Gravel (MC Biker Romance) (11 page)

“Oh, yes?” I said, realizing I’d been
daydreaming.

“I just asked if you had ten
rooms,” he said. “Ten rooms we could have every other week.”

My face burned hot as I continued
clicking around.

“Yes, sorry,” I said. “We do. I can
set up those reservations. Do you want them to be ongoing? Indefinite? Until
you cancel them?”

“Yes,” he said. I could still feel
his eyes studying my face. I just prayed he didn’t see my hands trembling.

He slid a shiny credit card across
the counter. Our hands touched as I took it from him. It was only for a brief
second, but in that second I felt something I’d never felt before.

“Okay, here’s your card back,” I
said a few moments later. “You’re good to go.”

“Thanks, Mia,” he replied, my name
slipping like butter off his tongue. “Listen, if that asshole ever comes in
here again, I want you to call me.”

He pulled a business card from a
rack on the counter, flipped it over, and began scribbling a phone number on
the back of it. He slid it towards me and raised his eyebrows. He was serious.
He meant what he said.

“You have the protection of the
Black Ice MC,” he said.

And that was when I first fell for
Raze.

About a quarter of a mile from my
house on the outside of our tiny, little one-horse town, was a bar called the
Handle
Bar.
It had a cheesy name, a tacky, painted
block exterior, and a faded, burned out sign that was easily approaching thirty
years old. It mostly catered to truckers, bikers, and the random local drunk.
Any night of the week there would be an excessive amount of motorcycles, mostly
Harleys, lined up in the parking lot along with a handful of semi-trucks parked
out back.

Our little rinky-dink town was
located just north of I-80 surrounded by miles and miles of
corn
fields
on either side, so we were a great resting stop for bikers who
needed to wet their whistle or truckers who needed to take a break or grab a
bite to eat.

Across the street from the Handle
Bar was a seedy little motel called the Starlight
Inn.
It was a popular party spot for teenagers and sometimes the bikers would rent
out a couple rooms to continue their late night drinking fests long after the
Handle Bar had closed...I should know because I worked there.

About once a week, a particular
motorcycle gang would come through and rent some rooms for a night. It was
almost like clockwork. Every other Friday I’d hear them pull up and park their
bikes. Their rock solid bodies were encased in miles of black leather, chaps,
fringe, sunglasses, and
skull caps
.

I always got flustered around Raze,
ever since that day when he rescued me from a disgruntled customer. He was the
most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. He was at least 6’2’’ with dark, grown out
hair and eyes bluer than the ocean. When he smiled, he revealed the most
perfect dimples I’d ever seen. The moment he walked in the door every other
Friday, my heart would pound and my face would flush twelve different shades of
crimson. I was positive Raze noticed but he never did say a word about it.
Perhaps he was used to having that effect on girls.

The back of
Raze’s
leather jacket said “Black Ice MC”, and according to him they were a long ways
from home. I had heard once that Raze was next in line to be the president of
his biker gang. I tried doing a little
internet
research on them one day but couldn’t find much except for a couple articles
from some little California newspaper. It didn’t have anything good to say
about them that
was
for sure. It seemed they were
suspected of trafficking drugs and other shady business dealings, but nothing
could ever be pinned on them.

Raze seemed so nice. The fact that
he was so sweet and kind and handsome made it hard for me to believe he had
anything to do with the shady practices of his gang, so I refused to believe
it. He casually mentioned once that his dad was the president of the biker
gang. I assumed that was how he got involved. Maybe he didn’t have a choice?

Almost daily, I’d fantasize about
leaving this two-bit town and riding away on the back of
Raze’s
hog. I imagined traveling from state to state by his side, seeing the sights,
trying new foods, taking in the beautiful scenery as the hum of the motorcycle
vibrated beneath us. Some girls wanted to be rescued by a knight in shining
armor and whisked away on the back of a beautiful white horse but not me. Raze
was all I wanted. I’d let him rescue me any day of the week. If he ever asked
me to leave with him, I wouldn’t give it a second thought.

It was nearing five o’clock on the
second Friday of the month. I could hear the rumbling in the distance of the
Black Ice MC coming up over the hill. It was only a matter of time before Raze
would be wandering through the door to check in for their rooms.

My stomach did somersaults in
anticipation as my fingers drummed nervously on the counter. I saw them pull
into the parking lot, one by one, and watched for Raze. After a few more
seconds, I saw him pull in, only there was a girl on the back of his hog.

My face turned a shade of red and
my eyes burned with hot
tears
as I was embarrassed for
letting myself even assume that he wouldn’t have a girlfriend. He probably had
one all along. I was a fool to think I had an ice cube’s chance in Hell with
someone like him. Who was I to think I could roll with a bunch of rough and
tumble bikers? I wasn’t one of them at all.

The bells on the door chimed as
Raze walked in.

“Hey there, Mia,” he said with his
signature charismatic smile. His eyes lit up when he saw me, but I figured
that’s how he was with all girls. He could charm the pants off a snake if he
tried. “Good to see you as always.”

“Yep,” I said. I tried not to be
overly enthusiastic with him this time. I peered outside and saw the girl
getting off the back of his bike. She had the tightest jeans on I’d ever seen
and her long, dark hair was tied back into a low
pony tail
.
She looked like one of them. An outsider she was not.

“What’s wrong? You seem different,”
he said as he studied my face.

“Nothing,” I replied as I shifted
my eyes from the window back to him. He noticed me looking outside but didn’t
say anything.

