Page 29 of Anger Bang
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Something like that.”
She should ask more questions, but there was not one but two dinosaurs to go see, and there would be time to ask why he had all of this later. “How did you know about Jimbo and Lori?”
“Had to do something when I couldn’t sleep last night,” he said, handing her the yellow helmet.
“So you googled nearby dinosaurs?” That seemed more than a little completely unlikely.
“Yep,” he said before putting on his helmet and getting on the bike, then revving the engine.
Thatgot the attention of everyone at sunrise yoga. The camerawoman swung her lens around to them.
“Don’t even think about it, Thea,” Jackie said, her annoyed tone cutting through the motorcycle’s engine. “We have to do the sisterly bonding activity for the live stream right after yoga. It’s sponsored. Agreements were made. Money changed hands!”
Thea was already starting to hand her helmet back to Kade. Old habits and all that. But she stopped herself right in time. A SponCon sisterly bonding activity? Jackie hadn’t even wanted Thea at the wedding, but she’d sold the time they would spend together? Oh, fuck that.
Everyone else just watched them with their mouths agog while Jackie marched ever closer. Thea would have sworn on a Bible that her heart could be heard hammering against her ribs over the motorcycle’s badass engine.
Kade didn’t say anything. He just watched, his expression totally inscrutable behind the dark visor of the helmet he’d slid on. But she got the message anyway. She had to make her choice.
Fawn.
Freeze.
Fight.
Flight.
Excitement bubbling inside her chest, she made her choice by pulling on her own helmet. She swung her leg over the motorcycle and sat down behind Kade, praying her ass would fit because that would kind of ruin the effect of the whole running-away-with-a-bad-boy-on-a-motorcycle thing. Yeah, she was a retired child actor with no intention of ever going back, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love a little bit of drama now and then.
Miraculously, her ass fit perfectly on the seat, but there really wasn’t very much space left between them. One deep breath and her boobs would be pressed up against his back. Where was she going to put her hands? Sure, sheknewwhere she was supposed to put her hands, but knowing and doing were two different things when it came to touching Kade St. James. The man was dangerous.
“Thea!” Jackie yelled, almost to them now. “It’s a contractual obligation!”
Thea froze, stuck between what she wanted and how she’d normally behave in this situation. However, in the end, the final choice was made for her when the motorcycle started moving. She dropped her hands to Kade’s hips and held on, hoping she wouldn’t go flying like her heart was at that moment—especially when she saw the look of grudging admiration on Jackie’s face half a second before the camera swung back to her sister and she settled her expression into one of absolute disapproval.
Thea laughed and slid her arms around Kade’s waist, letting herself relax against his back as they hit the highway and left the resort in their dust.
Dr. Kowecki was right—this really did feel good. Check that. This felt amazing, like she just might be finding the Thea who would never be a doormat again.
Chapter Twelve
What Kade experienced every time he walked into a bookstore and that first whiff of book hit him straight in the face, Thea looked like she was going through as she stared at Lori, which at three feet long was the smallest dinosaur to have ever been discovered in the state of Wyoming. He knew that because it said so on the explanatory card at the fossil’s base that he’d now read at least eight times while Theaoohed andaahed and took in every millimeter of the fossil.
“Isn’t she gorgeous?” Thea asked with a happy sigh. “So the theory is, because she had these long, thin arms and gangly legs with a pretty short tail, Lori here wasn’t a runner but instead probably lurked in the undergrowth before going in for the attack.”
He took a closer look at the mean-ass claws on the dinosaur’s hands and feet that would slice and dice whatever it was planning on having for dinner. “Looks like Lori could have been an amazing horror movie villain.”
“Well, the Hesperornithoides miessleri is a close relative of the velociraptor,” Thea said, putting on what he’d come to realize was her professor voice.
That she’d go into paleontologist mode while surrounded by fossils didn’t surprise him. What he hadn’t expected was that he’d find it so hot to see her in her element. He’d kept asking questions long after his brain had reached the point of being overwhelmed with information just so he could hear her talk. She was smart, had a unique ability to break things down and avoid using jargon that intimidated or confused things. This wasn’t about ego for her; it was about pure, unadulterated love. Translation: hearing Thea Pope talk about dinosaurs was sexy as fuck.
“Velociraptor?” he asked. “Like fromJurassic Park?”
“The very one.” She nodded and tucked a long strand of dark hair that had escaped her ponytail behind an ear.
The woman loved her ponytails—she always had her hair pulled back into one. He was becoming a fan himself. He’d spent way too much time last night fantasizing about wrapping it around his hand and tugging as he fucked her.
“So you just accidentally found this place?” Thea did a slow circle as she held out her arms to encompass the nearly sixty mounted dinosaur skeletons, her perma-grin on full display.
