Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Recognizing the determined expression, I knew I could run away from Lewis only for him to approach me another day until he got what he wanted, or I could get this awkward encounter over with now. “Fine.”
Relief eased the tension in his shoulders. He nodded and then turned to Fyfe. “Thanks, bud.”
Fyfe smirked. “No problem.”
Suddenly, I had the sneaking suspicion that Fyfe had told Lewis I was here. I cut him a dirty look that only made our friend grin unrepentantly. “Thanks for breakfast,” I half seethed.
“You’re very welcome,” Fyfe replied dryly.
I looked at Carianne. “Talk to you soon.”
“Aye.” She nibbled on her lower lip, not quite looking at either me or Lewis.
Lewis was so focused on me that he didn’t even say goodbye to her as we walked out. In fact, as soon as the door closed behind us, he rested his hand on my lower back to lead me toward the sexy bloody motorbike parked on Fyfe’s driveway.
Chrome pipes gleamed in the late-morning sunlight.
I tried to ignore the shiver of awareness that skated up my spine at his possessive touch. Unable to ignore it, I stepped away from him. Which was pointless since I was about to be pressed up against him.
Lewis frowned down at me. “You okay?”
I nodded.
He opened the locked box on the back of the bike and pulled out two helmets. Lewis handed one to me. “Your dad warned me if he caught you on the back of my bike and I was doing anything more than forty, he’d kill me. I felt like a teenager all over again.”
My lips twitched with laughter. “When did he say that?”
“I stopped by your place this morning.”
Oh. “Did he tell you I was here?”
“Eventually. But so did Fyfe.”
“So I can be pissed off at both of them.”
“Are you?” Lewis looked adorably uncertain, a stark contrast to his tattooed biker facade.
I sighed. “I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve been trying not to think about you or why you’re back.”
He glanced away, squinting against the sun. Then without another word he popped on his helmet and swung his long leg over his bike. Arousal flushed through me at the sight, and I cursed my physical attraction to him. Why, oh why couldn’t we have grown apart in every way possible? Instead, I was more drawn to the arsehole than ever.
With an angry grunt, I slipped on the helmet and got on behind him. He waited until I’d scooted close and wrapped my arms around his waist. My breasts pressed against his back as I turned my head to the side. Then we were off.
Lewis definitely didn’t stick to forty.
He didn’t ride like a maniac either, but we sped down the coastal road and it took everything within me not to spread my arms wide and throw my head back. This was different to riding in London. We zoomed around the bends and turns, heading into Ardnoch. And it felt like flying. Plus the Harley growled, and that purring vibration felt good. Too good.
To my surprise, Lewis took a turnoff just outside Ardnoch. I recognized it—it led to a small car park where a path cut through the dunes and down onto the beach.
There were a few cars parked because summer was officially only a week away, and the weather was lovely. As soon as the Harley’s engine stopped rumbling, I hopped off the bike and removed my helmet. “What are we doing here?”
Lewis tugged off his helmet and smoothed a hand over his hair. Those chunky silver rings on his manly fingers that weirdly turned me on glinted in the sunlight. “You said we could talk.”
I had, hadn’t I? I thought it would be outside my parents’ bungalow where my dad would be watching with such an intimidating presence it would put Lewis off, and he’d leave.
And I’d escape the temptation of him once more.
“I really do need to get back, though.”
Lewis swung off the bike and stood to face me. We could hear the ocean waves lapping beyond the dunes, the sound of a dog barking, seagulls mewing in the clear sky above. Barricaded from the coastal wind, we stood in a soothing warmth that was opposite to the storm roiling inside of me as we stared at each other.
Flashes of that night kept flickering in my mind.
Clear as day, I could hear his groans, feel the way his body tensed and shuddered, how he throbbed thick and hot inside me.
Flushing with need, I retreated from him.
Lewis scowled. “Fine. Then I’ll get straight to the point. I came back for you, Callie. I moved back to Ardnoch to be with you. After that night, you can’t deny what’s still between us.”
At once I wanted to throw myself in his arms and sob with relief, while the other half of me wanted to run away from him. To jog all the way down the beach back to the village, so he couldn’t see how bloody terrified I was to have him back and saying these things. Because what if in a year or five or ten, he decided he was bored with Ardnoch all over again? That he needed a city like London to inspire him? To keep him satisfied.