“I don’t know, it just got all jerky and then the engine died and it wouldn’t start again,” she says to whoever’s on the other end. There’s a pause while they reply, then she says, “That sounds bad. How much do you think it will cost to fix?” Another pause, then a dejected, “Shit” at whatever the answer is.
She cringes up at me as I lower myself onto the couch next to her. I wait through the rest of the conversation and surmise that she was talking to Tiffany’s boyfriend when she asks him to put Tiffany back on. She swears a few more times, then says her goodbyes.
“The car?” I ask when she disconnects.
She sets the phone down. “He thinks it could cost up to a thousand to fix. We’re barely scraping the rent together as it is.”
“I’ll find a job after school. There has to be something.” I give her shoulder a mock punch. “I bet no one’s got the corner on underground gambling at the high school yet.”
Her head snaps up and panic skates over her features.
“Joking.” I twist the ends of my hair around my finger. “Mostly.”
“You are totally joking. No gambling here, Li.”
“It was good money,” I mutter.
She rolls her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
“Thank you.”
She gets up and pours herself a glass of water. “How was your date?”
I decide to skip the part about his friends being oversexed drunks, because it doesn’t really seem to apply to Jon. “It was nice.”
“Define nice,” she says warily.
“We just went to the dance and hung out with some of his friends. Sort of boring, but okay.”
She moves through the living room to the hallway. “I’m wiped out. See you in the morning.”
I follow her up the hall when she’s done in the bathroom, then crawl into bed. And the kiss I replay in my dreams, the one that has my breathing ragged and my heart erratic, isn’t Jon’s.
It’s Bran’s.
Chapter 13
Bran
I thought I was fine with Lilah fucking anyone she wanted…until I saw her leave with that asshole. I’ve never held a woman to any standard. No such thing as sluts or whores in my book. A woman likes to have a good time, more power to her. If she wants to have a good time with me, even better.
But watching Lilah drive off with that guy tore something inside me loose. I felt the hole, just like when I lost brothers overseas. It was that same deep ache that won’t go away. But I can’t even begin to explain why I’m feeling it for a girl I’ve only known for a few weeks.
All I know is, every time she walks through the door, it takes me a sec to get my bearings. Her own private gravitational field yanks at my compass and fucks me all to hell. And when she opens that pristine mouth and fucks me with her voice, there’s nothing I can do to stop my body from reacting.
But the next few weeks pass and I keep my hands off. It helps that it’s the brink of December and the weather’s getting cooler, so she’s starting to wear more clothes. It also helps that I’ve discovered three feet is my breaking point. If I keep her at arm’s length, I can’t smell her. Because just as much as she sounds like sex, her warm vanilla scent smells like it too. I don’t text or call. There’s been no sign of Poser and the dick in the white Mustang has been picking her up after work. I haven’t gotten a look at him, but he seems to treat her okay, so I haven’t needed to stalk her or walk her home.
In her eyes I’m probably as pathetic as Destiny is in mine. I told Destiny this wasn’t happening and I couldn’t understand why she didn’t believe me…until I realized I was doing exactly the same thing to Lilah. She told me no, but I haven’t let up believing it would happen.
It’s finally sunk through my thick head, though. It’s not like Lilah and I had a thing. It was a kiss. As mind-blowing as it might have been, it wasn’t like I thought it was heading for anything serious.
So it’s time to saddle up and move on.
When Lilah comes in tonight, it’s the same as every other Friday and Saturday night since our kiss three weeks ago. I mix her drink, set out her tip jar, and leave her alone. She sings and makes me hard for her, just like every night, but unlike all the others, tonight I decide to do something with all that wood.
In the corner is a table of five college girls out trolling on a Saturday night. Two of them have been checking me out since they walked in. I make sure they see me checking them out in return, and when they’re due for a second round, I mosey over. I lay my hand on the blonde’s bare back and squeeze the brunette’s shoulder. “Anything I can get you girls?”
The brunette licks her shiny lips and looks at her friends. “Are we staying for another round?”
They all nod and she lays her hand over mine and looks up at me. “I’m not driving tonight. Switch me to a Long Island Iced Tea?”
“Sure thing, doll,” I say, giving her shoulder another squeeze.
“It’s my twenty first,” the blonde says, batting her long black lashes up at me. “I want something that tastes good with lots of liquor.”
Her friends giggle and start throwing out suggestions like Sex on the Beach and Fuzzy Navel.
“I’ve got just the thing,” I tell her with my cockiest smile.