Page 25 of Breaking You Open

He sends a glance at his watch. “Well, it’s quarter past now, so we better hurry.”

“Crap, are you serious?” I shoot up from my seat with my mouth full of bacon. I hate being late. Hate walking into the lecture hall when everyone else has already taken their seats and having to quickly scramble to find one of my own. People stare at me enough as it is.

Louis hands me a huge leather jacket in the hallway. “Here. Fall’s coming, and riding a bike isn’t like riding a car.”

“How about you?” I ask. He’s not even wearing a long-sleeved shirt. “Aren’t you going to be cold?”

He shrugs his biker vest on and grabs his keys. “I’m used to it. Are you coming or not?” he asks when I just stay in the hallway, rattled by this sudden turn of events.

On the walk down the driveway to his motorcycle, I feel like I’m drowning in his leather jacket. It feels a little ridiculous, but it’s comforting too.

When Louis has his back turned, I lift the jacket and sniff the insides. It smells like him: masculine cologne, mint, sweat, and motor oil. My eyes flutter shut, heat spreading all over my body.

Louis hands me a helmet but gets none for himself. This time, I refrain from making a comment about it. It’s kind of sweet, after all, and Louis has rarely been sweet to me. Not that I want him to be sweet; I want him to take care of me, but he doesn’t have to be sweet all the time to do that. He can bend me over his bike and take from me what he wants, as long as he holds me afterward and kisses the tip of my nose.

I shake my head at my embarrassing thoughts as I swing a tentative leg over the bike. Ridiculous. Louis won’t ever do that with me.

“Hold on tight.” He grabs my hands and wraps them around his waist. At first, I hold him casually, not giving away how much I want to clutch him tight, but when he starts the bike and speeds up, my breath hitches in my throat, and I slam my body against his.

The engine roars as we speed down the street. Rows of two-story apartment blocks blur in my periphery, and my eyes tear as the chilly fall air hits me dead on. After a minute or so, I get used to the strange feeling of whooshing speed, and it gets more fun than scary.

I lean my cheek into Louis’s back, smiling and giggling. I feel free. Daring.

We come to a stop at a red light, and Louis turns around and barks, “You good?” over the roar of the engine.

“Yeah!” I yell back. “It’s fun!”

His teeth flash in a smile, and I squeal with joy when he speeds past a row of cars in the other lane.

We skid onto the main campus with three minutes to spare. Even though I’m nervous about being late, I feel no hurry to untangle myself from Louis’s waist and unmount the bike, but I suppose I have no choice. I unzip his jacket and hand it to him, and he hangs it over his broad shoulders.

“Thanks, kid,” he says, still straddling the bike.

I’m the one who should thankhim, yet I can’t bring myself to do much more than smile at him.

“Let me guess,” he says. “You want me to come get you after class too?”

“Oh.” I haven’t even thought of that. “My class ends at two. And I should get my stuff from the dorm. Clothes and school supplies.”

“Mm-hmm,” Louis grunts. “And you want me to go with you like some kind of bodyguard, do you?”

“I mean, if…if it’s not too much trouble,” I say with what I hope is a grateful smile, but I just feel awkward and cowardly.

“So you’ll be safe here?” Louis nods toward the stairs, where groups of students are going to their respective classes and hanging out outside the main lecture building. Some have stopped to stare at us. I guess it’s not every day a student gets a bike ride from a guy as intimidating as Louis.

“Yeah, I’ll be all right.”I hope.“Aaron won’t dare approach me when there’s a bunch of people around.”

“Good.” Louis leans over and reaches a hand into my pocket.

My pants are pretty tight, and my mouth falls open when his other hand nudges my hip. What is he doing? He withdraws with my phone in hand, and after directing the screen at my face to unlock the Face ID, he types his number into my contacts. As he does so, I notice I have a bunch of unread text messages and calls from Lilith, but all that can wait.

“Here,” he says. “In case you need me.”

“Need you,” I repeat. I try to voice it as a question, but in my thin, breathy voice filled with an adoration I can’t hide, it comes out as more of a statement.

Silly me. Louis is just helping me out; he’s not…flirtingwith me, right? At least not in a serious way. I’m too young for him; he’s already told me that. My brain gets it, but my heart and dick don’t seem as easily convinced.

With nothing more than a “bye, kid,” Louis puts his helmet on and revs the bike, and I’m left watching him speed down the streets.

---