Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance (29 page)

Jase cleared his throat, the timing of
which made Maggie start to laugh. He said in his best authoritative voice,
“C
’
mon, Oliver, sack up here, this is
serious business.
”

“Sir, yes sir,”
she said without even a breath to br
eak up her laughter.

Jase shook his head, but he couldn’t
fight his own smile as he decided to press forward.
“
Alright. So you’ve delivered the elbow
of doom. You
’
re outside his stance. Take a hold of
his pants like that, and then twist, and shift your wh
ole
body weight towards him.
”

Maggie hesitated at first, skeptical.
Then Jase felt the grip on his jeans tighten as she moved into him. As planned,
the shift of balance coupled with her grip on his pants sent his center of
gravity off-kilter. Half of him l
ifted over her leg
as he tumbled to the gravel with a
thunk
.

“
What!
”
said Maggie in an excited voice. Both
her hands shot into the air.
“I can’t
believe that worked!
”

“
I told you,
”
said Jase as he dusted off his thigh
where he
’
d landed. He reached out a hand and
Maggie didn’t hesitate to help pull him up.
“It
’
s not going to kill the guy, but it
gives you time to get loose and get help.
”

“I can’t
believe I know how to throw you around
now,
”
said Maggie with a laugh as she cracked
them both another beer.

“
Only if I attack you from behind,
”
said Jase, and immediately regretted the
way it sounded. But Maggie only laughed. He cleared his throat.
“
Put that damn beer down, you need to
practice this move.
”

“Jesus, okay Bruce Lee!”
she carefully nudged the open beer
bottles next to a large rock and jumped around to loosen her body up.
“
Never seen someone who wants to get
thrown in the dirt so badly.
”

“
Want
has nothing to do with it,
”
said Jase with a low chuckle
—
though his heart wasn
’t quite in agreement with that as he wrapped himself
around Maggie in the attacker
’
s stance once again.

Jase made Maggie practice the rear
attack a few more times before they moved on to a few other scenarios. They
practiced until she started to get muscl
e pains, some
of which were from her laughing her ass off at being able to toss him around.
And he knew both of them needed the sweet release of something funny and
physical like this after the horror of the day. Maggie seemed all too happy to
lean into it
, and having her relaxed, playful, acting
like herself at her best, made Jase happy in a way he hadn’t felt in a long
time.

When they finally quit, Maggie handed
him one of the open beers and drank some of her own in between ragged breaths.
“
I basically f
eel
like Rambo tonight.
”

“
I
don’t think you
’
re remembering those movies correctly,
”
said Jase.

Maggie glared at him from behind the
beer bottle mid-drink. Jase just laughed at her and shook his head. He leaned
over the bike and flipped off the headlight,
letting
the night air and the moon
’
s light sink into the space between them.

“
You always acted like Rambo, anyway,
”
said Jase as he moved towards the edge
of the ridge to take in the view. He heard Maggie
’
s footsteps following in the gravel
behind.
“
Now yo
u’ve
just got some moves to go with it.
”

“
Yeah, well, the way we act sometimes
isn’t the way we feel,
”
said
Maggie.

“
Still, I was
…
surprised
…
to hear about your ex,
”
said Jase. The words were out of his
mouth before he could stop them.

Maggie nodded very
lightly but said nothing. She stared into the distance.

Jase said, “
Honestly, though. Why
’
d you let that happen to you?
”

She took a drink and frowned.
“
Let what?
”

“
Let some guy beat you. I never thought
you
’
d put up with that,
”
he said.

A bit of anger fl
ashed through her eyes and he thought he
’
d lost the moment, but she just clenched
her jaw and took another drink. She looked out at the night sky.
“It
’
s trickier than it seems, Jase. I mean,
look at where we are. I
’
m learning how to shoot and take down gia
nt men with my bare hands just to get away from a guy. Does
that sound like a simple situation to you?
”

Jase felt regret immediately stab at his
heart.
“I
’
m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I
shouldn’t have
…”
He looked down at the bottle in his
hands.
“
People used to ask my mom the same damn
thing. Even then I knew it was a shitty question. They didn’t see how hard she
fought, all the maneuvering just to keep ahead of him.
”

The anger fell from Maggie
’
s face. She nodded, but was clearly
struggling to look
at him.
“
Thanks. And trust me, I’ve asked myself
that same damn question for a while now. I’ll give you the answer if I ever
figure it out.
”

Jase went quiet for a minute, drank a
bit of his beer down. He was trying to collect some courage.
“You
’
re stronge
r
than you think. You always have been. Even after all of this, don’t go around
thinking you
’
re weak, because you
’
re not.
”
He went straight for the beer after he
was finished, and only got the gumption to turn and look at her when he
realized that she was
staring at him openly.

