I carefully climb off him, my legs shaky. We fix our clothes in silence. I pull my dress back down and do up a few buttons. He tucks himself back into his sweatpants. Then he hands me my torn-up panties.
“Sorry about that.”
“Um…it’s fine,” I tell him, taking them and stuffing them in my pocket. This dress has handy pockets. I’ll bet whoever designed it didn’t have panties in mind.
The air in the car feels thick. Charged with something neither of us wants to acknowledge. It smells like sex.
Shit!
“We should…” I clear my throat, picking up the discarded cellphone. “We should probably talk about those checkpoints. Figure out our route home. We shouldn’t wait too long. They might move, and then we’re done for.”
“Yeah,” Grim agrees. “Let me see what Drake sent.” He holds out his hand, and I give him the phone.
My brain is muddled from the encounter with the officer and from what just happened. More from what just happened.
Grim looks at the map for a few minutes, then he shows me a route, using his finger as he talks. “What do you think? It’ll take us an extra ten minutes, but we should be fine.”
I take a look at the map, trying hard to concentrate. I check again, just to be sure. “That looks good. I think we should rather be safe than sorry.”
“You should drive, just in case we run into Officer Dipshit. Hopefully, he’ll wave you right by.”
“You’ll hide in the back?”
Grim nods.
“We got really lucky,” I say.
“More like, you were really smart and handled that well. I’m sorry I overreacted. I just…”
“It was the adrenaline.” I shrug.
“Yes, that’s exactly right.” He nods. “And the sex…” He looks like he’s thinking it over, trying to come up with the right thing to say.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment situation that was completely adrenaline-fueled. You know…?” I fumble for the right words.
“Exactly. It would seem we get off on being in dangerous situations.”
I laugh. “I guess you’re right. We do. How weird are we?”
“I like weird.”
“Weird is good, but I think it would be better if we avoided them in the future.”
“Good idea,” he agrees, his voice flat. Grim gets out of the car, and I slide over behind the wheel. As soon as he’s ducked down in the back, I buckle up and reverse out.
The weird part is, I still feel wired. I still feel like I want more. Like that quick hook-up didn’t nearly scratch the itch.
I’m acutely aware that I’m not wearing underwear. I’m tempted to pull over and get into the back with Grim.
I can’t.
We can’t.
That was a mistake. One I can’t make again.
35
Grim
