"Hey!" I called. What the fuck am I doing? Let her go. "You want me to give you a ride back out to your car?"
Dani turned, looking at me with those big brown eyes again. Those eyes. My heart raced. Man, this girl was going to be the death of me.
"I don't want to be any trouble,” she said.
I shrugged. "No trouble. I need to stop and get something to eat though. There’s a diner here I’ve eaten at before-it’s pretty decent. I can give you a ride back out there after that." Why had I just said that about eating? I wasn't planning on stopping for food.
Dani smiled. "You sure?"
No, I thought. Hell, no. You need to turn around and get back on the bike, head in the opposite direction from her. "Yeah, it’s no big deal."
"That would be great."
I watched her from behind as she walked ahead of me into the gas station, jeans practically painted on her ass. I stifled a groan. I needed to stop thinking with my dick.
Dani slid into the booth in front of me, the scarf that had held her hair back gone now. Her dark hair fell around her face, the other scarf still tied around her neck.
God, she was even more gorgeous with her hair down like that. I felt weird sitting across from her. This place didn't seem right for her-little rich girl in a shithole diner with a dirty biker. She was beauty, and I was the beast.
I felt my stomach rumble. I'd had coffee this morning, but there was nothing else in it to soak up the alcohol from last night.
"So," she said. "You in the habit of rescuing girls on the side of the road?"
"Nope. You in the habit of taking rides from dirty bikers?"
Dani shrugged. "You seem harmless."
I laughed. I'd never been called harmless in my life. This girl was either really naive, or she was completely delusional. "That's not something anyone's ever called me."
Dani opened her mouth to say something, when a waitress, a woman who had clearly seen it all, interrupted, setting down two empty cups and filling them with coffee before we had even asked.
"You two ready to order?" The waitress looked from me to Dani, her face expressionless, and snapped her gum loudly before pulling a pen from behind her ear.
"Sure," Dani said. "You're still doing breakfast?"
"All day, honey."
"All right. Then I'll have three eggs over easy, bacon, hash browns, and toast. Oh! Can I get a side of pancakes too?"
"My God." I said.
"What? Breakfast is a perfectly acceptable meal for other times of the day."
"That's not it,” I said. “Just wondering where you're going to put all that food."
She shrugged. "A girl has to eat."
I looked up at the waitress. "Same, please." After she left, I turned my attention to Dani. "So you know your way around bikes and you eat like a horse. You're different from the chicks in convertibles I usually rescue."
“Well, I have to stand out somehow, right?”
“I don't think you have any trouble standing out.” I had a hard time believing she had the ability to blend in.
“Neither do you.” She paused, reaching for the sugar container and pouring an ungodly amount of the stuff into her cup before looking up.
“You got any room for coffee in there with all that sweetener?”
“Yeah, I like a little coffee with my sugar,” Dani said. Her sugar. I could picture what having her sugar would be like. I pushed the thoughts out of my head. Behave. She’s not some road ho.
“So what's a girl like you crying about on the side of the road, anyway?” I don’t know why I asked. I sure as shit didn’t want the waterworks to start again, but she seemed more pulled together now.
Dani looked up, a flash of anger in her eyes, probably at me for butting my nose in where it didn’t belong. “Just having a shit day, that’s all.” She paused, and the anger was gone as quickly as it had appeared. “You know when you have one of those days where things just keep going wrong?”
“A girl like you has shit that goes wrong?” I smirked, unable to help myself. She was driving a fifty thousand dollar car, and I was willing to bet her clothes cost more than most people made in a week. Sure, I was going to give her a ride back to her car since, let's face it, she was good looking, but she didn’t exactly get my sympathy for her rich girl problems.
“Not really. Probably just hormones,” she said, shrugging.
She was lying. That was interesting. Maybe there was more to her than met the eye.
"What's that supposed to mean, anyway-a girl like me?" she asked.
"Come on," I said. "You’re not stupid. What do you think I mean?"
Dani looked at me, eyes hard, like she was daring me to go on, and I kept pressing forward, a bull in a china shop. I’d certainly been accused of being that in the past. "A rich girl like you? Problems? Come on."
A dark expression crossed her face, and she clenched her jaw, the muscles in the sides of her face rippling. Then the cloud passed. "First world problems, I know," she said casually.
She had more control than I had, not rising to the bait. I'd give her that. I didn't know why I cared, though, why I was baiting her.