Page 7 of Hap

“You don’t need to apologise,” I state. “It’s, er, private. Club business. He was young, too fucking young,” I add.

Her eyes flicker to my patch, and her eyes widen a little. Her mouth forms an O shape as she reads it. “Oh, so you are like a real biker, biker,” she says, a little stunned, still holding her hand in mine. I smile and nod. She blinks a few times before she tugsher hand from mine. “I er, I’m sorry about your friend, but I, shit, this isn’t a good idea,” she mumbles before knocking back her vodka.

I stand and step into her space, moving closer to her so that I can smell her perfume. Fuck, she smells good. “What isn’t a good idea? We are just two people in a bar talking while having a drink. There ain’t nothing else to it,” I state, keeping my voice low.

She pauses for a second, and her eyes flicker between my eyes and mouth a couple of times before she relaxes and nods. “I’m a lawyer. I deal mainly in divorces,” she explains.

I nod and reluctantly return to my stool. “And that doesn’t look good if you are seen with an outlaw,” I clarify.

She shakes her head. “Not really.”

“But you deal with divorces, not criminal law. So there ain’t no problem,” I add.

“I trained in criminal law, and I still take the odd case, but I mainly focus on divorce. As that is where the money is.” She shrugs.

“Well, then if I ever need a lawyer, I know who to look for Miss…?” I ask, holding my hand out to hers in greeting, prompting her for her name, holding out my hand to hers in greeting.

She places her hand in mine and smiles. “Alina Rice.” She pauses. “Soon to be Alina Bennet,” she states.

“Alina Bennet sounds better,” I compliment. “My name’s Hap,” I add.

“Hap?” she asks. “Is it short for something?”

“Yeah, Happy,” I confirm.

Her smile widens. “A biker named Happy,” she says, biting back her laughter.

“It’s my road name. I’m not exactly known to be the smiling type, so my brothers gave me the name Hap,” I explain.

“You’ve been smiling plenty this afternoon,” she points out.

“Well, that is all down to you, because I sure as shit wasn’t smiling like this before you walked in,” I counter.

She blushes, and as she looks down at our still-joined hands, she swiftly removes hers. I immediately miss her touch. She pauses, clearing her throat. “So Hap,” she says with a smile on her face. “What’s it like being a biker?”

I grin. “It’s home, and it’s freedom,” I sigh.

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting such a deep answer,” she retorts.

“It ain’t a deep answer, just an honest one,” I say with a shrug.

She takes a sip of her drink. “So, are you not going to ask me what it’s like being a lawyer?” she asks.

I shake my head no.

She blanches a little and frowns. “Well then, what are you going to ask me?” she asks, her eyes searching mine.

“I’m going to ask you if you want to go for a ride on my bike to your house, where instead of talking and asking mindless fucking questions, we can fuck,” I state sharply.

She chokes on her drink, coughing. Her eyes are wide as she gazes at me. “Are you serious?” she asks in disbelief. “You said this was just a drink.”

Nodding, I get up off my stool and step closer to her. I push my face down to hers, and she tilts her head back to look up at me. Leaning in, I lightly brush my fingertips along her jaw, trailing them down to her chest. She shudders at my touch as my lips graze over hers.

“I lied, and I’m deadly serious, baby,” I rasp. “What do you say?” I press.

She swallows, and I can see lust and nervousness swirling in her eyes. “But you’ve been drinking,” she counters.

“I’ve been nursing that same drink for the last hour. That’s only my second,” I confirm, pointing to the barely touched glassof whiskey. I eased up on my drinking as soon as she started talking to me.

---