“Your message has been received. You can relax now.” It took all her courage not to back down when Shade’s brows lowered.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I’m not an idiot, Shade. Why didn’t you want me talking to Aly?”
“I merely repeated Lily’s message. Don’t read more into it than there was.”
“Lily is pregnant, not helpless. Does everyone jump when you ask them to?”
“Usually. Don’t assume an ulterior motive when there isn’t one. I didn’t assume anything when you left the table when Rider arrived.”
Shade had more than his fair share of arrogance. All The Last Riders did.
Jo dropped the subject. As long as he didn’t expect her to jump through hoops to keep him happy for the loan he had given her, she would leave Aly’s reaction alone. She didn’t want Shade delving into her reaction to Rider’s appearance.
“I need to get back to Lily. Enjoy your date with Rider tomorrow.” His parting shot had her fighting back a nasty reply.
Finding a quiet spot in the back corner of the bar where she could watch the rest of the auction without having to talk to anyone, she mentally distanced herself until she could leave.
Ordering a cup of coffee from the bartender, she sipped it as the auction moved toward the desserts.
She couldn’t help laughing when she saw Moon triumphantly lift Willa’s candy container over his head as the crowd gathered, jokingly asking for a piece.
Rubbing the back of her neck at the sensation of being watched, she looked around. The auction over, music began to play over the loudspeaker, and couples began to fill the lounge area to dance.
Jo told herself now that the auction was over, she would wait a couple minutes before calling it a night.
Still looking around at all the activity, she was able to see clearly into the next room when Knox swung Diamond around. Rider was standing at the entrance of the bar, blocking any chance of her leaving without speaking to him.
She swallowed compulsively at the tight ball of fear lodged in her throat. His posture and determined gaze had her looking over her shoulder, sure another woman had been the cause of his close scrutiny. When she found no one behind her, Jo paid for her coffee, slipped from the stool, and used the dancing couples as camouflage to navigate across the dance floor.
Trying to look over Viper’s broad shoulders and Winter’s head, she saw Rider was no longer standing in the doorway. Instead of being relieved, she became even more high-strung about his whereabouts.
She stayed at the fringe of the dance floor, hoping the couples would obscure her position. She clutched her purse and radio tighter, feeling ridiculous for playing cat and mouse with a man who was putting off the signal she had misinterpreted as him having found a juicy mouse he had every intention of devouring it if it came close enough.
“That’s not going to happen,” Jo muttered under her breath, searching the bar area for another exit. How could there not be another exit?
Her instincts were screaming for her to run.
Turning in a half circle, she spotted him on the other side of the dance floor, talking to Cash and Rachel, his arms held loosely by his sides.
Jo wasn’t fooled. His taut body could easily outrun her to the doorway, which his posture promised he would do if she tried to escape.
Licking her dry lips, she took a step back and bumped into a couple about to enter the dance floor. Her lips parted to mumble an apology, but it went unspoken at Curt’s sudden, hostile appearance. He was with Carly.
She was already ill at ease with the large crowd, Rider’s strange behavior, and now faced with the man she detested with a hatred that had festered for years. Her breath grew ragged.
She shakily brought her hand up to her throat, trying to draw a deep breath.
“Are you okay, Jo?” Carly reached out, touching her arm.
Jo pulled away from her touch, needing to get away from Curt’s close proximity. Her breaths grew shallower as her lungs fought for oxygen, and she blinked back black dots as her knees started to buckle.
A firm hand surrounded her waist, tugging her into a hard body. Her fingers splayed across a muscular chest.
“Excuse us. Jo promised me this dance.”
Jo numbly followed Rider as one of his hands surrounded hers that was holding the clutch and the radio, keeping them from falling to the floor as they moved to the soft music.
She didn’t know what was worse: the monster behind her, or the predator whose arms she found herself trapped in.
Hysterically, she thought of the old saying Trapped between a rock and a hard place.
The monster behind her could be taken down. His burly body was more fat than muscle. The same couldn’t be said for Rider. He had won the chase of cat and mouse.
The hard place she had futility sought not to end up in was exactly where Rider wanted her. Right in his arms.
12
“You look beautiful tonight.” Rider forced his arms to loosen his hold on the trembling woman who had turmoil written all over her face.
“Huh?”
“I said, you look beautiful tonight.” He patiently turned her so she could no longer see Curt.
“Are you high?”
“No, I’m not high.” Rider smiled down at her.
“Did Greer sell you some bad weed?”
His grin deepened. “No. Why do you think I have to be high to compliment you?”
“Because we don’t like each other.” She tilted her head proudly as she frankly admitted that.
The stubborn set of Jo’s jaw showed he wouldn’t be able to handle her as easily as he handled other women. But he had already known that. That was why he had never made a concentrated effort to lure her to his bed. That had changed the minute he had caught a whiff of her perfume and seen the femininity that he could have sworn she didn’t possess.
