Chapter 21 #2
“I don’t know, but I’m guessing that’s what it is. I don’t know why else they’d be asking to talk to him.”
She chews on her lip, her eyes bouncing around the floor.
“What if they think he hit someone? Not someone’s car, but an actual person?
” She looks up at me, panic covering her face.
“If they think that’s what happened, they’ll put it together.
I’m sure they know about the hit-and-run.
It’s all over the news. And Finn’s Ranger Rover was brought in to be fixed right after the guy was hit.
” She’s breathing fast, barely able to get the words out. “What if they find out? What if they—”
“They won’t,” I say, pulling her into my arms. I wasn’t even thinking. I just did it. She was panicking and for some insane reason I felt the need to comfort her. What the hell is going on with me? I used to torture this girl, and now I’m holding her in my arms?
“This is bad,” she says, not even trying to pull away from me. “Insurance people are like detectives. They can tell when you’re lying.”
“Finn’s their customer. They’re not doing this to get him in trouble. They’re just covering their asses in case someone else was involved and demands payment for any damages. Finn just needs to convince them nobody else was involved.”
“I’m not sure I trust Finn to do that,” she says, her body relaxing against mine.
“I’m not either, but we don’t have a choice. Everything will work out. We just need to give it time and this will all go away.”
She looks up at me. “But what if it doesn’t?”
I look back at her, not answering, and not wanting to talk about this anymore, or about anything.
I just want to look at her, at those deep, brown eyes, those full lips, the ones I desperately want to kiss.
Part of me thinks I only want her this bad because I know I could never have her.
Because I know she hates me as much as I hate her.
But then why haven’t I wanted her like this before?
Why now? Is it because of the accident? Do I feel closer to her knowing we share this secret?
“Briggs, what if the guy dies?” she asks, that panicked look still on her face. “What if he—”
I lean down and kiss her, cutting off her words and cutting off the part of my brain telling me not to do this. I know it’s wrong. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but I did, and now it’s too late.
She’s not pulling away. Just like last night, she’s kissing me back.
I wrap my hands around her face and feel her lips part, her soft breath mixing with mine.
I slide my tongue in her mouth and hear what I think was a moan, but it was faint.
I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I wasn’t paying attention.
I keep waiting for her to shove me away, but she’s not, and it’s confusing the hell out of me. Is this some kind of joke she’s playing to get back at me for bullying her?
“Why are we doing this?” I say, gently pulling away. I keep hold of her face and look in her eyes, as if they’ll tell me an answer her mouth won’t.
“I don’t know,” she says, looking away.
“You hate me.”
She doesn’t respond.
“So why are you letting me do this?”
Her eyes return to mine. “I can’t answer that. I guess I just...” She pulls away from me and goes to sit on the bed.
“You what?” I ask, going over to sit next to her.
“I um... I liked what you did last night. The kiss. In the parking lot.”
“And you wanted to do it again?”
“I guess,” she says, looking down at the floor. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I wouldn’t even be talking to you if we weren’t having to deal with what happened, but now we’re kind of stuck in this together and...”
“And you feel like things have changed between us.”
“Yeah.” She turns to me, and our eyes meet.
“I feel the same way, like something shifted between us. We’ve always been enemies, but now I kind of feel like we’re on the same side.”
“We don’t have a choice. We’re trusting each other to keep this huge secret.” Her eyes move over my face. “You know how hard that is for me? To trust you?”
“I do.” My gaze lowers to her lips, and I notice her breath speeding up.
I reach over and smooth my hand over her hair, once, twice, and on the third time, I keep my hand behind her head and gently pull her toward me.
She doesn’t resist, and before I can stop myself, I lower my mouth to hers.
I hear that soft moan again and feel my cock pushing against my jeans.
She slides toward me, gripping the front of my shirt. If she were any other girl, I’d pick her up, lay her down on the bed, and strip her naked so I could do all the dirty things my mind is conjuring up as I kiss her.
But I can’t do that with Ella. It’d end whatever this is that we started, and I’m not ready for it to end.
I want to see where it goes. I’ve never been this turned on by a girl, and she’s not even naked.
It’s more than her body that arouses me.
It’s her fight to not give up or give in.
Her drive to succeed. Her sassy mouth that tries to put me in my place, even though I know there’s a part of her that’s scared of me.
My hand moves to her thigh, testing to see how far I can take this.
She doesn’t tell me no or try to move my hand, so I slowly slide it up, stopping when I reach the torn hem of her shorts, which got pushed up to her crotch when she sat down.
I move my thumb just the slightest bit, but enough to slip under her shorts.
It’s such a slight movement, I could say it was an accident if she yelled at me for it.
I could say I got so into the kiss I didn’t notice what I was doing.
She wouldn’t believe me, but I’d still say it if I needed to, but it may not come to that because she’s not pulling away.
She’s got her hand wrapped around the back of my neck, not letting me go.
Moving slowly, I slide my thumb up a little more until I feel her panties.
They’re silky with a bit of lace. I never would’ve thought Ella would be a silk and lace type of girl.
I imagined her wearing cotton panties, although in my fantasies she didn’t wear any at all.
“Briggs,” she whispers over my lips. Is she telling me to stop or keep going? I can’t tell. Normally, I’d keep going without even questioning it, but I can’t do that with Ella, not if I want to do this again. I have to be cautious, go slow, and let her decide what’s next.
I’m not used to that, and I’m not sure I like her being in charge, but I like what we’re doing right now so I’ll do anything to keep it going.
I feel her legs part by maybe an inch, which isn’t much, but it’s enough to give me the answer I was hoping for.
I kiss her a little harder, but not aggressively, and then ever so slowly, I slip my fingers under her panties.
She breaks from the kiss, breathing so hard it’s like she can’t catch her breath.
I give her a moment, then fuse my mouth with hers and start to slowly slide my fingers back and forth over her slick center.
She moans, loud enough for me to clearly hear it this time, and it makes me want her so bad my cock is literally aching to be inside her.
I keep going, my fingers circling over her clit, making her body tremble like she’s about to come.
I plunge a finger in her and then another.
“Briggs, you upstairs?” I hear Parker yell.
Ella pulls away from me and gets up from the bed. “We did not just do that! Understand?”
“Yeah.” I sigh as I stand up. Why the hell did they have to show up now? They’re always at least a half hour late.
“You in there?” Parker yells, banging on my door.
“Yeah, just a minute.” I look at Ella. “You good?”
Ella’s standing in front of my mirror, straightening her shorts and smoothing her hair. “Yeah, go ahead.”
I open the door and see Parker there, but not Finn. “We’re meeting downstairs. Go wait in the living room. Where’s Finn?”
“Trying to open your dad’s liquor cabinet,” he says with a laugh.
“Go down there and stop him. He can’t be drinking when he’s supposed to be practicing what to tell the insurance guy. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“Hey, I wanted to talk to you before we go down there.” He shoves open my door and sees Ella. He looks at me, anger filling his eyes. “What’s going on in here? Why is she in your room?”