ON FIRE FOR HIM

“You know you can just easily find someone else to sleep with, right?” Grace said, wiping down a sticky table while Reese stood beside her, arms folded. “Yes, that’s easy,” Reese replied, his gaze drifting toward the window. “But…?” she said poking further, because she knew that there was something else. “It isn’t easy to find someone who does it right, or someone who knows how to take care of a prince,” Reese replied, flashing him a grin that was all teeth. “A prince that wipes down beer spills? Tell me about it” she mocked, laughing as they moved to the backroom to drop off a stack of dishes. “My Prince Charming will find me one day, just you wait,” he said, reclaiming his spot behind the cashier. “He'd better come soon, because I can hear you from my room every night,” she said with a look of mock-disgust. Reese’s head snapped toward her, ears turning pink. “That’s gross. I hope you haven’t been peeking.” “Maybe I—” She didn’t finish her sentence when the door to the bar swung open and the notorious Monglosas biker club members walked in. “Ohh.. great, they’re here again” Grace said, rolling her eyes and looking away from the door. “I can attend to them if you want, their lame insults don’t get to me” Reese said, hoping to sound unbothered and avoid his best friend from being in an uncomfortable situation. “I can handle it,” the tough look on her face told him, though. Reese watched as Grace walked up to the men. One of them, a mountain of a man with scarred hands and a thick mustache, leered at her. She tried to brush him off, but when he reached out and grabbed her waist, she shoved his hand away. She snapped something at him that made the other bikers snicker, their chairs scraping the floor as they stood up to intimidate her. Reese walked up to them without thinking. “Is everything okay here?” he said, and the huge man turned to the others, who all laughed. “What’s a faggot doing with such a pretty lady, what can you possibly do with her?” one of them said and the huge man growled in excitement. “She didn’t give you her consent to touch her, so why are you insisting?” he said, not taking his eyes off the man’s face that had scars on it. “I like her, do you have a problem with that?” The man said with an audacity that might imply Grace didn’t have a choice in the situation. Reese snickered and folded his arms looking at the man from his greasy boots to the top of his head, like he was sizing him up and the huge man was obviously triggered. He picked up a bottle from the table and hit it on the side, holding the rest of the bottle by the neck, ready for a fight. “Relax, I haven’t even called you a pig yet, you f*****g pig!!” Reese said getting in the man’s face, with a confident look on his face, like he would be able to beat him up if it came down to that. They both stared at themselves for a moment, the man with a furious expression on his face and Reese with a smirk and a glint in his eyes that masked the fear that he was feeling. Every other person in the bar, was patiently waiting to see if the fight would break out. And that was when the door opened, Reese couldn’t see who it was because he was turned facing the other side of the bar, the person seemed to walk towards them and the other guys surrounding the huge man, simply stood down like they had respect for whoever walked in, maybe their leader. “Tank” the deep voice said and that was when the huge man dropped the bottle on the table and walked past Reese, bumping him violently on his shoulder. “Are you okay” he said to Grace who stood in front of him, she seemed shaken but even more horrified by the fact that Reese was about to fight the huge man. “Do you want to get yourself killed?” she hissed, smacking his arm, she turned to face the man who walked in and Reese followed her gaze. His eyes immediately came in contact with those sea green ones, everything around him blurred, and all he could see was a demi-god towering at least five inches taller than him, with black hair that was ruffled from being inside a helmet, to the piercings on his ear, his lips, and his exquisite jawline. “You’re staring” Grace said and bumped him with her elbow, the man nodded at Reese and walked out of the bar, to probably talk to his guys. “I was? I didn’t realize that” he replied and walked past her to the counter. “Well, for what it’s worth he was staring too” she said and he felt his stomach flip, which was weird I just met him for like five seconds. There was noise outside, that sounded like arguing or more like scolding and after a few minutes, the bikers left like they were never there. The man walked back into the bar, his eyes searched every corner of the room and when they landed on Grace, he walked towards her and said something to her, and she smiled at him. He walked towards the counter, and Reese acted like he didn’t see him there. The man sat on the stool with one leg on the ground and his hand leaning his weight on the counter. He watched Reese walk around for a while before he cleared his throat and spoke. “Can I get a drink?” he said and Reese just looked at him for a moment, nodded, and continued what he was doing. “Sorry about Tank, he’s drunk and doesn’t know when to stop” the man said calmly, as his eyes followed Reese, who paced over the counter faking being busy because he didn’t want to look the man directly in the eye. “He sure as hell doesn’t know when to stop,” Reese said, stopping for a moment and looking at the man this time. Seeing him up close was different from when he was towering above him, he was indeed a demigod as Reese thought. A smirk flashed across the man’s face and he looked down at his fingers tapping the bar before he spoke, with a slightly amused smile on his lips. “But you? You should know better than to poke a bear” “I’m not poking a bear; I’m telling a dog to get off my porch. Are you the owner?" This time, the man had a full grin across his face and Reese stuttered for a moment just looking at him like that. He resumed wiping the bar and cleaning out cups. “You’ve got a lot of teeth for a bartender” the man said, still very amused, he was enjoying their interaction. “And you’ve got a lot of apologies for a guy who looks like he’s never said ‘sorry’ in his life. Which one are you here for? A drink or my forgiveness?” Reese replied, smiling too because this was definitely getting funny. “Can’t I have both?” the man said tilting his head in mock confusion. Reese couldn’t help it, he chuckled. “Michelangelo Fuentes, but my friends call me Macs” he said extending his hand and Reese looked at it for a moment before taking it. “Reese Garcia” with an amused look on both their faces, the handshake lingered for a while till Grace walked up to the bar and they let go of each other. Macs took to touching his neck and his eyes caught Reese’s eyes one more time and Reese just looked away, they definitely just had a moment. “You boys catching up?” Grace said with her cheery and bubbly voice. “I’ll be leaving now” he said sliding off the stool. “Don’t want that drink anymore?’ Reese asked. “Nope, I already got the latter, your forgiveness” he replied with a smirk. “You liar” Reese said and Macs couldn’t help but slightly chuckle. “I’ll be back for that drink though” he said before turning to leave. “Anytime” he replied softly He reached the door and paused, looking back over his shoulder with a wide, devastating grin before stepping out. Reese watched through the glass as the motorcycle sped away into the Texas dusk. “What was that chemistry?” Grace said half shrieking with excitement. “Chemistry? I didn’t notice any of that” Reese said turning away from her to hide the heat crawling up his cheeks. “It was obviously there” she replied. “I didn’t notice that” “You’re lying, you know he is totally into you” she said. “Doesn’t matter, he is a Fuertes and I know better” Reese replied kind of disappointed. “Ohh…”