Page 30 of Dare You to Run
Her lips roll between her white teeth as she contemplates how to answer me.
“I’ve known you for a whole twenty-four hours.”
“So?” I ask and she freezes once again.
After a long moment she continues, “And I don’t sleep with guys I barely know. Especially those who have been big jerks to me.”
“I already apologized for that. What else?” She chews on her bottom lip like it’s a piece of Juicy Fruit and I reach over, freeing it from her teeth. “It’s okay. Why don’t we just go inside and talk.”
Her chest deflates with a whoosh of breath she was holding.
“It’s not…it’s not that I don’t want to, I just, I don’t know. I hope you don’t take offense to this but I’m not the type of girl who has one night stands and you, well you seem like that’s all you have.” She winces and I want to say ouch, but she’s absolutely correct.
I shrug and tell her, “I won’t apologize for who I am.”
“Oh no. I wouldn’t expect you to. I’m,” she scrunches her face up in thought then continues. “Would it be okay to maybe get to know one another? I mean, I’ll be your roommate until my car is done, so it’d be nice to know more about you straight from the source.”
“Yeah, sure. And just so you know, I don’t reallytalkwith women. Kinsley and Miss Shirley are the exception because they’re family. I just said that in hopes of convincing you to sleep with me.”
Her jaw drops and turns into a smile when she smacks my arm. “You jerk.”
“Like Malik said, can’t blame a guy for trying.” She works hard to hide her smile and I open my door, climbing out and leaning on the roof in Dagen’s direction.
When she gets out she faces me and asks, “Can I drive your car?”
“Fuck no. Nice try.”
She raises her shoulder and replies with a snarky, “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”
Her door makes a loud clunk when she closes and I watch her walk towards my house. I won’t let her drive my car, but I will let her fuck me in it. Eventually.
When Dagen and I entered my house, I could tell she was still very nervous. Instead of doing any talking, I kissed her cheek and said good night. It was already awkward having made out at the bar in front of half the town of Cattywump Bay, but now she had just turned me down and I really didn’t think I could make it through surface conversation without thinking about her tits in my mouth.
She was a bit surprised but gave me a small smile and walked off to the loft. I threw myself on my bed and resisted the strong urge to burst into her room and run my hands over curves. Instead, I jacked off in the shower again to visions of her standing in front of me.
If I keep it up, I’m going to be the cleanest motherfucker in town.
I woke early because I just couldn’t face her this morning. I need to give myself some time to decompress and get her out of my mind. So I left a note on her door to help herself to anything she wanted. I ignored the barrage of texts from Malik and Kinsley. Malik wanted to know if she was as wild as he imagined her to be, and Kins asked if we named our future babies. Not surprisingly I didn’t hear a peep from Danté.
He doesn’t like losing, and he saw Dagen as the grand prize. I’m sure he’ll ignore me for a few days then show up like nothing happened. It’s what he does. The only emotion that man shows is rage and locks up everything else, so it’s best he stays away.
I sat in my office all morning almost completely unbothered except for the additional texts from Kins, and Miss Shirley buzzing me every hour to let me know she was on the phone. I finally decided to spend the rest of the day in the shop and did what I could to speed the repairs on Dagen’s car along.
More thoughts of last night bombarded me and how it could’ve ended. And like a big neon sign, her age flashed and I heard her dad’s voice saying,“I also have friends who would be fine teaching you a lesson if you are not able to refrain yourself.”
There was only one way that I knew of to rid her from my mind, if only for a night. And that’s how I find myself driving to my house with a woman whose face is familiar but whose name I can’t remember. She’s been in the bar plenty of times, hitting on Danté, Malik and myself, but no one has ever taken her up on her offer. Tonight, when she laid it on the table, I took it.
She’s dragging on about her job as…I don’t even remember because honestly, her voice is a bit nasally and I kind of shut her out the minute she laughed and it reminded me of Janice fromFRIENDS.
“Woah. This is your house?” She asks, practically gluing her face to the window as we pull up. I press the button for the third bay in the garage where I usually park my Maserati GranTurismo.
The Challenger is reserved for those who can appreciate it. People like Danté and Malik and Kinsley and…Dagen.
I park in the usual spot, exit the car, and walk over to help –fuck, what is her name– out. She holds onto my arm as we move from the garage to the breezeway that connects it to the house and into the mudroom. Every room we walk into gets commentary from her and it grates on my already thin nerves.
When we step into the den I tell her to take a seat and offer her a glass of water. She makes herself comfortable on my couchand when I return, the very short wrap dress she wore hangs open, revealing the fact that she isn’t wearing a bra. She stands up, still wearing her sky high heels, and struts over to me.
With her hand pressed to my chest, she pushes me back until I drop to my chair, then straddles me.
