Chapter 21 Ghost
GHOST
“Woooooo hoo!”
I watched Amanda throw out her arms in front of us while we rode.
Wrecker wrapped his arm around her from behind, holding her against him while she laughed into the wind.
The sun was almost done setting for the evening, and god damn it, it felt good to be out and riding.
The wind on my face. Racing through my hair.
Trying to hold us back while we soared toward the lookout point.
I knew exactly where we were headed. Wrecker and Amanda weren’t very good at hiding what they wanted.
I didn’t care, though.
I had Jaz’s arms wrapped around me, and it felt fucking phenomenal.
She kept her nails short and blunted, but they still cut into my skin as she held on tight to me.
She slid into a more comfortable outfit than that dirty blouse and pencil skirt she was wearing.
She donned one of my leather jackets around her torso since all she put on was one of those flimsy little tank tops of hers.
I felt her sweatpants pressing against me from either side as she kept sliding toward me until her front was fully pressed against my back.
Feeling her head resting in between my shoulder blades was a sensation I could get used to.
We rode for a while until we ascended to the lookout point. Wrecker pointed to the right before he peered over his shoulder, so I pointed upward, letting him know that Jasmine and I would go up so they could go right.
Jasmine’s voice came alive in my helmet when we parted ways. “Is everything all right? Aren’t we supposed to stay together.”
I chuckled. “Just trust us.”
Eventually, we wound our way to the top of the lookout point.
Redd Valley was surrounded on two sides by hills and pseudo-mountains, and there were many nooks and crannies where kids in the town could get into trouble.
Our crew had long since carved out pathways up this particular mountain.
There were plenty of perch points, and as I eased my bike to the edge of ours, I put the kickstand down.
I gazed out at the moon-drenched town of Redd Valley.
“Wow,” Jasmine said breathlessly as my Bluetooth headset that connected our helmets came alive again. “It’s beautiful up here.”
I killed the engine so I could listen out for them. “One of my favorite spots in all of Redd Valley.”
“Really?”
I just nodded.
I expected her to stop holding me. I expected her to get off the bike, maybe want to walk around and stretch her legs.
After all, I knew she wasn’t a fan of motorcycles.
She made that pretty clear in the parking lot of that grocery store I stalked her to.
But instead of getting off, she kept her arms around me.
She kept her hands splayed out over my abdomen.
And eventually, my hand gravitated with a mind of its own until it rested on top of hers.
“Where did they go, anyway?” Jasmine finally asked. “Amanda and Wrecker?”
“Probably to fuck.”
She choked on her own damn tongue, and it made me chuckle. I patted the tops of her hands before I wiggled off the bike, hating how I lost the warmth of her touch. I needed my helmet off, though. I wanted to feel the breeze on my face.
Even if I couldn’t flip up my mask.
“Fuck!” Amanda cried out.
Jasmine gasped as I plucked my helmet off just as a breeze kicked up. I closed my eyes and tilted my face toward it.
“Goddamn it, Amanda. Give it to me,” Wrecker growled.
“Told you,” I said with a grin as I turned my attention to Jasmine, only for her wide eyes to have already been focused on me.
“Jaz?” I asked.
“Oh fuck,” Amanda squeaked out below us.
She puffed her cheeks out with a heavy sigh. “Man, you weren’t joking, huh?”
I just chuckled as I reached my hand out for her. “Want to get off the bike?”
She took my hand and let me slide her off the bike, though she stumbled a bit.
My bike sat up a bit higher than most because my legs were so fucking long, most regular bikes felt like trike-bikes to me.
She squealed a bit, and I held my arms out to catch her, making sure she didn’t hit the rocky soil beneath us.
“I gotcha, you’re okay,” I said as I wrapped my arms around her.
Her hands clung to my shirt.
Once we stood up, I fully expected her to release me.
But she didn’t. I gazed down at her. She gazed up at me.
And for a moment, I watched the moonlight sparkle in her eyes.
Did she even know how beautiful she was in the moonlight?
Her warmth, drenched with the cool temperatures that always came with the darkness here in Redd Valley.
An angel, meant for the darkness.
For a moment, nothing else mattered.
“Fuck yeah, give it to me, Amanda. I want it all,” Wrecker growled from below.
“Wreck. Wreck. Wreck. Wreck!”
“Jesus,” I grumbled as I tilted my head toward the sky.
Jasmine giggled. “Too bad we aren’t together. We could give them a run for their money.”
What the fuck did she just say?
My eyes whipped back down to her, only for her head to fall back with laughter.
A glorious laughter that, for a moment, swallowed up anything going on down at the lookout point beneath us.
I watched her gorgeous, wavy brown hair waft in the breeze, her body completely and fully trusting me not to let her go while she let go herself.
The sound was so incredible that all I could do was join her.
