"Do you still want to get on the back of my bike, baby girl?"
Scowling at that, I retorted, "I’m not a baby."
He smiled. "You are to me. It’s okay to be afraid. You should be, even though I’ll never hurt you. I’d hurt myself first."
Why did I believe that?
Swallowing, I whispered, "Ray was going to hurt me last night."
"Yes. He was. That’s why I stopped him."
I gnawed on my bottom lip. "I feel like…"
"You feel like?" he prompted when I fell silent.
"Like you had no right to protect me, but I’m glad that you did," I blurted out.
He didn’t tell me that he’d protect any woman from a predator like Ray. He didn’t tell me that he was relieved he’d saved me.
He just looked at me.
Our eyes tangling.
And a strange feeling burst inside me.
Warmth and… want.
I licked my lips.
"Is your mom waiting on you?"
"How do you know she’s waiting on me?"
"I know most things about you, Keira." He tapped his nose. "Made it my business to know."
"Why?"
"Because you’re fascinatin’."
"Me?" I whispered, pointing at myself.
"No one else around here, is there?" He smiled a little, then he reached out, and his finger tangled in a lock of hair that I let dangle by my cheek. "You sure you want to play with monsters, baby girl?"
"I’m not a baby," I repeated. "I’m nineteen."
He grunted at that. "That reminds me. I got you a present."
Shocked, my mouth gaped. "You got me a gift? But you don’t even know me!"
He ignored that and leaned over, unfastening a latch on a satchel on the side of the bike. "Saw it in a store and thought of you."
He handed me a box, tied with a simple ribbon, that I immediately unfastened to reveal a pendant on a necklace.
It was a thin, silver obelisk, engraved with words that made a liar out of him.
Love looks not with the eyes.
This wasn’t something you ‘found.’
This was something you had engraved.
"Just to clarify, I think you’d have made a better Hermia in the school play, but the quote…" He shrugged. "Well, let’s say it resonated."
"You really were there at the play that night. I thought I saw you but—" I smiled sheepishly. "I couldn’t imagine you wanting to see that."
"Always did like Shakespeare."
"You?" I sputtered. "You liked Shakespeare?"
"Are you stereotypin’ me, Miz Keira?" he teased, making me laugh.
"No. But… you have to admit, you don’t look like the kind of guy who’d love Shakespeare."
"That’s the joy of the Bard. Fans where you least suspect them." He dropped his chin, motioning to the gift. "It’s okay if you don’t like it—"
"No!" I declared. "I love it!! Would you put it on for me?"
"Of course." His smile was soft. Pleased.
I passed him the box, then gathered my hair in my fist and raised it so that he could loop the chain around my throat and fasten it. I swore I felt his breath against my nape, but the cold chill of the metal against my skin made me think I was mistaken.
Peering down at it, I whispered, "I can’t thank you enough."
It was the most thoughtful of all my gifts. Even from Laurie and Josse who’d grabbed me a couple CDs. Not that I was being ungrateful, just… this held a message. I hadn’t received a gift like this before.
"You really like it, huh?" he questioned sheepishly, a warm grin making his lips twitch up at the corners in a way that made his beautiful face softer, more boyish. More approachable.
"I love it." I leaned into him because the desire to kiss his cheek in thanks was strong, but I held back, muttering instead, "I was dumb to approach you here. Would you meet me around the corner at JayJay’s?"
He blinked. "Why?"
"Because my dad…" My mouth worked. "He’s not a nice man."
Temper flared in his eyes. "Does he hurt you?"
"No." But he might if he thought I was interested in a biker.
"Why don’t I believe you?"
"He doesn’t," I promised. He just hurt my mom. "JayJay’s? I’ll walk there now. I have a couple hours until curfew."
"You have a curfew at your age?"
"Thought you said you knew everything about me," I mocked, but before he could say another word, I just explained, "They’re strict."
"Apparently." His brows surged. "I’ll meet you at the coffee shop."
"Thank you." I smiled at him, and somehow, that made the frown that had formed on his brow disappear. "I’ll see you in ten?"
He nodded as I backed off, and twisting away, a blush surging on my cheeks, I heard him start his engine, then ride off.
Excitement flushed through me, but that was nothing to what I experienced over the following week.
That first day, he didn’t ride us far. We stopped off at a park and ate the sandwiches he bought from the coffee shop where we met up.
The second day, he appeared with a helmet, and rode us all the way to New York and back. I swore, nothing beat the energy that came from clinging to him with all my being yet made me feel as if I were flying at the same time.
The third day, we went to East Orange and ate in a coffee shop there. We talked about life. Nuts, right? But it felt so good.
I got the impression that he whitewashed his version plenty, but it was nice to talk about my concerns regarding my lack of a scholarship and the pressure it put me under to do as my father wanted.
Then, we talked about politics, of all things. Religion—both of us were atheists—Pascal's wager, anyone? And there was even a dose of ethics.
It was, in a word, dreamy.
Absolute heaven.
Each day, he took me somewhere different, all without breaking my curfew. And I learned so much. He was kind and gentle, and when I was with him, I felt safe.
From the outside, he might look big and burly, but my father was small and rather petite but he whupped my mom where I knew, point blank, Asher would never do that.
Ever.
Life changed people, that I’d come to see over the years, but there was an intrinsic part of someone’s character that defined us, and a kind of wholesomeness registered in my being whenever I was with Asher that put me at ease.
We carried on like that for a few weeks.
Stolen moments in an afternoon that couldn’t be classed as dates, not after Josse and Laurie had described their idea of a date to me, but that I cherished nonetheless.
One evening, he rode us along a tract of land that took us out past West Orange, while somehow staying near it. I figured he was taking us to his clubhouse, and though I started to get nervous, I knew he’d never put me in danger.
My mom would shriek at me, anyone else would too—the red alert would be flashing as he took me higher up a hill that I’d never even seen before, never mind walked up—but the part of me that had lost faith in people the day I’d caught Dad cheating on Mom for the second time, rang true with Asher.