It takes all of my strength to approach the motorcycle after Smith climbs on. He looks so ridiculously hot that I can barely believe it.

Meanwhile, this helmet probably looks stupid on me in comparison. But I can hear my mom’s voice in the back of my head, telling me how many people die on motorcycles from being improperly protected. Because of her, I grew up petrified of them.

So of course, Smith rides a motorcycle, because fate likes to push my buttons in every possible way.

I’m looking like a doofus for you, Mom, I say to myself. Hopefully that will appease her. I’m sure that at home, she’s probably got some kind of Mom alert warning her that her baby girl is doing something dangerous.

Smith takes a couple of minutes to coach me on how to be a safe backseat rider, to lean with him into curves, not squeeze him too hard, not move my feet off the foot props so I don’t get burned on the exhaust pipes. I nod and try to remember all of the details.

Then I hike my leg up and slide onto the back of the bike behind him.

And suck in a shaky breath when he tugs me closer so that he’s nestled right between my open thighs. The feel of his smooth back pressed against my breasts makes my nipples bead right up; since I’m wearing a thin, unlined bra, I can’t help but wonder if he can feel my reaction.

Oh fuck, I hadn’t anticipated needing to be this…near him. With his hand stroking my outer thigh as he revs the engine, I feel myself sinking into a space with him I swore I wasn’t going to feel again. After waking up alone that morning, hurt and embarrassed that he didn’t bother to even say goodbye, I was determined to avoid Smith.

Even though I thought about him all the time since then.

But the hole I felt in my heart since waking up to find him gone has made me feel empty and sad and jaded in a way that is unexpected. I didn’t intend to start falling for this tattooed guy who runs a bar and seems like the type that doesn’t ever settle down.

I hoped I’d learned my lesson after he ran out on me, hoped the hole in my heart would start to repair itself and I’d lose interest in Smith Beckett, as impossible as it seemed.

And then he showed up at my door not asking for sex, but for a date. Seeming awkward and trying to talk me into it, even when I initially refuse him. Not like his usual self, the version of him that is so self-assured that he never has to work for a girl’s attention. The version I’ve seen of him at the bar, in bed.

The fact that he put himself out there for me made my heart weaken. So despite me swearing him off a few days ago, here I am, on the back of his bike as he pulls out of my apartment complex and onto the road.

I must be a fool to open myself up to yet more heartache. Will I never learn?

When we pick up speed, I can feel the wind whipping at my bare skin on my arms. I try to be careful not to move my head too much so he can stay balanced, but I’m riveted by the sight of everything streaming by us fast, the world open, unlike in a car where we’re closed in metal and glass.

Here, I’m not just riding. I’m almost a part of the road.

Smith navigates turns expertly, and I lean with him into them. His body is firm between my legs, and my clit grows warm and begins to throb. I can’t help but be reminded of the last time he was there.

Something about sitting on such a powerful piece of vibrating machinery with the sexiest man I’ve ever met is arousing me more than I ever realized would happen. God help me. I refuse to get off this bike and jump on his body the way I want to.

After about ten minutes, we pull into a parking lot of a small diner. Despite its size, the lot is filled, with people lingering outside in a row along the building. When the motor cuts, I take off my helmet and get off the bike.

Smith takes the helmet from me and locks it into place in a resting spot on the back of the bike. I can’t stop staring at him. He’s radiating sex, and several of the younger women—and a couple of older women—are eye-fucking him so hard it makes me feel a small surge of jealousy.

But when I turn back to look at him after scoping out the crowd outside, his eyes are locked on me, and I forget everything else.

“Um. Thanks for the ride,” I tell him. When his mouth quirks in a half smile, I chuckle and say, “I mean on the motorcycle, you perv.”

“Let’s go get some pie.” Fuck, his voice is just as sexy of a rumble as that motorcycle. Is there anything about him that doesn’t turn me on? It’s almost embarrassing how much I feel in heat around him.

“It, uh, seems like a really long wait,” I tell him.

“I have connections.” Smith takes my hand and leads me in front of the crowd. He weaves his fingers in mine, and I tell myself it’s just to get us to the building, because if I start thinking it’s anything more, I’ll just get hurt again.

