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Safe.
God, it had been so long since she’d felt safe.
She wanted to laugh, and rejoice, and cry.
He nudged her head off his shoulder with his jaw and pressed his lips to hers again as her body pulsed on. She slid her arms around him and hugged him tightly. She couldn’t hurt him. He harbored inhuman strength, after all.
His hand slipped to her throat again and he eased her back, searched her eyes with that bi-colored, glowing gaze of his. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to.
She smiled and ran her nails through his hair. “You aren’t evil,” she whispered.
Gunner pulled her against his chest and hugged her so tightly, she could barely breathe. She didn’t even care. Who gave a shit about something as trivial as oxygen when he’d just made her feel whole for the first time in years.
And from the silence that emanated from him, from the lack of the growl, from the disappearance of the tension in his body, from the way he held her so tightly…she thought she had done something similar for him.
Chapter Seven
The wind whipped at the helmet she wore as Gunner sped down the mountain pass.
She was keeping her promise—she would require nothing of him.
She had been a cool girl as they had dressed. She had tossed him wicked smiles as she caught him staring at her over and over.
Hallie would make this easy on them.
No feelings, no attachments, no neediness.
At least, that’s how she would appear to him.
She gripped his waist tighter as he hit a sharp turn, and tried not to imagine what would happen to them at this speed if a deer stepped into the road.
She’d always thought boys who rode motorcycles didn’t care if they lived or died, and meeting Gunner didn’t ease that feeling.
He rode this because it made him feel alive in some strange way. The danger was the attractive part of it for him, and she kind of understood it.
She felt alive right now too.
He slowed behind a truck, and she tensed to prepare for him to speed around it, but he surprised her. He sat up straighter and coasted at seventy miles an hour behind the truck. She looked into the side-view mirror, and he was looking back at her with a thoughtful expression on his face. Oh, he was lost in his head too.
She wished he could see her soft smile.
He reached back, slid his hand against the side of her calf, and squeezed gently. She let off a huff of breath as she wrapped her arms more tightly around his waist.
She didn’t know how she guessed, but she bet he wasn’t an affectionate creature by nature.
He was doing her a kindness. Felt so good.
She rested the side of her helmet against his back. He pulled his hand away from her leg and pulled one of her hands up higher on his chest, held it there against his pounding heartbeat.
Oh, this man. This shifter. This mystery. This layered soul with so much heart, but he had good in him.
She didn’t want to leave tomorrow.
She didn’t want to leave, but she was also aware that her leaving was why tonight felt so potent. All they had was this short time together.
It was easy to tear down walls, demolish barriers, and be truthful with the grit of their lives. Why? Because they would likely never see each other again.
Their messes were safe.
