Steel Love: Alpha BBW Motorcycle Romance (10 page)

Maggie chewed her lower lip. She wasn’t sure if she should be going out to bars right now, but Maggie really could use all the friends she could get right. It just made her a little nervous to be in a crowded dark bar with a bunch of drunk dudes. Then again, she hadn’t been out in years. Reef never took her out. She could really use this.

“Yeah. Thanks for asking Jessi, I think I’ll go.”

“That’s great Maggie I’m so glad you said yes. The girls that are going are all really sweet. It’ll be a nice chill night.” Jessi gave her directions to the bar and told her they would all meet around eight that night. It was a bit later then Maggie usually stayed out, but she needed this.

“Sounds great Jessi, thanks again for asking me. I do kind of need a night out. I’ll see you later.”

Maggie hung up the phone and set it on the table. Then took a sip of her coffee before looking back over at Ash. “Where were we?” She stopped when she saw the look on Ash’s face. It was a strange mildly pained expression.

“Who was on the phone?” He asked.

“Oh. That was Jessi, an old friend from high school. She’s also one of the instructors from the self-defense class I took the other night. You know, when you first approached me? We’re going out tonight. There’s a bar in town that does an open mic on Mondays.” Maggie sat back down at the table and took deep sip of her coffee.

“You mean The Hole?” Ash asked eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Maggie replied.

“That’s my club’s bar. The one I took you to yesterday.”

“OH!” Maggie looked at the board on the wall where she’d written the directions and realized it was in fact the same place Ash had taken her to the night before. “I completely missed that when I was getting the directions. It’s called The Hole? Great name for a bar.” She laughed.

“Yeah. So you’re going there with this Jessi guy huh? Is he picking you up?”

Maggie frowned at Ash. The tone in his voice was a bit strained, and he just assumed Jessi was a guy. Was it possible that the strange tone and the looks he was giving her were jealousy? Why the hell would he be jealous? They barely knew each other. Besides, it wasn’t like he was the one having sexy dreams about her. Unless he was. Unless he was just as attracted to her as she was to him. For the second time that day Maggie gave herself a mental slap. She really needed to stop thinking about him like that.

“Um, no I’ll be driving myself. Are you going to be there tonight?” Maggie tried to keep the hope out of her voice.

“I will now.” Ash’s cryptic answer had Maggie frowning as she looked at the clock and realized it was twenty till nine.

“Shit. I have to go. Are you done with your coffee?”

Ash gulped the last bit down and handed her the mug. “Thanks, that was really good. Way better than the sludge at the clubhouse.”

Maggie smiled at that. “Anytime. So are you following me around today?” She asked as she rinsed the mugs out and put the butter, cream, and jelly back in the fridge.

“That’s the plan.” Ash stood from the table and stretched. Maggie couldn’t help but peak at his chest as he leaned back arms out to his sides so his shirt was pulled tight across his torso. Yeah, he definitely had a nice firm body. It didn’t look as ripped as Ash’s, but it looked solid. It looked comfortable. It looked comforting.

“I’ll wait for you outside.” Ash’s words forced her out of her mind and made her lift her eyes up to his. Had he noticed her watching him she wondered? It didn’t matter. Nothing was going to happen. It couldn’t happen. Period.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a sec. I just need to grab my purse and my lunch. I’ll be out in a minute.” Maggie watched Ash’s retreating back. He had a nice ass to compliment his nice torso. She really needed to work on her resolve.

Chapter 11

ASH

Ash adjusted himself as he sat on his motorcycle waiting for Maggie to come out. Awful inconvenient getting a hard-on every time he was around her. Shit and when she laughed and smiled at him he was done. It was all he could do not to come across that table at her. He wondered what held him back. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cared about respecting a woman. Of course he’d never met a woman like Maggie before.

And who the hell was this Jessie guy asking her out on dates anyway? Ash racked his brain trying to think of all the Jessie’s in town. He couldn’t quite put his finger on any one man. Then again it wasn’t like he made it his business to know everyone in town. He pretty much kept to himself, his club, and their business. But he was at The Hole every Monday when they had the open mic nights and he couldn’t remember any guys named Jessie being a regular.

