Page 22 of The Biker's Brother

He huffed, but started the car and pulled up to the store. It was brightly lit and he could see a clerk inside. Otherwise, they were the only people around.

As soon as he stopped the car, she was out and running toward the entrance. He followed and, again, was drenched within seconds. Not that he’d ever gotten completely dry from the last soaking.

“Whew!” The clerk smiled as they dashed inside. “That rain! It’s coming down!” He offered a smile and a nod.

Brandon nodded in return.

“Restrooms?”

“That way.” The clerk pointed to the back.

Brand guided Cami to the rear and, as before, looked inside to be sure there was no threat. He gestured for her to go ahead.

When she came out five minutes later, he was leaning against the wall opposite the doorway with his arms crossed. Her eyes flicked to the way that pose made his biceps bulge before returning to his face. At the same time his eyes ran the length of her tartan flannel pajama bottoms and back to the knit hat she’d pulled over her head just before exiting the car. She knew she looked like a grunge holdover street person and suddenly felt self-conscious about it.

Without a word, Brandon straightened and walked toward the coffee. She followed like she’d been ordered to fall in.

She pulled one of the biggest cups from the stack.

“I’ll have a venti,” she quipped as she set the cup under the dispenser that said ‘big, bold flavor’. “If you want, I can drive for a while.”

Brandon hadn’t anticipated the offer.

That was unexpected.

“Maybe later. If the rain lets up.”

“That’s why you should let me drive now. Too much tension. We should do a rotation thing. Two hours on. Two hours off.”

That plan was a lot more appealing than he wanted to let on.

“Even if I was considering that, I’ve only been driving for an hour.” She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee after putting a full inch of cream on the top. “I’m surprised you’re okay with dairy. Doesn’t take much provocation to get health nuts to start ranting about milk.”

“I don’t consider myself to be a healthnut. Just a reasonably knowledgeable and prudent person.”

Brand barked out a laugh.

“Whatever. Let’s see what kind of donuts they have.”

She scoffed, but caught the mischievous glint in his eyes. He was teasing her. Wasn’t there some rule about bodyguards getting too familiar with clients? On the other hand, she had opened the door for that. He was surprisingly clever. When he wasn’t making sure the stick up his ass was firmly in place, he was passable company, too.

There were aisles of poison disguised as food. Close to the register there were two apples and three bananas. She took one of the apples, one of the bananas, and pulled two waters and a cranberry juice out of the case for later.

Brandon glanced at the stash she laid on the counter.

“That’s it?” he asked. “It’s a long time until lunch.”

She looked over her shoulder at the yards of candy, jerky, crackers, cookies, chips, and… “Wait a minute.” She pulled six packages of cashews off the holder then grabbed a pack of hand towels from the auto maintenance section and brought them back to the register.

“Good,” he said. “A growing gi… woman needs protein.” He lifted an eyebrow. “And her towels, I guess.”

She smiled, finding it sort of endearing that he’d made an effort to refrain from calling her a girl.

They stood at the door for a second, both dreading the dash to the car in the beating rain. He looked down at her.

“On three.” She nodded and brought the garbage bag over her head like a shelter. “One. Two. Three.”

They both ran for the car at the same time. When she pulled her door closed, she was giggling and the sound of it set up a reverberation all the way to his toes. She had a nice laugh.

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