Right Where You Are

by L. E. Bross

  “See you Monday.” Rick left me at my car and walked over to a bright red Mini Cooper.

  “I’ll be here,” I answered with a half wave. Not like it was a choice. I slid into my car and blasted the AC until the interior was cold enough to freeze water to ice. I wanted nothing more than to put the top down, but I couldn’t take any more of this heat today. Home. Pool. Drink.

  That was my afternoon plan.

  But as I backed out of the parking spot, I saw Seth leaning against the driver’s-side door of his truck. I pulled up alongside and hit the window’s Down button.

  “Hey there.” Way to be casual, Avery.

  Seth leaned down and ducked his head in the window. “Hey.”

  We stayed like that, just looking at each other, until Seth quirked his eyebrow. I felt my cheeks grow hot despite the AC.

  “So, is that thing broken again?” I squeezed the steering wheel nervously, not able to keep eye contact for more than a few seconds.

  “Why?”

  Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.

  “I thought maybe we could grab a coffee, or something?” I blurted out. Now my cheeks burned from fiery embarrassment. I’d given him a chance to tell me no. Shit. “If you’re busy, that’s okay, though it is Friday, after all, and most people usually make plans on Friday night and impromptu coffee dates aren’t normally something people do . . . impromptly. And you have your truck and . . .”

  Oh, God, I needed a seriously large pothole to swallow me up right now. I was stuck. If I drove away in a squeal of tires, I’d look like a complete idiot, but I already looked like one because I was babbling something about improptu Friday nights.

  Seth chuckled. “How can I say no to an elaborate invitation like that?”

  “It was rather eloquent, wasn’t it?” I asked with a relieved grin. “You want to ride together? I have AC.” I waggled my eyebrows in invitation. “I can bring you back to grab your truck in time to get to your meeting. We have a couple hours.”

  “Sounds good to me.” He crossed in front of the car and opened the door, but then stopped halfway in. “Wait, what about the candy?”

  I giggled. “How about a cute puppy instead?”

  “You would have been very popular in my old neighborhood.” Seth climbed in and closed his door. The air moved inside the car and I could smell the faint aroma of soap. You’d think he’d smell like gross sweat after being in the sun all day, but he really didn’t.

  I clicked a few buttons on the GPS, and several places to eat popped up.

  “Oh, there’s an ice cream place a few miles from here. You in? I could go for a coffee milk shake right about now.” Already my mouth was watering thinking about that cold sweetness.

  “Works for me,” Seth said.

  I pressed another button, and a map popped up on the screen. I pulled out of the Works parking lot.

  He looked really good in the seat next to me. One arm draped casually over his knees, his body turned toward me. Two weeks of orange jumpsuits was not a good look for anyone. Seth looked delicious in jeans and a dark T-shirt.

  I tried to concentrate on driving and not staring at him from the corner of my eye.

  “So I’m thinking that you aren’t really a dancer,” Seth said.

  “Dancer?” I asked.

  “That night at O’Malley’s. You and your friend said you were dancers?”

  Heat climbed into my cheeks that had nothing to do with the temperature. I laughed so quickly it came out more like a snort. “Nope. In fact, I can’t dance at all. Two left feet.”

  “You move very well. From what I remember.” His voice got low and, God, it was so sexy when he did that. It reminded me of that night, when he was whispering in my ear as we danced.

  Shit. I tried to keep my hands from jerking the steering wheel.

  “You always say exactly what comes to mind?” I asked, turning the AC to high. Was it getting hotter in the car, or was it just me? It was easier to ignore his attractiveness when he was acting like a jerk. Now, confined in my car, with him smelling so good and the reminder of our semikiss earlier this week?

  I didn’t stand a chance.

  “Why not.” He shrugged. “Why bother hoping that someone else hears what you’re beating around the bush to say? Just say it. Simple.”

  “Yeah, but how many people actually do that? In real life people hide motivations behind words. It’s easier than telling the truth a lot of the time. Why is that?” God, I sounded like I was cross-examining him. “Sorry, bad habit.”

