Page 48 of Shadow and Skulls

Tank’s arms wrap around my waist, his chin resting on the top of my head.

“I’m going to spend the night with a friend, but I’m not ready to tell you who that is yet.”

“Kelsie, this is …”

My dad finding himself at a loss for words is unusual.

“Not like me,” I finish for him.

“I was going to say unexpected, but yeah, this isn’t like you. Is it a guy? Do you think I’m going to let you spend the night with a boy? Is that what this is?”

“Dad, please stop. I know you’re rushing out the door. You have a client. You can’t just leave.”

A door slams in the background. “Oh yeah?”

“Well, I guess you can, but it’s not good for business,” I joke.Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

My fingers tap lightly over my forehead as my mind scrambles for a way to take this conversation back. I should have just lied. How did I think this was going to go?

“Where are you?”

I know he’s standing by his bike, waiting for my answer before he fires it up.

“Dad. Listen to me. I’m an adult, and I’m not with a boy. I’m with a man. One I trust. I’ll be home in the morning. I love you,” I finish quickly before hanging up.

I let out a shaky breath. “Well, that was fun.”

I watch the willow tree’s branches sway peacefully in the wind as my heart struggles to return to a normal beat.

“You could have told him it was me. I’ll never ask you to lie about anything.”

My fingers tap out a message to Billie Rose, letting her know to leave my car at the school. I explain that I still need her to keep Tank’s name to herself, but Dan knows I’m not coming home.

She replies he’s already sent out a mass text to everyone in the club. They’ll be looking for me.

“Fuck,” I whisper.

Tank reads the message over my shoulder. “I’ll take you home.”

I spin around. “No.”

His fingers wrap around my throat, tipping my head back as he stares down at me. “We might be the only two people who understand what’s going on between us.”

“Well, that’s okay, because I don’t see anyone else here.”

His hands brush down my body, sliding to my ass. He lifts me, our lips joining before he begins to walk us down the hall of his trailer. Sunlight peeks around the shades of his bedroom, dusting the room in a soft glow.

As soon as he sets me on my feet, we’re pulling our shirts over our heads. Our hands reach for each other clumsily as we steady ourselves to kick our shoes off. He chuckles lightly, and it makes me smile. I like the sound of his laugh.

But the mood shifts to a serious one as soon as our pants hit the floor.

“We’re going to go slow,” he says quietly as his intense green eyes caress my skin at a lazy pace.

I sway on my feet, anxiously awaiting his next command.

“I don’t want to miss anything. I want to remember this forever.”

The way he speaks sends a shiver straight down my spine, waking up nerve endings I didn’t know I had.

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