Chapter 10
Chapter ten
The leather’s sticking to me; it’s not necessarily uncomfortable though.
We shimmied into the back seat before I lost all of my starch and gave out under her.
It’s strange, as I’m normally in the front seat rather than laying in the back.
But it feels good here with her weight resting firmly against mine.
She’s sticking to me too, with our bare chests skin-to-skin.
Gently, my fingers glide up and down her spine–taking count of each vertebrae along her lumbar and thoracic zones.
Our breathing has synced up; each of her soft exhales fog warmly across my flesh while I graze her cheek with my opposite thumb. Holding her in ways I’ve fantasized about—both with tenderness and hunger.
Tightening for a moment, I shift subtly and lift my left leg then rest it on the side of the backrest of the backseat—too damn tall to be fucking in a car but it’s a small price to pay.
Nadia murmurs incoherently, the sweet contented sound blending with Stairway to Heaven as it plays faintly through the speakers—almost choking me with sentimentality.
“You alright, sweetheart?”
I know she’s alright, I still need to hear her say it.
Give me peace of mind after the insane evening we’ve had, and the role she played—blew my mind, no pun intended.
Never would’ve guessed how much of a firebug she is.
Hell, she probably doesn’t realize it either but that fucker is loitering inside of her, squatting, waiting to show its ugly head again.
If I know anything about Nadia, this is only the beginning.
She doesn’t do things halfway, it’s all or none.
Which you would be a damn fool not to admire about her.
“Hey,” prompting her again, I tilt her chin to see her better.
I have to bite the inside of my lip when I get a good look at her—the poor thing is blissed out.
Eyes heavy, cheeks still stained a heated pink, lips so kiss-swollen I’m sure they hurt.
Unfortunately for her, that doesn’t stop me from brushing my thumb across them, the rough callous pushing the reddened cushion to the side.
“Hey, beautiful girl.”
“Mmm.”
A gentle chuckle jolts my chest, part of me knows I shouldn’t laugh at her but it’s impossible to stop.
Elation exists unapologetically in every ounce of my body and she’s the entire damn reason.
If she can’t see more than a few inches in front of her, at least she can hear the dumb ass smirk on my face—pride. Glutinous pride.
“Need to know you’re alright, give me more than a contented murmur.”
“Mmm.” She answers me again.
“Brat.” I reply then land a series of quick slaps down on her bare ass until her teasing turns into a shout.
“Kaleb!”
“That’s better, not what I was looking for but yelling my name is an acceptable alternative. It sounds good rolling out all sex-dazed and whatnot.”
“You…’re a jerk.” Nadia groans, pulling away from my thumb and laying her head back down where her ear almost suctions to it—listening to the low thuds of the heart she’s enslaved.
“A handsome one that hopefully just made up for ruining your graduation night.”
“Still in the doghouse, just renting though. Not living.”
That chuckle from before? A full laugh now, one that starts deep in my torso before rumbling out and creating a mini earthquake for the woman laying atop of me.
The curl of her lips warms my heart–well fucked, relaxed, and simply existing.
Exactly how it should be, us facing the rest of the world together.
“I missed this, you know. You remember the first time I snuck in your window? Almost busted my ass when my jacket got caught on the nail your dad used to board it up from the outside.”
She doesn’t say anything for a few seconds then finally adds in. “Yeah, and you blamed me for the torn leather for two weeks.”
“Three weeks, but yeah. This reminds me of that night. And the one where we managed to climb on the rooftop and watch the meteor shower. What movie were we trying to watch on that old DVD player I stole from, damnit, what was his name in school? Leon, Larry…”
“Levi,” she cuts me off. “Dazed and Confused.”
“Yeah, that’s right, and Levi. What happened to him?”
“He moved after you graduated, somewhere down south I think. Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, hell if I know where.”
“You must keep up with him if you have a general idea where he went.” Probing her for information, hoping to see just how close she might have gotten with someone else while I was away.
The not-so-jolly green monster is frolicking around the inside of my head, goading me by having me overthink shit.
Jealousy is a motherfucker, I tell you. I’ve watched my boys with girls in college, and while I wasn’t jealous of them specifically, I was envious of what they had–allowed to do the things that I desperately craved with Nadia.
