Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45063 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Harper walks under the streetlights, wearing a gray hoodie with the sleeves pulled down around her hands, her hair down, wavy, alluring. She’s wearing jeans again, but they look different from the ones earlier, making me think of how wet her jeans must’ve gotten.
No, not that. This isn’t about lust.
This is about… I don’t even know. Seeing her, being close to her, the magnetic pull I can’t seem to fight.
I walk to the passenger side of the car, holding the door open.
She smiles nervously at me. “Thanks.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Harper
“Where are we going?” I ask as he drives away.
When he saw me shiver, he turned on the car heater. He’s wearing shorts and a T-shirt, his muscles tense, thick masses of them as he handles the vehicle.
It’s like his body is burning enough to keep him warm.
“Nowhere,” he replies, laughing softly. “I’m just driving.”
I hug my arms around myself. “Okay.”
Silence. I try to think of something to say as we glide through the sleeping city. There’s ice on the pavement, glistening.
“Earlier,” he starts, and then trails off with a dark sigh.
“What about it?” I murmur.
He takes a turn, driving toward the bridge that will lead to the part of the city still awake at this hour. “I lost control. I didn’t mean to snap like that.”
“It’s not like I fought you off,” I murmur, wondering if this is why he picked me up.
To tell me he regrets it. It would be the right thing to do, considering Adam. It would also feel like a slap to the face.
“I’m not saying I regret it.”
I smile. It’s like he’s read my mind.
He glances at me, his lips mirroring mine, his intense eyes drinking me in as I always wished they would.
“We both know we can’t pursue this… Adam’s been through enough already.”
I wonder if he’s talking about Eva’s death. Or before… the fight he and Adam had.
I can’t talk about Eva and Bryson.
That’s what Adam said.
“We shouldn’t,” I agree, even if the words hurt to say. He doesn’t respond. The silence takes over again.
It gives me time to wonder how Bryson would react if he saw my notebook, the one I should’ve thrown out a long time ago, with his name and love hearts and my name together.
“You deserve better than what I did,” Bryson goes on. “Especially since you’re a…”
He shudders before he says the word.
“Virgin.”
“Is that a bad thing?” I say softly.
He glances at me again with so much tension in him, so much possessiveness. Maybe I’m reading too much into the look, imposing what I wish was there.
“No,” he replies. “Not even a little.”
“When we were… you know.”
He smirks. “Yeah, I know. When you were being so sexy, I lost my mind.”
A glow expands in me. “Yeah… then. It was like it turned…”
I can’t finish the sentence. It’s as if my tongue ties itself.
“It did,” he says passionately. “Knowing you’d never been with another man. I won’t lie. It turned me on.”
“Why?” I ask.
His jaw pulses and his temples do the same.
“A man doesn’t always know why something excites him,” he says after a pause, and I want to scream.
What sort of answer is that?
“One of us should be strong,” he goes on. “End this now.”
While we can, is the unspoken thing.
I think. I hope. Like he’s as compelled as I am.
“It should be me. I’m almost twice your age.”
“Why does that matter?” I snap, sitting up.
“I’m the older man. You’re the younger woman. It’s a tale as old as time, and few people disagree about the moral. I’m the one taking advantage here.”
I clench my fists, shaking my head. “No, I don’t agree with that at all. I could’ve stopped you any time I wanted earlier. I didn’t because I was as caught up in the moment as you were. If I wanted to stop, I could. If I told you to pull the car over and let me out, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?”
“As long as I knew you’d be safe,” he says.
“I mean… you’re not going to force me to do anything, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“So there you go. Or what is it… you don’t think I’m mature enough?”
It’s like my crush is bursting out in my words, guiding them, making me almost yell with the force of it.
“I don’t know,” Bryson says. “I don’t know you, Harper, not very well. I’d like to, though.”
“Let me tell you,” I reply. “I’m not a little kid. I haven’t got my head in the clouds. You didn’t take advantage of me. The pleasure, the guilt, all of it. We share it.”
He nods, glancing at me, a conflicted expression on his captivating face.
“You know that makes this more difficult. If you’d told me you weren’t sure, you regret it, something like that…”
“But I don’t. I won’t lie.”
He sighs. “Neither will I.”
More silence. More driving.