"Am I impressive enough for you?" he asked her solemnly.
"Of course," she told him.
"You know," he said, "you still owe me a kiss."
"I don't owe you anything," she murmured as he leaned over her.
His face was so close to hers, and he couldn't help but close the distance and kiss her. Her mouth was soft, and he pulled her close to him, letting her body meld into his. He felt himself grow hard, and he pushed her back into the seat and slid a hand up her shirt to cup one of her breasts. She immediately stiffened and pushed him away.
"Sorry," Carter said, not meaning it.
"We should go back," Allie said.
They drove in silence. The Bentley couldn't go that fast, and there was a truck behind them on the two-lane road that clearly did not want to travel twenty-five miles an hour. The driver pulled the truck out to pass them. Another car appeared in the opposite lane. They didn't have their lights on. Carter swore as the truck swerved into their lane, clipping the Bentley. The antique car fishtailed then rolled over and came to rest upright in a ditch.
Carter gasped as he tried to reorient himself. His heart was hammering in his chest. "Are you okay?" he asked Allie as he tried to pull himself out of the wreckage.
Allie crawled out through the broken front windshield.
The police came while Carter was wiping the blood off of his face. Margot was terrified and had her head hidden under Carter's armpit.
The EMS personnel looked them over while the police wrote down a report.
"She was driving, sir," Carter said.
Allie looked as if she was about to protest, but Carter gave her a meaningful look.
After calling his parents and having to listen to his father berate him for allowing Allie to wreck the car and almost kill him, Carter turned to Allie and said, "Look, I can’t afford another mark on my license. I don't even think the Bentley was legally allowed to be on the road. Please just take the heat for this? I’ll pay you. I promise."
15
Allie
Allie waited with Carter for his parents to come. They weren't far from the house, and Jack and Nancy were there shortly after Carter ended the call with them.
"Take him to the emergency room," Jack ordered as soon as he arrived on the scene.
Carter’s face had blood all over it, but it looked more like superficial injuries to Allie. Her hip felt bruised, and her neck hurt. She didn’t have the money to go to the emergency room, so she promised herself a very cold ice bath when she returned to the Holbrook estate.
"Oh no," Nancy said, fretting over Carter. "We could have lost you!"
"I'm fine."
"No, you aren't," Jack said.
Allie rode in the car with him after the police said she could leave. They had taken down her license information. She hoped that she wouldn't be charged with anything. She could not afford a lawyer or all of the costs associated with going to trial. Carter had better pay her a large amount of money for what she was doing for him.
When they arrived at the house, she walked into the foyer behind Jack. Grant, Mark, and Walter were there waiting for her. They did not look happy to see her.
"You need to leave now," Jack said, turning to face her. "You almost killed my son."
"He was never in any real danger of dying," she said, mad that they were treating her as if she were some sort of criminal.
Jack pulled out a gun and aimed it at her head. She stared him down. It wasn’t the first time someone had stuck a gun in her face.
"I know women like you," Carter’s uncle Walter said. "You ruin everything you touch. You stay away from Carter. Do you understand? Or you’re dead."
Stefan came down with her bag and the dog carrier. She took them wordlessly. The butler also handed her a paper sack.
