MC Sinners Boxed Set #1-7

CHAPTER 3 | PAST - CIARA

CHAPTER 3

PAST - CIARA

“ W ho’s the motorcycle man?” Cheyenne asks me, flipping her long, blonde hair over her shoulder and peering out the window.

“That’s Danny. He’s a friend.”

“A friend Mom and Dad won’t like.”

I shrug. “They won’t know.”

Chey turns and smiles, twisting her hair and securing it with a clip. “You into him?”

I snort. “No, he’s just a friend.”

She grins and her eyes twinkle with humor.

“Seriously, Chey, he’s just a friend. Now, I have to go.”

“All right, well you better be home before Mom gets here. You know she’ll flip if you show up with Motorcycle Man down there.”

I wave a hand, and grip my purse. “Yeah, I’ll be home before her.”

I turn and rush out the door, then down the stairs. I walk through our large home, until I reach the front door.

I step out, and instantly I smile. Danny is on his bike, grinning at me. He’s beautiful in a way that just can’t be described. His hair is long, sandy blonde and tied in a ponytail behind his head. He has these brown eyes that sometimes look black, they get so dark. I wave and hurry down the front stairs, surrounded by blooming red roses my mother planted months ago, grinning as I near him.

“Hey Tom Cat,” he grins.

He’s called me Tom Cat since the moment we met at a friend’s party. As soon as he saw my oddly colored yellow eyes, he decided the name suited me.

“Hey Danny.” I smile, getting on the back of his bike and taking the helmet he passes back to me.

“You ready? We’re goin’ to have a sweet day.”

“What are we doing?” I ask, wrapping my arm around his waist.

“Secret, hang on.”

He pulls the throttle and the bike lurches forward. We speed off down the street, and I breathe in deeply, getting a mix of the sea air and Danny’s scent. God, he smells good. I might only be eighteen, but I know enough to know that Danny is the kind of man that has girls swooning. I wrap my arms tighter around him as we speed down the road.

I’ve been friends with Danny since I was seventeen, and since then we’ve spent most weekends together. He even picks me up for work in the mornings and drops me off in the afternoons.

We cruise down the highway, and I try to decide where it is Danny is taking me. When we pull up at a picnic ground with rolling hills and cute little picnic benches, and a massive swimming lake, my heart skips a beat. Danny doesn’t show a great deal of affection. He can be hard when it comes to his feelings, but he shows them in other ways - ways like this. I slip off the back of the bike when Danny parks it, and lift my helmet off. My breath hitches as I admire the scenery; it’s absolutely stunning. Danny gets off the bike and steps up beside me, and for a moment we’re both quiet.

“Know how much you love swimmin’,” he murmurs.

I turn to face him then I leap up and down, clapping my hands. He grins at me, flashing that deep, long dimple that completely transforms his face.

“Race you!”

He snorts, but I’m off and running before he even gets a chance to respond. I run up a hill, then down another until I can see the large lake, with it’s perfectly clear water ahead. I’m just at the top of another hill when Danny catches up. He grips my waist and hurls me backwards. With a laugh, I latch onto him and take him with me when I fall.

We stumble down the large hill, bumping and grazing our skin as we roll. Yet the entire time, we’re laughing. We hit the bottom with a thump, and Danny grips me, rolling us both until we flop into the water. I squeal as it surrounds me, freezing my skin and causing me to shudder. I manage to close my mouth and stop screaming just before we both go under. Danny doesn’t let me go, he keeps his arms around me, and moments later we both re-surface.

“Fuck,” he laughs, shaking his blonde hair around. “Didn’t plan on entering quite so dramatically.”

I giggle loudly. “You don’t do anything in half measures, do you?”

“Hell no, Tom Cat.”

I splash a heap of water at him, and he laughs, splashing some back. This starts a splashing war that has us both laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. By the time we get out of the water, we’re soaked, laughing and completely content. We climb to the top of the hill and sit, staring out at the horizon. The lake meets more rolling hills, with a few scattered trees. I lean into Danny and like always, we chat freely. Until the snake. I’m sure one day I’ll laugh about the snake, but for the moment, it’s certainly not funny. It comes out of nowhere; suddenly it’s just there, slithering toward us. I scream, leaping up. Danny is on his feet beside me in seconds.

“Stand still,” he orders.

Like that’s going to happen. Snakes are my biggest fear, and this one is huge. I scream so loudly that I hurt my own ears. My heart is beating heavily, and my entire body is tingly with fear.

So, I do the only thing that makes sense in that moment. I throw myself down the hill - headfirst. It wasn’t my brightest moment, but in my panicked attempt to get away, I wasn’t thinking. I roll and stumble, my body screaming at me to just stop. I can’t, though. I roll and roll until I hit the flat ground just before the lake.

For a long moment I lay there, groaning in pain. My heart is still thumping, and my body aches everywhere.

Danny is down the hill in a second, and when I roll to look up at him, I expect to see worry in his expression - instead, he’s smothering a laugh. As soon as our eyes meet, he throws his head back and roars with laughter. I cry out and cover my face, ashamed that I did something so stupid. Danny gets onto his knees, reaching for me but I slap his hands away.

“Aw, Tom Cat, come on,” he laughs. “It was funny.”

“It was not funny!” I cry, slapping his hands again.

“Tom Cat, it was fuckin’ hilarious. Didn’t you think of running the other way?”

“I was scared!” I protest, covering my face in shame.

“So you threw yourself down a hill?”

“Shut up, you asshole!”

“Aw, come here.”

He grips me, pulling me onto his lap. His body is still shaking with laughter as he holds me tight.

“It’s not funny, Danny.”

“Kinda funny...”

“You’re horrible.”

“Can’t help it. It’s not every day a girl throws herself down a hill in front of you.”

I can’t help it. I burst out into a fit of giggles too. It was kind of stupid...

“You make my fuckin’ days bright, Tom Cat.”

I snuggle in closer, laughing along with him.

Danny makes me content.

Maybe one day, I’ll tell him how much.

~*~*~*~