Caught in the middle

Ch 8

Joshua's POV
We watch Chris and Kaye head out the front door. Not exactly what I anticipated happening tonight but if they're having fun, to hell with it. I pull the bar stool out and motion for Kai to sit  and sit on the stool next to her. There is no way I'm letting her drive her car, she's too intoxicated and I wont leave my bike down here overnight. There's no way I can take her on my bike right now either. So we wait. I motion for the bartender to come over and ask for two waters.
"Mhhh, probably a good idea. I can't drive yet. It's going to take me a while to be ok to drive." She muses.
I whip my head towards her. "Kai. You're not going to be ok to drive by bar close in 45 minutes. I'll give you a ride." She smiles coyly, more a smirk while she tosses her hair over her shoulder.
She scoffs. "A ride? On your Black Death trap on two wheels? Are you serious? No. If anything, you can drive my car and take me home. Leave my keys in the car and I'll come get it in the morning."
"My bike will not be left on Main Street on a Friday night overnight. We'll sober you up. I'll give you a ride. I'll give you a ride back to your car in the morning. I've got your keys safely tucked away. You can have them tomorrow." I remind her.
She takes a big gulp of her water, "Well I guess I better get a few more of these down then. You know. So I live to see tomorrow if you're making me go on your two wheeled death trap." Does she really think that I would let something happen to her? That she wouldn't be perfectly safe with me?
I take a drink from mine as she finished the last of her cup of water and the bartender sets another one in front of her. She downs that one too, setting it down when it's empty. "Ready?" She says, sounding slightly out of breath from her race to consume the water. She makes eye contact again. Her green eyes still glossy from her drinking. They're harder to see in the dim bar lighting than I would forget but they still my heart constrict for a beat and the blood rush to my dick. Idk when I turned into a simp but I gotta get it together.
"Ready when you are, kitten." Ready to have your body pressed against mine. Ready to have you to myself away from people. Not at all ready to have you not with me though, I'm not ready for our time tonight to end. I didn't add the rest of that though, I don't need her laughing at me already. I'll get enough of that from Chris tomorrow. I hold my hand out to her and instead of placing hers in mine, she grips my forearm to help balance herself as she stepped down. Teetering ever so slightly but not needing me to keep her right way up. The water must be doing its job.
"Lead the way boss." She smiles up at me. I turn to walk towards the back door and as I turn she slips her hand down my arm into mine and laces her fingers through mine, giving my hand a small squeeze. I glance back at her and see her still smiling, so I smile back and lead her through the people around the bar and out to my motorcycle sitting a little ways from the back door of the bar. There's a fenced area with patio furniture for the warmer months and we're getting there so a few brave people are sitting outside smoking cigarettes and socializing. I notice a few pairs of eyes linger a little too long on Kai as we pass and I pull her into my side to wrap my arm around her shoulders while keeping our finger interlocked. I feel her press herself a little closer to my side and to myself, I have to admit that it feels amazing having her so close and willingly move closer to me in front of others. Like I'm staking a claim on her. A caveman urge to bare my teeth at the people watching her expands in my chest but I simply smirk over my shoulder at them and keep walking, pulling her along with me. We round the fence and come up to my bike. I have a small seat for a passenger but nothing for longer rides right now.
I unwrap my arm from Kai's shoulders and smile apologetically at her. "When I left my place tonight I didn't really plan to have someone with me. I don't have a helmet for you. Do you trust me?"
"Trust you?" She stutters.
"Yes. Trust me. I'll keep you safe. No helmet but you're one hundred percent safe with me."
She fidgets nervously. She's fighting herself internally. She wants to but her head is telling her no. She's as tempted by me as I am by her. She wants this ride. She may not admit it or do it sober, most of tonight wouldn't have happened sober. But her inhibitions are lowered.
"Yes." She decides. She says this with more confidence than I think she feels right now.
"Let me get on and back out of the space and I'll help you on after me." I swing my leg over the motorcycle, fold the kickstand up with my boot, and start the ignition. It growls to life and I feel the vibrations of the bike through my legs and hands, instantly calming my slightly elevated heart beat. This is where I feel at home. On my bike. I back the bike up and Kai takes a step to the side so she has a little more distance between herself and the tires. I look over my shoulder and turn at the waist offering her my hand.
"It's just like getting on a bicycle or a horse.  Simple. I've got you." I tease.
