Afraid to Hope (Secrets & Seduction) Read online

  She took the helmet off the handle bar, the one meant for her, and looked Jay dead in the eye. “I’ll get on. The bike. But, and I want to make this clear, Jay Russell. That is the only thing I am getting on tonight.” She made her eyes focus on the massive bulge his cock was making in his jeans, and then looked back into Jay’s eyes lifting her eyebrows making the question a statement. “Are we clear?”

  Jay, gave her a sad, crooked smile and nodded. “Very.”

  Lou began to clasp the helmet on. “You’ll drive me back to my car, when I say so?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He nodded, handing her purse back to her, which she slung over her head and one arm, to sling over her back. He kicked back on the kickstand, using his arms to reposition and center the bike. Then he started the engine and the bike roared to life underneath him. When he gave her his hand to help her on, she noticed his shirt. It read, “My shoe size is fourteen. Guess what else is?”

  She laughed, shook her head, and yanked up on her skirt revealing all of her milky white thighs to his appreciative gaze, “I’ll keep my promise, Lou, but damn, you are making it hard,” he teased and glanced at his cock. Making me hard, he thought. Lou ignored the double entendre, and grabbed Jay’s outstretched arm, held onto it and swung her leg up and behind him climbed onto the seat.

  Jay felt her behind him, felt her heat on his back, and his cock strained in his pants. Fuck, he wanted that pussy. But, he could wait. He had promised. There were other things he could do tonight, he smiled mischievously knowing she couldn’t see him. Things that could, no would, assure that there would be a next time, and that she would soon be readily crawling on top of him to ride his cock and not his bike. He felt her settle behind him, and then her small dainty hands circled his massive waist and clung to him gently. He felt her tits press into his back gently as she tried not to hold him so tight. No, that wouldn’t do. He gave the bike a little jerk, and her hands now gripped him, hard, and she was clutching him the way he wanted her to.

  She laughed nervously behind him. “Ready,” he called over his shoulder, and she tilted her head to make eye contact.

  Hands clutching his rib cage now, she called out over the roar of the engine, “Yes. Let’s ride.” There was fire in her eyes, and he was so happy to see it. Very happy.

  “Good,” he thundered above the rumbling motor. “Let’s ride.”

  Let’s live, they thought.

  Lou loved it. The feeling of holding onto this massive sexy stranger, the wind whipping her hair around her shoulders, taking the turns and leaning with Jay as he maneuvered the beautiful bike with such ease along the twisted roads he took her upon. She knew the area in which he was driving. In fact, Ana lived nearby, and they had gone this way on excursions to the beach.

  Yes, she recognized the causeway Jay was approaching. It led to Pine Island. The small state run beach had beautiful white sand and attracted locals and tourists for sunbathing, picnicking and outdoor family fun. Even if the water was a bit shallow for swimming, it was perfect for families with small children.

  They didn’t go onto the causeway though, and Jay drove on past it. They had just passed a small restaurant, a good seafood place that Ana and Teddy had taken her to on her arrival in Florida. The old oak trees here completely covered the road, and in spots completely blocked out the sun, leaving only tendrils of golden sunlight streaming through the canopy above. The site was quite breathtaking, and Lou took it all in. Florida was so different from the forested areas she haled from. The tropical feel was all around them, in the sights, the smells, and the sounds. She loved it, the sea air, the water and the wind in the distance, and then soon the trees opened up once again and Lou could make out a pier up ahead.

  They approached a parking area and Jay began to slow. Only a few cars remained in the parking lot, as Jay pulled into a spot near the pier. He shut the bike down, and scooted up for Lou to get off while he took off his helmet. Lou took Jay’s hand and used it as an anchor to get off the bike. She took her helmet off too, and handed it to Jay whose smile indicated she had helmet hair. Lou shook out her hair, then ran her fingers through the mass of brown waves, feeling the knots left by the wind. She swung her purse back around, and pulled out her clip, hastily pulling her hair back into a sloppy knot. “That’ll have to do,” she mumbled as he nodded that it looked okay.

  “You’ve ridden before?” Jay acknowledged as he sat up, pivoted, and swung off the bike.

