His gaze traveled down her body, back up. “You can’t ride in that.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ve already ascertained I don’t look the part. If you aren’t ashamed to have me on the back of your bike, I’m not ashamed to be there.”
“Never gonna be ashamed of you, Beautiful, but it’s a safety thing. You wear jeans or leathers to ride. It’s about protection. If the bike goes down you want something thick between your skin and the pavement.”
She looked at her dress pants, silk shirt, high heels, and suit jacket in a new light. “Okay then, looks like a ride is out. The extra jeans and tees you bought me are here, but I wore the jacket and boots home the other night.”
“No it ain’t, sweet cheeks.”
Gen turned to Sheila, who said, “I’m a size seven and have some boots you can wear. My jacket’ll be too big, but will work okay. I’m not goin’ anywhere for a few hours, you and your man go take a ride.”
* * * *
Gen pulled into her garage four hours later. She opened the bay beside her and watched Duke maneuver into the empty spot. His bike was louder for a few seconds in the garage before he shut it off.
She got out of her car, watched him take his helmet off and swing his leg over the bike. So, damned, sexy. She still had her jeans on, but had put her high heels back on when she gave Sheila the boots back.
He started walking towards her, and she got the idea he was stalking towards her, like prey, instead of merely walking across her garage.
“Have you ever had sex on your bike?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Tried it once, wasn’t very practical. You probably don’t want details.”
Thinking about it, she realized she didn’t like thinking about him with other women, and nodded agreement.
“That’s a different one than you took me on the first time. How many bikes do you have?”
“Three cars, nine bikes.”
Gen did the math in her head and Duke said, “That’s an awful big smile, Beautiful. What’s goin’ through your head?”
“It’s been a long time since I dated someone whose vehicles were worth more than mine.”
He shook his head, “You drive a one hundred and twenty thousand dollar car, Gen. Asking for someone to have a more expensive vehicle than you substantially limits your dating pool.”
“Don’t need my guy to have money, Duke, but it’s nice knowing you have enough so we’re on more of an even playing field. Bethany thinks Mike stuck with me for my money. I’m not so sure she’s wrong.”
She let him pull her into a hug and relaxed into his arms.
“I’m always gonna pay when we go out,” Duke said. “I’m never gonna give you the idea I want you for your money, Gen.”
“There will be exceptions, and you’re just gonna have to deal,” she told him. “I’ll pay for your birthday dinner, and times like tonight when I pick up dinner and bring it to the clubhouse of my own accord without you asking. I’ll let you pay for dates, but you can’t get ridiculous about it.”
He looked at her a few seconds and said, “I assumed, with the way you research, that you’d know my net worth. I’m thinkin’ maybe I’m wrong?”
“There was a miscommunication with Drake Security. Apparently, Aaron Drake gave his people a list of not-important data to give anyone who asked for info on you, with instructions to notify Aaron who was asking, so he could figure out what they needed to know. So, I got the non-research BS, but Aaron wasn’t readily available, so I didn’t get the visit from him.” She shrugged. “By the time I realized what’d happened and Aaron came to me, I figured you’d tell me what I needed to know, and I told him to just credit me what I’d paid and not to worry about it.”
“Okay, then. I owned a thirty four hundred square foot home in Atlanta. I sold it for nearly three hundred and fifty thousand dollars before coming to Chattanooga. All charter members put in a hundred thou for seed money, and we had another three hundred we’d arranged for the Atlanta Chapter to loan us. The bike shop should be turning a profit by our one year mark. The bar already is. Other chapters have some illegal income streams, and so far I’ve kept Chattanooga out of them, but some of my boys are chomping at the bit, and we voted for one of them to begin dipping our toes into the water. In six months it’s likely we’ll be pulling in a great deal of cash on the venture, but if we weren’t a democracy I’d keep us out of this particular pool. I pulled in around a hundred and forty grand a year while I was in Atlanta. I expect I’ll be pullin’ at least that much here within another year to year and a half.”