Not Looking for Love: A Cowboy Romance (16 page)

“Easy, babe.” It was Dee’s voice, and he was pulling her away and turning her around.

“I’m not your babe!” She struggled to get out of his grasp. “There are frightened, abused women back there.” She pointed to the back room.

“It’s okay, calm down. We’ll take care of them,” his voice, soothing as he nodded his head to one of his brothers and that brother walked to the back room.

Kara leaned into him and stared into those bright green eyes of his and slowly calmed. She shut everything else out.

He repeated. “We’ll take care of them.” He nodded once and waited to see her nod. “Okay, come on, sweetheart, let’s get you out of here.” Again he waited for her to nod then he threw an arm around her shoulders and walked outside with her. She didn’t see him nod once to his other two brothers as he did.

Once outside, her nerves kicked in again and she ranted at him as she tried to get out of his grasp. “This is your place? You condone this? How dare you? Those women—”

“Are safe now,” his voice soft and silky in her ear. He gently pulled her into him and hugged her.  “Those women will be taken care of. Okay? I promise.”

She nodded.

“Okay. We had no idea this was going on, and rest assured Augie and his crew will be dealt with too. Understand?”

She nodded again even though she didn’t understand it. “Okay, I’m okay now. I’m good.” She pulled back but calmly this time and he eased up and then let her go.

He brought his hand up to her cheek and gently pushed his fingers back into her hair. You’re even more beautiful in person.”

She locked eyes with his. “Thank you,” she said. It came out more like a whisper.

“I gotta take care of things here… But I want to have dinner with you tonight.”

“I don’t think that’s—”

“Uh-uh.” He was grinning now. “You don’t get to say no.”

She couldn’t help but notice his adorable dimples. He knew he had a killer smile, she thought, and he was working it. She was grateful he and his friends came along when they had, and he had been nothing but kind to her. Why not? She could do with a night out and in the company of a sexy, yet, she reminded herself, dangerous man. “Okay, yeah. I’d like that.” She nodded.

“Where do I pick you up?”

Now she smiled devilishly. “Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I’ll meet you there.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how you get there…as long as we go home together.”

She stared at him, the smile still on her face.

“I’ll meet you at the Ale House in Encino. Know where it is?” he asked.

“I do,” she said then jumped just as a loud noise came from the door of the warehouse. She looked to the door and saw it vibrating.

“Eight,” he said, not taking his eyes off of her.

She looked back to him and noticed he stayed cool and calm. She nodded. “Eight,” she repeated.

“You gonna be alright to drive home now?”

She nodded.

“You sure? I can have one of my guys drive you.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it, but I’m good.” Then she walked backwards toward her car as she watched him looking at her with that cute grin on his face before she turned around and got in her car.

He waited for her to pull away before he turned and went back inside the building, kicking the door in with his steel toed boot. Gone was his smile. His nostrils flared, and his eyes closed into tiny slits as his face reddened.

“Let’s hope you can ride a bike better than a bucking bronc,” an amused Richie said to Logan as Logan climbed the metal steps up to the top of the chutes.

Logan smiled but Richie wasn’t so sure it wasn’t a grimace due to the way he landed when he bucked off his bronc two seconds into his ride. Logan was thrown into the air and hit the dirt on his back, hard. Richie knew he was hurting.

“Buck Off Junior really lives up to his name, don’t he?” Logan said.

“Nothing junior about him,” Richie said.

“Sixteen and counting,” Brett said as he turned around after watching Dustin Kroft, the rider he helped in the chute after Logan, ride for the full eight seconds.

Clutching a neck roll around his neck, Logan nodded.

“You two heading to Sturgis tonight?” Brett asked as he looked between Logan and Richie.

“No. In the morning,” Richie replied. “You see those two babes in the stands…” He waited until Brett followed his eyes.

“Ooooofff. Nice!”

Richie nodded.

“Whatever happened to the porn star?”

Logan watched the exchange with his brother and best friend, not wanting to jump in on the conversation. It was a sore spot.

“Yeah, well.” Richie shrugged. It had been two and a half months and Kara had refused all his calls, and that call he received a couple of days ago got him all twisted. He really fucked up.

