Drive(54)

“I do,” I said as he kneeled between my thighs, gripped my ass, pulled me onto him, and thrust in deep.

Something between a scream and a moan escaped as he ripped into me, raw, primitive, and hungry. I gripped the tattered sheet as he drove in, full of punishment and warning. His intent clear, I was scared, completely terrified of what I felt for him in that moment. Because no matter how much I tried to convince myself I could get my bearings with the feelings I had for him, he brushed those bricks of resolve away like they were feathers.

It was too late.

I was in love, and he was embedded.

Teeth gnashing, he held my waist as he fucked me raw as promised, leaving bruises on my skin. Still, even with his punishment, the warmth spread. Too much to resist, he bent his head and kissed me. And we sank into it, in discovery and everything that was growing between us. Rolling his hips, he hit me deep, his length sliding against my clit. I gasped his name as he worked me, wrecked me, and I burst around him, my body shaking in release. He gripped my mouth and watched me implode, commanding my noises, my gaze. Eyes burning, he pressed his finger into my mouth, and I sucked until he pulled out, ripped off the condom, and pumped himself empty.

Breathless and lying next to each other, I couldn’t help my smile. He lay quietly, staring at the ceiling. He was thinking, heavy. I wanted to close the lingering distance between us, so I kissed his chest, and his gaze drifted to mine. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask, but his eyes told me I didn’t want to know what burned behind them.





Sugar, We’re Going Down

Fall Out Boy



The following afternoon, my sister pounded on the door like the damned police. It was clear when Reid opened it a few minutes later she had interrupted something. I held my breath as she walked past us toward the kitchen. “I need one of you to cover my shift. No one else will do it, and, well, can one of you go in?”

“I’ll go. Reid has a show,” I offered as she looked around the apartment and then took a step back on a gasp. Incredulous eyes looked over at Reid as she gawked at him. “She took all the furniture, everything?” Reid stood stone-jawed as Paige walked around the apartment. “What in the hell, Reid? This is how you’ve been living since she left?” Her tears were instant as she looked over at me. “This is how you’ve been living with him?”

“Stop acting like you care. We’re fine,” I said with my arms crossed. “You’re covered. I’ll get dressed right now.”

“I’ll drive you,” she said. I looked at Reid, whose defeated posture relayed he was just dying to get out of the situation.

“Fine.” I pulled a clean black shirt out of my duffle and changed in front of them both. Paige winced and stared us down, a scowl on her face when she cornered Reid. “Why did you let her leave you like this?”

I turned on my sonic ears as I raced to the bathroom to get a hair tie. I was dying for the same answers.

“Paige,” he said, “drop it.”

“Hell no, you aren’t this big of a pushover. She took everything! This place was fully furnished. A mattress on the floor, Reid?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“How can you say that?” Paige was pushing harder than I ever had.

“Hey!” I said, carefully breaking up the impending fight. “Can we go?” I walked over to Reid and mouthed “sorry” and told him I would meet him at his show before walking out the door. I paced at the foot of the stairs for ten minutes and was about to go back up when Paige walked down.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Let’s go.”

We got in the car, and I was thankful when she turned the key and the radio struck up “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana. I didn’t want to talk to her, though I was itching to find out what conversation she just had with Reid. Even more curious to see if she’d made him more resentful of our situation.

For once, I kept quiet. I wasn’t in the mood to defend myself.

“He didn’t live like that,” she said after a few minutes. “Their place was nice. It was nothing like it is now.”

I didn’t know who she was reassuring, herself or me. “I don’t know why he would let her do that, even if—”

Then she had my attention. “Even if what?”

“Nothing. It just doesn’t make sense. He’s a smart guy. He’s not a sucker.”

“Guilt. Maybe he was guilted,” I said as I looked over at her pointedly and insinuated she was doing the same to us. “But, Paige, the accident wasn’t his fault.”

We pulled up to the restaurant.

“How do you know?”

“I just know,” I said, grabbing my apron from her dash.

“He was the one driving,” she pointed out on her high horse.

“And she was the one who caused it,” I said in monotone. I didn’t have it in me to keep defending him to her. As much as she claimed to care about him, she never really gave him the benefit of the doubt. I had no doubt Reid wasn’t a sucker. I just think he’d been sucker punched one too many times to care about defending himself.

“I know you think I’m just some raging bitch—”

Angry tears surfaced and I jerked myself together. “I’ll never forgive you,” I whispered as I turned to stare at her. “Ever. No matter what happens between Reid and me. And it’s not because I’m sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I’d rather be there with him than doing your dishes and sleeping on your couch. You threw me on my ass and turned your back on me because I didn’t do what you told me to. I’m not your kid. You don’t get to make decisions for me. I’m your sister. And Reid might be your friend, but that’s all he is: your friend.”