Chapter 40: The Unstated Art Of Pie and Passion

Outside Earl's Diner, Temperance, South Dakota....

Following the events of the previous few hours at her place, Layla Quinn had something of a difficult time getting ready for work and enduring the long bus ride to get to Earl's Diner. She couldn't stop thinking about Brick and what they had almost done had her best friend not walked in on them when he did. It was an odd change of pace to say the least as whenever Brick Kenneally found himself around her, she couldn't seem to figure out her own thoughts to begin with. Her attraction to him, at least from her point of view had been unseemly. He was an older man after all being thirty one and vastly more experienced in the ways of sex and courtship than she could have ever hoped to have been.

Still, she found that she couldn't help but to want him. He was a handsome man, despite his age and ruggedly so. The clear view of him naked before her very young eyes had only added to the intensity of her attraction to him despite his vulgar nature and carefree attitude. She at best wanted to dump a pail of cold water on his head and tell him about himself at at worst would have been willing to give in to his seductive charms had her best friend not showed up to put an unceremonious end to it.

Brick had always been a gentleman as far as she was concerned, but the pull she felt like an unstoppable magnet had been something she had no idea how to react to. He seemed to have been just as lost and compelled as she was whenever they were together but he always seemed to be able to give her the final say in what happened between them and how far she truly meant for it to go.

As the bus rolled up to the stop, Layla climbed off taking a deep breath as she attempted to get not only her thoughts but her wayward emotions together before heading into the diner to begin her work day. She noted the bikes that were lined out front and knew all too well that Brick and his gang of Howlers had been present and would likely linger all day if they could. It wasn't as if they caused trouble and they seemed to have been doing a wondrous service for business as a whole due to their frequent spending as curious customers came trailing in just to have a look at them.

All eyes seemed to immediately fall upon Layla Quinn as she arrived through the front door. She quickly got a look at the bikers and finally noted Brick Kenneally sitting at the bar where she often made her rounds in service. He was nursing a glass of beer and seemingly lost in thought before he noticed her arrival. Layla quickly moved toward the back of the diner and set to work getting ready for her shift to start as Phoebe accompanied her with a few questions and a bit of daily gossip from among the customers. Layla did her best to listen to her friend and coworker but she'd been preoccupied with her thoughts about Brick and what he'd actually looked like outside of his usual leather attire.

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Interior, Earl's Diner, Temperance, South Dakota....

Back at the bar, It had been an altogether difficult thing for Brick Kenneally to simply sit at the end of his usual seat at the diner and casually polish off the cherry pie that had been sitting in front of him courtesy of the recently arrived Layla Quinn as she did her best to go on with her orders and steal a few glances at the handsome older man whom had captivated her ever since he first rode into town.

Brick took his time eating via a fork as he watched her move across the diner with all of the grace and elegance of a gliding gazel while he took in her detailed movements like the predator he had truly been beneath all the hot leather that lined his heavily muscle toned body. Layla did her best to set her mind on her work despite the unexplainable pull she had toward Brick.

She knew once her break came about he'd want to speak with her. The rest of his crew had seemed to have been in a world of their own as Phoebe chatted up a storm with the one she had a crush on. Derrick had come in for lunch as well making sure to steal a glance at Brick from time to time as he recalled the rather handsome rugged man being naked before taking off from Layla's house.

He teased her to no end about how ready she'd been to spread her legs for the older man with her father not home and how he had spared her years of embarrassment at her unseemly behavior. Layla rolled her eyes as she served Derrick more or less with the implication that she'd break his nose if he ever told Amy or anyone else about her and Brick, the last thing she wanted was it getting back to her father that she had a man over at the house.

Layla had done a good job of shifting her focus to more work related tasks up until she had been cleared to go on her first break. She headed toward the back of the diner in search of a means of getting some fresh air and much like clock work, Brick had been out back waiting for her. She smiled when she saw him leaning like a typical tough guy against the brickwall where he had on more than one occasion pinned her during their heated exchanges.

She didn't say a word as she approached him taking note of the fact that he had not smelled of cigarette smoke for once since meeting him there. He did smell heavily of cherry pie and cologne which she found to be quite an interesting contrast as she stood beside him a bundle of unruly nerves, despite what occured between them at her place.

"Fancy meeting you here." he said in his usual deep baritone drawl and often demonstrated blue collar wit.

Layla simply smiled like that of any school girl when in the presence of her boyfriend and they'd been alone.

"You look like you've had a long day." he said casually as he approached her, in his usual sly casual manner leaning on arm against the wall where she stood with hers across her chest as she looked up at him.

"Something like that." she replied staring back up at him. "It's been awfully busy around the diner since you guys showed up."

"Can't knock good business." replied Brick with something of a wicked smirk filed across his face.

Being so close to him, Layla realized that he was quite tall and it occurred to her just how much with each time he had to lean down to capture her lips in a kiss. He slowly ran his fingers along her brown locks and smiled down at her before leaning down as he had so many times since their first encounter and pressed his lips into hers.

Their first kiss aside, it seemed that each one between them got much better than the last as she unfolded her arms and pulled him in closer. His hands went from leaning on the wall and sifting through her hair to pulling her closer in turn as they continued to kiss in the wake of their unstated compulsion to be near each other. The craving for intimacy all the more strong with them parting so abruptly before hand due to her friend interrupting their time together.

After a few moments, Layla pulled back and Brick let her go.

"You still taste like cherry pie." she remarked with a smirk.

"Consider yourself lucky that it's the last thing I ate since this morning." replied Brick with a smirk of his own and a heated flicker behind his hypnotic grey eyes.

Layla slapped him across the chest hitting her hand against the tough leather cut as she narrowed her rather lovely blue eyes at him. Once more she had been privy to the more vulgar side of the gruff biker and she found it a bit unnerving given her inexperience.

"What?, it's all the same to me." said Brick still with the same smirk on his face. "You always taste like cherries."

"Asshole." she said trying her best to keep from recalling the events that took place in her bedroom.

"You know you loved it." he replied pulling the pouting young woman closer to him as he planted a few long slow kisses along her neck and shoulder before working his way back to her lips as she seemed to melt into his waiting embrace.

They shared a few more kisses before Layla realized that she needed to get back to work before Phoebe came looking for her.

"I gotta be getting back." she said softly after one final kiss from Brick.

"I gotta get going too, apparently the sheriff's got another job for me and the boys." he said.

Layla didn't seem to like the idea of him leaving.

"Will you be back?" she asked seemingly upset.

"You know it." replied Brick after she rushed over toward him for one last kiss.

"Come see me before you leave...you can take me home again." she said casually.

Brick smirked and nodded his agreement in doing so.

Layla barely managed to tear herself away from him before venturing back into the diner as Brick made his way toward the sheriff's office. He'd still been waiting on a certain package, but he was more than pleased to make a bit of cash on the side even if it meant hauling yet another societal degenerate down to cages of Johnny Law.