He’s grabbing a pillow and a blanket and laying them out on the couch, and for a stupid, silly minute, I want to ask him to come to bed with me. But I push that away.
That’s not what this is - not with someone like me and someone like him. What happened earlier blew my mind and is by far and away the best sex I’ve ever had, but it’s not more than that. And quarter life crisis or not, I know that.
We’re two very different people trapped by this, and that’s all this is.
I’ve slipped the pair of his boxers on again, and I’m pulling on the undershirt when I glance over at him.
“Do you mind if I turn my phone on?”
He gives me a long look before he nods. “Yeah, sure.”
The phone stays dark in my hands when I try.
“Do you have a charger?”
Connor looks up and frowns. “For that?” He shakes his head. “Don’t think so.”
I pick up my bag from the other night and paw through it, making a face. “Damn, I know I had one in here.”
“Might have fallen out in the car.”
In the car on the night he took me, but neither of us actually has to say that out loud.
“Mind if I go get it?” I shrug. “I just want to check in and see how everyone’s doing.”
Connor sucks at the insides of his cheeks, mulling it over as he eyes me.
“Look, I’m not going to run. This is the safest place, right?”
He nods.
“Plus this place comes with a great shower, and pasta, and decent sex.”
Connor grins. “Decent, huh?”
“It’s okay.”
He laughs and shakes his head as he walks to a hook on the wall and turns, tossing me the keys.
“No joy rides.”
“I’d have to actually learn to drive stick first.”
“Let’s not make tonight the night you fuck up my clutch then.”
I wink as I twirl the keys in my hand and step past him for the elevator.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sierra
“Hey.”
“Hey Si-Si,” my older brother Rowan chuckles on the other end of the line, using the nickname I kind of hate but also sort of love. “How’s finding yourself.”
“Heard that, did you.”
“Oh, you know us Hammonds. Word travels faster than high school gossip with this crew.”
I grin.
“Hey, Sierra!”
I can hear Eva, Rowan’s wife in the background.
“Eva says hi.”
“Yeah, I can hear her. HI EVA!” I yell into the phone. “Tell her I-”
“Yeah, no, she heard you. Now I can’t, cause my fuckin’ ears are ringing.”
I grin. “How’s the Grand Canyon?”
“Grand. How’s avoiding my question?”
I sigh, sinking back into the leather bucket seat of Connor’s jet-black Charger, the phone cord plugged into the adaptor of his dash cigarette lighter.
How’s finding myself.
Oh, wonderful. I’ve found myself having the best sex of my life with a murderer and now I’m in hiding with him after witnessing the Ukrainian mob commit murder. What are you having for dinner tonight?
“It’s good,” I lie.
“Everything all right?”
“Yep.”
“C’mon talk to me Si-Si.”
I smile even though he uses the dumb nickname again.
“This have anything to do with that Jayson douche?”
I frown. “How’d you-”
“Dude, there are no secrets in this fucking family. How have you not picked up on that in twenty-three years? I heard about him from Eva.”
I grumble.
“Cause, like, Ivy told Eva,” I crack up at Rowan’s sing-song mock valley-girl voice. “And I heard that Ivy talked to Stella, who talked to you, and OH-EM-GEE, you would not believe-”
“Okay, shut up.”
Rowan chuckles. I’m silent and he sighs.
“There’s, uh, there’s something else.”
My brow worries. “What?”
He clears his throat. “You know anything about a garage full of music shit going up in flames?”
My heart jumps into my throat. “Uh-”
“Shit,” Rowan swears. “Jesus, Sierra, you don’t fuck around do you?”
“It was-” I close my eyes, sucking in air. “Jayson called you?”
“No, the Boston Police called me. Well, they called Dad first, but he was snoozing out by the pool, so they called Ivy.”
My hand goes to my mouth.
“Don’t worry, I deleted the voicemail on Dad’s phone.”
“I can explain.”
“You don’t have to, I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I am.”
“Well, out of curiosity, what the fuck happened?”