Page 22 of Intolerable Bishop

“Understood,” Vesper and I said together.

Turning Ren around, I walked with my hand in her back pocket as we headed for my bike. I didn’t know how long Vesper had been here or how many races he’d already run. I was at a definite disadvantage.

Reaching the bike, I turned to Ren to tell her where she and Myles could stand, but I was surprised when she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.

“The guys over there were whispering and laughing. I figured we’d give them a show,” she whispered against my lips.

“I can give them a show.” I picked her up and laid her on the Lambo with her hands pinned over her head. I kissed Ren hard as she let me explore her mouth, and I kind of hated that this was all an act. I could feel Myles watching us, and I glanced up, smirking to fuck with him, but he rolled his eyes and looked away. Interesting. “Smart and a great kisser, you are certainly full of surprises, Ms. Davies,” I breathed into her ear. “What else are you hiding?”

“Nothing that you’re going to find out about,” she said, and just like that, she tossed the gauntlet in my direction.

“At least not here,” I said and pushed myself up, bringing her with me. She turned to walk away, but not before I grabbed her hips and pressed against her back. “I’d be careful how much sass you give me, Ms. Davies. I think you’d look amazing with my cock in your pussy and my brother’s shoved down your throat.”

She looked over her shoulder at me, her expression caught between shock and desire under that. I loved that her cheeks were bright red, and she seemed genuinely lost for words.

“Murk, you’re up,” Ransom yelled, breaking the staring contest between us. I nodded at him and grabbed my helmet, securing it in place.

I wiggled my fingers at Ren. She looked skeptical, but after a quick glance around at all those still watching, she stepped in close enough that I could wrap my arm around her waist.

“Aren’t you going to give me a kiss for good luck?” I tapped my helmet, and she shot me a cheeky look but leaned in and planted a kiss right where I was pointing. As soon as she stepped back to Myles, I hit my start, gave her a two-finger salute, and rolled toward the starting line at the end of the street. My mind was already focused on the task at hand. You didn’t race unless you could separate everything else going on in your life from the road in front of you. Adrenaline coursed through my body, and I sucked in a deep breath loving the feeling. The first surge as we took off from the line would bring a dopamine hit that I craved.

I turned left onto the road that we would be racing down and then wheeled around to face the same direction as Vesper. He had a sexy looking Busa, and I knew this was going to be my biggest challenge yet. Top rider, a powerful bike, and a circuit I’d never been on. Nothing like living on the edge.

He nodded, and we flipped up our visors. “I like to race fair and nothing dirty,” he said.

I shrugged. “Same here. If you have to ride dirty to win, then you don’t know how to race.”

He pointed up the road. “I’ve been here a couple weeks and scoped this out. Turn three and seven are deadly and slick with tar snakes.”

Most people wouldn’t give tips to their opponent, so he was either a super nice guy or setting me up.

“Thanks for the heads up,” I said and held out my knuckles for him to hit. He returned the friendly gesture.

A leggy blonde in high heels stepped into the middle of the road and held a flag up. The crowd was starting to chant, “Rip it up,” but as I flicked down my visor, everything went quiet in my head. When her hand came down, we roared off the line, and both bikes ended up in a catwalk as we flew past the flag girl. The crowd and cars disappeared behind us.

This backroad was on the outer edge of the city, and we flew down what seemed to be a service road for trucks. Industrial buildings were nothing more than a blur of white or brown as we blew past. I could see the first turn coming up, and I purposely let Vesper have the lead and pulled into his slipstream. He knew the road, had already raced it, and he was the number one street racer in North America, if not the world, with over five years more experience. I was going to be on him like a flea on a tick’s ass for the first half of the race to let him show me the course and how it rode.

We hit a long open stretch, and we both went full throttle and sailed through a red light. The first two turns were easy, but just like Vesper said, number three was tricky with a tight hairpin that had a slightly odd angle. I could feel my back end wanting to get loose on the way in, but she stuck to the curve like she was on rails. The marks that indicated the way were taking us through a roundabout, and I could see a large truck already in the intersection. This was going to be tight.

We raced into the circle and squeezed by on the shoulder to blow by the transport that was hogging the road. The next section was dark as we left the city behind. It was isolating as we settled into the fast pace with only the moon and stars to light the way. Turn six was wide and sweeping, and we carved hard, letting the momentum push us around the curve.

I was shocked when Vesper’s taillight came on for turn seven. He wasn’t joking when he said it was nasty. There were little pebbles like marbles and thick lines of tar that twisted across the road. The turn doubled back on itself before it snaked out the other side. The little glowing arrow pointed us in the right direction for the road that would take us back the way we came, and as soon as I spotted the roundabout, I knew where we were.

This was when I needed to wait for my opening to maneuver around the bike in front of me and visualize the remaining road and places Vesper was least likely to expect me to pass. Teasing him a little, I made sure he could see me in his left and then right mirror and pretended that I was going to pass on the inside of turn four. As expected, he cut off my lane, but he kept checking.

Turn three was my goal. I caught his attention as we were heading into the turn. I faked low, and he blocked my way. But I was already going high and had to carve so hard that sparks flew, but it worked. It worked too well. Vesper looked over and hit a tar snake at a bad angle. I could see his back end lose it a fraction of a second before he was down, and I had to grab a handful and wheel out around him or crash into him as he dropped the bike and slid on his ass. Pulling out of the turn, I stopped, heart pounding, and waited to see if he was okay. Most riders would carry on, but as much as I loved racing, this wasn’t how I made my living, and I cared more about the thrill of the challenge than the money from a win.

Vesper was lying on the pavement, so I jumped off my bike and ran to him. “Hey man, you okay,” I asked, flicking open the dark visor so I could see his eyes.

“Yeah. Fucking embarrassed more than anything. It’s been a while since I had any road rash.”

“You sure nothing is broken?” He moved his feet and legs, then arms, before I helped him sit up. “I’m good. You shouldn’t have stopped.”

“Consider it my payback for the turn warnings.”

“Much good it did me. Fuck, I knew that thick snake was there. Good call on passing at that moment. I was expecting for you to do it as we passed apex.”

Standing, I held out my hand and helped him to his feet. “You good to finish the race?”