Page 27 of Surprise Baby for the Enemy

ThenI turn on the music and whoop as the wind tears at my hair. When the song slows down, I switch stations. I won’t let it get too quiet. I won’t let myself or my thoughts turn back. Derrick rattled me, sure, but I won’t let it last.

All I did was have crazy good sex tonight. A total normal, human thing. It doesn’t have to be a big fucking deal.

For almost an hour, I don’t bother to keep track of where I’m driving. I turn when I feel like it, I don’t when I don’t. I know where I need to end up, but I have all night to get there. Night has fallen and the roads are emptying out, so I sing along to the radio as loud as I can, wandering the downtown streets aimlessly in my gorgeous stolen car.

When I finally do turn myself back toward Cooper’s, my throat is raw, my eyes are streaming from the wind, and I’m pretty sure my hair is tangled to all hell. Time to get back in my precious Bentley, and then home for some much-needed rest.

Rest.

Unwillingly, my brain turns to Thomas and Clara. They’re probably getting none of that… obviously. And then I think of what I could be doing instead of going home, and then to what Derrick and I have already done-

Nope. No, no, no. I won’t think about it.

A traitorous pulse goes between my legs, and my breasts perk up.

I grit my teeth and breathe out slowly through my nose. My face feels hot, even in the night air. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t.

I owe you better than what I gave you last time.

I want to watch the next time you cum.

Good girl. Keep asking so sweetly. I’ll take good care of you-

I slam on the brakes and yank the car over to the side of the road. I’m breathing like I’ve run a mile, and to my horror, I’m wet. I’mwetjust at the thought of all those sweet nothings Derrick said to me. And the way he touched me after he said them. And the way those touches made me feel-

The tears running down my face are from the wind. I’m not crying. I am absolutelynotcrying and horny in this gorgeous car on the side of the road in the middle of the night.

I take a moment tonotcry, then scrub my hands over my face and collect myself. I’m close to Cooper’s, which means I’m close to my ultimate goal.

Focus, Raleigh.

On the right hand side of the road, the sidewalk gives way to a steep dirt ditch which runs the length of the block. Some construction project or other that lost its funding before it could be finished. I don’t care. But I’d remembered it, for no particular reason at all, when my eyes first settled on the Corvette sitting in Derrick’s garage.

I drive the car up over the sidewalk, and edge it toward the slope. Now that I’m looking, it’s only about six or seven feet down, but that’ll do me. I open the door of the car, sticking one leg out, ready to jump free. Then I pump the gas until I feel the car start to tip forward.

At the very last second, I floor the gas and then leap out of the car. I lose my balance, trip, and fall hard on the asphalt, but not as hard as the car as it slips nose first into the ditch. Itcrunchesloudly at the bottom. I climb shakily to my feet, my palms stinging, and stare at the bumper of the car sticking up out of the ditch. Well, that’s a little more conspicuous than I’d hoped. Time to go before someone comes along and spots the poor Corvette- or me.

I’m only a few blocks away from Cooper’s, and while last night I was worried about walking alone through a similar neighborhood, tonight I feel fucking invincible. My steps are light, my heart pounding. I just did somethinginsane, and I’ve never felt so alive.

Who needs wild sex when you can crash a priceless car into a ditch?

Then I turn onto Hackney Street. Cooper’s, barely lit by dingy streetlights, finally comes into view.

My Bentley is gone.

My heart stutters and drops. My eyes have to be playing tricks on me. No longer feeling my legs, I trudge over to where my precious car was parked just hours before, as if it’s still there but somehow invisible. I turn in a circle, but I don’t run into any invisible Bentley.

Someone stole my beautiful car. Was it Silver, getting a second last laugh after our disastrous meeting? Or did some random asshole just see it and decide it would be his now.

My eyes blur with furious tears. And now… now the fear is starting to creep back in on me. Because now I’m stranded in the parking lot of the shittiest bar in the city. And it’s very, very dark.

For a few minutes I wander aimlessly around the parking lot. The bar is still open, of course, but I wouldn’t step inside it at this hour of the night for any amount of money. I reach into the pocket of my shorts for my phone, thinking that now would be a good time to give up the game and call Iris- but it must’ve slipped out when Derrick stripped me, because my pocket is empty. Or maybe Derrick removed it when he first put me in handcuffs, and I was too upset to notice. Whatever happened, my car is gone, I just crashed my other ride back home, and I can’t even call for Iris to come pick me up like I’m some child who’s tried to run away and given up.

I’ll have to hitchhike my way home. I can claim I drove here with some work acquaintances, and wasn’t comfortable driving back with them when our designated driver started having her own shots. I couldn’t call a rideshare because I’d forgotten my phone in their car, and I didn’t feel comfortable going back inside the bar alone. Any self-respecting woman will sympathize.

I wait at the corner of Cock Lane and Hackney like I’m planning to cross the street. I also won’t flag down any car unless it’s being driven by a woman. That seems like a good way to avoid most gruesome deaths, at least. Unfortunately, aside frompatrons of Coopers, there aren’t many people driving around this part of town, and even fewer women.

My feet are starting to ache in my heels from standing on the uneven sidewalk. I’m hungry- no, now that I’ve remembered food, I’m fuckingstarving. And my head hurts because I’ve avoided coffee all day.

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