Page 91 of Ride With Me

Was that what I wanted? I wasn’t sure. There was something different about Warren, and I?—

My phone vibrated in my pocket, cutting me off from the thoughts before they could form in my head. It was probably better that way. I didn’t need to think so hard about it. This wasn’t a permanent situation, after all.

It was just a free ride.

I shifted to pull my phone out of my pocket and frowned as soon as I saw the name flashing across the screen.

Mitchy.

Fucking Mitchy, who obviously didn’t know when to give up since he was calling me. It was about what I expected, but that didn’t stop me from sending him to voicemail and flipping the phone over onto my lap before it started buzzing again.

“Trouble?” Warren sounded more concerned than he had a right to be for someone who’d just met me… and someone who I’d pretty much forced my way into getting a ride with.

“That’s my middle name, baby.”

He didn’t look amused.

The phone callmade up my mind to keep my mouth shut, and I managed to steer our conversation into small talk for the next few hours. By the time the sun rose, Warren knew that myfavorite color was teal, and I was twenty-four years old. He asked me what kind of movies I watched, and knew I liked rock music.

I knew that he’d had a serious relationship when he was younger, but he’d broken it off with the woman before they did anything as drastic as getting married and settling down to have kids together, because he was tired of living a lie. He was thirty, and he was happy with the life he’d chosen.

Apparently, he loved the solitude and peace of the night sky, but that didn’t stop him from quirking his lips up and smiling at me when I told him I’d never had a girlfriend in my life.

For someone who liked the quiet, he sure did seem to find a million and one questions to ask me.

At least he’d taken the hint from earlier, and he hadn’t strayed back into questioning what kind of trouble I was in. I didn’t miss his eyes flicking down every time my phone buzzed, until I finally powered the damn thing down before he couldn’t resist anymore.

As the sky turned a gorgeous shade of pink, Warren pulled off at what had to be one of the cheapest motels I’d ever seen.

“Come on.” He glanced around the parking lot with a small frown. It didn’t look particularly full to me. Then again, the motel wasn’t exactly huge. “Let’s see if we can get a room.”

I didn’t know why he looked so apprehensive when he said it, but I caught his eyes drifting back to his truck for a second before he made a point to turn and lock the doors behind him.

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “Do you usually do that?”

“No, can’t say I do. But someone recently made me realize I might have a problem if I don’t.”

I couldn’t even bother to plaster a guilty expression on my face. After all, him leaving his truck unlocked was the only reason I was here, miles and miles away from the city I’d been in before. I was looking at the prospect of getting to share aroom with an extremely attractive man, whose long blond hair was currently falling loose from its tie to snarl in curls over his shoulder.

Yeah, maybe he was a stranger, but I could work with that. In fact, I might have preferred it.

Watching his broad shoulders disappear into the front desk area, I was pretty sure Ididprefer it. There were no hang ups.

No real danger.

There was just Warren and the way he’d folded like a fucking card table when I’d hopped out of his truck and intentionally left my bag behind.

CHAPTER 4

WARREN

Benji was toocute for his own good—he was definitely too cute for my sanity. A few hours trapped in the truck with him, and I was pretty sure I was going to end up doing something I had nointentionsof doing.

There was something about his smile, though, and the way he leaned forward when he was talking to me, like he wanted to close the distance between us, too.

I was usually pretty good at reading people, what they wanted and what I needed to do to get whatIwanted from them… but there was something different about Benji.

Something that made me wonder if I’d ever really stood a chance at doing anything other than exactly what he’d planned all along.

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