Semua Bab Bad Boy Biker : Bab 21 - Bab 30

Morning light filtered through Duke’s bedroom curtains, painting stripes across the rumpled sheets. Valentina woke slowly, awareness returning in layers—the unfamiliar bed, the pleasant ache in her body, the empty space beside her.She reached out, finding the sheets still warm. Duke hadn’t been gone long.Last night rushed back in vivid detail—their bodies moving together, the intensity in Duke’s eyes, the way he’d held her afterward as if she might disappear. The vulnerability of it all struck her now in the cold light of day, bringing with it a flutter of panic.What had she done? Jumped straight from one relationship into another, without taking time to find herself, to figure out who she was without a man to define her?The bedroom door opened, and Duke appeared, holding two mugs of coffee. His hair was damp from a shower, a towel slung low around his hips. The sight of him—all lean muscle and sleep-warm skin—momentarily silenced her doubts.“Morning.” His smile was tentative, a

Two weeks passed in a blur of routine. Valentina threw herself into her job at the bookstore, took over the tiny community garden plot behind her trailer, and slowly, deliberately, built a life that was entirely hers.She saw Duke occasionally—at Rosie’s, at the grocery store, once at Ruby’s when she went for drinks with Patty and Sandy. Each time, he was polite, distant, respecting the boundaries she’d set. Each time, it took everything in her not to cross the distance between them, to tell him she’d made a mistake.But she hadn’t. The time alone was clarifying, necessary. For perhaps the first time in her adult life, Valentina was making choices based solely on what she wanted, not what someone else expected.She started riding again, borrowing Sandy’s ancient Yamaha to practice the skills Duke had taught her. The freedom of the open road, the control of guiding the machine herself—it centered her, gave her a sense of capability she’d been missing.“You’re getting pretty good,” Sand

Sunlight streamed through the open garage door as Valentina passed Duke a wrench. She sat cross-legged on a clean shop towel, watching as he bent over her Sportster’s engine.“Hand me the 10mm socket,” he said, not looking up from his work.Valentina glanced at the assortment of tools spread before her, selecting the right one with growing confidence. Two weeks into rebuilding her bike, and she was learning fast.“So the previous owner really never changed the oil?” she asked, leaning closer to see what Duke was doing.“Not from the look of it.” Duke grimaced, hands black with grime. “Criminal, treating a bike this way.”Valentina smiled at his outrage. Duke treated motorcycles like living things, deserving of care and respect. It was one of the many things she’d rediscovered about him in the month since his birthday party, since they’d decided to truly give their relationship another chance.“Good thing she has us now,” she said, resting her hand briefly on the scratched gas tank. “W

The California sun felt different from how Valentina remembered—harsher, more glaring, lacking the soft edges of Riverdale's morning light. Or maybe it was just her perception that had changed, colored by all that had happened since she'd left."Nice place," Duke commented as they pulled up to her mother's Spanish-style home in Palm Desert. "Your mom live here long?""Since the divorce." Valentina stared at the manicured lawn, the carefully tended bougainvillea. "Dad paid for it. Guilt money, she always called it, though she never refused to spend it."Duke squeezed her hand before killing the engine of their rental car. "Ready?"Not really, but it was too late to turn back now. Valentina nodded, squaring her shoulders as they approached the front door.Melanie answered on the first knock. Her sister looked thinner than Valentina remembered, dark circles shadowing her eyes. For a moment, they simply stared at each other, the betrayal between them a physical presence."You came." Melan

"We're more alike than either of us wanted to admit." Eleanor's smile was wry despite her weakness. "Both too proud, too stubborn to bend."They talked for nearly an hour—really talked, perhaps for the first time in their adult relationship. About Valentina's marriage, about Eleanor's regrets, about the walls they'd both built that had kept them apart.Not everything was resolved. Some hurts ran too deep for a deathbed reconciliation to fully heal. But something shifted between them, a heaviness lifting that Valentina hadn't realized she'd been carrying."The Reynolds boy," Eleanor said as Valentina prepared to let her rest. "You love him?""I do." No hesitation now, no shame in admitting it. "Always have.""And he loves you.""Yes."Eleanor nodded, eyes drifting closed with fatigue. "Good. That's good. Be happy, Valentine. Not the way I thought you should be. The way you are."The simple blessing, coming from a woman who had spent years trying to reshape her, brought fresh tears to V