Page 24 of Virago

By doing nothing, he’d hurt her, and now she was pushing through the crowd, almost at the door. He’d spun around and called for her as soon as she’d shoved past him, but she’d ignored him. Now Nolan had hold of his kutte and wouldn’t let go.

“Think, kid,” Nolan growled. “Fuckin’ think. Her father will lose his mind. You’ve never seen Isaac blow, but I have. You do not want to be in his blast zone over his little girl.”

Zaxx was thinking—frantically. Something had happened between him and Gia, something new, maybe something real. At the very least, it was the best thing about the past couple shitty days. Now she was hurt and storming off. If he let her go, the thing that had happened between them, whatever it was, would be lost. He didn’t need to know her any better to know she was not a second-chances type.

Everything left is lost.

This was not something he was ready to leave. Or lose. Not while he didn’t know what it was.

Gia was the most pressing problem. Isaac might lose his mind, but if so, it would happen later, so he was a problem for later.

Zaxx yanked free of Nolan’s hold and broke for the door.

~oOo~

She had her helmet on and was mounting her bike—a Sportster about as old as she was—when he made it outside.

“Gia! Hold up!”

She heard him, she looked at him, but she fired her engine up anyway.

Zaxx got there and grabbed her handlebars before she could walk the bike back. That was a major breach, you did not touch someone’s else ride without their permission, but right now he had bigger worries.

“What the fuck?” she snapped, loud enough to clear the chug of her idling engine.

He didn’t let go. “Talk to me. Don’t go without at least talking to me.”

She stared at him, her eyes spitting green fire, for a full ten seconds before she finally asked, “Why?”

Zaxx didn’t have a ready answer. His mind churned, but it couldn’t keep up with his impulses. All he knew for sure: he didn’t want her to go. Something had happened between them, and he wanted more time with her to understand what it was.

She’d stormed out because of his silence, so he didn’t let it take him over now. He said the one thing he knew for sure: “I don’t want you to go. What we did in there—was good.”

Not the most eloquent he’d ever been, but he felt like was running barefoot over open flame, so it was the best he could do at the moment.

Gia seemed at least a little affected by his honesty. “Nolan will tell my dad, and my dad’ll probably want to remove some of your important parts. That doesn’t scare you?”

Shouting this conversation over a Harley engine was not ideal, but he pressed forward. “It doesn’t scare me off, no.” A thought occurred to him, and he couldn’t completely suppress a grin. “If he comes for me and I hurt him, would you be pissed at me?”

Her gorgeous eyes went wide, then lit up with a different, gentler light. She began to laugh, and she cut her bike’s engine. Her voice rolled softly in the new quiet. “Okay, that’s ... I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody say they could hurt my dad. That’s some confidence you got.”

Heartened by the change in her, Zaxx let go of her handlebars and pushed his point a little bit further. “Well, you know. He’s a tough motherfucker, yeah, but he’s gettin’ up there.”

She put the kickstand down, then swung her leg over so she sat sidesaddle on her seat. Next her helmet came off, and she hooked the strap over a handgrip. “So now what?”

Zaxx saw invitation in the way she sat there, and he accepted. He went to the side of her bike and stepped in, close enough to slip one of his legs between hers. She watched him slide in, then tipped her head up and showed a smirk.

He wanted to take hold of her and pull her close, but he refrained. “Now, maybe we pick up where we left off when we were so rudely interrupted.”

Still smirking up at him, Gia hooked a hand on his leg, just above his knee. “Where do you think we were headed? To be clear, I wasn’t gonna fuck you against the bar, and I’m not gonna fuck you in the parking lot, either.”

He dropped a hand so his fingers could play with hers. “There’s the always the john.”

Playfulness vanished from her face, and she snatched her hand away. “The fuck? No, I am not going to fuck you in a goddamn bar bathroom. Gross! What kind of subhuman are you? And what exactly do you think of me?”

He’d meant it as a joke, but wow, had he missed that target. He chased after her hand and caught it. “Hey, hey. It was a joke. I was trying to make a joke. I don’t want to fuck you in the john.”

That was mostly true. He’d fuck her anywhere she wanted, including the toilet, but it wouldn’t be his preference. Too uncomfortable, too rushed, too public. One-offs with randos or club girls, sure, wherever, but Gia was neither—and maybe this wouldn’t be a one-off, either.

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