Fall

I jerked away from his touch. “We should, uh, go.” I needed a reality check… fast. The church was waiting and so was my burnt house.

“Yeah.” He cursed. “We should.”

Chapter Eleven

Jaymeson

I told Pris to give me ten minutes. I ran back to my house and brushed my teeth, grabbed my keys, wallet, phone, and sunglasses then briefly contemplated running my face through the glass window.

What the hell was wrong with me? I’d come on to her! I’d basically hit on her! After she survived a freaking house fire! Groaning, I banged my head against the door a few times, maybe the pain would make my lust die down.

But she had been beautiful.

And in my experience, there was nothing worse than an insecure girl and the last thing I wanted was to be the reason for her to feel anything less than what she was. She was gorgeous and she needed to know it.

It hadn’t been a line.

I wasn’t trying to peel her clothes from her body while I said it — which should be evidence enough that it was true.

“Shit.” I hit the door one last time with my hand, then opened it and ran out front.

Priscilla was leaning against the railing staring at my car like it was a spaceship. “Is that yours?”

“If I say yes will you condemn me to hell for spending six figures on a car?” I asked, unlocking the doors. Hopefully it would start after it had been sitting for two months. Demetri had let me park it at their condo which was convenient since the beach house I was renting was next door.

She laughed. She actually laughed. Holy shit, she thought I was hilarious. I swear I felt wings sprout from my body — I was flying.

Holy. Hell.

I was a loser.

“I like cars.” She said it so softly, so quietly, I almost didn’t catch it.

“Pardon?”

She rolled her eyes. “Stop making me repeat myself for your own benefit. I like cars, okay?”

“Quiz time.” I opened my own door and let her in. “Engine type. You have five seconds. Go.”

“Five point two liter V-10 engine with five hundred twenty-five horsepower and three hundred ninety-one pound feet of torque. With an engine based on a Lamborghini, I’m surprised you haven’t wrecked it already.”

And I just had an orgasm.

No joke. Document the moment because Jamie Jaymeson just got off without getting naked or having sex.

“Lucky guess,” I croaked, my body demanding I shut the damn car off and pull the innocent little princess into my lap.

“What?” She laughed. “You surprised?”

“Something like that.” I closed my eyes.

“Dude!” She smacked my arm. “The road?”

“Oh right, what am I thinking?” Insert awkward laugh here as I tell parts of my anatomy to behave. It’s been too damn long. That’s the only reason I was even contemplating touching her.

I moved my arm so it was resting on the middle console and nudged her slightly.

Brilliant. I’d lost my bloody mind and officially turned into a fourteen-year-old with his first girlfriend all in the span of five minutes. I just wanted to touch her skin, even if it meant that it was by way of my elbow grazing her forearm, that was how desperate my body was.

I cleared my throat.

It was my body.

Nothing else was engaged.

Not possible.

I took a left at the stop sign. Ready to bring up any subject in order to kill the tense silence, I opened my mouth as her phone went off.

She answered it on the first ring.

“Uh huh… No, no, I got a ride.” Silence. “Oh, that’s sweet.” She sighed.

Are you freaking kidding me? She sighed? It wasn’t a normal sigh either. It was a girl sigh, the type girls get when they tilt their heads to the side and give you screw-me eyes.

She giggled.

I was going to rain a shit-storm on whoever was on the other end of that line.

“Thanks. That’s nice of you. Yeah, we’ll be there in a few minutes. Aw, you didn’t have to do that.”

Murder. I was going to murder him, slowly, painfully, with my hands around his neck and I’d smile. Yup, I’d smile, and I’d go to prison still smiling as he kept his grimy hands off of what was mine.

Mine?

I slammed on the brakes.

“Holy crap!” Pris screamed. “No, no, sorry… Yeah, I’m okay. My driver must have gone temporarily blind.”

So now I was the driver.

I’d been demoted from breakfast maker to driver.

Might as well put a stamp across my forehead that said bitch.

“Yup, we’re pulling up now.”

She hung up the phone as I turned into her driveway. The only reason I knew where she lived was because I’d gone to her house the day I left for LA to apologize, only to find out that she wasn’t home.

In all her excitement to see whomever the hell she’d been talking to, she hadn’t even given me directions. How’s that for being stalkerish?

“Who was that?” I asked when she pressed end, still smiling.

“Oh.” She looked at me and blushed. I almost kissed her then. I almost reached across the seat, jerked her head toward mine and burned the memory of my lips onto hers. But a knock came at the window.

A tall, muscular guy stood on the outside, opening her car door like he was freaking Prince Charming. “Pris, did things work out last night?”

I got out of the car and glared. I didn’t care if the guy was the next pope or Mother Theresa’s long lost cousin. He was on my shit list. Because he’d made Pris smile. And I’d done nothing but irritate her all morning. Oh yeah, and hit on her. Wow, negative points for Jaymeson. Nice.