Page 4 of Saved By a Knight

“Where am I taking you?” he asks, and we walk toward his bike.

“Winchester’s female dorm.”

“Should’ve seen that one coming.” We get to his bike, and Knight lifts the seat to expose a hidden compartment where he tucks a bag with the gas station’s logo inside. “Does that mean you’re new around here?”

“Sure am,” I sigh. “Haven’t quite caught my bearings around Boulder yet.”

“Well, if there’s anything I can do to make your transition easier, I’m just a call away.” As if waiting for an opportunity, Knight slips a hand into his pocket and pulls out an off-white business card.

I tuck it into my purse, knowing I’ll probably use it sooner rather than later.

“She’s beautiful,” I say, eyeing the machine. I don’t want to get my hopes up that Knight’s gesture wasn’t purely to give me his number. But that doesn’t mean I’m not telling the truth, either. His motorcycle is very pretty, with an all-black body, apart from a few red streaks running through it. What isn’t painted is polished chrome, gleaming beneath the lights.

“You’re lucky.” He sits and offers me a hand to help me behind him. “She feels the same way about you.”

Maybe it’s my nerves talking, but that sure sounds like he’s flirting with me.

If I weren’t nervous about taking my first ride on the back of someone else’s motorcycle, I’d be chuckling like a goofball. I’m sure of it. But to set my mind at ease, Knight reaches to the side and grabs a helmet. Like his bike, it’s black, but it has his name running across the side.

“Take this. Nothing’s gonna happen, but I’m in the habit of delivering precious cargo unharmed.”

Oh. My. God.

He is flirting with me.

“Don’t you need it?” I ask, but snatch the helmet anyway. It’s loose-fitting around my head, but it’ll do enough to keep me safe anyway.

“Hard as rocks up here.” He knocks against the side of his head lightly. And before I have a chance to answer, he starts his bike, and we start to move. I fling my hands around his belly and latchonto him tightly as we pull away from the gas station and onto the road.

But it doesn’t take long for my nerves to settle down, and the short ride to my dorm is a pleasure instead of a cause of dread.

The engine comes to a stop in front of my dormitory building, and Knight waits for me to get off first. He joins me, eyes scanning the length of the street as he does, to ensure there aren’t any more ne’er-do-wells running about.

“Are you always this cautious?” I ask, as we start walking to my door.

“In my line of work, it’s a necessity,” he admits. “But no. I guess I’m just on high alert because of what happened.”

And because it’s me in the firing line? A nice thought, but probably not.

“Well, you can rest easy knowing Professor Callahan has no way of getting into my dorm room.” I gesture toward the front of the building, where one woman in a guard’s outfit stares at us with a feverish scowl, and another sits at a desk inside. “No one’s passing those two. Not even you.”

“It’s good to know I’m not the only one on the job trying to protect you” —he smirks— “even if it does mean I can’t sneak in.”

This man and my burning cheeks are a match made in heaven.

“So, you’d have tried then, huh?” I raise a playful brow at him.

Knight stops abruptly, and mortification washes over his face. “No. I’d never. I mean?—”

“Easy, big guy.” I rest a hand on the side of his arm to settle the racing thoughts. “I’m fucking with you.”

“Good because I wasn’t talking myself out of that one,” he admits, and I laugh.

We walk the rest of the way to the door, stopping in front of the very grumpy-looking guard.

“So, do you do this often? Or am I a one-time thing?” Everything that comes out of my mouth seems filthier than I intend it to be.

“Often,” he says. “Most nights are quiet, but you never know when someone might be in need. We keep focused, so the people of Boulder can rest easy.”

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