Unchained: A Biker Erotic Romance (5 page)

Raina and Miles stared at each other in silence for a very long moment. Then he turned and walked slowly out of her office. They did not speak again the rest of the day, and that evening, supper was very quiet, with Raina’s mother the only one who attempted to initiate any conversation.

Raina spent the rest of the evening in her room. A few minutes before 10:00 p.m., Raina heard her father and mother come up the steps to their bedroom. His routine was identical each evening. He would come upstairs so that he could be in bed before the news started. As soon as the weather forecast was given, he would turn off the TV and roll over. By 10:20 he would be fast asleep.

At 10:25, Raina crept down the stairs. She was already dressed in the leathers, which fit much better without the shorts and blouse beneath them. The blonde wig was stuffed in the front of the jacket. She had left her cell phone in her room in case that was being tracked; instead, she had taken her father’s modified cell phone. That way, if something changed and she needed to call Neil, she still had a phone, and she doubted that her father had any traces on any of his own stuff.

She walked into the kitchen and keyed the code into the alarm so that she could go out into the back yard. The alarm would reset in five minutes, so it would be on when Daddy left in the morning. No one would know that she was out of the house.

She crossed the back yard and walked up the alleyway toward where she had told Neil to meet her. As she walked through an especially dark area, she pulled the blonde wig over her head. A few minutes later, the blonde hair was once again streaming behind her as she and Neil rode out to the Reaper’s clubhouse.

***

When they got to the clubhouse, there were 30 or 40 motorcycles parked around it. Inside, it was much noisier than it had been the previous night when Raina and Neil were able to sit quietly on the deck and watch the stars. From the sounds coming from the deck, tonight the large hot tub was filled to capacity.

As Raina looked around, Neil explained. “I called a few of the reserves from Dallas in case your dad tries something sneaky before we can clear out. Everyone’s totally clean. There’s nothing here at the club that could even get somebody a ticket, except a few beer cans in the yard. Tomorrow, after I get you back home, we ride out of here and we won’t be back.”

Neil went over to the bar and returned with two beers. He handed one to Raina and said, “There’s also wine, or even Coke, if you prefer.”

“Beer’s fine,” she answered.

Neil motioned her toward an empty table and sat down with her. “I choose my battles carefully,” he began. “As beautiful as it is, this ranch is purely a business proposition. There’s nothing in Porter worth fighting for... except you. We can...”

“I’m coming with you,” Raina blurted out.

Neil stopped. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“You keep asking me that,” she replied. “I made my choice between you and my father last night. I choose freedom. I’m going with you... if you’ll have me.”

“Of course,” he answered.

Raina noted a hint of hesitation, and his voice was slightly weak as he spoke. “Are
you
sure?” she asked.

He laughed. “Yes. Most definitely. Yes!” Then he took her hands in his and said, “But
you
would be losing so much. You know your father would probably disown you and cut you off. It’s a lot to give up.”

Her voice was soft as she replied. It held a mixture of firmness and sorrow. “Yes,” she began, “I’d have to give up being King Miles Chaplin’s pampered Little Princess, living safely behind his jeweled castle walls.” The tone of sorrow gained an edge in her voice as she continued, “But prison walls, no matter how richly jeweled, are still prison walls.”

She smiled. It was more a smile of hope than happiness. “I won’t cut Daddy off. If he’ll allow me, I’ll come and visit him and Momma.” She paused and the firmness in her voice increased. “From what you said, I guess me being willing to come back means that I’m actually free to leave my father.”

“Freedom has a price,” Neil said gently.

“And it has a reward,” she replied. “You.”

He leaned across the table and kissed her. It reminded her of that brushing kiss in the desert that now seemed so long ago. Again their lips touched for but a second, but again within that second she kissed him back, and he knew it.

“Is there someplace more private we can go to talk?” she asked.

“My office if you want to talk,” he replied quietly, “my bedroom if you want something else.”

She squeezed his hand and said, “Bedroom... we can talk in the morning.”

***

Neil’s bedroom was in the far corner of the building and had been the master bedroom before the ranch house had been converted to a clubhouse. It was surprisingly quiet, considering the noise in the rest of the house. Neil moved to close the curtains but Raina said, “No, leave them open. I want to see the stars. The night sky is one thing I’ll miss when I leave here.”

“There are stars above Dallas, too.” he said.

“But the stars above your hometown are special, and this’ll be the last night that this is home for me.” she replied.

Neil pulled Raina into his arms and kissed her. This was not a brushing kiss, and it lasted more than a few seconds. She kissed him back, and he definitely knew it. He fumbled at the front of her jacket until finally she had to unbutton it herself. He laughed softly. “Now you know why most of the leathers have so many zippers. Buttons through leather can be a real bitch.”

He held her tightly again and his hands went to the zipper on the side of the leather pants. “See,” he said, as it slid easily down. “Zippers work much better on leather.”

She reached to his front and said, “They work pretty well on denim, too.”