I can’t let him make me feel bad about myself, the way I did when I woke up alone, mortified, thinking maybe the night wasn’t as impactful for him as it was for me. I’m only here because he made an obvious effort in this, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to drop my guard.

Besides, it would be good for me to explore more of Rock Bridge. Right?

The door dings when we come in, and the older black woman at the register waves Smith over. “Holy shit on a shingle, it’s about damn time you get your ass in here, you overworked moron. I was wondering if you ever take a day off from that skank hole you call a bar.”

A barking laugh erupts from my chest at her blunt words, especially when I see Smith narrow his eyes but not lash back out at her. I have no idea who she is, but I already like her. She seems like she can tame the beast in a way no one else can.

“Aunt Sylvia, can you fit us in?” he asks her, obviously exasperated but reining it in. “Aubrey’s new to town, and I told her the key lime pie here is the best.”

“Well, damn right it is. I make it myself fresh every day.” She gives a matter-of-fact nod then eyes me. Her eyes are the same color as dark amber, and her skin is smooth, despite her advanced age. “You’re pretty. Sweet-looking. Not his usual type.”

I feel my face flush. “Sounds like that isn’t such a bad thing,” I mumble.

She cackles and smacks my upper arm. “This one’s got spitfire. I like her.” She leads us through a room packed with tables to a small two-top table right by the fryer. “Best I can do, so suck it up.”

“This is fine,” I assure her. “We appreciate you fitting us in.”

Aunt Sylvia moves away back to the register, and we sit down. Due to the location of the table, we’re forced to be right beside each other, since the table is pressed in between the building wall and the half-wall of the fryer area.

A teenaged waitress brings us waters, and I take a deep gulp as I try to pretend I’m not totally nervous about being out with him.

I can’t believe I’m here with him. That we’re on what is definitely looking like a legitimate date, something he said he doesn’t do. So why me? I can’t help but ponder it as we sit in silence for a minute, then two.

I shift in my seat. “So you got today off work, then? Sounds like you never leave the bar.”

Smith groans and reaches for his water. I see the snake tattoo peeking out from his sleeve, wrapping around his forearm. “Aunt Sylvia exaggerates. Kind of.”

“Is she really your aunt?” I’m not sure if that’s a rude question to ask or not, and my cheeks get a little warm.

“Sure is. My granddad married her and brought her here from Key West. She’s his second wife after his first passed away young. But she hates being called Grandma, so she makes me and my brothers call her Aunt.” His face softens and he seems different, less edgy, as he talks about her. “After my dad died, she got us through the hard time.”

“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” I say, a heaviness in my chest at the thought of his sorrow, losing a parent at such a young age. “I can’t imagine how difficult that had to be for you. Your mother must have been devastated.”

The softness fled his face until the hard lines returned. “I wouldn’t know. She ran out on us when I was five. Dad raised us, and then he had an unexpected heart attack and passed a few years ago.”

My heart lurches, and I realize this probably explains a lot about Smith and why he is the way he is. He’s the oldest brother, that much I can tell. I bet he had to step in and be a parent to two teens when he was barely an adult himself. “So…how did you come to own the bar?”

“It was Dad’s. He always wanted to run a bar. Be that place where the regular locals loved to come.” He gives a wry smile. “Unfortunately, as you’ve seen, the locals that frequent our spot tend to be on the rowdy side.”

I laugh and nod. “Ummm…yeah, I did notice that.”

“We’ve got an unfortunate reputation and some people are afraid to even try us out.”

“It probably doesn’t help that you send new customers to the competition,” I reply, watching to see if he gets it.

His face is momentarily blank and then he breaks into a grin. “You’re never going to let me live down the fact that I was rude to you that first night, are you?”

“Definitely not,” I say, trying not to smile too widely. My heart squeezes in my chest, and I hate the fact that I’m enjoying this time with him so much.

Aunt Sylvia arrives with two slices of key lime pie, golden and delicious on top of a thick graham cracker crust.

I didn’t think I was really hungry, but my mouth waters upon the sight. “Oh wow, these look so good,” I tell her.

