The Biker in Lace

Chapter 4.

The day is far too young for the excitement Lacy feels as her heart trots like a wild horse when the presentable heartthrob Clive sits down next to her for breakfast. It confuses Lacy how he could look so scary and evil when she saw him for the first time and then when she saw him later and now he looks so friendly, kind, years younger and handsome. Lacy smiles in greeting and slightly nods her head at him and in return his face lights up with a bright smile. Winking at her he takes his seat, instead of the shocked look that Lacy gave Tim a bright red blush creeps up her neck and rest on her cheeks, shyly she looks down at her plate. Bradley scoffs from across the table and Josh elbows him in his ribs, giving him a disapproving glance.

"You know I have a great idea. Since you two like making googley eyes at each other, why don't you pretend to be married?" Bradley snarls at Lacy and Clive. Why he has to be the unlucky one to pretend to be married to her still does not sit well with him, but his words only makes it sound like he is jealous.

Clive gives a low chuckle while shaking his head, interpreting his remark as jealousy. "Can't do, I'm already a member of the gang so they know I am as single as a pringle."

"A pringle, really?" Josh laughs.

"I could have used the word fungal, but I thought pringle is more appropriate at the dining table." Clive shrugs and all the occupants around the table burst out in laughter except for Bradley.

Bradly sarcastically rolls his eyes, he still does not like Clive and for some reason her does not like the way he looks at Lacy, now even more then before the big change. How a person can change by the drop off a hat is not normal and even dough he looks presentable now it does not change Bradley's first impression of this arrogant man across the table. This guy is hiding something and the way everyone (Lacy) suddenly adores him irks him tremendously for unknown reason. "Excuse me!" Bradly says before he stands up from the table and leaves the room, causing Josh and Lacy to share a confused look.

*_*

After breakfast Lacy, Bradley, Josh and Clive leave the house to get the necessary items they need for the rally they would be attending for the next week. They all piled into Clive's SUV, heading for the nearest mall. First they need tents and sleeping bags and who would have guessed that this would become an obstacle? It was supposed to be easy get the tents and sleeping bags and go, but no!

"What do you mean we only need two tents and two sleeping bags, we are three people?" Lacy objects to Clive's request to the sales lady at the outdoor and adventure store.

"Your married, remember? Married people sleep in one tent." Clive deadpanned and gives her a duh look.

"What?" Bradley bellows and Josh snickers.

"I'm not sharing a tent with him." Lacy says as Bradley continues: "I'm not sharing a sleeping bag with her." Both of them give each other a look of disgust. "So you are willing to share a tent, but not a sleeping bag?" Lacy asks sarcastically as Bradley asks: "So you are willing to share a sleeping bag, but not a tent?"

Lacy looks at Bradley confused and then shakes her head, he can be so daft sometimes. Face palming herself she says in an unamused tone: "You are so dumb. If I'm not willing to share a tent of course I won't be willing to share a sleeping bag. Where will the sleeping bag be under the stars or inside the tent, huh?"

"That's beside the point you are willing to sleep with me in a sleeping bag. Interesting." Bradley says with a smirk, dismissing her argument as he deliberately tries to get on her nerves and tries to see how Clive will react.

"It's not beside the point or interesting. Who in their right mind would want to share a sleeping space with an egotistical bastard like you?" She retorts her eyes sparking lightning bolts at him.

"Oh, but any girl would love being near me in any sleeping space especially if we stay awake." He teases with a wink and the smirk turns into a triumphant smile.

“All of them are air heads, I tell you. They are complete and utter dumbos.” Lacy rants as she turns around and storms of with a disgustful look on her face. She feels like barfing at the mental image that flashed before her eyes at his words.

"Dumbos, is not a word.” Josh hollers at her retreating back. “Just get two tents and three sleeping bags.” He tells Clive before he turns in the direction that Lacy disappeared to. “She is right though, they all are a bit dumb." Josh sighs as he follows Lacy to try and calm her down. ‘How the hell is this plan going to work?’

