Page 51 of Styx & Stones

I swallow hard and clear my throat.Jesus. I’m not sure I’m ready to admit this out loud to the girl of my dreams, but there’s no sense in lying. I don’t want to lie to her. “No. You?”

She shakes her head. “No.”

“What about Cole Meyers?”

She laughs. “What? Why would I sleep with Cole Meyers? He’s the biggest player in our school.”

“And yet, you dated him for a whole year.”Shit. She studies me. I feel her eyes burning into the side of my face.Great.Now she thinks I’m a freak and a total stalker. “I mean, that’s ... what I heard.”

I chew the inside of my cheek.Fuck. She’s going to think I’m a total psycho. Right now, she’s probably planning her escape and trying to calculate how far she’d fall to her death if she opened her door and jumped down the ravine to the beach below.

Her hand rests on my thigh and I almost drive us off the road. “Not a lot of guys would notice that.”

I shrug, aiming for nonchalance. “I noticed.”

“I’m glad.” When I glance at her again, her smile is coy. “And to answer your question, no. I’ve never had sex. I’m still very much a virgin, and even if I wasn’t, I’d never give it up to a sleaze ball like Cole Meyers.”

“Then why date him for so long? I mean, if you knew he was a sleaze ball, why devote so much of your life to someone?”

She shrugs. “Why do we do anything? For attention? To feel? To be wanted?”

“You had my attention. For years. You had my attention, and you were wanted ... more than you will ever know.”

“Were?”

“Are.” I let out a shaky breath. I can’t believe I’m saying this shit. Not because it’s not true—it is—but because I thought I’d go my whole life without ever telling this girl how perfect she is. How I’ve wanted her since the day I laid eyes on her in junior high, and how I’d never thought in a million years that I’d get to kiss her, let alone convince her to run away with me. “Fuck, Alaska. I want you so goddamn bad.”

A beat passes, a long, silent beat, and I can’t take my eyes from the road because I’m terrified I’ve said too much. I’m scared she’s going to run, or that she’ll realize that what she feels isn’t what I feel.

“Can you pull over?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you—”

“Styx, pull over.”

“Yeah, okay.” I check my rearview. The road is quiet, so it’s not like I’m holding up traffic as I drive onto the shoulder and bring the car to a stop on a patch of lush green grass. “Look, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I shouldn’t have said ... I-I can take you home if—”

She scrambles across the center console and climbs into my lap. Her ass lays on the horn, her lips are on mine in seconds, her tongue deep in my mouth. She tastes like cherry cola. When I get over my initial shock, I slide my hands into her hair, and kiss her back, moaning into her mouth. Before I’m ready, she pulls away and smiles down at me.

“I want you too.” She chuckles then bites her lip. “You know, in case that wasn’t obvious with me climbing in your lap like a great big whore?”

“Hey, don’t knock the whores. That’s an honest profession, right there.”

She laughs and rests her hand on my chest. “I may have been a blind idiot for a long time, but my eyes are wide open now.”

“I like you wide open.”

She throws her head back and laughs. “Oh my God, you’re insufferable.”

“Did I say you? I meant your eyes.”

“Smartass.”

I trail my fingers up under the hoodie and the thin shirt she wears beneath it. Her flesh is hot, soft, and as I slide my fingertips along her smooth skin, my dick throbs. I want more. I want all of her. I always have, but I will myself to be patient, not to rush this. The last thing I want is for her to feel pressured. Even though her eyes are closed and she’s squirming like she enjoys my hands on her body, I slide out from under the hoodie, and she frowns. “Coming Down” by the Dum Dum Girls is playing and all at once, I feel like a giant fucking pussy because I finally have the girl of my dreams within reach and I’m letting her go.

She lifts her hips, as she tries to maneuver her body off mine, and then she sighs and says, “I think I’m stuck.”

I laugh. “I guess there are worse places to be stuck, right? Unless, of course, you’re having major regrets about kissing me.”

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