her own thoughts. I hope she’s not worrying about the Augustines. I slip a finger under her hand and tickle her palm to get her attention. Her hand snaps closed like a trap, catching mine and sending a jolt through my whole body that wasn’t quite surprise.
She gives me a sidelong smile and playfully narrowed eyes, and I wince and pretend like she’s crushing my fingers. She squeezes harder and I waggle my drawing just out of her reach, to draw her attention away. She nibbles her lip, debating, and I grin as she lets my hand go and snatches up the drawing instead.
We don’t talk much in the car: it’s too awkward with Elena and Damon hearing everything we say. But it also means after too many nights of sharing the dark, quiet backseat of the Camaro, we are getting pretty good at charades.
I click off my flashlight and toss it up in the air, catching it with a grin as she reaches for it and I hold it away. She glares at me, plucking my borrowed ear bud out so the music fades. I give her a wide-eyed, crestfallen expression, and she crosses her arms and shakes her head in stubborn denial of my silent protest.
I drop the flashlight into my other palm and offer it to her but when she reaches out I hold it tauntingly high. She grabs my wrist, her small fingers not even fitting all the way around it as she tries to wrestle my arm back down.
“Jesus, just fuck already,” Damon groans from the driver’s seat, not turning around. My grip loosens in surprise and Cali works the flashlight out of my hand with a triumphant squeak.
Elena stops toying with his hair and gives him a dirty look and Cali snorts, sticking her tongue out at the back of Damon’s head. She seems unconcerned but I’m intensely glad it’s too dark for her to see how badly I’m blushing right now.
By the fourth day in a hotel room, her clingy pajamas were driving me out of my mind. I risked trying to take care of myself in the shower while she listened to her iPod, lying on the bed less than ten feet away and separated only by a very thin wall.
Big mistake.
Something about her being so close made everything about it feel better and when I finished, I nearly bit through my tongue trying not to make a sound. I told myself it wouldn’t happen again, but now it’s been three nights running and it’s like I can’t be in a hotel room with her for thirty seconds before my body responds and so I either spend all night hugging a pillow, or it’s straight to the shower with me. The worst part is, I think I’m getting some kind of weird fetish, because it gets me crazy turned on knowing she’s on the other side of the door from me.
Since we started driving tonight, I’ve sketched my way through half the pages in this notebook trying not to think about it.
And damn , now I’m thinking about it again.
Cali clicks on the flashlight and I flinch at the sudden brightness, slouching forward and bracing my arms against my legs in the best cover I’ve got for the bulge under the fly of my pants.
She claps a hand over her mouth, shaking with silent laughter when she sees my caricature of Katherine running after Matt, reaching for his crotch with one hand while she tears her shirt off with the other. I smile shyly as I watch Cali’s eyes take in the whole drawing, wishing I was a better artist so I could capture Matt’s exact mix of embarrassment, discomfort and poorly hidden arousal.
It makes me glad I don’t have to ride in the truck with them all day, because Matt obviously thinks Katherine’s hot and he’s even more obviously never going to do anything about it. I can’t even tell if Katherine really wants to sleep with him, or if she is just stirring up trouble as usual.
Cali holds out her hand, eyes sparkling with amusement, and I hand over the pencil. She poises it above the paper, cocking a quick eyebrow in my direction and I wave my hand to show her it’s no big deal if she
Lauren Groff
Elizabeth Musser
Jade Lee
Melody Johnson
Colin Evans
Helena Hunting
Sophia Johnson
Kate Avery Ellison
Adam LeBor
Keeley Bates