It was for him to admit fault for what happened to Melissa. And he finally did.
And the cloud’s been lifted.
“You know the drill, sexy,” he said as he hopped on the bike.
That, I certainly did. I wrapped my arms around his muscular body, spread my legs so I could sit on the bike comfortably, and leaned my chest into his. By this point, rational thought had begun to fade away. I was running less on “what should I do now?” and more on whatever emotion was compelling me.
And right now, I didn’t see Satan as the leader of the club that had bullied my sister. I didn’t see Satan as a big, mean, bad man that should be avoided. I didn’t even see Satan as the subject of one of my bigger journalism pieces, the one that might help put me on the map more.
I just saw him as aman.
And that explained so much of why, when out with Leigh, I had just felt so bored and so disinterested in the other guys around me. Even before I’d gotten to this point, being around Satan had made me realize that while there were plenty of guys, plenty of dudes, plenty of boys, there weren’t a lot ofmen.
At the risk of sounding like one of those Marlboro advertisements, Satan was a man because he didn’t apologize for what he did yet seemed to have a sense of ethics and honor behind him. Satan was a man because he ran his own business yet took care of those he was responsible to. Satan was a man because he was self-sufficient but willing to come in and clean up messes when he needed to.
Or maybe I just wanted to think of Satan that way because I was about to have sex for the first time in months.
Either way, the engine revved to life, the tingling kicked in, and the world around me blurred as we sped out of the lot. This time, Satan didn’t have as much respect for the speed limit—if he even did in the first place. The only thing that didn’t seem to blur was Satan’s body, which felt like an appropriate metaphor for how the rest of this evening would go.
We slid in and out and around other cars, moving at a constant speed; even at red lights, Satan seemed more prone to running them when he knew no other cars were coming than not. I had no idea how we made the ten-, maybe fifteen-minute drive without arousing some police suspicion, but damn if Satan didn’t do it. Maybe he had a deal with the local cops.
Or maybe they just had better things to do than to pull over a biker who was breaking the law but not putting anyone in danger.
Every red light run, every stretch of speeding, every sharp turn had me tingling like crazy. The vibration alone was enough to get me going; wrapping my arms and feeling Satan’s body on me pushed me further, but knowing how dangerous this was, yet how much I knew we’d be fine in the end…holy shit.
It was…
Yeah, nothing had ever topped this before.
The only surprise came when we pulled up to a pretty nice house in a suburban, relatively secluded area.
“This…”
“Is my house,” Satan said.
He hopped off the bike, looked at me with an expression that suggested he’d seen this reaction before, and started laughing.
“You thought I was too poor to own a place like this?”
“Yeah, I—”
“Dirty secret about business owners: we’re either fucking broke or rich as hell. I was the first for quite some time before things started booming.”
I suppose that made intellectual sense. Owners went into debt before experiencing the massive payoff. And yet…
I still couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that a man namedSatanowned a home in a pretty nice neighborhood. I wasn’t going to ask him for his listing price, but it had to be at least five hundred grand, perhaps a bit more. It wasn’t a sprawling mansion, but if it was, I’d have more questions than awe.
“Come on; it looks even better from the bedroom.”
He took my hand, and by now, I was over the moon. It took every ounce of self-control not to jump his bones outside. Actually, come to think of it, it was a really good thing I didn’t, since if I was seen out like this…
But the brief moment of fear, the one where my rational brain momentarily took over, got discarded to the side when I stepped inside and saw the modern, sharp decor of the place. It looked recently renovated, perhaps within the last two years. Not only did Satan have a nice house, but he also kept it nice.
“You’re full of surprises,” I said.
“What now?”
“I thought this place would look like a bachelor pad.”
