Chapter 6 #2
“Sure. Did you want me to drive? Is that why you were asking about my car?”
“Actually, I think it would be best if you drove yourself. Behind me. If I show up in a stranger’s car, he might get spooked. He’s crazy paranoid.”
“Then I’ll ride with you.”
She flicks her gaze to the night sky. “I guess that might work. Buuut . . . I bet it would still spook him if he saw you in my car.” Shaking her head, she tugs in a hiss of air through her teeth.
“I think you following me in your own car would be best. Just stay like a block away so you’re there if I need you, but not so close he drives away before I get my stuff. ”
I don’t like this. If she gets the chance, she’ll try to give me the slip. I just know it.
Yet I refuse to send her to meet this jerk alone. Not with so much doubt swirling through my mind about him. He’s clearly unstable. Plus, she seems frightened of him.
And I really don’t like that.
She awaits my answer, studying my face carefully. The urge to touch her is so strong I can’t resist. I’ve never been this compelled to offer comfort to someone. I’m not a touchy-feely kind of man.
But I need this.
If not to comfort her, then to reassure myself that she’s safe. Even if I can’t trust her. Even if she betrayed me when I needed a friend the most.
I still care about her.
Slowly, I reach up to cup her cheek. Lowering my voice to a whisper, I ask, “Lila, did he hurt you?”
Her features sag, and she leans into my touch with the barest hint of pressure. “Yes. But not the way you’re thinking.”
I drag my thumb over her silky cheek, deepening the caress. “How do you know what I’m thinking?”
She blinks and looks away, abruptly ending the moment. After backing out of my grasp, she says, “So you’ll follow me, right?”
“Yeah. My car is parked toward the back of the complex. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t trust you to drive off without me while I get it.”
“Not sure what the right way to take that would be.” Her returning grin makes my chest tight. “Hop in, and I’ll drive you to your car.”
Feeling like we’ve reached a tentative truce, I get in the car with her and direct her to the back of the apartment complex where I stashed my vehicle. We don’t speak for the brief drive.
I point at my car. “That one’s mine.”
She shifts into park and gasps suddenly. “Oh no. You didn’t leave your keys in my apartment, did you? I saw a set of keys on the coffee table.”
“I don’t think those were mine.” I pat my chest, easily locating the familiar lump in the inner pocket of my blazer. “Yeah, I got them here.”
“Okay. Good.”
We lock eyes over the console, neither of us able to look away. Tension crackles the same way it always does when we’re close. It’s tendrils of electricity running through us, charging rapidly until the canister is about to explode.
She licks her lips, subtly tilting her chin. Our breath mingles as we inch closer.
Neither one of us is strong enough to resist the insistent pull.
Fuck. I want to kiss her.
Just once. After that, we can go back to hating each other. I need at least one.
Even if she’s mercurial as fuck. And even if we’re toxic together.
What could it hurt to have one kiss?
Would she taste the same as I remember? Would she give me one of those breathy moans that haunted my dreams for years? Grip my shoulders so tightly it leaves a mark?
“Thanks for coming with me,” she simpers, then dabs the tip of her tongue across her lip again, leaving it shimmering in the streetlamp’s reflection.
“Sure,” I rasp.
The corner of her mouth quirks. “Do it, Reed. I dare you.”
“Do what?”
“What you want to do.” She’s so close that her lips graze mine with each word she utters. “Do it. Before I change my mind.”
Instead of claiming her lips, I hover there for the count of three. I want her to beg, and that needy look in her eyes tells me she will.
But she doesn’t.
I pull my face back an inch, making her chase my lips. “Beg for it, Lila.”
She clamps one hand on my shoulder and the other around my nape, preventing my retreat. “One thing you should know about me, Reed.”
“What’s that?”
Her palms seductively travel from my shoulders down my chest and back up again. “I’m not the naive submissive little doll you used to play with.”
My dick strains at the back of my zipper as blood rushes south. “Oh no?”
Holding the blazing eye contact, she drags the tiny tip of her nose across mine. “I don’t beg. I take what I want.”
“And what do you want, Lila?”
Her hands dive deeper this time, heading under my jacket toward my waist. There’s fire in their wake, scorching through my thin shirt to singe my abs.
They clinch on reflex. She fiddles with my belt buckle, making her intentions clear.
