Chapter 1

I leaned across the middle console to push open the passenger door. Mud caked the outside of the raised pickup truck I drove.

My mouth twisted into a grin under my racing helmet as I asked the brunette woman outside the door, “You sure you wanna ride with me?”

She could join me or not. Sure, it'd be more fun with a partner but I was going out either way.

The woman blushed, but nodded. “Please.”

Yes. I gestured her in and settled back into the driver's seat.

She stepped onto the running boards and climbed into the truck cab, slamming the door behind her.

I handed her a helmet. “My name’s Zion. Wear this and buckle yourself in. The ‘oh shit’ handle is above your head.”

She smiled hesitantly. “Okay.”

This woman's friend had talked her into this. The other woman rode with the other guide, my best friend and co-worker Eric. She hadn't been sold on the idea, especially being without her friend for her ride.

The woman strapped on the helmet and secured her harness.

“You good?” I asked her.

She nodded, timid but excited. “Yes, sir.”

I checked her protective gear. When I was satisfied she was properly secured in, I trailed a knuckle down her cheek and winked at her.

“Don't worry. We're going to have fun,” I reassured her.

Shyly, she smiled.

My gaze trailed over her. She wore a pink sundress and strappy sandals. Not at all appropriate clothing for mudding — if we got stuck, she was SOL — but she looked delicious. I’d bet she’d look amazing with that dress bunched around her waist and her hips in my hands as I pounded her from behind.

I bit my lower lip, the ball of my side-labret piercing jutting forward as I did. The woman was hot, even if she was a little shy.

Wonder if she’d let me fuck her before she left.

I licked my lips and couldn't help but notice the interest she conveyed when she met my gaze and licked hers, too.

I grinned. Oh yeah. I'd get a taste of her. Sure thing.

Ladies — and sometimes guys when the mood was right; personality attracted me, not gender — loved my bad-boy look. Pierced eyebrow, pierced lip, and tattoos from neck to toe. My looks screamed irresponsibility — my past lays loved it because they could say they caught the bad-boy. Sex was always one-and-done, though. I never went back for seconds.

My tattooed hands, flaming skulls on the back of each that trailed down into finger bones, gripped the steering wheel. I smiled wickedly. “Hold on, gorgeous.”

Her hand gripped the door rest.

My grey eyes checked the rearview mirror, and I turned my head to look at the side mirrors. All clear.

I focused back on the dirt road and pushed the gas pedal. The truck surged forward until at the start line, where I abruptly pressed the brake and came to a sudden stop beside a reinforced black Jeep Wrangler. The vehicle was also coated with mud.

Eric nodded at me from his spot in the driver's seat, his long brown hair pulled out of the way in a ponytail and helmet secured around his head. He wore our uniform, a one-piece racing jumpsuit that fit over our clothes.

I held the brake in and revved the engine. Eric's responding rev competed with mine. I grinned.

Before us, a pole-mounted traffic light flashed red. The muddy, pot-hole riddled track stretched beyond it.

“Hold onto the ‘oh shit' handle, honey,” I said as I focused on the light. “And have fun,” I added.

I don't know whether or not she listened to me.

Adrenaline pulsed through the air as we waited. Eric and I revved the engines. The light would turn at any minute.

My hands gripped the steering wheel, and my heart thudded faster. Anticipation coursed through my veins.

The light changed, and I floored the gas. The truck raced forward into the muddy track.

We pulled forward so fast that the back fish-tailed in the mud but the vehicle kept moving forward.

The woman shrieked and grabbed onto the handle above her head.

We splashed down into a huge pothole, mud and water flying everywhere around us.

The Jeep appeared beside us.

Oh, Hell no.

I gassed it, water and mud splashing as our tires tore through it.

There was a drop-off ahead holding a mud pit — the biggest obstacle.

“Hold on!” I called out.

The truck went airborne as we drove off the ledge.

My companion screamed and held onto the handle for her life.

The truck landed in the boggy mud and continued forward. We got stuck, and the tires whined as they spun, the back end fish-tailing.

I tapped the brake and, when the wires stopped spinning, I shifted to four-wheel drive.

We rocked up out of the mud pit.

“Whew!” I yelled as the tires climbed out of the pit.

The mud and potholes that followed were nothing.

Eric pulled out of the mud right behind me, though. Fuck.

We raced neck and neck to the end, the windshield wipers on the truck groaning as they slashed through the mud thrown up by Eric's vehicle.

In the end, I beat Eric by an inch.

The woman in the passenger seat squealed and chattered excitedly about the win.

I smiled and brought the truck back around to the main lot.

I parked the truck in front of the small building that housed the track's office. I turned to face the woman in the passenger seat. Her cheeks were flushed.

“Want to have a little more fun with me?” I asked her with a wink.

Her eyes flashed with knowledge. “Yes,” she said.