Page 61 of A Kiss for Carter (The Laws of Love 3)

Chapter 16

“When you turn the corner, stop the car.”

Avery had jumped into the passenger seat with her duffle coat bundled around her and a bulky plastic bag clasped to her chest.

“What for?”Carts tried to keep his voice neutral because the teenage energy next to him was at risk of setting fire to the car.

“You don’t think I’m going like this, do you?”Avery cast an urgent glance at the house and hissed, “Quick, drive off before Mum comes out to check what I’m wearing.”

Shaking his head, Carts pushed the gear stick into drive and drove off down the street.Only when they’d turned the corner did Avery slump back against the seat with a sigh of relief.Then she started to tug things out of the bag; a pair of high-heeled sparkling silver sandals, a compact of eye shadows the size of a paintbox, a pair of dangly diamanté earrings and a bottle of Passion Pop.

“You’re not taking alcohol.”Carts almost exploded.

“It’s not for me.It’s for the others.”Hastily, she shoved the bottle back into the bag.

“But you’re all underage.”

“No, Duke’s nineteen.”

“I told you I don’t want you being around that guy.”

Avery clucked her tongue loudly.“I can’t just ignore him if he speaks to me, can I?”

“You can walk away.”

“Thatsadumbasfuckidea.”Avery had by now yanked down the passenger seat mirror and was popping her eyes at her reflection and puffing her lips into a pout.

“Can you pleassse stop the car,” she whined.“I can’t put my make-up on while you’re driving.”

“Only if you promise you won’t drink that shit.”

“Argggh, okay, promise.”

Exasperation rising up his throat like acid, Carts veered to the side of the road and drew to a halt with a squeal of brakes.Apart from when he drove into Ron’s parking spot, he was a meticulously careful driver but right now, his last surviving nerve was hanging on by a thread.

Why did he sense the evening was going to go downhill from here?He tried to push the thought away, tried to be positive.Because if everything went to plan he’d be seeing Judith at the end of the night, maybe even… he made an effort to tone down the adrenaline that had his heart drumming against his ribs.

“You’d better mean that.”He focused on sounding stern, only to relent as Avery nuzzled his arm with her chin.“You’re the best,” she replied before resuming her make-up.

He sat watching her out the corner of his eye and pretended to check his phone.

A brush that would have done Picasso proud swept over her cheekbones.Lipstick was applied, and then she brought out some things that looked like two furry caterpillars.

“What the fuck?”he said, unable not to stare, as she carefully fixed them to her upper eyelids.

“Magnetic eyelashes,” she said proudly.“I mean,how coolare these?”

“Christ!”

After a few more moments of admiring her reflection, Avery shoved the passenger door open and stepped out of the car.

“Where are you going?”He leaned over the seat only to see her wriggle out of her thick duffle coat, fluff out her hair and, hopping on one leg, she grabbed a shoe from the floor of the car, shoved it onto her foot and then did the same with the other.It was like watching a moth emerge from a chrysalis.She bent down and stared in at him and he had to avert his eyes from her pushed up breasts.She was his little sister, he didn’t need to see she was growing into a woman.

Carts barely recognised the face in front of him.

Cute, wide-eyed Avery had turned into a smoky-eyed beauty.

Somewhere in those features he caught a shadow of the kid she’d been only ten minutes before.Horror mixed in equal measure with admiration.Because she looked amazing.But it was like she’d thrown on a magic cloak, and she had no idea of its power.

---