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Check.
I wanted to meet a man and lose my virginity.
I think that could be a check.
I look out the window and see him talking with Daphne, his hands moving as he speaks, but they don’t move in a hurried gesture. Everything is slow, deliberate, calm, and refined. He speaks with purpose, and Daphne smiles, tossing her gorgeous head back and laughing at something he says.
He isn’t funny. At least he hasn’t said anything to make me laugh. He’s either enticing fear or lust inside me, but I have never once laughed.
Dri kisses her on the cheek, takes her hand, brings it to his mouth, and kisses her knuckles. His eyes cut to mine through the window, and I look away, not wanting him to see how jealous I am.
She should marry him, and then maybe I could go home.
But as I press my finger on the button to roll down the window, scream, beg, and try to convince her to marry him anyway, I realize I like his brown eyes on mine a little too much.
And I don’t want her to have his attention.
He comes around the car again and opens the driver’s side door, sliding into the smooth buttery leather of the seat.
“You seemed cozy with her. You should marry her.”
“I don’t want to marry her. I’ll be marrying you.”
I turn my head and laugh so loud I have to hold my stomach. Tears form in my eyes, but this time for humor. I watch his face for any telling to say he is joking. If anything, his jaw tenses with annoyance.
My laughter slows, and I wipe my under-eyes. “You have to be kidding,” I say. “I’m not marrying you. I’m not wife material. I will be bitter toward you. I will be…unforgiving. I don’t want to be your wife.”
“You’re going to be,” he says. “And maybe you’ll be bitter at first, but not forever. You’ll love me because you’ll learn how much I love you.”
“You don’t even know me,” I whisper in shock.
“I know more about you than you know, Mable. Tomorrow, you will marry me. You’ll be my wife.”
“I won’t say I do.”
“You will if you ever want to go home again.”
I scoot across my seat until my hip touches the door, not wanting to have anything to do with him. “Is that how it’s going to be? You’re going to make me do whatever you want, so I have hope that I’ll go home, but am I really? Am I ever going to go home?”
“I guess you’ll have to marry me and find out.” The tires spin out as he speeds out of the parking lot, and I press my head against the window, my heart slamming wildly against my chest, panic and anxiety gripping me tight. “I won’t be bad to you, Mable. Give me that chance,” he whispers. “I’ve been waiting years for it.”
I don’t say anything, but what is there left to say? Nothing I say to him will give me my freedom. “It’s not my responsibility to give you what you want because you’ve been waiting for it. You won’t tell me how I know you, yet, you expect me to act as if I do. That isn’t how the world works.”
“You know me, Sweetness. That’s all you need to know.”
I cross my arms over my chest, wanting to argue with him more, but nothing I say will get me anywhere again. Instead, I turn on the radio as we come to a stop at a red light, and Dri takes my hand, kissing the top of it, but he lingers, pressing his cheek against my palm next.
It’s more intimate than how he kissed Daphne.
When he lifts his eyes, the dark hues promise to give me everything, and it’s hard not to allow myself to fall into the unknown pools.
His gaze drifts from me, and he rolls his lips together, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “When I tell you to duck, you lower yourself as much as you can, okay?”
“Adrian, what are you talking about?” I whisper.
“Do as I say. That’s all you need to know. Trust me.”
“Trust you?” I scoff. “You kidnapped me.”
