Page 42 of Clear Shot

His SUV should be fine since it’s an underground garage, and the apartment is closed up tight. It feels a little weird to be leaving the place I’m just starting to consider home and I pause for a moment, staring at the framed picture of us I’d taken such pains to put on the shelf. He hasn’t noticed, or chose not to acknowledge it, and it’s a little bit of a bummer.

“You okay?” Aiden asks, glancing over at me.

“Yup. Let’s go.” I follow him into the hallway and down to the garage.

We get on his Harley Davidson and he pulls into traffic.

It’s a gorgeous day, with a blue sky and a light breeze. Humidity is low too, so it’s perfect for riding.

“Can we take the long way?” I yell. “I just need a few extra minutes of sunshine and the wind in my face.”

He grins and nods. “Fuck yeah.”

He guns it, taking off down the street and turning east.

Toward the beach.

That’s the cool thing about our current situation—we were friends first. So even though we’re in a complicated phase of things, we know each other pretty well. He knows I love the beach, being on the back of his bike, and Chinese food. He knows my paternal grandmother stepped in to help raise us after our mother died, and we’ve even talked about the reasons I don’t want to go back to Slovakia.

He knows me on a different level than most men I’ve dated, even serious boyfriends I’ve had.

Because Aiden is different.

I knew it the moment we met, which is why I took great pains not to sleep with him. And I really wanted to. Luckily, he understood the complexity of our situation with me beinghis teammate’s sister and the potential geographical distance between us.

So being friends felt okay. Normal. Easy.

Marrying him felt easy too.

Until now.

Now I’m struggling because I want him.

I want more than just a marriage that affords me access to a visa.

And I think he wants that too.

He just doesn’t want the same future as I do—and that’s something we may not be able to fix.

“Hang on,” he yells, as he pulls onto A1A and guns the engine. We lurch forward and my arms tighten around him.

God, I fucking love this.

I close my eyes and put everything out of my mind, allowing myself to just…feel.

The rumble of the engine vibrating between my legs.

The wind whipping across my face and arms.

Aiden’s warm, muscular body pressed to mine.

A stolen moment in time that belongs to just us.

Me and my husband.

Aiden and me.

It’s getting dark so street lights are on, but I barely see them as we zip past. Traffic is light, probably because everyone has already found a place to hunker down for the storm, so this is truly a special moment.