Page 54 of Ink & Stardust

Again, memories of last night come flooding in, overwhelming every one of my senses.

“You good?” He waits until he has me tucked inside the car to ask.

“Yeah.” I blow out a slow breath.

“Thinking about the last time you were in this car?” He guesses right, as per usual. “’Cause I know I fucking am. Watching you fidget made me want to pull over and fuck you right on the side of the road.”

“Why didn’t you?” I try to will the blush away, but as always, it touches my cheeks anyway. At this point, I’m basically a walking blush factory.

“You’re not a fuck in the back seat kind of girl,” he tells me, firing the engine to life.

“I’m not?” I question, not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment.

“It’s not an insult.” He grins, and Lord help me if my heart doesn’t skitter around in my chest like an erratic mouse that can’t find its hole in the wall.

“Why am I not afuckin the back seat kind of girl?” I cringe slightly on the word fuck, mainly just because it’s not a word that frequents my vocabulary.

“Well, given that you can’t even say fuck with a straight face.” He chuckles.

“Shut up.” I gently smack his arm, crinkling my nose at him, which only makes him laugh harder, the rich sound filling the car, surrounding me like a warm blanket that I want to close my eyes and snuggle into. “Tell me why I’m not that kind of girl.”

“I think you know why.” He throws me a sideways glance as he pulls out of the parking lot onto the road.

“Because I’m too uptight?” I wager a guess. “Or because you think I’m too goody-two-shoes?” There’s no anger to my question. I just genuinely want to know.

“Because you strike me as someone who expects more.”

“Do I?” I cross my arms in front of myself.

“Don’t you?” He glances my way for a brief moment.

“I mean, yeah, I guess if we were in a relationship, maybe I would. But this isn’t a relationship, as you’ve made clear. So why treat me any different than you would any other woman you’re sleeping with?”

“Well, as of yesterday, I’m only sleeping with you, remember? That was the agreement, was it not?”

I swallow hard as if just now realizing that this wasn’t just a one-time thing... And why does that thought make me both extremely nervous and extremely excited?

You already know why...

I was wondering when that little voice of mine was going to input her two cents.

“You were serious about that?”

“You weren’t?” His brow furrows as he glances my way.

“No, I was, I just... I guess I assumed you’d have sex with me, get it out of your system, and that would be that.”

“That would be that,” he repeats slowly, abruptly pulling into a parking lot that looks to belong to a closed bar.

“What are you doing?” I ask, watching him throw the car into park and pivot toward me.

“I need you to listen closely, Converse, and listen good. It’s going to take a fuck lot more than one night to get you out of my system. Just because I can’t give you more doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy every single second I get to spend buried deep inside you.”

My breath hitches.

“Are we clear?”

I nod, unable to form words.

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