Free The Magic's in the Music (Magic Series Book 5) by Susan Squires

be so far away? Maybe he could just take her to a hotel cabstand, drop her there. She could cab home.
    A light flashed from a car that had pulled up beside them at the light. He turned to look, and it flashed again. Other cars had stopped at the light. They were hemmed in.
    “Oh, no,” she whispered.
    Damn paparazzi. He glanced at his rearview mirror. Two cars back, a guy was hanging out the window with an industrial-strength video camera. Who knew how many he’d have on his tail in another minute? Those creeps ran in packs.
    “Now you really have to hold on.”
    He gunned the bike and jumped off the line while the light was still red, turning right onto whatever street it was in front of two other lanes of cars. His tires screeched. They tore off into the night. He immediately turned into the next narrow alley and gunned it again. Glancing at the rear view, he saw a car turn in after him. Escape wasn’t going to be that easy. These guys were notorious for tracking their prey. He made it to a parking lot and scooted through parked cars to a narrow space between two industrial buildings. Not following us through here.
    No, but he heard them squeal around the outside of the building and saw the car at the intersection when they came out the other side. No use turning left and indulging in a flat out chase. Somebody would get hurt. He glanced ahead. There was still some traffic, even this late, coming home from the clubs and restaurants in West Hollywood. But there was another gap between two buildings diagonally left across the street. It only took an instant to decide. He threaded the needle through the cross traffic, earning car horns, and slipped into the gap. The buildings pressed in on either side, barely wider than his knees and shoulders. The girl was a limpet clinging to his back. His hard-on was not reacting well to that. It’d been too long since he’d gotten laid if he could get a hard-on in the middle of a chase.
    He turned into another alleyway, left this time, and zigzagged his way between buildings, hoping he wouldn’t get trapped by some chain link fence at the end of a passage.
    By the time they’d made their way back to Sunset, they seemed to have lost their tail. He went one more block to Hollywood and turned east.
    “Aren’t you taking me back to my apartment?” she asked, sounding dazed. She sat back. Only her hands were on his ribs now. And he had the protection of his leather coat.
    He took a breath. That was a relief. Wasn’t it? He pulled in behind Lupe’s, away from the line that was still snaking out into the parking lot in front. He didn’t turn to look at her. “So, why were they after you? Who are you?”
    *
    Greta couldn’t get her breath, even though they’d stopped at the back of a little hot dog shack, by the dumpsters. She’d pulled back, but an echo of the feel of his body against hers was still doing something to her that made her feel stupid and confused. The adrenalin rush from careening through alleys and parking lots and between buildings must have addled her brain. Could that account for her panties being soaked and the ache between her legs?
    “What?” she asked.
    “Name?” he said, his voice rough over the sputter of the bike’s engine. His back was straight and tense. The black hair that had feathered her face when they were going fast was tousled by the wind but smelled like shampoo. It hit his shoulders over the worn leather of his jacket. He hadn’t taken time to put on a helmet, if this guy followed rules at all. Slowly, carefully, she removed her hands from his sides. But her groin was still pressed to his backside. That…that was a problem.
    He wanted to know her name. Hadn’t he recognized her? Maybe that was a good thing. This guy was crazy. A musical genius, but certifiable. She didn’t know him from Adam. He might have rescued her, but he could be a stalker or a serial killer for all she knew.
    “Just take me home.” So he could know where she