We rode for about an hour before I pulled off at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway.

“How’re you doing? You comfortable?”

She nodded and grinned. “What about you? Are you tired? You weren’t expecting a midnight ride. I don’t want you to fall asleep or anything.”

With her tits pressed up against me and her arms tight around my waist, there was no chance of that happening. In fact, just remembering how she felt behind me might keep me awake for a days.

“I’m good, but I’m going to get some coffee. You want anything?”

She climbed off the bike. “Coffee would be good. I don’t want to miss anything.”

While I went up to Starbucks and placed our orders—regular coffee for me and some fancy mocha something-or-other for her—Rain waited at a table nearby, texting on her phone. I wondered if she’d be asking me to turn around soon.

I placed her coffee on the table. “Everything okay?”

She set her phone down and reached for her coffee. “I was just sending my mother a message so she wouldn’t worry in case I’m not home when she opens.”

I sat down across from her. “What time do you open?”

“She gets in around six, but we don’t open until seven.”

I liked that she wasn’t sure what time we’d be getting back—and she was okay with that.

“I also got a message from Preston around midnight.” She held the phone out for me to see what he’d written: Where the fuck are you?

What a jackass.

“You going to tell him?”

Her face clouded. I wasn’t sure if she was angry or about to start crying.

“You want to talk about it?”

“Not really. I just want to ride.” She smiled, but there was sadness behind her eyes.

We finished our coffee, and as we walked through the parking lot, I had to keep myself from reaching for her hand. It felt so natural.

“You ready to tell me where we’re going?” she asked as she climbed onto the Harley behind me.

“Nope. You told me to surprise you.”

“I know, but I don’t usually like surprises.”

“You’ll like this one.”

With Rain secure behind me and her arms around my waist once more, I got back on the parkway. It was the middle of the night, but even if I hadn’t just had a large cup of coffee, I think I would’ve been just as alert.

I was pushing my luck where she was concerned. Even worse, I could be setting myself up to get hurt again. We were barely even friends, and I was in no way ready for another relationship. If I could wish this to be something more, I would, but she was in love with someone else, and stubbornly so.

What the hell was I doing?

“You okay?” Rain called over my shoulder.

“Great. How about you?”

“Good. Am I holding too tight?”

Not in a million years. “You’re fine.”

Before we exited the parkway, I pulled over to fill up and we each had another cup of coffee.

She studied my face and I found myself falling deeper into the clear blue of her eyes, still beautiful, even under the harsh lights outside the Wawa.

“Are you taking me to Cape May?”

I smiled and blew on my coffee.

Her face lit up and if it were possible, it made her even more beautiful. “Really?”

“I guess you are psychic. Do you like Cape May?”

“I’ve never been, but I’ve seen pictures. All those beautiful Victorian houses and the beach.”

She was grinning. So was I.

I had cruised at or under the speed limit the entire trip, and even with the two rest stops, it wasn’t yet three o’clock when we arrived. I wanted her to see the sunrise, and we still had over two hours to go. I rode along the main street to Ocean Avenue and then out to the lighthouse.

“This is so cool,” she gushed over my shoulder. “I haven’t seen a lighthouse this close since I was a little kid.”

I parked near the walkway to the beach and led her toward the pounding waves. I held out my arm so she wouldn’t trip; instead, she slipped her hand into mine and kept chattering away, animated by our spirit of adventure. Or maybe it was the two cups of coffee.

“Are you warm enough?” I asked.

“I’m fine.”

When we neared the water, she pulled off her cowboy boots, threw them in the sand, and started running. There was enough of a moon that I could see her, but it worried me to have her so far out into the water at night. I pulled off my work boots and socks, tossed them alongside her boots, then rolled up my jeans and followed.

The water was splashing up her calves when I caught up to her.

“You’re going to get soaked,” I said. “That’s going to be pretty uncomfortable heading back if you’re all wet.”

Waves rushed around our legs past our knees, and she grabbed my arm to steady herself against the drag of the tide. Moonlight cast her face in a blue-gray light, and with her hair floating around her face, she appeared delicate and ethereal.

“Are we heading back soon?” she asked.

“It’s up to you. We can stay as long as you like.”

“How about forever?”

Raising her arms, she twirled and then sprinted along the beach, darting in and out of the water. In the short time I’d known her, Rain had almost always worn a smile—at least until that asshole treated her like shit earlier—and been friendly and flirtatious. But now, it was as if she were also unburdened.

Considering how upset she’d been after the incident at Blondie’s, I was pretty proud of myself, even if the fix was temporary. I started after her, not wanting her to disappear into the dark.

When I caught up to her, she was staring out to sea.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could see all the way to France?”

I was about to say it would depend on which way she was facing and it was more likely we wouldn’t see Europe at all, but there was no reason to correct her.

A ship passed, way off in the distance. I put my hands on her shoulders and turned her toward it.

“Look straight ahead. Do you see that blinking light?”

“Uh-uh.”

I bent my knees until our eyes were almost at the same level. Her hair smelled like coconut, and I wanted to bury my face in it, wrap it around my fist, lose myself—

Down, boy.

My cock had been semihard since I’d picked her up outside Blondie’s and was now straining uncomfortably against my jeans. I mentally adjusted myself. At least it was dark.

I shifted her so that the ship was directly in front of us. “Straight ahead. Follow the line of my arm.”

“Oh! I see it now.”

“That’s the Eiffel Tower.”

She was silent at first. Then, with her brow comically furrowed, she jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow. “Oh, it is not. But maybe they’re sailing to France. Wouldn’t that be something? To just get on a boat and go anywhere you wanted?” She leaned against me, the top of her head skimming my chin. “It would be almost as nice as this.”

