I looked up from my service kiosk as the distinctive rumble of a Harley approached. I plastered my best customer service smile on my face. Wednesday’s were the slowest day of the week, and I’d only had three customers all day. Despite the bad-boy reputation of Harley riders, the truth of the matter was most riders were older, well off, doctor and lawyer types. My smile didn’t last long as the rider coasted to a stop in the writer’s bay. I knew the bike and rider all too well.

“What can I do for you, Mr. Rockford?” I asked. My voice was pleasant, but I couldn’t bring myself to smile at this asshole.

Rock pulled the skull cap helmet he wore off and parked it on the rearview mirror, smiling at me as he tucked the ear piece of his sunglasses into the pocket of his leather jacket so they hung on the front. It was an easy, practiced motion, part of his look. The tiny helmet that would do nothing to protect him in a crash but kept him from being hassled by the cops for riding without a helmet, the leather jacket or cut, the shades, it all screamed sexy bad boy, and I used to be all over that. He was still just as good-looking as ever, but after what happened, I was so over him.

“Hey, babe.”

“Don’t babe me. You lost that privilege.”

“Whoa! Why the hostility?”

I glanced around, but we were alone in the service writer’s bay. “Why do you think?” I had to work to keep my language under control and my tone neutral.

He grinned as he sauntered up to me and started to put his arms around my waist and grab my ass like he used to. I blocked him. He’d lost that privilege too.

“Keep your hands to yourself or I’ll have you thrown out,” I sneered. I guess he heard the seriousness in my threat because he held up his hands in surrender. “What do you want?” I demanded.

“Do I need to have a reason to—”

“Yes, you do, Rock. So either tell me what service you need performed or get your ass back on your hog and get out of the way of paying customers.”

He grinned at me as he looked around the small bay where customers dropped off their bikes with an exaggerated expression of surprise. “Yeah, the place is swamped.”

“Doesn’t matter. They don’t pay me to stand around visiting with customers.”

His grin turned into a leer. “No, they pay you stand there so dudes will keep bringing their hogs in to be serviced because they think they might have a chance of getting in your pants.”

I ground my teeth so I wouldn’t tell him to go fuck himself. I was good at my job, able to take what the techs told me and explain it to a customer who only knew how to put gas in his ride in a way he could understand. I took a lot of ribbing when I was moved to the service writer position, but the techs respected me now. I was a lot better at customer relations than the guy I replaced, and because of that, the complaints about their work went way down. That made the service manager happy, and that made the techs happy.

“Do you need service or not?”

“I need the kind of service you used to give me.”

“Sorry. We don’t do that here. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day.” I returned to my kiosk and pointedly ignored him by keying in repair information on a customer’s ticket.

“Jesus. You really have a burr up your ass.”

I looked up. “Oh! Are you still here?”

“How about a beer after work, like old times?”

“How about you leave me alone?”

“What the fuck is your problem, Mikki?”

“It’s Carolyn. No problem you leaving me alone won’t solve.”

“It’s just beer, for Christ’s sake.”

I smiled at him the way I smiled at customers who were dicks. “Sorry. Have plans after work.”

He spluttered. “What plans?”

“I’m dog-sitting all week. I have to get home to let him out.”

“Dog-sitting? You? That’s bullshit.”

I shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Just have a fucking beer with me.”

“No.”

He stared at me like he couldn’t believe I’d turn him down. “Jesus Christ, are you on the rag or something? I don’t understand your problem.”

“My problem is you!” I hissed. “It’s you and your stupid little games.”

“What games?” he asked, but he knew, and he could tell I knew as well.

“You set me up to get my ass kicked. Don’t even bothering denying it. Trip-B told everyone, and Hearts told me. What was it? Were you bored with me? What?”

“It was just a little fun that got out of hand.”

“Telling Trip-B you were tired of me and someone needed to take me down a peg or two was a little fun?” I stared at him a moment. “Oh, yeah, I know. I also know you fucked her right after she beat the shit out of me. So, try this on for fun. Fuck you!”

“You better watch your mouth, Mikki, before I—”

“Before you what?” I interrupted with a sneer, seething with memory. “I’m not part of your little club, Rock, and I don’t have to follow your rules. I’m not your property anymore, so excuse the fuck out of me if I don’t give a shit what you think.”

I watched his face harden. It’d probably been years since anyone talked to him like I was, much less a woman. Rock was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid. I knew he wouldn’t do anything here. RMC didn’t entirely walk the straight and narrow, and he didn’t need any additional police scrutiny. I knew where the skeletons were, and he knew it. Out of loyalty to my friends, I hadn’t put the cops onto RMC, but if he pushed me, he knew I could become a real pain in their ass.

“I came here to see if you wanted to come back to RMC and—”

“Come back?” I grinned. “You thought I’d come crawling, begging for you to take me back, didn’t you? You can’t stand it that I walked away, can you?”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I just thought—”

“What’s the matter? Trip-B wasn’t as much fun as you thought? Tired of dealing with her shit, the same shit the rest of us had to put up with?” I was enjoying myself. “You want me back! Admit it!”

“Fuck you, Mikki!”

“You had that chance, and you fucked it up. You!” I heard the rumble of another hog approaching. “So, either tell me what service you need performed on your bike or get your ass on it and ride it out of here. I’m never going back to RMC. Never!”

He glared at me and turned to watch the big Electa Glide Ultra Classic pulling up. He sneered at the full-dress tourer.

“I always get what I want, Mikki,” he growled as he pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on before swinging a leg over his Softail Deluxe. He slapped his helmet on his head and thumbed the Softail to life. He gunned the bike out of the bay, the shorty pipes echoing like thunder in the enclosed space. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, breathing out the tension.

