Tommy
God, she’s cute…everything about her is so damn innocent. I walk her out of FreshMart like the gentleman I am with my hand on her back, but not before slipping Mrs. Holly more money to keep her damn mouth shut in case Didi’s mama comes knocking.
I can’t wait to have her in my front seat, turn up my music, and watch her reaction as she experiences the power of the engine beneath her.
We walk up, and her eyes widen when she sees my Camaro. “Are we…am I? Is that your car?”
“Yeah, I just got it this year.” I open the door for her and a puff of smoke filters out.
“Shit…” I mumble, waving the smoke. “Sorry. Bax smokes a lot.”
And it’s not just any weed…it’s the skanky type, like Bax picked it out of a pile of shit.
She crinkles her nose in the cutest way. “It’s fine.”
She gets in carefully, and I lean over to help her buckle up, making sure she can’t go anywhere. Then, I jump in beside her, almost gagging from the lingering smoke.
New rule: no hotboxing my car.
I open the window to let the fresh air in. The wind outside is rustling the trees, making it seem like we are the only two people in the world. The bus, thankfully, is already long gone with Remy in it.
I’ll have some explaining to do to Remy, but not tonight.
Placing the keys into the ignition, the engine roars to life, and I place one arm over the back of her seat.
Once I get onto the highway, I open it up and drive down the country road just as the sun hides behind the giants. This time of day is my favorite. The sun is so low it slides through the trees, casting a glow through the forest.
I could drive out here for hours and just get lost in it—lost in her.
I stare at her out of the corner of my eye.
Her legs are tucked to the side as she gazes out the window, almost in a trance, her brows scrunched together.
What the hell is wrong with her? Why does it always seem like she’s in pain?
I slow the car and pull over, and she glances at me and smiles, but she looks right through me.
I reach over and move a piece of her soft hair. “I forgot you can’t see in the light.”
Her eyes adjust as her pupil’s flare. “I can see exactly what I need to see. It’s bright, but I can see enough to know it’s pretty.”
“Like you,” I say with a silly grin.
She lowers her head as I drive over to a shady spot so she can see. “Do you call all the girls pretty?” she asks me.
“Just you.”
She rolls her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“You ever smoke pot?” I ask, changing the subject as I notice a joint Bax left on the dashboard for later. He’ll be pissed about that.
She smirks, glancing over. “Once.”
My brows arch. “Really?”
“Don’t tell Mama, but…I tried it at my last school.”
I chuckle, grab the joint and light it. “Don’t worry, firefly.” I cough out a giant puff of smoke. “Your secrets are safe with me.” I suck on it a few more times to get it going and hand it to her. “Careful. This stuff’s strong.” I blow the remaining smoke out of my nose.
She grabs it from my hand and takes a small toke and passes it back to me, while I take in the small bruise on her cheek. I resist the urge to run my fingers over it and ask her how she got it.
“What kind of music do you like?” I ask her instead.
She shakes her head. “I don’t…I don’t know much about music. Mama doesn’t like it. Say’s rock n’ roll is the devil’s music.”
“Fine…no music. I like to hear the wind while I drive, anyway.” I fire the engine back up.
“Where are we going?” she asks, leaning her head against the seat.
“We’re taking the long way home,” I joke.
She gives me a blank stare.
“No…nothing?”
Guess she’s never heard of Supertramp. Now I sound like Bax. I’m not that funny.
I lean toward her. “Do you trust me, Didi?” I say over the purring and rumble of the engine.
She blinks at me. “I’m starting to…” she says over the chaos.
I sneak my hand around her seat and grab the back of her neck, massaging it with my fingers.
Her hair is so soft and beautiful. Her eyes sparkle as she lets me touch her.
I admire her, and she lets me play with her hair.
I try not to pine over her like the horny teenager I am, but my dick grows hard the second I make contact.
“Alright, buckle up.” I give her an ounce of warning before I go full throttle on the engine.
Her eyes grow like saucers and her head pins to the seat. “Tommy…”
She’s petrified, so I grab her hand. I want to make her comfortable, and if I have to scare her shitless for her to fall in love with me, then so be it.
She squeals beside me, and I don’t let up. I pull the gear into third, and then fourth, taking the car as fast as I can through the back roads into town. I push even further, testing my own limits on what’s comfortable.
