AllFreeNovel
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I’ve slept in that sweater every night since I got home. It smells… safe.
Without saying a word or even glancing in my direction, he slides into the driver’s seat and peels off down the road, knuckles white on the steering wheel and jaw set.
I can’t stop staring at him. Slack-jawed, wide-eyed, still trying to process what the hell is going on.
“You followed me here.”
He doesn’t blink.
“And you followed me to the grocery store the other day, didn’t you?”
I slump against the butter-soft leather seat and clutch the armrest. He’s driving fast, way over the speed limit, but hugs corners and overtakes other cars with the expertise of a Formula One driver.
I slump against the butter-soft leather seat and clutch the armrest.
“You kept turning around,” he grunts, eyes still trained on the road. “Looking at me like a fucking deer in headlights.”
A noise escapes my lips. A laugh. His frown reflects how I feel too. Nothing is funny about my situation. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you. I was in the neighborhood.”
My eyes turn back to the road. We’re getting on the Interstate. “And uh, where are we going?”
He sighs, rubs the bridge of his nose. “Do you always ask so many questions?”
“Do you always stalk young women around the inner Philadelphia area?”
A groan. “I wasn’t stalking you. I was saving you.”
A grin stretches across my lips. “So, you’re admitting it now. You did save me. Youaremy knight in shining armor.”
He’s silent for a moment, cutting across lanes and swerving around slow-moving trucks. Then he says, “We’re going to a diner. You look emaciated and I need a coffee.”
Right on cue, my stomach rumbles. I guess I wouldn’t say no to some food right now. Especially if it means I get to see to study this mystery man across a table under brighter strip lighting.
The diner is one I haven’t been to before. Off the busy interstate and offering all-night burgers, hot dogs, and fries with a side of unlimited coffee. The lights are bright and as he holds the door open for me, I’m painfully self-conscious of my inch-thick makeup slapped all over my face and beyond.
We slide into a red booth, and his eyes don’t leave my face as I order a burger and fries from a chirpy waitress. He orders a coffee. Black. He doesn’t even look up to acknowledge her when she brings it over.
“Well, that was rude,” I say with a scowl.
“I tip well.”
No trace of a smile. I can’t imagine those lips ever stretching into one. His face is hard and sharp and his eyes brim with mystery. I want to crack open his skull, take out his brain and comb through all of his memories. Get a sense of who he actually is. He’d probably cut my arm off if I even tried to do that, so I start by asking him a question.
“What’s your name?”
His lips twitch, but he doesn’t answer.
“Oh, come on. We’ve traveled halfway across the world together and I sleep in your sweater. The least you can give me is your name.”
His eyebrows knit together for a fraction of a second, and blood rushes to my cheeks.
He groans, and says, “You sleep in my sweater?”
God, did I really just say that?“Uh, not in a creepy way. It’s just really warm and my apartment’s cold. The radiators are broken. I’ve washed it—”lie“—so it’s not like I’m keeping it as a memento, or anything. I mean, you can have it back if you want. It looks pretty expensive and—”
He’s still, staring at me with that blistering intensity. So hot it’d make the Devil burn. “You’re rambling. You do that a lot.”
