Page 14 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

SARAH

“ T his one?” I asked the girls. They were lazily strewn across my bed and couch as I rifled through my collection of clothing.

“No,” Cosy said in disapproval at the baby blue cropped t-shirt. “It’s too…”

“Sunday,” Rhea said, rolling her head to the side.

“Pretty sure that is mine,” Sunday said, shoving bits of croissant into her mouth from her spot on the couch. “I agree though, you need something that screams—”

“I need to be fucked disrespectfully,” Kaia cut her off and crawled over the bed to my closet.

She smacked my ass and shooed me away with her hand as she started to rifle away inside.

“This,” she handed me one of the sheer button ups that I keep in the back of the closet for nights out to the Hollow.

“Kaia.” I took it from her nervously, “this feels too fancy for an afternoon.”

“It’s not an afternoon." She turned on me with her dark eyes narrowed and a pair of leather shorts in her clutch. “This is nearly two months of eye fucking one of the hottest players on the Hornets every time he’s in your sights. This is your chance.”

“You making it sound like life or death is only making it worse you know?” I said to her and pulled off the blue crop top, throwing it on the bed and replacing it with the sheer black button up.

“Good, maybe if it’s dire you’ll take me seriously,” Kaia grumbled and got down on her knees to dig through my shoes and boots. “These.” She handed me a pair of chunky black boots that had always fit snug to my calves. I shuffled out of my jeans and into the leather shorts .

“He’s going to fall over dead,” Rhea said, her eyes raking up my legs as I buttoned a few of the middle buttons on the shirt, leaving the rest open. The dark bralette I was wearing hugged tightly to my body and made me feel feminine in the sexiest way possible.

“That or he’ll get down on one knee.” Sunday propped her head up in her hand and sighed. “You’re so pretty, Addy,” she cooed.

“Oh you are too, Sunny,” I walked toward her and flicked her chin with my finger before sitting down on the couch and tugging on the boots quickly. My phone vibrated on the table and I grabbed it seconds before Kaia had the chance. I shot her a glare and opened it.

Have you decided what we’re doing today?

It’s a surprise.

I could tell my answer made him nervous because the three dots appeared and disappeared a second later.

“You guys need to get out of here.” I set my phone down, “he’ll be here soon and I don’t need him thinking that this was a group project.”

Cosy laughed, the sound light and amused, “he knows Minty.”

“Get out!” I scoffed and started to push Rhea to her feet.

They all gathered their shit and filed out of the apartment but Kaia held onto the doorframe and smiled at me, “don’t do anything I wouldn't do.”

“That’s a short list,” I said and returned her smile.

“And look how happy I am all the time,” she teased.

I chucked a pillow at her and she disappeared out of the front door closing it just before it hit her.

I turned back to the mirror and fluffed the messy loose curls in my hair before I fixed my lips and inhaled a sharp, nervous breath.

I wiggled around my nose ring and double checked my makeup again, my toes fidgeting in my boots.

Why the hell was I so nervous ?

We had been flirting for weeks, it’s not like I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into. But today it would just be us, one on one for hours. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, so noisily that I almost missed the soft knock at the door .

I stared at it for a second over my shoulder in the mirror. I could bail on him, tell him that I just couldn’t do it today. Hide. If I hid, it meant not getting my heartbroken down the road, it meant being safe from all the negative feelings that came with having a crush.

I hadn’t stopped long enough in the last few weeks to think about getting attached, flirty texts and avoiding deals were easy. There was no guarantee of what today might bring and it was the lack of control that made my heart race.

A second knock made me turn that time and I shook away the what ifs.

I could enjoy today without worry about tomorrow, without catastrophizing my entire future over a single date.

I couldn’t let them get to me, I just needed to have fun and whatever happened next, I’d have to trust that it was for a reason.

My phone buzzed in my hand and I looked down with a smile.

Open the door, Adeline.

On any other day I would respond quickly and with unmatched sarcasm but today I just inhaled once more, shoving my phone into the back pocket of my shorts and opened the door.

He was standing on the other side in a dark fitted tank top that hugged tight to his sculpted chest and a pair of blue jeans with a striped button down t-shirt that he’d left open.

“What no baseball hat today?” I teased, the words almost catching in my throat.

“Nope. Looks like neither of us needed our buffer today,” he looked around my empty apartment. “A heads up would have been nice though, your downstairs neighbor might call the cops for a wellness check after Rhea and Kaia’s speech.”

“Seriously?” I could feel myself turning red.

“I’m kidding, they were perfect angels,” Jensen said, pushing his hand through his messy hair with a rough swallow. “Well, Rhea was but the chances of survival are low if I insult your best friend.”

I shook my head gently and tried my hardest not to show how insufferably warm I was by his gentle flirting. Almost worse than when he was out right telling me how he wanted it. I looked back up at him and he was still watching me with bright, attentive brown eyes .

“So where are we going, Adeline?” He asked.

“I want to get tattoos,” I said, mustering up some long lost confidence. I allowed the feeling to take over and guide the conversation because if embarrassing, no game Adeline had her way, she’d shut the door in his face.

