verb.
To fall back under pressure. To shrink back physically or emotionally.
noun.
The kickback of a gun upon firing.
•
It takes a stubborn mind to cling to their humanity when the world seeks to strip it away.
It takes a desperate soul to reach f...
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It was no secret to Kat that she had a few issues with control – she didn't like to be caught off-guard, to feel like she didn't have a grasp on the situations she found herself in. She liked to know where she was going, what she was doing. She liked to have her hands on the wheel, or handlebars, as was more often the case.
Oddly enough though, she didn't mind this. She didn't mind relaxing into the strong form her arms were wrapped around, letting her body shift in tandem with his, counter-balancing a turn, leaning into the breath-taking speed he could coax from the happily purring engine beneath them. She didn't mind handing over control to someone she trusted so thoroughly.
The wind whipping past her arms was cool enough to encourage her to press a little closer to the warm back in front of her, but she could still feel the sun beating down on them, promising a warm evening – wherever he was taking her. She couldn't see much, with her view mostly obscured by his broad shoulders, but it didn't take him long to leave the meandering streets of the inner city behind. It gave him the chance to really push the bike – making Kat send a silent prayer to the heavens that his repairs to the engine would hold as the accelerator roared aggressively.
He was a good driver though; she couldn't fault him on that. As with everything he seemed confident in, his motions were effortless and self-assured. He seemed comfortable, even on unfamiliar roads, with her hands clinging to his waist. Of course, she had already known that he was more than capable on the back of a bike – but she didn't doubt that this experience was infinitely more enjoyable than past ones. It was certainly warmer than Siberia anyway.
City suburbs slowly gave way to open fields around them, the traffic calming as he veered off onto quieter roads – the smooth tarmac beneath their tyres transitioning to bumpier rural tracks as Kat sat up a little, trying to guess where exactly they were. She had explored beyond the city before, but she couldn't identify any landmarks she knew. Swiftly though, it became apparent where he was taking her; as they rounded a bend and the world exploded into a riot of colour before her eyes.
"Oh my God..." She gasped aloud, feeling her fingers clasping him a little tighter as she tried to sit a little higher on the seat, trying to catch a glimpse of the fields of blooming tulips. A gloved hand closed around one of hers, steadying her as he slowed the bike to a balanced crawl.
"Shall we stop?" He called softly to her over the rumble of the bike.
"Please." She answered with a smile and a nod that he couldn't see, settling her helmeted head on the solid metal of his left shoulder as he returned his hand to the handlebars, carrying on for another few minutes before pulling over in a grassy layby. Slowly, she released her hold on him, tugging the helmet from her head and shaking her hair out as she breathed in the fresh, clean scent of the country air. "This is so beautiful..."
She could feel him looking back at her as she twisted in her seat to look around the sprawling expanse of field, neatly divided into rows of colour that stretched as far as she could see – vibrant reds, yellows, pinks... She was sure the giddy smile that the sight pulled to her face was ridiculous, but she didn't care.
