Kristen Ashley - Motorcycle Man

Uncle Marsh leaned further into me. “That kind of shit does… not… fly.”

I stared at my Uncle.

He kept talking.

“Something matters to you, you do not let it go. Ever.”

My heart clenched again.

Uncle Marsh kept talking.

“Man I saw here yesterday morning, the situation we walked into, not good. Way he was with his kids, way he looked at you, I could let it slide. You mattered to him yesterday. No man who’s any man at all has something, especially someone matter to him one morning and that night, she doesn’t. No matter what happened, what was said, who was hurt and how. Your aunt tried to walk away from me, told me to let her go, I wouldn’t. I’d find a way to make her stay. Because she matters and it’s worth whatever I have to do to make her stay. That’s the way it is, Tyra. Simple.”

God, I loved him but he was killing me.

“This isn’t helping, Uncle Marsh,” I whispered because, well, it wasn’t. It was making it worse.

“It isn’t now, honey, and I know that. But it will when it sinks in. I’m telling it like it is. I’m telling you what you should expect. You matter, Tyra, and that’s what you should expect.”

I felt tears sting my eyes and turned my head away.

“I take it I should come back.”

This was Aunt Bette from behind us and I took in another huge breath, turned in my chair and aimed a big, fake, bright smile in her direction.

“No, it’s all good,” I lied then pushed up from my chair. “Take a load off. I’ll go in and see what I can rustle up for dinner.”

Aunt Bette stared at me then she looked at Uncle Marsh.

“Biker road kill,” she remarked.

So Aunt Bette, cutting right to the chase.

“No truer words were spoken,” Uncle Marsh muttered.

“Guys, can we let this go?” I requested. “You leave tomorrow. We’ve had shrieking women attacking my door, mob kidnappings and a breakup of a non-relationship that was more relationship than any relationship I’ve ever had. Not the happy-go-lucky surprise visit to sunny Denver you were expecting, I’m sure. Let’s just enjoy the rest of the time we have. Sound like a plan?”

Uncle Marsh opened his mouth to speak.

Aunt Bette got there before him.

“Marsh.”

His eyes cut to his wife.

“Let it go,” she ordered softly.

Uncle Marsh held his wife’s eyes. Then his came to me.

“Last time you were at our place, you bragged about your cooking. Dazzle me.”

I looked to Aunt Bette. She rolled her eyes. I rolled mine back.

Then I went into the kitchen and rustled up some dinner. I didn’t know if it was dazzling. I just knew there were no leftovers.

* * *

Standing outside security at Denver International Airport the next day, Aunt Bette gave me a tight hug.

She also slipped a business card that had the name “Cabe Delgado” on it into my hand when she was done.

“You have any problems, you call Hawk,” she told me.

I nodded.

That was when Uncle Marsh moved in for his hug. It was longer and it was tighter.

Right before he let me go, he whispered in my ear, “Tyra, never forget. You matter.”

Then he walked to the security line.

Aunt Bette looked back and waved.

As was his way, Uncle Marsh did not.

As was my way, I watched until I couldn’t see them anymore. Then I went home. Then I typed out my resignation later. The rest of the day, I waited for Lanie to call.

She didn’t.

Tack didn’t either.

And when I went to bed that night, my heart still hurt.

It was my luck the next morning at eight o’clock when I drove into Ride to deliver my resignation letter that stated I’d be giving no notice, Tack was working on the red car. He was the only one there.

Seeing him and watching his head turn my way even as he stayed bent over the opened hood of the car, I should have been used to the pain my heart clenching caused. It happened enough times the last two days. But I wasn’t.

I looked away, parked, jumped out of my car and hustled up the steps to the office. I unlocked it with the key I’d already taken off my chain and hurried in.

Drop the key and the letter on the desk and get the hell out of there.

That was my plan.

This plan was thwarted seeing as I barely made it through the door when Tack came through the door that led to the garage.

Damn.

I ignored him and went straight to the desk. I dropped the key and envelope on it. I also ignored the sound of the lock turning on the door to the garage.

Damn!

I turned and, eyes directed at my feet, I started to hurry to the outer door, escape the only thing on my mind.

I caught movement in my peripheral vision and my head came up.

Tack was at the door to the outside and he was locking that too.

Damn!

I stopped moving.

“Tack,” I whispered. “Don’t.”

His head turned and his burning, blue eyes pinned me to the spot. Then his body turned.

At this point, I understood my mistake. I should have mailed my letter with the key.

Definitely.

“Please,” I kept whispering, “don’t.”

He held my eyes.

I held his.

This lasted a while, both of us staring at each other three feet away.

Finally, I could take it no longer.

“Please, Tack, move away from the door.”

Tack moved. He just didn’t do it away from the door.

He came at me.

My heart started hammering in my chest and my feet took me back. I bumped into the desk and scooted to the side, still retreating. Then my thigh bumped into the chair and it went flying, such was the hastiness of my retreat.

Tack kept coming at me and my retreat might have been hasty but his advance was far more rapid. My thundering heart skidded to a halt when his arm shot out, hooking me at the waist right before I would have slammed into a file cabinet. He jerked me to the side but kept coming until I was back against the wall. Then his arm around my waist tightened, yanking me against the hard wall of his frame.

My hand went to his chest to try to force him back but he stood firm as his other hand came up, palm at my jaw, fingers curled around my neck and ear.

