Colton grunted and crossed his arms as I straightened. I crossed mine, too.
“This is fucking it, then?” he asked.
“It is, if you keep it up like this.” I snatched my riding jacket from the coatrack we had in the corner near the door. “Undertaker helped me fix my fucking bike. You’re amechanic, and you didn’t care about what I was riding around on,” I shouted and jabbed my finger at him. I hated yelling, hated how it made me feel. Maybe all of this had crawled under my skin more than I’d thought. My head and jaw began to ache.
Colton’s face fell, and at least he had the decency to look ashamed of himself. “I thought you needed the practice.”
“Bullshit. You didn’t want to be stuck working on the Harley with me. You were worried you’d have to open your fucking mouth and tell me what bug crawled up your ass—other than my dick.”
He scowled. “No.”
“Yes.” I flipped him off and made sure to slam the door on my way out. One of our neighbors pounded on their wall from inside their apartment, but I couldn’t begin to care as I went along the hallway to the stairs and rushed outside.
It felt good to get on my Harley. I put on my helmet and pinched the skin under my chin with the clip because I was too frustrated to pay attention. Once I had the bike started, I made sure to gun the engine because I loved the vibrations, and yeah, I was petty enough to want the whole world to know how fucking angry I was. If I wasn’t careful, I would get us kicked out of our clean apartment building on the okay side of town, but right now I didn’t give a shit. I took off like a shot out of the parking lot and held my breath when I almost cut it too close to a car. I raced down the street too fast, weaving around vehicles, and the wind smacking my face made me feel like I was flying.
I wanted the open road and decided to head for the highway. I’d just made it into the high-speed traffic when I glanced in my mirror to take stock of the cars nearby. Colton was on his bike behind me, but not close enough to overtake me. Smirking to myself, I sped up, all at once feeling better.
Yeah, I was pissed off.
Yeah, I wanted him to open his fucking mouth and talk to me.
But how many men would have the balls to play ninety-mph motorcycle tag? I sped up and chuckled. If he could catch me, he could win the chance to fix this shit. I glanced in the mirror again and watched him smack the handlebar of his bike. I outright snickered as I dodged around a van in front of me. I then held my breath as my front tire caught some gravel before the tread gripped as I passed on the right, the way I shouldn’t.
Colton probably realized I’d seen him, but one thing he’d always been good at was chasing me, and I liked to let him do it.
For a while I kept ahead of him on the highway, but then I decided to be tricky and take an off-ramp. After I put the speedometer near ninety for a few miles, I got away from the traffic and ended up racing along a two-lane country road in the middle of a green oak forest. I was going too fast and knew it when a car swung out from a small side road into the lane in front of me.
My heart almost stopped. Reflexes saved me as I swerved into the left lane, but bad news, a truck was coming toward me. My heart almost hopped out of my chest as I swerved again to the dirt berm on my far left. The truck missed the bike by inches, honking the whole way. I kept it together, somehow didn’t dump myself off the bike, and came to a stop alongside the road and shakily put down the kickstand. I didn’t remember actually climbing off my bike, but all at once I was standing near a tree. With trembling fingers, I unbuckled my helmet and threw it down, bending over to grip my knees. My head spun. I couldn’t catch my breath.
My legs really wanted to give out on me.
“Charley!” Colton’s bike roared to a stop behind me, and I shook my head.
“Can’t fight right now. Fuck.”
Strong arms wrapped around me from behind, and Colton plastered his warm, heavy body to my back. “I thought you were done for.”
I turned in his arms and leaned against his strength, loving the way he held me. “Did not mean to fucking do all that.”
“I don’t want to be without you.” He crushed me, and I couldn’t drag in a breath for a new reason. I patted his side and wrapped my arms around him.
“Calm down. I wasn’t that close to dying. Is this emotion I hear from you?” I tried to crack a grin, but his face was a mask of fury.
“I’m fine,” he growled out. He held me tighter, though.
“I’m sorry I wanted to fuck you. I was fine with things the way they were.” I knocked my forehead against his shoulder and let it stay there. “I missed you this week. It was like you were in fucking prison again, and I hated it. You were gone.”
Colton sighed. “I haven’t been fucked before.”
I leaned back to stare up into his face and check if he was messing with me. “What?”
He glowered.
I began to snicker and couldn’t stop. “All of this was because you’ve never done it before?”
“Fuck you, Fish.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed harder and with more gusto until tears were rolling down my face. I thought he would shove me to my ass, but he didn’t—he held on for dear life.
