30. Dane
30
DANE
Her gaze flicks up from her textbook, and her pale face turns white as she drops her pencil. “ No . You’re going to paint it that color?”
I slide the swatch of the ugliest yellow-green shade I’ve ever seen closer to her, and she masks her whimper with a cough. “I think it’ll look nice,” I hedge, “with the flames I’ll add to the side.”
Pure devastation floods her eyes. “What has that car ever done to you?”
I almost break as I offer her a casual shrug. “You don’t think it’ll look badass?”
“Believe me, that’s not at all what I’m thinking,” she rasps, and I can’t help it. I burst into a fit of laughter, and she straightens and squints at me. “I regret asking you to come and hang out with me at work.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” I say, and her brow quirks with interest. “How about a kiss?—”
Her finger presses squarely against my forehead, halting me from leaning any closer. “One, I’m still on the clock. My boss only lets me get away with so much. Two, there’s someone in line.”
An exaggerated groan escapes me. “You owe me a kiss later.”
She splutters. “I do not. Now…” She makes a shooing motion, and I oblige. “I’m not off for another twenty minutes.”
“I’ll fuck around with the displays until then.”
“Please don’t,” she calls after me, and I toss her a wink over my shoulder.
Soon, I’m pacing around the bookstore. Just as I’m checking out the laptops, my phone buzzes. I fish it out and frown. On the screen is a text from an unfamiliar number providing coded details for the next meet.
I lean against a nearby display and delete the message, leaving me with hundreds of unread ones to deal with. While I couldn’t care less if they remain unanswered, the notification bubble drives my girl nuts. I thought she’d be secretly pleased none of her texts have ever been included in that number.
She’s not.
Since I’ve got some time to kill, I go through them. Most are just phishing scams about unusual bank activities. Then I pause on one from a few days ago. The area code isn’t familiar, but the number has to belong to someone who knows me. Whoever it is, they want my assistance with a cylinder issue.
Instead of replying, I ignore the text and move on to the next one. They’ll take the hint. Thanks to Walker, I don’t sell my services anymore. The only person I even interact with is Sergei, who’s more of a middleman for me than a customer.
He’s the only one I trust to find cars for me and buyers once I fix them up. Not only that, he deals with all the paperwork nonsense. I don’t make much profit, but it’s not like I’m hurting for money.
“I think those would bring out your eyes.” Reese’s voice is a gentle tease as she sidles up to me. I glance over my shoulder and spot a pair of tacky blue earrings.
“And I think this one would look hot on you.” I tip my chin toward a clunky-looking necklace. It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.
“How so?” she asks dubiously. Evidently, I’m not the only one who thinks it’s hideous as fuck.
“If you wear just that with nothing else on?” My mouth curves into a wolfish grin. “ Hot .”
She sticks her tongue out at me as she hoists her backpack over her shoulder. “Come on. I need to make sure the cat’s fed before we head to your place.”
Her hand slips in mine as we step outside, and she abruptly stops in her tracks. With wide eyes, she yanks me toward the nearest hedge.
“Is this your way of telling me you wanna fool around in the bushes?” I snicker. “We?—”
“ Shh .” Her profile tightens with visible distress. “My sister.”
“Right.” I crouch to the ground and turn toward her.
With a ragged breath, she nibbles on her bottom lip. “I don’t think she saw—” She shrieks and claps her palm over her mouth when a buzz sounds from her back pocket.
I reach for it and give her ass a quick squeeze in the process, and she glares.
Taking the device, she brings it to her ear. “ Hi ,” she squeaks. “No, I already left. Yeah, I’m on the bus—No. It’s fine. I’m meeting a friend for dinner.”
While she’s floundering with her excuses, I take the opportunity to slide my hand up the curve of her waist. She bats me away. I trace random circles on her knee instead. She swats at my touch and flushes when I catch her wrist and intertwine my fingers with hers.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you. Bye.” Blowing out a shaky breath at the night sky, she slams her eyes shut. “She didn’t see me.”
“That’s good.” I bring my mouth to her ear. “Wanna fool around in the bushes now?”
With a quiet laugh, she reaches over and pulls a twig from my hair. “No.”
“Oh, wow. I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it.”
“You’re actually studying?” Reese gasps, clasping her hands to her cheeks in mock surprise. Her eyes glitter. Her mouth twitches. “You?”
I’m unable to fight off my snort. With a shake of my head, I bring my attention back to my textbook. “Unfortunately, I have to pass my classes to get that stupid finance degree.”
“Why don’t you tell me what you’ve learned,” she asks, and the edge of my lips curls into a half-smile.
“That I’ll look like a tool if you ever see me in a suit—” A flash of bright light goes off, and I freeze. My gaze tears from the current chapter I’m on and lands on my girl. Her mouth parts in horror as she carefully sets her phone down and covers her face.
“You didn’t see a thing,” she wheezes, and I press my hand to my heart.
“It’s all right, baby,” I say solemnly. “We both know you wanted that for your spank bank.”
She peeks between her fingers. Her withering stare tugs at the corner of my lips.
“Yes, seeing you study is such a turn-on,” she says dryly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be studying, too.”
With that, she returns her attention to her laptop. It’s hard to ignore the small grin touching her mouth when she steals a peek at her cell. Every fiber of my self-control prevents me from climbing on top of her, tugging her bottom lip between my teeth, and discovering new ways to brighten that smile.
I know better than to keep bothering her. Between us two, she’s the only one invested in getting A’s in her classes, and the engineering shit she’s working on right now looks complicated as fuck.
