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The “old car” turned out to be a one-year-old shiny black Nissan Juke. It was in immaculate condition, and I was immediately wary of doing anything that might cause it to get a dent or scratch. I sat in the driver’s seat while Knox began reeling off a list of various parts of the car too fast for me to keep up.
“Now you’re gonna start the engine,” he instructed. “Foot on the clutch p— No! For fuck’s sake, what are you doing?” Yanking my hands away from the button I was about to press, he shot me an impatient, frustrated look that made me want to slap him. Or maybe punch him.
The next thing I knew, he was out of the car and throwing the driver’s-side door open. “Get out.”
This guy was really pissing me off now. I hadn’t even asked for any of this—although I couldn’t deny the idea of having some independence and being away from him was incredibly alluring. Climbing out of the car, I glared at him. “Now what?”
He ignored me, sliding into my vacated seat and pushing it back so it was arranged to his liking. Then, he threw his arm out, grabbing my jumper and pulling me into the car.
On top of him.
I swallowed my gasp of shock when he positioned me on his lap, his feet on either side of the pedals in the footwell.
“Pay attention because I’m not gonna fucking repeat myself. Got it?” His breath hit the side of my face as he angled his head to look over my shoulder.
“Got it.” The sooner this was over, the better because he was pressing all my buttons, but with his hot, hard body beneath me, my brain was throwing me increasingly mixed signals.
“You push down on the clutch before you start the engine, otherwise it won’t start. It’s a fail-safe.”
I concentrated very hard on the instructions he was giving me rather than the way his voice was a low, sexy rumble in my ear. “Which is the clutch?”
He gave one of those annoying-as-fuck irritated huffs of breath, pointing down to our feet. “Left to right. Clutch, brake, accelerator. C, B, A.” His left hand came down to cover mine, and before I could pull it away, he was curling it over the gearstick. “Make sure it’s in neutral before you start.”
Somehow, I managed to start the car to his satisfaction. Then he made me do it again and again until I got the hang of putting it into gear and getting it to move a few metres down the driveway.
“Looks like you’re not completely useless after all,” he murmured when I’d brought the car to a smooth-ish stop—the first one I’d managed, the others having been jerky movements that sent me rocking back against him.
“Believe me, I have many talents that you’ll never get to see,” I said under my breath, shaking out my hands, my fingers aching from where I’d had them tightly clenched around the steering wheel.
“What did you say? Stop fucking mumbling all the time. You did it last night too. What is it you’re too scared to say?”
Last—what? It took me a minute to remember, and then I could feel my cheeks heating. But I ignored that. I wasn’t going to let him think I was a coward. Angling my body forwards and twisting as much as I could with the very limited space I had, I narrowed my eyes. “First of all, I’m not scared to say anything to you.”
He raised a brow, clearly disbelieving, and it made my blood boil. “Last night, I simply made a comment that we didn’t kiss when we, you know.”
“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘fucked.’” He smirked at me, but then his smirk died away, and his lip curled. “Don’t tell me you actuallywantedto kiss me. You made that mistake already in the crypts. Twice.”
“What? You—huh? I didn’t want to kiss you.Ever.” I silently cursed the unsteadiness of my voice.
“Good. Because we may have fucked—and believe me when I say that I’ve dicked down plenty of girls who I don’t even like, so don’t go thinking you’re anything special—but kissing you was a mistake that won’t ever happen again.”
“Glad we’re in agreement,” I spat out between gritted teeth.
We glared at each other, the tension between us thickening, neither of us willing to be the first to look away.
He suddenly gripped my waist and more or less threw me into the passenger seat, then started up the engine with a roar. I barely had a chance to clip my seat belt into place before we were swinging out into the road.
I didn’t even attempt to talk to him, and he remained silent all the way to the country club. When we arrived, he kept the engine running and indicated towards my door with a nod of his head.
I got the picture. Climbing out of the car, I smoothed down my jumper and shook out my hair, then made my way inside, relieved to escape the oppressive atmosphere between me and Knox. Time to focus on what was important and see if I could talk my way into a new job.
19
KNOX
“What happened on Friday night?” Tristan smirked at me as we sprawled out on the leather sofas in the crypts after school on Monday. I rolled my eyes as I swiped one of the beers from the coffee table, passing Tristan the joint I’d just inhaled. It was surprising that it had taken him so long to say anything, if I was being honest. He hadn’t said anything all day in school nor during our lacrosse practice afterwards.
“You said you were taking her home, and then you never came back,” he added, lazily exhaling out a curl of smoke, when I remained silent.
