Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 17184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 86(@200wpm)___ 69(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 86(@200wpm)___ 69(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
“Thanks for the ride,” I say, as my eyes turn down to our hands that refuse to break even though I’m on my feet.
“Anytime, sunshine.” Talon brushes his thumb over my fingertips and finally releases. “Gonna need a ride home tonight?”
“If you’re up to it.” I slip the hand still burning from his touch into my purse and pull out a travel makeup kit.
“For you, I’d kill the bull.” Talon smiles, but his brow quickly furrows, and he shakes his head viciously. “Not literally, I mean, it’s like moving mountains. I’d never hurt a bull.”
I burst out into a laughing fit, my cheeks starting to ache from the intense smile his fumbling causes. “I know what you meant.” Because he’s said it before, usually accompanied by a terrible Spanish accent. “Oh God, my hair’s a mess,” I grumble, scanning myself in the small round mirror attached to my travel kit.
“You think?” Talon raises a brow, but his features remain solid as stone. “If you’re asking me, I’d say you’ve never looked better.”
My cheeks instantly flush red, and my fears from earlier drift away in a wave of giddiness. So, he did mean it the way I wanted him to? He’s not looking for a girl like me to spoil, no. Talon wants me. Compliments have come in the past, but never like this. So direct and honest, with a smile that could melt even the coldest hearts.
Gah, why couldn’t he have done this sooner? If nothing else, I feel obligated to go in there and meet the man I promised a night out with.
“Stop, you’re gonna make me blush,” I say when my spinning mind starts to slow.
“Too late, buttercup. Those cheeks aren’t getting any rosier from anything I’d say.” He pauses, stares at my cheeks that feel like two ovens, and chuckles. “Never mind. You’ve gone from rose pink to ruby red, and I didn’t even do nothing.”
“Stop.” I fake a slap against his chest, and he recoils from me as though it actually hurt.
“But go on, enjoy yourself. I’ll stay close by and just a phone call away.”
A phone call away?
Well, in the state he’s leaving me—swooning heart and soaked panties—that call might come a lot sooner than he’s expecting it.
3
TALON
Istraddle my motorcycle like the black stallion it is, ready to ride into the night and disappear from this place. For good this time, I tell myself and strap on my outlaw ten-gallon, staring off into the black, dusty trail outward.
It’s a nice delusion, isn’t it? Dropping everything and running away from your problems. Vanishing in the cover of night, starting a new life somewhere far away where no one knows your name. Maybe there, in this idyllic escape, Gracie’s right. I could find someone else, a woman all for me, with curled golden hair and a smile that melts my heart into my guts.
But I know the truth. No one will ever compare. Not to her. My Gracie.
I start my engine and begin to move. Slower now than what I did to get her here. And though it brings me no pride to admit that I did it to rush this thing along, I couldn’t go slow. My regrets set in the second we left her house, and they grew like a pit in my chest until I was fully consumed by aching despair.
If I gave myself an extra second to think, I’d never let her go through with this. Not with Ezra Green, not with some other handsome prick in a ten-thousand-dollar suit, no one. The thought of losing her, and no matter how you slice it, this will be losing her, is suffering I can’t endure.
This is how it starts, isn’t it? A casual date, testing the waters, we’ll still hang out all the time . . .
Until we don’t. Until she finds someone who consumes her fully. Passion, love, and lust, a perfect melting pot to fall headlong into. We’ll see each other less at first, make excuses as to how busy we’ve been, and pretend that everything’s still the way it once was.
And then, nothing. She’ll be happy, living a life with a man who should be me while I ponder the past and drink myself to slumber.
Christ, you big baby. If you’re going to cry about it all night, go back there and do something.
Logic and reason, two of my stronger skills when it comes to work, often fail me when I’m supposed to be a civilian. Cracking skulls and slinging dope come naturally, but being a friend and a shoulder to lean on? Fucking forget it. But that little niggling voice in the back of my mind, scolding me for being so damn foolish, always manages to steer me right eventually.
Now is no different. With its ridicule and reprimands, at the first light I can make a turn, I spin around and roar my engine back to the swanky restaurant. Sure, barging in and swooping her off her feet away from Ezra Green might piss him off, but it’s like the boss keeps on saying—the Knight Riders need to show these newcomers who runs this town.