Taking a Dare - A Hellion MC Novel (8 page)

What kind of parent tells a grown-ass woman who she
can talk to, for god's sake?

Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofawhore
, my mind
yelled.

I stood there for a moment, processing all he'd said
(
demanded
, my mind screamed) and decided that I didn't need
to follow my father's edict. What happened in the past could stay
in the past, but I wanted to talk to Dare. Needed to see if what I
remembered was real or just a fantasy.

I stepped outside the clubhouse door and was
surprised to find my heart was beating to beat the band again.
Was I scared or excited?
I wondered silently and used my
belt loops to situate my leathers again. I was just meeting an old
friend, just a regular ol' catch up session between a couple of
people that used to know each other way back when.

Nothing to get nervous or enthused about.

Liar!
my mind screamed so loudly I flinched at
the volume.

I maneuvered my way across the large forecourt,
weaving around the bikes parked right in the middle of the space as
my eyes followed the edge of the large HC building. Going around
the corner, I saw picnic tables had been tucked up tight against
the stuccoed wall and in the low lighting I could make out Dare's
large form sitting on top of one. He must've heard me coming
because his face pointed my direction and I caught sight of his ear
to ear grin.

I felt my heart clench and my breathing hitch just
seeing that smile.

"Didn't know if you were gonna show, sugar," he
rumbled as his grin grew into a full-fledged smile.

"And miss a chance to talk about your dick some
more?" I teased as I climbed up to sit next to him, using the seat
as a step. He shot a hand out as if to steady me but I made it
safely to the table top without so much as a teeter.

"What is it about girls and their fascination with my
crotch?" he shot back. "A guy could get a fuckin' complex or
something. The objectification thing gets old quick."

I couldn't help my laugh which he joined in on. "Yeah
right, cowboy. We're all so fascinated by what you've got in your
pants that it's all we can talk about!"

He threw back his head and let his laughter fly
providing me with a gorgeous view of his throat and jaw I'd thought
I'd never see again. And the sound of his mirth hit that deep place
inside that was reserved just for him. Just as it always had.

He turned back to me I couldn't help but notice the
twinkle in his dark brown eyes. "Betcha ass. But how 'bout we
objectify you for a while?"

"Thought you said it got old quick?" I sent back,
trying and failing not to giggle as I spoke.

His gaze roamed over me, spending time on my chest
and then the vee of my thighs as I tucked one leg under me to try
and cushion my butt.

"Don't think it would with you, Ryley. Damn, you grew
up nice, girl," he said and I could hear the sincerity in his deep
voice and saw the gleam of admiration in his eyes.

"Thanks," I mumbled and I could feel the heat as it
began to creep up into my cheeks.

His fingers reached for the hand I had resting on my
leg as he said, "still haven't learned to take a compliment,
huh?"

"I said thanks. Isn't that enough? Or do you need
something from Hallmark to make it official?" I asked with a head
tilt. The warmth of his fingers as they entwined with mine caused
my breath to hitch though I tried to keep it quiet.

In fact, quiet was the word for the moment as our
eyes caught and held. It was a gaze that seemed to hold more
communication than what our mouths were unwilling to say at that
time.

"Though I could sit and stare at you all night, you
said you wanted to talk, sugar," he reminded me with a squeeze of
my fingers as the grin returned to crease his face.

I
had
asked him for that, had told him it was
all I could do with him at the moment but now that I had him alone,
I didn't think I could talk to him, with him, like I'd envisioned.
Couldn't ask the questions that I'd carried for so many years.
Things like, 'do you ever think of me?' or 'was what we had last
time real or just a run romance?'.

"So, uhm. You're wearing a Hellion Construction
t-shirt. You still working for them?" I asked, my mind racing to
come up with other questions, safer questions than those my heart
really wanted to know but was afraid to ask.

I saw him raise one eyebrow as his face again split
into a grin. "You dragged me out here to ask about my fuckin' job,
Ryley? Seriously?"

