Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,303

and tug my bag higher on my shoulder. “Wish me luck,” I say to Charlie.

“Have fun,” she calls as the door behind me closes.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mutter to myself.

“Neither can I.”

My entire body jumps, and I clutch at my erratically beating heart. Turning toward the deep voice, Cole is leaning on the wall with his booted foot pushed up against the brickwork. He pushes off and steps closer. He’s changed his clothes and is wearing a white shirt, which stretches nicely over his broad chest. I bite my lip to make sure my mouth is shut and not hanging open, drooling over his bad-boy appearance.

“Oh my goodness, you scared the hell out of me.” My eyes rake over him again—Dark Knight, for sure. Good nickname, Charlie.

He drops his head, but I don’t miss the grin that pulls on his kissable lips. Get that idea out of your head, Dylan.

Cole starts walking, and I step in beside him. He’s tall, about a foot taller than me, and I can’t help myself as I take a sideways glance in his direction. “You know you can cancel if you really want to. I haven’t told them I’m bringing anyone.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I know what it’s like to have a full-on family.”

“It’s just my mom and my sisters now. Dad left a couple of years back.”

“I can relate to that. Well, would you look at that? Two things in common already, and we haven’t even left.” Cole’s deep voice is thick and wanting. He can talk seductively to me any time. It makes me weak in the knees.

“Well, that’s a good thing. So, do you travel a lot for work?”

He nods. “You could say that, but I enjoy it. I’m having some downtime at the moment, which is why I’m still in New York.” Our arms brush against each other, and I don’t miss how fast he reels his away from my touch.

A crack forms in my heart.

No girl wants to see a man pull away from them.

“So, do you live around here?”

“Nah, I live out of the city on a block of land. I only came in for my appointment with you. My friend, Deacon, is going to pay for what he did. He told me I had to get a test done before my next race. He said they were drug testing. I should have realized it was rubbish, because he knows I’m not that kind of person.”

I break out into laughter. “I’m sorry, but he did get you good. To be honest, I’m surprised you came back and you’re doing this with me. Most men I tell what I do usually run a mile in the opposite direction.” I pause for a moment and then ask a question I should have already. “You don’t have a girlfriend who’s going to hunt me down and want to kill me, do you?”

“Oh, I have plenty of women who might want to do that, but nothing permanent. I travel too much to have any sort of stable relationship.”

“Oh, okay.”

We become silent as we step out onto the sidewalk.

“This way…” He points to the right.

My heart slams against my chest; the anticipation of riding on the back of a bike is causing anxiety to claw its way up my chest. I’m not normally an anxious person, but sitting there, out in the open, vulnerable to the other traffic on the street…it makes me feel physically ill. Like a rock is sitting at the bottom of my stomach.

“So, uh…just so you know, I’ve never been on the back of a bike before. Please don’t let me die,” I say in all seriousness.

He faces me with a half cocky grin pulled up one side of his mouth. “Trust me. You’re safe with me.”

“We’ll see about that. I bet my mother will have heart failure when she sees us walk in with helmets.”

“Most parents do. Though, I can’t say I’ve gone and met many mothers recently. I do own a car, but I couldn’t have ridden home and gotten back in such a short amount of time. Sorry.” He gives me a look which tells me he is actually sorry, but there’s also a hint of humor behind those dark eyes.

I attempt to act cool.

Meanwhile, I’m freaking the hell out.

“That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll survive. Do you carry spare clothes around with you? Sorry, I noticed you changed.” I giggle, but I’m sure he can easily hear the nervous tone behind it. Although, there