Chapter 6 Indie
Indie
Play With Fire (feat. Yacht Money)
Age Twenty
I turn the engine off and step into the warm summer air.
It’s not as heated in the evenings, but it’s a vast difference from the chill that usually whips in the air every other month, and with how much the nerves are setting my skin on fire, the light breeze is a welcome feeling.
Saint randomly texted me this morning asking if I wanted to go on a mini hike. I almost cried.
Freaking out between him wanting to do something together, and the fact he’s asking me to do a physical activity.
A hike during the summer makes me want to vomit.
The only thing I’m grateful for is the fact we’re meeting at the golf course, and the trail here isn’t one that I might collapse and wither away on.
Well, not from anything strenuous, anyway.
The one thing I can guarantee that might give out is my heart after seeing him for the first time after his graduation.
Alone.
It’s been two months since university broke up, and every year he heads off for the first few weeks to work with his dad. This is the first anyone’s heard from him.
My gaze scans across the parking lot, instantly spotting him as my eyes draw to him like a lodestone.
Saint is parked near the beginning of the trail, leaning against his car as smoke curls around him.
I used to hate smoking until I saw Saint with a cigarette behind his ear.
He’s dressed in dark cotton shorts, a white T-shirt and his cap on backwards. The sight of that alone turns my bones to liquid. Nerves enlighten my entire body, and I force my shaky legs to walk towards him, fighting the urge to knot my fingers together.
As soon as I’m a couple of feet away from him, his gaze slides to mine, eyes running up the entire length of my body.
The motion has me feeling like the sun just slid an inch closer to earth.
He told me to wear something I wouldn’t cry about if my feet started hurting, so I’m wearing shorts, a crop top and sneakers, but I instantly feel completely naked under the heat of his gaze.
My voice surprisingly comes out steady when I speak. “Are we really going on a trail? Or are you planning my murder? In fact, are you looking for me to help you hide a body? I’m down for a favour, Saint, but criminal law wasn’t my major.”
Internally, I curse myself for my nervous rambling, but a dark rumble of a laugh comes from his chest and fills the air, and he wipes a hand down his face.
“For fuck’s sake. Let’s walk.” He pushes off the car, stretching his hand out to motion onto the trail.
We walk in silence for the first part, but it’s surprisingly not uncomfortable. Despite my awkwardness that’s come over the last year, along with its guest appearance earlier, we know each other really well, so I have no reason to be nervous.
I think that’s why I’ve felt shy around him, because my feelings are so strong, and everything between us has mostly been platonic.
I’d hate for this to ruin our friendship and make him feel like he could no longer be in my life.
“How does it feel to graduate? Are you moving out of your dad’s house?” I ask him instead of clogging up my brain with thoughts, and we take the turn to head up the hill.
“Thankful to never see a fucking textbook again, that’s for sure. But no, I don’t have any plans yet.”
Hope strangely blooms in my chest. Saint’s father has his own private security company, something to do with hiring out bodyguards I think, and he’s always travelling.
A deep part of my soul thought he might follow in his footsteps, and it forced tension through my body.
I dare a look at him, and his eyes are already on me, but he isn’t looking at me the same way he usually does.
His gaze has a dark edge to it, could even be mistaken for an icy blast, but the way it makes me feel alive says otherwise.
And despite it adding to his terrifying facade, it only makes me want to lurk beneath its depths.
Shifting my head forward again before I faceplant, I force down a swallow. “What am I going to do without you helping me cut the lunch queues?”
Saint and Rex would usually have lunch with us when we were all free. We were close growing up, but they’re in the year above, so had already built different friendship groups. We still managed to all congregate together. My mom finds it heartwarming that we’ve all gone to Kingstone University.
“Oh, I’m sure if you bat those lashes hard enough, someone will inevitably cave to doing it for you,” he says, but then as soon as the words come out his mouth, his jaw grinds.
We chat back and forth as we make the climb up the hill, and he jogs ahead to lift a branch, ushering me to duck under it.