At my head nod, his laughter again rang out in
between the buildings. I couldn't be offended though since I'd even
cracked myself up with such a silly, lame query.

"Yeah, sugar. I'm in charge of the commercial
building projects for Montana. Remember how I wrote you they put me
on a building crew?" I was becoming quite the bobble-head as I
nodded again. "I kept with it and got some fuckin' classes in at
night after high school. Got my GC license and for a while was
doing both the residential and commercial shit."

"GC?" I asked.

"General Contractor," he explained, and I saw his
eyes roam over my face. He raised a hand and looped a hank of hair
behind my ear. A move so innocent but yet so intimate, it caused a
deep throb in my heart as my girlie parts sat up and took
notice.

"What does 'in charge' mean?" When his eyes met mine
again, my tummy took a tumble and I got another resounding zing of
awareness in some very private places.

"I'm a manager, Ryley. It's my job to make sure all
the pieces of the commercial projects comes together: the plumbing,
the electric, the structure of the planned building."

"Sounds like…it’s a lot of responsibility." I was
having to force the words, plain everyday-type words, out of my
mouth.

"Can be," he admitted and another slow grin made an
appearance causing a deep throb within me.

What was it about the man, this man, that turned me
inside out on every level no matter how banal the subject?

Chapter Eight

"You said you wanted to talk? Just the two of us?" he
offered, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. He saw her
shake her head, not in a way to signify 'no' but more like to pull
herself away from whatever she'd been thinking about.

Thoughts he'd give anything to know.

"I see your wearing the HC t-shirt. Are you still
with Hellion Construction?" she'd asked. He was confused. Why did
she need to get him fuckin' alone, for Christ's sake, to ask about
his motherfuckin' job?

Unless she wanted to ease into things
, his
heart replied. Yeah, that made sense and was so totally Ryley, the
girl he remembered who didn't always approach things head on but
rather from the side.

He'd let her have her play. Shit, he'd let her have
whatever she needed just so he could spend time with her, to look
at her in the flesh instead of in his memory.

Although as he explained his role at HC, he knew he
was downplaying it. His job, the career he worked so hard for, was
a big fuckin' deal and that he held the position before he'd even
turned thirty made it even more so.

It was something he was proud of, very proud. For
years, he'd felt less than. No family, known as a trouble-maker and
shuffled around so much, he'd been told he was nothing and had
bought into that label.

Until the Hellions had taught him differently.

"How do you make your green?" he asked in order to
turn the conversation and his thoughts to something different.

"I wanted to be a social worker and even got my
degree. But after seeing how they worked sixty hours a week and get
blamed for every damn thing that goes wrong in that system, decided
I couldn't hack it. Now I head up the Honey Haven, which is kind of
like the Youth Program you guys have going here." Her voice was
soft in the night air and her glance moved from his face to their
shared hand clasp. "I got it set up as a non-profit a few years ago
so we could take in teens that either can't or won't live with
their parents or in the foster home setting."

"How many you got there?"

"Kids or staff?"

"Kids," he looked her way and again got caught on her
amazing eyes. His heart skipped a beat in response. It almost
seemed surreal to be sitting next to her, talking about their adult
lives as if it had anything to fuckin' do with what their hearts
and eyes were communicating.

"Right now, twenty-five. But we've had as many as
forty," she stated, turning her chin back down to her lap. "We give
them a place to stay, enable them to get their GEDs while
connecting them to a trade school so they can get a job when they
age out of the system."

"Shit, sugar. That's a lot," he admitted on a low
whistle, stroking the back of her hand in emphasis. "You like
it?"

"Love it." Her face was holding a huge smile and Dare
felt his heart race when he saw it. That fuckin',
fuckin'
smile. "Knowing I've played a part in getting then keeping a kid
safe is huge. But to see them grow into young adults with skills
that will last them a lifetime means the world to me."

"How'd you pick that? I mean, what made you want to
work with teens?"

