Worth It (Forbidden Men, #6)(95)

“Because...” I glanced away, blushing. “My parents can just go out and buy me a brand new—”

Catching my chin, he coaxed me into looking up at him. “You can’t help it if your family has money and mine doesn’t. I think it’s amazing you have something to drive. Be grateful, not ashamed of your good fortune.”

I made a noncommittal sound and burrowed into him, wishing I could pass some of my “good fortune” his way so he didn’t always have to work so hard.

“What kind is it?” he asked, nudging his shoulder into mine.

“An Audi.” I looked up in time to catch his eyebrows lifting, impressed.

“Cool. I want to see it. Wait. Can I see it?”

As an idea hit me, I perked to attention. “You want to drive it?” I offered instead.

His mouth began to fall open before he sputtered, “Umm…hell, yes.”





“Shit, City, I’ve never been in a car this nice. Goddamn, it even smells awesome. Don’t you love that new leather smell?”

Grinning at him from the passenger side, I curled my legs up onto the seat with me and rested my cheek on my knees. “I love you more.”

“Ditto.” He grinned at me as he ran his palms over the steering wheel. “But you gotta admit this ride is sweet.”

I shrugged because, yeah, it was a nice car, but it didn’t really feel like mine. Across the center console from me, Knox groaned as he reached forward to run his fingers over the dash.

Cocking up one eyebrow, I asked, “Are you ever going to drive it, or just sit there and stroke it all night?”

“Hush.” He held up a finger my way. “I’m savoring the moment.” Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply and then sighed. “God, that’s nice.”

I shook my head in wonder. “I can’t believe you took a night off from work just so you could sit in the driver’s seat of my car and smell it.”

“Oh, Lord. I can.” He breathed it in again, and I laughed. Then he opened his eyes and started the ignition. “Okay, let’s drive.”

“Finally.”

His lips quirked at my overdramatic sigh. “Mind if I take it out onto the highway?”

We’d met on a backcountry road. Knox had hiked nearly a mile to get there and meet me, which I hadn’t liked much, but it’d been his idea. I had to admit, it was smart thinking. Absolutely no one else was around.

With a flutter of my hand, I motioned for him to go. “Take it wherever you like.”

He glanced at me. “Dangerous words, sweetheart. What if wherever I like is a completely different town far away from here, where no one knows either of us, and I set up house with you and keep you with me for the rest our lives?”

A grin lit me up from the inside out. “Then I’d say floor it so we can get there faster.”

Chuckling lightly, he turned his attention to the car as he gingerly pulled it onto the road. “I wish. If we went away together now, we’d probably be forever on the run from your parents. I’d never find a job, and we’d be dirt broke and homeless within a week.”

I sighed. “You just have to be so practical and realistic about it, don’t you?”

“Honestly? Yes, I do, otherwise I might be tempted to actually try something dumb exactly like that.”

A flutter of excitement rippled through my stomach over the idea of escaping with him and never coming back, of never having to worry about sneaking away to be with him ever again. It thrilled me that he wanted the same thing. I took a moment to envision what it’d be like if we just took off now and never came back.

“Ready to see what this thing will do?” he asked, jerking me from my daydream. We’d just reached the highway and he’d halted at a stop sign.

“Go for it.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You sure?”

“Just go!” I laughed at his hesitance, then I screamed and scrambled for some support when he peeled out, kicking up dust behind us and burning rubber when we hit pavement. “Oh my God, you’re crazy.”

“You said I could do whatever I liked.” He gave one of those boys-and-their-toys laughs and pressed his foot harder against the gas. “Fuck, this thing can move.”

I threw back my head and joined him in his joy because it felt so freeing.

He kept it at top speed for about a mile, and we reached 120 miles per hour before he decided to back it off. But the rush of speed was still flowing through both of us when he turned down another gravel road. “Damn that was fun,” he panted out, finding the opening of a field to pull into where a row of trees partially concealed us.

After he cut the engine, killing all the lights so we had nothing but the moonlight coming in through the windows, he turned to face me. So I turned to face him too. I could make out the pleased smile on his face as he took my hands. “Thanks for that. It was fun.”

Anything that involved him was fun in my book, so I merely shrugged. “It was my pleasure.”

He watched me a few seconds longer and rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand before sighing. “God, I missed you. I missed you so f*cking much it scared the shit out of me. And it was...it was like a great big miserable premonition of what my life would be like without you.”

I frowned, confused. “Without me?”