Now though? I’m curious to know if someone else tickled her fancy since the last night I held her. If someone else did, I’m going to make a run before the weekend is through, break their hands and sever whatever part of them touched her in my absence.
“Maybe I do. Maybe he sends me love messages through emails with virtual flowers.”
There’s no damn way she’s being serious right now. Not laying against me like this, holed up in my car, naked chest to chest, having moaned from coming on my cock, no—nope—she’s got to be fucking with me…right?
She must sense the turmoil bulldozing my emotions because she sits up.
Her hair’s in a tangly mess, hanging past her shoulders in swaths that accentuate her dusky-colored nipples.
Looking at her at this moment, I’m unworthy.
There’s no damn way I got lucky enough in life to have this stunning woman sitting on me the way she is, exposed and comfortable enough in her skin to make me question my place in her life.
“You have a problem with that? Someone swooning over me, wanting to take me on candle lit dinners, long walks on the beach with sand between my toes, paint murals at church, and host dinner parties?”
“Bet your ass I have a damn problem with that.” Snapping my reply, the anger she’s expertly stoking in me competes with the torch Prometheus gifted to humans so the world no longer had to live in darkness.
The same heat that’s turning my ears red and crawling up my neck with, you guessed it, jealousy.
How fucking dare he try to steal her attention. She…she has too much on her plate to worry about some fucker in Missouri. It’s unacceptable, I can already tell he isn’t good enough. I can…
Chill the fuck out man, she’s pulling your chain.
“Yeah? Why?”
“Why what, Nadia?”
“Why do you have a problem with that? With Levi wanting to take me out and treat me like a lady.”
“Because you’re mine, don’t you understand that.
I’m not sure what part of that you’ve missed but I’ll be damned if some pansy who couldn’t protect his DVD player takes you on a shit-ass candle lit dinner date.
Besides, he’s such a square, if he knows anything about you he’d realize that his lame fucking dates will have you dying of boredom. ”
Nadia leans over me at the end of my tirade.
Her soft hands grazing my bare chest seconds before those sharp fucking nails of hers dig into my pecs, and the tips of her long hair tickle my heated skin.
My brain takes a trip to the moon, cueing the dial-up tone and slow buffering, when she grinds her hips on me.
Kill me now.
“And what am I?”
“You…I…” She rocks again and I groan. Unfair devil. “fuck.”
“What was that? I didn’t catch it, Kaleb. I'm going to need you to speak up.”
My hands snap to her hips and grip them to the point the contours of her hipbones fight against the force. She tries to roll again, but I control it; muscles in my chest and biceps straining to contain my unraveling sanity.
“You’re…you’re like me, sweetheart. Adrenaline. Danger. That’s what you are. Craving fear and arousal in one shot of high octane. Typical dates would drive you mad, have you running for the hills just to escape the idea of sitting through another one.”
Stilling, she lays on me again, where my heart beats harder than a war drum next to her more calm and steady thumps.
“Right you are. I like the unknown, things that might hurt me, get me in trouble, and that’s what I’ll have with you. Speed, envious stares, all because I won the bad boy.”
Capturing her lips, we kiss for God knows how long.
Forgetting about any and everything that exists outside of our bubble–the only thing that matters is us, but time’s ticking away.
We’ve been here for a few hours it seems. The moon has been in the sky so long it’s also getting tired, easing its way closer to the horizon.
Breaking the kiss, I peek at the radio and see three am blinking at me.
Immediately I want to roll it back, find some sort of science project that allows me to time travel back far enough to relive today over again.
Dropping my head to the seat, I sigh. It’s time to go back, for me to let her go for just a few days.
Which gives me the chance to race and get the boxes she may need to move—between you and I, she doesn’t need anything from her childhood home but if she wants to bring something with her I want to be prepared.
Ten more minutes, I can do this for ten more.
Map every curve and dip of her body, the freckles I’ve noticed scattered over her shoulders and the larger more-sparse ones over her back.
Taste her lips a bit longer, draw in breaths from my favorite damn person imaginable, isolate every fragrance note in her body spray, and lose count of how many lashes she has only to start again.
“Wasn’t ever a competition, sweetheart. You’ve always had me,” I murmur under my breath.