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“Why did you say all that?”
His question took me by surprise. It was obvious, wasn’t it? “I didn’t like what they were saying about you. I knowyoudon’t care what people say about you, but as it turns out, I do.”
“But why? What did it matter if they wanted to put me down?”
I shifted in my seat, my fingers wrapped around my seatbelt as he sped along the dark road. “They don’t know you at all, but they were putting you down. I just couldn’t listen to it anymore, especially because you weren’t going to stand up for yourself.”
The streetlights poured into the car through the windshield, illuminating his face for brief flashes, but that didn’t tell me anything about how he felt. His gaze was locked on the road, and despite how fast we drove, he maneuvered the car easily, clearly used to driving this beast. “You might have made your own life more difficult, just like Taylor said. My father isn’t the sort of man to let things go.”
“I don’t care what he does to me, but I’m sorry if I made things harder on you. Taylor said he might take you out of his will…”
Vance snorted loudly. “I don’t care about that. I’ve made more than enough off my art to not have to worry about money. Hell, my own personal fortune probably rivals the family funds now. They don’t know that, of course, since I keep such things private, but I don’t give a damn if he writes me out of the will. I’ve expected him to disown me for a long time, now, so stop apologizing.”
The sound of the engine filled the rest of the drive, and it again surprised me just how close Vance’s house was to the place we all lived. They only sat a ten-minute drive apart. It was strange, because most families would visit more given that closeness.
Then again, after meeting his family, I understood why that wasn’t the case.
Vance pulled the car up to the house, parking a bit farther away than usual, so the security lights from the outside didn’t brighten the interior of the car. The engine died when he twisted the key, leaving us there in the darkness and quiet, and I had no idea what to say.
“What did Taylor say to you? At the end?” Vance asked, his gaze locked outside the car instead of on me.
I recalled the older man whispering into my ear, the odd kindness in his voice. “He asked me to take care of you.”
Vance laughed softly, the sound bitter. “I hate him some of the time, because he feels like another arm of my father. So many times he lectured me and told me what I needed to do and sounded just like my father. But…” He sighed, then rested his arm over the top of the steering wheel and leaned forward, placing his chin on top of his arm. “I’m older now, and I realize he walked the line between what he had to do for my father and what he wanted to do for me. If I think about who supported me, who came to my shows, who attended my graduations, who I called when I was in trouble, it was always Taylor. He’s probably the only real family I had.”
“I know what you mean. That was the Quad for me. Maybe it’s a weird family, maybe it isn’t what people see when they think about family, but it’s still a family.”
He nodded, but even though his voice was so soft, I couldn’t ignore the tension in him. “I’ve never had anyone stand up for me before. Even Taylor never could go against my father, couldn’t do anything about the things he said, the things he did. No one else was in a position to say anything. Even my mother, even when I could tell she didn’t like it, she was stuck. You’re the first person who ever thought it was worth it to defend me, to face off against him. I don’t understand why you’d do this. We aren’t even actually dating…”
I turned toward him, setting my hand on his cheek, urging him to look at me even though it seemed like he was trying hard not to do just that. “You’re a good person. You don’t see it, but you are, and I couldn’t stand sitting there and saying nothing while they put you down. I know you see me as some foolish little girl, and maybe I am, but I’m in your corner. I have your back no matter what.”
One tense moment passed, where the beating of my heart felt so loud and so fast that it seemed there was no way he could missed it.
“Look at me,” I whispered.
He shook his head once. “I can’t. If I look at you, I’ll do something we both regret.”
Does he mean what I think he means?
“I don’t care. I don’t like when you avoid me.”
“Then don’t blame me later for this.” His words came out only a breath before he was on me.
I expected to feel the press of his lips to mine, craved it, to remember from the last time. However, that didn’t happen. His lips touched my cheek, then my jawline. Wet heat danced down my throat, along my pulse, as he placed his left hand on the other side of throat and used his thumb to tip my head back. It gave him more access, and he sure took advantage of that, kissing along the vulnerable front of my throat.
I couldn’t hope to hold back my voice, and a moan that soundednothinglike me escaped, growing over the noisy kisses he left against my defenseless skin.
“I won’t kiss you on the lips,” he whispered, his voice having a sensual quality that melted me. Before he had teased, his words holding a fun promise, but they’d never been likethis.“I already stole your first kiss, so I won’t force that on you again.”
A begging plea rose from my chest, a desire to do anything to have more of this, to lose myself to his passion and desire. I wanted to feel those talented lips against mine, especially since the last time I’d been so surprised that I hadn’t gotten to enjoy it. I was ready this time, so I wanted to experience it again when I wouldn’t miss a moment of it.
But when I curled my fingers into the front of his shirt, when I shifted to capture his lips, he turned away and shook his head once in a hard jerk before sliding the strap of my dress down, baring my entire shoulder. Only the snug bodice kept the fabric up and me covered.
“You smell sweet.” He whispered the words between his kisses, then dipped his tongue into the line of cleavage right at the neckline of the gown. “You’re like a dessert that I’ve wanted forever, one I’m starving for, but one I know I shouldn’t have.” He tugged down the neckline, the fabric sliding away to bare me to the chilled air inside the cab of the car.
My breath caught when this all suddenly felt more real. This was the first time a man had seen me like this, in a moment like this. Even if others had seen me nude, it had never been in a passionate moment, never when we were heading toward something more, something I wantedsobadly.
It all clouded my head so I couldn’t think about anything other than the needs of my body. I felt like an animal, lost to desire, desperate for things I’d never experienced, never tasted before.
