Nix
“What is this place?”Harleigh asked me as we drove in the darkness.
I was supposed to be driving her home, but after watching that fucker Denby taunt her at the party, I couldn’t do it.
I needed a minute.
I needed her.
Fuck, it was getting harder and harder to deny her.
And that kiss earlier…
“Did I… do something wrong?” she asked, her voice a weak whisper.
But I couldn’t tell her, I couldn’t… fuck. Tonight had been a real test of my restraint.
“Harleigh, not here, not now.” I let out an exasperated breath.
“What does that even mean? So I have done something? Is it the costume? Because I thought—”
“I can’t do this right now.” I snapped, storming off into the shadows.
But she followed. Of course she fucking followed me. Because that was Birdie, so willing to follow me into the dark.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me,” she shrieked. “We are talking about this. Right now.”
I swung around, trying my damn hardest not to crack. “Harleigh—”
“Don’t call me that.” She flinched, pain etched into her features. “You never call me that.”
True. I didn’t. She was always Wren or Birdie or B. But I needed to put some space between us, some distance.
“Just tell me why you’re being so… so weird.”
Silence stretched out before us, the gentle rise and fall of her chest taunting me, drawing my eye to her amazing curves. That tempting, hot as fuck outfit that I’d tried my damnedest to ignore all night.
“I…” I dropped my gaze, a murmured cuss leaving my lips.
“Phoenix.” She stepped forward. “Just talk to me, please.” Harleigh reached for my hand, but I jerked back.
“Don’t.”
“I know I’m not like Cherri or—”
“Cherri?” I snorted. “You think this is about Cherri?”
“Well, her… girls like her.”
“Birdie, that’s not— fuck. Fuck.” I jammed my fingers into my hair and pulled the ends, frustration radiating from me.
“Nix, what’s happening to us? I don’t—” Crowding her against a tree, I leaned down and touched my head to hers.
“I…”
Fuck. This was dangerous territory. The line I’d drawn between us was right there… right fucking there, and if we crossed it, if I crossed it, nothing would ever be the same again.
“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” I whispered against the shell of her ear, feeling a shiver run through her.