Chapter Nine
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Cam would hate to shoot Wyatt with his Defender, but might not have a choice. He put a hand on his belt where his Defender typically was, but it was gone. Heaving a mental sigh that his best tool to keep earthlings from discovering aliens was back at home, Cam relaxed and dropped his hand to one side. He’d taken off his Defender along with his regular duties in lieu of spending the day out and about with Ria.
Diesel had a small version on his hip, so that might be an option. Cam glanced around at the seated patrons. Seven other earthlings would be impacted if he yanked Diesel’s Defender from him and fired it off in the room. That would leave him with Diesel and Ria staring at each other. Bad idea. That would create even more questions he didn’t want to answer.
Better to defuse the situation rather than create chaos in this small bar.
“Everyone asks about her hair,” he said quickly. “She just throws that out to everyone she meets when they stare at her head.”
Wyatt relaxed and nodded as if it was a perfectly logical explanation for how she’d just basically read his mind. It seemed to come naturally to her.
Diesel and Wyatt excused themselves to a table in the corner well away from the pool table. Cam should have tried to read Wyatt’s mind. He didn’t often make the effort, not wanting to know things he shouldn’t.
Cam and Ria finished their game of pool and listened to music as Wyatt and Diesel talked, heads bent in serious discussion for a few minutes. Cam gave up on trying to read their lips. He didn’t have the skill for it. They were either talking about Valkyries or possibly Velveeta and that’s where Cam gave up on his nonexistent skills of lip-reading. The two men finished their conversation fairly quickly and left the bar with a waved farewell to Cam and Ria, not giving him a chance to read Wyatt’s mind for information on the meeting.
Whatever it was put an interesting expression on Diesel’s face. It must not be about Alienn or anything to do with the secrets they were hiding or Diesel would have given Cam a signal. Wouldn’t he? Maybe. Maybe not. Diesel wasn’t always as forthcoming as Cam wanted him to be, but maybe only in regard to dating Juliana.
Cam made a mental note to ask what this conversation had been about when he returned from his vacation. He glanced at Ria. She beamed with joy and that was enough to distract him from any further thoughts about whatever Diesel and Wyatt had talked about. He put his focus where it belonged, on the dwindling time he had to spend with an incredible woman he wished could be his. He watched her line up her next shot.
She was so beautiful, so fun to hang out with…and so going back to Alpha-Prime to marry someone else.
Was she so intriguing because deep down he knew she was unavailable? That question rolled around in his head for several moments before he drew an interesting conclusion. No, her unavailability was not the reason he thought she was fascinating. Cam would be captivated by Ria regardless of any possible future for them. And maybe that was where he should direct his attention, on finding a way to keep her.
Ria came close to beating him in their next round of pool. By then, a rougher crowd started arriving, a few at a time. The newcomers stared possessively at Cam and Ria’s pool table like dogs eyeing a rival’s chew toy. Cam made the last two shots and won their final game. He relinquished the table with a nod to a biker dressed in black. The dude was completely bald, but had a bushy gray beard that hung nearly to his elaborately detailed motorcycle-shaped belt buckle.
Ria had also taken note of the bearded man, but seemed more interested in taking in his authentic biker look than being intimidated. Perhaps it was something else she could cross off her list. Get a good look at a real biker.
Mostly Cam was grateful she didn’t read the guy’s mind and blurt out what he was thinking.
As they went outside, Ria looked wistfully over one shoulder. They walked a few steps to his motorcycle. He smiled at the glee evident in her eyes. She reached out and hugged him tight. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair.
“Thank you so much, Cam. That was so amazing and so much fun and I’ll never ever forget it. Not in my whole life.”
“Me either,” Cam said. He meant it. He’d never been a biker bar kind of guy, but the experience had been incredible and he knew he’d remember it on his deathbed, even with the annoyance of the drunken dude hitting on her. He liked coming to her rescue.
Cam had studied her at the jukebox, making her selections, but pretended to eye the lay of the balls on the pool table when she turned to rejoin him. When he next looked up, it was to see her attempting to get free of the drunken guy’s grasp. He instantly wanted to leap over tables and chairs to get to her.
Luckily, he had sense enough not to make a bigger deal out of it than what happened. But he’d been ready to. In that first incendiary moment, he would have fought off a hundred bikers to ensure she was safe.
Ria leaned back and looked up into his eyes. They stared at each other as unspoken desire filled the small space between them. The silent fog of craving that he harbored for her, and only her, clouded his thoughts with ideas of what he’d be willing to do to ensure they remained together. Run far away, hiding from off-planet Alpha authorities like criminals for the rest of their lives? No, not a good idea.
Her expression said she wanted to kiss him. Cam stared at the spark in her fascinated yet mischievous gaze, unsure of whether he should encourage her or back away.
It was a foolish waste of time not to step closer, because he’d never discourage her. He’d never back away. Their time was limited. In that moment he vowed to make all the seconds they had together count. She moved closer and so did he.
Their lips were a whisper away from the kiss he knew they both wanted.
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Ria knew she shouldn’t kiss Cam. But she also knew she might perish if she didn’t at least try to get a kiss. Just one little kiss wouldn’t hurt anything, would it? She brushed her lips on his cheek, very close to his mouth. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t look angry. He also didn’t retreat from her affection.
He turned his head slightly toward her and stared deeply into her eyes with an unreadable expression. Did he want to kiss her or push her away or put her on a transport to a distant planet? All of the above. None of the above. Unclear.
