Fanning the Biker's Flame - Piper Davenport Page 0,10
like Shadow’s and his tag read ‘Stump.’ I craned my neck to look up at him. “Am I alone?”
He chuckled. “Name’s Stump.”
“I see that.”
“And you are…?”
“Posey.” I held my hand out to him. “Nice to meet you.”
He took it, flipping it and lifting it to his mouth, kissing the palm.
“Fuck off, Stump,” Shadow growled, and shouldered him out of the way.
Stump raised an eyebrow but didn’t let go of my hand. “I’m talkin’ to my new friend.”
“And I’m tellin’ you to fuck off,” Shadow repeated.
I stood a little stunned, unable to speak which was rare for me, as the men seemed to get into some kind of secret, biker stare down.
Stump broke first, focusing back on me with a million-dollar smile as he released my hand. “Nice to meet you, Posey.”
“You too,” I said, and he walked away.
“You got enough food?” Shadow asked.
“For now,” I retorted.
“Let’s go sit for a bit.”
“Um, okay,” I said, and followed him to one of the empty picnic tables away from the smoker. He snagged a cupcake off the dessert table as we passed it, then he sat across from me on a bench.
“I take it you were the yoga goddess that the kids have been buzzing about all week,” he murmured.
“Goddess, huh? I like the sound of that,” I retorted.
“They haven’t shut up about it,” he said.
“I’m really glad they liked it. I love kids and yoga, so merging the two is always fun for me. What about you? What do you do when you’re not taking the piss out of deities in distress?”
His mouth twitched as he peeled the cupcake lining from the chocolatey goodness. “Just earned my badge at SFD, but they don’t have a budget for another full-time person, so I’m working one shift a week. Sterling keeps me busy, though, so sometimes I wonder if I have time to be a firefighter.”
I smiled. “I hear that.”
“I figure I’m doin’ everything I want to do on my terms, so shit’ll sort itself out.”
“Very namaste of you. You’d do well in yoga.”
He laughed. “No way in hell.”
“You should try it. It would help correct the way you hunch your shoulders.”
“I hunch my shoulders?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Your hips are off too.”
“No shit?”
“No shit,” I said, cutting into the meat. “I can show you a few things to help your balance if you like. You’ll probably be surprised how much easier it’ll be to carry your hose.”
“My hose is pretty big,” he said. “But I carry it just fine.”
I chuckled and took a bite of the pork. Considering the size of his frame, I had a feeling his hose was bigger than pretty big, but I focused on the food in an effort to hide my lady boner. Lord, I seriously needed to get laid.
“What’s your timeframe on fixin’ your kitchen?” he asked.
“My landlord’s coming to inspect it in just over two weeks.”
“That’s doable.”
I sighed. “It’s a huge chunk out of my savings, though. My grand plan was to buy a little house, but I’ve been shoving money into the studio trying to keep it afloat, and the rent in the building’s killing me. Rent pretty much everywhere’s killing me,” I admitted.
“Yeah, real estate’s goin’ crazy right now. I’m glad I’m nomadic or I’d be spending half my earnings on a roof over my head.”
“Where do you live, then?”
“Here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, wow. I didn’t realize this was anything more than a clubhouse.”
“We’ve got several floors with rooms and bathrooms. The officers get the fancy rooms, and then the rest of us have rooms based on rank. Prospects have to share.”
“Makes sense.”
“There you are,” Quin called, approaching us with the bottle of wine I brought. “I’m sorry I abandoned you. I come bearing a peace offering.”
I smiled. “Shadow’s been keeping me company, so it’s all good. Plus, I’m kind of making love to this food. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so well.”
“Amazing what happens when you don’t cook the box, huh?” Shadow retorted, and I threw a piece of pork at him.
He laughed, standing to let Quin sit, then giving me a chin lift and walking away.
“Isn’t he adorable?” Quin asked, pouring wine into a couple of empty solo cups she’d brought.
Yeah, he was adorable, I thought to myself. I wanted to know how adorable he was naked, but I kept that to myself.
“He’s really nice,” I said instead.
For the rest of the night, Quin stuck by me as she guided me around the room, introducing me to bikers and their ‘ol’