Chapter 8 #2
Parked, I reach and turn the dial down some then unbuckle my harness—Nadia follows suit.
The only other noise interrupting the playing is the soft clinks of metal and our gentle movements.
Nervousness hits me with the weight of a freight train.
After the shit we’ve gone through tonight, and having known her for a few years, there’s no damn reason I should be feeling this way.
I know her. She knows me. We’re…friends.
Not if I have anything to fucking say about it, not after tonight.
“C’mere,” I drawl, reaching for her hand to help her move over; color me surprised when she doesn’t hesitate.
Giving her time to settle, her legs stretch over the console as my left arm curls around her waist, stopping her from putting too much weight on the door and hurting her back.
I like her center, right on the middle of my lap, having her pressed against me like I’m property and the faint scent of her body wash permeating my clothes.
She likely has no clue but she’s my warding, scaring people away who try to get within an arm’s length of me.
Tugging her slightly, my right hand splays across the outer side of her left thigh and tightens—kneading her flesh.
I want to lean in, to take her lips against mine and still a kiss I’m dying for, or ten, hell let’s make it twenty. However many she’s willing to part with to save a lonely soul like mine. Despite it all, she’s going to have to close the space—the ball is finally in her field.
“I’m sorry about tonight. It’s not what I had planned at all.”
Growing a pair, I look at her, our displaced heights giving her a few inches now that she’s perched on my lap like the goddess she is, taking claim of the dominion that is rightfully hers.
Within seconds I’m sucked in by her sterling silver eyes, the words I had loaded on the tip of my tongue instantly die there.
Dark strands of windblown hair are framing her face, some hanging and curling in softly swept spirals that rest at the jumping pulse of her neck.
Greedily, I squeeze her thigh again, both hands yanking her impossibly closer.
“S…say something.” Whispering into the sparse space between us.
When she doesn’t, my heart leaps into my throat.
I don’t know what to do, what to say, maybe I fucked everything up tonight and there’s no coming back from it.
Everything I’ve worked for, the years I’ve waited to be with her, the decisions I made to ensure I can take her back to campus with me—gone.
It’s over. Having to see the livelihood of unsavory people and getting caught up in it, was all it took for her to run the opposite direction.
Nadia has dealt with so much emotional and mental torment from her old man and I should have known better.
I threw her freedom on the chopping block right when she was at the custom of having it all—this is the price I’m paying now.
Her. There’s no way I can apologize my way out of this fuckup, and knowing that has my stomach plummeting. Still, my pleading mouth opens.
“Nadia, please. You’ve got to believe…” the words fall silent as she pushes a digit against my lips.
“Don’t,” she stops me. “I forgive you, just, stop. You don’t have to do that. Not with me, not ever.”
“Sweetheart, I…”
Snapping my mouth closed, I fight the urge in me and don’t do it again.
Shifting my hands, pulling her upper body to mine, both of my arms wrap around her, hugging her to me.
Then I do something I have wanted to do every night since she broke up with me; bury my nose into her wild hair and suck in the deepest, lung exploding, breath I can manage.
“Missed you so much. You know that? Fucking sucks in the city without you.”
Not only can I smell her, feel her, but I’ve intruded into her bubble so deep I can hear her heart pattering near my face.
Lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub.
Just when I thought she’s going to keep all of those feelings of hers wrapped up tight and boxed in cement, she opens up.
“I missed you too, more than I should have.” Her voice thick and smokey as she murmurs close to me.
Breaking away, and forgoing the idea of waiting for her to close the distance, I steal her.
Crashing my lips to her gloss-coated ones until her breath hitches and her body melts on my lap.
I’m ready to fall apart at the seams, crumble to the shadows of perdition, burst into dust when her arms coil over my shoulders and jerk me closer.
Our teeth click from the deepened kiss then she opens without my prompting, I take the bait because I’m a fucking sucker for her.
My life hasn’t been exciting other than racing here or there.