  “Yes,” Lou smiled and nodded in answer to his question. “Lots of times. I had a dirt bike growing up, and my parents rode, and so does my brother,” she informed him.

  “Nice,” he smiled at her, and indicated they should walk towards the pier with a tilt of his chin, and she followed alongside him. Although nervous before the ride, it had been so reminiscent of activities she had done in the past, it had put her at ease. That, and the fact that she was in fairly familiar surroundings, and they weren’t alone in some isolated secluded spot made her more comfortable. She could see two young boys fishing off the pier, and what appeared to be an older man sitting in a lawn chair at the end of the dock asleep. The man snoozed next to what looked like blue crab cages beside him, and a cooler of some sort for his catch of the day. As they walked on, the conversation lagged and Lou tried to think of something else to say.

  “Nice place,” Lou stated matter-of-factly. It was the first thing that had come to mind.

  Jay laughed at the direction her conversation was taking them. “Yeah, I live nearby, and I like to come here to fish or crab, or take the boat out. I really wanted to take you to my place, but didn’t want to freak you out. I figured showing up on the motorcycle was enough of a shock for now.”

  His thoughtfulness warmed her, but his eyes glinted mischief. She was about to speak and thank him when he interrupted her.

  “Yea, but I still can’t wait to get my mouth on those tits of yours. Damn!” He was ogling her tits as she walked beside him. He was tall, a good foot taller than her, and he was looking straight down her blouse. She felt the heat rise in her face.

  “Eyes up here, buddy. I was just going to thank you for being a gentlemen. I thought we were having a conversation and you were trying to make me feel comfortable.” She said a bit too sharply.

  Jay laughed again. “Sorry about that, I have a bit of a problem saying whatever comes to my mind. I guess I should warn you about that. I’ll behave. Promise.” He raked his hand through his hair as they stopped right before the pier. When Lou looked somewhat appeased by his apology, he added, “Want to walk down the pier and see if the old codger caught anything today?”

  “Sure,” Lou answered. She was a bit at a loss. “Just don’t embarrass me in front of him, and watch out for any more cases of verbal diarrhea,” came her quick teasing retort.

  Jay laughed hard, and continued laughing as they made their way down the pier. Lou looked at him quizzically waiting for his laughter to abate. When he saw her expression, it only made him laugh all the harder. “Verbal diarrhea! Oh, honey, I can’t make any promises of the sort. I’m telling, you. I got a problem. I think it, I say it.”

  “Really?” she laughed with him. His laughter was catching, and it came from deep inside.

  “Yes, but . . .” his laughter began to fade, and she saw the change reflected in those grey-blue eyes, “You can beat me if I embarrass you too much.” His smirk was infectious as he tried to contain his laughter.

  Lou caught the double-entendre right away, and smacked his arm for it. “That kind of beating?” she asked with a twinkle in her own eyes. That sent him into another peal of laughter that woke the old man at the end of the pier whom they were quickly approaching. The man, turned abruptly in his chair, almost toppling it over, in his attempt to see where the laughter was coming from.

  “Ah, shoulda known it would be you, you fucker!” Lou’s eyes widened at the harsh words coming from the old geezer. “Came to steal my crabs while I’m sleeping again, did ya?”

  “No, Pete, Not
this time.” Jay laughed. Then to Lou who was eyeing him inquisitively, “I’ll tell you about that later.” He had stolen the old man’s crabs last year as a joke. Left him a note inside his cooler warning him to stay alert. He had left him twenty bucks, but Pete hadn’t forgotten the incident and never ceased to remind him of it.

  The old man was standing now, and watching them walk towards him. He absent mindedly scratched himself as well while he shifted from one skinny bowed leg to the other. “If I wanted to steal your crabs, I wouldn’t have woken you, and I have no desire to stick my hands down your pants either and get a handful of the ones you got there,” Jay teased.

