"I'm Falon."
I blinked.
"I'm Naomi, nice to meet you!"
The false cheer in my voice had Sean drawing me into his chest, his hand squeezing my hip tightly.
"You're the bitch that took twenty minutes in the bathroom."
I looked at her.
"Yep, that's me."
She narrowed her eyes. "You're a fucking bitch."
"That's enough," Sean said. "Was there a reason that you're talking to me?"
Falon took in my face and body, lingering slightly on where Sean's hands were wrapped around my hip, and she curled a lip up at me.
"I … "
"Woman, don't you know when to quit?" a big biker walked up to her side, wrapped one beefy hand around her upper arm, and pulled her away.
All the while she bitched at the man.
"That was fun," I chirped.
Sean looked down at me.
"You didn't spend twenty minutes in the bathroom. More like eight," he rumbled.
My mouth twitched.
"I like you," I blurted.
His eyes took in my face. My eyes. My hair that was still in a mess at the top of my head, and grinned.
"That's fuckin' awesome, because I like you, too," he hesitated, bending down low so I could hear exactly what he had to say without all the ears surrounding us listening in. "And I plan to show you all the ways that I like you if you'll let me."
Before I could reply, he leaned back, captured my hand, and led us back over to where the Dixie Wardens were huddled in a circle, talking about this year's election.
***
Three and a half hours later I had a belly full of smoked meat, water, and cheesecake.
I'd changed my bag, used the restroom once more, and was sitting on the back of Sean's bike, waiting for him to join me.
I was sitting there talking to Imogen next to me when the drunk biker, who was even drunker now, stumbled toward his bike.
BB had a black eye, a bruised cheek, nose, and chin. The entire side of his face looked like he'd rubbed himself down in black war paint.
I knew better, though.
It was a bruise from Sean's fist hitting his face.
Wincing, I returned my eyes back to Imogen, dismissing him almost before he'd registered on my brain.
The less attention he received, the less power he had over the situation.
"My ass hurts already," Imogen groaned. "I don't know how they turned a usual thirty-minute ride into a three-hour ride."
"All I hear is bitch, bitch, bitch," Aaron teased as he walked up, Sean at his side. "Would it kill you to say something positive for once?"
Imogen's lips twitched as her eyes narrowed.
"No, probably not," she said teasingly. "Is this kind of like giving positive reinforcement instead of negative?" She tapped her lip with her finger.
"Kind of like saying, 'you performed oral sex well, and you have quite a bit of skill at kissing', instead of saying 'you have a small wiener and I can't feel it when it's inside of me?'"
Sean, Aaron, and Imogen looked at me like I'd shocked them.
"What?"
Imogen burst out into peals of giggles, while Sean rolled his eyes and handed me my helmet. "Helmet up, girl."
I did, a small smile on my face as I did.
By the time I had it situated and my hair tucked underneath it, as good as I could get it, Sean was in place in front of me, his hard ass sucked in tight to the inside of my thighs.
We were one of the lasts to take off while Sean waited for Aaron, who also waited for his wife to get her giggles under control.
And by the time we took off, we were one of five left in the parking lot.
Big Papa, Tommy Tom, and Jessie James had already eased out onto the road, fully expecting us to catch up.
And we did.
Chapter 7
A good thing about water is that you can drink it at work. A good thing about Vodka is that it looks like water.
-Sean's secret thoughts
Sean
We would have stayed caught up, too, had another biker that was one of three on our ass, trying to catch up like the rest of us, not lost control and run head first into a guardrail.
My immediate reaction was to stop, but pieces of the man's bike were flying everywhere.
Debris exploded, the majority of the bike vaulted down the guardrail, and it took everything I had not to wreck myself.
I knew Naomi was scared.
I was bobbing, weaving, and sliding my way like Aaron was beside me.
Naomi's hands tightened on my waist, and I felt her head curl in low on my back as she pasted herself to my body.
Good girl, I thought.
The bike slowed as I maneuvered around a tailpipe and the handlebars, wrapped around each other like they'd always been so, and I finally placed my feet on the ground near the edge of the road.