Page 120 of Risky Obsession

Lacey/Tory

Ijolted awake and rolled in my seat toward Kane.

He pulled on the handbrake. “Hello, sleepyhead.”

Stretching, I tried to get my eyes to focus on the car’s LCD display. Shit, I’d slept for four hours. “Damn it, Kane.” I rubbed sleep from my eyes. “I told you to wake me after an hour.”

“I know, but you were fast asleep. I couldn’t wake you.” He turned off the engine, and the darkness outside swallowed all the light.

As my eyes adjusted to the dimness, I scanned our surroundings. We seemed to be parked on a narrow dirt track surrounded by thick, shadowy foliage.

“Where are we?” I croaked.

As I reached for a water bottle, Kane undid his seatbelt.

“I drove through Cuxhaven and found some woods out of town to ditch the car.” His eyes looked weary with exhaustion. “We need to clean off our fingerprints, and take all our things out of here, then we can walk back to town.”

He used the sleeve of his jacket to rub down the steering wheel.

Despite the heavy bags under his eyes and the weary slump of his shoulders, he was still ruggedly handsome. It was both infuriating and alluring. I probably looked like crap. I certainly felt like it.

He ran the end of his sleeve over the front of the dash.

“Hang on, I’ve got some wipes in my bag we can use.” I pushed the door open and frigid air rushed in. “Oh shit, it’s freezing out here.”

Trying to ignore the pain in my bladder, I opened the back door, rummaged through my bag, and pulled out a pack of wet wipes.

I returned to the front and passed him the wipes. “Here, this will work. I’m going to duck into the bushes for a sec.”

He ran the wet wipe over the steering wheel. “I’ll go after you.”

From the back of the car, I used the moonlight filtering through the trees to navigate around a bush to a secluded spot to pee. The trees swayed overhead, making the area around me feel like it was alive, and the air was so cold, my skin prickled, my teeth chattered, and my dislocated fingers ached like hell. I pulled up my pants and raced back to the car.

“My turn.” Kane darted away and vanished into the bushes.

I unplugged the phone and charger and shoved them into my jacket pocket, then I added our rubbish to the plastic bag with our purchases from the shop and placed it on the dirt outside. As I focused on wiping the LCD display and the radio knobs, I tried to recall all the areas I’d touched.

The wind howled through the trees, adding to the ticking sound of the cooling engine.

Kane returned to the driver’s side open door and shuddered. “Christ! It’s cold.”

“I know.” I finished wiping down the dash and turned my attention to the leather on the inside of the door.

“I don’t think we need to worry too much,” Kane said. “I’ve never been fingerprinted.”

He swept his gaze to me, and my brain just about fried.

“Ooh, looks like Tory has a story to tell.” He wriggled his eyebrows.

A wave of heat barreled through my body. I’ve been fingerprinted twice, once on each side of the law.

“When did you get tangled with the cops?” His gaze drilled into me and the grin faded from his face.

My thundering heart competed with the howling wind.

“Hey, you know you can tell me anything.” His gentle tone nearly crushed my brain.

He’d just given me an opening. It was time to reveal the secret that had been crushing me for days.