Page 37 of With This Kiss
I watched as her eyes opened, and she looked around in confusion.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Somewhere in the Catskill Mountains.”
She seemed surprised at the answer. “That’s far away from home?”
I shot a small smile I didn’t feel. “That’s right. We’re away from everyone and everything. I could do anything to you, and no one would be around to stop it.”
She rolled her eyes. “I doubt it.”
“You do?” I asked, wondering how she could sound so confident about that.
“I do. Rape’s not really your thing, is it?”
I pulled away, taken aback.
She smiled. “No. You can have almost any woman you want, so why would you need to force it? Besides, rape’s not really about sex but power. And power’s not really something you lack in your life.”
I didn’t say anything to that. Perhaps in terms of money and influence, she was right. I didn’t lack those things. But there were many times when I had felt powerless. Helpless.
Not that I would have resorted to rape.
There was a special place in hell for men who hurt those weaker and smaller than themselves.
She waved her hand in front of my face to get my attention. I looked over.
“Want to talk about what’s got you in such a bad mood?”
“Was it that obvious?” I asked. I wasn’t the kind of man who would easily let any strong emotions I might feel show outwardly. I thought I had curbed my anger well.
“Not really,” she answered. “Just something about you felt different today, is all.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
She nodded. “Then we can just sit here and look out into the… darkness?”
I turned on the car’s headlights, illuminating the empty space in front of us.
She gasped. “Are we parked in front of a cliff?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. I wanted to get here before sunset. But that didn’t happen.”
“Who knew you could be romantic?”
“Oh, I’m a lot of things, baby. And I can be all of those things for you if you ask me nicely.”
I didn’t need to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes at me. I smiled. Perhaps that was why I was so fucking fascinated with her.
She seemed immune to my charms.
She leaned back against her seat and faced forward. I turned off the headlights, not wanting to draw much attention to us, bathing us once more in darkness, save for the small streetlamp.
“Do you ever just want to leave?” she asked suddenly.
“Leave? You mean the city?”
She shrugged. “The state. The country. Just leave everything behind.”
