Born to Ride_A Clubhouse Collection

chapter 7

Madison

God, the trip to the hardware store was a torturous experience. Serena constantly took shots at J, who in turn, argued back. By the end of it, I was ready to stab myself in the eyes and cut my ears off; anything not to have to see or hear either of them.

I was thankful, however, that J managed to pick up all the supplies he would need to fix the mess in our laundry. He and I argued over the bill. In the end, he won and paid the bill. Men!

We were now home, and J was busy being Mr. Handyman, while Serena and I were lounging in front of the television. I had just filled her in on everything J had told me last night.

“Shit, what are you going to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I sighed.

“Okay, so you want to check on Crystal. Yes?” Serena loved helping me solve my dramas.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“So, you go home for a visit. You check on your girl, you hang out with your family for a bit, you stay until they sort this Nix mess out. Then you come back here and live happily ever after,” she smiled, happy with her own advice.

I groaned out of frustration. “You make it sound so easy when it is as far from easy as anything could be. This shit with Nix could take a long time. I might kill my family if I have to stay that long. And what am I going to do about J?”

“Yeah, biker boy poses a problem,” she mused.

“I love how, after everything I just said, all you heard was the bit about J.”

“Oh no, honey, I heard it all. But the only problem in all of that was him.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Why?”

She smiled her wicked little smile. “I’d say that’s pretty obvious. You’re both still hot for each other so I am worried about where that would lead.”

I buried my face in my hands. “Shit, I’m screwed aren’t I?” I said, and then looking up, I continued, “I don’t understand my feelings. He broke my f*cking heart and yet, here I am, wanting him all over again. What is wrong with me?”

“You could just f*ck him and get that out of your system,” she suggested.

I considered it for a moment. She’s right. I could totally f*ck J. It’s what I did these days anyway; f*ck and run. But would I... could I walk away, and be happy with just a bit of sex? F*ck it, this was the new me, the stronger me. The me who didn’t let a guy stomp on my heart anymore. Of course, I could do it. I smiled at Serena. “Thanks, babe. I might just do that.”

***

J finished up in the laundry a few hours later. I was impressed with his work, as was Serena. She even appeared to warm to him a little, offering him a drink when he was finished.

“Thanks, sweetheart,” he said, when she made her offer, “And the next time you want to take your anger out on something, I’d suggest you choose a different target.”

She glared at him before stomping off to get his drink. I rolled my eyes. “You like pissing her off, don’t you?” I said.

He chuckled, eyes twinkling, “She’s too easy to play with, babe.”

Before we could continue this conversation, his phone rang and he went outside to take the call. I traipsed into the kitchen in search of Serena.

“I might just throw this at him, instead of giving it to him,” she muttered.

I laughed. “You do know he’s just playing with you, don’t you?”

“Yeah, well I don’t want to play with him. He rubs me the wrong way,” she complained.

“Fair enough, honey. Do you want me to take him his drink?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed, shoving it at me.

I took it from her and headed outside to find him. He was still on his call when I got to him. He looked up and caught my gaze. There was no smile, but there was certainly some heat there. I watched as his eyes moved, slowly, hungrily, over my body while he continued his conversation. When they made their way back to mine, I was wet with desire. My stomach had butterflies and my core was clenching. I wanted him. He ended his call, put his phone in his pocket, and walked to where I was.

“That mine?” he asked, nodding at the drink.

“Yes,” I breathed out, handing it to him. I was bewildered from the way he had undressed me with his eyes, and was having trouble thinking straight.

He drank some of his drink, but kept his eyes on mine the whole time. I didn’t know where this was heading, but I was beginning to feel completely exposed to him, like he was reading my thoughts and desires.

Needing to put some space between us, I went to leave but he reached out and grabbed my wrist. “You feel it too, don’t you?” he said, his voice low and hoarse.

I avoided his eyes, and instead focused on my wrist that he was holding. He let me go and put his finger under my chin, tilting my head up to look at him. I just wanted to squeeze my eyes shut; I didn’t want to look at him, and I really didn’t want to look inside myself for the answer to his question.

Instead, I jerked my head out of his hold, and said, “It doesn’t mean anything, J.”

“You sure about that, babe?”

Now I looked directly into his eyes. “Yes, I’m very sure,” I retorted, even though I was pretty damn sure I was lying.

He contemplated me for a couple of moments, and then slowly nodded, like he had settled something in his mind. Then he changed the subject. “Still no word on Nix’s whereabouts.”

“So we’re still on lockdown?” I asked, my words laced with mild sarcasm.

He chose to ignore my attitude. “Yeah.”

“Okay. I’m pretty tired after not much sleep last night, so I’m going to have a nap,” I said. I also needed some time to myself; these unwanted desires and confused thoughts needed to go into bloody lockdown as far as I was concerned.

I left him outside; telling my p-ssy to shut the f*ck up, she wasn’t getting any today.

***

I slept all afternoon, waking around dinner time. J and Serena had managed to not kill each other. In fact, they were in the kitchen, cooking dinner together when I found them.

I sat at the table and asked, “Have you two been playing nice?”

Serena poked her tongue out at me. “As a matter of fact, we have been. J changed the oil in my car and checked some other things too.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Really? How did she convince you to do that, J?”

He smirked. “Let’s just say she had her ways.”

Serena flicked him with the tea towel and scowled, “You make it sound dirty, biker boy,” she said, and then directed at me, “I cooked cupcakes for him.”

