Free Salted Caramel: Sexy Standalone Romance by Tess Oliver, Anna Hart

answered. For now, I was fine with that. I had bigger things to think about. I was going on a lakeside picnic with the hottest damn man on the planet, and I was getting there on the back of a motorcycle. Maybe following my heart to happiness had been the pearl of wisdom I needed to change my life. I must have read a dozen philosophy books in college looking for the truth in life and all I’d really needed to read was an embroidered, linen napkin.

Chapter 15
    Just seconds after Coco had left, she’d returned with a new outfit, a pair of khaki shorts and a pink sleeveless tank for a warm day at the lake. She’d even given me suntan lotion and a band to tie up my hair for the motorcycle ride. I pulled on the ankle boots from the night before and marveled, once again, at how perfectly everything fit. I grabbed my sunglasses from my purse, about the only item of use I had brought with me, and stuck them on my head.
    I was positively giddy by the time I hopped down the stairs to the entryway.
    Beck was putting our food in the side pouches on his bike. He glanced up in his opaque black shades when he heard me shut the front door. He laughed. “You look like a kid coming down the stairs to the Christmas tree.”
    “I feel like one. The last time I was this excited was when my grandmother and I traveled on a bus to California to spend the day at Disneyland.” I grinned down at the motorcycle. It was a chrome and black beauty, and while I didn’t know much about bikes, this one looked fun . . . and fast. “This will be way better than Space Mountain, and I’ll bet I won’t walk off of it with a sore neck.”
    “Nope, and she’s all ready for you. I only have the one helmet.” He handed his black helmet to me. “I’ll have to adjust the straps.”
    “No, please. I wouldn’t feel right wearing it. Are we going far? Coco mentioned some lake?”
    “We’ll just be traveling along a quiet, back road. We’ll leave the helmet here, and I’ll go slow.”
    “No you won’t. Please.”
    “All right, Ms. Knieval, climb on and we’ll ride. I’ll try to make it at least as cool as Space Mountain.”
    He looked exactly right on the motorcycle, and the thunderous roar of the motor as he started up the bike, sounded exactly right too. There was nothing quiet or tame or conventional about Beck.
    I pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes and held his shoulders as I threw my leg over the seat and sat down behind him. I wrapped my arms around him. His hard stomach muscles rippled beneath my hands as he turned the bike and headed down the long driveway.
    I rested my chin on his shoulder and watched the road get closer. I couldn’t hold back a squeal as we rolled downhill.
    His hard stomach twitched with a laugh. “I haven’t even taken it out of first gear yet, Em.”
    “I know. That was just an anticipation squeal.” I squeezed my arms around him to get my mouth closer to his ear. “You know, like last night just before you—well, you remember. You were there.”
    “I sure as hell was.”
    I squeezed him harder, loving the excuse to hang on to him like he was mine. He stopped at the bottom of the driveway and looked both directions. Before taking off, he looked back over his shoulder at me. “Hold on there, wild one. We’re about to blast off.”
    ***
    The asphalt and thick green landscape rolled past in a blur. I stayed close to Beck. He wasn’t the type of man I ever wanted to be just near. I wanted to be close, really close. Something about him made me feel safe and wanted. Appreciated. I’d never felt any of those things with David or any of my other questionable man choices, for that matter. The ironic thing about that was if you lined my past boyfriends up in a room and stuck Beck in the middle of them all, he’d be the last one anyone would pick out as the guy who would make you feel safe and appreciated. Yet, he had, far more than any of the other silly, dull men I’d wasted time with.
    A cool pine scent