Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance (28 page)

Surprisingly, Maggie
’
s face seemed to light up at his
explanation.
“
Alright. I
’
m in.”

“
It wasn’t an option.
”

She gave him an unenthusiastic flip of
her middle finger and headed out to the parking lot. When he followed, he found
her waiting by her SUV. He hollered her name and waved his hands for her to
follow him to his bike. She hesitated a moment before she joi
ned him.

Jase straddled his bike and got
comfortable. He held a helmet out to her.
“We
’
re much harder to tail this way.
”

Maggie gave a look to the back seat of
the bike. Jase couldn’t help but get a little satisfaction from the anger
brewing under her skin. Her pouty lips twisted up as she tried to think her way
out of her discomfort. But she finally gave up and ripped the h
elmet from his hands and latched it on her head. She
climbed onto the seat behind him and wiggled her hips until she was settled
against him tightly. He felt her arms wrap around his chest. It had been so
many years since he had felt her at his back, but s
he
still fit there as if she had been molded for it.

Sliding his protective glasses up
against his eyes and starting his bike, Jase worried for a moment that she was
going to feel his heart racing underneath her palms.   But when Maggie
’
s chest pressed fi
rmly against his back, his mind became more pre-occupied
with why her heart was doing the same.

~
TEN ~

Jase was indeed able to convince the
manager at Rudy
’
s Range to give them extra time to
practice
—
for a couple hundred dollars, which Jase
slipped him as he was walking up to announce closing time.

At first, Maggie had struggled with the
9mm and he tried to keep her from getting frustrated and quitting. Once the
place was empty, it seemed to relax her
, and the
second hour
’
s target practice was much improved. Mostly he watched her
and stayed out of the way, popping up every now and then to gently adjust her
form. Her resistance to his instruction got better as the night went on, too.
She always used to
tell him that bike rides made her
calm, and the ride over had certainly seemed to make her amiable.

During the last half-hour of their time,
Jase made her put away the 9mm. He rented a shotgun similar to the one of Henry
’
s that Maggie had left by her bedsi
de. She loved the feel of the little Bersa in her hands,
but her eyes widened a bit at the huge rifle as he handed it to her.
“
I heard I can break my own shoulder if I
fuck this up,
”
she said.

“You
’
re not gonna fuck this up,
”
he said with a laugh.
“Just re
lax.”
He took a few seconds to crack the
barrel and instruct her on its reload.
“
Put the butt up to your shoulder.
”

Maggie made a little noise when she
lifted it, surprised by the weight. She shifted around to get it settled. Jase
came around from behind
her and nestled the shotgun
butt into her shoulder with one hand. The other arm reached around and helped
her hold the barrel steady.

Jase realized he was more or less
wrapped around Maggie as he had been by her on the bike. Her warmth radiated
into his c
hest and arms. The little voice that was
normally supposed to be on top of situations like this was suspiciously silent.

Jase leaned down with his face next to
hers. He could smell her shampoo and body wash, and that scent beneath that was
purely her own.
He said softly,
“
Lean into it. Got it? It won’t kick as
bad as you
’
re imagining.
”
He began to move his hand off the barrel
to see if she had the weight balanced.

“Yeah,”
she said back, almost a whisper. He
could see her eyes flitting around, uncomfortable
.
Her breath came in shorter reps.

Jase cleared his throat and unwrapped
himself from around her and backed away. He put Maggie
’
s ear protectors back down so she didn’t
have to move, then replaced his own and gave her the go-ahead tap on the
shoulder. Mag
gie hesitated a few seconds, and then
the shotgun blasted. The paper target hanging just a few feet away nearly
shredded in half as the air filled with the acrid burning of the shells.

Maggie laughed as she lowered the rifle
and pulled her earmuffs off.
“O
h, let
’
s definitely do that again.
” 

Jase laughed at her and handed her two
more shells for her to reload. Maggie kept going until the gun felt too heavy
to safely practice with; her arms just weren’t used to the work of absorbing
the firearm
’
s energy yet
.
They left Rudy
’
s with a few minutes on their clock to spare, and both
immediately decided they were in no mood to return to the clubhouse, or to
sleep.

“
We should go to the ridge,
”
said Maggie after a few minutes of
brainstorming.
“
You could teach me how
to throw a punch.
”

“
That
’
s not a bad idea,
”
said Jase, though he only meant the
second part. The ridge wasn’t just any hang out; that was his and Maggie
’
s place. He had actually made himself
stop visiting alone, because he always felt like shit afterward.

