skin, making her mouth water and her palms sweat. He was wearing his cut and a white t-shirt underneath. He grinned at her as he leaned on the door frame watching her with a heavy-lidded expression.

“You look fantastic. Are you ready to go yet?” Hammer asked, watching her.

Kelsey managed just barely to roll her tongue, which she was sure was hanging out of her mouth, back in and smiled at him shyly.

“Thanks,” she replied. A light warming of her skin told her she was blushing a bit. “Just let me grab my bag and I’ll be ready.”

Turning, she walked into the kitchen, lifting her bag up and grabbing her keys to shove them into the cross-body purse. Hammer stayed in the doorway waiting for her to return, his eyes looking around her apartment curiously. Walking back to him, she smiled.

“I’m ready now.”

Hammer led her out, waiting while she locked up and then took her hand as they walked from her apartment to the parking lot. As they neared the large Harley, she realized that she was wearing a skirt and that bike was not going to be easy to get on and off of in it.

Shit, why hadn’t she thought of that?

Kelsey was panicking, her brain trying to figure out how to get on and off that thing without showing her ass to everyone nearby. Here it wasn’t such an issue but at the party it was going to be a problem.

“Don’t worry, darlin’. I’ll stand in front of you when you get off the bike at the club,” Hammer said, seeming to read her mind or perhaps it was the panic that was surely written over her face.

“Okay,” Kelsey said, feeling a quiver of unease in her stomach. Maybe she should go change.

“I would have warned you if I thought about it. I just don’t think too much on it cause I don’t wear skirts,” Hammer said, grinning at her as he climbed on the big bike. She felt herself blush a little. “Have you ridden before?”

“No, I’ve never rode on one before,” Kelsey told him and tried to figure out how this was going to work.

“Hmm, well just don’t put your legs on the muffler and keep your feet here. Thankfully the skirt isn’t long or you’d have to change so it didn’t get tangled in the wheels,” Hammer said as he indicated the muffler and where she was to put her feet. Letting out a loud sigh, she did her best to modestly climb onto the back of the bike, almost falling off in the process. If his arm hadn’t flung out to stop her, she would have.

“Whoa there, darlin’, careful now. You’re a bit clumsy aren’t you?” Hammer asked chuckling and Kelsey wanted to sink into the ground and never come out because how could this be any more freaking embarrassing?

When she didn’t respond, he looked over his shoulder at her behind him frozen in discomfort. She knew she must look like she’d just turned into a tomato, her face was so red, and it was even more challenging not to climb off this bike and tell him this wasn’t going to work and just go hide in her apartment.

“Hey now, sweetness, nothing to be so worried about. You’re fine and this is going to be fun. Just wrap your arms around me and we can get going,” Hammer told her, tugging on her arm with one hand, pulling it to his waist to hold on.

She allowed him to help her and wrapped her arms around him. At least if she died of embarrassment tonight her sisters would know she meant it when she said she was doing something. Leaning into him as he gave her a few more instructions on how to ride, she felt a little bit of the redness leave her cheeks as they took off and headed down the road with a loud roar. So much for her hair being perfect because after this ride she was sure it would be a mess again. With a sigh, she let the thought go and enjoyed the ride.

Chapter Four

Kelsey leaned over the pool table lining up the shot. Her cue stick slid through her fingers with ease as she hit the ball. It took off across the table and hit the eight ball, which sank into the corner pocket. She let out a little crow of triumph and grinned at Hammer, who laughed and high fived her. Tic Toc, the guy she’d been playing, let out a groan but smiled at her from his position on the other side of the table.

They’d been at the party for about an hour and Kelsey was having a good time despite it being a rowdy bunch of people. It reminded her of the bar on Friday nights, except the bonfire party was a bit wilder. Hammer had suggested they play pool when they’d come up here a little while ago and she’d already trounced him when Tic Toc had come in and said he’d play the winner.

She’d bet he thought that Hammer was letting her win but she was actually quite good at the game because she used to play it all the time when she was in her teens.

“You’re really good at this, aren’t you?” Hammer asked with a chuckle as he took the cue stick from her and put it away. “Want to go outside by the fire and dance?”

“Sure, but I’m a little thirsty. Do you think a big strong guy like you might wade to the bar downstairs and get me a beer?” Kelsey asked him, running a hand through her messy curls as she batted her eyes up at him sweetly.

Hammer let out a snort of laughter at her obvious teasing. “Sure thing, darlin’. But you stay up here till I come back because I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone downstairs.”

