Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dahlia
The city moves past us in a blur of autumn foliage and colorful storefronts. And even though it’s the first time we’ve been alone together since the grocery store incident two weeks ago, I’m doing totally fine.
I’m not thinking about how good he smells, or how hot he looks driving this ridiculously sexy car, and I’m definitely not thinking about what happened the last time the two of us were alone together.
Nope. Not thinking about that at all. Did I mention I’m a goddamn liar?
I shift in my seat, and as my eyes look at everything but him, they catch on a book sitting in the center console. It’s flipped over, but recognition clicks immediately.
It’s Darkfever. The book Echo bought from me the first time he came to the store. The spine is creased, the pages are frayed, and there’s a receipt being used as a bookmark somewhere around the three quarter mark.
I stare at it for a second, then flick my eyes towards Echo and lean forward to turn the volume down.
“You’re actually reading it.” I say, sneaking a peek at his side profile.
Echo takes his eyes off the road for a split second to glance at the console and nods.
“Why?” I ask, a little more bluntly than I mean to.
“You said it was one of your favorites.” He shrugs. “I wanted to know why.”
“Did you figure it out?”
“I think so.”
I wait a few seconds for him to elaborate, and when I realize he isn’t going to, I roll my eyes and pivot in my seat to face him. “So are you going to tell me… or?”
“You like Mac because you’re just as reckless and stubborn as she is.”
I open my mouth, ready to refute his ridiculous claim, but when I stop to think about it, the words die on my tongue.
Okay, he isn’t totally off base there.
“And,” he adds, pausing as a smug smirk spreads across his unfairly pretty face. “You have a danger kink so you definitely want to fuck a Barrons.”
My mouth falls open and heat spreads up my neck.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Echo’s eyes never leave the road. “You heard me.”
“I—” I pause, scrambling for a good rebuttal. “I do not have a danger kink, and Barrons is the male lead. He’s literally designed to be attractive to the reader.”
Echo nods his head like I’m a child he’s trying to humor. “Whatever you say, Bambi.”
“Not to mention, it’s perfectly normal to find a dangerous fictional character attractive.” I retort, crossing my arms across my chest. “It’s not like I’d find that hot in real life.”
Echo glances at me. “You don’t?”
“No.”
He cocks a brow. “Not even a little?”
“No,” I say firmly.
His gaze slides back to the road, but the corner of his mouth lifts. “Interesting.”
“Not really,” I scoff, turning to look out the window again. “It’s common sense.”
“Explain something to me, then.” He says, pulling the car to a stop at a red light.
I turn to face him. “What.”
He taps the steering wheel with his thumbs and looks up thoughtfully, as if he’s trying to form the right words.
My eyes skim over the planes of his face and linger on the muscles working in his throat.
Ugh. Even his neck is hot.
“If danger isn’t sexy to you,” he says slowly, locking his eyes on mine, “then why do you think about me when you touch yourself?”
All the moisture on my tongue dissipates as my brain fires jumbled thoughts off in rapid succession.
How does he...
Why does he…
What kind of fucking question is that?
The kind I won’t be answering truthfully.
“I don’t.” I reply flatly, doing my best to keep the emotion out of my voice. “So don’t flatter yourself.”
“Now’s not the time to start lying to each other, Bambi.” He says, keeping his eyes on me. “Answer the question honestly this time.”
The light turns green, but Echo makes no move to start driving again. He just keeps his eyes firmly locked on mine, even as the cars behind us start honking their horns.
“Echo, it’s green.” I say, glancing at the road. “Drive.”
“As you wish.”
Echo takes his foot off the brake and presses the accelerator, but his gaze still hasn’t moved from me.
“What are you doing?” I say, flicking my eyes between him and the road in front of us. “Stop looking at me and put your eyes on the road.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I’m not looking away until you give me an honest answer.”
“I am being honest.”
“You’re not, and you know exactly how I know that.”
It dawns on me then. Echo watches me. He has been since we met, and he’s never once tried to hide it.
Motherfucker.
That night. That night I stupidly dry-humped him and felt so incredibly wound up after he left that I had no choice but to finish myself. Fuck. Did I moan his name? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I did.
