Take Courage, My Heart

Chapter Twenty-One

We had been on the road for over seven hours already. Despite Leander's car being extremely comfortable I was starting to get sore, and I wanted nothing more than to get up and stretch my legs out. It had been quite rainy all day. From the moment we left Vancouver all the way down to Seattle and from there to Spokane, which we were slowly approaching, dark gray clouds were following us. Our moods though didn't reflect it.

We listened to music, talked, and flirted. Thankfully, Leander had not asked anything about my family or what I had talked about earlier, and I figured he was still processing everything. I had said quite a lot of things, so I didn't blame him if he needed time to go through it all.

Before we had taken off Leander and I had packed a change of clothes and all together we had made up a quick plan. I had told them that curfew at the facility was at ten and with Leander's plan to take a break we just would not be able to make it today, especially not with the time zone difference. So, we would be spending the night in a hotel in Spokane. Then first thing in the morning we would leave in order to make it to the New Horizons Academy before lunch was served.

Ugh. The memory of that sour pasta I had eaten during my first day in the facility made me grimace and Leander poked me in the cheek for it. I scrunched my nose and shook him off, glaring playfully at him.

"We'll be at the hotel in a bit. Do you want to stay in or go out exploring?" he asked, letting his hand rest on my thigh.

My teeth sank into my lower lip, and I started to trace the veins that were protruding on the back of his palm.

"Depends on what we'll do if we stay in..." I hummed.

His fingers flexed and he squeezed my thigh once before letting go and moving his hand higher up my leg. I swallowed down my own spit knowing full well where this was heading and not wanting to lead the conversation too fast down that rabbit hole. Leander stopped moving his hand right next to my crotch. He squeezed my thigh once and then let me go. Without sparing me even a glance he turned back forward, both hands on the wheel very pointedly looking straight ahead. I narrowed my eyes at him when a couple of moments passed like that and finally let my gaze wander along the side of his face. I went down the straight line of his nose to the plump curve of his lips and along his chiseled jaw. His lower lip was ever-so-slightly thicker than the upper and the more I stared at him the more memories of me biting it came to mind.

I slowly trailed one hand up in my lap and pressed against my crotch, not hard yet but slowly getting there. Leander didn't shed even one glance at me, even after my breathing and heartbeat picked up. Even after I squirmed in my seat and exhaled a half-moan. I huffed out in exasperation and slipped my hand inside my pants.

"Baby," Leander at last muttered, still not looking at me but holding onto the steering wheel now with a tight grip that was turning his knuckles white. There was a little warning in his tone that excited me. "If you make yourself cum right now, I won't be touching you later."

My hand froze and I looked at him equally amounts of confused and frustrated. "Why?"

"Only I make you cum," he said between gritted teeth.

Another moan fell from my lips, this one more broken but I stopped touching myself and took my hand out of my pants.

"So, we're exclusive?" I asked, trying to distract myself. I willed nonchalance in my tone, but the curiosity was there. So far, we hadn't sat down and defined whatever we were doing.

Leander straightened up and turned his attention to me with wide round eyes and a gaping mouth. It was such an intense contrast to the expression he had had just a few moments ago when I had been touching myself.