  “Asking questions is a bad habit?”

  “Well, I tend to ask a lot of questions. A lot. So yeah, it’s sort of a bad habit, I guess.”

  “Huh.” He kept looking at me, and I could see him in my peripheral vision.

  “What huh?”

  “Well, if you are a habitual question asker, and we’ve been alone for . . . fifteen minutes now, I’m just surprised you haven’t asked the biggest question yet.”

  I knew what he wanted me to ask him. I’d heard some of the others talking about what they did to get CS, but no one ever asked Seth. And he didn’t volunteer.

  Was he daring me to ask him why he went to prison?

  I swallowed nervously. Once I knew, I couldn’t unknow. That’s why I stopped my father from telling me. I was afraid it would be a deal breaker, and I was starting to like Seth. Really like him.

  “Do you want me to?” I finally asked.

  He shrugged. “It’s usually the first one anyone asks when they find out where I’ve been.”

  “Okay, I’ll go for something different, then. Mix things up a little. What’s your sign?” I waggled my eyebrows exaggeratedly, and he laughed.

  “Aquarius. You?”

  “Scorpio. Hotheaded and unpredictable.”

  Seth laughed even harder. “Those things are most definitely not you. Wound a little tight, maybe, but you strike me as superorganized, like clothes and shoes by color, and I bet there isn’t a scrap of clutter in your house, judging by how clean your car is.”

  Words died on my lips because he was dead-on. “Fine. Maybe you’re sort of right.”

  “If by sort of you mean absolutely, then yes, yes I am.”

  “Cocky much?” I asked.

  “Confident,” he answered with a grin.

  God, this was fun. I’d never had this kind of banter with anyone before. Grant was always so serious. He rarely laughed. Every time I made Seth laugh, my stomach danced like it was full of butterflies. I gripped the steering wheel tighter because I wanted to reach out and lay my hand on his.

  After a few moments of silence, I cleared my throat. I still wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he’d done to wind up in prison. Yet. “So how long have you been on the outside?”

  He dragged his fingers through his hair, a move I already knew meant he was uncomfortable. Part of being a good attorney was reading people. That was his tell.

  “The night at O’Malley’s was my first night out in a year. I got out earlier that afternoon.”

  Memories from that night flooded my mind.

  Oh.

  Oh.

  “So, when we . . . you hadn’t . . . in a year?” My voice sounded squeaky, like Minnie Mouse. Holy God, I’m glad I didn’t know that. The performance anxiety would have been way too much. “Don’t they allow conjugal visits in prison anymore?”

  Where the hell had that come from? Heat burned my cheeks.

  Seth laughed. “I’m sure they do, but there was no one on the outside to come be conjugal with me. And the guys on the inside, all that facial hair was a real turnoff.”

  It took a second for me to realize he was joking. I laughed and shook my head. “Good to know.” And then there was something else I wanted to know. Desperately. Something I had no business asking. It made my breath hitch in my chest, and a surge of desire so fierce stabbed my guts I almost drove off the road.

  This was it. My chance. Shari said he wanted me. I definitely knew I wanted him. I gnawed
on my bottom lip. If he said no, it would make the next six weeks very awkward.

  “You’re going to make your lip bleed if you’re not careful.” Seth reached over and used his thumb to pop my lip from between my teeth. Then he ran it along the sore spot and I completely lost control.

  “So, uh, have you scratched that conjugal itch yet?” I kept my eyes glued to the road in order not to look at him. If he said yes, I’d have to play it off like I was kidding, no matter how disappointed it made me.

  I heard him inhale, and I tensed.

  Shit. It really was none of my business. He was hot as hell, and if he had an itch that needed scratching, I’m sure girls were lining up to take care of it. Hell, I’d be in the line with them if I knew where it was.

  He brushed his thumb over my jaw, and I fought the urge to close my eyes. He was good. And I suddenly did not want to know if he’d been with another girl.

  “Never mind. That was a really invasive question. It’s none of my business.” So why the hell were my eyes stinging? The AC must be on too high. I blinked rapidly before he could notice my completely irrational reaction.