She didn't say anything for a bit and Dare wondered
if he'd gotten too personal, too fast. Although he didn't think so
because back in the day, for that one week, they'd been able (and
had) talked about anything and everything.

But the quiet between them stretched out for more
than a couple of seconds, and he saw her gaze roam the alleyway
before she spoke.

"You did." From the way she'd said those two little
words, low and slow, he knew she was aware of their potential
impact.

"But I never told you about…" he started, searching
his memory for any recollection of him telling her about his
childhood.

"You didn't. But Trey did," she said, tightening her
fingers on his. "Back during that week when I was last here. He
took me aside before we left and warned me not to break your heart.
That you'd been through enough when you were younger. When I
pressed him for what he meant, he told me."

That rotten motherfucker! Trey had
no right
to
go fuckin' spreading his info, his fuckin' life, around. Especially
not to Ryley for Christ's sake!

"Don't be mad, honey," she said, pulling on his hand
as she twisted herself in order to more fully face him. "I think…I
think he did the right thing. He was only trying to protect his
friend, his little brother."

Dare glared out into the night knowing that if his
pres had been within spitting distance, they would've been throwing
down. Although, her point about young Trey's guard dog stance about
him was pretty much on the money.

He had to ask, had to know, though. "Did it make you
think of me differently? Less of me?" Was that why she hadn't ever
written him back?

"God no, Dare!" He looked at her to check for
sincerity and saw it shining bright in her eyes. "If anything, it
made you even
more
wonderful. An orphan with a broken
childhood? Damn, it made you even
better
in my eyes, a hero
in some way. That's why I never wanted, why I never
want
a
kid to have to go through their own version of that hell without
somebody to give them a hand up."

He didn't respond but allowed his mind to chew on
this new piece of 4-1-1. She knew about his past and it hadn't made
one sweet goddamn bit of difference to her. Except to point her in
the direction of her career, of wanting to help other kids.

Christ!

Sitting on a wooden tabletop, just holding her hand
and talking seemed more personal, more intimate than even some of
the sex he'd shared with others. Dare realized he didn't want the
night to ever fuckin' end.

"Do you ever think of that week, Dare?" she asked a
little while later. She gave a little chuckle. "I mean, it was a
long time ago and we were so young…"

He shot her a glance. Her tone was light, breezy
almost. Was that how she thought of it? As just a little bit of
flirtatious fun between a couple of kids? He felt his heart hit his
boots and turned his head to look out at the forecourt knowing he
was trying to hide whatever hurt she might see on his face.

Okay, I can play it that way
, he assured
himself, swallowing deep before forcing a laugh out. "You ain't
fuckin' kidding! Feels like a goddamn lifetime ago. Shit!"

"I know, right? Now we're all grown up with
responsible damn jobs and everything!" Why did her voice sound
hollow in spite of the teasing tone she seemed to be striving for?
"Do you remember who finally scored the bottles of Jack before the
dance party?"

"I think it was Bish who snagged them after watching
me and Trey get caught red-handed on both tries. Called us a couple
of sure-bust pussies too if fuckin' memory serves." Yeah, this was
good. Find the fun stuff in the shared reminiscences to keep
everything airy. "Do you know if Blaze and Lock hooked up that
first time?"

"Yep, they did. And they'd better have too for as
much covering we had to do for them." She let out a giggle that
ended on a sigh. "God, can you imagine the shit that would've
exploded if they'd gotten caught?"

He laughed and found it was more genuine than before.
"Blaze would've been fuckin' pushing up daisies if Pagan had found
out. That boy protected Lock's cherry with his goddamn life!"

"Fat lot of good it did him! She told me he was still
giving out beat downs long after the deed had been done and
gone."

"Fuck! She never told Pagan?"

"Nuh-uh," Ryley said with a head shake. "Said his
attitude and fists kept the assholes off her tail."

As their eyes again caught and held, they couldn't
help the laughter that burst up and out of them.