  The man’s look of shock turned to laughter and he spoke less harshly this time to Jay. “Ah, such a fucker I say. But a damn funny one,” he added as he peered at Lou. “Now, who’s the pretty lady? Does she know what a fucking prankster you are? She is in for one hell of ride with you. You better sleep with one eye open, sweetheart. Better yet, leave the chap, he don’t know what the fuck to do with a woman anyway.” He turned at Lou’s smile and began to pull up his traps as he waited for her response. During the exchange, Lou was bewildered. But by this point in the conversation she realized that apparently the two had this crazy kind of exchange all the time, and this was a normal conversation for them.

  “Okay . . . well . . . I’ll do that,”‘ Lou answered slowly peering up at Jay as he just shook his head and began to help Pete with the heavy work.

  “Now, Pete. I am trying to impress the lady, and you call me a fucker, and say I don’t know what to do with girls. Now, how am I supposed to impress her with you talking shit about me?” Jay cajoled as he took over from Pete and began to help him pull up his traps.

  “She see you working to help an old fool like me, don’t she?” The old man, Pete, bent over, stubble all over his leathery sun weathered face peered at Lou. “Hard work. That’s all you need to impress the ladies.” He stopped suddenly, and laughed. “Well that and a big cannoli!”

  The man laughed so hard he began to cough and Jay clapped him on the back until he got his wind back. “A big cannoli,” he mumbled a few more times. “But seriously, little lady, the kid’s a fucker, but he works like a dog. He helps me out, and them people’s house he lives in too, and some others. He is a decent jerk off, even if he is a crab stealer. You appreciate a good hard working man, don’t ya’?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do,” Lou smiled at him knowing he was trying to make a point about Jay’s ethics. She appreciated the insight into Jay as well. Rough biker, hard body on the outside, but a Good Samaritan on the inside. She liked that. A lot.

  “You must know he’s a joker, too?” he added still looking at Lou while Jay pulled up another trap.

  “Yes, I think I have figured that one out on my own. He does seem quite funny,” Lou acknowledged liking this old man more and more as she now knew the ribaldry between them was a long established pattern.

  “So, the girl with the wild hair, finds a hardworking man, good to old buggers like me, and he will always keep her laughing,” the man winked at Lou. “He’s a good one, fucking crab stealer though. Don’t forget I warned you about that,” he admonished.

  “I won’t forget,” Lou laughed.

  Jay, hauled up the last cage just as Pete finished listing Jay’s good qualities, “Hey you gotta big one here, Pete.” Jay was peering in the cage at a nine inch blue crab.

  “Yes, I got a big one.” Pete nodded looking at the cage, and then looked back at Lou who was looking into the cage as well. Then Pete laughed, and added, “The only thing the lady needs to know is if you got a big one, hahahaha,” Pete again choked on his laughter until Jay had to slap him on the back once more for him to be able to catch his breath. He was back on the cannoli shtick and mumbling again at his own joke.

  Biting his lip, and shaking his head, Jay smiled over Pete’s head at Louisa, shrugging his shoulders. When the coughing and laughter finally subsided, Jay got in his final shot. “Oh, I am sure the lady will not be disappointed in my cannoli, but I promised her the only thing she would ride tonight was my bike.”

  Pete shook his head at the two of them, “Did I mention he was stupid?” The old man shook his head in apparent disgust. He looked away from them and used his hands to show he had heard enough from them. “Ah, you’re both stupid fuckers,” He turned back to them and in apparent anger began the work of collapsing his cages after putting the big blue niner in the cooler with a dozen other he had caught that day. When the cages were collapsed, Jay grabbed the old man’s chair in one hand, and the cages with the other. Pete picked up the cooler and proceeded to stomp across the pier. Jay and Louisa began the trek shortly after and soon caught up to Pete, and with him between them, they caught him mumbling words of disgust under his breath the whole while. “Wasting time, stupid fuckers.”

  When they got to the old beat up jalopy closest to the pier, Jay stopped. He popped the latch on the back of the old pickup truck that apparently belonged to Pete, and set the cages down. Then he grabbed the cooler from Pete, and placed that next to the cages and shut the gate with a resounding clank of metal.

  Pete made his way to the driver’s side of the truck, shaking his head the whole while and kept looking at Lou, then at Jay.