“Please,” I whispered, bracing as his head descended toward mine, “don’t.”

Just when I thought his lips would hit mine, they veered to the side opposite where his hand was at my jaw. His fingers dug in, his arm around me tightened even further, plastering me against his body and his lips went to my ear.

“You fucked up, Red,” he whispered.

I closed my eyes tight and pushed against his chest, my other hand going to his waist and fisting in his tee, pushing there too.

“Made the wrong decision,” he went on in a whisper.

I opened my eyes.

God, I had to get out of there.

“Please, let me go.”

“You been asleep, baby.”

My body went still at his words.

Tack kept talking.

“Green tea. Yoga. No TV. Placemats for your coffee table. Thursday night takeaway. You got a night for takeaway. Scheduled. A narrow, little world. Fuck me. Crazy. Fuckin’ whacked. I woke you up, opened your eyes to a bigger world and scared you shitless.”

Oh God.

This was not good. He had me figured out.

“Let me go,” I begged.

His arm tightened even further and his lips stayed at my ear.

“You give it good, darlin’, that attitude. So good, I thought that was you. That isn’t you. Not all of you. I got on my hands the girl at the party who looked at me like I was the only man on the planet even when she was in a sea of people, took my hand with all the trust in the world that I was gonna make things good for her and followed me to my bed. You fucked up making the wrong decision Friday night. But I fucked up forgetting about that girl.”

I closed my eyes. I liked that. I liked that he saw that. And I liked that he admitted he fucked up. I didn’t think he had it in him but I liked it that he did.

Oh hell.

“Please, let me go,” I pleaded.

“So much to you, never had a woman who has so much that makes her. Every day, more comes out and all of it is a surprise.”

Ohmigod!

If I wasn’t wrong, that was a compliment. A good one.

I opened my eyes on the word, “Tack –”

“Day in, day out, you peel the layers back for me. Smart mouth, funny, sweet, wild in bed. Chattin’ with bikers like they were insurance brokers. Holdin’ my girl’s hand, givin’ her strength when her Mom’s bein’ a bitch. Keepin’ your chin up when your people show in the middle of a full blown drama. But so fuckin’ vulnerable, you’re scared shitless of livin’ life.”

“You don’t know me, Tack.”

His head came up and his eyes pierced mine. “I know you, Tyra.”

“You don’t.”

“Life’s a roller coaster. Best damn ride in the park. You don’t close your eyes, hold on and wait for it to be over, babe. You keep your eyes open, lift your hands straight up in the air and enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts.”

Seriously?

When did he become a sage?

He was beginning to piss me off mostly because he was making sense.

“Some people aren’t roller coaster people, Tack.”

“And you’re tellin’ me you’re one of them?” he asked.

“Damn straight,” I answered.

“Bullshit,” he replied.

I glared.

He grinned his sexy grin.

I pushed at him with my hands but this only made both of us rock two inches then Tack pushed back and he was stronger so I ended up not only plastered to him, I was also plastered to the wall.

“Let me go!” I snapped.

“No,” he shook his head, still grinning. “No fuckin’ way. Did it once, not doin’ it again.”

“You did it twice,” I reminded him and his brows shot up.

“Twice?”

“That first night. Though it wasn’t letting me go. It was kicking me out of your bed.”

He grinned again, the jerk!

“See that stung,” he said softly.

See? Total. Jerk!

“Truthfully?” I asked then didn’t wait for an answer. “Yes. I’ll let you in, handsome, just a little bit. Jumping into bed with a man I don’t know is not my style. Getting kicked out of a bed I’d jumped into was something that never happened to me. So yes, that stung. But you know what else has never happened to me?”

“Tell me,” he ordered, still… freaking… grinning.

“Seeing him just a day later in a clinch with a brunette.”

“You knew me, you’d know she didn’t have staying power and you’d know you do.”

“And how’s that?” I snapped.

“She’s dark, you’re red. I’ll fuck dark, I’ll fuck sun but only red has staying power. Considered sun once. Lost her. Now it’s you.”

He was still kind of grinning and I was still definitely glaring. “I suppose I’m supposed to take that as a compliment.”

“Just laying it out, babe.”

“I see this isn’t sinking in, handsome, but I don’t want you to lay it out. I don’t want anything from you except for you to let me go.”

“Right back at you, Red, seein’ as it’s not sinking in that I’m not gonna let you go. We’re talkin’ this shit out.”

“There’s nothing to talk out!” I cried. “We’re done.”

Suddenly his face dipped close, the room filled with his badass biker vibe and he was all I could see.

“Truthfully,” he shot my word back at me, “you were funny, you were sweet, you’re gorgeous, you have great fuckin’ hair and a great fuckin’ body and I had fun with you, darlin’, in bed and out. But you didn’t show me all that’s you so all I knew was the parts of it I wanted and I know that shit stung and this is gonna sting too, there were only parts. And I’ll warn you, babe, this is gonna sting as well but you were too easy. A man like me can get easy, easily. So that’s not what a man like me wants.” He paused, I kept glaring though I suspected my glare was more heated then he went on, “Until you squared off against me. That first night, I didn’t have it all. And I still don’t have it all but every piece you give me, baby, I like. So now I want it all and I’m gonna fuckin’ get it, Tyra. You aren’t gonna hold back, you aren’t gonna retreat, you aren’t gonna push me away and I sure as fuck am not gonna let go.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I hissed.