“Tattoos on a first date?” He asked, for a second he almost looked nervous and it fed the little monster inside of me. Like a spark to a flame.

“Are you scared, Jensen?” I asked him.

“No, but we’re going to have to stop for snacks and gas,” he mused without skipping a beat and stepped back to let me out of my apartment. “Ready?”

I eyed him for a second, drinking in the boyish grin on his face as he extended one arm down the hall, the impatience vibrating from him in waves.

I couldn’t tell if he was nervous like me, or excited but either way it was bringing a soft pink color to his cheeks as he wet his bottom lip, his mouth no doubt going dry as I stepped forward.

I locked the door quickly behind me and turned back to him.

“Why do we need snacks for tattoos?” I asked him.

“Those are for the road trip, if you want tattoos, fine,” he agreed with a small laugh, “but we’re going to my guy and he’s two hours west of here.”

Snacks and gas.

I should have been infuriated that he wasn’t even remotely upset by the spontaneous want to do something insane for our first date.

Kaia had told me to keep it simple, dinner at the Hollow, or at home.

Rhea and Cosy, voted for a movie and a make out, where Sunday said I should let him pay to take me to the Zoo.

Nothing screamed at me though until I saw Jensen, standing there in front of me ready for anything I threw at him.

I didn’t even have a single tattoo on my body and compared to his ink saturated skin I could have seen him questioning the idea. Instead he came up with a plan to make it happen, on the spot and without a single complaint.

“What exactly did Kaia say to you?” I asked him as we took the stairs to the bottom floor, he held open the front door for me and a laugh rolled from him. “She gave you the ‘ you’ll have to re-learn how to walk’ speech, didn’t she?” I stared at him as we wandered across the parking lot to his car .

“I got the ‘you’ll have to re-learn how to get hard’ speech. Which is horrifying because I didn’t even know you could break your penis until Rhea showed me the google results,” he said with his brows furrowed tightly and his hand on the handle of the passenger side door.

Mental note to kill her later. “Well, don’t screw up,” I warned quietly as I stepped up to the open door separating us.

He didn’t say anything but the smile on his face and the gesture of him tapping two fingers to his chest seemed to quell the nerves that bubbled up inside.

I had zero idea what it meant but I trusted it as I slipped into the seat.

He pulled from the parking lot and it dawned on me that he was driving an old man's car… “Is this your dads?” I asked him, laughing at the clean car smell. It barely looked used and it definitely didn’t scream college kid.

“It’s mine,” he said, turning onto the road out of town, “Why?” he looked over at me confused.

“It’s just…” I ran my hand over the dashboard and laughed. “Boring?”

“Practical…” Jensen scoffed, “good on gas, low maintenance and easy to clean.”

“Are you sure it’s not your dads?” I teased him and he just shook his head.

“Not every guy drives fast cars Adeline, this isn’t a movie…” he joked.

“But we agree it would be hotter if they did?” I laughed and he echoed the sound. When we reached the edge of town he pulled into the gas station and filled the car. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to a text from Kaia.

Kaia: Why are you stopped, are you already naked?

I cursed myself for not turning off my location before I left the house, I should have known that the first thing she’d do was check it.

He’s getting gas.

As in— you're pumping his gas?

I shoved my phone away as he got back into the car and handed me two bags of cola bottles and a bottle of water. I looked down at them and then back up at him, a chocolate bar hanging out of his teeth as he did up his belt with one hand.

“Who’s the snitch?” I asked, holding up the bags.

“You eat two bags a game, three if you're nervous,” he said, dropping the chocolate bar into the cup holder. I looked down at the bag, hiding the flicker of appreciation that crossed my face at the thought that he had just noticed.

“I don’t get nervous at your games,” I scoffed, at least I didn’t think I did but when I thought more on it, stress eating cola bottles was a subconscious trait that most of the time I didn't even realize I was doing until the bag was gone.

“Figured you’d need one for the drive, one for the tattoo,” he brushed me off, ignoring the denial.

“I’m not nervous to get a tattoo,” I argued, letting the bags rest between my legs on the seat.

“Do you have any others?” He asked, pulling onto the highway finally. I shook my head no. “Not even ones I haven’t found yet?” His smile twisted and I felt the heat rise on the back of my neck.

“Not a single one,” I confessed.

“Save one of the bags,” Jensen laughed gently and looked over at me.

“Are you implying that I can’t handle tattoo pain?” I turned in my seat, sliding my knee across the seat so I could really look at him. His jaw tightened with amusement and his eyes flickered off the road to watch me shift.

“Being nervous and being scared are two different things,” Jensen teased.

It drove me insane how relaxed he was, like he couldn’t be bothered to be anxious about today, about our date.

The sun soaked him in warm light and made his olive skin glow, and highlighted the few freckles that danced around on his cheeks and nose.

My body shivered as his tongue pressed out over his bottom lip.

“I’m not scared of a tattoo gun,” I said after a second, confident and sure of myself for the first time today. It wasn’t necessarily a lie, because I was a little scared but it wasn’t over a little pain…

Jensen looked at me and the sun illuminated the golden undertones of his brown eyes. My heart tripped over the feelings that the look gave me, little did he know I was already facing my fears.