  He opened the door, scrambled in much quicker than Lou would have thought possible and slammed it shut as Lou and Jay stepped back quickly to get out of the way. Pete revved up the engine after several attempts to get it to turn over and called out his parting shot and words of old codger wisdom, “Okay, fuckers, I am going home to eat my crab, but if my wife were not dead, I’d be fucking her first. Just keep that in mind.” With a squeal of tires he backed out suddenly and then jerked to a stop once more. He leaned out the window to say one more thing, “And if she won’t let you ride her, Jay, there are other things you can do, you know. You want to make sure she comes back for more of what you got.”

  Lou, eyes wide, shook her head and looked at Jay. He was smiling and shaking his head as well, but his eyes were saying a whole lot more.

  When the dust had settled, he looked to Lou. “How do you like Pete?”

  Louisa laughed. Then nodded. “Well, he is definitely interesting.”

  Jay snickered. “That there,” he said pointing to the place where Pete’s truck had disappeared, “is what they call a Florida cracker through and through. Filthy mouth, rough all around the edges, but a good heart.”

  “Yeah,” Lou added. “I could tell.”

  Jay looked down at the furiously blushing Lou, who was still in shock at Pete’s final advice to Jay, and apologized. “I’m sorry about that. I should have warned you that Pete has my problem.”

  Lou looked confused, so Jay added, “If you think it, it usually comes out of your mouth.”

  Lou smiled, “Oh, you mean verbal diarrhea.”

  “Yeah that,” he smiled and with that said, Jay took Lou’s hand and began to walk her back towards his bike as the sun began it’s descent over the Gulf.

  When they reached Jay’s bike he handed her the spare helmet, and grabbed his. His was black and the spare was midnight blue, and both shined in the waning light. “Want to have a drink at my place, something to eat. It’s not far?” His words were stated simply, a question, a polite request, but his eyes betrayed him as they glinted like steel in the final rays of the sun. His eyes made it a dare.

  Lou hesitated briefly, her stomach immediately taking flight with butterflies, but she nodded her assent anyway. Airing on the side of caution she added, “Let me let Ana know where I will be. My roommate,” she added when his look questioned her. “Address?”

  He gave her a sly smile as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse. He politely rattled off the location of his cabin near Weeki Wachee Gardens. She punched the address into a text message, and while she did so, added, “I can’t be long though. I have a dog at home and have to let her out soon, okay.”

  Sensing she was a bit nervous, he wanted to reassure her. “Sure,
no problem. I’m five minutes from here. I’ll put something on the grill, and we can be done in an hour. Two tops,” he added as he swung one massive thigh over the bike. She put her phone away and then finished clasping on the blue helmet. Taking his proffered hand, she climbed on behind him, gripping him comfortably this time, and felt the rumble of laughter in his chest at her movements.

  As promised, the ride to his place was quick. She found his cabin charming. He explained he rented the place from snow birds, friends of his dad, for most of the year, and took care of the place while they were up in Michigan. When they were in town, he stayed at his dad’s, on his dad’s boat, a twenty four foot sloop with a small interior cabin.

  “Cool. Your dad’ has a boat?” she asked as she followed him into the cabin. He gave her a quick tour of the place, two bedrooms, an open living room/kitchen combo between them and a bathroom off the living room. He opened the refrigerator and took out a small pack of hamburger meat and placed it on the counter, and asked her if she’d like a beer or wine.

  “I’ll have a beer,” she muttered as she looked over the rooms in her line of vision. He grabbed two from the fridge, and popped the lids off with ease, handing her one while he took a long swallow of his. She tilted her bottle at him, and took a sip of hers. It was a Millers Lite, and she liked the smooth taste of it. After an evening in the sun, it was refreshing. He began to prepare the meal, and when she offered to assist, he shook his head, and told her to open the sliders, and relax. She approached the sliding glass doors as he suggested admiring the view of the water his back yard gave. She turned back to watch Jay as he made quick work of prepping the patties, and then opened a quick salad from a kit he had in the fridge, putting all the ingredients in a bowl. When he approached she let him pass, and followed him outside onto the deck.