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ANDREW
My patience wore away like the banks along a rushing stream with every insistence she was fine. She wasn’t fine. She was hurt, and it was my fault. If I’d kept my damn possessiveness in check with that dipshit kid, she wouldn’t have run off. Plus, because she was upset when she bolted, she was careless with her route.
Through gritted teeth, I issued, “Damn it, Maye. Get in the car, or I’ll pick you up and put you there myself. I already feel completely responsible for your injury. I won’t let you do further harm by not having it looked at.” My voice was calm and direct and about two octaves deeper than normal.
Her blue eyes, glassy from the tears she kept trying to choke back, were fixed on my mouth, and fuck if it wasn’t spiking my arousal. I was such a bastard.
I shook my head with self-aimed disgust, and the motion crushed her focus on my mouth.
“What?” she croaked, and the pitiful sound of her inquiry pinned me to the parking lot blacktop.
“I’m just…” I began and quickly stopped myself. I couldn’t tell her all the things running through my mind. How I wanted to knock that boy’s head off his shoulders for manhandling her. How I wanted to take her back to my place and care for her through the night. How I couldn’t stop wondering about what it would feel like to kiss her.
“It’s just that…” I began again but still had nothing appropriate to say. Instead, I motioned once more with a sweep of my arm for her to get into the car. Thank God, she finally complied. I perched on the door frame with half my ass and reached across her to grab the safety belt.
It was then I was struck square in the chest by that damn morning glory scent of hers. Maye watched me carefully as I battled the effects of her nearness and finally pulled the belt from her shoulder to the opposite hip.
“Lift up a bit please,” I said, trying desperately to ignore how close we were. I could kiss her right now. I was inches from that pouty, defiant, stubborn, independent mouth, and I wanted to kiss her more than take my next breath. When I was foolish enough to meet her curious stare again, our noses were nearly touching. I froze there for longer than I should have, involved in a full-scale war with my better judgment.
Finally, I whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Her voice was low and raspy, and I let my lids fall closed and savored the resonant sound. But just for a beat or two, because I couldn’t pass up the chance to be so close to her and not take in every detail I could catalog.
She had freckles on her nose and the very tops of her cheeks. Not many, and it looked like she tried to cover them with some sort of makeup trick. Now that she had been crying, vertical streaks marked each side, and I could see them clearly.
“For what?” she repeated, and this time I was the one to physically shake my head to snap out of the fog our proximity created.
“Your arm. That…that…guy.” I thumbed over my shoulder as though he were still standing there in the empty parking lot. The few cars that were here when I’d first come out were gone now. The first lights around campus began to flicker on with the emerging nightfall.
She smiled cautiously, and my heart lurched up into my throat and stuck there. She was arrestingly beautiful in the evening light.
“It wasn’t your fault. I tripped,” she said softly. “I’ve always been the clumsy one.” She laughed lightly, but it was forced. I didn’t like her saying anything negative about herself and immediately thought to disagree.
But I had to move away from her. If I stayed there a moment longer, I would lose control. The majority of my fantasies about this young woman always began with her pouty lips. Now that she’d been crying, they were even fuller and were an inviting, darker rose hue. All I could think of was biting her there, and I was so close to doing it, I jolted from the door frame.
My erratic movement must have startled her, and by the time I was around to the driver’s side and climbing in, she was struggling to unlatch the seat belt to get out. Calmly, I put my much larger hand atop hers to still her.
Gently, I asked, “What are you doing?”
“This really isn’t necessary. I just need to call for a ride so I can get home and…and…I don’t know,” she stammered, then shrugged and immediately winced from the pain the gesture caused. “Ice it or something. Take something for the pain and swelling…” She trailed off while staring at my hand covering hers.
Neither one of us pulled away, and I grew bold. I swept her fingers into mine and turned to face her in my seat. “Listen to me. I won’t take no for an answer. You can either let me take you to the urgent care about two miles from here, or you can come back to my house, and I will tend to it myself. Of course, I can’t x-ray it, and I really think that’s what you need, but those are your choices. I won’t allow you to leave my company without knowing this has been properly cared for.”
Holy. Fuck. What the hell did I just offer? Better than that, would she take me up on it? The words came out of my mouth without any input from my brain. Clearly. I was walking a tightrope here with no net below. One wrong—or right—word from the student in my passenger seat, and everything would become as unpredictable as a three-ring big top. Now that I issued the ultimatum, though, there was no way in hell I’d take it back.
“Your place?” she murmured. I couldn’t tell if she was mulling over the option when the words slipped past her lips, or if that was her actual answer. The man in me decided to not wait around to find out. I snapped my seat belt into place, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking lot before she could think better of what she’d just agreed to.
Thankfully, I didn’t live too far from campus, and traffic was almost nonexistent because we were going in the opposite direction of most commuters. At first, the silence in the car was suffocating. Every attempt I made at speaking got lodged behind that ball of lust still stuck in my throat. A few times she looked like she was about to say something too but then clamped her lips together and sank deeper into the bucket seat.
At the exact same moment, we both gave it one more try.
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
“Is this a good idea?” she wondered at the precise time.
“No,” I said just as she offered the same reply. Obviously, we were answering different questions, but the responses fit both. Our grins were matching then too, and I gave her hand a little reassuring pat.
I wouldn’t do anything she was uncomfortable with. Of course I wouldn’t. But she didn’t know that. She was taking an incredible risk going to a stranger’s house. If we were truly in a relationship, I’d spank her ass for being so reckless.
