“Where are we going?” She reached into the bag and pulled out the tenders,hertenders.
“Your place. Cat’s staying at a friend’s. That’s what we were texting about. She wanted to give us privacy.” He smiled, but his tone was hesitant.
“Oh.” Suddenly she was a scared teenager all over again. Did he not want things to progress between them? Did he not want to get her naked?
JFC if he didn’t give her an orgasm after being a walking tease all freakin’ night, she was going to lose her fucking mind.
“I got you something.”
“Other than my corsage?”
“Reach behind my seat.”
Groping in the dark with a bag of hot chicken on her lap wasn’t easy, but she produced the box from the floor after some grunting and stretching. “What is it?”
“People tend to open their gifts to discover what’s inside, Ceecee.”
The long rectangular box housed a pickle shaped vibrator. A five inch long, green, nubby personal massager. She burst out laughing.
“You bought me a sex toy?”
“I didn’t see this one on your bed. The reviews aren’t stellar, but I figured considering your collection you needed to add a vibrating pickle to the drawer.”
She clutched the toy to her chest as she laughed. “I can’t believe you got me a pickle pecker.”
“I did. But you won’t need it.”
Chapter 11
Clare
Clare plucked at invisible lint on her thigh as they sat in the car in the driveway of her home. It wasn’t that she didn’twantto sleep with Elliott —though it had been so long since she’d gotten laid that he’d probably need to dust off the cobwebs from her hoo-ha. Could your hymen grow back? Was she a born again virgin?
Giving him her body wasn’t what she was afraid of. She was afraid of giving him her heart and having him crush it all over again.
He cleared his throat. “You don’t have to… I mean…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “We don’t have to…”
Her face heated. “I know. It’s not… I want to.”
“What is it, CeeCee?”
Knuckles skimmed under her chin as he caught her before she could turn away from him. “Talk to me.”
Her lip trembled as she struggled to compose herself. “I’m scared, Elliott.”
He stayed quiet, the warm glow of the streetlight lighting up his face, pinched with concern. After a beat, he nodded. “We haven’t really talked about anything, have we?”
She shook her head, dislodging tears down her cheeks that she’d fought so hard to keep under wraps. She got it, she didn’t want to open the door to all of their gut-wrenching past any more than he did. But it hung over them, overher, like a dark cloud.
“Y-you left me.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “I’m scared you’re going to leave me again.” She lowered her gaze to her lap. “Everyone leaves me eventually.”
Even Mason.
She’d always been the stern mom, the disciplinarian, theeat your vegetables and clean your roommom. And Alex, well, he had been the fun parent. It only made sense that Mason would choose to live where he could have sugar crusted cereal every day for breakfast, and no set bed time. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Or that it didn’t compound a lifetime of being abandoned by the men in her life.
“I was a dumb kid, Clare. I shouldn’t have just taken off. Especially not without talking to you.” He cupped her face with his hand. “I was a coward. I didn’t want to fight with you. I wanted to go and make…somethingof myself.”
She almost laughed. “But you wereeverythingto me.”
