Helen glanced at the skate shop as we passed. “Yeah, I don’t work there anymore. I haven’t for over a year.”
I took that in. “Where do you work now?”
“Are you going to peek in the windows there too?”
“Don’t need to do that. I see you all the time now.”
“You needed to last year?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. I had no answer for that. Helen sighed, slumping lower in her seat. I drove through campus in silence and pulled into a spot outside Helen’s dorm. She didn’t get out right away, and I was in no rush for her to be gone.
“Thanks for being cool to Luciana.” She unbuckled her seat belt but stayed put.
My brow pinched. “That’s not something you need to thank me for. She’s a kid. A good kid at that.”
She nodded, peering out the windshield. “Yeah…well, that doesn’t mean shit to a lot of people. She’s sweet, and I try to show her the good so she’ll keep it as long as she can, you know? I lost my sweet way too young. I’m not letting that be her.”
“I’m glad she has you, but I don’t think all your sweet is gone, Tiger. I saw it when you were with your sister. And maybe I felt it a little when you were curled up in my lap reading Shakespeare.”
Twisting in my seat, I studied her profile. The straight slope of her nose. The pout of her red lips. The stubborn jut of her chin. Every one of her features was so purely Helen.
The face that launched a thousand ships.Jesus.
She turned suddenly, her gaze whipping over my face in a way that seemed accusatory. Of what, I had no idea. I never got to ask, because the next second, she lunged across the console, and her mouth landed on mine. Hard. Fierce. Her fingers balled my T-shirt while she licked at my lips until they opened from pure instinct and my tongue pushed hers back into her own mouth, twisting around it.
This wasn’t sweet. I didn’t know what it was. My mind was two steps behind, and her warm, soft lips on mine refused to let me catch up. But I wasn’t one to let things happen to me without having a say—and that included a sneak attack kiss by a girl I never saw coming.
I held her face in my hands, tipped it back, and took her deeper. She moaned, high and tremulous, and I licked the inside of her mouth, tasting that moan, swallowing it down my throat, letting it heat my chest and belly. It was pure Helen.
As suddenly as she came, she ripped away, covering her mouth with her hand. Her eyes flicked to mine for one beat of my thrashing heart, then she threw open the car door and jumped out.
“Helen.” I climbed out my side, no plan other than not letting her leave it like this. I rounded to the rear of my car and caught her arm. “Stop.”
She looked from my grip on her to the trunk. “Pop the trunk. I need my board.”
Tugging her into me, I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t get you, baby.”
Her shoulder lifted, and it infuriated me. She was not going to shrug off that fire she’d just sparked—not when it was still smoldering and my dick was about to punch a hole through my shorts.
“Nothing to get, dude. You’re cute, you were being nice, I felt like kissing you, it’s done. Now, I want my board so I can go into my dorm and take a really long nap.”
“That’s it?” Her breasts pressed flush to my chest with each heaving breath she took. No way I believed a word coming from her pretty red mouth. “That’s all it was?”
“That’s it.” She tapped on my car. “Trunk, Theo. I work tonight, so I need that nap right now.”
“Where do you work?” I volleyed back.
“Somewhere you can’t peek through the windows.” She tapped the car harder. “Trunk. Now.”
I studied her, but it did no good. That warm, soft woman who’d been sprawled across my chest only minutes ago, clinging to me like I was her favorite thing ever, had disappeared so completely, it was like it had never happened. Her lips were still red when she rubbed them together. I didn’t even manage to kiss that damn lipstick off her.
I let go of her and opened the trunk. She snatched up her board before I could reach for it, and I grabbed her arm, stopping her from sprinting away.
“You don’t have a car.”
Her eyes rolled sideways. “No kidding.”
“Then how are you getting to L.A. to see the performance next weekend?”