“Yes.”
Acid fills my mouth but I make myself ask the next question, “Why aren't you with your boyfriend?”
“With Landon?”
Landon. A frat boy with no chin who thinks he’s hot shit because his dad owns some strip malls a few towns over and dipshis toes into politics. When Landon visits Lainey at the store, he parks his red Mercedes in the Reserved for the Disabled spot.
“We broke up.”
“You dumped him?” I settle beside her on the couch.
“I… It was mutual.” Her gaze drops away, her shyness tinged with shame. “He wanted more than I wanted to give.”
Heat flares in my chest. “Did he do something to you?”
“I'm okay, Joel,” she says quickly, as if she recognizes there's a monster inside me roaring to be let out. “He didn't do anything.”
I make a note to check if she’s telling the whole truth, or downplaying it to be nice. If Landon hurt her, I’ll kill him with my bare hands.
It'd be so easy. Hang around one of the ratty college bars on a Friday night and wait for him to stagger out drunk. Hit him over the head or choke him out, and secure him in the trunk of a throwaway car. I live on a ton of private land. It’s easy to hide a body in these woods.
“Joel.” She puts her hand on mine, and my murderous visions fade away.
“It’s fine. It just wasn't working out.”
“You're too good for him.” Her hand is delicate, pure, in my dirty palm, but I can’t let her go.
“It's nice of you to say that.”
“It's true. You're too good for anybody in this town.”
Her long lashes flutter. She doesn’t believe me. I shouldn’t touch her but I can’t let this pass.
“You’re perfect.” And she is. Dark hair, dark eyes, pure skin. Lush curves under the bulky sweaters she wears. She zoomed through high school and college, graduating early. She’s only working at the grocery store to pay the bills and help out her aunt. Soon she’ll have her Masters and be done with our small town.
Lainey Stevens is going places. Me? I'm an ex-con, living like a hermit on a deserted mountain. I might as well be a million years older than her. I fix up old cars and sell them at a profit, making enough so I don't have to count coins when I buy ground beef and tomato sauce at Gemma’s store. Lainey’s so high above me she might as well be in the clouds.
But she doesn’t seem to understand that. She shrugs off my compliment.
I grasp her chin, forcing her to look at me. “It’s true. Lainey, listen to me.” I wait until her gaze meets mine. “You are perfect. You are. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Our faces are inches apart, her breath sweet on my lips. “Do you understand? Sayyes, Joel.”
“Yes, Joel.”
Damn, if that doesn't get me hard.
Her tongue darts out and licks her top lip, glazing it. She has a perfect mouth with thick and curvy lips. I bet her pussy looks the same.
I’m so busy fantasizing about her pussy, I almost miss her little laugh.
“You’re always lecturing me. Remember the last time my car broke down?”
I do, vividly. The summer heat, and her bent over to check her tires, her dress hitching up the back of her curvy calves and delicious rear. She wore a white cardigan and looked modest and sexy at the same time. “You were driving up here with bald tires. You deserved a lot more than a lecture.”
She’s looking at the floor again, instead of at me. “You said if it happened again… I’d be in trouble.”
“I said more than that. I told you if you ever drove on bald tires again, I’d turn you over my knee.” I wait for her to run, screaming. Instead, her breath hitches and her lips curve.
I save us both from the silence. “I’ll take a look at your car before they tow it. I might be able to fix it. Your car and I have a good relationship.”
