Jake watched Anna enter the restaurant and stop to talk to the hostess. She hit the restroom first, giving him a few more minutes’ reprieve. At least she was still here. She’d been outside so long that he’d wondered if she’d hitched a ride with a trucker. Not that he would have blamed her, necessarily.
What had he been thinking?
He’d asked himself the question too many times to count already. Having her on the back of his bike as they’d sped through the open countryside had felt so right. Even after she’d become aware that they weren’t heading to the airport anymore. Even after she’d figured out he was pretty much abducting her. When she’d gotten off the bike, her expression had slid between horror and outrage and outright fear so many times he’d lost count. None of those looks had sat well on her face, and even now his gut twisted, remembering it. Had he lost his mind?
He certainly hadn’t been making his decisions based on any sort of logic. He’d just wanted to keep ahold of Anna a little longer.
And now he had her all right, only she was completely freaked out. He was bracing for the meltdown of the century. He didn’t even have the right to get mad at her if that happened. Because what was done, was done. So now he needed to pull his shit together and come up with an excuse as to why he’d carried her off. Should he keep up the act that it was just to give her the perfect weekend? Tell her the truth about what he was feeling? And how in fuck’s name would he come up with the words to explain that?
He was out of his depth, here. Royally screwed.
He watched as Anna emerged from the restaurant bathroom, her jacket now over her arm, her soft pink T-shirt and jeans and boots fitting her body just right. She was the prettiest girl in the room, even with her hair a little wild and her face a little windburned. She didn’t notice the men turning to take a second look, but he did. And it didn’t do his mood any good, for the record.
“Oh, thank you,” Anna said for no reason he could figure out as she slid into the booth opposite him. Then she fell on the glass of water he’d ordered for her and took a long drink. When she set it down, her smile was sweet and determined.
Wait. Sweet and determined? Jake blinked, suddenly off kilter. “Um … how’re you feeling?” he asked. “That’s probably the longest you’ve been on a bike.”
“I’m a little sore,” she said. “But I guess that’s something I should be prepared for, yes? How far do you usually ride in a day when you’re traveling?”
Jake shrugged, glad for the conversational gambit. Anything to put off the inevitable. “Four or five hundred miles a day is usually my target, unless I’m in a hurry. That’s just enough to feel like you’re riding, versus visiting, but not so hard that you have no desire to do anything but fall into bed at night.”
“And four hundred or so, that will get us to Richmond?”
He eyed her cautiously. “It will.”
“Good,” she said. The waitress arrived, and they put in their orders. Anna, to his surprise, ordered a cheeseburger and fries right along with him. “What?” she asked when he lifted his brows. “It’s a long ride ahead, and I don’t know when you’re going to stop again.”
“Every two hours, give or take,” Jake said. “You will need to walk it off, and hell, I will too. It’s a good bike, but it ain’t mine. It’ll take a little getting used to, even though the ride is pretty smooth.”
“Well, then every two hours. That will get us into town by early evening, right?”
Jake shrugged. “Give or take.”
She lifted her brows. “I’ve never been to Richmond. I don’t know anyone there. Are there any fun places to go at night? Some place where we can have a good time?”
“Well …” He rolled his glass in his hands, not really sure how to play this. “What’s your definition of a good time?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Anna said. She settled back in her own seat, taking another long drink of water. “Seems to me like I’ve been kidnapped by some dude on a motorcycle, I should go all in on the experience.”
That made him stop. “All in?”
“Well, sure. I should go ahead and embrace the journey, or at least this stretch of I-95. Take advantage of the sexy guy who kidnapped me.” She gave him a smile. “At the very least, he should pay for dinner.”
Jake sat back in his seat, feeling his own tension flow out of him as something else flowed in. Something that made his heart beat sideways, but also skated along his bloodstream straight to his groin, ratcheting up an entirely different kind of tension. “You want me to show you a good time?”
“I think it’s only fair. You were riding my ass about being a workaholic, toeing the corporate line. Well, how can I make a decision about what to do and how to do it if I never get a taste of the other side?” She tilted her head, eyeing him. “Of course, that’s saying that you’ve got what it takes to show me that other side. I realize that may be kind of rude of me, to think that might be something you either want or can—”
“Oh, I can do it, darling,” Jake said. He didn’t bother trying to hide the raw interest in his voice. Now she was speaking his language, and he had been to Richmond a few times. For a sweet Southern city, it still carried a level of spice. “You looking for a nightclub, strip club, or just a bar?” he watched as her eyes widened. “For myself, I don’t need to see other women take their clothes off, unless you’re willing to go up on that stage. But there are plenty of places for you to strut it out if that’s your interest. Whatever you want to do, we can make it happen.”