The unreadable expression morphed into a very clear one of desire. He stared at her like a starving man in front of a feast he wasn’t allowed to eat, like he might expire if they didn’t take the opportunity to kiss.
How to get him to break his previous edict of no kissing?
“Please kiss me,” she whispered. “Just one little kiss, Cam.” His eyes closed halfway, and a small groan escaped his lips right before he planted his mouth on hers in a lip lock that fairly scorched Ria in her tracks. They kissed and kissed and kissed like they might never stop. Ria was light-headed after only a few seconds, wanting more, wanting the kiss to last forever.
The roar of more motorcycles approaching the biker bar didn’t stop them, but the hoots and hollers of several more biker dudes on their way into the bar did. Cam slowly broke the kiss, but his look remained hungry, like he hadn’t quite satisfied himself.
He watched the new arrivals walking past them, nodding at a couple of biker guys entering the bar.
“We should go,” he said, not looking at her after rocking her world with that kiss. He picked up their helmets, handed hers over and mounted the bike.
“Okay.” Ria climbed on behind him, put her helmet in place, squeezed her arms around his middle and pressed her front against his back. She wanted to stay with him, forever.
If only Dirt Bag FitzOsbern wasn’t on his way back from a routine luxury vacation to make her completely miserable for the rest of her life.
Ria clung to him as they rode away from the Road Rash Pub and Pool Hall.
She thought he might take her back to his house, but instead they left Skeeter Bite on a different road than they’d come into it. After only a few miles, she spotted a sign for a town called Old Coot, Arkansas, Population 4,527, according to the sign on the outskirts of town.
After blazing along at a fairly good speed on all the backroads, Cam slowed considerably when he entered the town limits of Old Coot.
He took her to an ice cream shop where they shared something called a banana split. The dessert was cold, sweet, creamy and scrumptious. The most delicious thing she’d ever eaten.
Next, they went to a place called a Natural History Museum. It was getting late and close to closing time, but they had time to see all manner of interesting things, from dioramas of ancient times from this part of Earth to pottery and old clothing, tools, models of Earth animals and birds—there was a plethora of interesting things to see. The best part was holding hands as they strolled through the museum, stopping to look at the displays.
She felt she walked in a happy daze as they returned to the bike, mounted up and put on their helmets. On the way out of town, they passed a sign that said, “Saying Good-Bye to Old Coot? Come again!”
And then she saw a sign that advertised a traveling carnival. In no time, they approached a field filled with tents and strings of lights and intriguing attractions she could see from the road. She started to poke him in the ribs to get his attention, but he was already guiding the bike onto the dirt road leading to a place that proclaimed, “Carnival Tickets Sold Here!”
Cam parked his bike. Pulling his helmet off, he looked back and grinned. “You were about to poke me so we could stop here, weren’t you?”
Ria took her helmet off and laughed. “How’d you know?”
“Guess I’m getting better at reading your mind.”
“That’s probably dangerous.”
“Maybe, but I’ll take my chances.” He gifted her with a bone-melting half-smile that warmed her from her tippy toes to the top of her head.
Ria slid off the back of his motorcycle and turned to survey the noises and interesting scents wafting by from this carnival place.
“Ever been to a carnival before?” He got off the bike and secured their helmets.
“Nope. But I can’t wait to go.” She pointed to a large round metal circle. Pretty lights twinkled from the angled beams as dusk fell. “Is that a Ferris wheel?”
“Yep.”
“I want to go on that, but it sure goes high in the air.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll hold on to you.”
“What if we fall out?”
“I won’t let you fall.”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “Do you promise?”
“I do.”
She put a hand on his arm. “Will you kiss me when we get to the very highest top?”
“Perhaps.”
Ria wanted to skip as they strolled over dirt and uneven patches of dead grass that made paths through the carnival. Games of chance and loud bells came from seemingly every direction.
The very first thing they did was ride the Ferris wheel. As their car reached the very top, the wheel stopped. Ria clung to Cam, her heart pounding at the height, but he kissed her and the rest of the world fell away. Too soon, the wheel spun back into motion and returned them to the ground.
Cam bought her a small cardboard box filled with a fluffy, light, buttery, salty treat called popcorn. It was delicious.
One open-tented area held games of chance. She tossed rings. She squirted a water gun. But her favorite game was something called Skee-Ball. At first, she thought it was miniature bowling. She’d read about bowling, but this was different. And apparently she had a knack for the game. Every time she rolled the ball and it hit the very center target, a bunch of little blue connected rectangles shot out of a slot. The more she played, the more blue rectangles she won. In fact, she earned twice as many of them as Cam.
In the spirit of gamesmanship, he gave her his wad of what he called “tickets” so she could trade them all in and acquire a special prize. She was able to get not only a small, black-and-white stuffed animal—a dog with adorable floppy ears—but also two matching black faux leather bracelets with decorative knots, one for each of them. She didn’t know what faux meant, maybe plastic, but they now sported matching faux leather bling.
After mastering a new game and collecting her winnings, they walked around looking inside the tents. One was filled with something called quilts. It was amazing. Master artists had assembled little pieces of material and sewn them all together to make beautiful blankets, each completely unique with a variety of creative and colorful designs.
She didn’t have enough Earther cash to purchase one as a souvenir, nor a large enough place to hide it from her mother. Not even with a luxury room on the ship. She teared up a bit at the thought of going back to Alpha-Prime, but shook off the sadness.
Ria would enjoy as much as she could while she was here. Tears regarding her future were a waste of time in the here and now.
She’d have a lifetime to cry her eyes out back on Alpha-Prime.