“And what about you?” I asked, my words coming out gravelly and thick.
“Me?” she asked, looking back up at me in surprise.
“Yeah, you? What do you like?”
A small frown crossed her face. “No one’s ever asked me that, Dillon.”
Goddamn it I wished she’d stop saying my name like that.
“Well I just did,” I grumbled out, trying to hide the eagerness from my tone. The hunger I felt for more information about her. “And don’t give me no bullshit either, let’s be real tonight.”
A small smile crossed her lips. “Yeah, let’s be real.” I swear to God she was blushing. Even in the dark I could see it. Maybe it was nervousness, maybe it was something else, I had no real clue.
“I like Stevie Nicks, pizza, and I like windy days because it feels like God’s blowing away all the bad stuff in the world and it makes me feel free,” she said with a smile that lit up the dark. “What about you?”
I shrugged. “Bob Dylan. Tacos and riding my bike,” I replied bluntly. “For pretty much the same reasons that you like the wind; it makes me feel free, like I’m leaving all the bad shit behind,” I added on as an afterthought. “You ever been on the back of a bike?” I suddenly asked. Because goddamn it I’d love to have her on the back of my bike one day. Arms tight around my waist, thighs clinging to me, tits pressed against my back. Fuck yeah.
She shook her head and moved closer to me to keep warm. Though the night was humid and her body heat was making me sweat, I wrapped my arm tighter around her shoulders and she rested her head on my chest.
“I’ll take you sometime,” I said, surprising myself.
What the hell was I saying?
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
The scent of her shampoo drifted up into my face and I inhaled it, filling my lungs with her. The party was still loud and I needed to get back out there in case anyone came looking for me, yet I couldn’t seem to let this woman go.
“What happened in there tonight?” I asked, my thoughts drifting to who might have fucked her already. The thought pissed me off. Pissed me off a lot.
“You don’t wanna know.”
I pulled back from her so I could see her face again. “Tell me.”
She shook her head. “I made a fool out of myself, that’s what.”
“How?”
“God, why do you care?”
“I don’t fucking know. I’m just curious as to why a beautiful woman like you is at a party full of bikers ready to be handed around like a piece of meat, is all,” I grumbled. I think she sucked in a breath at my words. “That came out wrong,” I backtracked. But it didn’t come out wrong; it came out exactly how I’d been thinking it.
She was beautiful, and every word she spoke made her even more beautiful. I hated the thought of my brothers fucking her. Was it jealousy or something more? I wasn’t sure. I just knew that the thought of any other man touching her made me feel murderous.
“No, you’re right. But it’s not like it looked. I don’t normally come to things like this. My friend—Katie normally comes with someone else, but she begged me to come because they couldn’t make it, or something. I thought it would be fun; at least how Katie sold it to me. But I had too many beers and then before I knew it I was being felt up by bikers and laughed at by old ladies when I said I didn’t want to do anything with anyone.” She put her head in her hands. “It’s just so embarrassing. Those bitches are mean!”
“Mean?” I scoffed.
“Yes, mean! One woman kept giving me more drinks and I thought she was being nice but then,” she shook her head, “it doesn’t matter. She was a bitch who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Besides, I recognize some of the women in there from high school. They weren’t in my year, but they always gave me shit, even back then.”
I’d met some of the old ladies, and yeah, some of them were. But a lot of them were good women. They looked out for their own, no doubt, but they also didn’t like the girls being treated like shit either. I hadn’t met any that had been outwardly cruel like Hope was saying, and I wondered if she was telling me the truth.
She looked up at me. “Promise not to laugh?”
I hadn’t laughed in a long fucking time, so I nodded without hesitation.
“This is so embarrassing,” she whispered to herself before clearing her throat.