Did he seriously just suggest that they could go to a strip club? Anna took another drink of water to give herself something to do, but was surprised to realize that yes, in fact, she did have limits. Watching some college girl take off her clothes so she could put herself through school wasn’t her idea of a good time. But Jake’s other suggestion …
“I don’t have any good clothes for a nightclub, so that’s a problem.”
“What, they don’t have stores in Richmond?” Jake flashed her a grin. “I can get you there more quickly, if you’re in the mood to shop. There’s got to be an outlet store somewhere between here and there. The South is full of them.”
“There you go.” Anna took in the subtext of Jake’s comments, which he probably wasn’t even aware of. Here was a man who was willing to go shopping with her. Admittedly, for the sole purpose of buying sexy clothes, but still. “I tell you what. I’ve got only one hard stop, my call to Japan. I have to make that, and I don’t care where we are. Otherwise, your job is to show me a good time, and I’ll go along with everything you suggest.”
Jake’s eyes went a little dark, and the smile on his lips was calculating. “Those are pretty broad parameters,” he said.
Anna shrugged, but she couldn’t deny the excitement pulsing through her. “What, you thinking of doing something that pushes my boundaries?”
“Darling, I’m thinking of doing everything that pushes your boundaries.” Their food arrived, and Jake grinned at her. “Go ahead and dig in. You’re going to need your strength.”
The rest of the trip passed almost in a blur for Anna. The closer they got to Richmond, the more keyed up she became. They did find an outlet mall off of I-95, and while she went to Off 5th, Jake disappeared down another section of stores, coming back with a package tucked inside his jacket, which he then transferred to his saddlebag without letting her see what it was. Otherwise, the trip passed in a whirl of traffic, drink breaks, and rest areas, with Jake making calls at every stop after ordering her to walk the road out of her legs, anywhere but near him.
Anna found the whole thing more bemusing than intriguing. She was used to calling the shots—preferred it, she told herself. But here he was, taking charge, ordering her around, making sure she was comfortable, safe, happy. It was kind of sweet, really. And kind of weird. But mostly, it was intensely hot. Which made no sense at all.
Now she bit her lip as the next Richmond, Virginia road sign whipped by. It was barely seven P.M. and they were almost to their first destination, which she hoped to hell was their hotel. She needed a shower in the worst way, if only to untangle the parts of her hair that had worked their way out of her helmet and wrap. They took the exit into the downtown area, and at the first light, Jake planted his legs on the ground, turning around to look at her. “Hotel just up the way. You good with that?”
She gave him the thumbs up, and he turned back around. The long ride on the back of a bike with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company had given her time to reflect on everything that had happened in the few short days of the wedding trip. And the truth was, Jake paid attention. He watched her every move, every gesture, every smile and frown. He seemed to tense up when he thought she would be upset, and he grinned when he had a surprise for her. Some of that, she was sure, was just the excitement of her being new in his life. She wondered how he would be, say, three years into a relationship. Would he still be so intent? She wouldn’t let herself believe it.
And yet she had a lot of miles to think of nothing but.
Now they were angling onto a street with a gorgeous hotel looming above them, and Anna couldn’t quite blink the grit out of her eyes to make out where they were. Jake rode straight up to the valet and pulled off his helmet. “I’ll park it if you just show me where,” he said, and the valet shrugged.
“I have a bike myself, sir,” he said with a smile. “I’m happy to take it off your hands.”
“Fair enough, but be careful. It’s not my bike.” Jake tossed him the keys, then reached down to lift the saddlebags away.
“Jake, you’re kidding right?” She’d pulled off her helmet as well, but could only stare at him as he took it from her, then clipped her helmet to the bike and handed his to the valet guy. “This is not where we’re spending the night.”
“Yup.” He chuckled as they entered the extravagant lobby.
“But this had to have cost a fortune!” Anna protested, trying to keep her voice low. “There is no way you—”
Jake stopped short on the marble floor and turned to her. “Anna. Just go with it. For once. I don’t care if tonight costs me three thousand dollars. Which it won’t, for the record. No matter how rough I travel, every once in a while, I need to take advantage of civilization. Today I’ve got a beautiful woman in a strange city and I want a decent shower. Hold this.”
He handed the saddlebags to her, and she held the unwieldy leather case close to her body as he strode up to the main desk. The woman behind the desk smiled at him as if she’d been expecting him, and within a few minutes, Jake was back, exchanging Anna’s armful of leather for a small paper envelope with two plastic key cards.
“You’re serious.”
“I’m serious,” he said. A smile cracked his now faintly sunburned face. “And I’m in serious need of that shower now. So hop to it.”