He nodded. “I’ll find something.”
We were in Colorado, by now, well into it. We rumbled another twenty minutes down the freeway before we found an exit that was marked as having food. He seemed to hesitate, and then the roar quieted and we leaned to angle off the freeway. The exit wound around, and I felt Crow lean into the turn, and the angle and the speed and the gravity were suddenly very real and very scary.
“Lean with me!” he shouted. “Look over my left shoulder!”
I tried to do so, to move with him, mirroring his body movement, but my heart was thundering, pounding, palms sweating against his chest, which I had a death grip on. Then we were stopped, idling at the red light.
“Okay?” He tossed over his shoulder. “Shoulda warned you about the turn earlier. Freaky for a first timer.”
I nodded, slowing my breathing. “It was scary, but I’m okay. I hope I didn’t throw you off at all.”
“Nah, been doing it long enough. Just gotta remember to trust me, and just lean with me. Look over my inside shoulder and lean a little bit, and it’ll be fine.”
I nodded and looked around. “The sign said there was food at this exit, but…I’m not so sure.”
There wasn’t much, just a rural highway extending left and right, late afternoon sun golden-red on the trees, and a few billboards, a gas station, small and desolate and aging. Not much to see in either direction except trees.
The light turned green, but he hesitated. “Sign said left in a couple miles. Could be a dump, but you never know. Wanna try?”
“I’m really, really hungry. Plus, my legs ache, and have to pee. So yeah?”
He nodded. “Okay. Here we go.”
Off we went, and this time I leaned with him like he’d instructed, and it wasn’t as scary the second time. Slower, now, at a sedate highway pace, fifty or so. Slow enough to enjoy the scenery, the wind, and the lowering sun. In a couple miles, a building appeared in a clearing.
It was small and squat, no windows, lit with red and green and blue neon signs advertising beer and liquor and food. We pulled into the parking lot, which was fairly packed, surprisingly. There was an even mix of motorcycles and jacked-up pickup trucks—it was clearly an establishment that catered to…a certain sort.
My heart clapped erratically, but my bladder was suddenly screaming, and my legs were screaming, and my back hurt, and I was vibrating all over, and my stomach was yawning with rumbling hunger.
Crow had stopped in a parking spot, but hadn’t shut the bike off or put the kickstand down. He twisted to glance at me over his shoulder. “Kind of a rough place, babe. Wouldn’t bother me none, but a sweet little filly like you…might be a little sordid for your taste.”
That put my back up a little. “Can you protect me from any unsavory elements?”
He chuckled. “Babe, anywhere we go,Iamthe unsavory element.”
“Is that a yes?” Sweet little filly, my ass.
“Yeah, babe,” he growled. “Walk you through hell itself, and the devil won’t lay a finger on you.”
That warmed me, more than a little. Because damn, I believed him.
“Then let’s go, before I piddle in my sweet little filly underpants.”
He chuckled, eyeing me. “That irritated you, did it?”
I swung off the bike, and my legs wobbled—his hand caught me. “A little,” I said, finding my land-legs, so to speak. “I understand calling me darling and sweetheart and things like that are just how you talk, but calling me a sweet little filly is…condescending, at best.”
“I apologize.” No excuses, no justifications, just the apology. How extraordinary.
I took his hand and smiled. “It’s okay. Just be glad you didn’t say that to Lex. She’d skin you alive for a comment like that.”
He snickered. “Wonder how Myles is making out with her, then, because he’s worse about that kinda shit than I am.”
She made a face. “Eek, not well, I’d imagine. She doesn’t like being called smarmy pet names. Atall.”
He turned off the bike, put down the kickstand, unclipped his helmet and slung it off the handlebar. I unclipped mine and handed it to him. He took his time swinging off the bike, stretching, cracking his back side to side, flexing his legs.
I danced. “Not to be a problem, but I really,reallyhave to pee.”