“Duh. Just wait until you eat it.” She saunters away.

“I see where you get your confidence from,” I say.

That makes Smith laugh. The earlier tension from his eyes vanishes, and he gives her an affectionate look. “She’s nuts, but we love her.”

I dig into my pie and take my first bite. And die of pleasure. Holy hell, it’s creamy and tart and exquisite. I can’t help but moan as I lick the last bits off the fork. I close my eyes for a second and just taste, savor. “Okay, she has a right to be arrogant. This is incredible. I would marry her just to have her make this pie…” As I open my eyes, my words drawl off, because Smith is looking at me like he wants to spread my thighs and eat me the same way.

My pussy clenches in a tight spasm.

“You have no idea how sexy you are with how you enjoy things,” he says in a low rumble. The intensity pouring from his eyes almost overwhelms me. A room full of people, but I almost get the feeling that if I told him I wanted to have sex, he’d brush everything off the table and prop me up there and fuck me. In front of everyone.

Something about that thought makes my clit throb harder. I try to sit still in my seat and not shift, not give away my arousal. I’m not doing anything else sexual with this man, I chant to myself. I can’t risk him running off on me again like that. My pride won’t take it. Pie is fine. Pie is safe.

Unless I have pie with him, it appears.

I don’t respond to his statement. Instead, I make myself finish the pie. It’s so damn good that it isn’t a hardship. But Smith’s body heat beside me, the look I’m seeing in his eyes—because he still hasn’t taken them off me—it’s all making my body surge and my nipples harden and my pussy swell and dampen.

This man makes me have dirty thoughts.

I can’t cave. I cannot cave.

Smith’s hand slips down to stroke my jean-clad thigh, and I fight the instinctive urge to arch under his touch and purr like a fucking cat. One night of sex, and he already figured out how I like to be touched. The man is a sex genius, that’s for sure.

I can’t cave.

I drop the fork on the plate and declare with as much casual attitude as I can muster, “That was so good. Thank you.” I force a lightness in my tone. “But you haven’t finished your piece yet.”

“Why are you here in Rock Bridge?” he asks me out of nowhere, his fingers dancing along my kneecap.

My stomach tightens, and I have dual feelings of discomfort and arousal at the same time. I don’t want to talk about Roger. Don’t want to think about him. But Smith opened up to me a little and shared something difficult with me. I should do the same. I select my words carefully so as not to give everything away. “Well, I got this job opportunity, and I took it. I had some stuff happening in my personal life, so coming to a new town was a good way for me to start over.”

“Who was he?” That incessant hand keeps touching me, sliding up my thigh to caress my hip, nudge under the band of flesh exposed above my jeans and touch my back.

“You just assume there’s a guy involved,” I lob back at him. I mean, he’s right, but I don’t want to admit it like that.

“So there isn’t?” His brow is quirked, his gaze heavy on mine. He already knows the answer; I can see it in his eyes. He’s just waiting for me to confirm it.

“My ex,” I relent. “Things didn’t end well with us. I needed a new scene.”

His hand pauses in caressing my back. “Did he hurt you?” The words are said quietly, but I can hear the concern in them.

“Not…” My hand flutters to my throat as I’m suddenly inundated with mental images of the rocky, tumultuous relationship I escaped. “Not…in the way you think. It was just a bad thing for me.” I clear my throat. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore right now, if you don’t mind.”

“He’s why you have the baseball bat. Makes sense.” With that, Smith resumes stroking my back, inching his hand up to the middle of my spine. “When’s the last time you’ve gone skinny dipping?”

I blink at the rapid conversation change. “What?”

He gives me a wide-toothed grin that knocks me back in my seat. Smith’s smile at full wattage is devastating. Oh God, this man could really do me in. My brain is screaming danger, danger! “You’ve never been, have you.”

“Swimming naked is not a requirement of graduating into adulthood,” I say defensively, trying to pretend I’m not fully absorbed in him. Smelling his scent, listening to the rough timbre of his voice, feeling his fingers swirl circles on my skin, now inching closer to my waistband. “Not everyone is as pervy as you.”

