Free Without Breaking
Miriam / Emma
We blasted down the road, tires squealing as we took corners way too fast. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the Lexus was coming up behind us, but it wasn’t back there. It seemed that we had lost them again.
“Holy shit, seriously, who do you owe money to?” Ryan said, his eyes never leaving the road as he veered into another turn and threw me against the door.
I pulled my seatbelt across my chest. “It’s more complicated than that.”
He shook his head. “No more bullshit. What’s going on?”
“I…can’t—”
“Goddamn it!” he shouted. “I just rescued you. Violently. Twice.” He slowed at a stop sign, then gunned through the intersection. “I consider myself trustworthy.” He glared at me, challenging me to deny it.
I touched his arm. “You are.” I thought for a moment. “My dad was involved with some very bad people.”
“And?”
“Seriously, you can’t know anything more. It’s for your own safety now. Just understand that there are very bad people, a long way from here, who are angry with my father and would do anything,” I paused, taking a deep breath, “absolutely anything to get back at him.”
“Well that’s just cryptic as fuck.” Then he grinned, and it was like a lamp turned on. “This is, by far, the weirdest second date I’ve ever been on.”
Was he insane?
I ignored his last comment. “We can’t go back to your apartment.”
“No shit. Thanks a ton for turning me into a homeless person.”
“Can you take me to a pay phone?”
He looked at me as if I was from outer space. “Do those even exist any more? I guess this is something I should know. Could come in handy, living on the street.”
I shrugged, hoping.
“I never meant what I said to you.”
He turned the truck north, his mouth set in a thin line. “Which thing?”
“All of it. All those mean things I said. I didn’t mean any of it.”
He looked at me again, and the anger seemed to melt away. There was a soft vulnerability behind his eyes now. “Then why did you say it?”
“To…protect you. To protect myself.” To protect my cover.
“To run me off.” It wasn’t a question.
“I really like you.”
“Because guys with guns keep trying to kidnap you.”
“Did you hear me?”
“I—” he took a deep breath. “Did you say you like me?”
I looked out the window and nodded.
“Well…that’s okay, I guess.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. After showing up at my job every day for the last week to harass me, and then after the wildest morning in the history of mornings, he says this? If I’d been able to glare at him any harder his face would have cracked under the pressure. “It’s okay, you guess?” The ice in my voice should have left frost on the windows.
He put his hand on my arm. “Hell yes it is.”
We cruised around a while more in silence, both of us scanning street-side for a pay phone. At last, Ryan pulled the truck into a dirt lot somewhere on the west side of town. He pointed. “Allow me to present to you the very last pay phone in the great city of Fort Worth, Texas.”
I giggled. After all I’d been through in the past two hours, it felt almost strange to laugh, but I did, and then he did, both of us laughing until we clutched our bellies. And then, somehow, we were kissing, his arm around my shoulders pulling me to him, our hot mouths locked together. We both got caught in our seat belts and fought to get free without breaking our kiss. His lips were almost tentative, softly caressing and tugging at mine. I opened my mouth to him, and his tongue darted inside, teasing, stroking. I climbed on his lap, straddling him.
When I pulled my mouth away he was breathing hard. And his breath wasn’t the only thing that was hard. I shifted my weight on him and he groaned.
“Honestly, this is not how I expected the morning to end up,” I said.
He leaned his head back against the rest. “Just keep moving your hips another minute or two and it will make the whole ordeal worthwhile,” he said.
I slapped his shoulder. “You are no gentleman.”
He grinned, and those dimples nearly convinced me to pull my jeans down right here in his pickup.
I leaned over to whisper in his ear. He turned his head to hear, his hand creeping up my body to cup my breast.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice husky.
I said, in my sexiest voice: “Do you have a couple of quarters I can borrow?”
His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. “You are a terrible person,” he said.
Laughing felt good, so I did it again.
His expression got serious. “Listen, I have an idea. When you call your guy have him meet you at this address in an hour.” He pulled a card out of his wallet and gave it to me. It was to some muffler shop in Haltom City.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Humor me. If it works out, great. But I think maybe your contact isn’t secure. And if that’s the case…well, this is a safe plan.”