The radio was on. Loud. Some synthy alt-pop thing with way too much breathy moaning. I turned the volume down. Then back up. Then down again.
From the corner of my eye, I saw her smile.
“I had fun,” she said finally, like we’d just played mini golf or something. “Thank you for inviting me.”
I made a strangled noise.
Juniper laughed, soft and smug. “You didn’t?”
“I — It’s not — That’s not what I meant.”
She shifted, deliberately, crossing her legs the other way. “Okay.”
I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. “I just — We — It was kind of a public setting for?—”
“Afriendlyswim,” she offered.
My eye twitched. “You are the actual devil.”
She bit back a grin, chewing the inside of her cheek. “You didn’t look like you were suffering.” She lifted her hand towards me… towards my —
“I’m dangerously close to crashing this car, Juniper Haddock.”
We pulled up in front of her house, and I put the car in park with a little too much force. She didn’t move to get out right away.
The silence grew.
She unbuckled slowly, glancing at me through her lashes. “So…”
“So.”
“That was… a lot. I’m going to have bruises on my hips from howhardyou gripped me.”
I groaned a half-hearted apology.
“Might be sexy,” she whispered.
I pressed a hand over my face.
She reached for the door handle, paused. “You okay?”
“No.”
A smile curled on her lips again, softer this time. She leaned in close — too close— like she was going to kiss me again, and I just sat there like a man being eaten alive.
But instead, she stopped just shy of my cheek and whispered, “Sleep tight, Ansel.”
And then she was gone.
I sat in the car for a full minute before I remembered how to breathe.
And then I drove home.
I stared at the ceiling. I had turned off the TV hours ago, maybe. Time didn’t exist anymore. There was only before Juniper climbed into my lap and after.
My hair was still wet from the shower I’d taken as soon as I got home — because, let’s be honest, I wasdisgusting.Filthy. Deranged. Still half-hard even after getting myself offagainin the goddamn shower.
And now?
