Page 48 of Wanting More
She wanted to argue that she rode the bus here, and she was very much aware of the type of people who were on there. But what was the use? The short man looked so gentle as he spoke, Sapphire didn't have the heart to fight him. What was the use anyway, she grumbled to herself? Turning away from the window, she faced the street with resignation and watched as Joel pulled the big bike to a stop at the curb.
Wearing a wrinkled white tank under his black leather jacket, Joel looked as if he had just gotten out of bed and slipped on the first things he found. The strong lines of his pronounced chest stretched the thin white fabric until it felt as if she was looking at him shirtless. Sapphire swallowed and forced herself to look up at his face, half hidden by his aviator sunglasses. Even his usually perfectly combed back hair was free from the stiff hair product that kept it in place, leaving it to hang free around his face in a golden halo.
Dropping his feet to the ground, Joel balanced the heavy bike between his thighs and looked at her as one hand turned off the engine.
"Sapphire, darling. Come here." The command was sweetly worded, but it was an order nonetheless.
She allowed herself to take only two steps forward. She eyed him suspiciously. "What are you-"
Joel cut her off. "You're not getting on a bus to go to Stardust," he informed her, pulling off his shades and hooking them into his shirt's collar. "We will take you."
She could see the resoluteness in his handsome face. By the firm set of his jaw and the gleam of reckless dare in his deep blue eyes, she could see he had made his decision. She knew deep down she would not win this argument. But that didn't mean it made her want to jump up and down in petulant protest any less. She needed space! Time to think away from him and Hayden's suffocating presence.
"Joel…" The wordpleasehovered on the tip of her tongue but would not form. As if her pride took on the job of white blood cells attacking the shameless word like a pathogen, the word dissolved on her tongue like spun sugar. Instead, she gave him a silent, beseeching look, hoping he would understand.
Joel was unmoved. Grinning wider, he gestured with his thumb to the back of his bike. "Get on. And if you're really nice, I won't tell Hayden about your little plan to run off."
Sapphire bit her bottom lip as she reluctantly found herself moving to the back of his bike. Swinging one leg over the idling bike and one hand on Joel's strong shoulder, she lowered herself onto the cool leather. Somehow in all of this, she really didn't think about Hayden's reaction. All she could think and feel was her acute embarrassment, but Hayden had been the real one to open up last night. Something sharp twisted painfully in her chest at the thought of the burly man she knew, but as a child being abandoned by his family.
It must have hurt so bad to even say the words. Words he had trusted her with.
Wrapping her arms around Joel's waist, she relaxed against his back as he started the engine once again and pulled away from the post office and onto the road.
What would Hayden have thought when he woke up today to see her gone without a word? Would he give it a second thought, or would he think of his confession last night and cringe like she had or, worse, feel hurt? Tightening her hold around Joel, she waited until they pulled up to the stop light and got his attention.
Wearing his shades again, Joel turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder. "Don't tell Hayden…I was just feeling…" Exposed was what she wanted to say, but again she could not make herself form the word. "I just felt weird about being so honest last night," she quickly said before she could let herself censor the words like she normally did. "I don't want Hayden to get the wrong idea. I…I don’t want to hurt his feelings or anything."
Pulling his shades down just enough so that she could see the piercing gleam of his cobalt eyes, Joel gave her a long look. Something warm and knowing existed between them before he snapped the glasses back in place and gave her a wide smile.
"Don't worry. I won't. We'll just say you went grocery shopping without me, and I, like the perfect gentleman I am, came to your rescue."
Sapphire had no time to respond to that last remark because the light turned green. Cutting across the light early morning traffic, Joel pulled the bike into the grocery store's parking lot and parked the bike directly on the curb near a pair of ancient-looking children's rides. Sapphire smirked at the faded machines. One was shaped like a spaceship, and the other was supposed to be a horse, but the expression on the equine was quite nightmarish.
"It looks like it’s escaping for its life from something trying to eat it," Joel said once the quiet of his killed engine settled over them.
Sapphire let out a small laugh at that as she got off the bike. It was true. She could just imagine the horse running at full speed away from some sort of horse-eating troll or something.
"I couldn’t imagine children would like being placed on top of that thing and then shaken for ten minutes."
Hooking his shades onto his shirt collar, Joel lovingly brushed off some unseen dirt on his bike's headlight before turning to her. "I shit you not. I saw a lady put her kid on that thing a few weeks ago."
Sapphire almost looked back at the machine in shock. The fact that it still worked was a modern miracle. Grabbing a cart, she gave Joel a pointed look. "But was the kid crying, though?"
Seeing where she was going with that, Joel let out a laugh. "As a matter of fact, he was."
Sapphire nodded smugly. "My point exactly."
Shopping didn't take that long at all. Joel seemed to know exactly what he wanted. While he picked up steaks, beers, protein bars, and other manly like foods, Sapphire desperately wanted to tease him about, he sent her off to pick up breakfast foods and any other food for herself that were not—fucking microwave meals—as he phrased it. Meeting back up near the cash registers, Sapphire worriedly eyed the amount of food.
"How are we going to get this all on the bike?" she asked.
Yawning, Joel threw his arms out wide and opened his mouth in a dramatic yawn. Sapphire could not have stopped her eyes from traveling down his lean stomach if her life depended on it. Hard, ridged muscles pressed themselves against the fabric of his shirt before relaxing as he let go of the tension. "You would be surprised how much those saddlebags hold. And with you holding a couple of bags and me going really slow and careful like it will be a breeze."
Sapphire made a snorting sound under her breath as she pushed forward in the register queue. "Sounds like a neat way to crash and die."
The sudden heat was her first warning, followed by the fist that gripped the cart's red handlebar right next to hers. Turning, Sapphire looked up at Joel with wide eyes as he moved forward to cage her in against the cart.
Her eyes darted around them. It was early. There still weren't that many people in the store, but there were enough. Especially for a small town like this. More than enough to add jet fuel to the rumors already spreading about her.
