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Peter, who found the whole situation a bit weird, finally had to put in a word. “Two of you will have to ride with us. There won’t be enough room in that car for everyone.”
The brothers looked at one another.
“I’ll go,” Nicolas volunteered.
“Me, too,” Logan said.
The two brothers reluctantly headed to Mary’s car while Conrad and Sebastian led Sakura to theirs.
Sakura wasn’t pleased with how things had gone so far. First there was Sebastian, who was being rude to her. She couldn’t believe that after last night, after he’d said how he had wanted to begin their sibling relationship anew, he would go this far. She decided to glare at him to show him she wasn’t pleased and that she didn’t want him—or any of them for that matter—to interfere in her life like that, especially when they’d never given her a thought before.
Sebastian nudged her gently to get her into the car. She harrumphed loudly, and before she decided she’d changed her mind and wanted to go home with Katherine after all, she was being pulled away by an arm.
She gasped in surprise as she felt a strong hand wrap tightly around her slender wrist and none too slowly drag her to the other side of the street, her feet stumbling behind two long, powerful legs.
She glanced up to see Hayden laughing merrily as he pulled her along with him.
“She’s coming with me, guys,” he shouted once they were safely on the other side of the street.
The brothers stood there watching them in shocked surprise. A moment later, Tristan laughed loudly. Sebastian wasn’t pleased. He scowled severely. Conrad shouted, “Hayden! What the hell are you doing?”
“He’s taking her for himself,” Darcy said.
Sakura didn’t know what was going on until they’d reached a couple of blocks away. She had to catch her breath and wriggled her hand a couple of times to get Hayden’s attention. He wouldn’t release his hold on her, however, though he did stop to let her catch her breath.
Sakura collapsed against the brick wall of a building. Hayden watched her, amused. He came to stand in front of her, blocking out the afternoon sun that was glaring down on her face. When she opened her eyes again, she gasped and caught her breath at the back of her throat. Hayden was standing so close to her that she could feel his warm breath fanning her face.
“Sorry about that.” He chuckled, grinning at her.
Sakura was still heaving. When she finally stopped, she gazed up at him, confused and dazed. What is he doing? Why had he taken her away from everyone else all of a sudden?
Hayden moved his face closer to hers, as if he was about to kiss her. Instead, however, he chuckled softly and gently blew air in her face to get her attention. She blinked.
“Wanna go sightseeing with me?” he asked.
Sakura blinked again and cocked her head to one side. Hayden? Asking her to go sightseeing? She wanted to laugh. Of all things, he wanted to take her sightseeing?
Yes, she remembered him asking her—
No, not ask. Hayden had never asked. Hayden had basically dragged her with him, as he’d just done moments before.
Yes, from her very early experiences, sightseeing with Hayden usually meant sneaking out of the Princeton Estate and doing something dangerous and illegal, such as stealing a motorcycle, for example.
She still remembered those days so clearly. He’d dragged her out with him late in the evening into town and then had stolen a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he’d had his eyes on for ages. After the thieving, he’d taken her riding with him for a good hour or two—dangerously near the cliff’s edge, of course. He said it was thrilling—even more so with a girl. And she had to be that girl. Of course, this had gone on a couple of times until he’d crashed one of the motorcycles. Naturally, Tara and Alaina had found out and had sneakily told Daddy James what happened. Hayden had been grounded for months, which pissed him off so badly that he turned to blame her for telling on him. She hadn’t told on him but couldn’t go against Tara and Alaina’s words.
Sakura turned her attention to the earring on his left ear then. She remembered him pressuring her to pierce his ear for him after that particular incident. He told her that since he’d been named the black sheep of the house, he might as well go all out and pierce his ear too to get that perfect bad-boy image. She even had to pick him an earring and paid for it with her own money since he said it had been her fault from the start. When she’d given him the pair of silver earrings, he threw one back at her, telling her he only needed one. To this day, she still had that earring kept safely in her secret box.
“I believe it’s a yes?” he asked.
Sakura jolted back to reality. She raised her brows at him. Since when had Hayden ever asked her for her decision? She leaned back and sighed. “I suppose since you’ve already dragged me all the way here.”
He chuckled. “Sorry about that. I couldn’t possibly lose you to my brothers, now could I?”
Sakura didn’t know how to reply to that statement and wondered why he looked so wounded when she shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t care one way or another.
It was forty minutes later, after he’d shown her the mega yacht thoroughly, that he proudly presented to her his Harley-Davidson motorbike.
“What do you think?” he asked, his chest puffing with pride like a peacock.
Sakura cocked her head to one side. “It’s nice.”
Hayden blinked. “That’s it?”
Sakura turned to look at him. She knew nothing about motorbikes, and she was certainly not a motorbike fan, so what did he expect her to say?
A moment later, after he realized he wouldn’t get any more out of her, he made her put on a helmet and told her to sit behind him. “Hold on tight,” he said through his own helmet.
Yes, they were going to ride his motorbike home, and hopefully they wouldn’t crash. But then again, Hayden was now an expert motorcyclist, so the chance of them crashing was next to zero. Yet this was Hayden, and he liked to live dangerously.
Sakura felt rather nervous and hastily tightened her arms about his waist. Hayden secretly smiled behind his helmet, pleased with their close contact.
“Hold on tight,” he said and started the engine. After engaging the accelerator a few times to get the mood going, he released the break and they were off.
Sakura gritted her teeth the faster they went and her arms tightened even more around Hayden’s waist. Once they were on the highway and had the road to themselves, Hayden glanced behind him and saw that Sakura was resting her head against his back. He liked that very much. It brought back memories—both happy and painful memories.
A few minutes later, he pressed his foot on the brake, causing the motorbike to come to a complete halt in the middle of the road. Sakura stiffened and wondered why he’d stopped all of a sudden.
Hayden switched off the engine and took off his helmet. He turned around, and without her consent, pulled her helmet off as well. Sakura blinked. Hayden couldn’t help but notice just how pretty she was with her hair a wild mess and her face flushed red. He cleared his throat and asked, “Do you want to try?”
Sakura cocked her head to one side, wondering what he was talking about. “Try what?”
“Driving,” he replied. He stood up and, without further ado, made her sit in front of him and told her to start the engine.
“I’m wearing a dress, Hayden,” she protested. “And I’ve never driven a motorbike before.”
“It’s okay.” He chuckled. “I’ll teach you. Here, turn this on and voilà!”
The motorbike hummed, and Sakura was rather pleased, feeling a certain type of thrill rushing through her body.
Soon after, with his help guiding her from behind, she was driving the motorbike very slowly along the road. She was having fun and laughed out merrily. Hayden smiled, his
eyes twinkling.
It was a while later, just when she’d gotten used to the speed and the wind fluttering against her face, that she hastily stepped on the brake before she had the chance to crash into what was clearly a holdup in the middle of the road.
Sakura pulled off her helmet and couldn’t help but marvel at the sight she beheld before her. The brothers looked like they were posing for a Calvin Klein photo shoot—in the middle of the road and in the middle of nowhere.
Conrad was standing on the roof of the SUV as if he’d just conquered Mount Everest. Tristan was half-reclining on the hood of the car. Darcy was posing very nicely to the side near the front of the car. Sebastian was resting his weight against the car, his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
