Page 29 of Love JD

The car pulled smoothly away from the building, and I twisted around, still shocked. “Are you for real right now?” I pointed to the driver, a small woman with long, black hair that fell over her blue polo. “Does she know this is a kidnapping?”

“I’m deaf,” she replied in monotone.

“Pretty sure that won’t hold up in court,” I countered with a squint.

“Technically, you’re about to agree to go with me, so it’s a moot point,” Zev smiled arrogantly.

“Am I?” I asked, rounding on him with wide eyes. “What a fascinating prediction.”

“Yes, because we’re going to play a game,” Zev continued, looking smug and relaxed. “If I win, you go with me to Denver.”

“And if you lose?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“I’ll back out and leave you alone,” he said simply.

I narrowed my eyes. That sounded too easy. It had to be rigged. “What’s the game?”

“Two truths and a lie,” he said with a bounce of his eyebrows. “You tell me two truths and a lie, and if I guess the lie, then I win. If not, I let you out at your apartment and leave you to handle things as you will.”

I knew he was doing this because he was a lawyer. Because he was probably well-versed in body language and detecting deception. But if I played dirty, how would he know? I tried not to look too coy. “Alright. Fine. I’ll play along because you flew all the way out here and I feel a little guilty about that.”

“As you fucking should,” he said with a glower.

I cleared my throat, thinking. I sifted through all the facts about myself, and tried to pluck out the ones not even Tristan would know. Truthfully, not many people knew anything about me, and I was just fine with that. “Alright,” I said at last, meeting his gaze and trying desperately not to melt under it. “I was in the Olympics, I’ve never been kissed, and I danced with an indigenous tribe under a lunar eclipse.”

Zev’s eyes traveled all over me, bouncing up and down my face, traveling over my loose T-shirt and distressed jean shorts, and back up again. “You’ve really never been kissed?”

I struggled to keep my features passive. “I’m not giving anything away. Which one is the lie?”

“None of them.” He leaned forward, forcing me to angle back against the side of the car. “You dirty cheat.”

I swallowed audibly. “How did you know?”

Zev didn’t try to put distance between us again. He stretched his arm out along the seat behind me, and his lashes flickered down as he perused my face again. “I could just tell.”

“Are you curious about the Olympics?” I grinned.

He shook his head, his lips pressing together in thought. “Nope. I know you traveled with your dad growing up. I’m more curious about how the hell you got through twenty-one years without someone stealing a kiss from you.” He smelled like pine. I’d thought that had something to do with the forest when we’d first met, but no. It was just him. Pine and something woodsy, and it was making it hard for me to focus.

I pressed my body into the leather seat, and I felt my blood beat in my veins with a strange kind of warmth. It swirled around in my stomach and dropped down, down, down…

“I can’t,” I rasped out finally.

“Can’t what?”

“Can’t, you know, be intimate with people,” I whispered, my eyes glued to his like he had me in a trance.

“You’re asexual?” he asked in surprise.

“Er, no,” I hurried to say. I didn’t want to misrepresent my sexuality, even though it probably would have been easier to claim that. But that would be unfair and a disservice to my friends who did identify as asexual, so honesty it was. “I just… I got nervous once. Kissing someone. And it didn’t go well.”

“You mean you got nervous almost kissing someone?” he clarified with quiet amusement.

“Yeah.” I searched his expression, so close to mine, and tried to figure out what he thought about it. He probably thought I was pathetic. I thought I was pathetic.

But Zev looked fascinated. Heat simmered in his eyes, almost like they had darkened a shade to deep ocean blue. “How many times did you try?” he asked.

Energy vibrated throughout my body, imbuing me with a rush of desire and a weird kind of recklessness. I’d never felt like this before. Like I wanted Zev to put his hands on me and show me where to put all the energy crackling through me like lightning in a bottle. “Just once,” I admitted. “But it was pretty bad. I don’t think it’s possible for me.”

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