*_*

After calming Lacy and purchasing two tents and three sleeping bags it was time to go to the tattoo parlour which a friend of Clive owned. Vince was a big guy with every inch of his body covered in tattoos. His head was shaven and had a tattoo that looked like flames around an eight ball tattooed on it. His arms had tattoo sleeves with dragons breathing fire and dragon slayers trying to slay the dragons on them. His shirtless torso was covered with all sorts of tattoos displaying his six pack abs and well defined chest and back, proof that this guy spends hours in the gym on a daily basis. He shows them to the back where he already set up everything for the fake tattoos and the piercings Josh would be getting. Lacy had a dreamy look on her face the whole time they spent near Vince. If she could she would have eaten him alive.

"So where do you want to start?" Vince asks a nervous looking Josh. "I'll suggest the piercings. Start with the pain first."

"May I look at your catalogues?" Bradley and Lacy asks in unison as Josh nods and heads for the chair Vince showed him to. Nodding Vince gives them the permission to look through the files on the counter in front of the shop.

"Why do you want to look at the catalogues in any case?" Bradley asks Lacy as he takes the second catalogue to look through.

"Because I want to colour it in." She deadpans sarcastically.

"Wait, you Miss. Fake biker wants an actual tattoo?" Bradley starts to taunt again.

"Why do you insist on calling me fake?" Lacy says as she pages through the catalogue a frown between her eyes.

"Oh, let's see?" Bradley fakes thoughtfulness by tapping his chin with his right index finger staring at the ceiling. "One: Just by being able to ride a bike does not make you a biker, it just makes you able to ride a bike." He counts it down on his fingers as he continues his eyes now on Lacy. "Two: Wearing jeans and not dresses, does not make you a biker, it makes you boyish. Three: You ware lace because it gives you the femininity of a woman, but you want to give off the vibe that you are a biker chick with your jeans and biker boots. Do you even own a pair of heels? Four: Just because you are stubborn it does not mean you are though, it just means you do not want to acknowledge the fact that you are wrong. Five: You act all innocent and nice, but you look at Clive and Vince as if you want to eat them. Now you want to get a tattoo just to justify your fake biker image. Seriously I do not get why Josh can’t see pass your pretence." With every point he made they both unintentionally took a step closer to the other, their eyes full of rage as they glare at each other.

"Oh, you are so full of yourself. I don't need to be a tomboy to be a biker and I know I can ride circles around you with my bike. Why can't I have a different taste in clothing then the image of a biker that you have? I happen to like lace and leather and it looks good together. I want to get a tattoo since I've been sixteen by the way. Not that I need to explain myself to a man w***e that only use woman as a toy and his biker status as a 'bad boy player' to get more chicks falling for the lack of his personality, besides what does it have to do with you if I want to eat someone?" Lacy's eyes are blazing at Bradley's fuming caramel coloured eyes. They stand toe to toe and Lacy has to dip her head backwards to look up at Bradley that has his head dipped forward to look down at Lacy, the one not wavering against the other.

"I do not use woman!" Bradley's angered voice echoes through the tattoo parlour.

"Oh, yes you do. You strung Mary along for how long? You have how many girls hanging around you when you go to bars, and rallies. You have a new flavour every week and they don’t even care, just as long as they get to be with the bad boy of the town." Lacy's hands balled into tight fists beside her body as her temper rises making her fingers feel numb.

"It is not my fault your sister saw a different picture to our friendship than what I did and all those woman that hangs around me like you said, I did not tell them to hang around me did I?" Bradley defended himself.

"Oh, spare me the bull. You knew exactly what she thought of you and for those other girls you encourage and exploit it to its fullest." Bradley's straight nose with the slight bump where Lacy accidentally broke it when he was ten flared and his strong square jaw clenched.

"You sure do sound jealous right now." He growls irritated at her misperception of him and the feelings he has towards the girls basically throwing themselves at his feet. He thinks of a way to shut her up as she starts to speak again, but somehow he does not think she would like the only idea that pops into his mind. He is not even sure he likes it.

"Jealous, why would I be jealous about you? To be jealous I need to like you and for your information I hate you more than you could ever hate me. I despise your egotistical self-loving attitude. I loathe..." Lacy isn't able to finish her sentence as Bradley's lips connects to hers. Shock fills her being as the realisation of what Bradley is doing sets in. Seconds passes without Lacy moving then slowly her lips starts to tingle and fire spreads through her body, filling her body with heat. Like a fever that sets in her hands became clammy and her head swirled. Suddenly Bradley felt her lips moving, but it’s moving away from him in a very slow manner causing him to open his eyes in confusion, all girls love his kisses. Realisation dawns on him just in time to catch the fainting damsel in front of him.