And the shushes from Wrecker and Amanda, followed by their own laughter, only made me laugh harder.
I couldn’t help myself. “I didn’t know you had such a wicked side, Jaz.”
She spoke through her giggling. “Hey, a girl’s gotta have her secrets, am I right?”
I couldn’t think of anything else at that moment but watching her masturbate. The way her legs had spread. The way her thighs jiggled. The squirt that soaked her bed. Goddamn it, she was a vision. Beauty wrapped in an enigma that not even Ranger himself possessed the ability to decode.
I wanted her arousal to soak my face.
My cock pulsed with need. With anger. With frustration, since I’d ignored it for so fucking long.
I refused to be the creep that whacked off to shit he didn’t have permission to see in the first fucking place, and I carried enough guilt after seeing the way she reacted to the cameras being in her home.
But eventually, Jasmine’s giggling died down, leaving behind a heat in her brown eyes that clenched my gut.
So I took a chance.
I picked my hand up and cupped her cheek, smoothing my thumb along the unmarred skin of her face.
And when I saw her nuzzle against my palm, my cock jumped.
“Why do we have to be together to challenge them?” I asked.
Her eyes snapped up to mine, her voice a bit more breathless than before. “I’m—kind of a sucker for commitment. Makes it better, and all that.”
I watched her pupils blow wide, the black swallowing the gorgeous tree forest brown I had come to find so much comfort in.
How in the hell did this woman crawl underneath my skin so badly?
I’d only watched her for a few days.
She’d only been with us for a little over one.
I could be a commitment kind of guy for someone like her.
What the fuck was happening to me?
“Commitment,” I muttered.
Her tanned cheeks twinged with a blush. “Yeah. Guess I’m a romantic at heart.”
I slid my thumb along her cheek one last time before my hand slipped lower.
My fingertips traced the side of her neck, and I watched as her head tilted to the side ever so slightly.
Her pulse point raced against my skin, and I wondered how low she’d let me go.
I kept sliding them along her shoulder, moving my leather jacket that practically dwarfed her body off her shoulder.
Her tan skin glistened in the moonlight, that flimsy tank top barely holding up the voluptuous tits that my jacket more than covered.
No one deserved to see her that way. Not even me.
But goddamn it, I wanted nothing more than to faceplant into her body and not stop moving until she gave me every orgasm that man had never been able to give her before.
I lost myself in her momentarily as I leaned in and kissed her collarbone softly.
“Oh,” she whispered.
My nose slid back to her neck, nuzzling softly as I felt her take a step forward.
I didn’t dare touch her with my lips again, didn’t dare chance another kiss since it wasn’t as if I deserved the first one.
But I loved how her pulse point fluttered against my nose.
My fingertips continued trailing down her arm until I found her hand.
And when she threaded her fingers with mine, I knew I had her.
“What if I committed to making sure you felt as good as you could feel tonight?” I murmured.
I watched goosebumps skitter across her skin as I squeezed her hand within mine.
“I just don’t know if I can separate my emotions from everything,” she whispered.
“I’m not asking you to,” I mumbled as my nose trailed softly back up her cheek.
My eyes held her hostage once more.
Hers danced between mine. “What are you saying, Ghost?”
“I’m saying that I want to kiss you.”
“Oh,” she whispered.
My stare dropped to her lips. Those plump, beautiful little lips of hers. I wanted to kiss her until the only thing she knew was breathing the air I afforded her, but that meant removing my mask. Or at the very least, flipping it up.
And I couldn’t let her see that.
Angels deserved better views than that.
“Do you want to kiss me?” I asked as I pulled my stare back up to her eyes.
She licked her lips, and it immediately drew my attention back to her mouth before she responded. “Yes.”
My eyes darted back to hers. “Then close your eyes.”
Her gaze dropped to my mask. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.”
I gripped her chin and brought her gaze back to mine. “Just close your eyes for me, Jaz. I’ll take care of everything else.”
“But I want to see you. Please.”
Fucking hell, this woman was going to be the death of me. “Not in public, Jaz.”
Her shoulders sank a bit. “Okay.”
I disappointed her, and I hated myself for it.
She deserved more than disappointment. She deserved everything.
A commitment. A life she could be proud of.
A job she loved. A family that would love her back.
I didn’t know the ins and outs of her and her father’s relationship, but something told me Scout was right.
That she was nothing more than a good daughter to a man who didn’t deserve it.
I wrapped my arm around her waist and forced her to straighten her back. The confidence was sexy on her. I didn’t want her cowering away from anything ever again. Not as long as I was around. She was too good for that.
Too good for me.
Too good for this world.
And when she closed her eyes, just as the breeze kicked up, I tugged my mask down to my neck, relishing the cool breeze against my tightened skin.
I dropped my mangled lips to hers.