“If you don’t know by now, you don’t deserve it.
And that makes me reassess what I thought I wanted. ”
Fucking hell.
Lila’s right about one thing—she’s light-years away from the timid young woman she used to be.
Following her lead, I allow my hands the privilege of exploring her body. Above the waist.
Until she begs for more.
“Oh, I know exactly what you want, cookie. I just want you to say it.”
Her eyes flash, and a shy smile plucks along the curve of her lips. “Haven’t heard that nickname in a while. Can’t recall the last time I ate a cookie, so I’m not sure it fits anymore.”
Seizing the opportunity to twist the sentimental moment into something more carnal, I tease, “You know I’m good at making it fit.”
As I’d hoped, the innuendo makes her breathing sharply increase, and her hands grow more frenzied. “Reed, you’re doing it again.”
If she keeps groping me like that, I’ll end up dragging her out of the car and bending her over the hood. Her naughty hands are everywhere except where I want them most.
I move my palm down along her body, skimming her breast with the side of my thumb. “Doing what?”
“Playing with me.”
With her eyes wide open and burning into me, she rests her mouth against mine, lips slightly parted.
Not pressing, claiming, or commanding in the slightest. I wouldn’t even call it a kiss.
It’s simultaneously less and more than that.
Feels like she’s testing me, attempting to break my restraint.
As if she knows I won’t hold out much longer in my quest to make her beg.
And it’s so fucking hot.
I used to love how timid and sweet she was. The submissive version of Lila Kent was everything I thought I wanted. Turns out, this side of her is even more enticing.
She adds a sweetener when I don’t give in after a few torturous seconds. One of her hands sinks down and cups my impossibly hard cock over my pants. Her boldness shocks me almost as much as when she dropped an F bomb earlier.
Resistance snapping, I cup her cheeks and roughly work my mouth over hers. My tongue delves between her pillowy lips, getting my first taste of her in five years. It’s nowhere near enough.
I get only one of those breathy moans I’ve been craving from her before she stiffens and pulls herself out of my grasp. She visibly shuts down, attempting to reaffix her mask.
The kiss ended almost as soon as it began.
My lips and tongue would cry if they had tear ducts. My dick’s already weeping.
Somehow, Lila manages to appear unaffected. And slightly bored. “Reed, we don’t have time for this. I lost my head for a minute, but we need to hurry before Silas leaves.” She expels a silent puff of air through her rounded lips, still slick from our brief kiss.
Shifting in my seat, I wipe my palms along the tops of my thighs, trying to erase the feel of her body. “Fi-i-ne.” My voice cracks like I’m a pimply-faced teen, so I clear my throat and try again. “Fine. Let’s go. I’ll be right behind you. You still have my phone number, right?”
Avoiding my gaze, she nods wordlessly.
I pop the door open and exit. “Call me when you get close and keep the phone on speaker when you deal with this prick. That way I’ll know if something goes wrong.”
As I round the front of the car, she rolls down the driver’s window. “Reed?”
I freeze about two feet from her vehicle. “Yeah?”
She casts a contemplative look at me, her eyes and lips pinched tightly. “Are you following me because you’re concerned about my safety or because you think there’s some crime to be solved?”
She cuts off my words before they even form. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter anyhow.” She points her chin at my car. “Hurry up. We’ve wasted too much time already.”
My stomach sours. I’ll answer her question later, when I have time to explain how the two things aren’t mutually exclusive. If I tried now, my words would be rushed by this Silas prick and his rigid timeline.
After four strides, the click of her car shifting into gear catches my notice. My heart speeds up, and I eat up the remaining steps to my car door.
The fucking thing doesn’t open. I try again and get the same result.
What the fuck?
I reach into my pocket, and the keys are no longer there.
That diabolical temptress. Son of a fucking bitch.
“Lila!”
“Sorry, Reed,” she hollers, already driving away.
I chase after her car on foot, knowing it’s a pointless endeavor. But maybe I’ll get lucky, and someone will pull in front of her as she tries to exit the complex.
“I’ll throw your keys in the bushes by the clubhouse.”
And then she punches the gas, leaving me in her dust.
She’d already fooled me once. And I let her do it again.
I guess I played myself. Me and my traitorous balls. Just like last time, they’ve led me astray.
I deserve to be neutered.