AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s sexy as fuck.
And every time I look her way, her smile grows as she sings along, and her hair whips around both of us. She’s swaying in her seat like she doesn’t have a care in the world. Relaxed. It’s the look of someone who’s completely comfortable in her own skin. Which leaves me with more questions than answers.
I wait until the song she’s clearly loving is over before turning the radio down. “Why don’t you want to sing anymore?”
“Umm... I was just singing.” She throws her hair up into a bun on the top of her head.
“Earlier, you told Axel you didn’t want to be a rock star. But you didn’t say what you wanted to do. Why don’t you want to sing anymore?”
The first time I ever saw Carys, she was next to a piano in the auditorium of our old high school. It was my first week of school, and I’d gotten lost looking for the chem lab. I walked into the room, thinking I was in the right place. Instead, I found this beautiful girl standing on stage, singing that song fromA Star Is Bornlike a fucking angel. She had this huge voice that I couldn’t believe was coming out of such a tiny body.
She leans her head back against the seat and turns to look at me. “I don’t want to sing for a living. That doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop singing or writing music. I love it. But if I had to do it every day... if my career depended on it... I don’t think I’d enjoy it anymore. I think that would ruin it for me.”
“Okay, I can understand that. But where did the design part of your degree come from?” I slow for a yellow light and look at her quickly as her cheeks turn pink. “I don’t remember you ever mentioning that before.”
She grabs my forearm, and I warm at her touch. “Promise not to laugh?”
“Sure,” I answer, desperate to know more, completely captivated by the woman next to me. “Now shoot.”
“I’ve always been good at making things. Mom got me a sewing machine as a kid, and I used to make clothes for all my dolls. That eventually turned into me making my costumes for the plays. Doesn’t exactly sound cool, so it wasn’t something I ever really talked about.” She brings her feet down from the dash and tucks them under her legs, like she’s self-consciously curling into herself.
“But my junior year,” she continues, “Chloe and I started hanging out more, once all you guys were gone, and I found out that she’d been sketching designs for years. We kinda started playing around, and it didn’t take long to see how well we work together. Things have grown from there.”
The pink blush covering Carys’s face has spread down her neck and chest by the time she’s done talking, and she stares out the windshield, avoiding my gaze. I want to kill whoever made her feel uncomfortable with this.
“Why do you look embarrassed? That sounds awesome. Do you like making clothes? Do you think it’s something you’ll do when you’re done with school?”
“Well... we actually already started working on designs for our own line and just sold a few pieces from it to a boutique back home. We just haven’t told many people yet.” She tugs her hand off me as the light changes to green, and I miss the warmth of her skin on mine.
“Why not?” That’s impressive as hell. I’d be telling the whole world if I could do something like that. “You should be proud of yourself. You found something you’re good at that you want to turn into a career. Why keep it quiet?”
Carys takes a deep breath and then turns to watch the streets of San Diego pass us by. “We’ve been working on it for two years, and we’ve made all sorts of clothes. Some good and others, not so much. But we’ve figured out we’ve got a great eye for lingerie. So we’ve been focusing on that for the past few months. I haven’t exactly decided how to tell my mother that after years and years of voice lessons, I don’t want to sing. I want to design lingerie meant to make a woman feel beautiful and sexy. Lingerie that should be appreciated before it’s ripped off a woman’s body.”
Holy fucking shit.
Carys wearing lingerie meant to be torn off her body might be the image that gets me through my next deployment.
And I’m officially going to hell.
Coop stopsin front of my dorm and shuts the Jeep off.
I’m sad our ride’s over. Something was different about tonight. About this space. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt this level of comfort with Cooper before. And I’m a little scared I won’t ever get to feel it again.
I cross my legs and turn my body to his, proud of myself that I’m ready to hug him goodbye without losing my nerve as he removes the keys from the ignition. “Thanks for the ride, Coop.” Before I get a chance to lean in, he’s out of the Jeep and rounding the front so he can open my door.
He offers me his hand, and my heart definitely doesn’t skip a beat. “So chivalrous.” I slip my hand into his much bigger one, and a part of me melts at the touch.
“Can I walk you in or is this a girls-only dorm?” He looks around like he’s inspecting the building. “Where’s the security guard? There’s security, right?”
A laugh bubbles up at the sudden concern on his face. “No. Definitely not an all-girl dorm. And the campus is pretty safe. There aren’t security guards for each building, but campus police monitor the entire area.” I spin around and point out a police car moving slowly down the street. “See? Totally safe.” Unlike my heart.
He grunts, then slides his big hand to the small of my back in a move that makes every nerve in my body stand and take notice.
Coop and I don’t usually touch.
We’ve never been like that. At least, not normally with each other.
I slide my keycard against the lock of the front door and turn to him. “Thanks for walking me home.”
