Page 10 of Keeping It
I tsk. “You’ll be seeing me every Friday, remember?” I correct.
Caroline shakes her head, blonde waves moving over her bare shoulder. “That’s business. Why would you lie to them? I don’t understand.” When she shifts on the worn-out cloth and meets my eye, I almost cave. I almost tell her the testosterone filled truth.
I lie instead. Mostly to preserve the integrity of our night and hopefully salvage my dignity. “I didn’t tell them anything. It’s guys being guys and they were telling you the truth about my sexual history.” If she knows one thing, she should know what kind of sexual monster I am. I’m not afraid of scaring her off at this point. I’m afraid of not having her.
Blushing, she turns away. “You’ve never had a real girlfriend?” A topic we’ve never broached before. Blessedly, it’s not about the guys anymore. I have had a girlfriend. Once. It’s why I’ve never had another one again. The burning inside my chest and the wound she left when things ended, made a gaping, black hole that proved how much power I gave her without realizing it.
I take a deep breath. “Are you offering?” I return, sliding my palm across the truck seat to cover her hand.
Chapter Five
Tahoe
Caroline rears back, pulling her hand away from mine like I’ve burned her. “What is with you guys? Is everything an invitation to be lewd and rude? Let’s just go inside and get a drink so I can go home. My slippers and Netflix are calling, and they’re a million times more polite than my current company,” she sasses.
Throwing my head back I examine the loose layer of fabric hanging from the ceiling. It smells like mothballs and I almost didn’t buy this truck because of it. I make a loud gurgling noise. “Are you done killing me yet?” I moan, clutching my neck with one hand. “You have to at least attempt to have a date with me. That means you have to like me.”
“Pretend to like you, you mean,” she spits back, folding her arms under her glorious tits. I check my line of vision back to her face.
Resting my arms on my steering wheel, I put my head against them. “Are we back to this again? You like me, Caroline.”
“I do not,” she quips, tilting her chin up.
Frowning, I add, “And I like you too.” I want to tell her how hot I think she is when she’s arguing with me. How I’d love nothing more than to rip off her clothes and fuck her in the cab of this old ass truck—until her ass cheeks smell like my Grandma’s old sweater closet. “More thanlikeI’d fathom a guess,” I add, when I become aware she’s waiting for me to say more.
That gets her attention, her posture lightens and the lines between her eyes relax. “I’ve heard enough lies for today, I think. How about that beer?” Her words don’t match the expression on her face.
I sigh. “Look. No one is even here yet. Let’s allow the town drunk to get going before we go in there. I’m not lying to you. I do like you. Maybe you don’t like me, but you’re attracted to me, and that’s enough to stroke my ego enough to live another day. What do you say? Truce for the night? Not even the night. Just this one date. Technically, you did promise.”
Caroline sighs, a heavy emotional heave that tells me she’s done with me and this conversation. “That’s a lofty assumption. One that stinks of a serious ego problem. You don’t have to pretend to like me, Tyler. I was perfectly fine before you arrived and I’ll be just as fine when you leave.”What if I don’t want to leave?The thought comes to mind quickly, like a bolt of lightning striking, the thunder following is me realizing exactly what that means. I’ve found something I want. Strike. Boom. Blast. Silence. I need to find a way to make Caroline mine.
“Bronze Bay has its finer points. Don’t count on my leaving anytime soon,” I say. “I’m sorry my friends were…rude.” The apology tastes like chalk, but I know it’s necessary.
She relaxes a little. I knew manners went a long way in this small, southern town, but now I’m thinking I canyes ma’amthis woman until she lands on my dick.
Caroline faces me, bending one leg under her body. “You never answered my question about having a girlfriend. You deflected, like you always do when you don’t want to talk about something.” She meets my eye when she asks, and I realize how rare that is. She talks around me, never really engaging me directly. She’s trusting me to give her honesty, trusting me enough to let me know my answer matters.
I smirk. “No harm in the truth if you don’t want to be my girlfriend, I suppose.”
“You don’t want me as a girlfriend,” Caroline says, shaking her head, eyes narrowed in skepticism. She fires off a statement that basically says she won’t believe me if I do tell her I’ve had a girlfriend because even if my friends are crude, they had no reason to lie about my promiscuity.
I shrug. “It’s true, I did have a girlfriend, Stella, for three years. It ended badly. So, technically they didn’t lie, they just didn’t tell you why I am the way I am.”
I implore her not to ask any questions about the relationship. She’s thinking about it. “Why do you want to hang out with me, then?” Caroline asks, gesturing to herself. “You throw the girlfriend word around so casually you have to be joking.”
I swallow, and I taste the battery acid from the breakup with Stella, the panic when I realized the pain wouldn’t go away, ever. Even now that she’s married and pregnant by some investment banker in N.Y.C. “I haven’t spent so much time with a woman since then,” I admit. “Pretty sure you already qualify as my girlfriend regardless of if I want that or not.”
“Why are you so,” she replies, closing her mouth, “so hot and cold? There are so many other girls in Bronze Bay that can give you what you want. I’ve given you the airport you needed. You’ve helped me with my place. I’m not…that kind of girl.”
“I know.” Scooting closer, I take her hand in mine. “That’s your draw.”
I watch her neck as she swallows hard. “It’s not smart to mix business with anything other than numbers.”What about sixty-nine, Caroline?
I shake my head. “Those rules don’t apply to me. No rules apply to me. I’m quite fierce when I’m pursuing something I want.” I lean in closer. There is a small smattering of freckles across her nose you can’t see unless you’re in kissing distance. Her blue eyes, on mine, reflect a mixture of fear and wanton desire. “I want you.” I skim my hand up her arm and across her exposed collar bone. A trace of goosebumps rise behind the trail of my fingers. “Say the word and the g-word is yours for the taking.” I haven’t felt an adrenaline rush this strong, and state altering since the last time I almost lost my life. I have a scar to prove it, a long narrow grazing mark tearing across my ribcage. The internal scars from Stella are worse than anything a bullet could produce and here I am giving Caroline the power to kill me without even knowing why I am doing it. A taste of her is worth a lifetime of torture. That’s the rational I’ll embrace—the only logical reason I’d give someone this power again, and she really is different. There’s no pretenses, and I’m pretty sure she hates me as much as she likes me and that’s a dose of “fuck you” I’ve needed for a while.
I’m lost in the moment, in my asinine proposition, and the wonder in how she’ll reply. I don’t see the cock-blocking intruder coming. Someone raps on the passenger side window, tearing us out of the breathless moment.
Caroline spins, recognizes the face, and cranks the handle to roll down the window. “Malena you scared the rice, beans, and pepper out of me!” she exclaims, one hand on her chest. A pretty brunette, all teeth, and high glossed lips leans around Caroline to peer at me. I don’t react with a smile or otherwise. To be quite honest I’m furious. “How have you been?” Caroline croons, seeming pleased her friend has saved her from answering my question.
