The Switch by Debra Kayn (desktop ebook reader TXT) 📗

she'd stayed relaxed, if not excited, to come home with him. He wanted her comfortable with him again.

She pulled away with soft kisses. "I need to grab my bag."

He reached around her and opened the back door of the car, grabbing a backpack. There were two more sitting on the seat.

"Hand me the other ones. Zach and Kenny forgot them at the sight of your house." She raised her brows. "You know, they're probably investigating every inch of the place."

"They can't hurt anything." He held the bags, bumped the door shut, and led her up the walkway.

Inside, he led her to the great room overlooking the river. Dumping two of the bags, he took the maroon and pink one and walked down the hallway.

Bonnie followed him, taking her time looking at everything. At the door to his bedroom, he waited for her.

She stopped in front of him. "I passed three empty bedrooms. How many do you have?"

"Just four." He walked inside and dropped the bag on the chair by the dresser. "The boys will probably want to stay on the deck, but if they want to crash on the floor, they can pick a room. I have a couple sleeping bags in the closet they can use."

She looked behind her toward the hallway. "Where are they?"

The constant thumps, only he could hear, told him exactly where they could be found. He pressed his hand on her lower back. "I'll show you."

Taking her to the end of the hallway, he opened the door, went down three steps ignoring the laundry room on one side and the locker room on the other side, opened another door, and entered the gym.

Zach and Kenny dribbled a basketball on the half-size court, not paying attention to them entering the gym, and they weren't alone.

Behind him, Bonnie gasped. He turned.

She looked at him, shaking her head. "This changes everything."

"What does?"

"You have a basketball court and..." She peered around the area. "An indoor swimming pool, a climbing wall, weights, and jump ropes. You have jump ropes, Trip."

At a loss about what ropes had to do with her thinking his circumstances changed things between them, he remained quiet. Everything here had nothing to do with their relationship. He needed to stay in shape.

The pills he consumed each day required him to burn off excess energy to remain in top form and ready. There were times when he got busy with the club or involved with the training of others, that the side effects of not expending enough energy throughout the day hit him hard.

Headaches, tremors, and even vomiting would hit him. To keep him healthy, he needed at least two hours of hard physical exercise a day.

"Check this out." Kenny threw the ball from half-court and missed the basket, hitting the backboard. "Trip, this house is awesome. What else do you have?"

He could tell now wasn't the time to show the boys the motorcycles, snowmobiles, and the off-roaders in his attached garage. His gun collection was off-limits to everyone but him.

"Have you checked out the deck? You guys can sleep out there or in one of the bedrooms." He reached over and gathered Bonnie's hand, keeping her with him as the boys went to explore again.

When they were alone, he brought her to the front of him. "It's just a house."

"There's one thing I need to know."

"Ask."

She rubbed her lips together. "How does a biker afford this?"

"A lot of Avery Falls MC members have houses much like mine."

"Speeder doesn't." She pursed her lips.

"He does." Confused by why she seemed upset that he had a bigger home than her. "Behind his house, he has a pole building with the same fitness equipment and a swimming pool in the back yard."

She wouldn't have seen it from the front of the house. He rubbed the lines off the corner of her eyes. Possessions were unimportant to him.

"You never answered my question."

"Avery Falls Motorcycle Club owns the town. The club benefits from every tourist that comes here. You've only seen the off-season. Wait until summer comes, and you'll see how profitable it is, not only for the club but for the businesses."

She blew out her breath. "You're not doing anything illegal, are you?"

"In what way?"

Her eyes rounded. "Are you seriously asking if there are different ways of being illegal?"

He waited. There were things he'd done that exceeded the lines of legality. The CIA was above the government. Most of the things he'd done remained conspiracies by paranoid people, wanting to believe there were advanced intelligence and bionics.

Of course, he couldn't tell her those same conspiracies happened in Avery Falls, and he participated in human experiments.

"Drugs? Guns? Money laundering?" She paused on a hysterical laugh. "Kidnapping? Ransom? Killing people?"

"I'm just a guy who pledged his life to a motorcycle club who owns Avery Falls, Bonnie." He leaned forward, lowering his head to see her eyes. "Riding is my life. These mountains are home. And the feelings I have for you are quickly making me want to take you into the bedroom, strip you down, and finally fuck you the right way...on a bed."

Her gaze warmed, and she shivered.

"Okay, Mister Trip." She slipped her fingers into his hand. "Show me what it's like to live a day in your life."

He'd do whatever was needed to make sure she never experienced what he went through. That realization shook him because he couldn't remember what was done to him. He only knew he wouldn't allow the Alpha Bio Project to get their hands on her.

Chapter Twenty

The silence in the large, attached bathroom surrounded Bonnie. She leaned over the sink and applied mascara to her pale eyelashes. They'd slept in after having a late night, but she'd expected the boys to be awake, considering they were sleeping outside on the deck over the river.

While the days were warming up, the nights were cold, hovering around thirty-five degrees.

The bedroom door opened and shut. She looked in the mirror and caught sight of Trip entering the bathroom.

At