He closed the door and walked around the back.

I checked on him in the mirror.

He raked his fingers through his hair and paused before coming around to his side of the car and climbing inside.

We drove back to my house in silence, but our fingers were interlocked the whole ride.

I was The New Girl. No one saw me. I didn’t even know if I wanted them to. Except that sometimes, when he stared at me, he saw through the shields I’d worn since I’d arrived in this town. And I’d done the same to him.

But these feelings churning inside me worried me. When I left him, I wasn’t sure I’d survive.

16

Dare

My heart kept trying to leap from my chest straight out my window, ready to become roadkill.

Kissing her was a mistake. It was supposed to be the period at the end of the sentence, closing the book on this attraction between us. I’d thought maybe she’d slap me or shove me away.

Instead, she’d met my lips with her own uncontainable desire. I’d pressed my hand against the small of her back and held her face to mine. Staring into her eyes, I knew it wasn’t the end of anything.

I’d dropped a lit match into a warehouse of fireworks, and all I had was a garden hose to fight this fire.

I parked out front of her house. Instead of letting go of my hand, she climbed over the center console like letting go was as hard for her as it would’ve been for me.

We walked up the straight and tidy path to her house. The weather had shifted again. The downpour had stopped, but the drizzle added to our drenched clothes.

Her white t-shirt clung to her chest, outlining her silhouette perfectly. Her pants stuck to her legs and her shoes squished on the walk to the front door.

My bare feet were a reminder of how going home wasn’t an option, of why this had happened in the first place. When she’d shown up on my doorstep, my first and only objective had been to get her to go.

Sure, my dad was passed out drunk, but I’d let my guard down one time too many, and I knew that didn’t mean he wouldn’t wake from his stupor enraged and ready to take down anything in his path.

Getting Bay to safety had blocked out everything else until she was beyond the property line of my house. Throwing her in my car hadn’t been part of the plan, but when had I ever been great at making those?

She hadn’t freaked out, demanded I take her home, or tried to jump from the car. Instead, she hadn’t let me escape with the dodge I’d attempted.

Her keys jingled in the lock. She opened the front door and looked at me over her shoulder. Her hair was plastered to her face and down her back.

The soaking wet pants stuck to her, showing the outline of her underwear cutting straight across her ass. This was what I’d been reduced to? Ogling Bay’s fully clothed ass? No one had come close to holding my interest for more than a glance since her night on the back steps. She’d mounted an emotional and sexual ambush on me without a single weapon raised—only her voice, her words, and her body.