Already, he could feel their connection
slipping back into old territory, into habitual comfort. Ever since he drove
away from the clubhouse with Maggie against his back, the night had felt just
like the old nights, when she was his. The smart thing woul
d be to do some self-defense training at the clubhouse, he
knew. At least somewhere people would be around, and he wouldn’t be put in a
position where he might do something else that made him sorry.

But Maggie was already on the bike,
helmet on. She waited
and watched him. And the
feeling of seeing her there was far stronger than any warning bells going off
in his mind. He climbed on and smiled to himself as she wrapped against him
again.

After a quick stop to grab some beers,
they rumbled up the dark and
winding trail through
the low hills towards the ridge. It wasn’t a far stop from the town, but the
curve of the path made it longer, cutting through the high desert forests and
up into the cooler mountain air. The ridge itself was little more than a half-m
oon of clear space that looked out over the sparkling
lights of both LeBeau and Howlett, with a dark swath of country farmland set
between them. Jase pulled his rumbling bike into the vacant space. He killed
the engine and waited until Maggie hopped off.

He let them both get a beer in before
adjusting the headlamp of his bike to give them a little bit of light to work
with. Maggie had a mischievous smile and began to hop around a little on her
toes.

“
Okay now, here
’
s the thing,
”
said Jase as he rolled his shoulders.
“
You and I have very different body
types, so the same fighting style isn’t going to work for both of us.
”

“
Did you have to learn, like, the jerk
style of fighting?
”
said Maggie with a scoff and a smile.

“
Aha, see, yo
u
thought you were gonna hurt my feelings,
”
said Jase, raising a finger.
“You
could
have asked if I learned the ugly style
of fighting. But you didn’t-- you went with jerk. Probably because you don’t
think I
’
m ugly. So I win.”

Maggie made a hissing noise a
nd rolled her eyes in exaggerated fashion.
“
If you
’
re trying to get me excited to punch you
in the face, mission accomplished.
”

Jase grinned at her and took off his
cut. He laid it carefully over the seat of his bike.
“I
’
m a big guy. I don’t really have to
have much style when I fight.
”

“
Must be nice,
”
said Maggie, raising her dukes at him.

“Not gonna lie, it
’
s pretty sweet.”

“
So for us non-giants
…”

“
You have to learn how to use your weight
and your attacker
’
s weight against him. You have to be a lot more
tactical when you fight, and focus on weaknesses instead of
big hits,
”
said Jase.
“
Now, turn around.
”

“
What?
”
she said.

“
Spin around,
”
he twirled his finger.
“
As a female, you
’
re much more likely to be attacked from
behind.
”

“
And here I thought men were th
e braver of the species,
”
she muttered. Jase laughed at her as she
sarcastically turned her back to him and waited.
“
I
don’t like this, this is creepy.
”

“
It should be creepy,
”
said Jase.
“
Someone coming at you from behind is
dangerous as hell. Trust creepy
instincts because
they’ll probably give you a few extra seconds.
”

Jase approached. He hesitated a moment
before he wrapped an arm around the top of Maggie
’
s chest. She tensed up against him, and
he could feel her heart beating a little faster. He put his
other hand loosely on the top of her brown curls.

“
If someone comes at you from behind like
this, you want to try and upset their balance. Don’t think about fighting them.
They
’
re probably bigger than you, or armed.
Just think about escaping,
”
said Jase n
ext to her ear. He
thought he felt her shiver. He took her left elbow in his hand and directed it
slowly back to his solar plexus.
“
Feel that? You need to elbow that spot as hard as you can.
That
’
ll put anyone
’
s dick in the dirt.
”

Maggie giggled underneath him. She
grasped his arm around her neck with her right and mimicked the elbow move a
few times for him.

“
Then, put your leg outside mine, like
this.
”
He put his left hand on her left thigh
and gently pushed until Maggie lifted i
t into
position, on the outside of his stance. The arm around her neck that had been
grasping was now little more than a draped nuisance.

“Now,”
said Jase.
“
Grab my pants right by my crotch.
”

Maggie
’
s reaction didn’t disappoint. Her face
twisted in disbel
ief.
“
What the hell, man? What kind of
self-defense is this?
”

Jase couldn’t help laughing while he
said,
“I
’
m serious! This is completely legit,
one-hundred-percent. I swear.
”

“
Is this how you
’
re picking up women now?
”
said Maggie, shaking her head and mut
tering sarcastically to herself. She couldn’t look at him,
but her face lit up with a huge grin and flushed red as she followed his
instructions. She took a nice handful of denim on his inner thigh dangerously
close to trouble, and then looked up at him wi
th
smirk as if to say
your move.