Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
I paid the bill -- she protested when I paid for her pie, but Teddy overruled her, saying her money was no good to him when she had a perfectly good man willing to pay -- and took her to my bike.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Nice ride.” For the first time since I’d met CeCe, the smile on her face was genuine. No shadows. No guarding her reaction.
“You can ride with me or, if you have your own ride, I can give you directions and you can meet me.”
“No. Sometimes I take the bus, but usually I walk. It helps clear my head.”
I grinned. “And work off the sugar buzz?”
“Most definitely the sugar.”
She hiked up her short skirt and climbed on the bike, as I held out my hand to help her. “Be mindful of the pipes, honey. Don’t burn yourself.”
“Well, if I do, will I get that free medical advice I said I didn’t want?”
“Honey, you can have anything at all you want. All you have to do is ask.” She sucked in a breath before shaking her head slightly and climbing on behind me. I ignored her sudden discomfort and reached for her arms. Wrapping them around my waist, I said, “Hang on. Now that you made it on without burning yourself, I don’t want you falling off the back.”
“You sure you’re not just trying to get me to feel you up?”
“Never said that.”
“Fine. But if I accidentally brush my fingers over your dick, I don’t want to hear any complaints.”
I glanced over my shoulder and gave her a smirk. “Honey, you touch my dick, I guarantee you there will be no complaints whatsoever.”
Her laughter was the sweetest music. She actually sounded happy. Was there any better sound? Yeah. I was fucking fucked. Shit was, I wasn’t broken up about it. What I was concerned about was coaxing her to stay with me. Not just tonight, but… for a while. Because if she went back to Ettore Alfonso, I couldn’t keep her safe from the bastard. While I was confident I could satisfy her intellectually, I had to be careful about her feeling like she didn’t have choices. I absolutely wouldn’t take her from one life with no choices to another.
But I was getting ahead of myself. And I wasn’t sure what I’d do if she wanted to stay anyway. I couldn’t take her back to the club. At least, not right away. Not only would she likely freak out -- going from a mafia kingpin to an outlaw biker wasn’t exactly what I’d call a step up in the world -- but I’d need to get permission from Rocket. Or Lemon. I grinned. Yeah. I could get Lemon to agree to let CeCe in the club for protection whether or not I made her mine. Which wasn’t likely.
“Want to take a walk on the beach first?” I asked the question spontaneously. I hadn’t really planned to do anything other than get her home, comfortable, and maybe get her to drink a little alcohol so she’d sleep. I absolutely wanted to do everything I could to get her to stay with me.
“A walk on the beach?”
I looked back over my shoulder. “Yeah. You know. Watch the sunset and shit.”
Again, she laughed. “You don’t seem like the type to like long walks on the beach to watch the sunset.”
“I’m not. Just thought it might be something a woman would appreciate.”
“I would appreciate it. Just wasn’t expecting you to suggest it.”
On impulse, I took her hand from around my waist and kissed the backs of her fingers briefly. “We can pretend it’s a first date. And I never allow a woman to get handsy on a first date.”
That really got a laugh from her. She actually put her hands on her cheeks before wiping tears from her eyes before she wrapped her arms around my middle once more.
“Yeah, Atticus. I think that would be beautiful. I mean, since we’re not getting handsy anyway.”
“Exactly.” I patted her hands once before starting my bike and taking off.
Never had I experienced anything like that fucking ride to the beach. And yeah, I took the long way. There was still about an hour before sunset. The sky hadn’t started to turn colors yet so I knew we had time. Because CeCe was… Well, if she wasn’t having the time of her life, she was having some kind of psychotic break. The girl whooped and hollered, like she was on a rollercoaster ride at an amusement park. At one point, she wrapped her arms around my waist and rubbed her face against my back like a kitten.
In the back of my mind, I knew we should both be wearing helmets, that eye gear at the very least was required by law, and neither of us had either. It wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but getting her to come with me, getting her out of a situation she obviously didn’t want to be in and giving her the chance to be somewhere safe, was worth the risk. I just had to be careful and get us to our destination safely.