SWNOVELS The Front Runner: Chapter 20
Mira is driving me absolutely insane trailing her fingers up my leg.
The fields hurtling past the window of the town car are dark, and if we didn’t have company, I’m pretty sure my inner caveman would come out to play and I’d take her on the spot. But I promised her I wouldn’t fuck her unless she begged, and that’s a promise I intend to keep.
“My place or yours?” I murmur against her hair. I can’t stop touching it, so soft and thick.
“What about Nadia?”
“She told me she’d be out for the night, so she won’t be able to hear you screaming while you ride my cock later.” Her fingers pulse at my words. I love how flustered she gets when I say things like that.
“What if she comes home? She’s my employee.”
“Okay, then. Your place.”
“We can’t go to my place.”
My muscles tense. “Why not?”
She shifts in her seat, shimmying her shoulders more upright rather than leaned in against me.
“It just doesn’t seem right. What if someone sees you there?”
My eyes narrow. “Yes, how embarrassing for you.”
She turns her wide chocolate eyes on me with a grimace. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
The practical part of me knows what she’s saying is rational, and I’m not here to coerce her into sleeping with me. But the unwanted little boy who lives inside me feels a bit different about that sentiment. It feels like she’s embarrassed. Like I’m a dirty little secret—and I don’t like that.
Following suit, I straighten up and lean away. “Okay. Of course.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, turmoil flickering in her eyes.
I smile at her and weave our fingers together the way she did that night on the floor of a dirty stall. “Never be sorry for setting your own boundaries.”
She nods and rests her head against my shoulder. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For the best date of my life.”
My chest warms, and I lean into her again, pressing a kiss against the top of her head as we pull in between the large gates at Cascade Acres.
“Just pull up next to that truck there. I’ll walk up to the house.”
The driver nods and does as I ask with a quiet, “Yes, sir.”
This time I beat him out of the car to open Mira’s door for her. I feel like a dork for how quickly I rounded the car, but I’m not letting this guy get his hands on her a second time. His sneaky looks through the rear-view mirror happened just a few too many times on the drive to be merely coincidental. I’m not an idiot. I’m familiar with what’s running through his head. I almost told him to keep his goddamn eyes on the road. A surge of possessiveness overtook me that signals how royally fucked I am where Mira Thorne is concerned.
Mira slips her hand into mine as she steps out of the black town car, and keeping her tucked close, I walk her toward her truck. She looks hilariously dainty and dolled up to be stepping into such a beast of a vehicle, but Mira is full of contradictions.
I don’t want the night to end here—it feels unresolved—but I also know she doesn’t need a man clinging onto her with a death grip. The crunching of tires on gravel filters in from behind us as the town car pulls away into the darkness. The flood lights on the barn are the only reason we can see anything as the clock nears midnight. Ambient light isn’t a thing in Ruby Creek.
I look up at the sky while Mira digs through her small purse to find her keys. Every star is so bright against the blackness of the night, the constellations so clear, it almost feels like I could reach up and touch them. When Mira catches me staring at the sky, her head tips back, and I watch the ethereal shadows play across her features.
“Beautiful,” she murmurs.
“Very,” I say back. Except, I’m not looking at the sky anymore. I’m looking at her, visually tracing the elegant slope of her throat. Her deep eyes, her full lips, and glowing skin. She’s downright enchanting. I’ve always thought so, but spending this much time with her and Loki has tossed me into turbulent waters I didn’t see coming. I’m completely adrift with Mira. About to drown in her. And I’m not sure I have enough of a survival instinct to save myself. I’m not sure I want to.
I’m thinking I might be more than just enchanted with her.
My dick twitches, and I shake my head at myself. I’ve got a date with my palm in T minus about five minutes.
She smiles at me now. I used to think it was a smirk, like there was something high and mighty about her smile, but now I recognize it as a defense. A facade.
I lean forward and kiss her cheek. “Thank you for the best fake date of my entire life,” I say before winking and shoving my wandering hands into my pockets. Then I turn and take a quiet stroll up the driveway to my big empty house before I turn into the one begging her to give me a chance.
Still, I refuse to be dissuaded. I can handle hurt feelings, but I’m not easily deterred.
I know she’s worth it.