His Every Desire (For His Pleasure, Book 7) (5 page)

The large blue sign out front proclaimed it Bally’s Suzuki Dealership, and there was a huge glass showroom window with dozens of motorcycles polished and gleaming behind it.

“What are we doing?” she asked, suddenly nervous.

Hunter smiled. “Did I mention that over the last few years I’ve really gotten into extreme sports?”

“No, you didn’t. Did I mention that I’m really interested in staying alive as long as possible?”

“I don’t have a death wish, Kallie. I just enjoy a bit of an adrenaline rush from time to time. And racing motorcycles is one of the best rushes—it’s right up there with mixed martial arts and mountain climbing.”

Kallie tried not to roll her eyes. “Sounds awesome.”

“Anyhow, I’m looking to purchase a new motorcycle—possibly a Suzuki model.

Want to come on a test drive with me?”

“No way.”

He laughed. “That’s what I figured. Come on. We can at least take a look around the showroom.”

“Fine,” she said.

“Remember, you agreed to keep me company while I wait for Mister Jameson to grant me an interview, so I expect that you’ll keep good on your promise—and try to smile a little while you do it.”

“I can smile,” she said, flashing a big, fake smile and getting out of the car, feeling sullen and petulant.

She followed Hunter into the dealership, her thoughts awhirl as he began talking to one of the salesmen. They made small talk about makes and models of various motorcycles and seemed to get along famously right off the bat. Hunter was charming, clearly insinuated that he had money to burn, and that he also knew his stuff when it came to motorbikes.

The salesman loved his enthusiasm and the two of them laughed and chatted away, while Kallie stood by and thought about how annoyed she was to suddenly become Hunter’s escort.

Is this what life would be like if she stupidly agreed to his romantic agenda?

Would she be forced to wander around by his side, quiet, submissive, like some new age geisha with blond hair and blue eyes?

Eventually, they made their way outside to the lot and the salesman brought around a large blue and black chrome monstrosity. Just looking at that thing made her nervous, and yet she had to admit that the thought of Hunter being able to handle such a large machine was a little bit hot.

“Is she going to get on with you?” Kallie dimly heard the salesman ask, as her subconscious slapped her out of her reverie.

Hunter laughed and shook his head no. “She’s strictly a land dweller, likes to keep both feet firmly planted on the concrete. You know the type.”

The salesman grinned. “That’s what they all say. But once she hops on and gets a taste of that speed and the engine thrumming, we’ll probably have to drag her off of it.”

Hunter looked at him. “Don’t even bother. Believe me, she’s the exception to that rule.”

The salesman raised an eyebrow. “If you say so.”

“I do.”

Kallie felt a twinge of aggravation. “I’m the exception to the rule? What does that mean?”

Hunter glanced at her. “It means that most women resist riding at first, but once they try it, they’re hooked. However, there is a small percentage that’s just too afraid of the speed.”

“If she’d like to try, we can provide her with a helmet and protective jacket to help give some peace of mind,” the salesman said.

Hunter jumped in again, waving his hand. “She’ll wait here. She doesn’t want to do this, trust me.”

The salesman shrugged, finally giving up. “Anyway, here are the keys. Take it for a spin and then we’ll talk, okay?”

As the salesman left, Hunter walked back to his car and popped the trunk, grabbing a large helmet and then slamming the trunk shut with his free hand.

Kallie was watching him with a building sense of frustration. Did he really think she was so predictable—how could he know that she wouldn’t enjoy it even if she tried it? Even though she suspected he was right, Kallie was flustered that his low opinion of her bothered her as much as it did. “I’m thinking I want to try and ride that thing,” she said to him.

He was already about to get on the bike. One hand rested on the left handlebar of the motorcycle. He looked at her, pausing for a moment. “Look, I want to get on the road and put this baby through its paces. I can’t do that with you holding on for dear life, whimpering in my ear.”

She stood straighter. “Whimpering? You don’t know me very well, Hunter, or you’d never say something so idiotic. I’ve never whimpered in my life. I grew up with five brothers, remember?”

“You should just hang out here and read a magazine or something. I won’t be gone long.”

“I’m not waiting here. I’m coming with you.”

