Page 47 of Fly Back to Me
Can’t wait to hear more about his girlfriend.
My head peels from the wall, jerking a tight-lipped smile in Jake’s direction as I wave a small goodbye. “Thanks for everything. Have a good night.”
“No problem at all. Get home safe.” He returns the gesture, circling back to occupy himself behind the bar.
My legs kick into motion, the dread of this evening finally sucking all sense from me. The need to exit this brewery is too dire for me to care about someone walking me to my car anymore.
My boots hit the concrete, the brisk breeze tickling my skin under the nighttime sky. “Now you’re interested in one of my employees?” Cade asks, walking beside me.
“You know what they say,” I stretch out, “when you’re rejected by one man, move on to the next one.”
A mocking laugh tumbles from him. “Is that what they say, or is that just the type of girl you are?”
Anger rips through me, my body terminating all movement as I whirl to face him. My chin slopes up, eyes striking daggers through his as I seethe through my teeth. “Tell me, whattype of girlam I?”
His six-foot-three frame pales my height when he leans into my space. “One that likes attention,” he challenges, vaguely pointing a finger to the distance. “You don’t seem to think about the evil that’s in this world. You strut around in these pretty outfits, thinking it’s all fun and games, until one day you’re grabbing thewrongguy’s attention.”
My fury reaches my palm, suffocating the mace in it. “Youknow nothing about me. You don’t know who I am, where I come from, or what I’ve been through. Maybe if you tooktwo goddamnseconds to get to know me instead of judge me, you’d understand.”
The edge swimming in his icy blues dissolves, slowly replaced with a pang of guilt. And when his eyes drop to my hand, he says, “You’re carrying pepper spray again.”
“I already told you,” I demand, turning to continue the journey to my car.
“No,” he counters, curling a palm around my upper arm to angle me around. “You asked Jake to walk you to your car, and you’re carrying mace.Why?”
I swallow the surge of heat his touch spreads across my flesh, eyes digging into him once more. “I guess if something did happen to me, I asked for it, right? Being that I act like such a slut for attention, I would’ve deserved it anyway.”
His eyes flare with resentment, the last trace of softness extinguished. “Just like you said I know nothing about you, you know evenlessabout me.” His hard jaw ticks as he brands me with his stare. “You don’t know the shit I’ve seen and what I’ve done, and the last thing I would ever, everthink is something like that could be your fault. You understand?”
Our hearts beg to reconnect through bated breaths. Chests pumping in tandem as our minds drive further and further apart. It’s such a horrendous fate to be forced to succumb to, knowing everything that could be. We’re an inch away from each other but occupying the same ends of a magnet. Never connecting in the way we need to.
This is the first time Cade’s opening up about my attack, the weight held in his eyes too heavy to miss. Only there are no secrets between us.
They’re our foundation.
“Take me somewhere,” I whisper, his gaze yanking meunder a hypnotic trance. “Help me understand. I just want to understand you.”
And that was the truth.
My abrupt infatuation is chucked somewhere unknown, and I don’t even care to look for it after tonight. Not only because he’s involved with another woman, but because this is all I ever wanted since that night. I want toknowhim. His likes, his dislikes, what makes him laugh, and what makes him hurt.
If something more is able to grow from the seeds we’re planting, then that’ll just be an added bonus.
His Adam’s apple bobs, eyes roaming my face until the last strand of reluctance snaps inside him. A pinch of delight tweaks his mouth, and then he’s stripping his hand off me.
When he rotates in the direction of his bike, I’m trailing behind him. “You ever been on the back of a motorcycle before?” he asks.
I shake my head through a breath. “No.”
“Then you better hold on tight,” he warns, unbuckling a helmet from the seat of his Harley. “Here.”
He suspends the gear in front of me, my eyes volleying between it and his gaze for a couple seconds.
“You’re not getting on this bike without one,” he clarifies. “No helmet, no ride.”
“Do you have one?” I ask as I accept the hard shell.
“I have another at home,” he replies, sheathing both his hands in black gloves. Then he steps back to lean a forearm on the chrome handlebar. “Wasn’t really planning on riding with someone tonight, but I’ll go slower than normal. Wouldn’t want to shake you up on your first time, anyway.”