With Lacy slang over his shoulder he walks back to the cubical where Josh is being transformed. As he walks in to the designated area Josh accused in a loud voice, pulling away from Vince just as he wanted to shoot the earing through his ear. "What the hell did you do now?" Lacy's unconscious body hangs like a sack of potatoes from his shoulder her arms limp next to her head.

"I did not do anything. We were talking and paging through the catalogues and then the next moment she fainted. I think maybe the thought of blood made her woozy." Bradley lies without even blushing. There is no way he will tell anyone that he kissed his arch enemy. He hopes with all his might that Lacy will not remember the kiss when she comes to.

"Then what was all the yelling about?" Josh insists on knowing the truth. What if Bradley finally cracked and knocked her unconscious with a catalogue? Those things are huge and would cause serious harm. What if she's dead? Death by catalogue thrown by enemy. Josh's mind was running at then miles per second as he pushes Vince away so he can get to Lacy, the task at hand forgotten for the next few seconds as he scrambles to get to his friend. "Bradley I swear if you killed her..."

"What? Killed? She fainted, Josh I swear, I did not do anything to your precious friend." Bradley snarls as he interrupts a frantic Josh.

"Guys, maybe we should try waking her up before you get to worked up and start throwing punches." Clive tries to restore the peace between the two friends, who is now glaring at each other.

Vince helps Bradley to put Lacy on the bench where Josh sat minutes ago. Josh takes Lacy's hand in his as he sits on the chair near the bench. His face tells the tale of concern as he looks worriedly at his friend. Vince brings a cold wet towel for Josh to wipe Lacy's face so she can wake up. Seconds later the confused blue orbs appear behind the flittering of her dark eyelashes. Then her eyes fall on a guilty looking Bradley, but before she could say a word Josh interrupts her thoughts. "Are you okay?" Josh askes concerned, still holding her one hand in his and holding the wet cloth to her fore head with the other.

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. What... ?” Then when the events that made her faint flash through her mind she shrieks accusingly. "Why the hell did you kiss me?” Her eyes are blazing at Bradley who looks awkwardly at the tips of his shoes.

“You are the one that liked it so much you fainted.” Bradley shoots back with the first thing that came to his mind.

"Yeah, just as much as you would like a knee in your nu…..” Lacy retorts as she sits up with her arms folded over her chest.

"Okay, okay." Josh cuts her off with his hands held up in a surrendering motion. “Bradley, why did you kiss her?” He asks curiously with a smirk on his face.

“To shut her up.” He defends. “Her blah, blah, blah got annoying.”

“You are annoying your stupid idiot.” Lacy utters frustrated with Bradley and his stupid irritating face.

“You are the…” Bradley starts.

“Okay, stop this is not working.” Vince’s voice stops all of theirs instantly. “Bradley why don’t you go with Claire and she can get you started on your tattoo and I will continue with Josh’s piercings.” He orders as he motions for Josh to take his seat again.

Lacy takes the time to look at her friend and saw that Josh has almost all the piercings they agreed upon except for the one in his left earlobe. The others all look red and sore, but Lacy knows the pain would subside soon as she only got her earring when she was sixteen. “Are you okay?” She asks with gentleness to her voice as she knows Josh hates blood and she could see that there were tissues with blood on it next to the chair.

“Yeah, it’s not as bad as I thought.” He smiles at her, glad that she seemed fine now. Did you find the tattoo you wanted?” He asks knowing that she wanted a tattoo for a very long time now.

“Not yet. I will look through the catalogues again when we look for yours.” She suggests as she waits for Josh to get his last piercing. Returning to the front of the shop to look through the catalogues again she sees Bradley still paging through them.

“I thought Cindy started on your tattoo already.” She utters when he looks up at her. For some reason she felt awkward around him now.

“No, still looking for the one I want.” He answered as he distractedly turned to the next page.

“Oh.” The single syllable leaves Lacy’s lips as silence falls between them.

