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Brody pulled into a lot in front of an apartment building and into the farthest space from the door. The engine turned off, leaving us in complete silence, but neither of us made a move to get out of the car.
“Where are we?”
“My place,” Brody answered, his gaze focused entirely on the front doors. “None of the guys have been here, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
I frowned but nodded anyway. “Your secret is safe with me.”
He whipped his head around to face me. “And our secret?”
“What about it?” I shrugged and leaned down to get my bag. “There’s nothing to tell, is there?” I pushed open the door and stepped out, shivering from the wind that chilled my bare legs.
The echo of Brody’s boots rang out as he sauntered toward me, his face half shadowed from the lowering sun. “I don’t know, Lola. Is there something to tell?”
I tilted my head back and raised a brow, waiting for him to say something else. I desperately wanted to tell him to kiss me again, to touch me in the way he did a few days ago. I craved to tell him that I could still feel the grasp of his hand on the side of my neck and the burn of his fingers against my thighs as he picked me up. But I said none of that. I played it cool and kept silent.
“Do you want there to be something?”
He flicked his gaze between my eyes and stepped closer, not one part of his body touching mine and yet I felt alight with sensations. “Fuck yeah, I do.”
My breath stuttered out of me, catching in the back of my throat. He’d never said anything like that without ending on some statement about how it was wrong.
People had such clear definitions of what was right and wrong, but that was a lie. There was a murky ground of gray in the middle. A place where we all hovered at least once in our life. No one was perfect, least of all him and me, but finding that perfectness inside of something bad was what we all waited for—what we searched for.
“I do too,” I whispered.
He took another step forward, closing the distance between us, and a shiver rolled through me at his nearness. I’d remembered vividly what his hand had felt like against my body, but I still gasped as he grasped my hip.
I stared up at him, the tension increasing as neither of us looked away, and finally, he dipped his head. The soft caress of his lips wasn’t what I was expecting, but it made my body light on fire. Goose bumps spread over every inch of my skin, and I pushed closer, pressing my chest against his and loving the friction it caused against my nipples.
His gentle kisses turned harder, hungrier. His strong arms came around me, encasing me in his safety net, and promising not to let me go. I could feel the hardness of his erection against my stomach, and it spurred me on. I sought out more and stroked my tongue against his lips, but a horn honking had us pulling apart.
I blinked and stared at his rapidly moving chest, knowing my breaths were coming out just as fast. He had a way of making me forget who I was and completely consuming me.
He grasped my hand, his long fingers curling around my palm. “Let’s get inside.”
We’d kissed…again. Once could be passed off as heat of the moment, but a second time put us in new territory.
I let him lead me inside the building and stared at each of his movements. He swiped a card on the front door and made for the stairs. The walls were a stark white, but the halls stunk of dead things. Music blasted out of several apartments, and there was a drunk guy on the walkway of the third set of stairs. Brody simply stepped over him, so I followed suit.
Once we’d walked up five flights, he pulled me toward the left and to the third door down. The numbers on the door read 509, and the marks on the bottom of the door told me it had been kicked in at least once.
“How long have you lived here?” I asked, turning my head left and right to take everything in as I squeezed his hand tighter. It wasn’t that it was any worse than what I lived in. It was just different.
“About four months now.” He pushed his key in the door and pushed it open, flicking on the light switch as he stepped inside. “Welcome to my humble abode.”
I moved inside and past him, my gaze soaking everything in as the door shut behind me, and several locks clicked into place. I turned back around to look at Brody. We’d been alone several nights ago, but it had been my territory. Now we were in his, and the nerves were running rampant. What if he didn’t really like me and this was a plan all along for him to hurt me? But one look into his dark-brown eyes as he sauntered toward me told me he’d never harm me. I felt the safest I ever had when he was in a room. I couldn’t deny that.
“Let me give you a tour.” He moved past me and swiped my bag from my hand. “This is the bathroom.” He opened up a door to the left and then one opposite. “This is the bedroom.” He closed that one and walked ahead, bringing us into an open-plan living room and kitchen. “And this is the living room slash kitchen.”
It was bare bones, as if he slept here but didn’t actually live in the space.
“It’s…” I was trying to think of the right word to describe it but was coming up empty. My palms started to sweat the longer he stared. Why the hell was I so nervous? Because you’re in his place, dummy.
“It’s a shithole, but it serves its purpose,” he said, placing my bag on the small sofa. His arms were tense, his body screaming of something I couldn’t quite place, but as quick as it was there, it was gone.
“I’ve seen worse,” I told him, shuffling on the spot and thinking of all the drug dens I’d been in while I’d looked for my dad and stepmom. There was nothing quite like the stench that hung in the air in one of the houses or apartments that were being squatted in by a bunch of people who found solace in a needle.
His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he stepped past me and toward the small hallway we’d just come in through. I spun in a slow circle, taking everything in but I honestly could have been anywhere. There wasn’t one picture on any wall or surface, nothing to tell me who this man was outside of Hut and his crew. My house was the same—unless you were in my bedroom.
