I chuckled. “You and me both. Hang on, Anna-mine.”
I pushed off and let my bike do the talking. She grabbed hold of my t-shirt for dear life as those legs clung to me like she was riding me bareback, like a fucking horse. I wanted to ask her if she’d ever ridden before. She had a lot of power in those legs.
Those legs that I wanted to toss over my shoulders.
The air whipped around us while we rode away from her home. With Ghost tasked to watch the house and the womenuntil we got back, I felt more than okay leaving them behind. I had the most important one with me anyway.
She was safer at my side than away from me, that much was for certain.
For a little while, we just… cruised. The air whipped past us as she leaned against my back. The engine of my bike, rumbling our bodies and somehow shimmying us closer together. I waited for her to give me some sort of direction, but for a while, she stayed silent.
It made me wonder if she enjoyed the ride, too.
“All right, we should get going,” she said as her voice came alive in my ear via the Bluetooth connection of my helmets. Thank you fucking Ranger for that. “Take this left here.”
“Left, it is,” I said as I motioned with my hand after clicking on my turn signal.
We leaned with the bike and I felt her weight shifting with me. The warmth from between her legs had nothing on the warmth I felt rushing through my veins every time she gripped me tighter. At one point in time, I felt her little nails digging into the meat of my torso through my shirt.
I wanted her nails raking down my back.
“This right coming up after the stop sign,” she said.
I just nodded and turned on my signal accordingly before I felt her remove her hand from me.
I growled as I snatched it back. “You hold on. I signal.”
She giggled. “A bit demanding, are we?”
“Your safety will always be my demand.”
I took her directions and she followed mine like the good girl she was. She didn’t remove her hands from my body, but she fed me the directions like a professional GPS. She gave me plenty of time to prepare for my turns. She didn’t surprise me with last-minute directions that caused us to cut through yards in order to get to where we were going.
It made me wonder how much she rode on the back of a bike.
Much too soon for my liking, the warehouse came into view. There were shadows moving beyond the broken windows and eyeballs peering out from cracks in the front door. The wind kicked up just as we brought ourselves to a stop. Anna was off my bike and handing me my guest helmet within seconds before she had her hands in the air over her head.
“I come bearing gifts!” she called out.
And then, I watched the door crash open.
One by one, people of all genders, ages, and races poured out of the front door. They went from being hesitant and wary to being excited and delighted at the drop of a pin. I had just enough time to put my kickstand down while Anna wrangled the duffle bag off the back of my bike.
They crowded around her while she unzipped it.
“It’s all right! It’s okay, there’s enough for everyone,” she said.
I stood back, worried I’d intimidate them with my size. “Do you need help, Anna-mine?”
Everyone seemed to stop and stare at me when I spoke. I just clasped my hands behind my back, not moving toward them even an inch. I knew what I looked like. I knew the kind of reputation I held. I knew the kind of aura I gave off.
She just smiled at me, though. “No, I’ve got it, but thank you, Bee.”
I nodded and stayed out of her way while I watched.
She divvied out the bags and I watched people rip them open. They fawned over the water bottles and the LifeStraws she put in there. Over in the shade of one of the trees that was already beginning to twinge its leaves with red, someone already cracked open a water bottle to make some pudding. I heard candy wrappers opening and people crunching. I saw people trading MREs like they were familiar with their tastes and offerings.
She did this a lot.
