“Ride with me.” The words flew out of his mouth, and he didn’t want to take them back even though, fuck, it put him out there to be smacked down again. But damn if it wouldn’t be worth it to feel her holding him, pressed up tight against him, laughing in his ear.
She hesitated and maybe even looked a little nervous, but Maverick could see the interest in the liveliness of her eyes.
“Don’t think. Just say yes,” he said.
Alexa tilted her head and narrowed her gaze at him, and then she smiled. “Okay. Yes.”
That’s my girl. He kept the sentiment to himself, but he felt it down deep. His Alexa was in there. The one who could throw caution to the wind and have fun doing absolutely nothing. The one who laughed freely and bantered relentlessly. Maverick gave a single nod.
“Let me tell Mom. Be right back,” she said.
“I’ll bring the bike around.” Maverick took a step backward, but then paused when Alexa turned and hurried toward the house. His gaze traced her curves and lingered on the bare skin of her thighs. Thighs that were going to be wrapped around him in just a few short minutes. Thighs that had been wrapped around him in all kinds of ways many times. Many times. Fuck.
A few houses down, Maverick straddled his Harley Night Rod Special and brought the engine to life on a low rumble. He pulled the bike to the curb in front of the Harmon house and waited. He didn’t have to wait long.
Alexa came flying out through the garage. She made eye contact with him and it fucking seared his blood. For some reason this ride felt weighted with a significance he couldn’t put into words. And he wasn’t trying. He was just going to enjoy the hell out of it. Because Maverick knew her agreeing this one time didn’t change anything. Not anything important.
By the time she reached him, Alexa was smiling even though he could tell she was trying to hold that shit back. But she couldn’t, and that got to him, too. For a moment, she hesitated, like she wasn’t sure what to do. No way that was it, though, because even though it had been years, she’d been in his saddle as many times as his bed. He suspected the real issue was giving herself permission to do what she was gonna have to do—get close and hold tight. To him.
Something she hadn’t done in years.
But then she did it.
She braced one hand on his shoulder and climbed onto the small leather seat behind him. Her thighs hugging his ass. The softness of her breasts against his back. Her breath against his neck.
Fuck. The good old times once more.
He slid on a pair of sunglasses, then handed her his helmet. “Put this on.”
“What about you?” she asked as she took it.
“I’ll be careful.” He looked over his shoulder at her, and she gave a nod when she had it secured. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said, and he didn’t think he was imagining the anticipation in her voice.
The moment her hands came around him, Maverick pulled away from the curb. And the rightness of having her on his bike again made him want to drive up into the mountains for the rest of the day. Fists and knees in the breeze for a long ride. Find a quiet spot by one of the lakes. Fuck like a couple of kids against a tree or in the grass. They’d done it before. More than once.
But that wasn’t who they were anymore, was it?
And he was working on accepting that once and for all.
But not today.
THIS WAS PROBABLY a big mistake. Huge. Gargantuan, even. But that didn’t keep Alexa from getting on the back of Maverick’s bike and holding him tight.
One last time . . .
And it was just a ride. For old time’s sake. For fun, something she hadn’t prioritized in so long. And for her mom. Couldn’t forget that, either.
So, yeah. It was just a ride.
A shiver ran through her that had nothing to do with the air rushing over her skin. It was Maverick. His heat, his muscles, his long hair that she’d always loved running her hands through. It was his rough masculinity and his daredevil attitude and his fierce loyalty.
It was Maverick that had her body getting hot and feeling needy. She found even the leather Raven Riders’ patch on the back of his cut alluring, which made no sense since it was his membership in the club that had been one of her rationales for pushing Maverick away. But holding him as she was, all she could think about was how that same image was tattooed on his broad back. Watching the raven perched on a dagger move as his naked body did had always attracted her to him, even if everything the tattoo represented had sorta scared her.
Alexa closed her eyes and heaved a deep breath. Why was she torturing herself like this? She’d made her choice. Her future was set. Her future was Grant.
This? This was just a ride with someone she used to know.
Alexa groaned to herself. She might not want to admit the truth out loud, but it wasn’t like she could hide from herself. And if she was being honest, she hadn’t accepted the ride just to get a break from hanging out with her mother, although that had been part of it. She’d also wanted to ride with Maverick. Deep down, a part of her hadn’t wanted to spend the minutes apart that it would take for him to get his truck and return. Because she wouldn’t have many more—if any—opportunities like this again, not with her wedding just two weeks away. Now, experiencing all these feelings welling up inside her, it made her remember something she hadn’t thought of in a really long time.
Being with Maverick . . . just made her want to be with him even more. It had always been like that between them.
Which was one of the reasons, five years before, that she’d broken things off with him cold turkey. No friendship, even though they’d started out as friends. No hanging out casually or with groups of mutual friends, even though they’d done that all the time before they ever started dating. No asking for his help with her mom, even though he’d done it so many times and she could’ve used the help after Tyler died. She’d just been overwhelmed with grief and anger and responsibility, and it had been too hard for her to be around Maverick and not want him. Even if she’d been convinced he couldn’t give her everything she and her mother needed.
It hadn’t been easy. In fact, it’d hurt almost as much as Tyler’s death had. And that’d made her feel maybe more guilty than she ever had in her life.
And then Grant had stepped in, offering her kindness and support and help. Even as Maverick made a few last attempts to bridge the gap between them.