I’m not the smartest guy, I don’t have money.
And football? Meh. College is a simple stepping stone and an accomplishment for Ma, rather than myself.
This girl though, no…this woman, is the most important part of me that I’ll never let go of.
Nadia is my excitement, she’s the light that brings out the freckles across my face, the sun that makes my eyes burn gold, and the one I’ll spend the rest of my life worshiping.
“I love you,” I stutter into her mouth. Releasing her only to cradle her face for a moment, slowing down the kiss.
“I want you.” My tongue caresses hers, memorizing the softness of her pouts and the sharp way she stops breathing.
“I need you.” The last words fall from my lips; she catches between her teeth, pinching them into my bottom one then scrapes them away from the tender skin—swallowing them whole.
Without letting her get a word in, terrified she will turn me down, I kiss her harder. She’s burning on my lap—pure fire scorching me through denim as if it is litmus paper, spurring me on and on.
Squirming and fucking giggling now—she pants against my lips, the bashful sound barely breaking past the obsession taking root.
“Mmm, you laughing at me, sweetheart?”
“M…maybe. What you g…going to do about it?” Even now she teases me, giddy, taunting, and making me work for the privilege to exist in her orbit.
Escaping her deliciously kiss-swollen lips, she hovers those few inches over me, knowing she has all the power to bless or condemn me if she so chooses.
What better way to get back at her, than play with each of her sensitive nerves.
Sliding a hand down, rough fingertips graze the bare skin of her arm where the finest little hairs stand on end in a parade.
Bypassing her hand, my fingers ease further down to her leg—where I may flirt with the hem of her shorts.
Weaving my rough touch slowly in and out from under it at random, igniting another blaze.
“That’s not very nice of you. Kicking me when I’m trying to tell you you’re coming home with me. Not just for tonight though, not for the weekend or the summer, forever.”
Down the length of her leg I go, around to the back of her thigh, through the ditch of her knee to her calf, and further until the ridge of her ankle bone combats the firmness of my touch. Up this time, along her shin, kneecap, then she parts her thighs and I groan.
“F…fucking hell.”
Adrenaline is surging through me, on a mission with a few other choice endorphins, kickstarting my heart.
“Forever?” Her lips caress the three syllables while staring at me so hard I swear I’m made of glass and might break under her scrutiny.
“Yes,” Answering confidently. “Forever. You have until the end of the weekend to enjoy your graduation and then I’ll be back on Monday with boxes.
You’re leaving with me. If you want to take time off from school to figure out what works for you, take it.
If you decide to say ‘fuck your opinion’ and start college, I’ll support your decision—from our place. ”
I’m proud of myself for getting all of that out without stuttering like an idiot.
I mean every damn word, she will be with me and free from her dad before he manages to get his nasty ass home from work.
There’s even the choice for her to go no-contact if she wishes, I won’t push it on her.
The asshole will show more of his true colors once he realizes she’s gone and not hanging out with her friends where he can show up and bully her back to the house.
By then, she’s all mine and there’s not a fucking thing Gene can do about it.
“Is that what you think I want, Kaleb? To run away with you? Uproot everything I know and depend on another man to take care of me?”
“Yes. You deserve a better life and I promise to give it to you. Hazelwood will crush you like it does everyone else. There’s no amount of thriving or being happy there—you’ll end up another statistic and I can’t have that.
I don’t give a damn how selfish it sounds, you’re not living this way anymore. ”
All while I’m spilling my ill-expressed hopes and dreams to her, my hand travels up her frame back to her face.
There’s no stopping me from roughing a thumb against her bottom lip and watching it blush—she sure as fuck doesn’t.
The way she talks, the tone, the intentional way she moves through life, has me momentarily distracted but I pick up her words anyway.
“What did you say?” Catching her throat with a firm grip, I squeeze, daring her to repeat the shit she had the nerve to say.
“M…make m…me.”