Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
FADE
I scrubbed a hand over my face. The rain was falling so hard, the windshield wipers could barely keep up. I squinted against the light of an oncoming car.
"What the hell are you doing out in this?" I asked the other driver. Yeah I know, I was out in it too. A meeting kept me back at work or I would have been home by now. Hel was going to pay me overtime for this.
Not to mention, the meeting could have been a fucking email.
I spotted a car stopped by the side of the road, wheels barely over the line.
"What the fuck?" I was almost past when I realized whose car it was. Yeah, for a moment I thought about continuing on home. What can I say, I am the asshole.
Teeth clenched, I tapped the brakes to slow the car. The last thing I needed right now was to lose control and drive my car into a tree. Or into the fucking ocean. That would be the perfect end to a shitty day.
I put the car into reverse, the rear windshield wipers frantic before I drew to a stop in front of Teddie's car.
I also didn't want to back into her shit heap. It would do more damage to my car than it would to hers. On the other hand, I could think of a few ways she could pay me back.
Leaving the ignition running, I pushed out of the car, shielded with my eyes with my hand and trotted through the puddles and driving fucking rain..
"Teddie?" I tapped on the side window. Her squeal in response made me smile in spite of standing here getting drenched as hell.
I grabbed hold of the handle and pulled the door open.
"Car trouble?"
"No, I like to sit here sometimes," she said sarcastically.
"I'll leave you to it then." I went to close the door, but she placed her palm on it, keeping it open.
"Don't go," she said quickly. "My car broke down."
"No shit." I swung the door open and held out my hand. "Come on, I'll give you a ride." I put as much inflection into my words as I could. Of course I did, she'd expect nothing less.
Right on cue, she rolled her eyes at me, but took my hand and levered herself out of the seat as a peal of thunder cracked the sky. She let out a squeak and pressed herself closer to me. Her body was warm and firm. I wanted to press her back against her car, strip her bare and fuck her in the rain.
"You don't like storms?" I wasn't going to make fun of her. Plenty of people didn't like storms. I wasn't a big fan myself, even though my favorite rugby player’s name was Storm. From what I read about him, he was as big an asshole as me.
"I don't like being out in them," Teddie said. "I've heard being struck by lightning isn't fun."
I laughed and led her over to my car. "Funny, I've heard the same thing."
I opened the passenger side door and gave her a shove inside before trotting around to the driver's side and climbing in.
"This is a doozy." I peered through the windshield. The rain fell harder. A flash of lightning was followed by another one and an enormous crack of thunder. I couldn't see the road anymore.
"Yeah, it is." She was hunched down in her seat, also watching the rain pouring down the windows.
"You okay?" I shrugged out of my suit jacket, since almost as much water was pouring off it as the windows, and tossed it into the back footwell. "We'll have to wait out the worst of it.”
I wasn't always known for making the best decisions, but I wasn't going to drive in this. The ability to see the road was more or less necessary to get home safe. Right now, I doubted we'd make it a handful of feet before we ran into something. Or someone.
"Right." She nodded. Did she think I was that reckless?
Okay, that was a fair call most days. At this exact second, I was thanking past me for driving my car this morning, not riding my bike. For no particular reason, that was the decision I made. Fuck yeah, past me.
"How long is this going to go on for?" I asked rhetorically.
I grabbed my phone from the charging pad in the center console and opened the weather app.
It was the kind that gave more dramatic forecasts, like ‘the wind is about to blow your ass off,' or, 'it's going to be hotter than the Devil's tit out there.
' Right now it was saying, 'you're in for a biblical level of rain tonight and into the early morning. I hope you have your ark ready.'
"Shit." I put the phone back on the pad and killed the engine. "Looks like we might be here for a while. Unless you want to try walking home."
As if to punctuate my words, lightning flashed again, followed immediately by a bang of thunder.
"I don't know if you believe in gods or anything like that, but I'd take that as a sign," I said.
She hummed. "Me too. I'm glad your car is more comfortable than mine." She inched away from me, as if considering bolting back to hers to get away from me.
"It should be, for the price," I said. I reclined my leather seat a little further and laced my hands behind my head. "Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a coffee maker, or a built-in grill."
"Do you have any food to grill?" She glanced over at me. Her body was tense, but she hadn’t run. Yet.
I grinned. "As a matter of fact… No I don't. There's only one thing in here to eat and it isn't food."
"Only one?" She eyed my groin, in spite of herself.
Yeah, I was getting that vibe too. She didn’t want to be here with me, but the heat wasn’t only from the enclosed metal around us.
"I stand corrected. There are two things in here to eat. One for you and one for me." Now I was getting hard, imagining her mouth around my cock.
"I have a bag of M&Ms," she said in a rush. "I keep them in case of emergencies."
