Perfekt Order (The Ære Saga Book 1) (13 page)

Stupid, stupid deer.

I’d just have to let my roommates know dinner
was going to be delayed while I changed my tire. I rifled through
my purse until my fingers wrapped around my phone. When I pulled it
out, I made the underwhelming discovery that this particular
section of wooded road had no cell reception.

Well, wasn’t that just the berries.

I fumbled with the door and stepped out of my
car, gearing up to change the flat, but before I even reached the
back of the car, I stopped in my tracks. My jack wasn’t in the
trunk. It was in the garage, where I’d left it after I’d cleaned
it. It was all muddy from my mid-rainstorm-tire-change on the drive
to California, so I’d scrubbed it down and forgotten to return it
to my car. I climbed back into the Audi and fought the impulse to
cry. For somebody with impeccable attention to detail, this kind of
slip-up was unacceptable.

My cheek sought solace on the steering wheel,
and I closed my eyes. I was psyching myself up for the two-mile
walk home when I a knock at my window made me jump. I turned my
head and opened one eye.

This was just not my day.

A vision in a black leather jacket winked at
me. Casually disheveled hair, pale pink lips, the square jawline
with more than a hint of stubble because he couldn’t possibly be
bothered with something as trivial as shaving when he had a
drop-dead gorgeous “best friend” to entertain.

The berries, the berries, the berries.

My finger tapped a button, lowering the
window. “Stop following me. It’s creepy.”

“Need some help?” Tyr tilted his head, barely
contained laughter brimming from irritatingly beautiful eyes.

My head met the steering wheel.
Hard
.
The ensuing honk made me jump. “Go away.”

“And leave you stranded? What kind of
gentleman would that make me?”

“You’re no gentleman.” I didn’t bother
looking up. The day couldn’t get any worse, so I decided to tackle
the Tyr situation head on. Running away hadn’t gotten me far.
Thanks a lot, deer.
“Why didn’t you ever call me?” It
shouldn’t have bothered me so much. I fought to remember which of
Jason’s adages applied here. Two runs does not a relationship make…
or something.

“Because.” Tyr chuckled. “You never gave me
your number.”

I didn’t?

“And besides, I’m trying to do right by you.
You might be the kind of person bunnies follow around the forest,
but I’m definitely not. If you knew the
skit
I bring to the
table, you’d avoid me like the plague.”

I sized Tyr up with a steady look. “Maybe.
Maybe not. I’m tougher than you think I am.”

“Mmm.” Tyr reached out as if he was going to
touch my cheek, but he pulled his hand back so quickly I barely
registered the movement.

“I am,” I insisted, cringing at how pathetic
I sounded. As my fingers inched for the window switch, Tyr’s hand
shot out to cover mine. Electricity prickled up my arm, making me
jump. Tyr’s lips parted slightly, and he withdrew his touch,
looking drawing a shaky breath.

“Look, Mia—” Tyr began.

“Please, stop. I just want to go home and
cook dinner.” I opened the door and stepped out of the car. My heel
sunk into the mud, and I nearly fell over trying to wrench it free.
Tyr put his hands on my hips to steady me, and that heat shot
through me again. It settled in my abdomen, a warm pulse radiating
down to my thighs. My eyes widened, and I looked up at him. He
stared down at me with an expression that bordered on nervous, and
quickly dropped his hands.
What in the world does he have to be
afraid of?

“I can take care of myself. Now if you’ll
excuse me…” I faltered. My mind told me I needed space from this
guy to clear my head; to stop thinking about him; to figure out
what was right for
me
when it came to Tyr, since he was
clearly doing what worked for
him
. But my heart was afraid
that if I walked away, I’d never be this close to him again. And
for some irrational reason, the thought of being away from Tyr made
my heart ache.

What is wrong with me?

As I pondered my illogical vulnerability,
something snapped inside of Tyr. His eyes were hard now, his voice
cool. “If you had any idea what was really going on, you’d let me
drive you home. You don’t always have to be so stubborn.”

Whoa.

I leaned back on one heel, jutting my hip out
to the side and folding my arms across my chest. “Well then,
enlighten me. What’s
really
going on? Because you’ve done a
whole lot of talking without saying anything that makes a lick of
sense. The way I see it, what’s
really
going on is some
overbearing guy who somehow manages to avoid me whenever it suits
him, and show up everywhere I go when I
don’t
want to see
him, is keeping me from cooking a really delicious dinner.”

