Page 76 of Ravaged For You

Axel narrows those pretty green eyes. “What wish?”

“My mother is coming to town.”

33

AXEL

“You want me to get on that thing?” Maddie asks me.

“Yep.”

We’re standing in my hotel’s parking lot, in the private parking bay reserved for me, looking at my motorbike.

And Maddie is so obviously terrified.

“You want me to meet my mother on the back of that?” she asks.

“I’ll be driving it,” I say. “You won’t have to do anything but sit on the back and hold my waist.”

“What kind of motorbike is it?” she asks.

I grin. There’s nothing I love more than showing off my most prized possession.

“It’s a Kawasaki,” I say.

“I don’t know what that is or means.”

“It means it’s good. Real fucking good,” I explain. “It’s from the seventies, the golden decade of rock music. See here? High bars. Teardrop tank. Slinky side-panels. It’s exactly my kind of bike.”

“And this?” Maddie asks, pointing at the bright red ducktail. “That’s very… loud.”

I shrug. “Red makes it go faster.”

“Oh.”

“So… what do you think?”

“What do I think about riding up to Mom on the back of this?”

“Yeah?”

“I think it’s insane.”

“Good idea, huh? I think it’ll make a statement. Make it pretty obvious to her that you’re dating a rockstar.”

“I don’t really want to make things that obvious,” she says. “Will I die?”

“Riding it?”

“Yep.”

“I’m a pretty safe driver,” I reassure her. “Although we will have to go fast.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a motorbike, and I don’t do things half-hearted. Not me. Never.”

Maddie bites her lip. She’s very concerned. But she still hasn’t completely rejected the idea.