"I think this qualifies as an emergency." I nodded and took her in as she sat on the other side of my car. Her hair was damp from the run through the driving rain, but she must have shielded her face with her hand. It looked dry. Except her lips, which looked plush and inviting.
"The only thing is…" She winced.
"Let me guess, you left them in your car." I jerked my head toward it.
"I… Yes." She was adorable when color crept up her cheeks.
"Then one of us is going to have to go get them," I said. I lowered my hands from behind my head and held one out to her. "Rock, paper, scissors. Best of three."
"I was the one who left them there," she pointed out.
She seemed less and less eager to leave.
It seemed she preferred my company to the lightning.
Me too. I mean, I preferred hers as well.
Not that I didn't love my own company, but if I was going to be stuck in a car at the side of the road, I'd rather have her with me.
"You're not even tempted to see if you'll win?" I asked. "What if you do? What if I'm the one who has to go out in the storm and get them?"
The problem with this woman, I decided, was that she spent too much time thinking about other people. She should be telling me to go and get them. Hel and Oak would have. I would have told them both to fuck off. We would have sat here hungry instead.
No one ever said we made sense.
"That is tempting," she admitted. "How do I know you won't cheat?"
I dropped my chin and looked at her through my eyebrows.
"First of all, I never cheat. Second of all, how the fuck do you cheat at rock, paper, scissors? If I win it'll be either luck or because I can see what you're thinking."
"You have no idea what I'm thinking," she said.
Good, she was getting feisty. Just the way I liked her.
"Then let's go. On three. One. Two. Three." I shook my hand a couple of times before making the scissors symbol with my fingers.
She made paper. I pretended to cut through it.
"That's only the first round," she said.
"As agreed," I said. I held out my hand and shook it twice once more before again making scissors.
This time, she made her hand into a fist. "Rock." She battered at my fingers with her hand, grinning at me.
"We have a tie," I said. I watched her face, I knew what she was thinking. I chose scissors twice. I'd choose it again.
Never let it be said that Fade Mitchell was predictable. I counted down to three and held my hand out straight. She was expecting scissors, so she'd go for rock.
She held her hand out fingers apart. "Scissors beat paper." She pretended to slice through my hand.
"Well fuck," I said, liking the way her fingers felt on mine, even though I hated to lose. "Where are the M&Ms?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment before a slow smile crept onto her face.
"I just remembered I put them in my bag. My bad. Neither of us needs to go out into the rain."
"Why do I get the feeling I was played?" I asked.
Okay, I didn't feel too disappointed about not getting wetter than I already was, but she made her point.
I hadn't read her the way I should have been able to.
I couldn't help being slightly irritated but at the same time, turned on as fuck.
She wasn't scared to turn the tables on me.
And apparently she was better at reading me than I would have guessed.
I was going to have to be more careful from now on.
She didn't answer my question, instead leaning down to pick up her bag and pull out the M&Ms, giving me a view of cleavage for a few moments before she straightened back up. She opened the bag and scooped out a handful before offering it to me.
"Emergency M&Ms for the win." I took a handful for myself and held them on my palm, picking out the yellow ones to eat first.
"Are the yellow ones your favorite?" she asked. "I mean, you're choosing them first."
"Maybe I like to get rid of them first," I suggested. I hesitated for a moment. She was either going to understand or think I was a complete Fruit Loop. I wasn't sure which.
"I start with the ones I have the fewest of," I explained. "I only had two yellow. I have three green, so those are next." I shrugged, pretending I didn't give a shit about her response, while waiting for her to laugh in my face.
"I do the opposite," she said. "I eat the ones I have the most of first." She wasn't laughing.
"You have two red and two blue, what are you going to do when you get down to those?" I asked.
She looked at her handful for a moment or two. "Then I leave my favorite color until last. If neither are my favorite color, I eat them all at the same time."
I nodded slowly. "That sounds like a good system. Hel and Oak? They eat them like it doesn't matter. Fucking Neanderthals." I gave her a wink while she laughed. I liked that sound much more than I should. I wanted to hear more of it. That and her moaning when she came.
"Ugh, I knew there was something wrong with them," she said jokingly. "I suppose it doesn't matter how they're eaten as long as they get eaten, right?"
"I don't think you believe that," I said. "M&Ms are like pussies. If you're going to eat them, then you better eat them right." I bet hers tasted better than chocolate. Thinking about it was enough to make me salivate.
We ate in silence while the storm raged on. The dark gray sky turned to black as night fell.
"We should make ourselves comfortable," I said. "You take the backseat." My seat should recline further.
"It looks like there's space in there for both of us," she said, climbing over the center console and giving me a good look at her ass before she plopped down on the backseat.
I didn't need to be told twice. I shoved off my shoes and clambered over to join her.