Like hell I’d let her know that though.
The force of the car is strong. Winding, twisting and turning, the wind in my hair from the warm spring night, and when I glance over at her she’s smiling.
I want to spend more time making this girl smile. In fact, I want to spend a hell of a lot more time making her smile.
It’s the only smile I ever want to see.
I pull over when the road ends. Beyond this point is nothing but forest and trees that span for miles.
Darkness and shadows. No one is out here…nothing is out here. Shadowface doesn’t belong here…because there is no way I can kill this girl.
Once I’m parked, I kill the engine again. Her hair is wild— windblown and gorgeous.
“Tommy, that was…” She looks over at me and grins. “I want to do that again.”
Her eyelashes shine in the sunlight as if they have a hint of frost in them.
“Do you want to drive?”
She frowns and gives her head a half shake. “I…I don’t know how to drive.”
I reach over, my fingers lingering on her waist just below the seatbelt clip. “Come sit on my lap. I’ll teach you how. Just steer; I will handle the gas and gear changes.”
She flinches and the expression on her face is agonizing, so I second-guess myself.
“Tommy, I don’t think so. I’m legally blind and slightly stoned. What if I got caught?”
I move my arm, realizing that I’m making her uncomfortable, and place it around the back of her seat, instead. “Come on, Didi, live a little.” I lean in and whisper in her ear, “I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to a firefly.”
Her eyes shoot to mine as she rolls her eyes and giggles.
“Didi, it’s just me and you right now. You can do whatever you want when you’re with me. You don’t have to hide yourself.”
She pauses for a moment to consider. “Okay…I guess we can try. But you can’t get mad at me if I crash your car.”
Fair enough.
By some holy miracle, she undoes her seatbelt and inches closer to me. I shift the seat back to give her lots of space and encourage her.
The second my hand touches hers, I never want to let go.
Does she feel this, too? I can’t be the only one.
I’m so damn nervous. She settles between my legs and leans her head back on my chest. She can probably hear my heartbeat because it’s beating so fast. I love her like this, where I can wrap my arms around her and protect her.
She fits inside me like I’m a perfect glove.
I’ve never had this urge to protect someone like I do with her. The only thing ruining this moment is the fact that my father will expect me to kill her the same way he killed his high school sweetheart. And Remy seemingly wants to kill her too.
“You ready?” I murmur into her ear.
“What do I do?” she asks, and I can’t help but memorize every inch of her body. I’m hard, my erection digging into her lower back. I’ll bet she can feel that.
I place one arm on the gearshift and the other on her hip, and I try to control my erection as she leans back but her body remains tight—mainly because she has no other choice. I’ve trapped her.
She shifts again. Her body is rigid, not soft like I want it to be.
Something is super off.
“Put your hands on the steering wheel, and when I tell you to turn, you turn.”
“That’s easy,” she says.
I smile into the back of her head and move her hand to the gear shift. “Piece of cake, baby.” I softly kiss her…so soft she won’t notice, but her body goes rigid again. Shit…she noticed.
I reach around her and turn on the radio, a cassette I made last week while inspired by Didi. Bohemian Rhapsody comes on, and I reach over and turn it up.
I shift into gear and slowly press the gas, going slow and steady until she gets the hang of it.
“What is this song?” she asks me.
“It’s the new Queen song. Have you ever heard of Queen?”
“No,” she admits, turning the wheel this way and that, “but I like it.”
“I love this tune. I’ve been listening to it on repeat since it came out.”
I crank up the chorus, and she squeals with joy at the falsetto. I love how excited she gets over everything new. It’s like every experience is her first.
I take it slow on the road while she’s steering. She’s all over the place, and at one point, she almost crashes into a tree.
“Turn right,” I shout over the music, and we swing onto a different road, heading farther into the woods, and I ease off the gas, driving much slower.
I turn the song down as the rest of the track plays out. It’s me and her and the music.
“You’ve really never heard that song?” I ask her.
She shifts beneath me. “My mama doesn’t really let me listen to music, but there is one band I like.”
I swerve to avoid her nearly driving us off the road, and I slam on the brakes before we end up in the ditch. “Okay, maybe we’re done,” I say as the car comes to a complete stop. She looks up, raising her eyebrows in a way that says, “I told you so.”
