She’s pulling back on the flirting. Some of my blood flow starts to pump away from my dick. But we exchanged a couple mildly salacious messages, and it didn’t make her want to cut contact. That’s a win. Shit, that’s a big win.
Nah, I’m done studying. I have a better idea for what we should do with the rest of our night.
We?
Unless you think you’ll be able to get to sleep soon?
Fat chance
What do you think about taking a drive? I have something in mind.
Hmmm. Sounds like something I should say no to …
Text bubbles keep dancing under her message. I’m holding my phone between my thumbs and ring fingers, because my index and middle fingers are crossed as I silently chant,please, please, please …
But yes
13
JAMIE
“How many times are you going to make me promise this?”
Carmen side-eyes me with an assessing scan. “Probably every couple minutes until you drop me off at home and I lock the door behind me.”
Despite her words, there’s a splash of amusement in her eyes, and just the tiniest whisp of a smile at the edge of her lips.
“I promise I’m not a serial killer and this isn’t a plot to get you alone,” I say, grinning at the absurdity of the words.
Carmen hums skeptically. “If you say so …”
My grin pitches higher. I’m in my car with Carmen sitting next to me in the passenger seat. My nerves are tap-dancing with excitement. I’m giddy, feeling wired and alive in a way I never really have.
Sure, I felt insanely hyped-up during the Frozen Four championship last year. And especially after we won. It was a high unlike any other. But this? This is … different.
My fingers thrum with tension while they’re wrapped around my steering wheel. As good as it feels to be alone with Carmen like this, there’s a nervous bite to it. But it’s not a bad feeling. Itheightens everything around me. It makes the orange glow of the streetlights we’re driving under brighter and warmer; it makes the purr of my engine louder; it makes the scent that wafts from Carmen’s hair strike my nose with a sharper and sweeter note.
“Here it is,” I say, pulling onto the wide shoulder at the summit of one of the hills that the roads out of Cedar Shade run through.
I take a deep breath when I step outside the car. The weather is milder than it’s been for the last couple weeks. Still cold, but there’s no wind, and instead of being frigid and brutal, the frosty air is clean, fresh, invigorating in my lungs.
Carmen gets out and casts an eye at our surroundings. “Hmm. Thisdoesseem like a great place to hide a body …”
I laugh. “It would actually be a terrible place, wouldn’t it? It’s the highest nearby elevation. This wide shoulder probably makes it a popular place for drivers to pull over.”
“Wow. You’ve given this some thought, huh?”
I laugh again, rolling my eyes. “Maybe I should be concerned with how easily you agreed to go on a nighttime drive with me if you were worried that I’m a murderer.”
Her smile rises higher than I’ve ever seen it. It’s so fucking pretty that my heart feels pierced by an arrow. “Maybe self-preservation isn’t my strong suit.”
I shake my head. “I doubt that.” I open the back door and pull out the blanket I brought. I walk to the front of my car and spread it over the hood.
“Ohh, I see,” Carmen says, an archness in her voice, “this isn’t a murder thing. This is a kinky outdoor sex thing.”
My face flushes. I stammer just trying to get the first word of denial out of my mouth.
Carmen laughs, the sound wrapping around my heart like a soft thread. “Sorry, I shouldn’t joke like that. I know you’re too innocent to handle it.”
