Tristan flew through the streets of SoHo, weaving through traffic at sixty miles an hour as I covered my eyes and silently prayed for my life. Maybe this wasn't a good idea.
"Are you going to keep your eyes closed the whole time?"
I opened my fingers and peeked through just in time to see us swerve around a cab and quickly closed them again. "Yes. The whole time, which will probably be about another minute at this speed."
"C'mon, open them up. You're safe. I won't let anything happen."
Slowly, I lowered my hands to my lap and worked hard not to dig my fingernails into my legs. I wasn't usually this uncool, but then again, I wasn't usually racing through the city at top speeds in a car that likely cost more than Jordan and I combined made in a year.
Tristan's Jaguar rode like it was gliding on air. The body hugging black leather seat may have been more comfortable than any piece of furniture I'd ever sat in. A soothing blue glow emanated from the dash, which was full of knobs and buttons around a center touchscreen. I may not ever have cared much about cars, but even I knew this was top shelf.
"Nice car. Do you always drive it like you plan to wreck it?"
As he swerved to miss a car stopped in front of us, he said, "Drive it like you stole it, right?"
Looking around the inside of the car, I wondered out loud, "You didn't steal it, did you?"
Tristan let out a deep laugh that sounded like it came all the way from his toes. "You're funny, Nina. Nothing like you were back there during the show."
"Back there I was working. My boss pays me to be serious." I stopped and chuckled. "Well, actually, she pays me to be like her personal slave."
"I knew there was something more to you than the pretty girl who served the drinks and disgusting little hot dogs."
God, he was sexy! There was something about the way words slid from his mouth when he spoke that made me want to beg him to stop the car so I could press my lips to his.
I turned to look at him and his strong jaw caught my attention. Even from the side, he was gorgeous. Relaxed for the first time since the car had begun moving, I joked, "I'll have you know those cocktail weenies are a big hit."
He turned his head and smiled a sexy grin. "I bet they are."
While my gaze slid down over his torso and I noticed how perfectly his shirt lay on his body, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a road sign as we sped past it. I-95? "Uh, I think you're going the wrong way. The Cross Bronx Expressway doesn't go anywhere near my house."
He shifted into third gear and hit the gas, pushing me back against the seat. "Guess you should have been paying attention instead of hiding behind your hands."
Fear raced through my body. Was he serious? "Are you kidnapping me? I mean, this feels a little bit like kidnapping since you obviously aren't taking me home."
That I sounded ridiculous and a man like him probably didn't have to kidnap women didn't occur to me in my fear. Women likely pleaded with him to take them anywhere.
"I don't think they'd call this kidnapping," he teased. "Maybe if you were tied up or at least had a gag in your mouth."
"Please take me home, Tristan. We're nowhere near my house and you're scaring me."
My hands began to get sweaty at the real fear that I had made a terrible mistake. I didn't know this man, and no matter how infatuated I'd been with him just hours before, he had total control of me at that moment, something very frightening.
Still speeding toward God knows where, he took his hands off the steering wheel and held them up in front of him. "If you want to go home, take the wheel and turn the car around."
I frantically grabbed the wheel and the car jerked to the right, racing off to the side of the road. I panicked, turned it to the left, overcompensating, and screamed in terror as we began to spin out. Then everything before my eyes went black.
The car rolled to a stop on the shoulder and I heard him say my name in a soft voice. "Nina. Nina, it's okay. We're okay."
I looked around at the car and him and saw he was telling the truth. We hadn't crashed and I was still alive. Adrenaline coursed through my body, and my hands began to shake uncontrollably. Suddenly, I was overcome with emotion and lashed out at him as tears began to roll down my cheeks. "You're crazy! You're fucking crazy! You could have killed me!"
My crying startled him, and for just a moment he didn't possess that cool exterior he'd worn since the first moment I'd seen him. His brows knitted, as if he were in pain, and he leaned in toward me to press his forehead to mine. He cradled my face in his hands, instantly exciting me. Closing my eyes to mask my discomfort, I heard him say, "We only know how precious life is when he come close to death, Nina."
He sat back in his seat, and I turned to look at him, my emotions all a jumble. "Why did you want me to come with you tonight? Why did you come find me? I'm not like those women who were around you at the show. Why me?"
"Those women don't interest me. If they did, I could have any one of dozens right now."
Oddly, that made me jealous. I didn't even know this man, but the idea of him with anyone else bothered me.
Fighting back my insecurities, I said, "Maybe they like it when you nearly kill them, but I don't. Most ordinary women like me don't."
He stared straight ahead into the night and started the car again. "Don't underestimate yourself, Nina. You're anything but ordinary."
In truth, I didn't think I was ordinary, but it was nice to hear from someone other than yourself sometimes. My cheeks warmed at his compliment, making me happy the inside of the car was dim. He didn't need to think I was as infatuated with him as I already was.
Full of fake bravado, I said, "You have no idea what I am. And where the hell are we going?"
"I want to show you something. This is going to take a few, so why don't you enlighten me as to what you are," he said with a smile that made an ache form in the pit of my stomach.
"Isn't it a little presumptuous of you to think I have no plans? It is a Saturday night."
He didn't seem bothered by the idea that I had plans or even had a boyfriend. I had neither, but he couldn't know that.
Turning his head to face me, he looked at me with those soulful brown eyes. "Do you have plans?" he asked with an innocence that made me smile.
I didn't want to admit that I, a young, available, attractive New York woman, had no plans whatsoever on a Saturday night. I mean, I could have had plans. There were men interested in me. Just not anyone I was interested in being interested in me.