I reached into the front seat and grabbed my
purse and the bag of groceries, then slammed the door and stomped
past Tyr, bumping him with my shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he
asked.

“Home.” One of my roommates could give me a
ride back to my car—with my jack—in the morning.

“It’s two miles away. You’re wearing
heels.”

“I’m aware.” I stomped down the dirt shoulder
with my head held high.

And then I stepped in another hole.

My ankle burned from the painful twist. My
purse slipped off my arm and my groceries flew out of my bag as I
launched forward. But before I hit the dirt, solid arms wrapped
around me. Tyr held on tight and set me gently on my feet. I tried
to step away but he didn’t let go. His arms circled my waist from
behind, and he rested his chin on the top of my head. I leaned into
him and tested the weight on my ankle. It hurt, but it would be
okay.

My cheeks seared as I realized the position
I’d put myself in. Tyr’s chest was hard against my back, and my
stomach was white-hot where his forearms were wrapped around me. I
rested my head against Tyr’s torso and closed my eyes, breathing in
his woodsy smell.

“Let me take you home,” he murmured into my
hair. “You can’t walk on that ankle.”

I snapped back to reality. At the moment I
might have been in his arms, but he had a
baben
waiting for
him at home. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

“It’s just a ride, Mia. What’s the big
deal?”

The big deal was I felt way more than I
should for a guy who’d made it abundantly clear he just wasn’t that
into me. And whom I barely knew.

I stepped out of his arms and turned around,
and my ankle wobbled. Darn it. He was right. I couldn’t walk home.
“Fine,” I caved. “You may drive me home.”

“Gee, thanks.” Tyr propped me against my car
and bent to pick up the groceries and purse I’d dropped when I
fell. He fastened them to the back of his bike, then took his
helmet off his handlebars and set it on top of my head. “Wear this.
You need it more than I do.”

“Harrumph.”

Tyr scooped me up in his arms and set me on
the back of the motorcycle. He swung one long leg over the seat,
and settled in front of me. “Hold on to my chest.”

“No thanks,” I muttered. Being this close to
him without actually
being close
to him was painful enough.
If there truly wasn’t going to be anything between us, I didn’t
need to know how good it felt to be snuggled against him. No point
making things harder than they already were.

“Safety first, Mia.” Tyr turned to face me.
“If you don’t hold on, you’ll fall off. Have you ever ridden on a
motorcycle before?”

“No,” I admitted. The helmet made my voice
sound funny.

“Then it’s doubly important you hold me.
We’re not that far from your place, and I can go slow, but for the
love of Odin, don’t fall off the bike to prove some point. Last
thing I need is you getting hurt again.”

Well, when he put it like that…

Tyr turned around and brought the steel beast
to life. I flung my arms around him at the sound of the engine, and
tried not to moan at the way his stomach muscles tensed under my
arms, or the way his chest vibrated in a sigh when I touched him.
He was probably going on a date after he’d dropped me off, where
he’d laugh about this whole thing with Freya. I didn’t need to
embarrass myself any more.

Tyr wrapped one hand around mine, squeezing
so I held him even tighter. Then he gently eased the motorcycle
onto the road. I rested my helmet against his back and closed my
eyes, feeling the vibrations of the bike through my body all the
way to my skull, and ignoring the panic I should have felt at
riding what my mother referred to as a “death trap.” Being on Tyr’s
motorcycle didn’t feel dangerous. It felt good—my body pressed
against Tyr’s, the engine thrumming beneath my legs. It was easy to
imagine this was our normal, that we rode together and touched and
hung out and laughed. In this one moment, everything between us
felt right.

But it was only one ride, and it was only one
moment. Tyr wasn’t mine, and he probably never would be. Too
quickly, he eased the bike onto Daffodil Drive. He pulled to a stop
in front of my house, and I reluctantly released my grip on his
abs. Tyr climbed off, lifted the helmet from my head and placed it
on the handlebar, and scooped me up in one arm. My cheeks burned as
he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear without a word, then held
my grocery bag and purse in his free hand. He walked up my front
path, without moving to put me down.