Kelsey nodded because she would have to agree; the group of bikers was a bit out of her league. Earlier she’d watched two men get into a fistfight over a woman and she didn’t want any part of that sort of thing. She watched a moment later as Hammer exited the room with Tic Toc, leaving the door cracked a little. She glanced around the large room taking in the artwork and games. She grabbed a deck of cards off the nearby table and began shuffling them deciding she’d play solitaire while she waited on him.

Where the heck was he? Kelsey wondered, her foot tapping on the floor impatiently since she’d grown bored with playing cards ten minutes ago. Hammer had headed downstairs to get her a beer over
forty minutes ago
. She’d been sitting here on this couch waiting on him and it was getting pretty tedious considering he took Tic Toc with him when he’d left. The room was slightly dark because only one lamp on the other side of the room was on and she had already won solitaire three times. Leaning back, she looked up at the ceiling wondering what the hell was taking him so damned long when the door was pushed open and two people stumbled inside.

Kelsey turned to look at the two of them and blushed at what she saw. The man had his hand under the woman’s shirt and he was kissing her neck as he guided her to the other side of the room and the woman was attempting to pull his zipper down as they moved. The woman let out a giggle when the man released her mouth and he pressed her against the wall, his hand pulling up her shirt to reveal her naked breasts. Kelsey knew that she wasn’t about to sit here and watch them have sex against a wall. It just wasn’t happening because that so wasn’t something she was into.

Quietly she stood to her feet, a bit unsteady on the heels, and moved to the door as fast as she could without looking at the couple again. A blush stained her cheeks and she wondered how the two of them hadn’t noticed that the room was occupied, or maybe they had and they just didn’t care. She exited into the hallway, turning to the right because she knew that was the way down the stairs. She would see if she couldn’t find Hammer at the bar. If not, she didn’t know what she’d do; call her sisters maybe. That thought made her a little pissed off at Hammer for leaving her alone.

Damn it, why had Hammer disappeared?

Was she so uninteresting that he had forgotten about her?

She made her way past some men who were standing just outside the game room. They eyed her as she passed but didn’t bother her. Feeling her stomach clench and her palms sweat, she walked past the next room. Hearing shouts and seeing several men holding beers, she glanced away quickly not wanting to make eye contact in case one of them took it as an invitation.

She was about halfway to the stairs when she realized that there was a large group of men fighting over something in her path. There was a landing to the left that opened up into a large area where there were couches and a rather large group of men and women. Deciding to wade through the crowd rather than try to scoot past the men who were fighting, Kelsey moved by a couple who were standing back to watch the fight. She was weaving her way around another group of watchers and headed forward another few feet when she felt her shoe catch on something.

Kelsey tried to catch her balance but couldn’t and she felt herself tumbling forward. A coffee table loomed in front of her as she stumbled and went down. Fuck, this was going to hurt like a bitch, was the last thought that occurred to her as she fell headlong into the little table. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly not wanting to see her imminent head bashing coming, then she felt hard male arms roughly jerking her back and to the side.

Instead of falling face first into the table, she found herself lying crossways across two men’s legs. She was mostly situated on the lap of a man with sandy brown hair, thick stubble lining his jaw, and eyes that seemed to be a steely blue when he gazed down at her. A half smile curled his lips and she felt her body tingle from head to toe and her panties were suddenly uncomfortably wet. She didn’t know why her body reacted so strongly to that slight half smile he gave her or that haunted look in his eyes, but it was certainly not a pleasant feeling when she was on a date with another man.

Kelsey shook her head slightly to clear the cobwebs and tried to get up off the man’s lap but his hands that fell to her hips after he’d rescued her tightened, not allowing her to stand. She felt her insides quiver and her face felt heated because her thoughts about this man were making her feel like a slut.

“What’s the rush, sweetness? I deserve a reward for saving you from that header, don’t you think?” the man muttered, his grin turning decidedly wicked.

“Um, no, I–I appreciate you saving me from that nasty fall but I don’t owe you a thing,” Kelsey said, feeling a bit of temper spike through her and her back stiffened. She had a feeling this man was implying that she should provide sexual favors in exchange for his rescuing her. Ha, that wasn’t going to happen even if her hoo-ha did think it wouldn’t mind.

“That’s not very nice, doll. You should reward me,” he persisted, his hand moving from her waist to her inner thigh that was revealed to about midway by her skirt sliding up. Kelsey felt the thudding of her heart and she licked her lips as she attempted to rise a second time, feeling his hands tighten again. His hand on her thigh was possessive, almost proprietary, as it clung to her flesh. She wanted to jerk away from him but she was fearful of his reaction. She had a feeling it wouldn’t be a good idea to push a man with such coldly cynical eyes.

“Please let me up. I need to go and find my date,” Kelsey informed him through lips that had gone numb.