Page 14 of Trick
Lucky held his hands up as he proclaimed his innocence. “Sorry, you’re right. I didn’t mean any disrespect to her, Prez.”
King nodded, appeased by Lucky’s apology. As we finished eating, I kept my attention on the women in the other room. They didn’t turn the audiobook back on, probably because they knew we could hear it. Their conversation turned to actual books. Based on the snippets of conversation I could make out, romance books werenothinglike I’d always assumed they were.
We went back downstairs and watched the rest of the game, with Jagger assuring us that he’d get laid whether or not he and Molly left early. Since they occasionally stayed in Jagger’s room at the clubhouse, which was next door to mine,I was sure that was true. To say that they had an active sex life was a fucking understatement, no pun intended. Molly was a bit of a screamer, and Jag wasn’t exactly quiet himself.
Lucky got a call from his dad right as the fourth quarter of the game began and cursed a blue streak as he ended the call. Ace’s bike was acting up again, and he demanded that Lucky fix it tonight. Even though King assured him that Ace could wait, Lucky headed out to take care of it, stating he’d rather do it tonight than get up at the ass crack of dawn to fix it.
As soon as the game ended, Jagger and Rome both hauled ass upstairs to take their wives home. The book club was breaking up, with Camille staying in King’s guest room since she’d had a few too many margaritas.
Lauren hadn’t been drinking, so she was fine to drive home. Ella told her goodnight, then went to make sure the guest room was ready for Camille. King walked the two of us out, coming to an abrupt stop as he caught sight of Lauren’s car, which was sitting rather lopsided at the curb.
“Damn, sweetheart, you’ve got a flat tire.”
“Shit…not again!” Lauren’s shoulders slumped as King and I both looked at her questioningly.
“I had a flat last Thursday when I came out of the studio. The building custodian put the spare tire on for me, but I haven’t had a chance to get the tire replaced yet.”
“Two flats in less than a week?” That seemed damned odd to me, and King obviously agreed. We stalked over to take a closer look but there didn’t seem to be any visible damage to the tire other than being flat, and the other tires all seemed to be in fairly decent shape.
“You probably just ran over some nails or something lying in the road and one tire just lost air more quickly than the other,” King assured her, then told her he’d drive her home.
“I hate to put you out,” Lauren protested. “I can just call for a ride-share.”
“There’s no need for you to leave, Prez. I can drop her off. I drove one of the club’s trucks today since I had to pick up some new equipment for the gym this afternoon.”
King narrowed his eyes as he looked at me, but I’d had plenty of practice schooling my expression over the years to hide my true thoughts.
“Is that OK with you, Lauren?” I didn’t take offense at King’s question, knowing he was just looking out for her.
Lauren hesitated, offering again to call for a ride so she wouldn’t be a bother.
“It’s no trouble, and I wouldn’t feel right having you get a ride home with a stranger at this time of the night,” I told her.
“Well, if you’re sure you don’t mind, I would appreciate it.”
“I don’t mind at all, babe.” I winked at her as I said it, and she looked as if she immediately regretted her decision. Luckily, King distracted her when he told her he’d have a prospect fix her tires. She tried to protest, but he overrode her.
“You’re family, Lauren, and it’s what we do for family. The prospect will drop the car off to your place early in the morning, so you’ll be able to get to work.”
She handed him the key fob for her car, then thanked him again as I hurried over to the truck’s passenger door and opened it for her before she changed her mind. I tried not to stare at her ass as she climbed in and settled into the seat, but it was impossible not to. I never claimed to be a fucking Boy Scout, and damn, her ass was a work of art.
I tried to hide my satisfied grin as I rounded the truck’s hood and got in behind the wheel. As we pulled out onto the road, she thanked me for giving her a ride. It took everything in me to respond with a simple “you’re welcome” rather than offering to give her an entirely different kind of ride once we got to her place.
A light, floral scent filled the cab of the truck, teasing my senses as I drove through the darkened streets toward her place. Silence reigned for a few minutes, until I asked how she liked being back in Indianapolis.
“I love it,” she said, and I glanced over to see her smiling. “I didn’t realize how much I missed Indy until I came back, and now it feels like I never left. I’m happy to be close to Uncle Bill again. We’ve always talked on the phone fairly regularly, but we hadn’t actually seen each other in years.”
Huh. Viking was a grumpy motherfucker on a good day, and a downright surly bastard on a bad one, but I supposed“Uncle Bill” was probably nicer to his niece than he was to a bunch of bikers.
“The people I’ve met in the MC have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome, so that’s been nice, too.”
The slightly husky tone in her voice reminded me of that audiobook we’d heard, and my cock stirred to life again. I shifted slightly in my seat, trying to relieve the pressure that was beginning to build.
Her cell phone rang at that moment, and she fished it out of the depths of the gigantic purse she carried, then pressed the button mid-ring to send the call to voice mail.
She started to say something, only to be interrupted by the phone immediately ringing again. With an aggravated sigh, she disregarded the call a second time.
“You can take the call if you need to, babe. It sounds like it may be important.”