He didn’t mind a woman who could bust his nuts. What he had no intention of becoming involved with was one with no sex appeal. Jo had hidden her appeal under flannel shirts, tasteless colors, and even with the god-awful coveralls. He was willing to bet the jeans she wore were men’s. A man could only light a fire in a woman’s pussy if there was something to work with. She had adopted men’s mannerisms until they were so ingrained in her that he hadn’t wanted to explore the forest for the trees. The way she looked and was acting tonight showed he had some kindling to work with.
Rider kept his hand lightly on the small of her back, just underneath her jacket, experimentally stretching his thumb upward, rubbing her back over her dress in a circular pattern to slow her rapid breathing.
“I offered to take you out when you moved back to town. I’ve also asked you out a couple times since then. Would I have done that if I didn’t like you?” Rider kept his thumb just below her bra, being careful not to set the skittish woman fleeing.
“You thought I was gay when I refused.”
“You’re not gay.”
“And how have you finally reached that conclusion?”
Rider lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “You really don’t want me to answer that question, do you?” He lifted his head to see her swallowing hard.
“No.”
“Where do you want to go for our date tomorrow night?”
Rider saw her searching his eyes at the change of subject.
“Rosie’s.”
“I was thinking of something more romantic. How about the Pink Slipper?”
“No, Rosie’s will be fine, and I’ll pick you up.”
“I didn’t plan on showing up on my bike.”
“I prefer driving.”
“So, if you get called out, you can leave me stranded?” Rider could practically see the plan forming in her mind.
“I wouldn’t leave you stranded. I’d drive you home first.”
“If you get called out, I’ll ride along with you. It would be a new experience for me.”
“I bet you don’t get many of those a
nymore.”
Rider could hear the ice dripping off her tone, warning him away from the razor’s edge.
“Not many, no.” His grin faded. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate them when they come along.”
Jo’s forehead puckered in a frown. “Don’t expect any new experiences from me. You’d be bored to death in under an hour.”
“Then let’s hope you don’t get called out.”
“Rider, this isn’t a date, date. You know that, right?”
“Are you trying to spoil the date”—he emphasized the word date smugly—“before we even go out? Maybe you’ll be surprised, and we’ll have a good time. Enough that you’ll go out with me again.” He lowered his head, taking another whiff of her heady perfume.
With Jo’s free hand, she reached out, trying unsuccessfully to push him away.
“Why do you keep smelling me?”
“You smell good. What’s the name of the perfume you’re wearing?”
“None of your freaking business,” Jo snapped.
Why didn’t she want to tell him the brand of her perfume? Usually women would immediately tell him if he complimented them on it.
“It has to be sold somewhere you don’t want me to know you frequent.” Rider used deductive reasoning to figure out the answer, taking another deep breath like a wine connoisseur inhaling the aroma of an expensive vintage. “Most department stores or drug stores sell perfumes. If you had bought it from one of those, you would have told me straight out.”
“Maybe it’s from the drug store, or it’s a knockoff from an outlet store,” Jo countered.
“Nope, you wouldn’t be embarrassed to tell me that it came from the drugstore, and the closest outlet store is in Lexington.”
She gave him an exasperated look. “You’re being weird.”
“Am I? Sorry.”
“You don’t look sorry.”
He wasn’t, but it was irritating that she knew it. He must be going soft if she had so easily looked through him.
His brow furrowed in a frown as he thought of the places she could have bought her perfume. Suddenly, a light dawned on him.
“You bought it at Sassy Vixen’s, didn’t you?” He laughed so hard that his shoulders shook.
At his guess, he felt a stinging pain on his chest. The woman had pinched him right under where he was holding her hand pinned.
“Shut up! Everyone is staring at us!” she hissed.
“You bought your perfume at a lingerie boutique. Did you buy anything else while you were there?”
“It. Is. None. Of. Your. Business.” Jo sucked in a deep breath. Rider could tell she was trying to calm her temper before she continued in a quieter tone. “What I bought is and will never be any concern to you.”
“Damn, that hurts.”
“I barely pinched you.”
“I don’t mean that. I meant that you think it’s never going to be any of my concern. Woman, if you believe that, then you don’t know me.”
“No, I don’t. And you know something else? I don’t want to!”
One second, he was holding her, and the next, he was holding air.
In the military, Rider had learned when to attack and when to retreat. It was time to retreat and give Jo breathing room.
He followed her slowly, watching as she left, wanting to make sure she got into her truck safely.
The cold air hit him as he went out the door, making him wish he had taken the time to grab his jacket. He could see the indentations of her heel prints in the freshly fallen snow. He tracked them with his eyes until they fell on the crumpled heap on the sidewalk.
“Fuck!” Rider started running, but his dress shoes were just as inadequate as Jo’s high heels. Unable to stop, he slid into her and toppled over her.
“Ouch!” Jo yelled out from underneath him. “Get off!”
“I’m trying to. Give me a second.” Rider managed to lift himself off Jo, then lean down to help her to her feet.
