Let Me Fly (5 page)

“Ewww,” Bryn stuck out her tongue, shaking her head and making a disgusted face as she turned to go back up the stairs. “That’s gross.”

Corey had already made it down to his Honda. “Oh, you love me and you know it. Now get moving, bitch. I’ll drop you off at the restaurant before I head to the shop.”

Bryn flipped him the bird as she opened the door. Dropping her purse onto the kitchen island, she pulled her phone off the charger, throwing it into her purse. Bryn remembered Corey reminding her of all the date appropriate things she should have in her purse.
Condoms
. Bryn only had two serious relationships in college, losing her virginity to the first one, losing her heart to the second one. Men were a serious pain in the ass, but that didn’t mean Bryn liked being celibate. She owned a vibrator, thinking that would be enough to keep her somewhat satisfied. As Bryn stood in the kitchen thinking about condoms, sex, and vibrators, she could feel her insides tighten as moisture seeped into her panties. Damn it, she was wound so tight she was going to explode. Bryn quickly walked to the bathroom, pulling out two condoms from the box under the sink, and shoved them into her purse.

Resolving her nerve, Bryn pulled the shoulder strap of her purse over her arm, storming back out the front door. She practically flew down the stairs, two at a time to get to Corey. He had just lit a cigarette, smoke rolling out his mouth and nose.

“All right Corey, I will have dinner with him
and then
I will see where it goes,” holding up her hands to halt his impending speech, “I know, you don’t approve, but I gotta do this. I will text you a few times, and I promise I won’t go home with him. I need to do this, Corey.” Bryn walked the rest of the way over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, slipping her thumbs into the loops on his jeans. He tensed as she laid her head against his chest. “I didn’t say I was going to let him fuck me in the parking lot, Corey. I just said I wanted to, I don’t know, maybe get to know him. Talk, or whatever.” Corey remained silent, so Bryn continued, “Let me do this, I wanna at least try. You can’t protect me forever.”

Corey released the breath that he was holding and flicked his smoke to the ground. Pulling her back, he pinned her with his menacing glare. His voice was hoarse when he finally did speak, “Okay, baby girl. But if he hurts you in any way, I swear to God that I will put him six feet under, and you will visit me every day in jail. Got that?”

Bryn gave him her most flirty smile, batting her eye lashes as she said, “Yup, but we need to go. I’m gonna be late now.”

Corey gave her a playful push backwards. “Get your ass in the car; let’s get you to Dr. Hottie.”

“That was so lame, Corey,” Bryn giggled as he got into the passenger seat of his Honda. “You really need to work on your material.”

Bryn pushed through the door of the restaurant exactly 10 minutes late. Not wanting to look around the restaurant, she casually stepped past the hostess station, walking over to the bar. Pulling out the first available seat, Bryn plopped down in the high backed chair, swiveling to face the bar.

“You here with someone, cutie?”

Bryn let her shoulders droop to show her irritation before she turned around to lay into whoever had used the horrible come-on. There in front of her was Adonis himself, bed tousled dark hair, face clean-shaven, and piercing blue-green eyes. He had changed into a gray V-neck t-shirt that must have been a size too small, showing off his chiseled muscles, and a black fitted sports coat. Dark frayed jeans completed his look, with uber cool Polo boots. He was the absolute perfect “Dr. Hottie.”

“Dr. Glynn,” Bryn sighed dreamily, sounding like a high school girl with a crush. “I mean, Charlie, you look…nice.” She wanted to say hot, but didn’t have the nerve.

Charlie turned her chair so that she was facing the bar. He stood slightly to her right, the front of his body flush with her side. Placing his arms on either side of the chair, he gripped the bar, caging her in. A burst of breath tickled her neck as he spoke, “I thought you were going to stand me up, Bryn.”

A shiver erupted across her skin, leaving tingles in its wake. He was standing so close, she could smell his cologne, fresh, light and vaguely reminding her of a mojito. His demeanor had changed from earlier in the day, making him seem darker, and dangerous.

Bryn could sense her nerve endings rapidly firing, as she tried to maintain her composure. She closed her eyes, taking a steadying breath, but failed in calming herself. All she had done was add gasoline to the slow fire burn inside her body, making her shiver with desire. Being pinned to the bar by his masculine frame was not helping either. She needed to be able to see his eyes, to gauge his emotions. Bryn tried to turn to read his face. What she met were soft, wet lips, slowly brushing back and forth across hers. Feeling left her body except for the places where their bodies touched. Leaning in to deepen the contact, Charlie let go of his hold on the bar, letting her turn further into his body. He pushed his hands through her hair, cupping her jaw. He pulled back from the kiss, resting his forehead against hers.

“Damn it, woman. You’re killing me.” He let go of her face, stepping back to let her off the barstool. Sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he stuck his elbow out, encouraging her to slip her arm through his.

“Let’s eat before we give the whole restaurant a show.”

Bryn curled her lips in a smirk, shaking her head in disbelief at what she had just done. But damn, did it feel good.

B
ryn and Charlie enjoyed a delightful dinner on the front deck of the restaurant, in the cool evening breeze. The sexual tension had dissipated into playful banter as they talked about life in general and Charlie’s family. Originally from Ohio, he had just finished his residency in Milwaukee, ending up in Amulet by the luck of the draw. His parents still lived in Ohio, and all three of his younger sisters stayed close by. His father was a doctor, and his mother a therapist, both still practicing. He talked about having to pretty much raise his sisters once he was in high school. Bryn talked very little about her family, diverting the conversation when he asked her questions about them.

