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She neither liked being interrupted nor his insinuation this was her fault. That women didn’t know enough to get their oil changed. So instead of answering, she glowered at him instead. And tried not to notice that his lips and eyebrows were both full. And ridiculously perfect.
“Charlotte?”
Her body clenched in response to hearing him say her name.
“Yes, Torr?”
She purred it out, giving as good as she’d gotten.
He cleared his throat.
“How long did they say they’d be?”
She looked at her wrist, forgetting she no longer wore a watch. “I’d have thought they’d be here by now—”
“Come on,” he said, walking around to the driver side of her car.
“What are you—”
Opening it, he reached in and took her keys from the ignition. He leaned further into the car, grabbed something, then stood back up. Without saying anything, he clicked the doors locked and started walking back to his own car, pulled up behind hers.
Lawrence’s car, rather. And it was so not a Volkswagen. She’d always wondered what it would be like to ride in a bloodred Maserati. They certainly didn’t sell such fancy cars in Stone Haven.
“What the heck are you—”
He carried her purse, which looked so small in the hands of someone that large. So that’s what he’d reached into the car to retrieve.
“Torr Derrickson—”
“They can tow the car without you here. Get in.”
Ugh. Talk about high-handed.
But he had her purse, and besides, he wasn’t wrong—she had no great desire to sit there alone in the dark. And so Charlotte found herself following him to the passenger side of the bloodred car. At least he held the door open for her.
What a contradiction. He wouldn’t leave her here alone, but he was totally fine with ordering her around. He held the door open but looked at her as if she were a piece of meat.
Well, to be fair, she’d probably been looking at him the same way.
Most of her screamed to run in the other direction, but she slid onto the tan and black leather seat.
She watched as Torr walked around the car, got in, and handed her the purse as if this were a familiar dance for them.
“Buckle up,” he said. “And you might want to call the towing company to tell them you got tired of waiting.”
As if she would say it quite like that.
“And take off your blazer.”
Her head whipped toward him so fast it was a wonder it didn’t pop right off.
“Where we’re going, I’m afraid you’ll stick out in the crowd. Even without it.”
Of all the . . .
She’d thought he was offering to bring her home, not to places unknown. Who did he think he was? But she didn’t have time to say any of those things before he peeled out of their spot behind her poor, lonely car. Unlike her, Torr did not drive slowly.
Quickly buckling her seat belt after not taking off her blazer, she asked, “Where are we going?” She reminded herself to text her date to tell him she’d be a no-show. “I’d really like to just head back—”