Soon, all their clothing was in a pile on the floor and Neil and Raina were intertwined on the bed. Their lovemaking was still in the discovery stages as they learned each other’s bodies and what each found most pleasurable. Both slowly stroked and explored the other while at the same time responding to the other’s gentle touch. Even at the heights of passion, Neil didn’t force himself upon Raina, but instead moved gently and waited for a response from Raina indicating that she desired what he was doing.

Finally, they reached the stage where he was poised between her legs with his hardness rubbing gently against the edges of her slit.

“Yes,” she said, and then gasped in passion as he slid inside her. Her climax was different tonight. Last night, it has been mixed with the release from her past. Tonight it was a first step toward a future together. Afterwards, she fell asleep in Neil’s arms, watching the stars through the windows.

***

It was about 3:00 a.m. when someone came pounding on the bedroom door.

“Company coming. Cops! Lots of ‘em.”

Neil bolted from the bed and grabbed his clothing, Raina following behind.

When they got to the front, one of the Reapers officers reported to Neil. “Looks like maybe 15 vehicles. All look to be CPE security, but around here, they have deputy powers, so they’re same as cops.” Then after a pause he added, “And they’re packing heavy: body armor, automatics, the whole SWAT setup. I think–”

An amplified voice cut him off. It was Daddy.

“Neil Gunn,” he said at a measured pace, “I know that you have my daughter in there. I don’t know what external pressure you have over her, but I am here to rescue her. My men have police authority and you all will be arrested. If you resist, I can call for state police backup or even the national guard.”

“Let me talk to him,” Raina said. She moved over to the front door and opened it slightly. The front of the house was bathed in spotlights.

“Daddy,” she yelled out, “I’m not being held prisoner.” Then in a slightly softer voice she added, “At least not here.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” he replied. Then in almost a fury, he yelled into the microphone, “If my Little Princess isn’t out here in five minutes, we’re coming in.”

Raina stepped through the door into the spotlights. The lights were almost blinding, but she could make out where her father was standing next to one of the larger vehicles. “Your Little Princess can’t come out,” she said firmly. “She doesn’t exist anymore. She has grown up.” Her voice was now icy. Somehow her anger had forced her voice not to heat, but to cold.

“I see they’ve corrupted you,” her father answered in a shout.

“No, they’ve freed me,” Raina yelled back. “Freed me from you!”

She continued, no longer yelling, “Neil has decided that Porter isn’t the place to move the Reapers, so he’s going to put the ranch back on the market. Maybe you can buy it like you buy everything else in this county.”

Raina was now talking in an almost normal tone of voice, but she was easily heard over the near-total silence around her. “You use your power to walk over anyone and everyone. Power seems to be the only thing that you understand. But I have control of your power right here in my hand.”

She held up the cell phone remote so Miles could see it. “You made a mistake when you gave me your phone so the techs could check the new encryption insert. This is your backup unit. You’d already given them the primary. I meant to give it back to you, but things got in the way.”

She held up the phone so that it was facing him. Despite the glare of the spotlights, he could see a blinking red square in the middle of the screen. “There’s a very interesting app on this control called ‘Emergency Disconnect.’ The explanation says it is an emergency override you can use to protect the lines or the power stations from uncontrolled overload. I have it set for ‘Full System.’”

She pushed the door open behind her so everyone inside could hear her clearly. “The rest of the Reapers are leaving now. If you try to stop them... one click, and half the southwest goes dark.”

There was a very long silence. Finally, Miles’ amplified voice again filled the night. He was no longer yelling. “Stand down,” he said dejectedly. “Everybody stand down. Let them leave.” His deep sigh was picked up by the microphone before he added, “Everyone but my personal detail return to your posts.”

All but three of the vehicles slowly left the parking lot.

Neil made several quick motions with his hands and the Reapers filed out of the clubhouse to their bikes. “Clear the county,” he said to the officer who had spoken to him earlier, “then wait for me and Raina. If we aren’t right behind you, don’t come back. Send the lawyers. That’s what we pay them for, and this isn’t a fight we can win with force. Especially not out here in Porter.”

The officer didn’t look too happy but passed on the orders, saying loudly, “Let’s ride while we can. We’ll finish this another day.”

Soon the roar of engines filled the parking lot and then slowly faded off into the night.

Miles spoke. He was no longer speaking through the microphone and amplifier. The was no need. This was between him and Raina and Neil.

“Do you realize what you’re giving up?” he began. “I’ve worked so hard all of my life to make sure that I—that
you
—would never have to be on the bottom. I put you on top, and if you leave with him, you are throwing it all away.”

“No Daddy,” Raina replied. Her heart, if not her voice, was filled with pity for her father. “You didn’t put me on top. You only allow
you
on top. And to do that, you put everybody else beneath you, including me.”

She sighed. “You can stay on top here in Porter. I just won’t stay under you anymore.”

“I won’t let you leave,” he yelled back. Then he turned to the men with him and said, “Arrest him!”

Raina stepped in front of Neil and turned the phone in her hand so that it was facing upward. Her finger was now poised above the blinking red square on the screen.