Page 6 of Inferno

I chuckled. “Fair enough.” I gunned the engine, let it rumble under us, felt her lock her grip around my waist as she gave a little squeal. All of a sudden, I felt lighter than I had in months. Since Noose. Maybe the fix was a beautiful woman with burns of her own, holding on to me like I was something worth holding on to.

“Ready?” I asked.

“No!” she said, but laughed. “Fuck it. Let’s go.” So we did. The night swallowed us up, and for the first time in a long time, I felt the burning ache in my chest fade into the background.

Chapter Three

Juniper

Inferno pulled away from the curb gently, but I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and held on anyway. He’d insisted I use the helmet on the back of his bike, so my face was protected from the cool wind. Not that it mattered much because my thighs were wrapped around a seriously hot man. True, we weren’t exactly facing the appropriate way for this to work anatomically, but a girl had to work with what she had. We left Throttle behind along with my car. Smartest thing I’d ever done? No. Was I still doing this? Yep.

For the first block I did the only thing I could think to do, which was wrap my arms around his middle, squeal like a girl, and pray to whatever god handled reckless decisions made in red dresses on a girl’s twenty-first birthday. We cruised the city streets at a leisurely pace and not once did Inferno berate me for unbalancing him. In fact, I didn’t think my weight on the back bothered him at all. Brett had told me I’d get us both killed. Brett had been wrong about a lot of things, apparently, including me.

Nashville streamed past in smears of gold and red, streetlights bleeding into storefronts bleeding into the taillights of the car ahead of us. The air had a little bite to it, but his jacket held onto some of his heat. I wanted to rub my face against his back, but the helmet faceplate made that impossible.

We came through downtown proper, and the buildings climbed taller around us, with glass towers throwing back the neon from the honky-tonks lower down. Music Row hadn’t gone to bed yet, and even from two blocks out I could hear the bleed of steel guitar and bar chatter pouring out through propped-open doors. Tourists in cowboy hats staggered along the sidewalk in packs, and a bachelorette party in matching sashes screamed with laughter at something none of them would likely remember the next day judging by the alcohol being consumed. Inferno and I rolled through all of it, weaving lanes with confidence.

By the time we hit the third light, I was greedy for the full experience. I wanted the wind in my hair, the engine roaring louder. I wanted to go faster. He put a boot down at the light and turned his head just enough that I could see the corner of his mouth.

“You all good back there?” he called over the idle.

I flipped up my visor. “I’m amazing back here,” I shouted back, and I meant it so completely that it startled a laugh out of me. “Can I take my helmet off?”

“Not this time, babe. If we have a second ride, we’ll talk about it.” He laughed too, though. “Your place, mine, or somewhere neutral where we can go our separate ways? Your call.”

The light hung red above us, patient. Somewhere behind us a horn went off. I thought about my own apartment and that fucking discount cake on the counter. And all the lingering shit I knew he would expect me to do something with. And knew there was no way I wanted to go back home for any reason right now. Also, I wanted to have sex with this guy. Assuming he wanted to. Which… hello! Guy!

“Yours,” I said, and felt something settle into place in my chest, solid and simple, the first uncomplicated decision I’d made all night. “Just be aware I fully expect sex to be on the table, so if you’ve got a woman just drop me off here.”

“You wouldn’t be on the back of my bike for any reason if I had a woman, Juniper.” He patted my knee before the light turned green. “And I will most definitely give you all the sex you want.”

Holy. Shit. The guy was potent. I shivered, and not from the night air. Inferno chuckled as he rolled the throttle back and took off when the light changed.

We left downtown behind, the noise and neon thinning out block by block until the road opened up and the streetlights spaced themselves farther apart, until it was just us and the dark and the yellow line down the center of the pavement. The cold deepened out here, past the buildings that had been breaking the wind for us, and I put the visor back down to protect my face.

There was a part of me that thought maybe I should rethink this whole thing. We were now in the warehouse section where chain-link fences were topped with barbed or razor wire. We pulled through one such fence without even slowing as it rolled open. This was pretty much the start of every horror movie I’d watched from my eighties slasher film collection. I was the stupid girl being led to the ax murderer’s lair with a smile and a princess wave.

It wasn’t long before we pulled through yet another gate. This time, two men waved us through, giving friendly greetings to Inferno. The gravel parking lot was well lit and the one building on the place that pulsed with life had several bikes around it as well as a few people outside. Everyone greeted us cordially enough, but I was fully aware I was now in the middle of a motorcycle club compound.

Inferno pulled up to the front of the building and cut the engine. I took my helmet off and stared around at the place, wide-eyed. “Oh, wow.” I knew I needed to get off the bike, but I was busy questioning my life choices. “Am I in big trouble?”

With a laugh, Inferno squeezed my thigh. “No, honey. I promise you’re safe.” He pointed out a couple pulling into the parking lot as well as another guy I recognized from the bar. “That’s Sully and Darby. You may not realize it, but Darby has your back. She’ll spread the word to the other old ladies, and no one will dare lay a finger on you and risk their wrath.”

I found myself smiling. “It probably makes me too stupid to live, but you have a way of putting me at ease, Inferno.” I climbed off the bike, bracing myself on his shoulder. “I’m going to take you at your word.”

“I like hearin’ that you trust me.” He climbed off after making sure I was steady on my feet. “I won’t betray you, sweetheart. This goes as far as you want. If all you want to do is get shit-faced in a safe place, I’ve got you covered. If you want more, I’m up for that, too.”

“Up for that, are you?” I couldn’t help but grin.

He winced. “Well, I didn’t exactly mean it that way, but I feel like it’s worse to admit I didn’t consider how that sounded.”

With his arm around my shoulders, Inferno guided me to the door of the warehouse. Sully and Darby fell into step beside us.

“Saw you at Throttle,” Darby said without preamble. “That other asshole bother you a lot?”

I gave her a blank smile but shook my head. “Other asshole?”

“Yeah. The one with the blonde harassing you guys at Throttle. ‘Cause we can make him disappear if you want.”