Every part of me shouted no, but I did it anyway: I wrapped my arms around her.

“Thank you, Chase.” She spoke softly, reverently. “This has been wonderful.”

“It’s not over yet. The best part’s coming up in a little while.” I checked my watch; we still had some time. “You want to walk, or you want to just sit here?”

She took in the wide expanse of open beach. “How about we go back there toward the dunes so we’re protected from the breeze?”

“Are you cold?”

“A little. I’m kinda tired. That always makes me feel cold.”

I took her hand and led her toward the dunes and a stand of beach roses. I dropped down onto the sand.

“If you want, sit here in front of me. You’ll be warmer that way.”

I expected her to refuse, but she plopped down between my legs. After a few moments, she leaned back against my chest.

“Are you comfortable?” I asked.

“I am, but I can’t imagine you are.”

“I’m fine. I’m more than fine.”

I fought the urge to put my arms around her again. I had to keep reminding myself I was playing with fire, but in that moment, I didn’t care if I burned to the ground. In fact, I welcomed it.

Other than the constant pounding of the surf and the whisper of the tall grass in the dunes, it was quiet. Neither of us spoke for a good long time.

“Do you want to know what I was upset about before?” she asked.

“Only if you want to tell me.”

“Don’t think less of me. Promise you won’t think less of me. I couldn’t bear it.”

Fool that I was, I circled my arms around her. “I promise.”

“I’d never met anyone like Preston before, and he seemed to be crazy about me from the very beginning. We’d been seeing each other for a few months before I found out there was someone else. By then, I was already in love with him.”

She shifted closer and tucked her legs under her dress.

“And it’s not as bad as it sounds. The reason he was still seeing her was that her mother was sick, and then she died. It would’ve been a shitty time for him to break up with her, right?”

If she expected me to give Preston a free pass, that wouldn’t be happening. I didn’t answer.

“It’s been months now since he broke it off, and he’s done nothing to make me think he’s still seeing her, but I’m not really a part of his life. I went to his club once . . . That was a total disaster.”

She swiveled toward me. “Did you know rich people eat all kinds of disgusting things?”

“Never having been rich, I can’t say that I do.’

The way she shivered it could’ve been from the cold or the memory of eating at Preston’s club. I held her a little tighter, so I didn’t care what caused it.

“I dated a couple other guys when I’d thought it was over—nice guys—but my heart just wasn’t in it. None of them were Preston.”

I was a nice guy. I waited for her to end by telling me how she just wasn’t into me.

“So what happened between you two tonight?”

“We’d gone to dinner, and like usual, we went to some hole in the wall an hour north. Diane insists he does that because he doesn’t want to run into anyone he knows because he’s still seeing Suzanne. Tonight I called him on it. He got really angry, and he swore it wasn’t true. I want to believe him, but it’s hard some days. It’s hard when you’ve been dating someone for over a year and sometimes a week or two goes by before you see them again. He travels a lot for work, so I get it, but there are days when I just feel like a fool. Tonight, for some reason, I just couldn’t seem to let it go. So we ended up fighting. I should’ve made him take me home, but he insisted on going to Blondie’s. Obviously, that was a mistake.”

I loosened my hold around her, but she didn’t seem to notice. She just kept on talking.

“I’ve never seen him drunk before. Or so nasty. You saw how he was acting.”

“I did.” I’d wanted to bash his face in. No man who cared about his woman would treat her like that, especially in front of a crowd, and then let others demean her as well.

“So if he comes to you tomorrow and somehow proves that he’s not involved with anyone else, do you believe the two of you will live happily ever after?”

She shrugged. If she recognized the bitterness in my voice, she didn’t mention it.

“I used to believe that.” She reached up and placed her hand on my arm and let her head fall back against my chest. “But honestly, I’m not so sure anymore.”

We sat like that, resting against one another, for a long time, until the horizon turned from black to gray and the first strands of pink stretched across the horizon.

“You awake?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Over the next fifteen minutes, from the comfort of the dunes and each other’s arms, we watched one of Mother Nature’s most spectacular light shows. The sky was a kaleidoscope of purples, blues, pinks, oranges, and yellows, fluid and constantly changing, until the sun burst out of the water. Any day I was blessed to watch the sunrise was a good day. To see it rise out of the ocean with this beautiful woman in my arms was a gift I hadn’t known I deserved.

As the sun continued to climb and the light show faded to streaks of gold and blue, Rain sighed against my chest.

“Thank you,” she said. “I think that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“You’re welcome.” I stood and pulled her up. “It’s my favorite, but it was even more special watching it with you.”

She turned her face toward mine. In the early light of day, her eyes were a lovely pale blue.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she said.

Before I could respond, she put her hand on my neck and pulled my mouth down to hers. I gave her a second, to see if it was an overly friendly thank you, but when she didn’t stop, I gripped her waist, pulled her closer, and deepened the kiss. Her lips parted, and when my tongue brushed hers, and she gave a little moan, I kissed her even harder. She had to feel what she was doing to me.

After several minutes, I finally, painfully broke away.

“How can I not take that the wrong way?” I whispered, pressing my forehead against hers.

“I don’t know.”

I looked into her eyes, trying to see if I could understand what she was thinking, but all I saw was confusion. For now, I’d count that as a win.

“Are you hungry?” I asked. “There’s a breakfast place nearby. They make a decent chocolate chip pancake. Nothing like mine, of course, but not bad.”

“You cook?”

“I do,” I said with a grin. “I’m quite a catch.”

Her smile was electric, and I felt it everywhere. “I bet you are.”

“So, pancakes?”

She nodded. “I’m starving, but don’t we have to head back?”

“I deserve a day off too. I’ll just call my brother. There’s no place else I’d rather be—and no one else I’d rather be here with.”