Brett watched as his face fell. He knew him enough to know not to question him any further.

*

Richie should have been excited about going to Sturgis. It was his and Logan’s first time and they were looking for fun, only Richie didn’t feel like it would be. He looked over to Logan who was riding beside him, glad he was his best friend. They’ve been through a lot together. It wasn’t often but when one would fall for a girl and it didn’t work out he could depend on the other for support. He helped Logan transition away from Linda. He knew his friend, and he knew she wasn’t the one for him.

He, however, was finding it hard to transition away from Kara. He told himself it was the amazing sex. He’d never experienced anything like it with any other girl, but, deep down, he knew. He knew she was special and he wasn’t ready to give up on her yet. He wished he could, but he couldn’t, and he knew that Logan knew it too, and Logan never questioned him on it which made him wonder why.

Logan looked over to Richie and Richie gave him a thumbs-up. Logan responded with a thumbs-up of his own and then Richie went full throttle. Without having to look, he knew Logan was right behind him.

They slowed as they pulled into town and took in the sights. Bikes, Bikers, and Chicks, lots of chicks, barely clothed, shaking it, working it. Yeah, this was going to be a blast. They found a couple of spots and headed to the big saloon where they had a few beers and ate lunch as they watched the pretty barmaids working the crowd. Whenever two of them kissed the crowd went crazy and money was thrown their way. These girls made a killing.

Logan struck up a conversation with one of them. She had told him this was her fourth year working the bar during the bike rally. She pointed to a couple of the other girls and rattled off how many years they worked it.

Before leaving, Logan got her number and they arranged to hook up sometime during his stay.

They pulled into the campsite on the far side of town and found Jay with some girl he had already hooked up with, in front of his tent smoking a joint. The boys set up their tents and began walking around checking out the sights and drinking. Within two hours Logan hooked up with a cute little brown-haired chick with purple streaks running through it.

As the night wore on Logan and the girl, along with Richie walked over by the stage where nude dancing girls were doing all kinds of lewd things to each other, to a packed audience. Richie hooked up with a couple of girls and after the show, he and Logan went their separate ways with the girls they picked up.

Richie spend the night in the girls’ tent and woke up with a headache. He walked back to his tent and crawled in and slept for another couple of hours, until Logan woke him. They exchanged stories as they walked around looking for a place to eat some breakfast, careful not to step in anything.

They spent the rest of the day in town, bar hopping. They walked into this one saloon and as they drank shots with beer chasers they flirted with a pretty, tall waitress with large boobs and butterfly pasties covering her nipples. She wound up inviting them to the backroom for a private dance. As the boys followed her, Richie got the feeling that everyone was watching them, with grins on their faces.

By the time they walked—no—ran out of that room, and hit the street, they knew they’d have a story to tell.

The remainder of Richie’s time there was a blur. He tried to drink and smoke Kara away to the point he didn’t remember why he woke up in the middle of one big orgy. Thank God Logan watched out for him and made sure he used condoms, and Logan was sure Richie didn’t realize he steered him clear of a chick who didn’t know the word ‘hygiene’.

The drive home was excruciating. They wound up holding up in a motel along the route for a day so Richie could sleep his headache away, and before going their separate ways, they pulled over on the side of the road near town.

“You coming over to play poker Saturday night?” Logan asked after they cut the engines of their bikes and removed their helmets.

Richie threw his arms out and stretched then dipped his head from side to side. He looked to Logan. “No, I’m gonna go to California.” He’d been contemplating it all week and made up his mind that moment.

“You sure that’s wise?”

He looked around then settled his eyes back on Logan and shrugged. “No... I’m not.”

Logan nodded as his phone vibrated in his pocket. Seeing Linda’s name, he sighed as he answered it. “Yeah…? Alright, just let me shower and I’ll be over to get him.” He hit the end key. “Linda’s going out, I need to pick up Heath.” He put his helmet back on. “That woman runs around like she doesn’t have a kid to take care of.”

Richie donned his helmet and looked to Logan.

“Good luck this weekend,” Logan said.

