Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she shouldn’t try at all. It’s not like it would make any difference for him anyway.
“Where are you taking me anyway?”
He smirked at her as he passed another car at breakneck speed. “The greatest place on earth.”
“So, for a cheeseburger and a shake?”
“You got it, Alix Bear. You know me too well.”
Unfortunately, she did. It never stopped her wanting him. For some reason, it only made her want him more, all the dumb shit she knew about him.
She edged back into her seat, grabbed the holy shit handle on the door, and focused on trying not to die while Ross drove like it was his main mission in life to turn the car into a scorched bundle of flame.
Really, what did it matter if she ended up in flames? She’d always felt that way when Ross was around. Like her entire body was burning up, compliments of the plague that he was. She also knew that she was going to burn for what they were going to do. There wasn’t any doubt in her mind that instead of fixing herself, moving on, and getting her shit together, she was going straight to a self-induced purgatory instead.
CHAPTER 6
Ross
“Ice cream? That’s your idea of a classy date?” Alix sniffed as he pulled up to the walk-up ice cream shack that was so popular the lines extended down the block. She’d been there with him and Chance at least a dozen times a year until she graduated and moved away.
“Who said this was supposed to be classy? That wasn’t part of the conditions,” he fired back.
She turned to him as he parked the car and narrowed those golden eyes. “You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“Most of the time.” He shrugged.
“Let me guess. You’re having a double cheeseburger with no onions and extra mayo and a cherry shake.”
Ross clasped his hand to his chest. “You say you hate me, but you know my order off by heart. I think I’ve met my match.”
Alix flashed him a double bird before she climbed out of the car. She waited for him, though, on the sidewalk, instead of walking up by herself. He had a good second to admire her from the car when she wasn’t looking.
She wasn’t dressed in anything that unusual. Just skinny jeans and a cropped tank, but fuck. She looked unreal. Legs that went on forever. The curves she’d sprouted were in high definition in that tank and the skintight jeans. He’d caught sight of a glimpse of her skin under the tank and it did things to him. The same things that her flushed cheeks, flawless creamy skin, amber eyes, and never ending velvety soft chocolate brown hair did. Things that his own denim thankfully contained, but yeah. He was rock fucking hard. For his best friend’s little sister.
Looking at her was like being a horny thirteen-year-old and finding a dirty magazine stuffed under your dad’s bed, opening it up to the center, and being pleasantly surprised.
He prepared to find it disgusting, and when he didn’t he gave his head a shake, grabbed his wallet from the glove box, and got the hell out of the car.
He joined her on the sidewalk and, just to piss her off- because there could be no other reason for his existence, according to her, he slipped his hand through hers. Two can play at this fucked up game of yours.
A shudder that could only be revulsion and shock rustled through her where their fingers connected.
“You know,” he said, just because he’d always got a kick out of driving her nuts. It was what he did. It was what they did. “I think you actually still have a thing for me. That’s what this is all about.”
Alix wrenched her hand away. “I have a confession.”
“I knew it!”
She scowled. “It’s not what you think. This, this is strictly platonic. It’s an experiment. The confession I have is that I’ve been kissed quite a few times and it all sucked. I said that, but I don’t know if you were listening. Everyone seems to think you’re hot shit. I bought into that myself, back in the day when I was young and dumb and thought assholes were attractive. Oh wait. Maybe it was just that I wanted my brother’s best friend to take me to prom so I wouldn’t have to live down the humiliation of a lifetime.”
“And bang you after.”
“Like I said. Young and dumb. It would have been experimental back then too, if you recall.”
“Yes, I recall.” The thing was, she’d never said she actually had a thing for him. She’d asked him to take her v-card in the strangest, most platonic way ever. She said she wanted to get rid of it. That it was annoying. That it might as well be him. That didn’t imply she cared. It implied she found him safe.