Damn. I didn’t expect to understand the school’s rich kid. Different lives, same pressures. I didn’t have to be perfect, but I had to be everything Aidan expected of me and more.
“My dad walked out on us right after I was born. Turns out he hated his own kids. My mom’s a drug addict. She’s never around unless she needs money,” I told him quietly since we were sharing. “And my brother… he’s just a fucking dick.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Eh.” I shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“Did he do that to your face?” Harley asked.
“Yeah.”And this was nothing compared to some of the shit he’d done in the past.But I didn’t want to share that with him. He didn’t need the gory details of my life when he didn’t ask for them.
Harley fell silent, not that I blamed him. There wasn’t much anyone could say about the situation. It was what it was. Not a damn thing could change that. No one was coming to save me.
“Hey, princess?” I glanced at him as an idea popped into my head. His brows lifted slightly with curiosity. “Have you ever ridden a dirt bike?”
From the slight way his eyes widened, I knew that was a no.
“Do you want to?” I asked. His expression shifted from confused to mildly interested to potentially horrified, and I knew I had him. Maybe it was bold to assume he’d want to do something as simple as riding dirt bikes, but it was better than sitting around and moping.
CHAPTER 06
harley
Ihit the dirt hard, all the air rushing out of my lungs with the jarring contact. The bike reared and flopped over with an awful noise that made me cringe.Hopefully, I hadn’t broken it.
My crashing and eating dirt didn’t stop Maverick from folding over as he laughed at me. With me? I wasn’t entirely amused but rather fascinated with him. His laughter was addictive. That notion was strange to me. Never before had I cared about someone’s laugh.
“Fuck, you suck,” he practically wheezed. He offered me a hand, and I took it, letting him haul me to my feet. As I dusted myself off, he fetched the bike.
“Yup,” I agreed.
“You don’t have to keep trying, you know,” Maverick said, making me scowl. There was no way in hell I was giving up now. We were all in at this point. I was already covered in dirt and sweat. There was no going back. “We can always take the same bike.”
Yeah, right. He had two dirt bikes—his and his brother’s old one. And I knew I could just get on the bike with him to let him do the work, but I was dedicated to getting it right. I wasn’t letting a damn dirt bike get the best of me.
“Just give me the bike,” I told him. He kept it steady for me as I swung a leg over it and settled on it once more. My fingers flexed nervously on the handles.How many more times did I have to fall before I got the hint that I just sucked at this?
To my surprise, the bike jostled slightly, bouncing as Maverick climbed on behind me. His arm anchored around my chest, and his body pressed against mine. My heart stuttered. There was no part of me used to being this close to anyone. Hell, my own parents didn’t hug me. I’d learned young to avoid asking for those.
“Let’s run through it again,” he said. His fingers tapped my left knuckles. I became a little too fascinated with the sparks that danced over my skin where he touched me. “This is the clutch. You pull it when you shift gears. And this…”
He tapped his boot against my right ankle, inciting another blossom of sensations.
“This right here is the rear brake. Be nice to it, or that pretty face of yours is going to look as beat up as mine.”
Pretty.Had he called me pretty?
No one had ever called me that before. At least, not like this. There were a few jabbing comments about my more delicate features from classmates over the years. But when Maverick said it, it was different. Despite the rough edge in his voice, it was somehow softer. Like he meant it. It made my stomach flip in a way I’d never experienced before—in a way that wasn’t anxiety-fueled.
“No pressure,” I muttered as I tried to shake the feeling.
“Just take it slow, princess. Nice and easy,” Maverick ordered in my ear. Something weird and wild collided inside me when his breath fanned over my skin. I blushed with the build of heat inside me, his presence and the pet name doing something to me. I knew it came from a derogatory place—I knew he was making fun of me—but I still couldn’t bring myself to ask him to stop. I should’ve, though. What guy wanted to be called princess?
Oh, yeah. Me.
Flustered me did the stupid thing and twisted the throttle too quickly. The bike lurched forward, throwing us both off balance. It toppled and sent us careening into the dirt. Pain lanced through my shoulder, brief and fading quickly.
I groaned, he laughed, and we both just lay there, winded and a little stunned from the crash. I took a long, hard look at the sky as I realized that at the rate I was going, I’d be well acquainted with this view of the world.
