Our waitress brings our food; kudos to her, everything’s right. I place my napkin on my lap and look at Trick with my face scrunched in disbelief. “That’s so messed up. You should have told him.”
Trick cuts into his food. “No need to make him feel bad.”
We eat our dinner, exchanging very few words. My mind reels trying to process Trick’s feelings for me and his unusual sense of self-worth. One minute he’s emotionally closed off as if he’s protecting himself, and the next he’s letting Grady beat the crap out of him because he feels deserving of it. There’s such an ambiguity about his actions that leaves me feeling perplexed.
*
I let Trick secure my helmet to his liking, and his admiring eyes don’t go unnoticed by me. “You like the jacket, don’t you?”
“Yes.” He grazes his teeth along his bottom lip. “Leather pants would send the package over the edge.” He gets on then I hop on the back, eager to wrap my arms around him.
“So that’s what I am to you? A package.”
He reaches around cupping my ass and scoots me closer. “You’re the package.”
The engine roars to life; he revs it a few times before we shoot off into the busy stream of traffic.
Nana is going to lose her teeth with grin-baring excitement when she finds out about me and Trick. And when I tell her that I have my own leather riding jacket and helmet it’ll probably send her to her grave. Not that she’ll worry, just the opposite. She’s been telling me my whole life to live it up, take a chance, and fall for a guy that would make my father shudder with disapproval. Done. Done. And SO. VERY. DONE!
We pull into his garage, if you can call it that. The lower level of this warehouse has to be fairly large, but it’s always too dark for me to see beyond his bike and a few other covered things which I know have to be warmer, safer automobiles.
“Wait!” I call as the door starts to go down. “I can’t stay. I have to work tomorrow.”
He pulls off my helmet and sets it on the shelf next to his, then unzips my jacket. When he looks at me with the dark intensity that is only Trick, my breath quickens as a jolt of anticipation zips through me in anticipation of his touch.
“I need my Darby fix first.” He slides my jacket off and drapes it over the seat of his motorcycle. That voice is so damn sexy, I swear he could talk me to an orgasm without ever touching me. His hands slide into my hair, fisting it, and bringing me closer until his lips find my neck.
“Trick—”
“Darby,” he whispers, sucking my earlobe into his mouth.
“I thought you got your Darby fix in the supply closet earlier.” My breathy voice makes a weak protest.
Brushing his stubble along my jaw, he seduces me with a feathery touch that elicits a gripping wave of shivers. His lips, pulled into a grin, brush against mine; he knows exactly what he does to me. “I hadn’t seen you in two days … touched you in two days … and so I had to devour you. But now…” his tongue teases my upper lip “…I want to savor you.”
“But Grady and Tamsen—”
“Won’t be back for hours … if at all tonight.”
Any attempt to deny him would be futile and all in my head—like right now. My thoughts hold strong to my early morning job responsibility; but my hands have already unfastened his jeans, guaranteeing his bike will not be the last thing I ride tonight. I’m such a sex fiend with him.
*
The supply closet was lust, sex … a raw need. This—this is love. Trick loves me like it’s his sole purpose in life, and being on the receiving end of such a serendipitous love is … life-changing bliss.
“I have to go,” I whisper into his neck.
Trick makes a slight noise, but I’m not sure he’s awake so I ease off his arm and slide out of our tangled mess of sheets. My God, he’s beautiful. I don’t know what this is … what we are, but it’s unexpected—a gift. The light fluttering in my chest and the tingling that buzzes along the surface of my skin from his nearness stirring all my nerve endings, it’s life. When I’m with Trick I feel everything … I feel completely alive.
I sigh with a pouty frown and get dressed without waking him. It’s a little after midnight by the time I get on the elevator. Unfortunately it’s a noisy beast, so I’m sure my descent wakes him; but he knows I can’t stay so hopefully he’ll fall right back to sleep with the same satisfied smile I’m still wearing. As I round the corner of his building, I hear voices. Two guys stand by my car, puffing their cigarettes.