Page 38 of Play Me

The road forms a Y, and I take the right arm.

My tires hit gravel, sending a plume of dust around both sides of the truck.

The headlights bounce as we hit potholes that have formed due to a lack of attention from the county.

She sits quietly, but I can feel her energy bleeding off her. Nerves. Anticipation. Hope.

She nibbles a fingernail and looks straight ahead.

“I can’t risk messing this up,” I say, choosing my words carefully. “So I need you to tell me what you want. No jokes, no insinuations. Tell me what you want from me.”

Her cheeks flush.

“I’m not trying to embarrass you,” I insist. “If anything, I want to empower you. Ask me for what you want. Order me around like it’s your job. You’re exceptional at that.”

She grins. “Is that really what you want me to do?”

“You’re results-driven, and it would definitely get the results you’re after.”

I smirk as her gaze drops to my lap, and she realizes just how prepared I am to make good on my promise. Her eyes widen at the sight of my cock straining against my pants. Each breath causes her chest to rise and fall dramatically, and it’s all I have in me to keep the truck on the fucking road.

Parted lips. Dilated pupils. Touching her collarbone with her fingers.

Motherfucker.

I hold the steering wheel tightly so that I don’t accidentally reach for her. Knowing that she wants me even a fraction of how badly I want her is enough to drive me crazy. But like the saint I am not, I wait.

“Okay,” she says, sitting taller in the seat. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “You grew up here. You must know a spot we can go right now to fuck.”

She doesn’t have to tell me twice.

I slow down and turn the traction control off while piloting the truck to the side of the road. Then I crank the wheel and smash the gas, sending a rooster tail of gravel through the air as we spin in a one-eighty.

Astrid grips the door handle with one hand and my bicep with the other. Her squeals turn into a fit of giggles as I let out of it a little bit, and the truck straightens out on the road.

“Oh my God,” she says, laughing as she drags her hand away from my arm. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Taking you to get fucked.”

She falls back in her seat and exhales. “I can’t hear you say that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s been a long time. I’m in a bit of a drought, and you’re … you.”

I hook a right onto a dirt road with branches hanging over it. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

“Good. Because I meant it as one.”

We travel into the pitch-black, far away from any streetlamps or porch lights. The lane gets bumpier the farther we get from the road, and the sky grows inkier and the stars more twinkly.

Astrid grabs the door handle once again as I steer us off the road and onto the soft earth.

“I’m taking a big risk here,” she says. “You could just as easily take me into the middle of nowhere and kill me for all I know.”

“You must really trust me, huh?”

She smiles. “Or I’m desperate. One or the other.”

The fact that it’s been a long time since she’s been with someone is mind-blowing, almost as mind-blowing as seeing her walk around town all night with my name splashed across her back.

Astrid, the classy, intelligent, sexy-as-hell spitfire, garnered looks from every man in Sugar Creek and didn’t give one of them the time of day …

except me. Kill me now . It’s been months since I’ve had sex.

If she wants to talk about desperate, I’m desperate .

The truck’s engine roars as we reach our destination—the top of the highest hill around with a view for miles. Thanks to the bright moon hanging overhead, the view isn’t totally lost on Astrid.

“Oh wow,” she says, unbuckling herself. “Look at this. It’s the country version of the view from Renn’s office.”

I turn off the truck and smile at her sense of awe.

“Are you sure that no one will call the police on us for being up here?” she asks.

“Can’t you live on the dark side and not follow the rules just once?”

She frowns, her lips pressing together in the cutest little pout.

“I’m kidding,” I say. “No one’s going to call the police. I promise.”

“How do you know?”

I shake my head and climb out of the truck. “I know because the only person who’d call the cops is probably at home and in bed right now. But even that’s a mile or a mile and a quarter away from here.” I point across the treetops before opening the back door. “So I think we’re safe.”

“This is a part of Hartley’s property, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“You could’ve led with that,” she says, watching me rummage through a bin in my back seat.

“Where’s the fun in that?” I tug the quilt Mom gave me when I turned sixteen from the bottom of the container.

Along with our first set of keys, she gave Hartley and me quilts, first-aid kits, and an emergency whistle “ just in case. ” We either kept it all in our vehicles, or we didn’t drive. It’s a habit that I have never broken.

Astrid gets out of the truck as I’m opening the tailgate.

The weather is warm with just a hint of crispness in the air now that the sun has gone down, and I hop into the bed and spread the quilt over the bottom.

“This view is amazing,” she says, staring up at the sky. “Look at how many stars there are. It’s so pretty.” When she turns back at me, she stills.

“I can guarantee that my view right now is even prettier.” I hold out my hand. “Come up here with me.”

She lays her hand in mine and places a foot on the small step by the tailgate, and I then hoist her up.

We’re eye to eye, chest to chest. Breaths ragged. Expectations high.

Things just got very, very real.