‘Helen’s right, you shouldn’t cycle this late. I’ll give you a lift.’ Tom rose to his feet and lifted an eyebrow in her direction, challenging her to refuse.
She lifted an eyebrow. ‘You’re on a bike, too, remember?’
Tom’s eyes gleamed with amusement. ‘Not the same thing, as you well know.’
Sally glanced down at herself. ‘I’m hardly dressed for a ride on a motorbike in freezing March.’
‘I’ve got a spare helmet and you can borrow a set of leathers from here,’ Tom said easily. ‘Oliver?’
‘We’ll take her,’ Bryony interrupted quickly, her expression troubled as she looked at Sally. ‘She doesn’t want to go on the back of your motorbike. It’s a totally uncivilized mode of transport.’
‘Sally isn’t like you,’ Tom said softly, his blue eyes fixed firmly on Sally. ‘She used to love my motorbike. I can’t believe she’s really changed that much.’
Sally stared at him, hardly able to breathe. Why did she have the feeling that this conversation wasn’t about motorbikes? It was about the person she used to be.
But she wasn’t that person any more.
She wasn’t the same girl who had been so crazy about Tom that all the other parts of her life had blurred into insignificance.
Bryony reached for her keys. ‘I’m taking her home,’ she said firmly, and Oliver sighed.
‘Well, in that case you’ll have to come back here afterwards, because Jack and I have got things to discuss.’
‘Thanks, Bry, but I’ll go with Tom.’ The last thing Sally wanted was to put Bryony to so much trouble when she’d already been so generous in every way. It was just one short motorbike ride. How could that be a problem? And it was hardly intimate. They wouldn’t even be able to have a conversation and he couldn’t see her face once they were on the bike. It would be fine.
She looked at the leathers that Oliver was holding out to her, her eyes suddenly wary as she recognized them. ‘They’re mine …’
‘You gave them to us when you left. Naturally, we hung onto them.’
Sally stood for a moment, remembering the time she’d bought the leathers. The same time she’d thought she’d be with Tom for ever.
Putting them on would be like going back in time, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.
Then she felt Tom’s eyes on her and reached for the leathers. ‘Thanks.’
She wriggled into them, took the helmet from Tom and said her goodbyes, by which time Tom was already seated on the motorbike, his black helmet concealing his features and giving him an air of menace and danger.
Sally swallowed, suddenly realizing what she’d committed herself to. Why on earth hadn’t she just agreed when Bryony had offered to drive her home? It would have been the safe option.
But she’d never chosen the safe option in her life and Bryony had already done more than enough.
She looked at his powerful figure straddling the bike with careless ease and suddenly her body throbbed in an instinctive and totally feminine response to the macho figure he presented. But his sexual magnetism had never been in question, she reasoned, hating herself for the strength of her reaction. That was why she’d made such a fool of herself over him in her teens.
Looking at the space on the back of his bike, she felt her breath catch.
How could she have thought that riding on a bike with him would be less intimate than travelling in a car? It was so much more intimate. On a bike she would be wrapped around him, her body locked against his as it had been so many times in the past.
‘Are you coming?’ His deep voice was molten male invitation and she was suddenly thankful that the helmet concealed her expression.
‘Yes.’
Comforting herself that the journey was relatively short, she stepped up to the bike and swung her leg over, sitting as far back in the saddle as possible, trying to keep her distance.
Without speaking, he reached back and found her arms, lifting them and wrapping them around him, forcing her to draw close, to slot her body against his.
She felt the warmth and strength of him pressed against her, felt the powerful play of male muscle against hers as he steered the bike out of Oliver’s drive.
As they picked up speed she felt the familiar kick of excitement and closed her eyes, transported back in time.