The golf course isn’t far from where we live, and I’ve done this trail before, but never ventured off it.
When I slip through, it leads to a small viewpoint, the lookout soaring over the entire grounds below. The sky is a mix of blue and orange, the last remaining clouds of the day almost opaque.
I never knew this spot was here; it’s encased by the trees apart from this small clearing.
“It’s beautiful here,” I say breathlessly, taking a moment to enjoy it. I bet it looks even better at night when the stars are on show.
“It is now,” Saint says behind me, and I turn to find him sitting up on a rock, watching me.
His arms are resting on top of his raised knees, his biceps protruding against the fabric of his shirt. He tilts his head for me to sit next to him.
One hand reaches out as an offering to boost me up when I reach him.
“Do you remember that time I crashed my dad’s car into the gate?”
A laugh bursts free from me. “You asked me to let you in my house so you could hide out… Then fell out of the tree, and I tried to call an ambulance.”
He’d decided after one driving lesson, he didn’t need any more and took the car out the garage; he didn’t even make it twenty feet before he collided with the iron gates.
He adjusts his hat, wiggling the back with a smirk on his face. “You played a very good nurse though.”
I smile at the memory. I was so damn nervous the two of us were in the house alone.
“Gave myself a crash course through YouTube on treating concussions. I’ve kept it handy in case I ever need it again.”
Some sick, twisted part of me rejoiced at the fact he ran four blocks over to my house, instead of heading to Rex, who was only one over. He even stayed for a couple hours after it.
“What age were we then?” he asks, and I frown, looking over at him.
“Jeez, I must have been like what, fifteen? You’d be sixteen?”
His gaze lingers on my eyes before darting to my lips, then shifting back up again. “Yeah, five years ago.”
My throat feels like it’s closing up; wings flutter within my chest all the way down to my stomach.
I wet my lips. “So, uh, what made you want to ask me on a hike without the guys?”
Saint twists so he’s leaning back on one hand. His scent follows into my nostrils as the light breeze carries it, instantly making me feel high.
His deep, velvet-like voice wraps around me. “Indie, I think it’s about time you and I both stopped playing this game.”
The last of his words come out with a hint of a growl, and I’m not entirely sure I heard him correctly.
“What game?” I whisper, my heart rate skyrocketing, but my body is instantly attracted to him, an invisible tie pulling me to him.
His hand reaches out, and my muscles lock as he tucks a piece of stray hair behind my ear, before trailing his knuckles down my cheek, all the way until he’s holding my neck.
He slides his thumb back and forth, right across the path of my pulse, which is skittering beneath his touch and roaring in my ears.
Tightening his grip, he whispers, “The one where you keep pretending you aren’t fucking mine.”
And then, our lips collide.
His kiss devours me, and I’m too stunned to even question if this is real. His tongue wickedly and expertly strokes against mine.
My hand runs up his solid chest, and I wish there wasn’t a barrier between my touch, wanting to feel if his skin is on fire the same as mine, wanting to feel if this is my reality.
I pull away first, the both of us breathing harshly as we stare at each other.
“You like me?”
My words come out through breathless pants, along with a touch of nerves, my eyes searching for an answer before his mouth can provide it.
That soul-snatching smirk lines his face. “I’ve waited five years for this moment, Indie darling.”
Five years.
My eyes flutter shut at the names harmoniously mixing together.
Am I dreaming?
Did I fall on the way here and bump my head?
This can’t be real.
“Why did you wait?” I ask. I could have saved myself years of agonising torture if I knew he felt the same.
His hand wraps around mine, and he tugs me into his lap so I’m straddling him. It feels like the most natural thing in the world, despite the tremble in my limbs.
“Because I convinced myself that I didn’t deserve something quite as innocent and breathtaking as you.”
I can sense a heart attack on the horizon if he keeps talking like this, and I must be mentally unstable, but I don’t want him to stop.
“And now?”
Large hands glide up my bare thighs, leaving sparks of electricity in their wake.
“Now, I realise I’m a selfish bastard, and I’m going to take you anyway.”