It's All Relative(63)
When Kai was finished, he took his seat on the motorcycle and nodded behind himself for her to sit down. With a soft sigh, she did. Jessie loosely held his hips as Kai started the bike. Missy was still watching, practically drooling, as he walked the bike backwards. When they were turned around, Jessie heard him yell back to her, “Hold on,” and she instinctively wrapped her arms around his waist as tightly as she could. Then he took off, light rocks spinning under his tires as he zoomed away.
Like being on a roller coaster, Jessie’s stomach lifted then settled. She clung to Kai’s back so firmly, it was like they were one person. She felt Kai make adjustments with his feet, switching gears maybe. She felt his upper body move as he twisted the handlebars ever so slightly. Keeping her eyes shut, she concentrated on his body movements, and not the fact that they were both way too exposed, should something bad happen.
After several miles, Jessie relaxed, and she again felt the comfort and excitement that she’d felt while driving up here. Getting over the mental block of terror took her a while, but once she did, she found that she enjoyed riding with him. Cracking her eyes open, she watched the colorful trees zipping past. All she could hear was the hum of the bike and the wind rushing through the vents in her helmet, but with the way her body was pressed into his broad back, she imagined that she could hear his heartbeat too, thudding with the beat of the road beneath them.
Smiling at the beauty of the scenery blurring past them, Jessie giggled into Kai’s back. She squeezed him in a hug before loosening her grip. As her fingers relaxed against him, they drifted down his stomach. Kai dipped the bike low through the long, curving corners, and Jessie ignored how close their knees got to the pavement. She trusted him; he’d never go so low that their knees touched the ground, and he’d never dump them. Instead of allowing herself to pointlessly worry, she focused on how his thighs moved as he held the bike, how hers shifted as she held him. The muscles in his stomach, hips, and legs did intriguing things with each corner. With her legs pressing against his, her chest flush to his back, her head resting on his shoulder, Jessie felt connected to him in an almost overpowering way. It was erotic and at the same time, it wasn’t. It was also exhilarating. As Jessie grew even more comfortable, she began to fully appreciate why Kai loved this. She had no desire to drive a motorcycle of her own, but she’d be a passenger any day. She’d be his passenger any day.
What felt like mere minutes later, they were back in the heart of Denver. Kai took them to a small diner that Jessie had been to several times with her friends, and they parked in the back lot. As Kai dropped the kickstand and shut off the bike, Jessie realized that her hands had drifted down to rest on the front of his jeans. She could even feel the basic outline of him. Immediately removing her hands, she felt her face flush red-hot.
Once again glad that the helmet obscured her features, Jessie hopped off the bike. Needing Kai to not touch her for a minute, at least until her embarrassment cooled, she fumbled with the strap under her chin. Determined to remove the helmet on her own, she successfully loosened it as he stepped up to her; his helmet was already resting on the handlebars. Jessie popped it off just as he lifted his hands to help. Kai beamed with pride, and Jessie’s emotions evened. She could do this.
The pair enjoyed a leisurely lunch, neither one wanting to hurry their afternoon together. Jessie shared pieces of her life that Kai didn’t know about—her dad’s recent move to D.C., her mom grudgingly following him there then discovering that she loved it, the numerous amounts of children her brothers had, how she’d decided on her career and where she wanted to go with it, and the details of her romance with Jeremy.
Kai frowned as she explained the details of their failed relationship. “Jeremy sounds like an idiot.”
A brilliant smile erupted on Jessie’s lips. “Yes, yes he is.”
As they ate, Kai talked about things in his life that Jessie didn’t know about—his friends back home, being an only child with divorced parents, why he loved his work so much and what he hoped to accomplish with it, the few not very serious relationships that he’d had, most of them ending amicably, unlike her and Jeremy.
After their long lunch, Jessie felt like she’d been around Kai her entire life. He just fit into every section of who she was, and she couldn’t imagine not having him around now. As odd as it seemed, since he’d only been in the city a little over a week, it was difficult for her to imagine a time when he hadn’t been around. Jessie wasn’t sure why that was, and she was both comforted and disturbed by the revelation. Especially since she knew their tight bond was about to get a lot looser. Kai had a date with April next Saturday. And then there was Missy. Jessie still wasn’t sure just what their relationship entailed. Maybe her bond with him wasn’t as tight as she believed. Maybe, like Jeremy, Kai was hiding things from her too.
The thought had her feeling melancholy when Kai eventually dropped her off at her house. Jessie was sullen when she got off her bike and removed her helmet. She tried to hide the sadness, but she was suddenly drowning in doubt about Kai’s honesty. And to be honest with herself, she was extremely disappointed that their afternoon was over. She didn’t want him to see that though, didn’t want him to notice the tears pricking her eyes, so she left her head down and let her hair hide her face.
“Thanks for the ride, Kai. I’ll talk to you later.”
With that brief goodbye, she spun around so she could make a beeline for the door. She just wanted to hide out in her room, where she was going to spend at least an hour listening to depressing music. But Kai wasn’t going to let that happen. He grabbed her elbow as she spun away from him. Stopping, she reluctantly looked back. His expression concerned, he whispered, “Jessie? What’s wrong?”