  “Avery?”

  I plastered a fake smile on and glanced over at him. “Yeah?” My voice was all weird high-pitched again. Shit.

  Seth sighed and shifted so that he was sort of half turned and looking at me. “To answer your question . . .”

  I panicked. That is the only explanation for what I did. Because reaching over and covering someone’s mouth so you can’t hear him talk was something a five-year-old would do. If my other hand were free, I’d probably put it over my ear and start singing la-la-la as loud as I could.

  Under my hand, I felt Seth smile. Then . . .

  “Oh, my God, did you just lick me?” I squealed, jerking my hand away from his mouth.

  He laughed and reached over, taking my freshly licked and strangely tingly hand in his. He rubbed his thumb over the spot his tongue had just touched. “No. The answer is no.”

  I swallowed. Really loud. Oh. And then I couldn’t help it. I smiled. Maybe it was more of a grin, but hell, this beautiful man next to me had not had sex in over a year and . . . “I can help with that.”

  It came out before I could stop it and his thumb froze. Oh, God. My cheeks were on fire. What the hell was I doing? My filter totally disappeared around him. “Oh, God, that came out wrong,” I said, practically choking on my own spit. “Forget I said anything.”

  Silence stretched between us.

  I inhaled a ragged breath, pulled into the Shake Shack’s parking lot, and killed the engine. I couldn’t look at Seth, but I heard the ding as his door opened and then shut. So he was gone, then. I couldn’t say I blamed him, after that performance. Grant had been right: I wasn’t sexy, and I certainly wasn’t seductive. Case in point.

  The pity party in my head was really starting to take off when suddenly my door opened and a hand came out of nowhere. “Come on.”

  “What?” I wasn’t sure I said it out loud until his hand tightened around mine.

  He pulled me out until I was standing in front of him. His eyes, holy hell, what was that look? The awareness was back. My skin tightened with anticipation. The desire I saw took my breath away.

  Maybe I was wrong?

  Please let me be wrong.

  “I . . . fuck it . . .” A low growl came from his throat, and then his lips were on mine. I opened under them without thinking. His tongue plunged into my mouth, taking control without needing to ask.

  My hands drifted up his arms until I could slide them around the back of his head. Wispy hair tickled my fingers and I tightened my grip, tugging his head closer. I whimpered in the back of my throat.

  He groaned his approval into my mouth and pushed me back against my car. He was hard everywhere and held me in place with just the slight pressure of his body.

  A few seconds later, he pulled back. I gasped for air. Seth moved his hand from behind my neck and over my jaw to stroke his thumb over my lips. I darted my tongue out, running it along the rough pad.

  His sharp inhale told me all I needed to know.

  He did want me too.

  “God, you’re beautiful.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Guys had told me that before, but not with that look in their eyes. Never quite with that level of intensity. A fresh wave of desire pooled in my gut.

  “So is that a yes?” I whispered.

  “For the record, I think it’s a very bad idea.” He leaned forward until our foreheads were touching.

  “Why?” My voice was raw and it scratched against my throat. “We’re both adults. We both . . . want it? Right?”

  I know I did, and I was pretty sure that the bulge pressing into my stomach meant he did too.

  I forced myself to look into his eyes. His hand tightened on the back on my neck. “Fuck, we should have just done it the first night, and then maybe I could have gotten you out of my head.”

  I wanted to jump up into the air and pump my fist like some Neanderthal guy. His admission made all the suffering worth it. He wanted me. He really wanted me.

  “Seth?” I needed to hear him say it.

  He groaned instead and closed his eyes. “You’re making this really hard, Avery.”

  “Isn’t that the point?” I asked, nudging him with my hip.

  He pulled his head back and then laughed. “God, you never say or do what I anticipate. You’re not what I expected at all. Come on,” he said, taking my hand, “you need a coffee milk shake to cool down. Then we’ll talk before either one of us does something insane.”

