wants to add to the sketch.
I take the flashlight and hold it for her while she starts to draw, her smile smoothing as she concentrates. My eyes flicker to her mouth without meaning to because she is sexy as hell when she’s unaware like this, her lips soft and full and that slim silver ring resting against her lower lip like it’s begging me to play with it.
I’ve got to kiss her soon or I’m going to lose my mind.
I can’t do it in the car, but now that she’s staying in my hotel room every day, it doesn’t seem right to do it there either. There’s usually no couch and so we’d be on the bed right away and it just seems like it’s assuming too much, or too tempting, or something. I mean, once I touch her, how the hell am I supposed to stop kissing her and just get ready for bed and climb under the covers two feet away?
She giggles at whatever she’s drawing, glancing up to check my reaction, and freezes when she catches me staring at her. I blink and jerk my eyes back down to the paper and she shifts, pressing her knees together and tugging restlessly at the hem of her tank top. I squint at what she’s drawn, tilting my head. It looks like a jock strap on the outside of Matt’s pants, holding a tube that’s…is that bear mace?
Cali goes back to sketching, her lines careful but basic as she labels the strap around Matt’s waist with block letters saying, “Prescription Strength Chastity Belt.” I snort a laugh out through my nose as I watch her finish the details of the bear mace canister pointing at Katherine, then drawing an oversized tag hanging from the trigger that reads, “Honk if You Hate Cougars!”
Cali grins and starts to draw something on Katherine, too, but then the car jolts forward and her pencil slips, slashing a dark mark across Katherine’s picture.
“Hey!” she protests, but Damon says nothing, his jaw tight as he dials his cell phone with one hand.
“What’s wrong?” Elena asks, sitting up straighter.
I glance out the windows but all I can see are the headlights of a car coming up behind us like it’s ready to pass, though it doesn’t pull into the other lane.
“Donovan,” Damon says into the phone, “take the next right you see and haul ass. Take every turn you find after that and if I catch you using your blinker, there are gonna be two coffins in the back of your truck tomorrow.”
He hangs up and the engine purrs as we nose right up to Matt’s rear bumper. The backseat brightens as the headlights behind us come in close. I throw my arm around Cali’s shoulders and pull her down toward the middle of the seat until both of our heads are below the line of the backseat.
“What are—” Cali starts but Damon interrupts her, popping open the button on Elena’s seatbelt.
“Kid’s right,” he says. “That isn’t the cavalry behind us. It’s the lynch mob.”
He urges Elena down onto the floorboards of the passenger side, his fingers squeezing her shoulder gently before he lets her go.
I flinch and brace for impact as Matt’s brake lights come on, but Damon spins the wheel and we go left just as Matt goes right, our bumpers so close my brain is already playing the crash of folding metal before I realize we’ve made the turn and we’re rocketing off onto a side road I didn’t even see.
My arms tighten automatically, cradling Cali against my chest as we huddle awkwardly in the backseat, our seatbelts still tugging at our lower halves while our torsos tangle together in the middle.
Light slaps into the car from behind us as the car makes the turn right along with us. Damon’s eyes are fierce on the rearview mirror.
“Text the quarterback to keep on zigging and zagging all the way to the end zone,” he tells Elena. “He’s home free for now, and we can pick him back up once I’m done with these clowns.”
“Keep your head down,” Elena hisses, tugging at his jeans.
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