Full Throttle (2 page)

Josh did the same, and when his tinted visor was down,
he turned his gaze toward Sammy.
A bloody woman.
Josh
shook his head, and grinned a little inside his helmet. It was so obvious to
him now. She was slim, but shapely. The well-fitted bike leathers followed her
form nicely and the red slashes of color down her sides drew his eyes like a
magnet to her trim waist. Her toes barely scraped the ground, showing off her
shorter frame and Josh grinned beneath his helmet again when she bent over the
tank and held on, the move showcasing her fantastic leather-covered behind
perfectly.

Well,
sightseeing just took on a whole new meaning.

****

Sammy twisted the throttle and peeled her bike out of
the junction, following Josh, onto the semi-busy road. Reg and Bev followed behind,
probably chatting away to each other on their intercom radio as usual, while she
was left alone to stare at the back of possibly the sexiest man she had seen in,
well … ever.

Who knew that Tony, the balding, slightly chubby,
instructor had a brother that looked like he’d been born in a Sherrilyn Kenyon
novel? The man’s hair was black as night, and eyes so dark they looked like her
favorite chocolate. He was tall and clearly well built. Full leathers never hid
a beer belly, and Josh definitely didn’t have one of those. He was hot. When he
had returned her smile with one of his own, Sammy nearly fell off her bike like
a stunned possum. In fact, she was still surprised she hadn’t. Being a math
teacher and self-professed geek, Sammy didn’t often get to ogle a man as
gorgeous as the leather-clad Adonis who currently sat on the bike in front of
her.

So
glad I decided to explore my wild side…
A fizzle of joy
filtered into her system.
I knew life
could be better.

Unbidden, the words of the letter
she received this morning flew through her mind—
Daddy was a bad boy
—and an intense delivery of anxiety filled her
chest, making her breathing hitch with fear. Her arms tensed forcing Sammy to
take a deep breath to push the memory back before she crashed. She wasn’t going
to let a letter and a foul threat ruin her weekend. No bloody way. Sammy
twisted the throttle in an act of defiance and smiled when the bike responded.
This was
her
weekend. Her time to let
loose and be who she always knew she could be. Sammy spent her entire week
dreaming of being on her bike, the wind against her body, and adrenaline in her
system. She forcefully shoved any thoughts of the letters out of her mind and
curled her body lower against the tank. She followed the hunk on the black bike
and grinned.

This was living.

The next hour moved on in a blur of scenery and
imagining what Josh looked like under his leathers. Sammy was having a whale of
a time, riding her new pride and joy. The bike cost
her a
pretty penny, but she couldn’t regret it, not when the ride was as smooth and
as perfect as it was. Emotions like satisfaction and excitement zinged through
her veins. Thoughts of her past life and present worries dissipated as the air
whipped around her like a magical breeze, emptying her mind of nothing but the
sound of motorbike engines roaring as the miles whizzed past.

Why had she waited to so long to live? Why had she
allowed this to pass her by all this time?

She wanted to squeal with happiness, as she twisted
the throttle to whip past Mr. Sexy. Sammy wanted to laugh and whoop as
adrenaline coursed through her body.

Life had begun. And Sammy was ready.

Chapter
Two

Josh slowed his bike and pulled into the gravelly
driveway of the pretty bed and breakfast he’d booked them into. The driveway
was lined with flowers all the way to the cottage door, which was open,
offering a nice view of the cozy house inside. Josh had stayed here before, so
he knew that the place was clean and nice. He also knew that the food was good
and the bar was always stocked.
Which was a bonus to him
right now.

He climbed off his bike and his muscles gave a small
protest at moving again. He reached up into the air, stretching out his back,
regretting how long it had been since he rode his bike for more than ten
minutes. His bike used to be his life, used to be his therapy and more. It was
time to get that back.

He turned to find Sammy watching him, her helmet in
her hands and that sexy blush across her cheeks. He pulled off his own helmet
and flashed
her a
smile.

“Ready to eat?” he asked, and grinned when Reg and
Bev nodded like puppets. The
couple were
a slightly
podgy pair in their fifties and Josh could tell they could care less about
their ages. Dressed like rockers, Reg and Bev oozed enthusiasm and fun.

Josh liked them already.

Reg popped Bev on the bum and Bev grinned, Josh laughed
at the pair. He turned towards the bed and breakfast, pulling his bag over his
shoulder as he moved. The slightly dull light in the small lobby had him removing
his shades. He slid them into his jacket pocket and pressed the bell on the
ornate reception desk.

“Wow, this is cute.”

Josh turned and smiled at Bev as she gazed around
the poky hallway of the totally English design of the cottage. Everything was
decorated in deep, sultry colors, and heavy curtains framed every window with swathes
of opulent material. Josh liked places like this, nothing at all like his
minimalist city apartment. He found the dark colors and pretty clutter homey
and he hoped that the group agreed. He glanced at Sammy as she stood at the
back of the small group. She was gazing around with wide eyes and a smile that
said that she liked it, too.

When the woman who owned the bed and breakfast
tottered down the stairs with a big smile, Josh tore his gaze away from Sammy
and checked them in.

After they all got their keys, Josh agreed to meet
everyone downstairs in half an hour. He was desperate for a shower and a chance
to call his brother—Tony. He climbed the stairs and found his room, noting with
some interest that Sammy had gone one more floor up. He threw his bag on the
plush double bed, pulled out his phone and dialed his brother.

“Y’ello.” Tony’s deep voice rumbled through the line.
His brother sounded weak and Josh was secretly glad he hadn’t seen his brother
for a week. He did not want to catch a sick bug, thank you very much.