Richie nodded and the two of them started up their bikes and went their separate ways.

Kara pulled the garbage can to the curb, her mind elsewhere as she thought about the next few days. The ‘For Sale’ sign that had been on the grass by the curb now read ‘SOLD’. She had a month to vacate, but she wanted to be done as fast as possible to give the buyers time to come in and prepare the home for themselves.

She looked up when she felt the first drop of rain and did a double take. Out of her peripheral, she spotted that handsome face that was always on her mind leaning against his red car. No make that his red Ferrari. She remembered Richie telling her it’s not a car it’s a driving machine. She could almost hear the grunt he emitted after he had said it to her and she smiled.

He caught her smiling and lifted the corners of his mouth as he nodded once. His arms were folded in front of him and he made no move to go to her.

She, however, was drawn to him and found herself walking his way. “Hi,” she said as she stood a few feet in front of him. It came out low and she wasn’t sure he heard her, so as she repeated it, he said. “Hi.”

“I thought you liked to drive the Maserati?” she asked, a small smile on her face.

“You like the Ferrari.”

She bit her lip. She didn’t know what to say or do. She wanted to throw her arms around him and hug him, smell his scent, the scent that drove her wild with want. She wanted to kiss him, she’d never felt a more wonderful mouth on hers before or since, but she also remembered he was the reason she had to sell her home.

He pinned her with his eyes and she felt powerless to look away, yet awkward just standing there.

“How have you been?” was the only words she could think of.

He nodded. “Good.”

“Good.” She nodded and brought her hands together, twisting them, nervous as all hell.

“Where you going?”

“Nowhere.” She followed his eyes to the sign. “Oh.” She looked back to him. “I’m moving to Florida…to live with my brother for a while.”

“Why?”

“Why?” she repeated even though she heard him clearly.

He just nodded.

She blew out a breath, hating having to explain her finances to him, a man who never had to worry about where his next dollar was coming from. “Because, Richie, I won’t be able to afford this place much longer.” She put her head down and started to turn around.

She looked back to him when she felt his hand on her arm, and when their eyes met, he drew her in close and hugged her.

She wasted no time in throwing her arms around his waist.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he said as his chin lightly rested on the top of her head. He blew out a breath. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. Why didn’t you call me? I would have given you the money.”

She pulled back, dropping her arms, and stared at him as a rain drop landed on her nose. “I don’t want your money, Richie.” She wiped the water away.

He nodded then blew out a breath. He looked around then brought his eyes back to hers. “Are you alone?” His eyes darted to her house.

She nodded.

“The biker dude’s not here?”

She was taken aback. “How do you know about Dee?”

He didn’t answer her. He just twisted his mouth. “Can we talk about it inside?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “Okay, yeah.” She turned around and started walking but paused when she heard his car door close. She turned back around and waited for him to catch up to her as he tucked his wallet in a back pocket.

They sat at the kitchen table after she made them each a cup of coffee.

“I tried talking Poppy into giving me a new contract.”  Kara picked up her cup of coffee and took a sip. “But he was adamant, even after I said I was open to anal,” she said with a nervous laugh as she placed her cup down.

Richie just listened as she talked, angry with himself for causing her to want to resort to anal on film, yet, glad Poppy refused her.

“Kenny ‘Bang Bang’ had often told me that he made extra money filming with another studio, a smaller studio that was always looking for new girls. So I called him and asked to set up a meeting. Richie, you would not believe the shit that went on in there.” She became fidgety just thinking about it. She thought back to when she saw Kenny after the beating he caught by the Steel Devils, and Dee said his beating wasn’t as severe as Augie’s and Sal’s. Though, when she told Dee that Kenny had set up the little meet, she had to plead for his life because he had wanted to order another beating for him.

Richie leaned back in his chair, coffee cup in hand, and listened to every word she uttered as she recapped what went on.

“…if Dee hadn’t come in, I don’t know if I would have made it out of there.” Maybe she was being a bit dramatic, but that’s how she remembered it. “Dee said he ran Augie and Sal out of town and he didn’t expect them to come back.” She paused and tilted her head. He didn’t seem too fazed at everything she told him. “You know all of this already, don’t you?”

