If I didn’t know better, I’d think Cary set out to break me today. The boy I walked away from isn’t the one I’ve come back to. Regardless of who he has become, I wanted him. Jesus, I still want him, but giving in to lust would be like sentencing him all over again. As much as I crave him, he’s the last thing I’ll allow myself tohave.
It’s been five days since Cary flipped my world upside down in that hallway bathroom, and all I’ve been able to do is replay everything over and over in my head. Unfortunately, he’s acted like it never happened. Like he wasn’t seconds away from taking me right there on that filthysink.
Know what’s the worst part? I would’ve lethim.
After spouting all of that independent girl-power bullshit, I would’ve closed my eyes and allowed him to treat my body like a receptacle. Because, honestly, that’s all I would’ve been to him. I know it and he knowsit.
“To the Kincaid Center, Miss West?” Malcolm glances into the rearview mirror, his blank stare reflecting through the open partition. He’s stringently proper with a heavy British accent and impeccable manners that Bianca swoonsover.
I flop my head against the back of the seat. “Unfortunately.”
He nods, apparently realizing it’s best not toelaborate.
Smart man. Bianca doesn’t pay him the big bucks just to be another prettyface.
As we weave in and out of traffic, I close my eyes and pretend I’m anywhere else. I hate riding in cars. Not only is the enclosed space starting to fuck with my head, but with no one to talk to, my thoughts are free to flip through my extensive catalog of lifelong bad choices. Some I regret, and some I enjoyed way too much to take back. Unfortunately, when time is all you have, it tends to be your worst enemy. It forces you to question things you have no businessquestioning.
Like CaryKincaid.
And hismouth.
Both of which I’ll admit I could get addictedto.
As I stare out the window, the backseat becomes smaller, closing in on me from all sides. I cough and blow out a long breath, hoping it will stop the doors from closing in on me. It doesn’t work. The air thickens, filling my chest and clogging my throat with long extinguished smoke. Burning rubber. The metallic taste of blood that won’t go away no matter how many times I’ve scrubbed mymouth.
I blindly slap for the window button, hoping like hell I can get it down before I dive over the seat and stop the car myself. Finally, I manage to hook my finger around it, and the window releases me from my prison, whipping my hair around my face as I lean out of the car. I gasp for air because sucking down the stifling humidity is better than breathing the air in thatdeathtrap.
I survey my surroundings. It’s not the usual tourist beach store bonanza, but we’re not cruising through a neighborhood that would make me dive for the door locks either. It’s early, so the unforgiving summer sun isn’t calling beach worshippers out of their homes yet. However, the side streets aren’t deserted, and it’s not like the names on the signs are entirelyunfamiliar.
“Malcolm, how far is it from here to thecenter?”
Not one silver hair moves out of place as he cocks his chin and scratches the side of his head. “Oh, I’d say less than a mile. Don’t worry, I’ll have you there in plenty oftime.”
I throw my purse strap across my chest and curl my fingers around the door handle. Bianca would shit a brick if she knew what I was about to do, but I’ll deal with her meltdown after I havemine.
“Pull over and let meout.”
“I’m sorry,pardon?”
“You heard me,” I say with more conviction. “Pull over and let me out. I’m going to walk towork.”
Thankfully, he’s already starting to pull over because even as the words come out of my mouth, I’m starting to question my ownsanity.
As if reading my mind, he clicks the master door lock, trapping me inside. “Miss West, I cannot, in good conscience, allow that. This isn’t a desirable part of town, and if I may point out the obvious, ma’am, you don’t blend inhere.”
Here’s where shit gets real. I don’t like to be challenged.Ever.
“Doit.”
Nodding obediently, he parks the car on the side of theroad.
The sound of the door unlocking pulls a grin from one corner of my mouth, and I slide out of the limo without another word. After walking about twenty feet, I come to a dead stop as he speeds by me in the only mode of transportation I have other than my two feet. Which, by the way, are already forming blisters from trying to balance on uneven pavement in wedgeheels.
So now, here I am, hobbling along the streets of Myrtle Beach, cursing myself the entire time because although I thought I recognized the neighborhood while inside the car, it turns out I waswrong.
I have no fucking clue where Iam.
Coming to a standstill on a wooded side street, I place a hand on my hip and stare blankly in front of me. Yeah, this was a huge mistake. Swallowing my pride, I reach for my phone as a voice from across an abandoned lot to my right catches myattention.