She goes to move, but I squeeze my knees, trapping her. I move her hair over her shoulder so I can see the skin of her neck. “Not yet,” I whisper, and her body folds when she realizes I’m not letting her go yet.
We listen to the next song, and the next, without talking.
Just guitar, wind, and silence.
She sucks in a breath as my lips graze her supple skin; she tastes like lavender. Her whole-body jolts like my lips are on fire as I move my hands lower near her hips.
Dammit. What’s wrong with her?
Was it because I called her baby? Or how low my fingers are, or because I can’t seem to keep my lips off her.
“I really, really want to kiss you, Didi. I won’t push you for anything else. But please, let me kiss you.”
She turns to face me. “I don’t know…”
“Just one.”
“Okay,” she breathes. “Just one kiss, then you have to take me home.”
Hell yeah…
Without hesitation, I pull her chin up and bring my mouth to hers. We linger there, our breath mingling, lips teasing each other, until she opens her lips and lets me deepen the kiss. I keep it gentle, letting her take the lead, and she shyly teases me with her tongue.
My body heats, the air heavy between us, and I wrap my hand around her neck and pull her in closer.
I’ve kissed a few girls in my life, though not as many as one would think because I’m picky.
But kissing Didi is different. Kissing Didi is everything. My stomach knots up and all I care about is making sure she likes it.
I pull away and study her. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” she breathes. “I don’t want you to stop.”
We kiss for a few minutes, and I get drunk off her.
“You taste like honey,” I tell her, keeping my lips on hers.
She sniffles. “That’s what I had for lunch. A spoonful of honey helps line my stomach. I learned that when I was little.”
That makes my soul weep.
My hands roam her stomach, and my lips find her neck. My dick now full-blown out of control. “Didi—hell. You’re driving me crazy.” I buck into her.
She’s so sexy and doesn’t realize it, which makes her even sexier.
I squeeze her and shift my hands down to her waist and sense something hard on the side of her abdomen.
What the hell is that?
A tiny sob escapes her, and I freeze, scared to move, but it’s there, an oversized belt wrapped around her hips.
She grabs my hand and pulls it up. “Tommy, please don’t do that.”
My jaw clenches, but I pull my lips and hands off her. “Okay, Didi. I’ll stop.”
I release her, and she crawls back to her seat, staring out the window into the dark night.
What the hell just happened?
Her pale face is shadowed, and she has a sad, heartbreaking expression in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, absorbing my deep stare. “I’m not a normal girl, Tommy, okay.”
“Goddammit, Didi,” I say as I punch the steering wheel. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
I’m a dick…
I can’t control myself with her. Perhaps it’s because she’s good at playing coy, or if it’s because I’m very aware she’s a virgin hiding under those baggy clothes, but I’ve never wanted a girl so damn much. I want to screw the living daylights out of her.
I lean my back and interlace my hands around the back of my head. “Is everything okay?” I finally ask her, nearly out of breath. “What the hell is that?”
She squeezes her eyes shut. “It’s a chastity belt, Tommy. I think it’s time you take me home.”
A what? Like one of those medieval things?
I run my hands through my hair. “Didi…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. You can trust me.”
She folds her arms. “Mama’s expecting me. Please.”
I lift my hands. “Okay. Okay.”
I start the car, pulling it onto the dark road.
We drive in silence, though I steal glances at her every few minutes, and tears begin to stream down her face. I turn the music up, hoping it will calm her.
“Just drop me off at that tree,” she says as I pull near her street. “I can walk from here.”
“What? No. Not a chance in hell. Something could happen to you.”
She presses her lips together, and her eyes widen. “Mama and I will be fine. We always are.”
I swallow hard. “I mean…dammit. There’s still a killer on the loose, Diana.” Well, not really, the killer is at a wellness retreat three hours away, but I still need Didi to understand the danger in this town is real.
Her eyes narrow in on me. “I’m not convinced that the killer isn’t you.”
She’s got me on that one…
I could never hurt her—I would never kill anyone; despite the cursed family I’m a part of. But something ain’t right with her. In fact, something is terribly wrong. I struggle to find words to make this better.
“Can you please meet me at lunch on Monday,” I call after her. “If not, I’ll come find you.”
She slams the door and leaves by the time I can blink.