“Sort of. I’m just down here.” She led him down a narrow, cobbled side alley, watching his reaction.
“But this is where the motorcycles… I see.” Ethan turned to watch her as she zipped up her black leather jacket, his eyes registering her biker boots properly for the first time.
Kay unchained her helmet and waved at the Kawasaki. “This is mine.”
“This? The Ninja?”
“Sure,” she said, half holding her breath, hoping he wasn’t about to lecture her on safety. Or get that look that one of her ex-boyfriends had—right before she broke up with him—that said motorcycles were for men.
He grinned at her with genuine delight. “Will you take me for a ride?”
She let the breath out and smiled back. “I didn’t bring a spare helmet. Maybe next time.” She lifted the helmet to pull over her head, only to find it tugged out of her fingers and put firmly back on the seat. “Um, I need that?”
Ethan shook his head, looking down at her with a strange expression that she couldn’t quite read. His eyes were dark, completely focused on her, but his jaw was tight, and he seemed to be battling with himself.
Then, instead of replying, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in toward his body. The movement was firm but gentle, slow enough that she could escape at any time. When she didn’t, he leaned down and kissed her.
His lips were warm and full against hers, his tongue a gentle tease along the seam of her mouth. She opened for him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she pushed herself onto her toes to get even closer. Giving in to the desire that had been building with every minute that they’d spent together.
Ethan deepened the kiss. He threaded his fingers into her hair, his hand at her waist pulling at her shirt until she could feel his hot fingers brushing against her skin.
His mouth was firm, demanding, and she lost herself in him. The muscular length of his body pressed against hers as he tilted her head for better access. Her Shadows coiled sensuously, low in her belly, finally free to reach out toward him as his Shadows rose around them in an electrical surge of forest-green and charcoal.
Eventually, he pulled away, sucking her lower lip gently before releasing her. She leaned back slightly, resting her hands on his chest as they caught their breaths.
“Wow.” Her voice was rough. “That was… unexpected.”
He tucked the short strands of hair back behind her ears. “I think I liked ‘wow’ better.”
Kay’s whole body was tingling, her mind blank, as Ethan picked her helmet up and passed it to her.
“Are you free tomorrow? I have a day off,” he asked, looking as stunned as she felt.
“I’m working in the morning, but I’m free in the afternoon. What do you have in mind?”
He blinked and then blinked again. “Honestly, I didn’t think before I asked you. What do you want to do?”
Thank God she wasn’t the only one feeling as if the world had shifted into a parallel dimension, leaving her brain behind.
Kay swung her leg over the motorcycle. “Do you want to meet me at St Pancras and go for a walk? There’s something there I could show you. Maybe we could get a drink in Camden Town afterward?”
He dipped his chin before answering in a low voice. “Great.”
Was it great? He didn’t sound sure.
Kay knew what she felt—an intense, almost primal pull toward a man who was turning out to be far more interesting than she’d at first realized—but she didn’t know how he felt.
It was slightly terrifying, but she had decided to move forward, and for the first time in years, she could see a glimmer of a future she wanted. She’d been fighting for so long that she’d forgotten what it was like to stand still. And that’s what she’d had with Ethan that afternoon.
She sat on the motorcycle, helmet in one hand, and looked at him thoughtfully. “I thought you didn’t date.”
He shrugged. “I don’t.”
“What’s tomorrow, then?”
He shook his head slightly. “I have no idea.”
Kay watched the emotions crossing Ethan’s face. He looked as if he couldn’t decide whether to haul her off her motorcycle and rip her clothes off, audience be damned, or walk away and not look back.
