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He stilled beside her. “Blake chose it. I guess he just likes the animal, and he’s the boss, so we went with it.”
Pursing her lips, she looked sideways at him. Something about that answer seemed all wrong, but she wasn’t sure what. Filing it away to examine later, she looked back at the motorcycle. “It sure is pretty. Can’t we take this instead of the truck?”
Noah glanced over at her, his eyebrows raised with surprise. “You want to ride on my bike?”
“Yeah. I think it’d be fun.”
“Hard to do the kind of surveillance required, though, and too conspicuous. Besides, there’s nowhere to put our suitcases. But I’ll take you for a ride when we get back, before you go home.”
She nodded, satisfied, and turned to walk to her car. “Okay, that works for me. As long as I get to ride on it.”
“Where are you going? We’re taking my truck.”
“My laptop is in the trunk. I need it if I’m going to do my part.”
He waited next to her as she got her laptop out and then held his hand out for the bag. She raised an eyebrow at him but handed it over. She could carry something as simple as her bag, and she knew he knew that, but it was nice that he wanted to be a gentleman. They were a dying breed, so if he wanted to carry her bag, she wasn’t going to protest.
He walked to the passenger side and put the bag in the back and then moved to the side, gesturing her in. Grabbing the handle, she put her foot on the step side, thankful he had one. It was still a bit of a climb to get in the truck, but without it, he would have had to lift her in.
Once she was in, he shut the door behind her, and she smiled as she buckled her seatbelt. She could get used to that. It reminded her of the little ways Brandon used to take care of her, but it didn’t make her sad. The memory filled her with warmth for once, and she basked in it.
Maybe that was part of moving on. Being able to remember someone with warmth, and maybe a little ache, but not have it be so painful, it stole her breath.
Noah climbed in the truck and cranked the engine. It started with a loud growl that startled her, and she laughed as she glanced over at him. “And you think this truck is less conspicuous than a motorcycle? You do know not everyone drives trucks as big and loud as this one, right?”
He laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Guys as big as I am do. Could you imagine me fitting into something like your car?”
“Yeah, that’d be like a clown car for you,” she agreed with a laugh.
But when her laughter died down, she became hyper aware of how he filled out the cab of the truck. It was a large extended cab, but he was so big that he took up more than his fair share. It seemed crazy, but the heat from his body was warming her down to her bones, and there was a console between them.
The awareness she had of him felt like a physical being, racing down her spine and raising the hairs on her arms. Swallowing hard, she tried to turn her attention to something, anything, else, but her whole being was focused on sharing such a small space with him.
“Um, so I never asked where we were going,” she said as casually as she could, looking out the window like everything was normal and she wasn’t feeling the things she was for him.
“Idaho. It’ll take most of the day to get there, I’m guessing.”
Well, shoot. She was going to be stuck in there, so close to him, feeling that level of awareness for him, for hours.
She was going to lose her mind.
Noah tightened his hand on the steering wheel, digging the fingers of the other hand into his thigh, as Lily moved around in her seat. Her strawberry scented shampoo wafted over to him, and he swore he could feel her heat against his side, just like she was pressed into him.
Why the hell hadn’t he given thought to how it would be, confined in such a small space, for the length of the trip? The drive itself would be long, but that wasn’t even taking into consideration the fact that they’d be in the truck during the surveillance, too. It’d only been thirty minutes so far, and she was already driving him crazy.
This was going to be fucking torture. Having her so close but unable to do a single thing he wanted to do.
As much as he wanted her, he’d be ecstatic if he could just hold her hand in that moment. That knowledge was scary shit, because he didn’t need to even be thinking about her like that at all—much less be so desperate for a touch that he longed to hold her hand like a twelve-year-old boy.
Think about Brandon, he lectured himself. But it didn’t work. Fuck, he was a shitty friend. He’d known it already, but lusting over Lily confirmed it.
It wasn’t just sexual, though. He thought if it was, he could control it. The problem was, he genuinely liked her as much as he was attracted to her. She was smart, funny, sweet, and loving.
And what made him hate himself was the fact that he noticed those things about her because of Brandon. Because they’d been friends, and when he was invited over for dinner, he observed how they were together.
He hadn’t known her well because he chose to keep his distance from her. At least he’d been decent enough to do that. But, while he might not have taken the chance on getting too close to her, on learning what she liked and disliked, he knew the heart of her. He knew who she was in her soul.
And she was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.
