I start forward before I can stop myself, my feet ten steps ahead of my brain, stepping from the shadows as her heels touch the sidewalk.
“Going somewhere, Fi?” I ask, tossing her family nickname into the air like I’ve said it a million times. It feels sour on my tongue, too intimate and dishonest, but I ignore the taste, focusing instead on the small gasp that falls from her pouty red lips when she hears my voice.
Whipping her head in my direction, I don’t miss the way her eyes hungrily scale down my body, snapping back to my face when she notices what she’s doing.
“Butting in where you’re neither wanted, nor needed, Boyd?” she snaps, a hand cradling the soft flare of her hip, one perfectly shaped brow arching.
Taking a step closer, I suck on my joint again, casually sizing her little toy up. “Just trying to keep you from making a colossal mistake, is all.” I point at the kid with my joint. “What’s your name, anyway?”
Fiona puts her free hand on his bicep, and he runs a hand over his blond crew cut, eyes darting between the two of us. “You don’t have to answer that,” she says, giving me a dirty look that shoots a jolt of electricity straight to my balls.
I clear my throat, trying to dispel the arousal and subsequent guilt clawing through me. “If you want to leave this place alive, I suggest answering the question. And I don’t repeat myself.”
The frat boy pulls his arm out of her grip. “My dad’s a lawyer, and I doubt you’re a cop if you’re getting high at a public function.”
“Weed’s legal.”
“Not federally. And besides, you’ve been sitting with the Ivers family all night, and we all know they aren’t cops.”
Noting the way Fiona’s face falls at his words, I take another step forward, flicking my ashes toward the guy’s Sperry shoes. Christ. Frat boy, for sure. “You’re hanging with an Ivers, so what does that tell me about you? What was your plan with her, hm?”
He holds up his hands, moving away from Fiona. “Look, she wanted to ride my dick. Said she’d pay for a cigarette.”
“I meant with cash, you asshole.” Crossing her arms over her tits, Fiona huffs. “God, what is wrong with you?”
The guy laughs woodenly. “Whatever, I don’t fuck virgins anyway, and I don’t need any of your petty drama.”
A virgin.Inappropriate images of pushing into her sweet, untouched cunt flash across my vision, blasting me with a rush of arousal I immediately tamper, cursing myself. Like I need the added complications.
Bumping my shoulder as he pushes past me, Ethan stalks off, leaving me alone with a fuming Fiona. She glares at me, her eyes turning into little slits, anger ebbing off her in waves that have me inching closer, seeing if the heat from her flames is potent enough to burn me without touching.
Of course, I touch anyway, apparently unable to stop myself.
I reach out and tuck some hair behind her ear, reveling in the blush staining her chest; the light from inside spills through the large windows, illuminating her curves, and for the first time I can remember, I’m realizing she has them. My throat constricts, and I busy myself with my joint, fitting it between my lips and inhaling.
She frowns, moving her head back. “What’s going on? Did my brother send you out here to check on me or something?”
“No.”
Her eyes fixate on my lips as they curl around a cloud of smoke, pushing it upward. Up close, I see the smattering of freckles dousing her nose and cheekbones, the tiny white zigzag scar at the corner of her mouth, the flecks of orange in her irises.
Bits and pieces that might not work on their own, but on her come together to create God’s magnum opus.
“Then why are you suddenly acting like you care about me?” She tilts her head, studying my face, and I don’t like the way it feels like she can split me open with her penetrative gaze and see right inside. “You’ve barely spoken a single sentence to me in the seven years I’ve known you.”
I lift my shoulder in a half shrug, unable to pull my eyes from hers. “People change.”
“No, they don’t.”
It’s the definitive way she says it, like she’s been proven wrong on that count, that tugs at something inside me, startling me out of the haze of lust my dick is pulling me into. I clear my throat and step back, putting distance between us and the weird magnetism cropping up, trying to glue me to her.
Think about who this is, Boyd.
She swallows, breaking free of the trance too, and then holds out her hand. I raise an eyebrow, and she rolls her eyes, reaching into her mouth and plucking her pink bubblegum from it, tossing the wad over her shoulder.
“I feel like I deserve your joint, since you ruined my night.”
“Sounds like I saved you from being sexually assaulted.”