“Kallie—“

She started towards the dealership to find that smarmy sales guy. “Don’t you dare leave without me, Hunter!” she yelled back at him, walking at a fast pace to the showroom doors, opening the door (and distantly hearing the bell tinkling overhead).

“Can someone find me a helmet for a test drive?” she called.

The salesman came running over, telling her how much she was going to love it and not to worry, the Suzuki bikes were some of the safest bikes in the world, etc. etc.

Meanwhile, he was finding the correct sized helmet for her.

Eventually he gave her a cheap-looking red helmet that wouldn’t have been her first choice fashion wise, but she didn’t really care. Kallie wanted to get back to Hunter and prove him wrong.

She headed back outside, and Hunter was nowhere to be seen.

She couldn’t believe it. He’d taken off and left her, despite the fact that she’d told him not to.

For a brief second, she was so angry she couldn’t see straight. And then she heard the sound of a revving engine behind her. Spinning around, she saw Hunter astride the motorcycle, slowly puttering towards her.

“I thought you left me here!” she shouted over the engine.

He rolled up next to her and stopped, flipping up the tinted visor on his helmet and looking her up and down. “You sure you want to do this, Kallie?”

“I’m more than sure.”

“Okay, then. I’ll take it slow, I promise.”

“Don’t do anything different on my account, Hunter.”

“Hop on board,” he said, flipping his visor down again and resettling himself on the bike. First, she pulled the helmet on and looked around. Her head felt heavy and strange with this enormous thing covering her. It was a little unsettling, but she told herself that she wasn’t driving, so it didn’t matter.

Kallie walked behind Hunter, slung one leg awkwardly over the seat and then used her hand to grip his shoulder, pulling herself astride the lumbering, metal vehicle.

He reached back and took hold of her wrist, pulling her arm around his waist. She wrapped her other arm around his midsection, and now she was holding him tightly from behind.

The position was strangely intimate, and she was suddenly aroused.

It was exciting. Hunter was exciting. She was alive, she was wide-awake and her entire body was thrumming with vibrations from the motorcycle beneath her. But inside, her body was thrumming with an entirely different kind of vibration—she was giddy and happy to be so close to Hunter, to feel his body, to be able to be next to him, enjoying the sensations of him, and to know that right now it was just the two of them and nothing else really mattered.

As he slowly rolled forward and began gathering speed, she tightened her grip around him a little more. Inside her helmet, she was smiling.

And then they shot out of the parking lot of the dealership and started driving along the winding road, and Kallie could feel the wind against her, but Hunter was in front, taking the brunt of the wind resistance.

She was strangely protected—almost safer than she’d ever felt before in her life—

it wasn’t possible, and yet she knew it was very real at some level. She knew suddenly that there was much more to Hunter than the posturing bad boy, more to him than the tortured artist—the waters with him ran deeper than perhaps anyone she’d ever met.

Is it so wrong that I want to dive down into those waters, swim as far as the eye
can see, and then go deeper and deeper below the surface, until I discover what’s really
at the bottom?

They continued down the road, moving along at a fair clip, but nothing awe-inspiring. She could tell that Hunter was driving slow, perhaps so as not to overwhelm her.

She leaned forward as much as possible.

He sensed the shift of her weight and leaned back. “Are you okay?” he yelled back at her, slowing down even more.

“Yes!” she cried. “Go faster!”

“This is fine,” he told her.

“No, I want to go fast!”

She could feel him shaking against her, as he laughed at the request. Suddenly he was opening the throttle and they were accelerating so rapidly that Kallie closed her eyes for a few seconds. The wind was pounding around her shoulders and head as she simultaneously shrank down and tightened her grip on Hunter’s waist.

When she opened her eyes again, they were streaking down an empty street and everything was a blur. The trees were merely green and brown streaks, the road itself was just gray, like the choppy waters of the ocean. The engine was so loud in her ears that she couldn’t even think about communicating with Hunter, unless maybe she pinched him or something.

Instead, Kallie hung on for dear life and tried to enjoy the ride.

As the minutes passed, she found that her heart rate was slowing just a little bit, and she was able to look and observe the world around her more clearly.

