"Hey," I said. "I want to ask you something, and I hope you'll be honest with me."
His eyes opened, and he met my gaze with an intensity that was almost too painful to bear. Slowly, he nodded.
I leaned very close. "By any chance," I whispered, "are you Lawton Rastor?"
His face froze. The moment seemed to go on forever, and then, his lips twitched. He gave me that crooked smile of his, the one that made my breath hitch and my heart melt. "Me?" he said. "Nah.I'mthe guy with Chloe Malinski."
"Oh her?" I said in a disappointed tone. "But she's just a nobody."
"Baby," he said, "she's somebody, alright." Slowly, he moved his lips closer to mine. "Matter of fact, she's everything to this guy I know."
"Oh yeah?"
"Oh yeah."
Chapter 42
He closed the distance between us, crushing his lips onto mine in a kiss that seemed born of half relief, half desperation.
I raised my hands and brought them to his head, feeling the tousled strands of his hair dance around my fingers as our lips, our tongues, and our breaths combined. The center console dug into my side, but I barely noticed.
My voice was breathless as I said, "I want you."
His lips drifted lower, leaving a trail of soft kisses down my jawline and toward my shoulder. "Ready to go home?" he said.
Home. It was a funny word. "I feel like I'm home right now," I said. I glanced toward the rear of the car. "Hey, look a back seat."
I felt his muffled laugh against my shoulder. "No way."
"Aw c'mon," I said. "I know you want to."
I reached out toward his leg. I trailed my hand across his jeans, starting at the knee and working my way up, slowly and surely. When my hand hit a definite bulge, the muffled laugh turned into a muffled groan.
"Baby, you're killin' me over here."
"Then you should just give in," I teased. "It'll be so much simpler."
He pulled his head back and gazed into my eyes. "Not gonna happen. Not here. As tempting as you are."
"Why not?" I said.
"A place like this," he said, looking around the dim parking lot, "bad things can happen. And if anything bad happened to you—" he shook his head "—I'd never forgive myself."
"With you here?" I said. "I'm not worried."
Funny, I meant it too. Wrapped in his arms, and feeling him close to me, I felt like nothing bad could ever happen, not to me, and not to him.
"Here's the thing," he said. "Yeah, we could climb into that back seat, but I'd have to keep an eye out."
I felt a hand onmyknee, mirroring my own motions from just a moment earlier. His hand drifted higher up my thigh, and higher still, going so slow I felt like I'd combust right then and there.
When his hand finally reached the intersection of my thighs, my eyes drifted shut, and my lips parted. The sound that escaped might've been a sigh, and it might've been a moan.
"Or," he said, rubbing his thumb in a slow, circular motion across that perfect spot, "I could take you home, where the only thing I have to think about is you."
"Home," I said. "Now."
By the time we reached Lawton's estate, I was burning for him, feeling the heat of that brief touch simmer and grow with every turn and every mile. When we finally roared through his gate and skidded to a stop in the turnaround, he cut the engine and jumped out of his car.
