Page 32 of Crossing the Line

“Unless you have your own car,” he says, putting his phone back in his pocket.

My own car?“You mean like a hired driver?”

“Yes.”

Shaking my head adamantly, I say, “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because a cab or the subway works just fine.”

“You’re from one of the richest families in the world, and you ride around on the subway?”

I grimace, not quite understanding why he asked me that. Then I shrug and finish off my doughnut. “Sometimes I walk.”

Hercules chuckles. “Oh, PG. What am I going to do with you? You’re going to give me a heart attack, worrying about you.”

I blurt a snort. “I do just fine.”

He’s watching me with a penetrating smile. “Are you ready?”

I press a hand against my fluttering stomach. “Yes.”

Hercules’s eyes are smoldering as he stands. I rise to my feet too. Once again, we’re caught in an intense stare.Gosh…The level of attraction between us is nonsensical.

“Are you on your way to deal with the kiss?” I ask.

Nodding slowly, he says, “I am.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Well, Achilles has nothing to worry about since our kissing days are over. We’re going to be just friends, right? Platonic friends?”

Hercules’s chuckle sounds as if it escapes him. “Sure,” he replies as he picks up the half-finished box of doughnuts. “Want to take these with you?”

I’m not sure he’s looking to keep our relationship platonic, but I shake my head. “Too sweet.”

He takes a step around the table to stand closer to me. His energy and presence are overpowering. The crotch of my panties is definitely soaked. He gets me so excited. I haven’t had this much titillation down there since our New Year’s Eve together.

“I guess I have to activate your sweet tooth, then.” His voice is unabashedly seductive.

My breathing is heavy, and my chest rises high and falls low. Then a black SUV with dark tinted windows stops in front of the doughnut shop.

An SUV? All that room in the back seat?

I’m wearing a skirt. All Hercules has to do is unzip and insert. How easy it would be for him to be inside me yet again, filling me, pumping through me, pleasuring me…

No way.I need a break from him. I need space to think about whether I should spend more or less time with him.

I take a step back, putting a feeble amount of distance between us, and thumb over my shoulder. “I think… I mean, I’ll just call a cab.”

Hercules shakes his head. “No, you won’t, PG. I’m not letting you leave me and take a cab. That’s not happening.”

I hold up a hand, palm out. “It’s okay, Hercules. I’ve been taking cabs all my life. I’ll be fine.”

“It’s not safe. How do you know the driver isn’t a kidnapper?”

Shocked by his worry, I shake my head rapidly. “Kidnapper? Nobody’s going to kidnap me.”

I recall my cousin Treasure’s fake kidnapping during my junior year of high school. She was a freshman in college. I guess it’s plausible that someone might get the idea to hold me for ransom. However, Treasure was not actually kidnapped—she was with a boy. And I’m certain that boy was Hercules’s brother Orion. It seems I’m not the only Grove girl who can’t resist the allure of a Lord boy.