Fuck, pull yourself together.
Clenching my teeth, I nod, but say nothing.
When Hollis finally comes to a stop and turns off the bike, I take in our surroundings. We’re on some sort of a lookout over a canyon, and there’s nothing or no one around as far as the eye can see.
“Take me up here to kill me?” I ask teasingly as I climb off a moment before Hollis does the same.
He chuckles, pulling off his helmet. “Nah, you fucked me too good to kill you.”
My body heats, from his words, but also from the sight of him as I drag my gaze down the front of his body. When he picked me up, I was too focused on the fact that he expected me to climb on the back of his bike that I never got a good look at him. A leather vest is draped over a plain white t-shirt, straight-leg Wranglers perfectly hugging his thighs and ass are cuffed around the ankle, showing off his black riding boots that are vastly different from his usual cowboy boots, and as he sets his helmet on the seat and reaches into the left saddlebag, hepulls out an all-black trucker hat that he places backward on his head.
Goddamn.
Biker Hollis is just as mouthwatering as cowboy Hollis.
Placing a Marlboro between his teeth, Hollis lights the end with a Zippo, flashing me a cocky smirk. “Keep lookin’ at me like that, and I just might get the wrong idea, Cap.”
Fire spreads through my veins. “Oh, is that right?”
He nods, humming as he takes a drag off the cigarette. “And I don’t know what type of man you take me for, but I don’t much like puttin’ out on the first date.”
“Just beforehand?” I tease, before pausing when my mind finally registers what he said. “You think this is adate?”
Lifting a brow, he asks, “Don’t you?”
My heart stutters. I already don’t know how I feel about what Hollis and I have done already, but adate? No. This isn’t a date.
Hollis busts up laughing. “Would you fuckin’ relax, man? I’m just messin’ with you.” Sauntering over to me, he pats the side of my face. “God, you should see your face right now.”
Narrowing my gaze, I grit my teeth. “Then what are we doin’ out here?”
“Watchin’ the sunset, obviously,” is all he offers before taking off in the other direction, leaving me to follow him.
Oh, watching a sunset. What a totally normal thing for two people to do together whoaren’ton a date.
“One thing about me,” Hollis drawls over his shoulder. “I’m a slut for a pretty sunset, and this place has one of the best views around here. It’s also far enough from town that you can practically see every star in the sky.”
We don’t veer too far from the bike when Hollis comes to a stop. There’s a little ledge area where we can sit. It’s kind ofsmall, though. Our knees brush as I take a seat next to him. My palms are sweaty, and my pulse is still racing. I’m on edge being here with him, and I don’t understand why.
“What about you?” he asks.
My brows furrow. “What about me?”
“You like sunsets too? Or are you more of a sunrise type of guy?”
“I like ’em both.” I shrug. “Don’t think I got a preference one way or another.”
“Ever been out here before?”
I shake my head. “Nope, can’t say that I have.”
Hollis takes one last drag before dropping the cigarette on the ground and putting it out with his boot. I’m just about to give him shit for littering when he bends down and picks up the butt, shoving it in the pocket of his jeans.
“What’s your favorite place to go to unwind, or just relax?” he asks after a while, the question taking me by surprise for whatever reason.
Rubbing my hand along the scruff covering my jaw, I think about it for a moment before I huff out a breath. “Hell, I guess I don’t really have one anymore.”
“Okay, whatwasyour favorite place?”
