Steel Love: Alpha BBW Motorcycle Romance (8 page)

The last of her safeguards was the house alarm. Maggie was a huge fan of horror movies in her teens and knew that alarms could be disabled by simply cutting a few wires so in reality this was more for show then anything, but it didn’t hurt to have it set. She liked that the keypad was at the top of the stairs, and not by the front door. She only set it at night when she was going to bed, or when she was getting ready to take a shower.

Maggie walked into her bedroom at the end of the hall. Her father’s room was slightly bigger then hers and had a private bath, but it faced the back yard. Maggie liked to be able to look out her window to the front yard if she heard anything or was feeling nervous. Someday she would move into the larger room. After the divorce was final.

Sometimes it felt odd being back in her old room after so much time away. The lilac walls that were freshly painted when she was thirteen now faded. She’d had to beg her father to let her paint the walls. He was hesitant to see the yellow paint and duck print wallpaper border removed. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she wasn’t a baby anymore, or that her mother had picked out the color and border that made her father so reluctant. She had begged him for nearly six months and he had finally given in by surprising her on her thirteenth birthday.

Maggie still remembered that day so vividly. Her birthday had fallen on a Sunday that year. Every year from as far back as she could remember he would take her for her favorite breakfast at the diner in town; stuffed French toast with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and topped with whip cream.

She was so stuffed after eating that he had to push and cajole her to go into the home improvement store with him. She didn’t want to, but he made her go. She walked alongside him, hands stuffed in her pockets, trying to ignore her bloated stomach when she realized her dad was no longer beside her. She’d turned and looked back to see which aisle he had gone down and realized he’d stopped at the paint display. When she’d walked over to him he’d pointed out the lilac and asked what she thought about the color for her walls.

She still remembered how her heart had swelled and the tears that had suddenly crept toward her cheeks. She remembered throwing her arms around his neck and thanking him over and over. She remembered his deep laugh, as he’d wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tight then made her promise to help him.

Of course he had done the majority of the work the next day while she was at school. When she got home all her furniture was in the center of the room covered in sheets, and he had taken down the entire duck wallpaper border. He showed her how to cut in, and then roll on the paint. That night they left the windows open in her room to air out the paint fumes and she had slept on the couch. It was the first time she’d slept anywhere but her own bed.

Maggie reached up to wipe away an escaped tear from her cheek. She thought she was done with crying, but she supposed these were somewhat happy tears. Sad that her father was gone, but happy for the beautiful memories she had of him.

She sighed and shook her head, letting go of the memory. Once the divorce was complete she really needed to save a little money and make some changes to the house. It’s not that she didn’t love the memories, but she really needed to make this house her own. Move forward from her time with Reef and into the rest of her life.

Maggie grabbed her pajamas from the dresser and headed for the bathroom. After her class at the dojo, and then her run in with Ash, she really needed a shower. The self-defense class had been a bit of a workout. She loved her curves, but it was important to her to be able to defend herself, which meant toning her muscles and her balance.

Maggie stepped into the steaming spray from the showerhead and let the water knead her muscles. It had been a long time since she’d done any kind of serious workout and her shoulders were tight. Not to mention all the tension she’d felt lately. It was almost a relief now to know at least some of that creepy feeling of being watched was from a friendly source. She still didn’t know what was going on with Reef, but she had Ash to cover her back.

The thought of Ash brought him fully into the forefront of her mind. Man did he look good on his motorcycle today. Something about a man sitting astride a ton of steel. The modern day cowboy. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the whole motorcycle club stuff. Did that automatically mean he was a criminal? Could she trust someone like that? Considering her father had gone out of his way in his final days of life to request that these men watch over his only child when he was gone said a lot. She trusted her father’s opinion above all else. Maybe he didn’t intend for Maggie to
sleep
with one of the men from the club, but he at least trusted them with her life.

“What am I even thinking here? Seriously. Sleep with Ash? Come on Maggie you’re not even divorced yet; it’s only been a few months since you left Reef. You seriously need to get your head out of the clouds here.”

Maggie rinsed the rest of the soap off her body as she chastised herself and stepped out of the shower. One of her first purchases after leaving Reef had been the biggest fluffiest towel she could find. Reef preferred thin scratchy towels that lay perfectly across the towel rack. Maggie had always hated their towels. She luxuriated in the soft fluffiness wrapping around her body while she combed the tangles from her long thick curly hair. Her father had always loved her hair. He said it looked exactly like her mother’s.

After finishing up her post shower ritual of lathering her body with lotion from head to toe Maggie put on her pajamas and braided her hair then went down stairs to fix something for dinner. She was starving and had a serious craving for egg noodles with butter, salt, pepper, and maybe a few shakes of soy sauce. Maybe she would sauté some spinach to toss it in with the pasta.

While the water boiled and the spinach sizzled away on low Maggie went to the front of the house. She heard the rumble from the street and peaked out the front windows in time to see Ash on his bike cruise slowly by. He saw her peeking out the window and nodded as he passed. Just that little acknowledgement made Maggie catch her breath. “Lord Maggie. You really need to work on some self-control if you’re going to be seeing him every day. Every day. Morning and night….” Maggie paused and assessed her pulse. “Yeah, you’re screwed.”

CHAPTER 9

Reef

“YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Reef screamed and pounded his fists against the steering wheel as he raced toward the gym. He needed to work some of this anger off. It was all he could do not to haul ass up to her door and kill her with his bare fists.

It was bad enough that she was now traipsing around town with that piece of shit on a motorcycle, but then she had the audacity to look
happy
. He saw her. She couldn’t deny it. She was laughing and smiling when she walked from her car to her house.