So I swivel in my chair and face my desk again. Queue up the cheesy indie and pop music she’s subjected me to in the garage, so there’s background noise. Resume working on my long list of overdue assignments.
In my periphery, Reese dangles her legs over the side of my bed, swinging them back and forth. I don’t miss the fact that she sneaks another picture of me. This time, with the flash off.
What few would describe as singing startles me awake. I barely sit up when Reese blinks her eyes open and goes utterly rigid beside me. Her face contorts in sheer terror. Her hand strangles her pillow. Her breathing runs ragged and cleaves through my heart.
Just as I’m about to roll out of bed and put an end to Marco’s one-man concert, she gasps and finds my gaze. There’s a flicker of confusion in them as some color returns to her pallid cheeks.
“You all right?” I murmur, pressing my palm to her jaw, and a knot forms in my chest when she leans into my touch.
Despite the tears shining in her eyes, she spares me a nod.
“Want me to tell him to shut the fuck up?”
She releases a slow exhalation and shakes her head. “That’s rude.”
I almost snort. I should’ve seen it coming from a mile away. It’s such a good girl response from her.
“What’s rude is subjecting us to this at an ungodly hour,” I say, my voice dropping to a quiet note while I trace aimless zigzags across her cheekbone.
Her breathing evens out as time slips by slowly, and the tension subsides from her frame. “Does he always sing?”
“Unfortunately.” Tugging my shirt on, I make my way over to the door and yank on the handle, only to remember it’s locked when it doesn’t give. Right. Reese did that last night. As she does every time she’s over.
With a furrowed brow, I unlock it and poke my head out to see two chicks hanging out in my living room. I step halfway out and spot Marco in the kitchen, and I find myself regretting my decision to give him a copy of my keys when he starts belting the high notes.
“Kingsy,” he hollers, tipping the spatula in my direction. “Want some pancakes? I made extra.”
“ Fuck no ?—”
“Wait, don’t be too hasty,” Reese chirps from behind me. I glance over my shoulder as she gathers her hair into a ponytail and peeks out, only to freeze. Something shy steals across her features, and she edges backward.
It’s hard to believe this is the same girl who screamed at the two dickheads to stop kicking the crap out of me the day we met.
“Fucking keep it down,” I grunt to Marco, then shut the door. Amusement curves the edge of my lips when Reese locks it.
She swallows audibly and offers me a bashful smile. A flush darkens on her cheekbones when I slide my forefinger under her chin and bring her gaze to mine.
“Sorry, I’m nervous around strangers,” she says softly. “Do you think they’ll be there all morning?”
“Knowing Marco? All day.”
“But I have a lab later today,” she mutters.
“They won’t bite,” I tease. “Aren’t you friends with an entire sorority?”
“It took a while before I got comfortable around them.” She nibbles her bottom lip and averts her gaze to the floor. “I don’t want to make a terrible first impression.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell her. “Make the worst first impression.”
“But—”
“You’ll likely never see them again.” I’m met with another frown. “They’re one-night stands.”
“Oh. Oh .” Surprise gathers behind her eyes. “Have you ever done that before?”
“Bring a girl back to my apartment?” I squeeze her hips and grin. “Looking at her right now.”
Reese huffs out a snort. “ Girls .”
“Nah.”
“Really?”
“Reese,” I say, pulling her body flush against mine, “the hottest thing for me is when I’m getting a girl off. Knowing that I made her come on my cock?”
“I mean,” she hedges as a blush crawls up her neck, “you could get two off at the same time.”
“Eh. Not my thing. If I want to disappoint multiple people at once, I can always go home.” My words elicit a confused stare from her end, and I let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “I like to focus on the one I’m with. Give her all of my undivided attention. I guess I’m a one-girl kind of guy.”
She regards me inquisitively. “Not even during your hot shit phase?”
“Nah. Most of that time was spent doing donuts in an empty parking lot at, like, three in the morning.”
A peal of laughter escapes her. “Wait, really?”
“ And taking advantage of empty streets,” I add as I head toward the bathroom.
“Is that where you did all the racing?” Reese asks while she follows me in and grabs her toothbrush. “You and Marco?”
I hesitate and glance at her reflection in the mirror. “Yeah,” I say, keeping my voice low and measured. “We loved speeding through the city when everyone’s dead asleep. If you ever want to give it a go?—”
“Absolutely not.” Her attention snares on the half-remaining bar of soap and slants her mouth. She got it for me during her farmer’s market date with Blue Balls.
Now my hands smell like lavender instead of the usual mix of gasoline, grease, and other stuff I work with in my garage. Listen, soap’s fucking soap to me, but she gets excited every time she sees me using it. So whenever I can, I make a big show out of it. Without fail, her eyes light up like twinkling stars, and her smile becomes sweeter than air.
“How about?—”
“I’m not doing anything illegal,” she gasps. Even with a toothbrush in her mouth, she manages to level me with an adorable scowl.
Spitting my toothpaste out, I grab the soap, which brings a delightful curl to the corner of her lips. “Have some faith in me. I just wanted to know if you wanted to grab breakfast from the pancake house nearby.”
Her face brightens. “Oh. I could go for some.”
“If we hurry, we could get some before your classes today.”
She gives me a sidelong glance and tilts her head. “Do you think they have chocolate chip?”
My brow lifts. “What kind of pancake house would they be if they didn’t have any?”
With a laugh, she beams at me. “Good point.”