She places her right hand in my hand I've offered her. With a deep breath she steps closer and places her left hand on my shoulder and swings her leg over the back of the bike and I feel her settle behind me on the seat. God this feels like heaven.
I turn my head to look at her over my shoulder. "Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be." She settles her hands on my belt and I feel her fingers lightly graze my skin where my shirt rode up with my jacket. Goosebumps race across my skin at her touch. I reach down and tap her knee to tell her to move them and flip down the pedals for her feet and tap her knee again to tell her to move both feet to them. She does as she's told. I lean ever so slightly back to feel her warmth against my back through my jacket. I take off down the alley a little faster than needed and she grips me all the way around my stomach, lacing her fingers together in front of me and squeezing on tight. I feel her tuck her head against my shoulder blade to keep her eyes out of the way from the stinging cold wind.
We ride down Main Street and I follow the curve of the west business loop leading towards where the least traffic is this time of night. There's very limited residential area up here and with how late it is, all the businesses are closed so there's minimal traffic. When I go on my drives to clear my head and just be alone with my bike and the road, I come up here and take one of the small highways out of town that loops around and connects to the truck bypass by the other end of town. Still close to town but not in town. Not as many people but not super dense with wildlife so I don't worry about animals coming out of the dark ditches as much and running in front of me. I settle into a comfortable position with Kai still wrapped around me. I feel her head move from behind my shoulder blade and she rests her chin on my shoulder so she can see where we're going.
"It's so peaceful, so calm." She says, barely audible above the wind. I just nod to tell her I hear her and I agree. We loop around the west side of town on the bypass back towards the north end of town. Her arms relax when we slow as we come to the intersection of the highway and the bypass. I take the road bordering the north side of town and aim for the east main road to take me back around towards where she lives. She hasn't told me where she lives yet, but I already know. I've silently watched her videos she puts on Snapchat of her and her friends stumbling home and laughing at each other. Of her outside with her book on her balcony reading and enjoying a drink in the early fall. Of her sun tanning in the summers. We already passed near it, one of the only apartment complexes by the west business loop. Easy to recognize. It's late and as much as I don't want to let her move away from me, I don't want her to wake up regretting tonight with a hangover to drag on for days. She needs sleep. I haven't figured out how to make that happen yet. I feel her yawn behind me and reach to my side with my left hand and place my hand on her leg, wrapping my fingers around the curve of her knee and squeezing slightly. Silently telling her I know and we're heading there.
A few minutes later we pull up to her three story white building with garages in front of it, creating an illusion of a barrier. There's a walkway between two of the garage doors that leads to the door of the building. I put my kickstand down and kill the bike. Kai doesn't loosen her hold on me at all. I squeeze her knee again and she doesn't react. I lean a little and try to look at her face. Her eyes are closed and her lips are slightly parted to show a peek of her pretty white teeth. She's asleep. Really asleep. My girl fell asleep. I chuckle and shake my head. I reach down to where her hands still grip each other around my stomach and start to gently pull them apart. As soon as I apply pressure to disentangle her hands, I feel her startle and she lifts her head from my shoulder. She sits up more straight and pulls her hands from my body.
"Oh my gosh. Where are we?" She questions. Yawning as she looks around. "My apartment. How'd you know where I lived?"
"I overheard you and Kaye mention the area and this is the only apartment complex up here. I just put two and two together." I lie. I offer her my hand to help her off behind me. She takes my offered hand and grips it tightly as she steps down and swings her other leg off the bike to stand beside me.
"Thank you." She fidgets with her hands and avoids eye contact.
"For what?"
"Tonight. For letting us join you earlier. For coming out with us after. For the ride home."
"It wasn't altruistic. Theres nothing to thank me for." She shivers as I finish talking and wraps her arms around herself. "Get yourself inside. It's cold after dark."
"Would you, uhm," she stutters. Glancing down and back up to me. "Would you come in for a while? You don't have to if you don't want to. But. If you want to, I was going to have some ice cream and watch a movie before bed. You're welcome to join me."
I pause for a second. My girl is inviting me into her space. She wants this time to continue too. She's looking for another excuse. Do I give into what her and I both want? Or deny it because she's still tipsy? We make eye contact and my reservation evaporates, seeing the light from the moon shine in her dark green eyes.
"I'd love that." I take the hand she reaches out to me and follow her under the awning that brushes the walkway through the garages towards the door to the building.