Page 27 of Forbidden Girl

Her smile disappears. “Alistair. I know him. I’ve seen him with my dad. I feel like I shouldn’t have, though.”

“You shouldn’t have. He was my dad’s right-hand.” Now he’s a dead man walking.

“Oh.” It’s all she has to say. She catches my meaning.

“I took care of it as best I could.”

She takes my hand, gives it a squeeze, and keeps hold of it the whole walk back to Sand Dollar Beach.

“Fuck me sideways, you’d think I’d be better at starting fires, right?” I’m frustrated by the tinder’s stubborn insistence on not burning. I’m getting embers to spark, but it’s too windy to light in earnest. Still, I’m leaning over the firepit, trying my damnedest. “Should’ve bought a Zippo.”

I catch Jules as she looks up from reading the ingredients on a package of marshmallows. “Sweetie, it’s a good thing. It means you’re not an arsonist. Not being an arsonist is very hot.”

I snap upright and drill her with a glare. “You just made a pun. You’re punny. I’m dating a punster.”

“Did I break you?”

“No, it’s dope. And that one was awful. The worse the better.” I snigger, and she does, too.

“It was really bad. Do you want help with that?”

“I thought about asking you to come stand over here and block the wind, but you’re so scrawny it wouldn’t help much.”

She titters because she knows I’m right, but tosses a “fuck you” at me for good measure. “Come sit with me and enjoy the sunset. We can worry about arson and s’mores later.” She thrusts her hand out toward me, fingers wiggling. I take it and join her on the recliners. “This is nice,” she says. “The whole day was nice. Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

We sit in silence for a while, listening to the small waves splash against the shore, and seagulls making their weird half-barking, half-honking sounds. I can picture us when we’re old and gray, doing exactly this. I don’t know that I’ve ever pictured myself living to be old and gray before. It’s strange, but pleasant. I figured I’d be a brilliant star, one that burns white-hot for a short time then extinguishes unceremoniously. Maybe not.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you… Where’s your car? I didn’t see it in the lot.”

Right. She notices everything. Now I understand she gets that from her mom. We have that trait in common, but mine developed over time for survival purposes. When your father uses you as a drug mule, there’s a constant threat of attack or arrest—outside of the city proper, where we don’t pay off half the police force.

If I tell her about the chase, how I had to dump my whip and commit grand theft auto, her mind will catapult into overdrive, tanking the chill vibe of the day. She’s an overthinker, an over-plotter. She’s too smart not to be. It’s not information she needs. I lost the motherfucker, I’m positive of it. Don’t freak her out. “I had an issue with it. I took a different one.” Omission is not lying.

“Okay?” It comes out like a question, singsongy at the end. She could call my bluff or prod for more of the story, but she’s content to drop it. “Just curious. You made it here, that’s all I care about.”

Thank you for letting it slide, my love. Sunset is past. The moon and stars are brighter here than in the city. We don’t need a fire for light, although it is getting chilly. “I’m gonna try the fire again. I still want those goddamn s’mores.”

“Mmm. Hard same.”

THIRTEEN

JULES

“You’re worse at eating than a five-year-old!” Rowan says with a chuckle.

“It’s not my fault. You chose messy foods!”

“I did, yet I managed to not miss my mouth once.”

“Touché.”

“Conceding my point. Good girl.”

She didn’t say it in a remotely sexy way, but my body doesn’t understand that. It’s activated. I’m too easy. And she’s too attractive. She has that beach hair thing happening, loose black ringlets cascading down her shoulders. And the flames are reflecting in her eyes, making them look yellow-green like peridot. And the top two buttons of her shirt are undone, so her impeccable cleavage is peeking out. And…

She reaches out to wipe a gooey glob of chocolate from the corner of my mouth. When she’s done, I catch the tip of her thumb between my teeth, then take the whole of it into my mouth and suck. Her breath hitches as I release her. She trails her wet digit down my throat, then wraps her hand around it. The hint of a chokehold has me soaking.

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