“Welcome to Charlotte Harley-Davidson. How may I help you?” This was a new customer, someone I didn’t recognize.

“Something’s wrong. I was on the interstate and the bike started running bad, and it’s way down on power. I’m headed to Daytona for Bike Week, so if we can get this taken care of quickly…”

I nodded in understanding. “Yes, sir. I think I can slot you in this afternoon. Let me get a little information from you.”

I filled out the paper work to log the bike into our system. The guy was in luck. Because it was a slow day, I was able to get the bike into the shop immediately.

While the guy paced in the waiting area, I returned to my conversation with Rock as I sat on my stool and pretended to be busy. Rock was too proud to ask me to come back, but it was clear what he thought he wanted from Trip-B hadn’t gone as he’d expected. Served him right, the asshole. Maybe she broke his dick off and was keeping it in her pocket. I hoped she had.

Whatever the reason for Rock’s visit, I was never going back to the Ravens. I missed Hearts, Saddle, and few of the other club women, but I didn’t miss Scott fucking Rockford at all. The other thing I missed was the sex. The sex drew me to the life in the first place. The drinking and partying were fun, but what I really liked was the no-strings-attached fucking. I was getting my toes curled anytime I wanted, and the guys treated me well because of it.

I hadn’t even missed the fucking, much, until this past weekend. After Trip-B finished mopping the floor with me, I hurt too much to even think about sex. It took almost a month for the aches and pains to disappear, and it took a little longer for the emotional wound to heal.

I was hurt that Rock had treated me the way he had. I didn’t love him. He was just a good lay for me, but it still upset me that he’d set me up to fail with Trip-B. Hell, if he’d told me she was coming for me, I could have at least been ready and maybe I’d have stood a chance, but the whole thing was a set up from the start. Rock taking me to the room, having me ride him cowgirl so I was on top and easy to reach, her busting in while we were fucking to catch me off balance. All of it.

I still talked to Hearts on occasion, but we were drifting apart. I hadn’t spoken to her in almost a month. That was the thing about motorcycle clubs, especially one that had shady dealings. They were tightknit, them against everyone else. They had your back and you had theirs. It was the betrayal of that trust that had hurt me the most, and it had shaken the club deeply.

I’d lost my MC family, my lover, and my friends in about six minutes of brutal combat. Not because I’d gotten my ass whipped, but because after I’d gotten my ass whipped, I’d turned my back on the club. Now I was an outsider, and because of that, Hearts and I didn’t have much to talk about anymore.

Because my entire world had been the Ravens for almost ten years, I had no other friends and no other interests, which was why I was going to Mr. Ryder’s house after work to watch his dog. I thought I’d made peace with my decision, but having Rock show up stirred up all the old feelings again. I missed Hearts, and while I didn’t miss Rock, I realized I was only pretending that I didn’t miss getting fucked regularly.

I smiled to myself. Then there was Thom. Maybe Hoover had done me a favor by dragging me into him. He’d dressed up a little on Sunday. I was surprised to see him wearing glasses, but they were stylish and worked for him. His choice of car also surprised me. A Volvo XC90 of all things. None of the Ravens would willingly drive a car if they could avoid it, but they wouldn’t be caught dead in a Volvo.

Yet, it worked for him. His stylish but relaxed and comfortable dress, the glasses, the car, gave him that sexy nerd look, the male equivalent of the sexy librarian. It didn’t hurt him that I’d seen what was under the shirt, and I liked his easy sense of humor. The fact he seemed concerned about my wellbeing and hadn’t unloaded on me when Hoover knocked him down was very appealing as well. He was the opposite of Rock, of most of the Ravens, for that matter, and that was damned attractive.

I snorted to myself. My, how things had changed. Six months ago, I wouldn’t have given Thom a second glace. Sure, he was good-looking, but he wasn’t my type. He was too…nice. I wondered why that was. Did I enjoy being treated like property? I wasn’t sure, but whatever I found attractive in the club life was gone now, and because of that, Thom was a hell of a lot more interesting.

I’d turned Thom’s offer of dinner down flat, and as I sat on my stool, I wondered why. Maybe it was because I was still stuck on stupid over Rock and RMC. Maybe being treated like shit was all I thought I deserved. Maybe I thought he was too nice and he’d be boring. I didn’t know, but as I sat there, I felt a creeping disappointment that I’d rejected his offer.

Maybe it was time to try a nice guy instead of a bad boy. I’d tried the bad boy and that had ended with me lying in the bottom of a bathtub, crying and bleeding. It was too bad I hadn’t gotten Thom’s number. I wondered if it’d be weird if I tried to track him down, then I remembered he’d made it a point to mention he was at the park every day. Was that an invitation? I decided maybe it was.

I smiled. It wouldn’t be creepy if I showed up at the park and just happened to bump into him. It wasn’t like I was stalking him, especially since he’d more or less invited me. My smile grew. Mr. Ryder would be back from Europe Saturday evening. I’d planned to return to my own apartment Saturday morning anyway, so that was perfect. I could stop by, let Hoover out, and then go to CityWalk. I’d just be out getting some exercise, that’s all.

I rapped my pen on the computer kiosk in a rapid ditty, thrilled with my plan. I’d always heard the quiet guys were the ones who were real tigers in bed. I’d always thought women who said that only did so because they’d never experience a good fucking before. Now I wondered if maybe there was something to it. Thom’s body certainly suggested he knew how to please a lady.

I got up and started into the service area to check on the Electra Glide that had come in. I wanted to see if the tech had found anything so I could give the owner some news, to let him know we hadn’t forgotten about him and were working on his bike. It was all part of the customer service…and the fact I couldn’t sit still as I wondered if Thom’s manly bits could back up the promises the rest of his body made.