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I knew it would be dangerous to bring her here. I won’t be able to walk into this bathroom without reliving the torture of this moment.
“I have to take this off to use the bathroom, Bryce. And there’s more room out here than in there.”
“Fine,” I grunt and roughly shut my blinds.
When she finishes with the bathroom, Ana doesn’t put the bodysuit back on.
“You come in here as a cyborg, you leave as a cyborg,” I state in a lame attempt to seem unaffected by the way she’s wiped away the metallic lipstick. Her lips are the prettiest shade of pink.
Inexplicably, my comment amuses her. “I’m fine with my jacket,” she says, cracking a broad smile.
Once she puts it on, I’m saved from the torture of her braless top. But with the size of the jacket over her shorts, she could be naked underneath.
My imagination has replaced my sanity.
We head to the car where I grip the wheel with my hands in a ten and two position, as tense as a brand-new driver.
“Um, Bryce? Can you do me a favor?”
I have an idea of what’s coming, so there’s no need to answer.
“Can we tell my brother that I called you to pick me up because I didn’t have a ride home? And that you picked me up at my friend’s house?” she pleads.
“You want me to lie and say that you were at a school friend’s house instead of a college bender full of horny guys and alcohol,” I spit disdainfully.
“Exactly!” she exclaims with cloying cheer. “Thanks, Bryce.”
I have to snort at her presumptuousness. “I won’t tell him, but you will. This is no joke, Ana. You can’t be in those spaces when you’re underaged. In fact, even when you’re in college, it’s important to be aware of danger.”
It’s her turn to snort. “The only thing that’s dangerous is your temper. You pushed a guy through a wall, Bryce! If I can let that go, give me a break. I won’t do it again, OK? Besides, it’s not like I can leap out of a moving car when my friends decide where we’re going.”
“Sergei or Maeve could have dropped you off and picked you up. And doesn’t your brother hire a professional driver for the nights they go on dates? Use that service instead of an Uber. Sergei does a thorough security check on all the people working for him.”
“That’s perfect,” she drones cynically. “Everyone already thinks I’m a sheltered rich girl. Let’s add a surveillance team to the cliché while we’re at it.”
“Best idea you’ve had all night,” I state, deadpan.
She whacks me on the shoulder. “I hate you.”
The rest of the twenty-minute drive passes in silence. When we park and I shut off the engine, I’m compelled to say something. Anything. I hate that she hates me right now.
“If you promise to call me or your brother the second you’re in a place you don’t expect to be in, I won’t mention anything about tonight.”
Her squeal of delight precedes the launch of her arms around my neck. Ana presses her cheek on my shoulder and her body against my arm. Honeyed sweetness with a hint of feminine sweat—a little flowery, a little earthy—floods my system. Automatically, my arms encircle her waist and my lungs greedily inhale.
We’ve shared a casual hug before, when the family expects the typical warm greeting. But I’ve never felt her palm-sized breasts against me or had Ana’s soft hair tickle my nose.
Ending the embrace abruptly, I push her away and reposition my arm to cover an erection as hard as the gear shift. Well shit, if I thought I was horny earlier tonight, right now my blood is on fire.
How can I blame Ana when she’s just a teenager stumbling into a new adventure? There was no intent to get into trouble. She can’t know what a girl like her can do to a man with barely a glance.
A girl? She’s at the cusp of being the most beautiful woman to walk the face of the earth, and she has no idea.
But at least, for now, she doesn’t hate me anymore. It’s a modest consolation for the fact that every time I’m around Ana, I come undone.
The realization should be upsetting. But that’s like being upset when the sun is too bright or the storm too strong. Some elements are simply beyond one’s control, yet a fact of one’s existence.
Ana’s effect on me is exactly such an element: out of my control yet a fact of my existence. The worst of it is, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
