It would be a waste of water on a hot day.
Dominic puts his arm behind my headrest and twists his body, spinning the wheel as he reverses out of the driveway, which is just a path of dirt road.
Surrounded by citrus, leather, and a hint of sweat, I hold my breath, trying my damnedest not to inhale his drugging scent.
While my heart thrashes hard against my ribcage, his breathing remains the same. Calm, steady, and unaffected.
He sits back, and I can finally inhale a breath into my oxygen-starved lungs, though his smell, his masculine, clit-tingling smell, still lingers in the air. As I roll down the window to let in some fresh air, his enticing scent mixes and mingles with the nearby crops and cow manure.
With nothing but the country road ahead and the heat shimmering in the distance like a mirage, my thoughts drift. There’s something to be said about the novelty of driving downan open, sunbaked road without congested traffic, toxic car fumes, and honking horns. I could get used to the feel of the warm summer breeze in my hair and the sight of tall cornstalks and barn structures.
What I don’t like as much is the roadkill we pass, and when we drive past another crushed armadillo with its innards spilling out, I swallow down the saliva in my mouth, wishing I could wipe the sight of dried blood on the cracked asphalt from my mind.
Tapping his thumb on the steering wheel, Dominic swings his eyes in my direction, then switches off the radio, fed up with the loud static.
The thick silence that follows only intensifies my unease. Dominic isn’t easy to be around. He has this…aura that radiates hostility and nefarious desires. At the best of times, he’s standoffish and apathetic. In moments like these, when I’m trapped with him inside a confined space, it’s claustrophobic.
His deep voice rumbles in the small space like an incoming storm rolling across the sky. “You’ll have to find another way to get to school from now on.”
My shoulders stiffen. “I don’t have a car, and it’s too far to walk.”
“Not my problem.”
I glare at his handsome side profile as we drive past a pasture of yellow canola flowers.
Dominic doesn’t care if I have to walk an hour to get to school. No, he would drive by me with a taunting smile and a raised middle finger.
He confirms as much when he says, “You don’t have to walk. There’s a school bus.”
Crossing my arms, I look out the window, ignoring his presence the way he ignores mine.
Neither of us speaks until we pull up in the parking lot outside a small college.
As one, we peer through the windshield at the gray building that resembles something out of the seventies.
“It looks like a prison,” I mutter.
Beside me, Dominic scoffs as he opens the door and exits the vehicle. His head pops back inside and he pins me in place with his dark eyes. “Don’t talk to me. Don’t even so much as look in my direction.”
Then he’s gone, slamming the door shut behind him.
I watch him stride toward the building and ascend the front steps in that assured way he has of a cocky, full-of-himself man who has always fit in and never stood out against the grain. This won’t be any different. It doesn’t matter that he was born and raised in the city. People flock to him everywhere he goes.
When he passes, wide-eyed and flustered women stop to look at him. Yes, Dominic has that effect on women, and it sours something inside me.
I push open the door and reach for my bag in the footwell. Stepping out into the scorching heat, I shut the car door behind me and settle the bag on my shoulder.
The sun beats down on me as though I have personally offended it.
A bead of sweat trickles between my breasts as I gaze up at the imposing building in front of me.
Unlike my stepbrother, with his unshakable confidence, nerves twist my stomach, and my palms grow clammy. I’m not good at social settings. I’m even worse at making friends.
Before my anxiety gets the better of me, I set off toward the entrance, pretending I don’t notice how the students observe me with their curious, assessing eyes.
“Hey, new girl,” someone calls out as I near the entrance.
I turn my head to locate the voice, spotting a few guys near a large tree on the lawn?—
