Page 5 of Kane: One Night with a Biker

I turned around to face her, only she wasn’t alone.

Judd walked up behind my sister, a too-wide grin plastered across his pasty pale face. “Hey there, Abilene. You’re the last woman I’d expect to see at a bachelor auction. What with you being involved in a serious relationship and all.”

Valera looped her arm around mine. “She only came because I begged her to be my moral support.”

“Is that so?” Judd’s beady eyes shifted from me to Valera and back again. “Did I just hear you say your boyfriend won’t be able to join us for the cruise?”

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. With Kane out of the picture, I had three choices. Either keep the lie going and tell Judd my boyfriend had to work, tell him we just broke up, or come clean and admit there had never been someone special in my life to begin with. None of those options appealed to me.

“Don’t worry.” The sparkle in Judd’s eyes made my skin crawl. “I’ll make sure you’re not lonely on the ship. In fact, I’ll ask the travel agent to make sure our cabins are right next door.”

A shadow fell over Judd’s face. He glanced over my shoulder and his eyes narrowed slightly.

“That won’t be necessary.” Kane stepped next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “I’ll be there to keep Abilene company.”

5

KANE

By the time Tuesday morning rolled around, I’d been working for three straight days to finish up some jobs and make sure the guys at the shop knew what needed to be done while I was gone. It had been a dumbass move to step in and tell Abilene I’d take her up on her offer after all. But seeing that asshole muscle in on her twisted my insides around so tight that I couldn’t let her subject herself to that douchebag knowing I had the power to stop it.

We’d taken a shuttle to the airport in Austin, and I slept through the short flight to Galveston. Now we stood in front of the door to our cabin. I’d never been on a cruise before unless cruising up and down the Blanco River in an old aluminum fishing boat counted. Luckily, my brother Devin had taken some time off over the weekend for the bachelor auction and picked out a few things I needed for the trip, including a suit to wear to dinner on the award night.

“Thanks again for coming with me.” Abilene gripped my arm. A huge smile spread across her face.

The exhaustion I’d been fighting off disappeared. “You’re welcome.”

“Are you ready to see where we’ll be spending the next five days?” Her eyebrows arched, and she looked at the door.

I flipped the handle to push the door open. Based on the photos of the ship I’d seen online, I knew the cabin would be small. But now, standing with one foot in the room and one foot out in the hall, the reality of our situation slammed into me. Our room was the size of a coat closet. And not the big coat closet at the bowling alley where my brothers and I used to hide out every Thursday night while Mama Mae racked up points for her bowling league.

Abilene crossed the few feet separating the door to the room from the bed. “Um, this is cozy.”

Cozy didn’t begin to describe the cramped quarters. “Is that a double bed?”

“It’s supposed to be a queen.” She spread her arms as wide as she could and bent over the mattress. “My bed at home is a queen, and if I stretch my arms out like this, I can just reach from edge to edge.”

Seeing her spread out over the bed with her round ass sticking up in the air sent blood surging toward my cock. I forced myself to look away and not get lost in daydreams of what it might feel like to grab onto those thick hips and sink deep inside her.

I set our bags down inside the door and let it close behind me. Her fingers reached over the sides of the mattress. “Based on your wingspan, I’m pretty sure that bed is a double.”

“So, um, if it’s going to be too tight, I can sleep on the couch.” She stood and glanced around the room. The only other piece of furniture we had besides the bed was a stiff armchair in the opposite corner.

“It’ll be fine. I’ve slept on a double bed before.” Back in middle school, before I reached my full six-foot-four and two-hundred-twenty-five pounds. “Besides, a smaller bed means more cuddle time, am I right?”

Abilene rubbed her lips together. I was a bastard for doing it, but I’d been enjoying teasing her about the offer she’d made. She had no idea I had no plans to collect. If she ended up giving herself to me, it would be because she wanted to, not because she said she would to convince me to come along.

“Cuddle time, right.” Her gaze darted from the bed to the chair.

Before I had the chance to tell her I was joking, a voice came over the loud speaker reminding us to head toward the upper deck for safety training before we left port.

“Are you ready to put on a convincing show?” I held out my arm.

“Thanks again for doing this. I know I shouldn’t have put you in such an awkward position.” She linked her arm through mine, and we turned sideways to exit the narrow door into the hall.

“It’s going to be fun. I can’t remember the last time I had a vacation, and seeing Judd Sherman not get what he wants for once in his life will be worth taking the time off work.”

“Wait, you know him?” Abilene stopped in the hall and looked up at me, her blue eyes wide.

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