CHAPTER TWO
The Wily Mr. Weir
Despite the proclamation that he was going to take Jolene on a grand tour of Burlington, Luke ended up driving her around until they found a bar he liked. He parked his bike right in front, as if it was his designated spot, and then helped her off of it.
Jolene looked up at the sign above the place, arching an eyebrow. “Vermonster?” she asked him skeptically.
He smiled wryly at her. “I know. Pretty great, right?”
It sounded like it might house overly large vermin inside, but she was going to give it, and him, the benefit of the doubt. Luke was, after all, the hottest guy she had been on a date with in not-so-recent memory. Maybe even ever.
Probably ever.
He held the door open for her and Jolene stepped inside, surprised by how dark the place was. “How can people even see their drinks in front of their faces?” she asked him, as if he was in charge of the lighting situation of this bar. “I assume, as an electrician, you can control the lighting levels of all things.”
Luke looked at her as he stepped through the door behind her, smiling and seeming slightly embarrassed by the mention of his profession. “I’m in charge of a great many things, but the lighting here is not one of them,” he said.
He gestured for Jolene to follow him to a table near the bar. She happily sat down across from him and immediately started leafing through the menu. Now that they were actually there, at a destination rather than travelling to one, the date felt like it had officially begun. Luke watched her as she looked through the menu and she felt her face grow hot with the knowledge that he was watching.
“I think I’ll have the Vermillion Viper,” Jolene said, smiling. “That sounds too enticing to resist.”
“Adventurous!” Luke said. “I like it. I’ll be right back.” He got up and strode over to the bar so he could order their drinks more quickly.
Jolene watched as he walked away, admiring the curves of his arms… And, yes, the curve of his ass. He was built like some kind of an Adonis. He clearly participated in some sort of strict exercise regimen. She wondered if he got muscles from riding his motorcycle. It was not a standard bike, but there had to be some muscle involved in order to keep that heavy thing working.
He returned to the table a mere moment later, grinning at her as he sat back down. “Done,” he said. “So tell me more about yourself now that I’m off the clock. What brings you to Burlington?”
That was a toughie. She couldn’t be totally honest without being at least a little off-putting.
“I had to get away from Boston,” Jolene answered truthfully. “I was coming off of a bad breakup and I thought it was time for a change. I’d lived in Boston all my life. What about you? Are you from here?”
Luke’s eyes flashed slightly in that same, haunting way that she had noticed before. He smiled at her. “I’ve lived here a long time, but I can’t quite say I’m from here.”
She looked at him quizzically, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean. “Where are you actually from, then?” She didn’t want to interrogate him or anything, but it sounded like he was trying to get her to ask further questions.
Instead of answering, he stood up and walked away to the bar. He didn’t say anything or give any heads up this time, he just took off. Jolene watched him walk over, feeling mystified and curious about him in a way that she had not been before. He was sexy and intriguing, but it would be just her luck if he also turned out to be totally crazy.
When Luke returned to their table, he had their two drinks in hand. He placed Jolene’s Vermillion Viper in front of her. She ogled at its redness, appreciating its clever name even more. The cocktail had three kinds of booze in it. Jolene began to wonder if she was in over her head.
But then she saw Luke with his pint of lager and forgot about worrying. He was so dreamy and captivating. She wanted to just enjoy this. After all, he reminded her of all of the bad boys she used to date in school. The motorcycle definitely helped, but there was an edge to Luke that she could tell he was trying to keep in check. Jolene badly wanted him to snap. She thought he would be supremely sexy once he had snapped…
“You didn’t answer my question,” she said to him with a pout, taking the straw into her mouth and sipping. Oohh. She had made the right choice.
Luke gave her a wicked smile, shaking his head slowly back and forth at her. “The answer is a secret,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”
Jolene raised her eyebrows at him. She wanted to continue trying to badger it out of him, but she chose to just sip her drink instead. The bar they were in was more like a club. Dance type music was playing and people were in fact gyrating around on a special dance floor nearby. It was going to take a lot more Vermillion Vipers for Luke to get her out on that floor. Especially because she felt like playing hard to get.
He seemed to have sensed this very fact, and he proceeded to get up and replenish their drinks whenever they had both downed their last one.
“No fair!” she said with a laugh when he came back with the third glass of the thrice-boozed beverage. This glass was either extra full or she was tipsy. Or possibly both.
“Oh, you didn’t want one?” Luke asked her, giving her a cheeky sort of look. “I could take it back…”
Jolene shook her head. “No,” she said, and then corrected herself. “No, thank you. This is good. I needed a night like this, honestly.”
“Because of the break up?”
“No! Shut up!” She laughed at him then, and at herself. “Sorry. I just… No. And yes, maybe.” Jolene took a long sip of her drink. She did not really taste the flavor anymore so much as the alcohol. And it was the alcohol that she wanted.
They finished their latest round of drinks and then Luke nodded his head towards the dance floor. “You wanna dance?”
Jolene could have guessed that this question was coming. Who came to a dance club place like this without dancing? She didn’t want to make him lose interest, but she wasn’t the best dancer. Though, to be fair, he was not exactly sober anymore. It wasn’t about being a skilled dancer. It was about having the chance to touch each other.
“Sure,” she said, sucking up the last of the fruity concoction and hoping that she would not regret any of the night’s decisions tomorrow.
Slowly swaying to the beats of the music, Jolene did her best to relax and let the tipsiness wash over her. She was usually so in control of things that it felt nice to let go a little and just enjoy the moments as they drifted by. Sure, she was with a complete stranger, but hey, he had fixed her outlets for her. For free! That alone deserved some time on the dance floor.