"So, you decided on a tattoo?" Bradley breaks the deathly silence that hangs between them, deciding to play nice since he did make the girl faint. He does not mention the kiss hoping that they can sweep it under the rug for all eternity.

"No not yet, but there is one that caught my eye." She answers and for once it felt like they were nice to each other and not instantly teasing or insulting the other.

"If you are not sure about what to get, we can just get it done at the rally tomorrow. You know how many stalls there normally are." Bradley continues the conversation, trying not to feel too bad about what happened.

"I think I would get the one I saw, it would mean something to me. So where are you getting this one?” Lacy asks out of curiosity. It would be interesting to see what he would add to his collection she knows he has on his back.

"Let's make a deal. When we got it done then we will reveal it to each other at the same time, what do you say?" Bradley says as he responds with a nod to her question.

"Okay, fine, but only if we choose appropriate places to put them, because I really don't want to see you butt for example." Lacy adds a condition herself as she knows Bradley well enough to be sure he would pick an absurd place just to embarrass her.

"Okay, fine, but let's make it even more interesting. I choose the spot where your tattoo should go and you choose mine. You can even name the areas where we can choose from, but we will both secretly tell the tattoo artist where it should go." Bradly adds again.

"Fine by me. Let's see uhm... the obvious places like arms, legs and back of course and then clavicle, stomach and ribs?" She says questioningly looking as if she is in thought.

"Okay, deal." Bradley says holding out his hand to shake on it with a smirk. Lacy takes his hand and for some unknown reason a jolt of electricity runs up her arm. Quickly pulling away she turns away from Bradley searching for the tattoo she saw earlier. Both of them glad that the kiss was not mentioned, now if it can just stay like that.

*_*

Hours later Josh had his fake tattoo's done and sits in the waiting area with Bradley waiting for Lacy to get her tattoo done. Bradley chose her clavicle as the spot where her tattoo should go. So far he assumes that she would be fine with the spot as she did not come out screaming at him. He is quite curious as to see what she chose to get and nervous as to where she would choose for him to get a tattoo, since he did not really favour any other place as his back or arms.

Josh looked totally different now. He had sleeve tattoos on both arms and a dragon curled his way down his right leg from his knee to his ankle. His back and chest was bare as he did not intend on taking of his shirt around any Beastly M.C. members. Vince had to insure him a couple of times that the tattoos would last for at least three months and that it did not look fake at all. He could not afford to let his cover be blown just by fake tattoos.

"Why did you kiss Lacy?" Josh breaks the silence between them. He sits with his elbows pressed on his knees as he watches Bradley nervously pacing around the waiting area, thinking that that might be the reason why he is pacing a groove into the floor.

"I told you I just wanted to shut her up. We were paging through the catalogues and had a discussion about her fakeness and then she ranted about how she hates me and I just could not take her annoying voice anymore." Bradley huffs, while waiting for Cindy to finish with her client.

"Fakeness is not a word Bradley and Lacy is the most real person I know." Josh defends her in a serious tone. He can never understand why Bradley always says she is fake, according to Josh she always just been unique with her unexpected personality trades. “I don’t get why you kissed her though. It never happened before and usually you would just shout at her to shut up.”

"I don’t know why I did it either. I have known her just as long as you have and I still don’t get that you see her differently than me. I see that she pretends to be a tomboy so daddy would approve, but surely she does not have fake loving bikes and the whole life style. How can you not see that?" Bradley lifts his opinion, shrugging his shoulders in a questioning manner.

"You have it all wrong, Bradley. Mr. Cavanagh never approved of Lacy's tomboy demeanour. He always looked down on her and acted like Mary was his favourite, so no, she does not pretend to be a biker to win his approval, she is a biker, because that is what she chose to be. He told her yesterday for the first time that he is proud of her. Everything she ever did was seen as negative and not good enough and she chose to be herself without needing their approval or wanting it." Josh ends with a frustrated sigh. Hoping Bradley would start to understand her better at least by the end of the trip. "If she is fake, then so am I."

"I never knew that, she never showed any of that." Bradley says flabbergasted as he looks down to his feet, halted in his pacing. “They always look so close." He states softly barely audible.