RIDE (A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance) by Daphne Loveling Read Free Book Online

school to the beat of his own rhythm. Guys admired him. Girls… well, whether they’d admit it or not, I bet that most of the girls in our school would have done anything to be with him.
    And even though I liked to pride myself on not being shallow enough to judge people on their appearances, I was right there with them. But even so, I told myself, for all Caleb’s easy charm and blatant sex appeal, he was just another guy, out for sex. He was just way more successful at getting it than most of them. Girls would whisper about him in the locker room, and I had overheard more than a few boasting that they had spent a hot, sweaty evening in the back of the old, black pickup truck he drove around.
    As far as I could tell, Caleb himself never bragged about his conquests. But then again, he didn’t have to. Any girl who had been with him would be sure to broadcast it far and wide.
    Except for me.
    Ugh. It’s a story as old as high school drama. I know that now. At the time, though, it was the worst period of my life, masquerading as the best. Caleb started hanging out by my locker every day after lunch, and would walk with me to chemistry. After chem, he would wait for me and walk me to my next class, before heading off to his study hall.
    Girls started noticing. It made some of them start talking to me, too. Suddenly, for the first time I could remember, I found myself almost popular.
    Unfortunately, it also made some of them jealous. Girls who until then had basically ignored me started making little comments behind me in the halls, just loud enough so I could hear them. “Eva thinks she’s hot shit. She thinks Caleb actually likes her. God, how embarrassing for her.”
    My face would grow beet red with indignation. But also with shame. Because, the thing was, deep down inside me, I had been starting to hope, just a little bit, that maybe Caleb did like me. That maybe this wasn’t some big cosmic joke that the universe was playing on me.
    That maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t completely ridiculous that someone like him could see something interesting, even compelling, in someone like me.
    But the words that were hissed behind me as I walked the halls had their effect. They were like the whisper of my deepest fears come to life. I began to act less friendly around Caleb. Indifferent. Mostly to prove to him, and to myself, that I didn’t really care about him all that much.
    Weirdly, he seemed almost hurt by it. He didn’t stop coming by my locker every day, though. And one Friday after school, he even asked if I wanted to go hang out.
    “Come on,” he urged when I demurred. “I’ve got something to show you. I think you’ll like it.”
    I don’t know why I accepted, except that curiosity eventually overcame my fear of getting played.
    We wandered out to the student parking lot, but instead of heading toward the back of the lot, where he usually parked, he turned me toward the front row, where the mopeds and scooters were. Eventually, he stopped in front of a large, low-slung motorcycle with a black tank.
    “Wanna go for a ride?” he asked with a grin.
    “What happened to your truck?” I blurted out, then reddened. I didn’t want him to think I cared enough about his comings and goings to know what he drove. “I mean, don’t you drive a truck?”
    He shrugged. “I sold it.”
    “But… what will you do when it rains?”
    “I won’t melt,” he said simply. He nodded toward the bike. “So, what do you say?”
    When I hesitated, he persisted.
    “Come on. You’ll love it. Trust me.” He pointed toward the bike. “Look, I even have a helmet for you to wear.”
    There was something about the grin he flashed me… so cocky, so confident, like he just knew I was going to say yes. And then he winked at me. What eighteen year-old guy does that? But whereas with anyone else, it might have been cheesy, that wink broke down my defenses.
    I found myself smiling back at him. “Okay,” I said shyly, and reached for