“This is fucking crazy,” I pant, voice raspy and rough. “We’re in broad daylight. Anyone could see us. We can’t?—”
“Take me to your place,” she says simply, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
The demanding edge in her tone—the bossiness of it—shoots straight to my cock. This twenty-year-old woman ordering me around like she knows exactly what she wants.
It’s enough to convince me that maybe… she really does. Maybe I’m holding onto this restraint when really I should be throwing caution to the wind.
I should be pursuing what I really want.
“Alright,” I say. Then add, “Buckle up.”
She smirks at the order but listens, clicking her seatbelt back into place. “Yes, Daddy.”
Fuck.
This is so fucking wrong. I know it, but this time, I ignore it. I press the gas and drive us the rest of the way home.
We’re about to cross every line, break every rule, destroy every boundary I’ve tried to maintain.
But I’m done giving a shit about right and wrong.
20
SOLANA
I’min a daze as I follow Silver into his house.
We’re as demure as can be about it—sitting up straight in his truck for the rest of the drive and letting the miles pass in silence. When he pulls up to his driveway, we get out like it’s another mundane afternoon and we haven’t come to the agreement we have.
Silver walks half a pace in front of me, his broad shoulders tense and his keys dangling from his right hand. I can’t help studying his gait, noting how he walks as if he’s always in command of a situation.
…even now.
Even as he gives into what he’s been denying for so long.
But I’m not sorry about making him confront it—I stand by everything I’ve said and done. What happened between me and Kel helped me realize I can’t be a sitting duck anymore. I can’t be passive and let things happentome.
I can’t wait for LA either. I need to be the woman I want to benow.
That means learning to be confident. That means going after what I want and taking what’s been stolen from me back onmyterms.
Silver has quickly become the only person in my life who sees me. He’s the only person I trust as I go through this metamorphosis.
Which is exactly what makes him the perfect man for me.
He unlocks the door and we step inside still silent, an air of uncertainty between us. The sudden hot passion we’d had in the car has cooled enough that I can tell he’s doubting this.
I would be too if it were a week ago. But things are different now—killing Kel, defending myself in a life or death situation against him,changedme.
“Solana,” Silver says once we’re in the entry hall. He runs a hand through his hair and then pins me with his startlingly blue-eyed stare. “You called me out in the truck, so I’m gonna give it to you straight. There’s nothing I would like more than to take you in my arms, carry you up to my room, kiss you all over your body, and honestly? Fuck you so good you’ll remember me for the rest of your life.
“I’ve fantasized about all the things I want to do to you—as wrong or inappropriate as it might be—I’ve had those fantasies. But I’ve also had you on my mind just about every damn waking moment too. I’ve beat the shit out of a man and buried a body for you. That’s just scratching the surface of the lengths I’m willing to go to in order to protect you. I want you in every way I was never meant to want a woman like you. I’m done denying any of that. But after everything you’ve been through, the last thing I’m gonna do is pressure you into anything. This goes howyouwant it to go. I’m here to be whatever you need me to be.”
He finishes his confession by holding my gaze captive, by owning every word he’s uttered as he tosses his keys on the entryway table and shoves both hands into his denim pockets.
Your move.
I blink, taken aback by him vocalizing exactly what I need; himvolunteeringto be what I need.
