Page 109 of Love at First Ride
It’s getting dark out by the time we pull up outside Hollie’s apartment on my motorcycle.
‘Oh, shit,’ I hear her say behind me, on the back of the bike.
I lean down to my left, turn the key to the off position to kill the engine, but she doesn’t move, just clings to me.
‘What’s goin’ on?’ I ask, steadying the bike. I turn my head, still in my helmet.
She lifts her visor, looking across the parking lot. ‘That’s my dad’s car. He must be inside,’ she says.
‘Right. You wanna come out to Rapture? Or you wanna go say hi?’
She squeezes me tighter. ‘I don’t want to risk Evelyn being here too. Let’s get out of here.’
She doesn’t need to ask me twice. I lean down and switch the key back on, then restart the engine.
She clings to me on the ride back to Rapture. There’s a sense of anticipation in the air, like we both know what’s gonna happen no sooner than we’ve walked through the door.
We barely make it through my door. Reaching the top of the staircase, in the dusk light, we’re all over one another. I struggle with my key, the pair of us practically falling over the threshold, tearing off each other’s clothes, our kisses heated and messy, hands pawing at one another. I have to force myself to get to my feet to close the door behind us and switch on the light.
When Hollie’s in just her underwear, I scoop her up into my arms and lower her to the bed.
When I’m about to peel off her underwear, simultaneously tryna wrestle out my jeans, she pulls back. ‘Hold on a second,’ she says. ‘I want to talk to you about something.’
‘Okay,’ I say, composing myself, nerves hitting my chest. ‘What is it?’
‘When we went to the river, Nicole said something to me. She told me you said you had competition.’
I look down. I’m embarrassed that I talked to Nic about my insecurities. Nothing like this ever bothered me before. ‘Poetry Boy,’ I say.
‘Owen,’ she says. ‘But we can call him Poetry Boy if you like.’
I bring my gaze back to hers. ‘What about him? Do I need to be worried?’
‘On the contrary. I want you to know what happened.’
‘Okay,’ I say again.
‘When I met Owen, I was in a good place. I was happy. I had a year left of uni. I mean… sexually speaking, I’d only had sex once, with this random exchange student, that was it. I was still pretty shy, and he brought me out of my shell. We got on well. And I was trying not to think about you anymore, of that one mind-blowing kiss at Amber’s party.’
I grin. ‘That kiss was legendary, baby, it’s forever imprinted on my brain.’
She smiles. ‘Yes, but I honestly thought I would never see you again.’
I trail my finger in a circle around her belly button. ‘That’s fair. I was an idiot.’
‘Anyway. Poetry Boy. Owen. He actually liked me. We went on some dates, talked on the phone, and eventually… you know.’
‘Don’t need to hear that part.’
She smiles again and tilts her head to one side. ‘Okay, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but like… I thought it was good. Decent. I mean, now I know better. Much,muchbetter.’
I can’t help but grin. ‘Keep going.’
‘So, eventually, we were exclusive, I spent most of the time at his place. All that stuff. By then it was getting closer to graduation. There were all these questions aboutwhat I wanted to do next. We were all studying hard. There were parties. Owen and I kind of drifted a bit. We weren’t getting physical as much. Then, one night, I saw a message exchange on his phone.’
My face falls. And here was me thinking Poetry Boy was the romantic type. ‘You’re kidding.’
‘I found out that he’d spent the night at this girl’s house. And afterward, they’d talked about it.’