She barely even glanced around to look for him. She
always
looked for him when she got out of the car. It was like their little signal that she knew he was there keeping an eye on her. He’d even come to believe that maybe she appreciated knowing he was there watching out for her. But she spent a half hour in the company of that criminal and suddenly she has a smile on her face for the first time in months. Years even.

He couldn’t remember the last time she’d smiled at him. Not those thin-lipped placating smiles she would offer that made him want to slap her, but a real smile. The kind of smiles she gave him when they were dating. The kind that lit up her face and made him fall in love with her. He hadn’t seen that smile since a few months after their wedding, and now there she was throwing it around for anyone to see, and only minutes after being with the biker. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” He bashed the steering wheel again before jerking it around to turn into the parking lot of the gym.

He needed to lift some weights. He needed to work this aggression out of his system before he drove back to her house and strangled her. He didn’t think he could get away with killing her at this point, and honestly he didn’t want to. He still wanted to make her understand that she was his. That she shouldn’t be smiling for anyone but him.  

Reef snatched his gym bag from the back seat and headed inside. He barely acknowledged the smoothie girl as he made his way over to the free weights. He grabbed a set of dumb bells and began doing bicep curls while watching his reflection in the mirror. He watched his muscles bunch as he felt the burn. He watched the sweat slide down his arms and torso.

Working out often reminded him of his father. His father had been a tyrant about health and physical activity. He had taken Reef to body building competitions and harped on him about his diet and daily routine. His father taught him that there was no such thing as perfection. You had to constantly look for the flaws that were inevitably there. You could always be healthier, your house could always be cleaner, your clothes should be spotless and void of creases, and if your wife gave even the barest hint of disobedience you made sure you set that shit straight right away.

His sister Dove had not come away from their upbringing with the same level of intensity that Reef did. He guessed maybe she just wasn’t able to understand their father the way Reef did. She was a woman. She would never process life with the same amount of common sense and drive that a man would. He occasionally felt bad that his only living family, his baby sister, no longer spoke to him.

She used to come for yearly visits. He had been very careful to only reprimand Maggie in ways that would not draw Dove’s attention. Unfortunately one year while she was visiting Dove walked in on Maggie while she was changing and saw some bruises on Maggie’s back. Dove lost her damn mind screaming at Reef and cursing him. He’d tried to get control of the situation but as usual she was being an emotional, irrational woman and wouldn’t listen to him.

Finally he’d had enough and backhanded her. She flew back five feet and crashed against the wall dazed. Reef had tried to help her up, tried to apologize and calm the situation but she wouldn’t listen. She threatened him with calling the cops. She’d ended up marching up the stairs and locking the door to the guest bedroom while Reef stood on the outside trying to talk to her through the door and feeling like an idiot.

When he woke up in the morning he found Dove gone and a note left for Maggie on the guest bed telling Maggie she could come stay with Dove anytime she wanted. Of course Reef had burned the note. He wasn’t going to let Dove put those thoughts in Maggie’s head. He had enough trouble with keeping Maggie in line without that shit running around her mind.

Reef dropped the dumbbells and headed over to the leg press machine. He piled on the weight then got down to pushing all his frustration and anger into the weights. Maggie had to be stopped. He didn’t know how much more he could take of her insolence. It was like she was begging him to punish her.

Reef stopped mid press and slowly let the weight sink back down. Was she begging him to punish her? Was that what this was all about? Reef knew the reasons he punished Maggie. It was because he loved her. He wanted her to be the best she could be, and to stand with him in his quest for perfection. He’d always assumed that she disobeyed because she didn’t understand, but maybe she disobeyed because she
did
understand. Maybe Maggie knew that his punishments were his purest form of love for her. Every correction was akin to the sweetest deepest kiss, and every word spoken in anger a caress of purest affection.

Reef swung his legs off the side of the bench and sat up. He stood and looked at himself in the mirror. His calves and thighs bulged. This had to be the answer. It was all a test. She was testing him. Testing his love. He just wasn’t sure how far he was supposed to let her go before he stepped in and corrected her behavior. He definitely needed to think about this some more.

After seeing her today his initial reaction was to work off his excess energy and go after her tonight with a level head, but now that he had this new information he wasn’t sure how to proceed. He needed to watch her some more. See exactly what was going on with the biker. She would let him know when it was time for him to step in. He was sure of that.

With this new awareness came a renewed sense of purpose. Reef needed to get Maggie off his brain for the night. He needed to refocus his thoughts and energy so that he could make a fresh start in his pursuit of Maggie tomorrow. Tonight, he needed to get laid. Reef bent to grab his gym bag from the floor then turned toward the smoothie bar in the corner.

Chapter 10

MAGGIE

Maggie woke up to her alarm sounding off at seven a.m. Her shift at the library started at nine, but she liked to take her time with her shower and coffee in the mornings. Yesterday’s adventure with Ash had left her restless and filled her night with strange dreams.

While she lay in bed trying to fall asleep images of Ash tripped across her closed eyelids like soft round pebbles skipping across the glass surface of a pond. Random moments from their conversation that day popped into her mind no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. Images of him and the amusement in his eyes haunted her. She’d finally drifted to sleep, but even in sleep she couldn’t escape him.

In her dream Ash sat at the top of a hill, back leaning against a bare oak tree. Its branches reached like skeleton fingers toward the sky highlighted by infrequent flashes of lightening. Maggie moved up the hill lifting the skirt of a long white dress her feet bare. As she approached, Ash stood slowly, like a snake rising from the ground. He was graceful and balanced. His arms swept through the air before him and out to his sides in welcome to her.

She stopped some five feet from him and stared. He no longer wore the tight black shirt and jeans he’d had on the day before. In the dream his chest was bare, caramel colored and corded with thick muscles. He wore black cotton drawstring pants that hung low on his hips, the V of his groin peaking above the waistband.