Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(71)

A pebble pinged against the window. When it got no response, he picked up another and did it again, feeling impatient and antsy as he stood outside of Nikki’s grandma’s house in the middle of the night.

Heart in his throat, he picked up another and did it again. This time the pebble he picked up was a whole lot closer to being a rock. He cringed when it clanged against the glass, then breathed out in relief when Nikki’s face appeared in front of the drape.

There was confusion in her expression before a smile pulled to her face when she saw him standing beneath a big tree. She ducked away, and he was sure it was his pulse that would wake the entire house with the way it boomed, excitement and want filling him so full he thought he just might burst.

Not pretty.

But it was the truth.

This girl drove him right out of his mind.

He was already moving her direction by the time she slipped out the front door and silently snapped it shut behind her. She padded across the porch and down the stairs as he jogged her way.

They met in the middle, and he lifted her a couple of inches from the ground so he could feel her weight, spinning her around as he buried his face in the sweetness of her skin.

Honey and light.

She giggled and clung to him, her voice quieted to a whisper. “What are you doing here?”

“I needed to see you.”

“And what if it had been your sister you woke up instead of me?”

He shrugged a little and settled Nikki back on her feet. “Then I’d tell her I was here to check on you two. Pretty much the truth, anyway.”

Nikki stepped back and bit her bottom lip. She took his hand in hers, swaying lightly, spinning around, peeking back at him as she danced them off into the secluded cover of the towering trees. “Is that all you’re here for, Oliver Preston? To check on us?”

There was a tease to her voice, and every inch of his body reacted.

He followed.

Where else was he going to go?

He was enraptured.

Enchanted.

This girl magic.

He rushed her, scooping her up from behind. Her feet kicked into the air as she squealed quietly, her back to his chest and his mouth at her ear. “You know why I’m here.”

“And why’s that?” she played along when he set her back down. She swung back around to face him.

He rushed his fingers through the softness of her hair. “For you.”

“And now that you’re here, what are you going to do with me?”

In a second flat, he had her pressed against the old car her grandpa still drove where it was parked behind a shed at least a hundred yards from the house. Where no one could see them. “First off, I’m going to kiss you.”

He did. He took her face in his hands and he kissed her. Slow and long. He felt like he was standing in the middle of the river, taken by the current, unable to stand.

She sighed, and he hummed as he dropped his forehead to hers. “I was going nuts not getting to do that all day.”

Rex and Sydney were around the whole time, and he hadn’t gotten to sneak a second alone with Nikki.

Hiding this was getting harder and harder, but somehow, finally telling everyone after all this time felt harder to do, too. They’d been doing it for so long, it was beginning to feel like a lie.

A sin.

“You’re driving me crazy, Nik,” he whispered at her mouth. “Don’t know what I’m supposed to do. The second I’m away from you, all I can think about is the next time I get to be with you. You’ve got me so spun up inside.”

Her hands fisted in his shirt. “And the second you walk away, I feel a piece of myself go missing.”

A breath left him, and he ran his lips up her cheek and whispered at her temple, “Sunshine.”

“Beast,” she teased quietly.

He fumbled with the door latch behind her, and Nikki was giggling as he angled her around to open the door. He fell into the seat and took her with him. She was quick to straddle his lap, hands on his shoulders, rocking against him.

If he didn’t get to feel all of her soon, he might die.

He was sure of it.

Because her rubbing on him like that was nothing but torture.

The best kind of torture.

He just didn’t know how much more of it he could take.

His hands went to her waist. “What if we stole the keys to this car and just drove away?”

She was kissing him, murmuring at his mouth, “Where would we go?”

“Anywhere . . . everywhere . . .” he rumbled. “Just so long as we’re together. Can’t wait until it’s just us. You and me . . . my girl riding at my side in my badass car.”

She giggled. The sound of it vibrated right through the center of him. “Mmm . . . you want an old car like this?”

Their hands were everywhere. Touching and exploring.

He groaned. “Hell, yes.”

“Hot rod, huh?” she whispered.

“You know it. Nothing cooler than that. Gonna have one by the time I’m eighteen. Just wait. Then it’s just you and me. No more hiding.”

“Are you going to wait that long to take me?”

He stilled at her question. Because her voice had gone different. Something needy. No longer a tease.

He pulled back and looked at her through the milky light of the moon. Trusting eyes and freckled skin and heated body. “You want that?”