He nodded, and she reclaimed her hand.
As she arrived at the door, he called out, “Petra!”
“Yeah?” She turned around.
“Do you want me to bring my truck, or are you okay riding with me on my bike?”
Petra smiled. That he was a Bull was a possible complication, but that he was a biker was not. She loved motorcycles.
“I’ll ride with you.”
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––
Petra got down to herbuilding’s lobby about five minutes early. Jake was already there, parked at the curb. He sat astride his Harley, staring at his phone, scrolling through an app. He’d changed, of course, and now wore dark jeans and what appeared to be a plain white Oxford-cloth shirt under his kutte. His hair was loose and flopped over to one side, like he’d raked his hand through it.
Since they hadn’t talked about where they were going, she’d spent a few minutes stressing about what to wear, but had quickly realized that getting there on a motorcycle pretty much dictated it wouldn’t be fancy. Instead, she’d leaned into the biker thing a little and decided on skinny jeans, tall black boots, and a black Spandex dance top with crisscross cutouts at the cleavage. And her leather jacket. It was ninety degrees, but she didn’t want to ride with bare arms and get skinned alive if they had an accident.
When she pushed through the door and stepped onto the sidewalk, he jumped from his bike, grinning. “Hey! Hi.”
It always felt good when someone looked at you like you were just the exact thing they needed to see, of course, but something about the way Jake looked at her gave her a case of the flutters. His look right now wasn’t so far off from his intense focus on her during sex, except that this one was accompanied by that big, happy grin.
She smiled brightly as they met on the sidewalk. “Hi.”
“You look amazing.” He bent and kissed her cheek. “And smell even better.”
“Thank you. You clean up nicely, too.”
He actually blushed at the compliment. Oh, this guy wasadorable.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Do you like Italian food?”
“Are there people whodon’tlike Italian food?”
He laughed. “If so, I don’t wanna know ‘em. How about Ti Amo?”
That was a very good call. Excellent food, casual atmosphere, but nottoocasual. A good place to talk, without a heavy ‘romantic’ vibe to make things awkward if the talk didn’t go well.
“Sure. The downtown location isn’t far.”
“I know. Come on.” He took her hand and led her to his bike. “I know Dre rides, so I guess you’ve ridden bi— ... you’ve ridden behind somebody before?”
Petra smiled at the way he’d caught himself before getting the whole phrase ‘ridden bitch’ out. Nice save. Also a reference to Dre without any edge in look or word or tone.
“I have, yeah. I like it.”
“Awesome!” He mounted and leaned forward a little, offering his shoulder for her to steady herself as she climbed on behind him.
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––