My jaw drops with shock, then a laugh bubbles out of me before I can stop it. Declan joins me after a few seconds, his deep chuckle mingling with mine in the air.

“I’m glad you aren’t upset about it,” he says.

I purse my lips. “I mean, I am a little miffed I didn’t get dinner.”

Declan grins, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Yeah, sorry. I should probably make that up to you. Can I take you somewhere a little less busy?”

Something about the way he’s looking at me—like I’m the only person in the world worth seeing—makes it impossible to refuse.

“Okay,” I whisper. “What were you thinking of?”

“I’ve heard about this great local bar not too far from here that I think you’ll like. Want to give it a shot?”

“As long as they have good food, I won’t say no. I’m starving.”

He smiles. “Then follow me.”

We walk to where his bike is parked down the street, and he puts his helmet on my head, grinning as he pulls it on. Then he climbs on and looks over at me expectantly, jerking his chin in invitation for me to get on the bike too. I swallow, my heartbeat picking up a little as I lift one leg over the bike, settling into place behind him.

My body presses against his, my thighs resting against his thick, muscled ones, and I let out a slow breath as I wrap my arms around his waist. I can’t believe I’m doing this. It’s kind of reckless, and I know it is—not riding the bike, but doing it with Declan.

But part of me is getting tired of caring about that.

I’ve spent so long being the responsible one, the careful one. Just once, I want to follow where my heart leads instead of my head.

There are plenty of people around who could’ve recognized one of us or seen us leaving together, but I’m hoping they were too distracted by the restaurant’s sudden closure to have noticed. But even if they did and the word somehow got back to my dad, I could always just tell him that Declan was there too and offered me a ride home to be nice.

“You okay?” Declan asks, twisting around to look at me over his shoulder.

I smile and nod at him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just having a hard time believing this happened tonight,” I say, gesturing around us to encompass… well, everything.

He chuckles warmly and turns the key in the ignition to start the bike, making it rumble to life beneath us. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you back to pick up your car when we’re done. Like I said, we aren’t going far.”

“Does that mean this was all part of your plan too?”