The Arrangement, стр. 26
Lake was unbelievable. This man had in a few seconds called my bluff, cast down my contentions, and made me feel foolish by barely raising an argument.
I couldn’t imagine how I would present my argument to my parents. All the reasons that I shouldn’t ride home with Lake, a man the community respected, even if they didn’t trust me alone with him.
What would I say?
He’s too handsome and good-smelling to ride home alone with because I don’t trust myself alone with him. Or, he makes me think thoughts I have no business thinking when I’m with him.
Or better yet, he makes me forget about Russell and wish that I wasn’t engaged to the man. Still better, he makes me feel things a man I’ve been dating for over two years has never made me feel.
Or the greatest one, the way he handles my body, might cause me to ride him if I ride with him.
“I could always wait for my dad to answer the phone and have him send a car service for me,” I pointed out.
“But you won’t.”
He was right. I hated being chauffeured anywhere.
“What am I supposed to do about my car if I leave it here, Lake?”
Lake pulled his hands through his thick black hair with soft brown streaks running through it, making me want to reach out and touch it. I clasped my hands tightly together to force them not to react.
“Z, you’re not worried about your car. You and I both know it’s too easy to get towed. But since you’re making that an issue, I’ll get it towed back to town for you,” he said, his jaw clenching.
My shoulders dropped. I’d run out of arguments.
“Fine! On one condition.”
“What’s that spoiled little Liltee?”
“That we do not speak of that summer, the night at Prestige, or anything related to that or the emotions you seem to think that we have.”
“Oh, I’m sure about mine.”
“And I’m sure about mine!” I declared.
Shaking his head, his jaw clenched. “You were always stubborn as hell. Fine, Z. You win.”
“Okay, let me just grab my things,” I said.
“Make sure you lock up. I’ll be waiting at my car over there,” he said, pointing toward an Audi RS7.
“Okay,” I said, batting down the nervous energy bubbling in my belly.
CHAPTER 12 – LAKE
THIS WAS UNFAMILIAR territory that I was embarking on, but I had never backed down from a challenge, and I wasn’t about to start now. Confusion ran rampant through me as I tried to figure out why I couldn’t just leave Xiomara alone. I felt drawn into her web and trapped there, making it difficult for me to free myself and move on to something different and manageable.
I’d screwed up all those years ago, letting her escape. But I hadn’t been ready for what she wanted back then, and I’d proved that through a series of careless actions. Making her feel as if she meant nothing to me when nothing could’ve been further from the truth.
Glancing out of the corner of my eye at her as I cruised down the highway, I took in her rigid posture.
The energy between us wasn’t the same as it had been. Not quite. Though her body gave off sexual energy, there was a wall she’d erected.
Today, Xiomara was stiff and aloof, an undercurrent of frustration humming just below the surface. Ebbing and flowing, waiting to overflow in a tumultuous storm.
I turned my gaze back out the window and then looked at her again.
She folded her arms underneath the curve of full, voluptuous breasts, forcing the swell of them to rise to the top of the gold and black sweater she wore. The beautiful glossy sheet of hair hung like a wave of silk down her back, pooling at her waist.
Shifting side to side in her seat, her long legs crossed and uncrossed.
“Xiomara, relax,” I said.
“I am relaxed.”
“Are you? Or are you pretending? You don’t have to pretend with me.”
Turning in her seat for the first time, she faced me head-on, her eyes scanning my face. I watched her from my peripheral vision and allowed a small smile to curve my lips upward.
“What makes you think that I pretend with you?”
“I know you.”
Pulling off the highway, I drove about a mile before pulling into a park. We weren’t too far from her parents’ home.
“What are you doing?”
“Talking to you.”
“I have to get home. I told you I have—”
“I know...I know, an appointment. And I promise that I’ll get you home, but for once...just once I want you to stop running from me, Z.”
“What is it with you? Why do you keep pressing in areas I ask you to back away from, Lake?” Xiomara asked, turning to face me with her back pressed against the passenger door.
I saw the frustration etched so clearly in her hazel eyes, amber sparks shooting forth like flares.
“I don’t think you owe me anything. But don’t you think that you owe it to yourself to figure out why you feel how you do when I’m around? Why do you respond differently to me than you do to everyone else? Or why you always seem to be so angry with me when we were the best of friends. You need to deal with your suppressed emotions. You owe that much to yourself, Xiomara. If you don’t figure out why you’ll live a life of regret.”
She closed her eyes, shielding her emotions from my prying eyes. I reached out and gently touched her wrist.
“Hey, seriously, before you commit your life to what everyone else expects for you...do yourself that one favor and be honest with yourself. You only get this one life, and you deserve to live it to the fullest. I understand arranged marriages; I had a college friend who