I had to stop myself from laughing at that. “Where’s the mess from your cooking, honey?” I asked, surveying the kitchen that was fairly spotless. I was always the one who had to clean up her kitchen messes so I wondered who the heck had done this one.

“J cleaned it up,” Serena replied, and I didn’t fail to notice that she seemed kind of impressed about this.

J was a clever man; winning my friend over by doing things for her. I looked at him and he was watching me, smile in place. Yeah, he knew what he was doing alright. The only question was – why was he going to the effort?

***

The rest of the weekend passed pretty uneventfully. J continued reporting that Nix hadn’t been found yet, so we stayed home all weekend, only heading out for food and movies. Serena and J kept up their bickering. Because I knew J, I could tell that he was enjoying it, and when I tried to point this out to Serena, she just rolled her eyes and whinged that he should go home. Having no experience of the world I had grown up in, I don’t think she realised just how dangerous Nix was. I shuddered to think what he would do if he found us, but I didn’t share this with her. J didn’t push the point either. In fact, he seemed to be going out of his way to keep things light; perhaps that was why he insisted on playing with Serena – to keep the focus off the reason why we were stuck at home.

Monday morning rolled around, and Serena and I had to go to work. J tried to talk me into not going but I stood my ground, so at nine o’clock the three of us arrived at work. I had tried to convince him we would be alright without our own personal bodyguard but he refused to listen.

Gina, our boss, greeted us with a smirk, “I heard you had a bodyguard but they never told me he was this hot.” Gina was Blake’s sister; he must have told her about J. She was a kick ass boss and I loved her hard. Unfortunately, she had no filter and said whatever came to her in the moment.

“Yeah, sorry but he will be hanging out here today,” I apologised.

“No need to say sorry, darl. Frankly, you’ve made my day. I do love me some eye candy,” she said with a wink.

Thank goodness J was standing outside and wasn’t privy to this conversation.

We got to work, restocking the shelves and cleaning while J stayed outside for most of the morning. He seemed pretty busy on his phone and I was grateful that I didn’t have to deal with him in the shop.

Being around him was hard; old feelings kept resurfacing and I alternated between hurt, anger and lust. Every now and then I caught glimpses of the J I had loved and those times were the hardest; they hit me fair in the chest. I wondered if he had a girlfriend currently. We hadn’t really even had a friendly conversation about our lives since he had been here so I had no clue what he had been up to over the last couple of years. Jealousy wrapped itself around my heart when I thought of him being with someone else. I really didn’t want to know. F*ck. Who was I kidding? I had a desperate need to know these details of his life.

I mentally slapped myself; time to get my shit together.

“So, darl, have you decided if you are going to head up to Brisbane?” Gina approached me.

I sighed. I hated this question. “I think I am going to have to, even though I don’t want to. I really want to make sure my friend’s daughter, Crystal, is okay. But I don’t want to leave you stuck for staff.”

She waved her hand, “Don’t worry about me or the shop. We will sort something out. I just want to make sure you are safe. And I want you to go tomorrow.”

My eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, absolutely. You stay away as long as you need, and your job will be here when you come back,” she promised me.

I gave her a huge hug. “Has anyone ever told you that you are the best boss?”

“Oh, they don’t need to. I already know I am,” she replied, her eyes dancing with naughtiness. “Now, you go and have your lunch break and then Serena can have hers.”

I grabbed my purse and headed outside to go and buy lunch. J was on the phone, but saw me come outside and signalled for me to wait.

“I’m going to buy lunch, J. And I only get an hour so I don’t have time to wait for you,” I said, tersely. He kept talking and scowled at me. I turned and started to walk away from him, towards the cafe where I always bought lunch.

I could hear him muttering something into the phone and then he must have ended his call because he went silent. Then, he barked, “Madison!”

The last thing I wanted to do was stop for him, but there was something in his tone; a ‘don’t f*ck with me’ command. So I stopped, and turned around to look at him. Oh, my. He was shitty.

He stalked to where I was and got in my face. “Why the f*ck do you have to be so difficult about this?” He was fuming.

Well, I could see him, and raise him in his anger. “Maybe it has something to do with the way Scott has gone about this. And the fact that he sent you!”

He flinched. It was only for a second, and most people wouldn’t have even noticed it. But I knew J, and I saw it. It surprised the f*ck out of me. “Well then, it looks like we’ve got some shit to sort out, babe, because I’m not going anywhere.”


“I don’t want to sort shit out with you. That ship sailed two f*cking years ago, J,” I spat.

He gripped my arm, pulling me closer, “No, it f*cking didn’t,” he growled, eyes blazing, “And you can’t deny there’s still something here. I feel it and I know you feel it too.”

I laughed. No, actually, I cackled. “You wanna f*ck, J? I can feel that, and, yeah, if you wanna go there, I’m all for it. But don’t mistake my desire for your cock for anything else.”

He let me go, and looked at me disgustedly. “When the f*ck did you get so bitchy?”

I settled icy eyes on his. “The day you ripped my f*cking heart out, a*shole.” We glared at each other for a few moments and then I said, “Now, can we go and get lunch?”

“Lead the way, sweetheart,” he grit out, and I didn’t miss the way he said ‘sweetheart’, like I was the furthest thing from his sweetheart.

My heart cracked a little more, even though I didn’t think it was possible. And f*ck him for that.