His hand stills again, and he seems to pull back into himself.

Aunt Sylvia chooses that moment to come over. “Now you tell those two hooligan heathen brothers of yours to get themselves in here soon. I don’t even have to tell you what I’m gonna do if they don’t.”

Smith gives her a tight smile. He moves his hand to the table surface, and I suddenly feel bereft. What did I do? What did I say wrong? Somehow I fumbled things; all the talking we’d done seems to be over now. “I’ll be sure to tell them.” He goes to dig in his wallet, but Aunt Sylvia shoots him a glare so hard, he finally lifts his hands in the air. “Fine, but one day you have to let me pay you. This isn’t how you make money in a business.”

“Trust me, I’m doing just fine.” She moves away.

When she’s gone, he grabs a twenty out of his wallet anyway and leaves it on the table. I guess that’s our cue to go.

I feel deflated when we rise from the table. I want to say something, but I don’t know what. We step outside into the mild night air, and before he mounts on the bike, I touch his shoulder. He shifts his head so I see his profile.

“Hey. I…don’t know what happened back there.”

His walls are up; I can’t read his face at all. “Nothing. Totally fine.”

“Right. That’s why you just suddenly pulled away.” Frustration wells in me. My ex used to play these games—tell me nothing was wrong, nothing was wrong, then explode at me when I didn’t react the way he wanted me to, didn’t comfort him about whatever phantom injury I committed against him.

I can’t do that again. Can’t spend my days walking on eggshells, afraid I’m going to set someone off.

My chest tightens, and I turn from him, fighting back the emotion welling in me. “You know what? I’m going to get another ride home. Thanks for the pie.” I grab my phone and start walking in the direction we came from. I can find an Uber ride to take me, I’m sure.

“Aubrey.” His hand wraps around my upper arm.

I lift my chin and glare at him. “I’m not stupid. Don’t tell me nothing is wrong, because I know it is. And I’m not going through that anymore, so if that’s the bullshit you want to pull with me, I can’t do this.”

“This?” Smith steps forward. There’s a dark menace in his eyes, but I’m too heated myself to care if I’m pissing him off. “What is this?”

“How the hell should I know?” I swallow and try to ignore the feeling of his strong fingers on my bare skin. “Obviously ‘this’ is nothing.”

“It’s not nothing, and you know it.” He leans down until our mouths are an inch apart. “I spent all week telling myself to stay away from you. That we’re better off this way. You not getting dragged down by someone like me. I can’t let you.”

“You’re not dragging me down, Smith. I don’t know why you’d think that, either.”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I’m such a perv,” he says, a trace of bitterness in his voice.

It suddenly hits me that I’ve insulted him. “It was a joke,” I say. “I thought you’d laugh.”

“But that’s the problem. It’s not a joke,” Smith says, and there’s real emotion in his voice now. “I like things dirty. Rough.”

Something about that admission makes me throb, awakens all my nerve endings. “How dirty? How rough?”

He sees my reaction, and his nostrils flare.

Smith brushes his mouth on mine, a delicate touch that belies his next words. “I don’t think you could handle how rough I want it with you.”

“Is that…is that related to why you left while I was sleeping?” I have to know. To know it wasn’t that I did something wrong. That maybe he’s struggling with this demon inside him.

I go to drop my hand when he captures it and brings my fingertips to his mouth. He sucks them in, then licks them, and the desire that floods me from the tugging sensation is almost too much. God.

“The things I want to do to you…” He stops and drops my hand, steps away. “But I can’t.”

“Please, stop playing games with me,” I reply. I’m tired of the big, bad Smith acting like he’s the only one who wants dirty things in bed. Yeah, I’ve only been with two men—well, now three—but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a healthy sexual appetite. “I have a feeling I can handle whatever it is that you’re into.”

Even as I say the words, I wonder if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.

He narrows his eyes and when he speaks, there’s a warning in his tone. “That sounds distinctly like a challenge, Aubrey. One I’m not sure you’re ready to undertake.”

Some boldness makes me assert, “Well, there’s only one way for us to find that out, isn’t there.”