Page 29 of Coming Up Roses
We drive slowly across the paddock. We’re heading for a ridge line and as we crest over the top I can’t help the gasp that slips from my lips.
“This is gorgeous,” I say, taking in the long expanse of wild coastline spread out in front of us. “I didn’t know Wildflower Ridge reached the coast.”
“It doesn’t.” Flynn rubs the back of his neck, looking like he really doesn’t want to elaborate.
“Are we allowed to be here?”
“Well, no one’s ever told me I can’t be here.”
“Flynn!” I spin to face him in the seat. He’s still driving, slowly making his way down the slope to where the paddock ends and the beach begins.
“It’s Constellation Station,” he says. “The Sheridan’s are our neighbours. They were friends with my parents. I was friends with their sons when I was a kid. We used to come out here all the time. I don’t know if they know I still do, though the tyre tracks through the paddock are a bit of a giveaway.”
“What if we get caught?”
“George and Clarissa won’t have an issue. It’ll only be Max who has a problem and frankly, I give zero shits about any opinion Max Sheridan has. Katie and Olivia call him Max fucking-bastard Sheridan for a reason.” His hands clench on the steering wheel for a moment, his knuckles flashing white, before he unclenches them and parks the ute. “Come on, Abigail.”
“You know you can call me Abi, right?” The words tumble out of my mouth before I have a moment to think them through. I kind of like how he always calls me Abigail. I like that he didn’t just assume he can call me Abi because Dallas does. It makes sense that Katie calls me that, because that’s how Dallas would have told her about me.
“I wasn’t sure, to be honest,” he says. His hand tangles in his hair and I flash back to how it felt in my own. God, I have got to stop these runaway thoughts. “I didn’t want to assume.”
A smile tugs at my lips and I let it unfurl. “I appreciate the thought, but Abi is fine.”
“Is it what you prefer though?”
“Maybe a bit of both,” I shoot back. “Depending on the occasion.”
His eyes flash with something dark and lustful and the tension spooling in my belly tightens a little more. “I can do that, Abigail.”
I might melt right here in the front seat of his ute.
Then, in a flash, smouldering Flynn is gone and the usual easy-going, flirty Flynn is back. “Come on, Abi. We haven’t got all day.”
He jumps out of the ute before I have a chance to refute his argument, but when I reach the back tailgate where he’s already releasing the straps securing the bike in place I can’t help myself.
“We actually do have all day,” I say.
He gives me an appraising look. “I mean, yes. But also I wasn’t sure how long you’d be able to tolerate me so I figured I should get on with it.”
“Get on with what?” That uneasy feeling I had earlier, the one that feels like I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into, kills any of the residual lust in my system.
Flynn hands me the helmet. “It’s time to teach you how to ride.”
15
FLYNN
Abigail—Abi—triesto argue. Of course she does. I wasn’t expecting anything else.
For a woman who’s determined to prove how capable she is, she really doesn’t like to get out of her comfort zone. She tries to argue, but I just smile and nod and let her think she’s making a point.
If she really doesn’t want to ride the bike herself I won’t make her. It’d be a pretty hard thing to force her to do, but I hope once I’ve managed to get her out of her head, she won’t be so resistant to the idea.
I just want her to let go, to have some fun, and to trust me. I don’t know which one I want the most, but when I think about her trusting me I get this weird fuzzy feeling inside my chest.
I tell it to piss off, then help Abi fasten her helmet before pulling my own on. She eyes it with suspicion.
I swing my leg over the bike and kickstart it. A sense of calmsettles over me with the familiar sound and vibration. Abi doesn’t come any closer.
