Page 12

I’m calm on the outside, as if there’s not a damn thing wrong with what I’m doing. I don’t know what’s come over me.
The Mercedes’s alarm beeps as I unlock it and open Jules’s door for her. Her heels are muted on the wet pavement as she rounds me and slips easily into the luxurious leather seat. Her soft blue eyes look up at me as she tucks her hair behind her ears and settles the clutch in her lap as she murmurs, “Thank you.”
I merely smile and close her door, the keys jingling as I walk to the driver side, my pulse racing wildly.
This is a mistake. I don’t hold women afterward. Sex is sex and nothing else.
But I’m also a selfish prick, and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t want her. What I want, I get.
I start the car, the purr of the engine and soft classical music filling the cabin.
As I look over my shoulder to back out, Jules clears her throat. “Are we going to …” she starts to ask and then a beautiful blush colors her cheeks.
“Are we going to what?”
With a stronger flush, she shakes her head gently and says, “Never mind … Of course we are.”
I can’t help the smirk on my face at her shyness or the way my cock jumps in my pants. I peek at her before leaving the tight parking lot and heading down Second Avenue. My fingers itch to rest against her bare thigh as her dress rides up slightly. I place my hand on the gearshift instead, stopping at a red light and looking over to her.
She squirms in her seat under my gaze and I fucking love it. It’s easy to forget with her. Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe that’s why I can’t say no and walk away. If I can just have her for tonight, then it’ll all be all right. I’m her downfall and she’s my savior.
“Where are we headed, sweetheart? My place?” I give her the option but she’s free to suggest someplace else. She’s quick to nod, glancing at me then looking down at her hands in her lap.
I’m enjoying this way too much. I turn to look out the driver side window and ignore that voice in the back of my head saying I’m a Grade A prick for doing this to her.
“Thank you,” she says softly as the light turns green and traffic starts to move. “For heading out the back and away from all that …” she pauses, waving her hands in the air before falling back against the seat and concluding, “bullshit.”
The curse word seems foreign on those sweet lips of hers. I nod my head once, looking back to the windshield and twisting my hand around the leather steering wheel.
“No problem,” I say easily but I can feel her need to talk, to tell me everything else that’s on her mind. I wait for it, staringstraight ahead, but nothing comes. Just silence as we drive to the sounds of Tchaikovsky.
It’s only fifteen minutes to my place at this rate, but the time can’t pass quickly enough. Every second of silence is a second I consider turning back. There’s still time to walk away.
“Do you always do this?” Jules asks, breaking up the quiet.
“What’s that?”
“This,” she says, her cheek resting against the seat as she looks at me.
“Hmm?” I still don’t understand her question.
“Pick up women—” she stops and rolls her eyes. “You know, one-night stands.” Tapping my thumbs on the steering wheel, I consider her question. I used to without thinking twice. But that was before Avery. Before my father and this hell I’ve been thrown into.
“So I’m right, you do this often?” she says and I have to suppress my smile at her brazen demeanor.
“I’m not going to answer that, Jules.” My voice comes out a little harder than I wanted and she shrinks back some.Smooth, real fucking smooth.
It’s tense for a moment and I flick on the turn signal as we head down a deserted street. So close. I can’t lose her now. “I don’t take women to my place,” I tell her simply. “And it’s been a while.”
Her brows pinch for a moment and then she struggles to hold back a laugh. It catches me off guard but then I remember how much she drank. I’m still feeling a bit of the tequila myself. My tolerance is high as fuck, so if I’m feeling it, she must be wasted. The realization has me rethinking things again.
“How are you feeling?” I ask her.
“Fine,” she says and then covers her mouth with her hand.
“Are you drunk?” She doesn’t look like it in the least.
She purses her lips and shakes her head as she says, “Nope. Just right.” She stretches in the seat, covering another yawn when I stop at my gates.