After the Ride (Night Riders Motorcycle Club Book 2) by Kathryn Thomas Read Free Book Online

met her face. His touch ran down her neck, but she didn’t flinch even as she could hear Blake groaning in frustration just a few feet away. She stared Eric down, and when he wilted, she couldn’t suppress a smile. Eric saw her grin, and she sensed that he thought about hitting her when he held back and turned to Nate.
     
    “But… but Wayne makes sense,” he said.
     
    “What the fuck are you—”
     
    Eric held Nate back, and Lauren strained to hear the whisper that poured into his ear.
     
    “Better revenge in the long run,” Eric said. “We’ll find other ways to make them pay.”
     
    Nate seemed to relax in Eric’s hold, and his head shifted into a reluctant nod.
     
    “Good!” Wayne said. “Ain’t it grand when all the pieces come together?”
     
    The Demon Dogs laughed, but Lauren relaxed when Blake grabbed her wrist and pushed her body behind his. She settled into his tight flesh, but Blake’s arms were cold as Wayne turned to Paul and asked. “So we’re square, Paulie?”
     
    Paul nodded slowly, and Wayne bent down. Grabbing his rival’s gun, Wayne was on the verge of handing it back when he kept it close to his thigh and smirked.
     
    “Twenty-four hours,” he said. “Fuck it up, and we’re back to Plan A.”
     
    As soon as he got his gun back in his hands, Paul nodded and signaled for his crew to follow him. Lauren found Blake’s eyes for a second, but he just pulled her from the darkness, his eyes only on the way out.
     
    “Blake?” she dared to ask as soon as soon as the night air hit her body, and Blake brought her back to his bike.
     
    “Why did you run off?” he asked. “I told you to stay—”
     
    “I… I wanted to know—”
     
    “Well now you know,” he said.
     
    Blake lifted her in his arms and placed her on the back of his bike. He mounted fast, and Lauren dared to press her palms to his scars.
     
    Gonna give you a matching set.
     
    Lauren trembled at the thought of how close she had come to the lash, and she pressed her cheek to his battered back and curled her arms around his waist.
     
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But thank you. Thank you for coming for me.”
     
    Blake revved up his bike, and he turned his head over his shoulder. The moonlight hit his face, and Lauren longed to kiss his lips when he turned away from her and hit the pedal.
     
    “What else was I supposed to do?”
     
    His eyes left hers, and his body felt cold. Lauren still clung to him as they raced across the sands, and she wondered what he meant and where they were going.
     
    Twenty-four hours.

 
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Blake didn’t speak. He didn’t look back at her. His body didn’t even curl into her touch. Sitting on the back of his bike, Lauren dared to bring her lips close to his ear, and she whispered lightly.
     
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “But you looked scared when you left.”
     
    “Your eyes must have been playing tricks on you,” Blake said. “I don’t do scared.”
     
    “I…”
     
    Lauren started to tell him that she knew what she saw when she was on the hook, when their bodies were pressed to the floor and the belt was about to tear into her skin. But she bit back these words as she kept her arms around his taut waist.
     
    “I only wanted to help you,” she said. “That’s why I listened in.”
     
    Blake’s shoulders shifted, and she expected his eyes, but he kept his gaze fixed on the way ahead.
     
    “We had it under control, Lauren,” he said. “And you shouldn’t have been so…”
     
    Her body braced for the insult, but Blake held his tongue and just kept riding.
     
    “So what?” she challenged. “What were you going to say?”
     
    He slowed the motor, and as the bike idled under their bodies, he twisted his head ever so slightly, his eyes on the rubber, the sand.
     
    Everywhere and anywhere but her face.
     
    “It was a dumb thing to do,” he muttered. “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
     
    “I know,” she