The Outskirts (The Outskirts Duet #1)

Maybe Finn was more off his marbles than I’d originally thought.

“No not really, but there is this one other way I know, but it’s a secret, you can’t tell anyone,” he whispered, looking around to see if anyone was around to hear him.

“What’s that?” I whispered back.

He crooked his finger and I leaned over the center console and he reached out and turned my head forward so he could whisper in my ear. Only he didn’t just whisper in my ear, he brushed his lips against the edge of it, his voice vibrated down my neck, straight through to my nipples, and ended in a throb between my thighs that had me shifting and crossing my legs before he’d even finished his sentence. “The secret is…” his tongue grazed my earlobe and I was glad I was facing forward so he wouldn’t see my eyes roll back in my head. Suddenly he was gone and his phone was in my lap. He started the car. “This,” he pointed down to his phone which had tonight’s Outskirts forecast mapped out by the hour on the screen.

“Your secret is that your phone tells you?” I questioned, holding it up.

“Yeah, don’t tell anyone. I’d rather people from up north, like you, think it’s just good ‘ole southern boy magic.”

“I’m not from up north. I’m from North Carolina,” I argued. I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest.

His eyes dropped down and he didn’t even try and hide where he was looking. I squirmed in my seat and yanked down my t-shirt, which didn’t help because the stretchy material only rode up further on my thighs.

“’Round here that makes you practically a Yankee,” he teased, leaning over and squeezing my knee, which caused my core to squeeze too. He quickly withdrew his hand and I looked out the window and pretended to watch the passing scenery so I could have a second to collect myself and hide my face which I’m pretty sure was heated with varying shades of splotchy pink and red.

“Around here, everything is a little different than most places,” I finally managed to say over my rapidly beating heart.

“Good different or bad different?” Finn asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

I thought for a moment while a montage played in my head of everyone I’d met since I’d arrived in Outskirts. Josh, Critter, Miller, and then finally, Finn. My stomach fluttered and my heart raced. I bit my lower lip. “Definitely a good kind of different.”

Finn winked at me and when we reached the highway he pulled off into the median not far from where he’d almost plowed into me the first night.

“Planning to run me over and finish what you started?” I teased.

“Not tonight anyway. I want to show you something, though.” He leapt out and came over to my side to lift me out of the truck, carrying me to the front and setting me on the hood.

“If we are here to watch cars pass, you couldn’t have picked a worse road,” I pointed out.

Finn laughed and I loved the sound and how it twisted my insides in a way that made everything feel good again. He held out his hand and lifted me so I could sit next to him. The bare skin of his bicep against mine. The heat from his jean-clad thigh pressed up against my uncovered leg.

I took a deep breath through my nose to calm my racing pulse. “Why exactly are we here?”

“This highway is the highest point in the county. They built it up so all the water would run off into the ditches on the side of the road. And since this is the flattest land without trees up ahead, it’s the perfect spot to watch the storm come in.” Finn pointed up ahead.

I looked up slowly only to be faced with a huge black cloud moving our way. The rising sun cast shades of angry red and orange around it. Gray wispy clouds dangled underneath it like tentacles. I froze. “I don’t think I want to be here,” I said, hopping down from the hood.

Finn followed and stopped me by wrapping his arms around my waist and turning me back to face the incoming storm. He marched me back in front of the Bronco. I closed my eyes tightly and shook my head.

“For a girl who’s so fearless at times, you sure are a bit of a chicken shit when it comes to storms. I aim to help you fix that. Let me help you fix that.” His words caressed my skin, soothing my fears and igniting a fire in my body.

“For a guy who’s been a hermit for over two years, you sure are quick to judge,” I responded.

“Ouch, that hurts. Right here.” He patted my chest, right above my heart.

“And what makes you think I’m fearless?” I asked with my eyes still shut, trying not to sound as shaky as I felt.

He hesitated for a moment. “Because you’re here with me right now, aren’t you?” Finn pressed his lips to the side of my neck. “Now open your eyes.”

“I’m not going to get over my fear by standing here and watching the Infinite Doom head my way,” I said.

“Infinite Doom?”

“I gave it an alien vessel name,” I explained.

I opened my eyes briefly to have Finn looking down at me with a sideways expression. “At Critter’s, when the games are over, Star Trek reruns play in the late afternoons,” I clarified, closing my eyes once again.

Finn chuckled. “That explains that. Infinite Doom, I like it. But come on, Say. I’ll be with you the entire time. I’ll protect you,” he said, brushing his fingertips against my arms, sending a shiver through my body.

“What if there are…tornados?” I asked, whispering the word tornado like a potential funnel cloud was going to hear me and come running from the bushes with an axe at the mention of its name. “Like last time.”

“I’ll make you a deal. I promise that if a tornado comes then I’ll throw myself in front of it and fight it ‘till the death while you make your get away.”

“You’d fight a tornado for me?” I asked, with a ton of mock sincerity. “And they say chivalry is dead.”

Making a joke was a big mistake. He chuckled against my skin between my neck and shoulder I couldn’t help the full body shudder that erupted where his lips touched and ended somewhere else I’ve never imagined his lips touching…until right then.

“Do you trust me?” Finn whispered.

“Not even a little,” I lied.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you open your eyes.” This time both of his hands dropped from my waist, slowly slid down the outside of my legs to the hem of my t-shirt.

“I can’t.” I bit my lip and tried not to groan as Finn heated my skin like his fingertips were made of flames.

“Open your eyes, Say,” he said again, pushing both hands across to the inside of my legs where he gave the delicate flesh on the very inside of my thighs a light squeeze.

That did the trick.

My eyes sprang open and once again I was faced with the darkness of the Infinite Doom and its earth killing tentacles that were heading directly for us.

“What is it that you’re trying to do?” I asked as one of his hands pressed against my thigh, tethering me in place, and the other skated up my shirt, fingering the delicate edge of my panties.