Part 24 (1/2)

”And here I thought men were the braver of the species,” she muttered. Jase laughed at her as she sarcastically turned her back to him and waited. ”I don't like this, this is creepy.”

”It should be creepy,” said Jase. ”Someone coming at you from behind is dangerous as h.e.l.l. Trust creepy instincts because they'll probably give you a few extra seconds.”

Jase approached. He hesitated a moment before he wrapped an arm around the top of Maggie's chest. She tensed up against him, and he could feel her heart beating a little faster. He put his other hand loosely on the top of her brown curls.

”If someone comes at you from behind like this, you want to try and upset their balance. Don't think about fighting them. They're probably bigger than you, or armed. Just think about escaping,” said Jase next to her ear. He thought he felt her s.h.i.+ver. He took her left elbow in his hand and directed it slowly back to his solar plexus. ”Feel that? You need to elbow that spot as hard as you can. That'll put anyone's d.i.c.k in the dirt.”

Maggie giggled underneath him. She grasped his arm around her neck with her right and mimicked the elbow move a few times for him.

”Then, put your leg outside mine, like this.” He put his left hand on her left thigh and gently pushed until Maggie lifted it into position, on the outside of his stance. The arm around her neck that had been grasping was now little more than a draped nuisance.

”Now,” said Jase. ”Grab my pants right by my crotch.”

Maggie's reaction didn't disappoint. Her face twisted in disbelief. ”What the h.e.l.l, man? What kind of self-defense is this?”

Jase couldn't help laughing while he said, ”I'm serious! This is completely legit, one-hundred-percent. I swear.”

”Is this how you're picking up women now?” said Maggie, shaking her head and muttering sarcastically to herself. She couldn't look at him, but her face lit up with a huge grin and flushed red as she followed his instructions. She took a nice handful of denim on his inner thigh dangerously close to trouble, and then looked up at him with smirk as if to say your move.

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 break 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 s.h.i.+ft your whole 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 s.h.i.+ft of balance coupled with her grip on his pants sent his center of gravity off-kilter. Half of him lifted 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 d.a.m.n 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 muscle pains, some of which were from her laughing her a.s.s 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 feel 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 s.p.a.ce 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 you'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 flashed 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 giant 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 d.a.m.n thing. Even then I knew it was a s.h.i.+tty 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 d.a.m.n 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 stronger 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 heart. 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 pa.s.sed 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 encompa.s.sing. 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 cleaning 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 beginning 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 m.u.f.fled 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 around 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 intake of breath before their lips met, but almost instantly Maggie kissed him back with hunger. He heard the sharp thump of gla.s.s as she released the bottle of whiskey carelessly on the pool table so that she could tangle her hands in his hair and caress his 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 her 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 s.h.i.+rt off fast enough. He had to pull away from the kiss to get the s.h.i.+rt 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.

But then there was her body to consider, this sweet, short, curvy body that reminded him of history books and pictures of G.o.ddesses carved out of marble. He practically groaned as he ran his big hands up from her hips to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, mapping the feel of every curve. He kneaded her b.r.e.a.s.t.s firmly through her s.h.i.+rt and bra, and the moan that floated from Maggie's lips made Jase even hungrier for her. He leaned all the way over and smashed his lips onto hers. She welcomed him back with arms draped over his neck, fingers caressing his hair.

Jase didn't want to leave her mouth again. He fumbled between them to unhook her jeans and his; the latter fell to the floor with ease. Jase enjoyed the feeling of the denim on Maggie's legs slowly revealing her soft, most secret skin as he peeled her jeans off. Impatient, he let them bunch up around her ankles as they dangled from the pool table.

Maggie moaned into his mouth, her kissing a ferocious aphrodisiac. The feel of her tongue sliding over his was almost too much to bear. He climbed up on the table and lay over Maggie, pressing his hardened d.i.c.k against her panties. Her moans only grew louder and more desperate, and the hands roaming his shoulders stopped to dig their nails into his skin.

”Please...” she whispered against his lips, her voice shaking with l.u.s.t.