I stare at Echo, and I hate that the smug smile on his face makes him look both punchable and fuckable.
No way.
No way am I going to admit that I did that. Even if he did watch me do it, acknowledging it out loud would be catastrophic for my pride, or at least, the little of it I have left when it comes to him.
A horn blares, and a silver sedan screeches to a halt on our right as Echo runs a red light and zooms past it.
“Jesus Christ, you’re going to get us killed.”
“I won’t,” he says, flashing a smile at me, “but you might, if you don’t answer me honestly.”
“Echo, this isn’t funny.”
“All the more reason to tell the truth.”
“Fine.” I snap, white-knuckling the overhead handle as he blows through another red light. “I have thought about you. You’re attractive, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“Yes.” He says easily, his eyes finally returning to the road. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
I release a breath and sink back into my seat, as relieved as I am mortified.
The rest of the drive passes in silence, but oddly enough, it isn’t uncomfortable, which might be the most annoying thing about Echo. He has this infuriating ability to make me comfortable in his presence, even when he’s the last person in the world I should feel comfortable with.
We pull onto my street, and I’m already rehearsing my exit in my head. If I can just keep it short, civil, and clean, I might be able to get out of this car with at least a little of my dignity intact.
Echo parks in front of my building, cuts the engine, and gets out of the car.
I reach for the door handle to follow him, but before I can, the automatic lock shifts into place.
Narrowing my eyes, I watch Echo through the windshield as he rounds the front of the car and stops on my side to pull the door open.
I stare up at him. “I’m capable of opening my own door.”
“I know.” He replies, giving me his hand. “Humor me, Bambi.”
I hold his gaze for a second, then reluctantly reach for his hand. His touch is strong and so much warmer than I expected.
“There you go,” he says, helping me out of the car, “was that so bad?”
It wasn’t. At all. And that’s part of the problem.
Standing to my full height, I toss my hair back, and I make it approximately one step before Echo’s arm shoots out to cage me against the car and the open passenger door.
“What are you doing?” I ask, mildly impressed with how steady my voice sounds.
“Gloating.”
I jerk my head back. “About what?”
“I told you the next time I got you alone I’d get you to admit what this was.”
I furrow my brow. “I didn’t admit anything.”
“You admitted you’re attracted to me.”
“So.” I shake my head. “Half of the world’s population is probably attracted to you. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means something to me.”
“Well, it shouldn’t,” I say flatly. “It’s not like I have feelings for you.”
He tilts his head, studying me, and he doesn’t even look slightly discouraged.
“You don’t have feelings for me yet.” He says, emphasizing his last word. “But you will.”
“So you can predict the future now?”
“It’s not a prediction. It’s an inevitability. The first hurdle is already out of the way and now you’ve gone and exposed your weakness.”
“What weakness?”
Echo leans in and his lips brush against the sensitive shell of my ear. His minty breath cascades down my neck, and I’m trying and failing to slow my breathing.
“Me.” He whispers. “And my cock that you can’t stop thinking about.”
The heat that flows through me is immediate and involuntary and absolutely mortifying.
I swallow hard as his mouth gently curves against my skin. He pulls back to look at me, and his eyes are dark and entirely too amused. I’m completely out of sorts, and he seems to be enjoying every second of this.
“Off you go, Bambi.” He says, dropping his arm and finally letting me free.
I push off the car door and walk towards my building on shaky legs.
Every single part of me wants to look back at him.
Wants to see if he’s just as affected as I am from that little interaction.
But I’m sure he’s watching, and if we make eye contact again, there’s a good chance I’ll end up doing something I’ll regret.
I make it into the lobby, up the elevator, and all the way to my apartment before I let out a long, shaking breath and press my forehead against the door.
He barely touched me. Just lightly grazed my skin with his lips, and somehow it was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.
The heat that pooled between my legs hasn’t faded and my heart is still rioting wildly in my chest. I run my fingers over the place he touched me and squeeze my eyes shut.
Maybe he’s right.
Maybe I do have a danger kink.