“Dinner was delicious, Charlie. Thank you.” Bryn felt her phone vibrating in her pocket, startling her.

“You better send him a text to let him know you are ok, Bryn. His name’s Corey, right?”

Bryn shot him a curious stare, “How did you know that I was texting him?”

“I have three sisters that I took care of while they were dating. I made them call me every hour when out on a date. Brotherly protection is what I call it.”

“Corey’s not my brother. He’s my best friend. I don’t have any brothers.”

“Ahh,” he said, sitting back in his chair, crossing his feet over each other. He carefully laced his fingers together, placing them in his lap.

“Sisters?”

“One, younger, Sara.”

He nodded his head, trying to encourage her to continue. When the silence stretched on, he shook his head, grinning like a cat that ate the canary. “Don’t trust me yet, or do you usually keep yourself this locked up?”

Bryn straightened her spine, taking a deep breath. Corey’s words were haunting her as she debated with herself.
Most rapists don’t have a flashing sign on their foreheads that say “psychopath.”

He has been nothing but a gentleman, Bryn. Knock it off!

The butterflies in her stomach were starting to make her feel nauseous. She had to get control over this situation, before she panicked.
Deep breath. Ok. Good. Now say what you want to say.

“I don’t really want to talk about my family, Charlie. I would really like to go for a ride. I assume you drove your bike?”

“Of course. Some little hothead told me today that a bike shouldn’t be holed up in a garage. I decided to heed her advice.”

Bryn grinned at his attempt at levity, “Nice, but we need to ride up to Corey’s shop first. He will have a coronary if he knew I left the restaurant with you.”

“Text him first to tell him that we are on our way, he works at Double M over in Hamilton, right? We will be there in 15 minutes.”

“Yes, we both work there,” she said as she rose from her chair. Charlie motioned with his hand for her to walk off the deck of the restaurant first. His hand rested in the small of her back, warming her skin through her thin cotton shirt. Choosing her simple red shirt with the oval cut out in the back, pairing it with her dark skinny jeans and black loafers. Sexy, but yet not overly provocative. She relaxed, feeling his body heat as he pulled her closer to his side; his lips lightly kissed her temple.

“Wait here, I forgot something in the restaurant.” He didn’t wait for her to respond as strode to the front door of the restaurant. Quickly he came back out holding two helmets and a leather jacket over his arms.

“I didn’t want any more excuses.” He set both the helmets down on the sidewalk, holding the jacket out for her to slip on. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he spun her around to zip up the coat. He reached down to grab both helmets, handing her the bright red carbon fiber-f face helmet, with the remains of a price tag still attached to the chinstrap. Bryn smiled at his thoughtfulness, realizing that there was very little chance that this man had malicious intentions. Now, she just needed to show Corey. Otherwise, her chance to finish what she and Charlie started earlier in the restaurant was shot to hell.

It didn’t take long to reach the chop shop in Hamilton. Bryn had tensed up more than once on the ride over, but Charlie could sense her panic, gently grabbing her left hand and squeezing it when she was gripping his waist harder than necessary. When they got to the Hamilton city limits, he had moved his left hand off the handlebar, resting it on her knee for a moment, stroking back and forth. He gently patted her leg, and then put his hand back on the handlebar. Bryn leaned with him as they eased into the parking lot at Double M Harleys. Of course, Corey stood out front with his hands on his hips, pacing back and forth like a caged animal.

Bryn could hear him yelling before she even removed her helmet. “What the fuck do you think you are doing, man?”

Charlie dismounted the bike quickly, slipping his helmet off his head. Holding out his hand to help Bryn, she waved it off, placing both of her hands on the driver seat, popping herself backwards over the rear tire. Charlie gave her a lopsided grin, as he meandered over to where Corey was pacing.

“Corey, Bryn asked me to go for a ride tonight, and I would be grateful if you could lower your guns. I get that you feel like Bryn’s protector, but you need to trust that I have no ill-fated intentions towards her. Back. The. Fuck. Off.” They stood toe to toe with each other, both men glaring. The posturing was enough to make Bryn roll her eyes. Obviously, they were going to continue this stare down until she knocked some sense in to them both.

“Ok, take it down a notch or two please, both of you,” awkwardly stepping in between them, pushing Corey towards the front door to the office. “Enough of this shit. Corey, let’s go inside and we can talk.”

Corey stood his ground, finally grabbing Bryn’s hand, pulling her into the office. Once inside, he turned his back to her, clutching the door handle. The muscles in his arm twitched as he stood there frozen for a few seconds. Bryn couldn’t see Corey’s face, but she could hear the crack in his voice when he shot out a series of questions that must have been plaguing his mind, “Did you tell him about your issues with riding pairs on a bike? How did you make it over here? Do you trust him, Bryn? Do you want me to back off this guy?”

Bryn sighed before answering, “No, I didn’t tell him about my panic attacks. I seemed okay riding this far with him. I trust him enough to know he won’t hurt me, Corey. I love it that you are always there to take care of me, but I do think it is time that I started to stand on my own two feet.” Bryn put her hand on his back, trying to soothe him, “Besides, you need to start dating again, too, Corey.”

“Hmph,” was Corey’s only reply. “Alright, baby girl, but I want to talk with Dr. Hottie,
alone
.” The menacing way that he said “alone” made her nervous about his intentions, but she didn’t leave the office.