Seeing Stars by Vanessa Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

was it more?
    Say ten miles, and he was doing about a hundred—well, maybe he was doing sixty, but it felt like a hundred with the wind whipping at her body and the bike's engine roaring in her ears.
    So maybe ten minutes to Port Townsend, except that the road would be winding once they turned onto Highway 20 and he'd surely slow down. So say fifteen minutes, twenty at most. She could handle twenty minutes.
    The engine wound up louder and she felt her body tilting again. She opened her eyes in time to see that they were passing an eighteen-wheeler. She swallowed dryness and forced herself to breathe. No way it could take twenty minutes to Port Townsend at this rate. Fifteen at most.

Chapter Four
     

     
    Sometime after they turned onto Highway 20, the curving spur that led to Port Townsend, Claire began to absorb the rhythm of Blake's muscles playing against her body. Through the leather of his jacket and the denim of hers, she sensed the flex of his right shoulder as he cranked up the accelerator, the way his chest muscles shifted as his body leaned into a curve, carrying hers with it.
    The bike ate up the miles, clinging to the road, sending wind flowing over her body, her helmet, leading them in a duet, a ballet of flowing angles supporting the motion. She wondered what it would feel like to have control of the bike under her own hands, how long it would take her to learn to lean into the curves the way he did, smoothing the road and allowing the bike to fly over the pavement, eating miles in a glorious wave of freedom.
    Then she simply closed her eyes and gave herself up to the enjoyment of the moment. Over Blake's shoulder she could see the ribbon of highway, protected on one side by tall evergreen trees that could never grow in the high desert where she lived. On her left, the ocean, strewn with wind-blown whitecaps. Under her hands, pressed against her breasts, Blake's hard, she felt male body.
    She had little experience of men's bodies. Kevin's had been smooth and tame. Blake's was different. Everywhere she touched, she felt hard muscles. When he flexed, she felt his strength, his power. Although she tried to fight it, something primitive and female, deep inside, woke and stretched.
    She'd asked him for a wild ride on the back of his motorcycle, eating the miles and flying over the world, clinging to his back. With the wind whipping the arms of her jacket and her body sheltered by his, she felt sharp joy that he'd given her this one fantasy.
    When he slowed to turn off the highway onto Sheridan Street, she forced herself to loosen her grip and ride, her hands at his sides, ready to grab if he leaned into another of those turns—but he wouldn't, not at this slow city speed.
    He pulled up behind her red Honda Passport at Manresa Castle and turned off the engine. 
    The silence seemed oddly intimate when he turned off the engine.  She climbed off the bike and pulled her helmet off.
    "That was... nice. Thank you, Blake."
    He put the bike on its kickstand. 
    Silence.
    How could his eyes be so black? 
    Last night... Oh, God, she'd been an idiot last night.
    "Blake, when... How did you know this was my car?"
    "Arizona plates."
    She took a deep breath, stared at the castle turret, hoped for courage, or at least clarity. "I need to talk to you. Last night I talked a lot of nonsense. The motorcycle ride was nice. I enjoyed it, but I hope you don't think I... that I meant the rest of it."
    "We made a deal last night."
    "I've changed my mind." Her throat clogged and she cleared it. "I must have been crazy. I don't know why... I don't know you. We're strangers, really."
    She looked straight at him and tried to read his face. Her heart crashed uneasily against her ribs.
    "I don't think so," he said slowly. "Not anymore."
    "What?"
    "Strangers." He brushed a wisp of hair back behind her ear. "I wouldn't say we know each other well, but I wouldn't call us strangers after last night. I figured you'd chicken out this