The night air is cool against my skin. Marley wraps her arms around herself, and without thinking, I shrug out of my jacket and drape it over her shoulders. It’s massive on her, the sleeves hanging past her hands, and she looks up at me with those big eyes, that soft smile, and I’m fucking done for.
“Thank you,” she says quietly.
“Anytime.”
We walk to the car in comfortable silence, her heels clicking against the pavement. When we reach it, she turns to face me, and Christ, she’s short. The top of her head barely reaches my chest.
“I need a step stool just to look you in the eye,” she jokes, tilting her head back.
“I like that I have to bend down,” I murmur, and the air between us shifts.
It charges, becomes something thick and electric. Her breathing quickens, her lips parting slightly, and every instinct in me screams to close the distance. To cup her face in my hands and find out if she tastes as sweet as she looks.
But then headlights sweep across us.
A car pulls into the lot, music blaring, shattering the moment like glass.
Marley steps back, and I let her go, even though it kills me.
“I had a really good time tonight,” she says, her voice a little breathless.
“Yeah. Me too.”
“Maybe we could do this again?”
“Definitely,” I reply with a smile, then open the passenger door for her. She slides in, then I walk around to hop into the driver’s side.
She’s on her cell as I close my door, clearly texting, and I grin as I start the car. I hope she is telling Sage, or her brother Beck, that she had a good night.
Reversing out of the parking space, I take off for her home, and once I hit the road, I reach out for the stereo, turning the music on. This time, Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” is playing, and I chuckle under my breath but decide to go with it. Full on boy-band style.
I turn to her, hand closed like a microphone, and prepare for our next round of carpool karaoke. “You are… my fire…”
She opens her eyes wide at me, her mouth agape as I continue to sing while driving, my hands flailing around the car, doing ridiculous ’90s boy-band moves.
“Oh, so we’re doing this?” She giggles.
“Tell me why-ee,” I sing-scream at her.
She bursts out laughing, the sight making me happy, as her hands come up in front of her face, doing jazz hands, and shefinally joins in, singing at the top of her lungs. And we sing the rest of the car trip to Sage’s home.
As I pull my car up to the sidewalk, I kill the engine, and we both stop laughing.
She turns to face me with the brightest smile on her face. “Thank you for tonight… for dinner, for making me smile, endlessly. For a guy that looks like he could kill someone with his bare hands, you sure know how to have fun, Nitro.”
I smirk, tilting my head. “Most of the people I hang around with would find that hard to believe. They think I am Mister Serious all the time.”
She raises her brow, grabbing her things to get out of the car. “Then maybe you need to lighten up around them. Show them the guy I’m getting to know because this guy in front of me… he’s areallygreat-fucking-guy.” She dips her head at me, then opens the car door to hop out, but I reach my hand out, grabbing her arm, halting her.
She turns back, looking at me, raising her brow in question, and I exhale, feeling my heart beat faster. “Marley…” Her name comes out soft.
Her breathing quickens as her eyes lock with mine. “Yes?”
I hesitate because I have nothing to say, but I don’t want her to leave yet.
A slow smile crosses her lips, and she swallows, sensing that I am struggling to find the words. So, she helps me out. “The gala… the fake dating… you and me… I think we can do this.”
Fake dating.
