Her brows shoot up in surprise, and a smile softens her face. My answer surprises her, but not only her—me too. Honestly, I can’t tell you what made me show up at her college today, but she was the first person on my mind this morning, and I had to see her.
I simply had to.
“Kane,” she says softly, uncertainly. She’s about to turn me down again, and I fucking don’t like it. I’ve never met a woman this stubborn before.
Actually, I’ve never met a woman who hasn’t jumped at the chance to bounce on my dick. So, this is new territory for me,and I don’t know how to make this girl like me. I’ve never had to try before, which only makes me more determined.
“Just… Give me today, okay?” I relax my tense jaw and loosen my grip on the steering wheel. She’s not going to agree to spend the afternoon with me if I look like I’m about to explode.
She studies me, and I fight the urge to do what I would normally do—tell her she has no damn choice because she doesn’t. She’s spending the afternoon with me whether she wants to or not, because I fucking like her for reasons I can’t explain.
I mean, what is it about this girl that has me all tied up in knots? I keep asking myself this, but I can’t find an answer.
Even now, dressed in faded jeans and a white T-shirt that reads, ‘kinda classy, kinda chaos,’ she’s the most attractive girl I’ve ever met, and I can’t even tell you why. Maybe it’s the wavy lock of hair that refuses to be tamed, or the freckles on her nose. Maybe it’s her smile, because it hits me in the chest every damn time like a Cupid’s arrow.
Ah, fuck! I’m going soft.
“Kane,” she says again, but I cut her off with a vigorous shake of my head.
“Just one afternoon, little thief. That’s all I’m asking. If you don’t want to see me again after that, I’ll walk away and you won’t have to deal with me anymore.”
Lies, all damn lies, but I’d happily grow my nose like Pinocchio if it got her to spend time with me.
She fidgets with her hands in her lap. “Kane... I promised my brother I would stay away from you.”
Note to self: don’t bury her brother in a shallow grave, no matter how tempting it is. Trust me, it won’t help your cause. Take a deep breath. Keep your cool. You can win him over later.
One day, he’ll worship the ground you walk on. One day, he’ll admit you’re the best damn thing that ever happened to his sister.
One day, she’ll admit it too.
“Okay,” she says slowly, pulling me back from my thoughts. “One afternoon... but after that, you have to promise to leave me alone.”
Watch my nose grow. There it goes—poking the windshield.
“Of course,” I lie. She presses her lips together, but I catch that hint of warmth playing at her mouth, and suddenly I can’t think about anything else. I want to make her smile again. To be the reason for all her smiles.
“You look like you bit into a sour lemon,” she says. “Why do I get the feeling you won’t leave me alone after today?”
“I don’t know what gave you that impression.” I check my mirrors, then pull out to overtake a pensioner in a Civic Honda.
She studies my side profile with a gentle expression that settles in my chest. I’m dying to ask her what she’s thinking, but I’m nervous, which is another strange feeling and something I haven’t experienced before. My hands are clammy, and my heart is pounding.
“You seem kinda tense,” she points out, turning to face me, her inquisitive eyes warming the side of my face and neck.
“Why would I be tense?” I ask her.
I’m tense as hell. Of course I am. She fucks me up like no one else. One moment I’m chasing her, and then she’s chasing me, and something about our back-and-forth excites me to the core.
A soft sigh slips from her lips, and my cock twitches to life.
“I don’t know.” She’s silent for a moment, and I pull back into the slow lane before I cause a crash because she’s so distracting. I wouldn’t put it past me to kill us both, and we can’t have that before I taste her again.
I turn off the blinkers, but an incoming call from my father stops my thoughts cold, like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head, so I quickly silence his call and let it ring out. Fuck him.
I already know what he wants, and hell no. My skin crawls as I recall the flowery notes of the witch’s perfume from last night and the threat she left hanging in the air.
“Are you okay?” Jessica asks, her soft voice pulling me away from my father’s shadow. My tight-lipped smile doesn’t reach my eyes.