He set his cup down and leaned his elbows on the table and with his left hand, grabbed the fist he made with his right. “Not at the time it was going down, but yeah, Wheeler called me once you mention my name to him.”

“Oh, he never told me he knew you, and I wasn’t talking bad about you. I swear. I never even gave him your name. I said I was seeing a hotel heir. He figured it out.”

He laughed. “I know. He told me you two were discussing past lovers and he guessed it was me you were talking about when you said I lived in Texas. Then he told me what had gone down.” He didn’t tell her he speculated that Augie Boykov and Sal Yedemsky weren’t coming back to town because they were probably buried in a ditch somewhere. “What he didn’t tell me is if you and he, uh…”

“Do you want to tell me who you fucked lately?”

He looked her in the eyes for a few seconds then blew out a breath. “It doesn’t matter.”

She nodded.

“But, uh, are you still seeing him?”

She gave him a small smile. “No. I guess he left out the part where a rival gang came by his clubhouse and shot up the place with me in there. When it was safe, he got me the hell out of there. We ended it right after that. That was last week. Can I just tell you, I can’t wait to move from here, I keep thinking his enemies stake out this place.”

“Oh, jeez.” He brought a hand up to his face and rubbed. “No, I didn’t know.” He rose up and it startled her. “Alright, so listen. I never intended for all this shit to go down. I’m so sorry you went through it. My intentions were to lure you away from porn, you know… It seems I almost pushed you in deeper. I thought you’d come to me if things got rough for you but your beautiful head is thick, you know that?”

She smiled as she shook her head. “Rich, you have to know I’m independent. I’ve been so for too long now.”

He nodded. “I know. That’s one of the things I love about you,” he said as he picked up his cup and walked over to the sink. After placing it down, he turned and leaned against it. “So what are your plans now?”

“Well, not much, and so much for independence. Like I said I’m moving to Florida and staying with my brother for a while.”

“Do you want to stay here in California?”

“I can’t, I just sold my home, and I didn’t make any money on it. I’m just grateful I recovered the down payment, and I’m not about to go through the process of buying one again.”

“I’ll find you something.”

“No, Richie. I’ve thought about it. There’s nothing here for me. It’s rather lonely here, you know?”

He didn’t know what to say.

“For what it’s worth, you did me a favor. Porning isn’t for me.” She laughed.

“Porning?” He grinned.

She shrugged.

“So what are you going to do in Florida?”

“I’m using the down payment from here to go back to college and finish up. I enrolled at the University of North Florida.”

He smiled as he nodded. “I’m glad to hear that.” He pushed off the sink and squatted down in front of her. Taking her hand, he caressed it between his, thinking how much he missed the feel of her. “Let me pay for it?” he pleaded.

Shaking her head, she tried to remove her hand from his grip but he held strong. “I can’t let—”

“Yes you can.”

“I don’t want to be beholden.”

“You’ll owe me nothing.” They stared into each other’s eyes. He sighed. “If anything I owe you. I fucked up your life and I need to fix it. I’ll get my lawyer to write up something that says you don’t owe me anything.”

She bit her bottom lip and he lifted his hand and with his forefinger and middle finger, traced it. A warm feeling shot through him and he brought his lips to hers and kissed her.

It was sweet, it became hungry.

When he traced her lips, Kara felt a shooting spark travel through her, and when he kissed her gently it wasn’t enough. She wanted more, needed more and she deepened the kiss. Oh, she missed him so much, she didn’t realize just how much until that moment.

He dropped her hand and brought his hands up to her face, and he swept them back into her hair and grasped her head, pulling her closer.

All too soon he broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, the both of them gasping for air. “Please,” he said.

She nodded. “Okay.”

He smiled.

“But you don’t need to get your lawyer involved…unless you want to.

“No. I don’t want to. I only said that to put your mind at ease. Kara, I’m not looking for anything in return…other than what we have, uh, had going. Can we go back to our arrangement?”

“Okay.” She nodded her head again. Outside she was the picture of cool and calm, inside her body was jumping up and down at the chance to have him inside her again.