I'm Only Here for the Beard (The Dixie Wardens Rejects MC #4)(50)

He was wearing a leather jacket, black jeans, and black boots. His shirt, however, was blue. Though, it appeared black in some places due to what I assumed were grease stains.

I'd seen the man before. Actually, I'd seen him a lot.

That long silver hair of his was pretty distinctive.

I squeezed Sean tighter, and his large hand covered mine for a half an instant before he returned it to the handlebars.

I lifted my head to rest on his shoulder, allowing my helmet to lean against his head, and stared ahead of us. 

The biker passed us, but I kept my head forward, staring straight ahead, and didn't allow myself to turn and study the man.

I didn't want to see him staring, because that would only give me an even greater sense of foreboding than I already had.

Almost as fast as he'd passed us, he started slowing down.

I saw Brady, out of his car, eyes on the road behind him rather than on us, but I waved at his back anyway.

The biker that Sean waved to turned down the road that Brady was parked on, and my brows furrowed in contemplation.

Maybe that was why I saw him so much, because he lived on Brady's street.

As we rode further away, I realized that I'd been making a bigger deal of it than I should have. If the man lived on Brady's street, then I'd have seen him a lot. Brady and I had gotten thick as thieves since we'd met.

Something in my gut loosened at the knowledge that I wasn't being followed by some random scary, greasy biker dude. And I started to enjoy my ride.

Though, even when my mind was racing about some fake stalker that I'd made up, I'd been pasted up against a sexy man's back, so it hadn't been that bad.

Sean took the long way home, looping around the entire town on back roads, allowing me the time to breathe easy.

Rides on the back of Sean's bike were the best.

Rides where Sean wasn't wearing his cut-which allowed me to feel his spectacular muscles and nothing else but a sweaty t-shirt in between us-were even better.

Not that I had a problem with Sean wearing his club colors.

In fact, any other time I adored when he wore it. I loved the way it looked on him, and how he acted when he was wearing it-like something was different about him. More confidence. More pride. More carefree.

Whatever it was, the man looked sexy in his Dixie Wardens cut.

It was only when I had my face pressed against it that I didn't adore it as much, but I was slowly getting used to it.

Sean took a turn, and I looked around, trying to figure out where we were.

"What is this?" I asked ten minutes later as he brought the bike to a stop under a tall pine tree that was bigger around than I was.

"This," he put forth, kicking the bike stand down and standing up. "Is mine."

My head tilted.

"Yours?"

He nodded.

"My land."

Understanding dawned. "When did you get this?"

He offered me his hand and I took it, dismounting the bike and falling into his side all in one jerk of his hand.

"I got this last year, but I haven't had much time to stop and see it. Barely have time to pay for it."

That, I understood too well.

The man worked a lot. Had started working even before the vacation that he was able to finagle out of our employer was up.

Even now that we were both back at work, he still worked a lot.

I worked a lot, too, but that was only because if I didn't then I'd never see him.

I'd asked him why he did it, but I didn't know that he had to do it to pay for land that I didn't even know he had.

"Why don't you park your trailer here?" I asked, looking up at him. "Then you'd get to see it a lot."

His mouth firmed.

"I bought it to build a house on with Ellen."

My belly rolled, and I started to pull away.

He stopped me by clamping his hand around my hip, refusing to allow me to move.

"At the time, our relationship was already deteriorating. I knew she had a thing for Jessie. Saw it with every breath I took. I bought this place-which was twice my budget-in the hopes that she'd love it. But she didn't."



       
         
       
        

Why that made me irrationally happy, I didn't know. But it did. I wanted to jump up and clap that she was too stupid to see that she had such a good thing and had let it go.

Had she not done that, I wouldn't be standing here, in Sean's arms, on some land meant for her.

"That was the day that she told me that she didn't do 'country' living. She didn't like bugs. She liked paved streets and being close to the city so she could go shopping." He dropped his mouth to my head, and my tense body tensed even further. "I realized something while you were gone."

I froze.

"I'd already started planning our life out here. Thinking about what you would like and not like when it came to a house. Wondered if I could convince you to move in with me when we'd only known each other for a few months."