“So, why didn’t you tell me Sammy was a woman?”
And why didn’t you tell me she was hot?
Josh snapped, suddenly feeling a little put out that his brother hadn’t told
him. The memory of standing there staring at her, gawping at her, actually, made
his stomach roll in embarrassment. God, he hoped she hadn’t noticed. He blew
out a quiet curse and shook his head, there was no way she could have missed
it. Josh
was surprised that he hadn’t
actually drooled. That moment when she had taken off her helmet … her long hair
tumbling loose, her full lips tipping into a smile—those tight leathers. Damn,
Josh felt his cock give an answering twitch.

Yeah,
she would have noticed.

His brother laughed down the line, a thready version
of his usual blast of sound, but it was enough to tell Josh that his brother was
amused—the bastard! His brother had gone on and on about Josh and his
non-existent love life.

Yeah
well, not all of us can be married to their perfect person. Some of us don’t
get to be that lucky.

Bitterness twisted its cruel knife in his chest and
Josh took a deep breath and cracked his neck to ward off the familiar rising
ire. Penny—the bitch—had done a number on him, and Josh wondered if he would
ever recover from it. His brother, Tony, believed a quick fuck would help him.
Well Tony—been there, done that, got the friggin’ t-shirt—and it hadn’t helped.

“It’s not fucking funny, Tony.” Josh snapped, still
trying to tramp down the bitterness caused by his thoughts.

“What the fuck does it matter?” His brother asked,
“Unless of course, you did something embarrassing.”

The
tricky bastard.

“Is this your attempt at setting me up?” Josh pinched
the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “I am going to knock you out when I
see you.” He growled down the phone, and paced to the small window, peering out
at her bike. Instantly, a memory popped into his mind of her astride the
machine, helmet in hand smiling up at him.

His brother laughed again. The sound grated on
Josh’s nerves until he turned from the window, and her bike, and stalked back
into his room.

“You wouldn’t knock out an ill person, would you?”
his brother mocked.

“Too right, I would.” Josh growled. “I appreciate
the sentiment, Bro, but setting me up with one of your paying customers is a
bit … uncomfortable.” Josh scoffed at his own words.

“Sammy is single, so are you—what’s the problem?”
Tony said before he fell into a coughing fit on the other end of the line.

The problem was
,
Josh hated
to be set up. Josh had hoped to spend this weekend wallowing in self-pity with
a few glasses of beer and not have to think about his crappy life. He did not
need to be thinking about women, though Sammy was very tempting.

His mind chose that moment to wind back a year to
the moment Penny called off the wedding.

“I
can’t marry someone who is unemployed, someone with no prospects. I’m sorry Josh,
but I am better than that.”

She’d flounced out of his apartment a week before
the wedding with her bags in hand and his fucking heart under foot. Josh could
never imagine allowing another person the power to crush him the way she had.
It would never happen again. He would never allow another person to reduce him
to a shell for the sake of sex. He could go out any Saturday night and get a
good seeing to. He didn’t need a committed relationship for that—not that Penny,
in the end, had been committed.

He lifted his head and looked at the door, remembering
Sammy and her sexy mouth. Sammy was pretty, and damn hot sitting on that bike.
But at the end of the day, she was a woman, and no matter how sexy she was, and
how timid she looked, all women, in his experience, were cold hearted and
cruel. And Josh wasn’t prepared to even dip his toes in the dating pool, not
even for his brother.

“Well, I appreciate it—I think—but no thanks.” Josh
said, hearing Tony growl in frustration.

“”If I were not married, and built like you, I’d be
all over her.”

Josh shook his head and grinned.
“Right,
all over her?”

“Yep, like white on rice. Uh-oh, better go, little
ones are making noise in the other room. And last time I ignored them, Mandy
found them peeling wallpaper off the walls. She only just started talking to me
again last night.”

Smiling a little at his brother’s words, Josh said
his goodbyes, hung up and threw his phone on the bed. He sighed heavily and
shook his head. Nope, Penny had ruined him, broken his trust so deeply, that
Josh long ago made peace with the fact that he was no longer a man who wanted
or needed a relationship. That ship had sailed.

But for the life of him, he couldn’t get those pouty
lips from his mind.

Irritated, Josh peeled off his bike leathers,
grabbed a towel from the neat pile on the bed, placed it on the warming rail
beside the sink and stepped into the shower. As he moved under the running
water, he couldn’t deny that Sammy was inside his head. His traitorous,
straining dick was testament to that fact. Even if he had decided that he
didn’t need to be set up with the sexy little leather-clad biker, his cock
obviously thought differently.

He closed his eyes under the spray, let the warm
trails of water flow down his body, wetting his thick hair and washing away the
road grime and leather smell from his skin. His mind filled with images of
Sammy curled so perfectly over her bike. The way her slim, petite body fit over
the tank of her bike was something Josh was sure would live with him for a long
time. She not only looked good, Sammy had style when she rode. And, Josh had to
admit, it was a thing of perfection.

For a lot of the morning, he had ridden behind her
just so he could watch her ride. His attention had been captivated by the image
of Sammy. Her hair flowed out from the bottom of her helmet. He imagined
gripping those sun golden strands in his fist as he took control of her mouth. That
pink blush he remembered on her face was maddening and fucking hot all at once.
And those lips would no doubt drop him to his knees. Yeah, she was hot. His
brother had chosen well. But it was still a no-no. He wouldn’t go there—he
couldn’t, because no matter what his brother said about a quick fuck, Josh
instinctively knew Sammy wasn’t that kind of girl.

Josh finished his shower, studiously ignoring his
raging hard on. He knew that if he were to jack off, he would have to imagine
Sammy, and he didn’t need the images his freakin’ filthy mind could conjure of
her.

He wouldn’t be able to look her in the eye if he had
jerked off imagining her bent over his bike, legs spread…
Whoa. Stop right there.