Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
I chuckle. “In that case, I better ride you home.”
Her cheeks flush, and I grin. Ride her home. Sounds fucking sweet, even to my ears.
“Maverick?” she asks, turning to look at me.
“Mmmm?”
“Do you have a phone?”
I nod. “Yeah, darlin’.”
“Can I give you my phone number?”
I study her, holding her eyes. “Nah.”
She looks immediately hurt, and I reach out before I can think, running my fingers under her chin. “Let’s not jinx this. I’m goin’ to show up, and be around, when you need to me to be. Okay? Lettin’ fate handle this one.”
Her eyes twinkle. “I think I might use that in a song, too.”
I grin at her. “C’mon, darlin’, we need to get you home.”
She exhales, closes her eyes, tips her head back, and just breathes for a few minutes, the wind whipping her hair back. I try to implant this picture in my head, how fucking incredible she looks, how innocent. My dick twitches, and I already know it’s going to be a long ride home, with her tiny body pressed against mine, her perfume flowing in, invading my senses. I palm my cock, trying to push it back down, then I stand. “C’mon.”
She opens her eyes, licks those fucking beautiful lips, and stands. We make our way to the bike, and I swing on, waiting. A few moments later, she throws her leg over and snuggles in behind me, her arms going around my waist, her body pressing so close to mine I can feel every soft inch of her. She presses her cheek to my back, and fuck if I don’t want to lift her off this bike, lay her on the grass, and fuck her until she’s panting my name.
Instead, I start the bike and let its rumble radiate through the night.
Just before I take off, she taps me on the chest. “Maverick?”
“Yeah?”
“Ride hard. I like the way it makes me feel.”
Fuck me.
I think I just fell in love.
~*~*~*~
SCARLETT
I don’t want the night to end.
For the first time, just for a little while, I felt nothing but warmth in my chest. A feeling that ran deep, washing away the built-up tension I have been living with for so long. Being with Maverick, talking to someone who isn’t just there because of my fame, feeling the freedom the motorcycle brought me freed something inside of me.
And now, as we’re nearing my hotel, I know that’ll be wiped clean. It’ll be jerked out of me and in its place will come the all too familiar dark spot that seems to be growing bigger and bigger in my soul. Maverick pulls the bike into a dark alley around the corner a few blocks down from the hotel. Then he stops it. “I can see the hotel from here, I’ll watch you go until you’re safely inside. I can’t walk you in, much as I’d love to.”
“That’s okay,” I say, reluctantly sliding off the motorcycle and turning, staring at the big man who is still straddling it, eyes trained on me, intense and deep.
“You goin’ to be okay?”
I nod. “I’m not looking forward to going back in there, but I’ll be okay. Thank you, for tonight. I needed it, more than you could probably imagine.”
He studies me, then says in a low, husky tone, “I think maybe I needed it more than you can imagine.”
There’s so much pain in his eyes. I wish I had the time to sit down and let him tell me what put it there, but I don’t. I exhale slowly, and say, “I hope I see you again, biker.”
He laughs. “You will. Be good, yeah?”
My heart sinks a little, but I flash him a smile, and then I raise my hands in a peace symbol. He grins, huge, and my heart does a funny flip flop. He too raises his hand and gives me the same symbol. A huge part of me wants to stay with this mysterious stranger, to leap onto the back of his bike, forget my entire world, and just run away.
But that’s just a fantasy born from the aching deep in my chest, the one that drives me to think thoughts that I know will never, ever be possible.
“Goodnight, Maverick.”
He studies me, then gives me a lazy, half smile. “Goodnight, darlin’.”
Then I turn and walk out onto the sidewalk and back to the entrance of my hotel. When I reach the front doors, I can hear and see commotion inside. I’m stepping into a lion’s den, so, I turn and look back to see my savior standing on the footpath, arms crossed over his big chest, watching me. I smile. He smiles.
Then I step inside.
“There she is!”
I hear a barrage of voices and focus on Susan who spins around, tossing the phone she was holding in her hand to some poor man standing beside her, and comes rushing over toward me. This isn’t going to be pretty. I brace myself for the explosion that’s coming, and it is coming, judging by the deep red that her face is right now. She looks like she’s going to bust a top. And I probably deserve it.