The Heart - Kate Stewart Page 0,17

almost forgotten what it felt like. I adjusted my body in every way imaginable to keep the sparks at bay. The minute Jack took off out of the parking lot and I felt the full effect of the bike between my legs I knew it was useless.

I was screwed.

As Jack took the first turn off the frontage road—avoiding the highway as promised— I realized I was nothing but tight nerves and sensation.

“You good?” he asked as I tightened my grip around his waist.

“Good,” I lied.

“This music okay? What’s your taste? Are you more a rock or country girl?”

He looked back at me through his side view, and I knew my face was crimson. He pushed the throttle slightly, and I couldn’t keep my lips from parting at the feeling, my body now fully awake. Recognition covered his features as that same slow sexy smile I saw the first day I met him crept over his now smug face.

Oh, Jesus, he knows.

“It’s fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “Whatever you want to listen to.”

I felt his chest move with his soundless chuckle and glared at him through the mirror.

“Maybe we should turn back and take my car out? You know, stretch her legs like you said? I’ll let you drive, okay?”

I will not orgasm on the back of this bike. I will not orgasm on the back of this—

Jack hit the throttle again repeatedly, and I let out an involuntary “Oh God.”

I felt his chest shake again as I buried my helmet into his back. Great, we hadn’t even had a real conversation, and Jack was about to give me an orgasm.

“We can’t turn back now.” He pointed over to the traffic on the opposing side of the road, and I nodded into his back. “Just give it a chance, okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed reluctantly, knowing I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of keeping my cool. He took off again, this time with a little more mercy than the last, but the pulse between my thighs refused to let up. I lifted my head, trying to enjoy the rustic view around us, praying it would distract me. The sun wasn’t going to set for another few hours, but it was low enough in the sky to paint a colorful gold over the pastures we passed. I gripped Jack tighter as I listened to the song in an attempt to ignore my tuned in body, but of course, the whole song was all about sating sexual desire.

In an attempt to make conversation, I admitted my preference. “Rap and R&B, but mostly rap,” I said as he took a slow curve with care.

“Really?”

“Yep, I love it. My mom does, too. Well, we like vintage rap mostly. Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, but not so much the new stuff. She got me hooked when I was a kid.”

“Laura let you listen to Eminem as a kid?”

The world passed by in a blur as I stared at him in the side view. “I forget you know my parents,” I said. “You can’t be much older than me.”

“I’ve been working with your dad for the better part of ten years, so I know them pretty well.”

I remembered hearing his name in conversation a few times but never remembered meeting him in passing. During the majority of that decade, I’d been in college then medical school, so it wasn’t a mystery why we hadn’t met.

“Well, I’ve heard of you,” he said, reading my thoughts, seemingly unoffended by the fact that I didn’t know of him.

He studied me briefly through the side view, and I answered his attentiveness with a smile. The man was good looking, and I wondered if he knew of his effect on women. He was cocky but not in an obnoxious way. It came out as confident, but not arrogant like so many other men blessed with ridiculously good looks. Or maybe he did know just how good looking he was and didn’t make it a point to let anyone else know. If that was the case, I liked him even more for it.

I’d only ever been attracted to one man in my life whose outside matched the beauty of his inside. I know that’s what did me in with Grant: his heart. Looking at Jack’s strong profile, I wondered if the same was true of him. Was he a good person, or did he manipulate women with his looks in a way that would make him unbearably ugly?

A