Hard Miles Ahead (Black Mountain Bikers 4)

Sighing, she put the phone back in her pocket. Sitting on the sofa, she looked around the apartment from her point of view. Imagining herself in that setting five years in the future, Tavia could see herself being comfortable, untroubled by the secrecy, and she and Daric being a couple, but loosely and without jealousy.

Whether or not that would be true, she had no way of knowing, but it did help put her mind at ease. She had no desire to be owned by a man in real life—only in their sex role playing. She thought Jensen wouldn’t understand that.

Daric would understand that. He had already proven that much.

Chapter 7

The water shut off in the shower and Tavia quickly turned on the television, not wanting Daric to know she’d been sitting there the whole time just thinking about things. He might decide she was taking things too seriously and ask her to leave. Then again, he might think that she was bothered by what had transpired between them and…ask her to leave. Better for him to see her searching for a movie or show to watch.

“Are you all right, Tavia?” Daric spoke from the bedroom doorway.

“Yeah. I’m just looking for something halfway interesting to watch while we wait on the food.” She only glanced back at him and then turned her full attention back to the television.

He paced to the kitchen and the fridge opened. She heard glass bottles clink and knew he was bringing another beer.

“Here. I’d say the last ones got too warm to drink sitting in here all that time.” He handed her one and sat on the sofa toward the other end instead of on the cushion beside her as he’d done earlier.

“Thanks. Probably not good now, no.” She tilted the cold beer toward the other two sitting on the coffee table and then took a long swig.

“The food should be here in a few minutes. Are we gonna watch TV while we eat or are we going to eat in the kitchen, at the table?” He leaned his head in the direction of the kitchen, smiling.

“What? You mean like adults and stuff?”

“Absolutely what I mean.” He chugged a good draught of beer.

“Then, absolutely…not. I won’t make a mess in here and I can see the TV better from here. Kinda hard to see it through the wall, there, Kimo Sabe.” She winked and made a clicking sound with her tongue.

Laughing, he nodded. “All right then. Teen night, it is, I guess.”

“Do you take your meals at the table at home?” She made her eyes wide, imitating shock.

“Of course.” He turned to her and said, “When I’m eating dinner at my mom’s house.”

Tavia laughed loudly and put her hand over her mouth to stifle it. “Me too.”

The laughter died down and Tavia settled on a horror movie that was running the opening credits. “Ah, we’ll get to see this one all the way through! Do you like horror movies?” It was almost an afterthought; she fully intended to leave the television on the cult horror classic no matter what he said.

“Horror’s fine by me; but I wouldn’t have thought of it as your genre of choice.”

“You haven’t the foggiest idea! I’m a horror buff, Daric. I’m a horror geek. I love horror anything! Everything else is so boring, bland, tasteless, blah!” She chuckled. If she allowed it, she would be off on a tangent about all the horror stuff she’d been involved with over the years and bore poor Daric to death. She bit down on her lip to keep from talking more about her secret passion—horror!

“Whoa! I think that’s the most passionate I’ve seen you all evening.” Feigning a wounded look, he said, “I’m hurt and a little jealous. I’ve been far outdone by a genre.”

Laughing easily as if they’d known each other for years instead of hours, Daric and Tavia exchanged playful banter for another couple of minutes before falling into a natural silence as the movie started in earnest.

Tavia pulled her feet up onto the couch and tucked them to the side of her, sitting in her normal, comfortable position. As she let the movie take her away for a few minutes, she actually forgot that she was in a man’s secretive apartment, and she barely knew him. That should have made her uneasy, she supposed, but she was perfectly comfortable with Daric.

Maybe it was what they had shared since coming to the apartment that made her feel easy around him; maybe it was something else all together. There were days when she believed in destiny; there were also days when she believed in nothing at all. Today, however was a day that she happened to believe in destiny—so maybe she was easy in his company because it was her destiny to be with him for longer than the night.

Rubbing her temples, Tavia pushed such thoughts away, not wanting to get side-tracked into rushing the expectation of a relationship after one night. He might never contact her again. She might not want him to contact her after one night. Separation had a certain effect on her feelings—when she was with a man, she was sure that she loved him and wanted him forever; when they were apart for a few days, she was sure that she’d had a brain fart and that she didn’t really want him around forever.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, and just when Tavia was starting to really relax into the storyline of the movie, someone knocked on the door.

Daric shot up off the couch so suddenly that Tavia gasped in surprise. He held a quieting hand out toward her and never took his eyes from the door. As he edged closer to the door, he tilted a lamp that sat squarely in the center of a wooden table to the right of the door and pulled a handgun from a hidden cubby there.

Tavia’s heart skipped and then started hammering against her ribs as she eyed the gun. She wasn’t afraid of guns, but this one, appearing so suddenly and without more provocation than a knock at the door when they were expecting a food delivery, scared her to her core. What the hell was Daric involved with that would warrant his having a hidden gun that he saw fit to carry to the door every time someone knocked?

The knock sounded again and Daric cocked the gun quickly. Standing to the hinge side of the door, he asked, “What?”