He reached down, patting her dress down to get the snow off her, and when he raised his head, he saw tears glinting in her eyes.
“Are you hurt?” he asked in concern. He went from patting her down to kneeling to reach for her ankles.
She took a step back, nearly falling again.
Quickly rising, he managed to catch her. “Where are you hurt? Is it one of your ankles?”
“I’m not hurt.” Jo sniffed, brushing her hair from her face.
“Then why are you crying?” Rider reached out, wiping a glistening tear from her cheek.
“Because it’s been a sucky day.”
Rider didn’t know what to say, considering he had paid out the ass for a date with her.
He picked up her radio and purse she had dropped, and as he did, her purse fell open, spilling its contents onto the snow-covered ground. He had to blink twice at what he was seeing.
As his fingertips touched the handle of the gun, Jo beat him to it, grabbing the gun and taking the purse out of his hand. Shoving the pistol back inside the purse, she started to leave.
Rider reached out, taking her arm. “Why in the fuck are you carrying a gun?”
“I forgot it was there. I was going to put it back in the glovebox when I came out of the house. I forgot.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you carry a gun.” He narrowed his eyes at her.
“I carry it for protection.”
“Who do you need protection from?”
“So I can protect myself if I need too.” She obstinately narrowed her eyes back at him.
“Let me phrase it another way. Why do you feel the need to have a gun for protection?”
“I just do.”
“Jo …”
“I work all day and night. I would be stupid not to have a form of protection when I get called out to some of the back roads. I also live in a junkyard, where some people think they have free rein to steal parts they need.”
He had never thought about Jo being alone in the massive junkyard.
“Does it happen often?”
“Enough that I have a gun.” Jo rolled her eyes at him.
“Have you recognized any of them?” he asked conversationally as she started walking toward her tow truck.
Rider felt her sidelong glance as he took her elbow when her foot slipped on the icy ground.
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“It doesn’t matter if I am. I deal with it the same way my dad did when he caught them.”
“What did Lyle do?”
“Ask them what part they’re trying to steal and give them a discount. Now, they pretty much just come for the discount. Saves them nearly getting their asses shot.”
“Your mother doesn’t want to move in with you so you won’t be alone out there?”
“I’m a grown woman; I don’t need my mother to hold my hand.”
“She remarried?”
Unhappy that he had figured out why her mother hadn’t returned to Treepoint at her father’s death, she jerked away from him as soon as she touched the door handle. She didn’t like discussing that her mother had washed her hands of her when she had decided to return to help her father. Rider let her go so she wouldn’t knock his head off when she opened the door.
“Engaged.”
The sound of thin ice cracking had him about to warn her, but it was too late. Jo had already lifted a foot onto the floorboard, nearly sending her face first into the side of the seat.
“Dammit to hell!” Jo bellowed in aggravation. “Motherfucking son of a bitch of a biscuit eater …”
Rider smothered his laughter at her irritation as she lifted her dress to better see the offending heel. Tossing her purse and radio onto the dashboard, she then grasped his arm to balance herself as she lifted a foot, taking one shoe off. One delicately arched foot went down onto the snow.
“You’ll get sick,” Rider warned, wincing when the heel she had removed went sailing inside the cabin of the truck.
“Shut up!” she snarled.
When she raised her other foot, Rider took matters into his own hands. Taking her by the waist, he hefted her onto the seat, removing the shoe from the dangling leg.
Her blue, storm-tossed eyes glinted at him. He could practically count the ways she was mentally killing him in her mind for witnessing the embarrassing situation.
Rider reached out, preventing her from closing the door after she righted herself on the seat. It became a tugging match.
“Pleasure.”
Jo stopped trying to shut the door. “Huh?”
“The brand of perfume you’re wearing.”
“I didn’t take you for a man who shopped at Sassy Vixen’s.” She ran her eyes over his large body as if gauging his size. “I didn’t think they would have anything that fits you.”
Amused at her tart mockery, he held the door open with one hand, holding her shoe with the other. “A couple of women from the club like to shop there. They ask me to go along to give my opinion. Pleasure is one of my favorite perfumes.”
“You’re being a dick. You know that, right?” Jo reached out, jerking her shoe out of his hand and throwing it to the side.
“I’m being upright and honest. A few of the brothers have gotten in trouble after not saying straight-out that they have sexual relationships with the women in the club. Since we’re about to go on our first date, I just wanted to put it out there that I do.”
“Thank you for clarifying theirs and your relationships—”
“No relationships, just sex. As plain and simple as that.”
A gurgling came from her chest. “Since you’re being so upright and honest, let me clarify mine. We’re not going on a real date tomorrow. It’s an act of charity for those less fortunate. It’s as plain and simple as that.”
“Just so you know, I’m planning on changing your mind.”
“Good luck with that. You’d have a better chance of riding Ferguson’s old bull that he keeps pinned up behind his house.”
“I might surprise you.” His lips pressed together in a confident smile. “I love a wild ride.”
13