Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,79

free man so what should that matter? I’ve made no play for him, he’s shown no interest in me. He can get his rocks off where he likes.

Fuck, but that thought hurts. It’s a pain I can honestly say I’ve never felt before. Indigestion. That must be it. Too much good food this evening.

Hastily, I look around to see if the men who sometimes hang around the club hoping to have a chance to become a member might have turned up. If Road’s going to pair up, maybe I should find something, or someone, to take my mind off the thought. There are a couple talking to Goofy, but I’ll be damned if they come close to being my type. They hold no candle, not even a match, to the man at my side. Maybe I should make a trip into town later, visit a bar.

“This is more like it.” Road rolls his shoulders, breathes the stale air in deeply, then glances at me and grins. “So this is where you all let down your hair. Not now, sweetheart.”

The last is said to the woman wearing a tight leather tank top and tight leather shorts which only just cover her ass. She’s had the audacity to put her hand on my… Road’s arm, but he’s firmly lifted it off.

“Later, perhaps?” she simpers, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Not tonight,” he replies in a tone that doesn’t encourage further overtures.

Immediately my mood lifts. I continue as though we hadn’t been interrupted. “Yes, we have parties here every week on Fridays and Saturdays. This is what the locals know of us, a club who lives for riding their bikes and partying hard.”

“The girls are hangarounds?”

I nod. “We get men too, men who like discussing bikes. That pair with Goofy? He did some work pimping their rides. We get the odd one wanting to join up as well.”

“Any get in?”

“Only if their background fits the club, or we see something in particular we like.”

“So you really are living your cover,” he says with an appreciative nod toward Snatcher who’s already got his arm around one of the girls.

“This is us, Road. Two sides of the same coin.”

He looks thoughtful at my reply.

“Road! Good to actually meet you, when you’re not looking like you’re going to throw up.”

Road spins around. “I know you.” He points his finger at Mystic. “You were at the airfield. And I can’t fuckin’ help it if I prefer my feet on the ground.” His words are offered with a good-natured grin.

“Yeah, I can understand that. I maintain the plane, keep it airworthy. Doesn’t mean I like to go up in it,” Mystic agrees, the two men seeming to bond over their fear of flying. “Goofy over there keeps the auto-shop busy with work.” He points the other member out.

We reach the bar, take a couple of beers, and Road downs half of his fast as though he needs it. When Grinch comes back inside and approaches Road, asking him about racing, I wander off, not wanting to monopolise my partner, and giving him a chance to make new friends. I’ve a feeling the three who live here are men more like the members Road left back in Tucson.

As in our more modern clubhouse, there’s also a pool table and gaming machines here, though admittedly they’re more battle-scarred, and I prevent myself thinking exactly what that pool table’s probably been used for. For a while I get lost in a shoot ‘em up battle, and then Bolt challenges me to a game of pool. I drink another beer, but that’s my limit. I learned long ago not to let my guard down. It’s not that I don’t trust my brothers, more that I don’t trust myself, especially with someone as tempting as Road around.

It’s been a while since I scored, and a long time, if ever, that I’ve felt such a pull toward a man. Losing my inhibitions might lead me to make a mistake I’d regret. Now Snatcher and Pip have asked Road to patch over, it could mean he’ll soon be a member of my club, and I don’t fuck on my own doorstep. I learned that lesson when I was in my first squad.

I have no problem having sex without emotion. But when I did let temptation overrule my head, it was unfortunately with a man who could not. In the end, I had to transfer to a different unit when he started watching my back to the extent of