He'll have to break all the rules to keep her, but first she has to break just one and let him in...
It's taken four years, but Anna Fray has finally put the past behind her. Mostly. She fills her days working in a bar and her nights watching bad ro...
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By the time we'd been in Aslo's precious car for half an hour, heading west with the heater blasting against my legs and some obscure rock band vibrating through the speakers, suspicion had settled firmly in my chest.
Atticus drove with one hand on the wheel and the other resting loosely on my thigh. His fingers drew absent circles against the denim of my jeans, each one sending warmth deep into my skin.
Outside, the countryside rolled past in muted winter greens and greys. Bare trees stretched skeletal fingers towards the sky. Stone walls cut the fields into uneven patches, and sheep huddled together like they too thought this whole excursion was questionable.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" I said.
His eyes remained on the road, but the corner of his mouth lifted.
"Enjoying what?"
"The secrecy."
"I have no idea what you mean."
"Liar."
His thumb swept lazily over my knee.
"You wound me."
"I'm sure you'll survive."
His smile widened.
I turned back to the window, pretending not to enjoy the sight of him relaxed behind the wheel. It was strange seeing Atticus like this, especially since the night with Olivia. He wasn't tense, or watchful, or brooding about that night, on the edge of lightning dancing over his skin.
He was just Atticus.
His dark hair fluttered with the warm air blasting from the heater and his jaw was shadowed with subtle stubble. As my eyes traced the angles of his jawline I felt my blood heat at the memory of that stubble grazing against my skin.
I'd let lust lead me astray plenty of times, but I'd never felt like this before. I'd been enthralled, consumed, intoxicated, and any other word that just meant I'd lost myself completely. But this was different. It was like I was illuminated, every nerve ending lit up whenever he was near. He was just driving, yet the sight of him made me want to straddle him in the driver's seat and throw reason to the tarmac.
My thighs clenched and I dragged my bottom lip through my teeth. Atticus pulled his eyes from the road for a brief moment as he felt my movements. I looked away quickly before his eyes caught mine. We were four weeks into our six-week pledge and those eyes had almost been my undoing since day one.
Whose stupid idea was it to wait six weeks anyway? My mind grumbled when I thought back to some idiotic idea I'd had that time and space and waiting was a good idea. The first week, it almost made sense. I was healing and the nightmares were an easy way to kill any romantic intentions, but by now I was only holding out because of my own stubbornness. Something that didn't seem like a good enough reason at all.
