Page 70 of Slow Ride

“You know what?”Kason decided he needed to have a discussion with Rick, face to face.The guy had to understand their boundaries and what Kason hoped the future might look like.If his manager wasn’t onboard, maybe he wasn’t a good fit for Kason anymore.“You’re right.I’m coming.”

“That’s better.”Rick sounded so smug Kason clamped his hands around the phone as if he was strangling it.He hung up before Rick could piss him off further.

He took a long, deep breath.Then another before turning to face the couple now making out in his secret sanctuary.When he approached, Wren looked up then pushed Jordan away.“Everything okay?”

“I’m sorry, guys.”Kason hoped they knew he truly was.“I’ll have to do this in person after all.I’ll make it as fast as I can.Hang out here.Enjoy the pool or anything else you want in the house.My motorcycle collection is down the hall from here.Take any of them for a ride if you like.Make yourselves at home.As far as I’m concerned…you are.”

Wren smiled as she boosted herself up onto straight-locked arms even as he leaned in so she could kiss him.Then she flashed him a wolfish smile.“We’ll wait for you.So hurry back.”

“Drive safe,” Jordan added before clapping Kason on the back.It was as if he understood that if they kissed, Kason wouldn’t be able to leave no matter how important it was that he did.

“I’ll do both,” he promised before he stormed from the pool room.He’d gotten dressed and was jogging down the stairs to the garage in ten minutes flat.When he looked at the hundred or so motorcycles inside, there was no doubt which one he wanted to ride.

He took the Ducati the Hot Rides team had customized especially for him.At least he’d have Wren’s work with him as he rode.

Pissed and—okay, fine—scared too, Kason headed north.

If he exceeded the speed limit by a healthy margin, so fucking what?He had to have some outlet and besides, the sooner he fulfilled his obligations and made it clear he was done for the rest of the break, the sooner he could get back to Wren and Jordan.

He felt like shit.Torn between responsibility and the need to unwind and to explore parts of himself he’d been denying for far too long.

When it started to rain, he figured it suited his mood.

Kason slowed and let the cool water dissipate some of his sour attitude.Unfortunately it also reminded him of the pool and how he’d walked out on the two people who mattered most to him when they’d been about to give him something he’d been craving for…pretty much forever.

Maybe he was too lost in thought.

Maybe he was still going too fast for the conditions.

Maybe his luck was shit.

Either way, when an enormous buck bolted out of the woods right in front of him, he didn’t have a lot of time to think.All he could do was react.He swerved, narrowly missing smashing into several hundred pounds of muscle and bone at fifty or sixty miles an hour.

That was the good news.The bad news was that the rear tire lost its grip on the slick pavement and he started to spin.Time really did slow when you were having a near-death experience, he realized.It was almost like an out-of-body experience, watching himself as he prepared for impact, laid the motorcycle down, then tumbled free of the heavy metal as he skidded down the road, praying that every bit of protective gear he was wearing held up.

Kason couldn’t tell if it was shock keeping him from experiencing too much pain, or if he was doing okay, until he hit a bump in the road and began to tumble.Oh yeah, that hurt.

Especially when his boot got stuck on who-knew-what and his leg turned in a direction it was definitely not intended to go.He heard the snap of his bone a moment before white-hot lightning shot up his leg.

As he came to a stop, the deer looked at him as if he couldn’t believe that had happened either before it bounded into the woods on the other side of the road.Headlights approached, terrifying Kason even more.He tried to scramble off to the shoulder, but it was tough when he couldn’t put any weight on his left leg.

Fortunately, his poor wrecked motorcycle made a pretty decent speed bump.The approaching vehicle had to slow for it.And when the driver spotted Kason, they veered onto the side of the road and put on their hazards.

“Oh my God, dude!Are you okay?”A guy about twenty years old rushed over to help Kason make it the rest of the way to the grass.

“I think so.Mostly,” he said, surprised by how hard it was to push air out of his lungs.

The passerby might have had an easier time believing Kason if he hadn’t collapsed in the dirt.The world spun around him.“Could you…call help?Just in case.”

Every word took as much effort as it had to walk away from Jordan and Wren.

“Yeah.Yeah.I’m on it.”The guy had his cell in his hand already, dialing 911.

“Thanks,” Kason said.Then nothing else would come out.He tried to suck in a shaky breath then another, but it wasn’t enough.

“You sure you’re okay?”the guy asked, crouching down as the dispatcher began asking a lot of questions.

Kason nodded, but even that was too much.Agony radiated from his leg now and his vision started to get fuzzy around the edges.The last thought he had was:At least I got to make love to them once.

Then he was out cold.

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