Maybe, she thought, this whole driving fast thing had its good points. It was definitely a rush, as Hunter had told her it would be. She felt like a battery that had been charged up to full strength. Her senses were on alert, her eyes were clear, her thoughts were focused.

The one thing she’d figured out from this little expedition was that she couldn’t say her feelings for Hunter had ebbed even a tiny bit. She wanted him more than ever, she wanted to touch him like this and be close to him like this again.

After a few more minutes, they returned back to the dealership.

Hunter pulled the bike up to where the salesman had initially left it, and then stood in one place with the motor idling. Kallie got off, and she continued to feel the vibrations through her buttocks and stomach. It was like getting off a boat and still sort of feeling like you were on sea legs or something. She pulled her helmet off and shook her hair out.

The engine turned off, and Hunter was soon standing next to her, his helmet under one arm. “Gets the blood flowing, doesn’t it?”

She nodded, still catching her breath. “That was…something.”

“Did you hate it?”

She looked up at him and brushed the hair from her face. “The helmet gave me static cling, but other than that, it was pretty awesome.”

Hunter grinned. “Color me surprised.”

“I’m not as ordinary as you seem to think I am.”

“I never said you were ordinary.”

She could feel her cheeks getting red as Hunter stared into her eyes. She knew what that look meant—it was the same one he’d given her in bed. “Maybe you didn’t say it, but you implied.”

Not too long after, the salesman saw them and wandered out to check in on their test drive. “So?” he asked, squinting into the sun. “Did it go well?”

Hunter nodded. “Very well. One of the best rides of my life. Of course, some of that’s probably do to my companion, but I really liked the way it handled. I’m going to purchase it.”

The salesman looked temporarily surprised. “Okay, so—you’re going to finance it—“

“No. I’ll pay cash, right now.”

That being said, the two men began walking toward the shop while Kallie stood there, unsure what to do. Hunter turned and looked back at her. “Aren’t you coming?”

he asked.

***

The motorcycle was paid for, and there was just the question of what to do next.

Hunter glanced at Kallie as the salesman handed him the keys and papers. “It’s all yours, Mister Reardon,” the salesman said.

“I’d really like to bring the motorcycle back to my place today,” Hunter mused aloud. “Kallie, would you mind driving my car, so I can drive my new bike home?”

Such a seemingly innocent request, she thought, and yet it was fraught with many hidden perils. “I don’t know,” she said. “I probably shouldn’t be gone so long.”

“Let me check with Red,” he told her.

“No, Hunter—“ she started.

He held up one finger and made the phone call over her protests. “Hi Red, sorry to disturb you,” he said into the cell. “It’s Hunter Reardon….Yes….I was just wondering. I’ve just purchased a motorcycle and was hoping to have your assistant Kallie drive my car so that I can transport the cycle back to my house. She was concerned that she’d be gone too long and that you might be in need of her…yes…yes…” Hunter laughed, a phony, obnoxious laugh that reminded Kallie of Brad Danvers and the way he’d thought he could just manipulate her into being his sex toy. Hunter was making her feel like a pawn in his game and she didn’t much like it.

“And you might have some time for an interview later?” Hunter continued, oblivious to the annoyance written on Kallie’s face. He paused, nodding his head.

“Great. Perfect, actually. Okay. Bye, now.” He hung up and slid the phone in his pocket. “Red says that sounds fine. I can bring you to the hospital at six o’clock tonight, because he’s planning on making some time for me to do the first part of my interview with him.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to drive your car back to your place,” she said coolly.

“Why not?”

“Because, I know what you’re trying to do, Hunter.”

He smirked. “Please enlighten me as to my ulterior motives, Kallie. I’m so curious what devious new plan I’ve cooked up.”

“Don’t mock me,” she said. “You’re trying to seduce me and it’s transparent.”

His eyes darkened and his face grew tight. “What’s transparent here is that you’re afraid of admitting your true feelings. But I’m not blind. I can see that you know what we have. I can see that you’re fighting your own emotions at every turn.”

“I’m not fighting anything,” she lied. “And you’re completely arrogant and obnoxious.” She walked back to the car. “I’m not going home with you, Hunter. I’m not sleeping with you again. You told me what you want from me and I’m not going to do it.”