Pick Me by Erika Marks

Author:Erika Marks [Marks, Erika]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: a magnolia bay love story
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group
Published: 2014-07-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

They rode back in the soft air of evening, the faint dusting of stars they’d first ridden under now bright pinpricks in a field of velvety black.

It was nearly eleven when Calder pulled them into his driveway and cut the engine, her usual turn-in time, but Thea couldn’t remember ever feeling so awake, so uninterested in sleep. Around them, the humid air hummed and crackled with night insects and the rustle of fluttering palms.

Calder helped her off the seat. Thea handed him her helmet, thinking his smile looked as wistful as she felt.

“If memory serves, I think we stayed out a lot later when we did this at eighteen.”

“We did,” she said. “How embarrassing is that?”

“Totally embarrassing,” he agreed firmly. “So I think the only way to avoid complete humiliation is for me to invite you in.”

God, yes. Blood rushed to her neck, tickling her scalp. Fourteen years ago she’d wished they’d been older so that they might have had this very opportunity, to fan the flames they’d built up all night and then let them consume them fully, without worry of parents or peers.

Now it was here.

“You hosted last time,” she said, nodding toward her door. “I don’t have any beer but I do have a bottle of wine.”

“I’m on call, so no wine for me,” he said.

“How about a Coke?”

“Coke I can do.”

Stepping inside the condo, Thea tried not to care that she’d left files and paperwork all over the counter, or that she’d neglected to put away her dishes from that morning. “For the record, I haven’t touched any of that since you saw me yesterday,” she said, gesturing to the table as they passed for the kitchen.

“Following doctor’s orders,” he said. “Good.”

She pulled a glass down from the cabinet and reached into the freezer for ice, grateful for the prickle of cold on her palms. She’d always loved the sound of ice falling into a glass, the clink, the weight. She poured his Coke and handed it to him. “You sure you don’t mind if I have some wine?” she asked as she withdrew an opened bottle of white from the fridge.

“Not a bit.”

She felt his eyes grazing over her as she tried to yank the cork free, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Here, let me get that.” Calder’s arms came around her and eased the bottle from her hands. Thea froze, the weight of him behind her like an electrical charge. If she turned now, he’d have her pinned against the counter. God, how she wanted to turn into him, into that chest.

The cork came loose with a loud pop but he didn’t step back to release her. Instead he lowered his hands from the bottle but kept them on the edge of the counter, two strong, sun-burnished fences keeping her there. Her knees felt like the joints of an old desk chair she’d had in elementary school that had always seemed one sit away from collapsing. If she turned to face him, would her own legs hold?

She swallowed.

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