“It’s okay, I can—uh, I can walk,” I
stammered. He hadn’t stopped staring at me, and his proximity was
overwhelming. Every nerve in my body pinged to attention.

“We’ll see about that.” Tyr’s voice sounded
as shaky as I felt. He waited until we reached the porch before
lowering me to my feet. He didn’t take his hand off my waist as I
put weight on my ankle. “You need me to call a healer?”

“In America we call them doctors. And I think
it’ll be fine.” I drew a wobbly breath and took my bags from his
arm. “Uh, thank you for the ride. You’ve probably got stuff to do,
so…”

“Yeah.” Tyr’s eyes darted to the street.
“Well, if you need anything else, I’m around.”

“Okay.” I watched as Tyr walked backwards to
the curb. He climbed on his bike and lowered his helmet over his
head, without seeming to break eye contact. After half a minute, he
nodded. He revved the engine and took off down the street, leaving
a trail of rubber in his wake, and a hollow feeling in my gut.

****

“Sorry again about the late dinner,” I
apologized to my housemates. Being kept waiting was one of my pet
peeves; I felt awful doing it to anyone else.

“Stop apologizing.” Charlotte dabbed the
corner of her mouth with a napkin. “Wow, that was delicious, as
always.”

“I’m glad you liked it. Hey, would anyone be
willing to drop me off at my car on the way to school tomorrow?
I’ve got a spare tire in the trunk, I just need to grab my jack out
of the garage so I can change it.” I folded my napkin and put it
next to my plate.

“
Självklart
.” Brynn nodded. We stared.
“Of course,” she translated. Then she passed a plate of brownies;
my mea culpa for the late meal. “Oh, I forgot! Henrik’s other
exterminator guy called. He has an opening this weekend, but we’re
going to have to stay somewhere else while he works. I guess he’s
some kind of a rat whisperer, and he needs all the human energy out
of the house so he can communicate with the rats and trap them
humanely before he ushers them to their new home.”

“You hear the words as you’re saying them,
right?” I asked.

“He
communicates
with
rats
?”
Heather stared. “And I thought Portland people were weird.”

Brynn shrugged. “It sounds crazy, but Henrik
says the guy’s good. Honest.”

“Well, if Henrik says it’s true…” Charlotte
giggled.

Brynn put a hand on her hip. “Do you guys
want the rats gone or not?”

“Gone.” Heather and I spoke in unison.

“Good. So prepare to clear out tomorrow
afternoon. The rat guy says we can come back Sunday.”

“It takes two days to clear out bad rat
juju?” Heather snickered.

Brynn raised an eyebrow. “If you want your
private study space back, I suggest you stop mocking the rat
guy.”

Heather held up her hands. “Fair enough. I
turned in my paper, so I’m heading to San Francisco with Charlotte
this weekend anyway. I’ve never been.”

“You two are still welcome to come with us,”
Charlotte offered.

I shook my head. “Thanks for the offer, but I
can’t. I have a lit paper due on Monday. I need the library this
weekend. Maybe I’ll just stay at a hotel.”

“Don’t be silly.” Brynn waved her hand.
“Henrik said he’d be happy to have us both. He owes me,
anyway.”

“That’s okay. I’ll find something else.”
Brynn didn’t need me getting in the way of whatever might be going
on between them. Another Jason-ism—
two’s company, three’s a
crowd
. And there was no way I wanted to spend two nights in
Tyr’s house.

“You don’t really have a choice,” Charlotte
pointed out. “The Antiques Festival is this weekend. All the hotels
in town have been booked out for weeks.”

“And by ‘all the hotels,’ you mean both of
the hotels.” Brynn fingered a blond curl. “I love this little
place.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Seriously,” Charlotte confirmed. “But you
really are welcome to come with Heather and me. San Francisco’s
gorgeous this time of year. Some days are actually sunny.”

“I’d love to, but I have to work on my
paper.” I bit the inside of my cheek while I imagined staying out
of Cupid’s way for two days. Shouldn’t be that difficult, since
Cupid clearly had no problem steering clear of me. And without
another viable option, I really didn’t have much of a choice. “Are
you sure the guys won’t mind if I stay at their place?”