In the low moonlight, he saw on her face
an expression he didn’t have a name for. She was hurt. She was grateful. She
was curious. He looked at her eyes and she held his gaze for a moment. It was
painful in some deep part of his hear
t. She said,
“
Thank you, Jase. Really. Thank you.
”
She turned away, her eyes getting wet.
She drank her beer.

They didn’t say much else as they passed
an hour on the ridge. They wiped off the six pack and shared cigarettes between
them until Maggie finally
said she was ready to
leave. The mood had changed
—
the playfulness had certainly died-- but it wasn’t all bad.
Jase only felt something big building as Maggie climbed behind him on the bike
and wrapped around him. Her touch was softer, and somehow more enc
ompassing. He could feel her cheek, and the edge of her
helmet, lying gently against his back along with the rest of her. He almost
didn’t want to start up the bike, knowing it led to the inevitable end of this
moment.

But he did. He just took the slowest
route back to the clubhouse as possible.

Only a couple bikes were present when
they arrived back at the clubhouse. Jase parked and waited for Maggie to
dismount before he joined her.
“
We should clean that Bersa before we hit the hay.
”
Really, the gun clea
ning could wait. He just wasn’t ready to say goodnight to
her.

“
Yeah, sure,
”
she said. She pulled the 9mm from her
waistband and handed it to him.
“
We should also do some shots.
”

Jase laughed at her absently. That
feeling of something building was beginnin
g to bubble
in earnest as he unlocked the clubhouse and followed Maggie in. The place was
dark and quiet; from one of the bedrooms came a TV
’
s muffled din. The den was empty, but
the lights had been left on. As he put the 9mm on a hallway table, Jase tried
to remember the last time he
’
d heard the clubhouse so silent.

“
See, here we go!
”
said Maggie as she walked up to the pool
table. Someone had left an open half-bottle of Jack on the table
’
s surface. She took a swig and turned to
face him.

Jase stopped in
the door way and found himself struck again by the view of seeing Maggie
Oliver, back in the clubhouse as if nothing had ever gone wrong. She was right
there, smiling up at him, offering him a pull of whiskey. He could still feel
the warmth of her arms aro
und his chest, and he only
wanted to feel it again. All those years of darkness and heartbreak collapsed
in on themselves in that moment, and evaporated.

Jase couldn’t take it anymore. He walked
towards her with determination. He saw her expression change
to one of curiosity as he approached. He wrapped one hand
around the side of her face and held her there while he brought his lips to
hers in a bold kiss. His other arm locked around her waist and pulled her into
him tightly. He felt the small surprised i
ntake of
breath before their lips met, but almost instantly Maggie kissed him back with
hunger. He heard the sharp thump of glass as she released the bottle of whiskey
carelessly on the pool table so that she could tangle her hands in his hair and
caress h
is face as she kissed him.

Explosions fired in Jase
’
s mind and body as he kissed Maggie, the
long-burning desires of a thousand night hours, the salve to all his
heartbreak. She threw her arms around his neck and he responded by moving his
arms beneath he
r and lifting her to sit on the pool
table. As he leaned down over her, keeping her pressed close, he felt her hands
roaming his body in ways he had only dreamed of in the past years. One grasped
desperately underneath his cut, roaming around his chest and
back, digging nails into his skin. The other pulled at the
leather itself, trying to get him undressed. Jase couldn’t whip it and his thin
white shirt off fast enough. He had to pull away from the kiss to get the shirt
off, and when he looked back Maggie
lay on the table,
her eyes devouring every inch of the body he was so grateful to have whipped
into shape. She couldn’t reach but her fingers grasped, begging for his body to
return to her touch. Seeing how badly she wanted him made him harder than he
’
d ever felt in his life.