Golden Lies - Barbara Freethy [97]
He motioned for her to follow as he cut across the Embarcadero toward a residential area. The hills of San Francisco called to him like a beacon in the night. But Paige's voice yanked him back. He stopped his bike and looked over his shoulder at her. "What's the problem now?"
"We're not riding up that hill, are we?" she asked in disbelief.
"Sure we are."
She shook her head. "It's too steep. I'll never make it."
It wasn't nearly as steep as the next one, but he wasn't about to tell her that. "I thought you wanted to find out what you were made of."
"By riding a bicycle up a hill?"
"It's a test of your strength, courage, stamina, stubbornness. You can do it."
"I don't think so."
He saw the uncertainty in her pretty brown eyes and knew that she needed to do this for herself. "You're stronger than you think, Paige."
"This isn't going to prove anything."
"Try it and see."
"I don't like to fail."
He smiled. "So don't fail." He sent her an encouraging look. "It's not a test if it's too easy."
"Who said I wanted to take a test?"
"Fine. I'm going up this hill with or without you. Your choice."
"That's not very gentlemanly."
He laughed. "I thought you'd figured out by now that I am not a gentleman."
"You're not a very good date, either. I can think of a lot of other things that would be more fun than this."
"You haven't even tried it yet. And this isn't a date." He turned his head toward the hill in front of them. He drew in a deep breath and counted to ten. Then he got on his bike and pedaled hard, wanting to get as much speed as possible for the ascent. He heard Paige muttering to herself and saw from the corner of his eye that she was on the bike and riding after him.
So far so good. He just hoped she really could make it up the hill. Maybe she was too pampered, too spoiled, too weak for such a challenge, and maybe he was a fool, wanting to believe she was someone she wasn't.
* * *
Paige knew she'd passed the insanity mark when her legs began to burn and her chest tightened with each breath. She was only hallway up the hill; there was no way she would make it. She wasn't in shape for this. She should have trained, prepared, worked up to it. But wasn't that what she'd spent the last thirteen years doing at Hathaway's: training, preparing, but never actually doing? At least here she was being aggressive, taking a chance.
But it hurt.
And damn Riley. He was already at the top, off his bike, watching her, waiting for her. He shouted words of encouragement.
If he believed in her, maybe she needed to believe in herself. So she told herself to focus, keep pedaling, and don't even think about quitting.
"Come on, Paige. A few more feet," Riley yelled.
The last part was very steep. She really didn't think she could do it. Her eyes were glazing over from sweat or terror or exhaustion, she didn't know which. The road was wavy, the bike was wobbling, her hands were beginning to cramp from her grip on the handlebars.
"You're almost there, Paige. Bring it home!"
Her heart pounded against her chest as she forced her feet down again and again and again, until she hit the top and the ground flattened.
"Keep riding, Paige, take a circle around the intersection," Riley said.
She wanted to get off the bike the way he'd done, but she needed to bring her heart rate down to a safer level. She knew that much from her cardio classes at the gym. So she took a wide circle around the quiet intersection, finally returning to his side, her breath still ragged but her heart slowing to a more reasonable beat.
His smile was her reward. It was big and broad and totally amazed. She couldn't help smiling back. And when he tossed his bike on the ground and held out his arms to her, she slid off her bike and ran to him.
She threw her arms around his neck. "I did it," she said with more joy than she could ever remember feeling.
He hugged her tight and hard, as if he didn't want to let her go. They were both hot