“I guess we’ll take the usual,” he
said resting his hand on the counter. “You sure there’s nothing wrong?”

“Here are your keys,” I replied as
I ignored his question. I sat ten keys on the counter and looked away. I
would’ve died of embarrassment had he noticed that I was on the verge of tears.

Raze said nothing as he stood there
and observed me for a bit longer.

“What time do you get off work?” he
asked.

“Nine. Why do you ask?” I asked as
I slammed the room keys on the counter.

“You should meet us over at Handle
Bar for a drink. My treat.”

My stomach fluttered again. I
wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. He clearly had a girlfriend. Maybe he
just felt sorry for me, but then again, he’d never asked me to hang out with
him before and I wasn’t about to turn that down.

“I’ll think about it,” I lied. I
was definitely going.

“I hope you come,” he said as he
flashed a dimpled smile and walked out of the office. His boots clicked on the
chipped tile floor and the bells jingled as the door slammed shut.

The next four hours were agonizing
and long. I stared at the bar across the street and wondered what Raze was
doing in there. I cringed at the thought of that brunette girl hanging all over
him. It killed me to think about it, but it helped to know that I was going to get
my chance to prove I could fit in in just a matter of hours. I had to go. I had
to see him.

By nine, my replacement showed up.
I scurried out to my car touched up my makeup, sprayed on some perfume, and
fluffed my blonde hair. I removed my cardigan so I was in my camisole and dark
jeans, and slipped on a pair of gold heels I happened to have lying in my
backseat. I was quite sure I looked ridiculous, but those guys would be so
hammered by now they wouldn’t notice.

With my heart about to beat out of
my chest, I sauntered over to the Handle Bar. I had been there a couple times
before with friends, but it really wasn’t my scene. It was so smoky and loud.
The smoke usually made my eyes burn, and the older men sometimes intimidated me
with their long beards, scowled faces, and less than transparent demeanors.
They were hard to read, unlike Raze. Raze seemed genuine and not like the
others, which is partly why I liked him so much. He didn’t take shit from
anyone, but he wasn’t scary. He was sexy. He was the perfect combination of
bad ass
and Prince Charming. No one straddled that line
better than him.

I reached for the door and upon
opening it was blasted with the thump of the music playing on the jukebox. The
smoke smell wasn’t as bad as it was the last time I was there, but the night
was still young. My eyes scanned the room until they landed on the back of
Raze’s
muscular physique. He was seated at the bar, hunched
over a glass of what appeared to be whiskey. He was by himself, thank goodness.

I made my way over to
Raze
when out of nowhere the brunette bitch got to him
first.

“Damn it!” I yelled out loud,
though I was sure no one heard me due to the excessively loud Led
Zepplin
song blasting from the speakers above.

I wasn’t sure what to do, but I
knew I had two options. I could go and interrupt them or I could go to the bar
and order myself a drink and see how long it took him to notice me. I decided
on the latter.

I took a seat at the bar about five
stools down from him. The brunette bitch was blocking his view of me, but I
hoped she would move soon. I ordered a gin and tonic and waited patiently. From
the corner of my eye, I watched the brunette flirt and flitter around him like
a bumbling idiot. She clearly liked him, only it seemed as if he was merely
appeasing her. He didn’t flirt back with her at all. He barely said more than
couple words to her. I watched as he looked down at his watch then at the door.
As his eyes scanned the place he finally noticed me.

I looked down as fast as I could. I
didn’t want him to know I’d been here all along, watching him like some creepy
stalker.

“Mia?” Raze said. “How long have
you been here?”

“Not that long,” I said. “I was
going to say hi, but you seemed a little preoccupied.”

My eyes floated over towards the brunette
who was shooting daggers at me with her beady, eyeliner laced eyes.

Raze laughed. “I would’ve welcomed
an interruption from that.”

“That’s not your girlfriend?” I
asked.

“Hell no.” Raze looked like he was
about to throw up at the thought.

I smiled, relieved, and said,
“Well, I’m here now.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. He
stared deep into my eyes, and for a second it felt like he was staring deep
into my soul. There was some sort of magnetic thing going on between us, an
inexplicable charge of electricity. I could feel it, that I knew for sure, but
I didn’t know if he could.

“Who’s this little filly?” a
drunken biker asked as he stumbled up to the bar next to us.

“This is Mia, from the motel across
the street,” Raze said. He took a step closer in an almost protective move.

“Nice of you to join us, Hot
Stuff,” the guy said. He was drunk off his ass and slipped an arm around me to
balance
himself
. He tried unsuccessfully to stifle a
belch, and I was unfortunately on the receiving end of it.

Raze grabbed his arm and flung it
off of me. “Don’t touch her, Red.”

“Alright, alright,” Red said as he
stumbled away.

“Thank you,” I said with a sweet
smile.

Raze shrugged and scanned the room
to make sure the other guys saw that I was off limits. He reached down and
grabbed my hand that was resting on my thigh. He cupped my face with his other
hand then leaned in to kiss me. His tongue filled my mouth and he tasted like
whiskey, but it was incredibly hot anyway. It turned me on that he knew what he
wanted and just went for it. He had no fear. Raze was fearless, and I loved a
man who wasn’t afraid to take what he believed was his.

“I’ve wanted to do that ever since
I first laid eyes on you,” he said. He was straightforward, and I liked that.

“Me too,” I said as I leaned in to
kiss him again. “Don’t stop now.”

Raze kissed me back, and suddenly I
forgot where I was. The loud thumping music and the smoke filled air all
suddenly disappeared. We were in our own little world.