Ash sat up straighter when he saw Maggie step out of the house. She looked good today. He was becoming a big fan of those pants. He thought he remembered hearing them referred to as yoga pants.  Hell if he got to watch Maggie do it he’d probably become a big fan of yoga too.

He smiled at her as he started his bike, and she smirked back as she walked to her car parked in front of him on the driveway. Ash wasn’t sure what he was going to do about this situation, but he knew he needed to get this woman out of his head. She was turning him upside down, and the only way he knew to clear her out of his system was to fuck her. If he could satiate that physical demand that crawled through him every time she even looked at him, then maybe he would be free.

Although he supposed it could backfire. Ash wasn’t sure he was capable of love. Not the romantic kind at least. He loved his mother, but wasn’t that a given? He supposed he could say he loved his club. He would take a bullet for Prentice so that pretty much equaled love. But romantic love? No. He had definitely never experienced romantic love. Not that sappy shit you see in the movies at least.

Ash could not imagine himself saying all those things men were supposed to whisper to women, cuddling on a couch, or after sex for that matter. When he was done he was done. He didn’t want to hang around and press his hot sweaty body against another person’s hot sweaty body and breath all over each other. That idea did not equal fun for him. Plus this woman deserved that shit didn’t she? She was like that. She was soft, and sweet, and needed that kind of gentle hand. Ash looked down at his hands as Maggie started her car up. His hands were not soft or gentle. They were large, rough, grease stained hands.

Maggie put her car into reverse the red lights waking him from his reverie. He quickly popped the gears into neutral and walked his bike back enough for him to put it in first and pull it around and out into the street.

Once in the street he maneuvered his bike to the side and waited for Maggie to back out of her driveway and start on her way to the library. When she passed him Ash let out the clutch and followed her. Unlike before when he kept his distance today he stayed two car lengths behind her. He wanted her to hear his bike. Wanted her to know he was here. That she wasn’t alone. He couldn’t imagine anyone hurting Maggie. He knew that when he finally did meet this Reef it would take every ounce of self-restraint not to smash his head in.

After a short drive into town Maggie pulled into the parking lot of the library. Ash pulled in beside her and cut the engine on his bike. She got out of her car, but leaned back in to grab her purse and what he assumed was her lunch bag.

“I’ll wait here until you’re inside. What time do you get off today?”

“I should be done by about four. I’m heading to the bar at eight so I’ll just go straight home from work, you probably don’t have to follow me home if you have better stuff to do.”

“Maggie, I hate to tell you but this is all I’ve been doing since your father’s funeral. Taking you to and from work. So I’ll be here whether you want me to or not.”

Maggie frowned at him slightly. As soon as the words left his lips Ash realized his mistake. She was probably more than sick of a man telling her they were going to do whatever they wanted whether she liked it or not. The thought made him wince.

Maggie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I realize that I can’t fight you physically. And I also realize that getting a restraining order is probably a lot harder then I think. But I want you to know that what you just said to me is total bullshit. And I’m calling you on it. You can’t treat people like that. Maybe I can’t really keep you from following me, but I can stop being civil with you, and I can make it a lot fucking harder than I have been. So just watch yourself.”

Ash thought he heard her mutter “Asshole” under her breath as she walked away from him toward the library. He supposed he deserved that. That was a pretty asshole statement for him to make. She was right about that. He obviously needed to work on his communication skills.

He waited until she’d gone inside the building before starting his bike back up and pulling out onto the road. Ash decided he needed to take a nice long ride. He needed the cool air in his face to help him chill out and get Maggie off his brain. Not that it was even possible. Maggie was all he could think of these days.

Now he had even more visuals of her to draw from. Maggie in her yoga pants. Maggie bent over in her car reaching for her purse in the passenger seat, her cleavage slightly exposed. Maggie’s lips pursing to sip her coffee. Maggie’s smile.

Ash took a deep breath as he pulled out onto old farm road. As the name would suggest it was a country road at the edge of town that meandered for roughly twenty miles through a stretch of farmlands. It was hilly and curvy and perfect for a morning drive in the crisp cool air to clear his mind.

