Page 16 of Make You Mine

Tossing the empty cup in the trash can, I take her hand and get in line behind G and Lottie.

Once our cart starts moving up into the darkening summer sky, I grab her neck, moving her ear to my lips. “I wish you could sit on my lap and use me like you did that first night we met. Rubbing your hot little pussy all over my cock.”

She releases a whimper, and my hand trails up her exposed tan skin, running along the inside of her thigh.

“You have no idea how bad I wanted inside of you that night.” I recall the feral way I felt from the second I saw her at the club in New York. It still blows me away that fate brought her to my hometown this summer.

I nip at her neck, and she lets out a low moan, picking her hips up, silently asking me to touch her where she really wants me. “Did you wear this skirt for me?”

“Yes, touch me. Please, Trent.”

She moans as my fingers find her wet center. “Trent… Trent….”

“Trent!”

I blink a few times, wondering if I conjured her up in the flesh.

“Trent, what are you doing here?” Ashley asks, a mix of sadness and anger lining her gorgeous face.

Snapping myself out of the trance, I tell her the truth. “I happen to love this place’s black and white shakes. A beautiful girl turned me on to them a long time ago.”

I see the way she tries to fight her smile, but can’t quite hold it in at my admission.

Ash shakes her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you still come here.”

It makes me feel closer to you.

“I’ve been studying here since the semester started. I figured you must not come here anymore.”

“I was craving a milkshake today, and my ankle was feeling better, so I was ready to get out of the house,” she says, just as they shout out, “order up” at the counter. I watch as she walks over to grab her shake, making sure she doesn’t favor her injured foot. Her gait appears normal. Good, just a minor sprain.

Black and white milkshake.A vision of her the first time we met here dances across the forefront of my mind. She’s even more stunning and just as much mine as she was that day. She may not have known it then or now, but she will.

“Sit if you want,” I say, waving to the open bench across from me.

Ashley shakes her head and tips the cup toward me. “Thanks, but I got mine to-go. Luca is waiting outside.”

“I understand. Did you give Friday any thought? Maybe say you’re meeting a friend from design school.” I probably shouldn’t press her, but I’m desperate to have true alone time together.

Tilting her head, she completely ignores me and asks her own question. “So, you’ve been coming to the diner for the last month or two since your school started back up, but you haven’t even had the decency to try to look for me…to tell me you’re okay?”

“Ash.” My chest aches as I stare into her eyes; she doesn’t get it. Everything…and I meaneverythingis for her. “I didn’t know how safe it was to see you. Why do you think I was truly at that gala?” I say, knowing it won’t give away too much, but needing her to know she has been on my mind.

“How?” Her brow pinches as her eyes search my face for the truth.

“Micah.” Again, true, just not completely.

She nods, looking out the window, pondering. “To your question, yes, I’ve been thinking about Friday. I’m just not sure about it yet.”

Oomph, like a punch to the gut. But what should I expect?I justshowed up out of the blue after three years of no contact. At least, in her eyes.

“And also, I ended up finishing design school online, so I don’t really have friends based around that.”

Wait, what?

I reach for her hand, and surprisingly, she lets me grab onto it. “Why did you drop your in-person classes?”

“It’s a long story.” With a sigh, she looks down at where my hand touches hers. I know she feels it, the deep-rooted connection and electricity that thrums from me to her.