“Do you wanna get out of here?” he asked her, whispering hotly into her ear which felt nice. The music was loud and the walls were spinning, but Luke made the effort to be heard and understood by her fuzzy brain.
Jolene looked at Luke, surprised by his question and wondering if she was hearing him correctly. “Do you want to get out of here?” she asked him, hoping that his answer would make the question clearer to her.
He laughed and shook his head at her, clarifying. “Do you want to go somewhere else now?”
“Ohhh,” she said a bit exaggeratedly. She nodded along with it. “Sure, sounds good. Maybe we should go someplace quieter.”
Smiling, Luke took her hand. “I know just the place.”
He carefully led her back to his motorcycle and helped her onto it. “Hold on tight,” he cautioned her when he got on, starting up the engine. Jolene did not have to be told twice. She held onto him for dear life. Suddenly, the threat of falling off Luke’s machine was scarier than it had been hours ago, when she was sober.
It was funny how that worked. All rationality had faded, but it was replaced by silly thoughts of ‘eh, what’s the worst that could happen?’ at the same time.
As they rode along down the streets of Burlington, a crack of thunder suddenly broke out in the sky above them. Jolene, in her tipsy state, looked up at the sky to see if there was any lightning and almost fell backwards off the bike.
“Ahh!” she shouted while laughing. “Looks like it’s about to storm!”
She hoped that he could hear her over the loud engine of his motorcycle. She didn’t know where he had been planning to take her next and she was disappointed that their evening might have to be cut short.
Sure enough, it was as she had feared. It was as if the sky suddenly opened up and released all of the rain in the universe upon them. Jolene, always extra imaginative when drunk, imagined the sky becoming unzipped like in some cartoon she vaguely remembered seeing when she was little. Luke drove her back to her house. She didn’t want to go back, but she supposed anything was better than staying out in the rain on a highly conductive motorcycle…
He carefully parked his bike in her driveway and helped her down from it. She led him back up to her front porch at a run, laughing a little as the cold rain fell and further drenched her. Luke chuckled as he rushed along behind her. When at last they had made it onto the porch, Jolene smiled up at him. She ached, physically ached, at the thought of saying goodbye to him so soon. Had she been a tad more melodramatic, she might have even gone inside and broke her electrical cables or something. Anything to see Luke Weir again.
“So…” she said.
“So,” he replied, smiling so sweetly at her. She knew that he was drunk and she was drunk and it was not an ideal situation, but she wanted very much to ask him inside.
She placed her hands on his chest. Not without thinking, but definitely without being able to stop herself. Thanks, alcohol! His chest felt great. Firm. Safe, even. She looked up at him, into his hazel eyes. “Would you like to come in for some coffee?” She didn’t have coffee yet. She still needed to go to the store. “Or something? Probably not more beer.”
Luke’s eyes seemed to sparkle at her. “Or something,” he said. “Or something sounds good.”
Just then, he leaned down and kissed her. It was not a simple lip-kiss like most first kisses that she had had in the past. This was an all or nothing kind of kiss. He practically devoured her mouth with his own. Jolene leaned herself into him, letting him hold her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fully gave into it. She could not remember the last time she had felt so wanted or so free.
He watched her as she unlocked her front door and then followed her inside. She was amazed at how safe—well, not threatened—she felt with him. She supposed that she had been pretty reckless on this date, but she didn’t plan on turning back now. The way Luke was looking at her as she walked in front of him, clearly admiring her body, just drew her further and further in.
Jolene was ensnared.
They sat together at Jolene’s little table in her kitchen. Thanks to Luke, she was able to turn the light on. They had had enough booze at the bar, so they sat there sipping cans of soda instead, smiling and giggling at the moderate absurdity. She felt like she was in high school again, dating one of those bad boys who acted so rough yet treated her so well. The relationships never lasted; they couldn’t last. Nothing can thrive in an excess of fun.
“So…” she said, sipping her orange soda.
“So,” he said with a grin, sipping his cola.
“What do you do for fun around here?” Jolene asked. “Aside from hitting the bars. I can tell you appreciate those.”
Luke laughed. “You make me sound like an alcoholic.”
She raised her eyebrows to indicate that there was little reason to not suspect that.
He laughed again. “You’ve seen this place. It’s gorgeous. I’m the vice president of a motorcycle club, so I spend a lot of my downtime cruising the streets, admiring the trees and the water along the way.”
A motorcycle club! That made sense. She wondered if he got involved in all kinds of gang related activities. She didn’t think he seemed the type. He was gruff, sure. That didn’t mean he was actually physically violent.
Jolene admired his pecs again, imagining the ways that she wouldn’t mind some violence from him…
“What’s your motorcycle club called?” she asked him, trying her best to keep her thoughts innocent. “I know those usually have amusing names.”
Luke grimaced somewhat. “The Lone Wolves.”
She chuckled. “Plural? Oh my god.”
“I didn’t pick it,” he said with a shrug.
Jolene had the feeling that he did not want to continue discussing it. She felt that she’d struck a nerve, so she changed the subject. “I never really thought of Vermont as a place for motorcycle gangs.”
That brought Luke’s smile back. “We’re not a gang,” he insisted. “We’re a club. A club without a whole lot of rules. And we’re not really from Vermont. We’re… special.”
His eyes flashed mysteriously at that. She was getting used to seeing the flash in his eyes, though it happened so fast that it was gone before she could ask about it or really get a good look.
“Yeah, you’re special, all right.”
As if that was his cue, Luke moved from his chair and grabbed her face in his hands, kissing her as he stood over her. Again, she felt the ferocity of his tongue against hers, all around her mouth. She reached out and touched his chest and, before she knew it, she was in his arms and he was carrying her to bed.