Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Kendall
It’s late and I should go home, but my mind is racing. It seems to be racing all the time lately. Constantly going back to one thing, or one person. I wish I could shut it off, go back to before and ignore the attraction, but I had to give in and now, damnit it is impossible to forget.
“Working late?” I glance back over my shoulder as Leo walks over carrying a beer in one hand. Freshly showered, his hair is styled wet and tossed. He’s wearing sweats and he’s shirtless.
“How’d ya guess?” I say, turning back to the truck engine because my head may be all over the place but Leo is very attractive. I’m confused and frustrated, not dead.
“Tense,” he says, dragging his finger along my elbow and chills cover my arms, shoulders, and neck.
He lives above the shop, as my father puts it, killing two birds with one stone. It provides a constant watch for the shop and two, ensures Leo is never late for work. If he is, my father has twelve steps to get his ass moving.
“I could help relieve some of that tension,” he adds, and I close my eyes taking a calming breath. Though it does nothing to calm me.
Shrugging away I turn and look at him. Leo has perfected a cocky smile. He is without a doubt the biggest dog I know. He has no intentions of settling down, he is a hit it and leave kind of guy. Which I am fine with…I’ve always been fine with!
But suddenly my head is disagreeing with my heart and they are in a constant battle.
Frankly it pisses me off.
I do nothing when he takes a step closer and places his hand on the support of the truck.
I do nothing when he leans in further and drags his mouth over mine.
And I do nothing when he discards his beer and wraps his arm around my waist. Pulling my body to his, I fall into the kiss and fist his hair.
Suddenly I am pinned to the wall and he is grinding against me, his sweats hiding nothing. The harder he gets the harder my body fights it.
I want to forget.
I want to ignore the ragging bitch in my head screaming what the fuck are you doing, you idiot!
He cups my chest, biting my lips and I arch my body.
When his hand goes beneath my shirt and begins moving upward, I freeze.
“Damnit!” I growl out and push against his chest.
If the situation was different I would have laughed at the surprised look on his face. But I am too angry at this point to feel anything else.
“What’s going on?” he asks as he lowers me to the ground. I fist my hands at my sides and stare at him, only I don’t see him. I’m sure he thinks I am pissed at him, but this has nothing to do with him.
I turn around, grab my keys, and walk for the door.
“Where are you going?” Leo hollers out and I should feel bad for leaving him in his current condition but I don’t. I know with one call he’ll be able to fix his problem.
“To kill a man,” I say in response knowing he will have no idea what I am talking about. He already knows I am a little wild.
Climbing into my Jeep I connect my phone to my Bluetooth and find the number in my contacts.
“Hey,” Adley answers. I know she is the last one that will fight me on this. She is almost as crazy as me. We do not judge one another, and if I’m being honest, she is the first person I would call if I killed someone and needed help hiding the body.
“What’s Aaron’s address?”
“Booty call?”
“Possible murder,” I say. “Definitely bloodshed, a lot of yelling and not the good kind.”
“What did he do?”
“He killed my ability to have random hot sex with the dirty boy mechanic.”
“Leo?” She has heard all my secrets.
“It used to be so easy. Leo would pop in, things would get a little crazy, and we’d both leave satisfied.”
“And now?”
I take a deep breath and grip the steering wheel tighter.
“Now my head is filled with Aaron like being with anyone else is somehow cheating on him. But he and I are nothing, we won’t be nothing, and he needs to get the hell out of my head.
” I hear her laugh. “All those little ideas in your head need to disappear, because after tonight, he and I will barely be able to be in the same room without killing one another.”
“There was a time Rory and I were in that same situation and now look at us,” she pops off, and by the tone of her voice I already know she is smiling.
“Address,” I ignore her, because I need to save my anger for another. I need to keep my frame of mind set on one goal.
She tells me how to get to his place and tells me to make sure I go left instead of right at the fork. “You show up in this state on his parents’ doorstep, you’ll probably frighten his mother.” She ends the call and I already know she’s giving Rory the scoop.
I sit in silence, stewing over my current situation. I refrain from turning up the music on the drive, because I do not need anything taming my mood.
When I turn left and go over a couple hills, a lit beautiful home comes into view.
Slowing to a stop I put my Jeep into park and just stare.
It takes about three minutes for the front door to open and for Aaron to step out onto the front porch. A covered porch with big welcoming chairs on it.
He steps out a little further and damn it if he isn’t wearing a pair of sweats too. But truth, they look so much better on him.
I shake the dirty thoughts from my head and climb out, leaving my Jeep running. I have no intentions of staying.
Aaron says nothing, just stares ahead with his hands on his hips as I walk toward him.
“You need to get out of my head!” After I say it I realize this isn’t going as planned. I am rattled and I am never rattled. I am generally cool as a cucumber, always in control. Until now, which only adds fuel to my raging fire.
“What?”
“I never asked for this,” I yell at him, “but damnit you are there and it’s driving me crazy.” Aaron stares at me like I’ve lost my damn mind, and maybe I have.
“I’m where?” he asks with a brow arched.
“In my head, in my kitchen, my shower, my bed.” I throw my hands up in the air, frustration coursing through me like an uncontrollable inferno. “You’re everywhere and I just need you to stop.”
He chuckles. “Babe I think I’d remember being in your kitchen, and I know without a doubt I’d remember the shower and the bed.”
I simply glare at him, words racing in my mind, though I can’t form one single sentence.
“All I’m saying is those are memories I wouldn’t forget.”
“Metaphorically or imaginatively.” He still seems confused, and I’ll admit I am too. “Damnit I don’t know but you are there.”
It truly pisses me off that I can’t let it go and that he is in my head even when he’s not even near.
“Why don’t you come inside and let’s talk?” He holds out his hand and still smiles like he’s won.
“No,” I say. “You have not won.”
“Won what?”
“Stop smiling.” I step forward and feel some weird spike of adrenaline the closer we become. So I step back, like that is going to magically make it subside. “You haven’t won,” I say, because I’m doing that now. I am having a conversation with my own thoughts.
“You.” I take a deep breath. “I’m leaving.”
“Are you sure?” Why does he have to be so good-looking?
“No,” I say before I can stop myself. “But I am doing it anyway.”
Without another thought I turn around and walk back to my Jeep. Pausing as I reach out to climb up inside I glance back at him.
“This,” I wave my finger between the two of us, “it would never work. In the end it will explode and there will be nothing but anger and hate in its path. I am not the kind of girl any guy brings home to his mother.”
I don’t wait for him to respond, instead I climb up inside and close the door. Looking through the windshield I see Aaron has stepped down off his porch and is paused, staring at me from the edge of his driveway.
I know I have two choices here, but I choose the one I always lean toward.
I run!