Read Online Know Me (DEFIANT Motorcycle Club) by Cora Brent - Free Book Online

considerable might.  I couldn’t do anything but be carried along by his whims.  As he bored down I felt his hot release and it was all too much for me.  I screamed my pleasure again, not caring who the hell heard. 
    He was still inside me and still had my arms pinned.  His smile was one of grudging respect.  “You learn fast, Kira” he said, pulling himself out yet not releasing my arms.  “But I give the fucking orders.” 
    I met his eyes.  “If you say so, Orion.” 
    He chuckled and released me, sitting up and pulling me into his lap.  I rested my head on his shoulder.  There were things I wanted to say.  That I’d missed him in the day he’d been gone.  That whatever this was between us was helping me heal from the violence which had ended the world I’d known. 
    But instead I just kissed the knot of hard muscle and asked him a question.
    “Orion?  Will you take me for a ride?”
    ***
    We hurtled through the scrubby brown desert as the sun rose higher in the sky.  I recognized that we’d left Quartzsite behind miles ago.  There didn’t appear to be much on the eastern horizon.  According to the signs which blurred past, Phoenix was over a hundred miles away. 
    Between the wind, the roar of the bike and the whoosh of the large haul trucks we passed on the I-10, I couldn’t very well get a question across to Orion.  So I gripped him more tightly and leaned into his broad back, loving the feel of my hair whipping around us furiously.  I hadn’t been on a bike in years. 
    After a time Orion exited the freeway.  I missed the sign which would indicate where we were headed but the road was considerably narrower than the interstate.  I closed my eyes and hugged my driver more ti ghtly, indulging in the sensation of trust which came with being carried along like this. 
    Orion slowed as we neared a crop of buildings with a smattering of palm trees. We passed a painted yellow sign with red lettering reading ‘Salome, Arizona’ and then, oddly, underneath that were the words “Where she danced”. 
    The town was small, smaller than Quartzsite even.  Outside of a squat cafe a man sat in a folding chair with his enormous belly spilling out in all directions.  He waved a laconic arm in greeting.  On the side of another low, boxy building was a painted picture of a womanly sick figure underneath the curious words which were apparently the town’s logo.  “Where she danced.” 
    We had passed through the small center of town within a minute.  I was able to see how Salome sat in a serene valley surrounded by brownish gray mountains.  Orion turned abruptly onto a dirt road which clearly warned against trespassers and drove the rough terrain closer to the mountains.  He made another quick turn onto an even shallower road which was really more of a path.  After a few moments of bumpy travel he stopped the bike next to a small neglected plot which was surrounded by a low fence made of ruined chicken wire. 
    I waited until Orion climbed off the bike and then followed him.  He took off his sunglasses and squinted towards town. 
    “So who danced here?” I asked, looking into the same direction to see whatever it was he saw. 
    “Salome.”
    “Who’s Salome?”
    Orion grinned.  “Don’t you know the bible, Kira?”
    “The bible?” I scoffed.  “No, and I’d bet my slim collection of possessions that neither do you.”
    He laughed.  “You’d be surprised. Some shit sunk in back in the early years.  My mother was a believer.  Anyway, it doesn’t matter.  This Salome was named after the wife of one of the earliest residents.  One summer day about a hundred years ago this lady, Salome, made the mistake of walking somewhere barefoot.  When the ground burned her feet she jumped around in pain.  And to the men who watched, I guess it looked like she was dancing.”
    Orion settled on the dusty ground next to the plot which I realized from the crumbling place markers was