Fearless (Forever 7)

Jax stopped laughing and wiped his forehead. "So you really haven't heard of these parrots before? It took me a minute, but I figured it out."

I folded my arms impatiently. "I don't know, was it in the paper that someone lost their bird?"

He exhaled and looked at me with amusement."You've really got to start watching more Netflix. There was a documentary I watched last year on these wild parrots. San Francisco's got a flock of them that were probably released by their owners, since they were caught wild in South America and didn't turn out to be good pets."

My mouth fell open. I couldn't stand selfish people who bought pets and then dumped them to starve or freeze to death, just because having an animal took too much effort.

"That's awful," I cried, "How could anyone do that?"

Jax shrugged. "These are wild birds, Riley, not puppies. They're actually doing better out here."

I looked up at the parrot perched above my head. It cheerfully began cleaning the feathers on its chest. Okay, it did look pretty content. My outrage faded and was replaced with awe.

"So they're a tough bunch then," I said.

"They know how to survive," he replied dryly, and I glanced up at him, surprised at how he'd unintentionally echoed my earlier thoughts.

"Come on," he continued with a grin, "Let's go. I've still got to win my bet."

As we started up the next flight of stairs, I took one more glance at the parrots. Wild exotic birds weren't exactly what I expected to see out here, but along with Jax's surprising turnaround, so far nothing about this day had turned out the way I thought it would.

The sun began to fade as we climbed. The short rest on the landing had done me good, and I gleefully matched Jax's pace. We'll see who's going to carry who up the last few flights.

But keeping up with him had a price. My thighs burned and I had a stitch in my side when I reached the last flight. One more. Thank fuck.

With Jax in the lead, I climbed the last few steps, my face flushed and sweat making my shirt stick to my back. At this rate, maybe I'd skip dinner if I won, and just go for a shower.

Then I reached the top. I'd thought climbing the stairs was enough to take my breath away. But that was nothing compared to how I felt when I turned back to look at the new view.

Higher than we were before, now the entire city stretched before us. The Golden Gate Bridge loomed in the distance, silhouetted in the setting sun. Bright reds and yellows tinted the sky, and the sunset colors reflected off the water of the bay.

"It's beautiful," I gasped, holding my aching side.

"It's worth the hike, isn't it?" Jax replied, smiling as he gazed into the distance.

I nodded, unable to find any other words for it. My body tingled, both from the exercise and a sense of awe. The scene had so much natural beauty, but the city sprawling far below somehow made it even more breathtaking.

"You know what this reminds me of?" I asked.

"What?"

"The first time I saw Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building when I was a kid. I remember feeling so . . . in love with New York the minute I saw it. From then on I always knew I wanted to live in the city."

I gazed at the view, sensing Jax as he came up beside me. I spun around and took his hand. "Hey, you know what we should check out? There's a park I like to watch the sunset from in Manhattan. South Cove. It's actually really peaceful." I laughed. "It's flat though, not much of a hike. I can leave the clown shoes at home."

An emotion I couldn't read flashed across his face, then he smiled and pointed to something out over the bay. "See that down there? That's Fisherman's Wharf."

My face flushed at how neatly he avoided the real subject—one that I hadn't meant to bring up. He doesn't want to talk about New York. And why would he? With all his recent worries, making plans about our future had to be the last thing on his mind.

As far as our relationship was concerned, we were still taking it one day at a time. Getting ahead of myself like that—that was something I should avoid if I wanted to keep my peace of mind. Wasn't this date enough? It was a chance for us to act in a way that I hadn't been sure we could—like a normal couple.

Jax squeezed my hand, interrupting my reverie. "Hey, you forgot something."

I glanced up at him, hoping that he would think my flushed face came from our climb. "What?"

A grin lit up his face. "You owe me dinner."

My eyes widened. That sneak. I let go of his hand and took a step back. "Wait a minute, where do you get that?" I pointed to the wifebeater that clung to his chest. "You're sweating buckets just like I am."

"Yeah, but I wasn't wheezing as much as you either. I thought you'd need a respirator by the time we got up here."

I smiled. "And who was that huffing and puffing behind me?" I held out my hand. "I call it a draw. Let's go dutch."

Jax laughed and shook my hand. "Maybe you should have gone into law instead of accounting."

I stepped closer, and he put a hand on my waist, pulling me towards him. His lips settled onto mine, softly probing, and a warmth rippled through my body. I brought my hand up, tugging at his hair, and his kiss became more fierce. Almost possessive, like he couldn't get enough of me.

I can't get enough of him either. Ever.

As he kissed me, suddenly it didn't matter that we weren't talking about the future yet. We had this day.

And it was perfect.

Chapter Nine

NIGHTFALL

After our visit to Telegraph Hill, Jax and I grabbed bacon-wrapped hot dogs from a street vendor for dinner before we met up with the band again—and even though he tried to back out on our deal and pay for the whole thing himself, I stuck to my guns. We went dutch.

Even though I would have loved to stay in San Francisco another night, we had to hit the road, despite the late hour. Reed wanted us back in LA for another promo at one o'clock tomorrow, and Kev volunteered to drive us through the night so that we could get some extra sleep on the bus before that happened.

It was 2:30 when we pulled up to our new digs—Reed's house in Malibu. Bernie had parked the bus there in the driveway for us, and we all stumbled onto it and up to bed, exhausted. Before I fell asleep, I wondered what the inside of Reed's house looked like—if it would be at all as flashy as the man.

Then I drifted off, happy to be back in the Fortress of Solitude, snuggling up next to Jax in our bed.

Thud!

My eyes shot open. The room was dark.

A groan came from my left. What was that?

Whack!