  “Talk? That is so not what I meant, you know.” I gave him an exaggerated pout, and he swatted my ass.

  I ordered my coffee shake and Seth had a double scoop of dark chocolate in a waffle cone. When I pulled out money to pay, Seth moved my hand aside. He pulled a crumpled twenty from his pocket and handed it to the girl behind the counter.

  “I invited you. It’s supposed to be my treat,” I argued.

  “I’m not letting you pay the very first time we go out together.” He took his change and turned toward the tables, completely missing the appraising look that the ice cream girl sent him.

  I smiled at her, then joined Seth at a small table in the shade.

  “She totally wanted you,” I said.

  He barely glanced over at the take-out window. “Not my type,” he said around a mouthful of ice cream. It had started to melt a little already and he kept swiping his tongue around the edge to catch the drips.

  I could not look away. My mind went there without any invitation from me.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” he said without even looking up. I’d never heard a guy growl his words before I met Seth. It should have sounded stupid, but damn if it wasn’t the sexiest sound ever. I’ll never laugh when I read that in a book again.

  “Like what?” I took a long drink from my shake, trying desperately to rein in my thoughts.

  “Like you want to be this fucking ice cream cone.”

  Yes, please.

  My gaze dropped back down to his lips. They had chocolate on them. God, I wanted to lean forward and lick it off.

  “Avery.” The warning was heavy in his voice.

  I forced myself to look up, into his eyes. They were heavy lidded and filled with hunger. Without breaking his stare, I leaned forward and swiped my tongue across the side of his ice cream.

  “Mmmmmmm.” I loved chocolate on a good day, but something about tasting it while a hot guy like Seth watched made it so much better.

  He couldn’t take his eyes away from my lips, and a surge of purely feminine power raced through me. I’d never teased Grant like this. He probably would have rolled his eyes and told me to grow up. He definitely would not have reacted the way Seth did.

  “Damn it, Avery, we need to talk first.” But he still reached out and wiped his thumb along the corner of my mouth, then pulled it away and sucked it between his teeth.

  Holy God. I was about t
o spontaneously combust at the Shake Shack.

  Seth made short work of his waffle cone and balled up the napkin in his fist. “Okay, first things first. Do you have a boyfriend?”

  My eyes went wide. “If I did, do you think I would have come on to you at O’Malley’s?”

  Seth shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter to a lot of girls.”

  “Well, I’m not that kind of person. I take commitment seriously.” I cringed at the sudden memory of Grant’s bare ass moving on top of that girl. Obviously I took commitment a lot more seriously than Grant had.

  I looked up to find Seth watching me with a curious expression. “So you’re single?”

  “Yep.”

  “What happened?”

  “What happened with what?”

  “With the guy. It’s all over your face. You look like you ate some bad food or something.”

  I guess I needed to work on my poker face if I wanted to be a kick-ass attorney. I sighed. “Typical story. Girl meets boy. Gives boy four years of her life. Boy sticks his dick into another woman. Girl trashes boy’s truck. Girl gets community service.”

  He whistled. “That’s pretty bad-assed. Wouldn’t figure you for the destruction of property type. So the dickhead actually pressed charges? That’s a douchy move considering what he did.”

  “Right?” No one but Shari understood why that had pissed me off more than finding Grant naked with another woman. Him cheating should have been like my get-out-of-jail-free card. He cheats. I screw up his truck. We call it even.

  “And that’s why you’re with us every weekday between six and two?”

  “That and fifteen thousand restitution.”

  “Holy fuck. Remind me not to piss you off. Although to be honest, if you trashed my truck, you might get a hundred-dollar fine.” He grinned at me. “So when you’re not destroying property, what do you do?”

  “I’m in senior year at UNC. Well, technically I’m taking a semester off right now for CS, but I’ll still graduate this year.”

  “What are you majoring in? Wait, don’t tell me, let me guess.” He closed his eyes and pressed his fingers to his temples. When he scrunched up his face in mock concentration, I laughed. His eyes popped open and he snapped his fingers. “Okay, I got it. Auto body repair.”