Ash cruised along at a nice even forty-five miles an hour. He hadn’t noticed the car at first. It had probably stayed back for a while, but as he came around a curve and onto a particularly long even stretch of road he happened to glance in his side mirror and noticed the blue car coming up behind him. Ash pulled closer to the shoulder and gestured for the car to go around him but it didn’t. It just crept closer to Ash’s rear tire. Ash checked his speed and slowed his bike down to thirty-five and motioned again for the car to go around him but it didn’t budge. Ash tried to look over his shoulder to get a better look at the driver but the sun was glinting off the windshield and he could barely see. It did look like there were two people in the car though.

He had just turned back around when he heard the car’s motor rev and the vehicle accelerate toward Ash’s rear tire. The back of his hair stood on end as he nailed the throttle on his bike whipping ahead of the car a breath away from being smashed form behind. He could see a turn off in the distance. He needed to get off this stretch of road, but he also needed to see this asshole’s face. Ash let off the throttle just a bit so the car could catch back up to him.

When they were about forty feet from the turn ash pulled to the side of the road again and quickly hit his breaks putting him in line with the passenger window. He still couldn’t see who the driver was but he definitely recognized the passenger. It was that young girl that worked at the gym. She had a terrified look on her face that Ash registered just before he hit the throttle again and swung into the turn. The car didn’t have enough time to slow down to make the turn with Ash and ended up rocketing past him.

Ash pulled on to Main Street and made his way back into town. He couldn’t say for sure, but he had a sinking suspicion that the driver of the car was Maggie’s ex-husband Reef. He didn’t know what that girl was doing with him, but at least that gave him a bit of a clue as to how to find Reef. Ash worked his way back toward The Hole. He really needed to talk to Jack. Today. He needed to get another set of eyes on this thing, and he couldn’t wait another day.

Ash pulled into a spot in the long line of bikes in front of The Hole. Jack’s bike was actually in the line, which was surprising given the fact that you usually didn’t catch Jack out of bed before noon most days. He cut the engine and made his way into the bar. When he walked through the door the smell of pot hit him hard. Looks like the party was still rolling from last night.

He walked deeper into the room and stopped by the bar to let his eyes adjust in the dim light. He finally found Jack sitting in the far corner near the pool tables. He reclined on a couch with a girl sitting on either side of him. Ash shoved off the bar and moved toward the couch. Halfway there he realized one of the girls sitting with Jack was the sweet-butt Jamie. She looked surprised to see Ash, and for a moment almost looked embarrassed. As if Ash gave a shit what this girl did.

“Jack.”

The president of the Steel Breed MC opened his eyes and lifted his head off the back of the couch. His arms tightened for a moment around the shoulders of the girls before he realized that it wasn’t them calling him. He finally focused on Ash standing over him. Jack’s blue eyes were rimmed in red, the scruff on his face a week old. Jack usually kept his face pretty clean. Ash frowned slightly at his appearance. What was going on with his president lately?

“What’s up Ash? How’s our girl doing?” Ash frowned at Jack’s words. He didn’t like him calling Maggie ‘our girl’. She wasn’t Jack’s girl. No part of her was. She was all Ash’s. “Shit.” Ash thought to himself. “Now you’re thinking of her as your girl. This is not going to be good.”

“Yeah um... She’s good. That’s actually what I came to talk to you about. I need some back up on this. I want to bring Prentice out with me. I need a second set of eyes.”

While Ash was talking Jack had pulled Jamie into a deep kiss. She had stiffened at first, watching Ash from the side of her eye, trying to gauge his reaction. Ash could care less what she did. He just wanted the go ahead from Jack to bring Prentice along with him.

Jack pulled back from Jaimie and frowned up at Ash. “What do you mean you need a second pair of eyes? You can’t handle one girl on your own? What happened to your balls man? I thought they were brass.” Jack snorted laughter.

Ash chose to ignore the insult. Jack was obviously not being himself right now. “Yeah it’s not just one girl Jack. It’s her ex. Someone just tried to run me off the road and I think it was him. I didn’t get a good enough look to confirm it, but that little blond from the gym that works in the smoothie bar was in the passenger seat. I figure I’ll start there and work my way back to the ex.”