Then her fingertips brush my arm. “You’re also weirdly calm about being dragged into someone else’s mess.”
“Wasn’t dragged.”
“No?”
I shake my head. “Volunteered.”
That finally gets a real smile out of her.
“There she is,” I mutter.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I nod at the bag. “Ready to go?”
A few moments later, she pulls baggy shorts over the bikini bottoms, shrugs on a little crop top, steps into flip-flops, and zips the bag. Then she swings it onto one shoulder.
I take it from her before she can argue, and she locks up the van. We stroll over to my bike, and she stops dead the second she sees it.
That makes me grin. Matte black. Gold detailing. Low, wide, mean-looking enough to start conversations. People are always staring at her.
“That’s yours?” she asks.
“Yep, and she’s sexy as hell.”
She circles the bike slowly, taking her time, and I just let her. “She got a name?”
“Fever.” I rest a hand on the tank.
“That’s a little dramatic.”
I grin. “She earned it.”
She considers that, then nods. “Okay. I’ll allow it.”
I hand her the helmet from the storage compartment and stow her bag away. When I glance back, she’s standing there with that same tight, worried look on her face, staring past me toward the van.
“It’s going to be okay,” I tell her.
Her eyes flick to mine. “Is it?”
“I’m going to make sure of it.”
Something shifts behind her gaze, and I doubt she believes me, but once I set my mind to something, I fucking do it.
She shakes her head like she doesn’t know what to do with me, then pulls on the helmet.
I grab a shirt from the compartment, tug it on and then swing a leg over the bike. “Get on.”
She steps closer, one hand landing on my shoulder as she climbs on behind me, and the second her body settles against my back, every instinct in me sharpens.
Yeah. This is going to be an issue.
I reach back for her hands, and she lets me pull them around my waist. She shifts closer, finding her balance, and then she’sthere, warm against my back, close enough that I catch her scent properly for the first time. Mint. Flowers. And underneath it, something like chocolate. Captivating.
“You’re gonna want to hold on.”
“I know how to?—”
