“Sienna?” his tone sharpened.
“My prom date figured since he paid for dinner I should put out.” Her cheeks burned with humiliation as she finally made the confession. “I told him no. He didn’t seem to like my answer…so I left.”
Warrick’s jaw flexed. “What happened between him not liking your answer and you leaving?”
Sienna unconsciously rubbed her bare shoulder and shrugged. “Nothing. I got up and left.”
Warrick’s gaze followed the movement of her hands, and he flicked on the overhead light. She bit her lip, realizing her mistake as he pulled her hand away to observe bruises left behind from Dayle’s fingers.
“That’s nothing?” Warrick ground out violently and reached to start the engine. “I’ll kill the bastard.”
“Stop, Warrick!” she pleaded, fresh tears flooding her eyes as she grabbed his wrist. “It’s partly my fault. I knew he had a reputation and I asked him to be my date anyway.”
He turned off the car and moved to face her again. “Why would you ask someone like that to prom, Sienna?”
“Because I knew you’d turn me down.” Shit. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
Sienna held her breath, waiting for him to laugh or a majorly awkward silence to ensue.
But it didn’t come. Her pulse tripped as she watched his gaze darken and his nostrils flare slightly.
“Don’t say things like that, Sienna.” His words came low and unsteady.
Whoa, maybe this little attraction thing wasn’t one sided. Encouraged, she sidled across the seat of the truck, closing the distance between them as she moved her hand up his arm to touch his bicep.
“Why can’t I say it?” she asked softly. “Is it so wrong to admit I’ve been wanting to kiss you since New Year’s Eve? That when I watched you kissing Rachel Wilson, I wanted it to be me? That every time I see you with a different girl—and there are a lot of them—it makes my stomach hurt.”
“Stop, Sienna,” he muttered, shaking his head. “You’re Daniel’s little sister.”
She thought he was about to push her away as he reached a hand toward her, but then his strong fingers closed around the back of her neck and her skin tingled to life.
Running her tongue over her bottom lip, she threw caution to the wind and risked everything. Including her heart. “Make me, Warrick.”
Conflicting emotions flickered in his gaze. Hot wanting and reluctance. But it was clear which one won out when he dragged her forward with a thick, “Damn you.”
His mouth crushed down on hers, hard and demanding, with no schoolboy hesitancy. Her lips parted on a whimper to accept the dominating sweep of his tongue, and she had her first thought that maybe she was playing with fire.
Everything around her spun and her world narrowed to just the two of them. She didn’t care that she was in over her head. This was Warrick and the moment she’d been dreaming of. She kissed him back, learning from the sensual rasp of his tongue against hers.
Heat sizzled through her blood, spreading to hidden areas of her body and making her want to do things she’d never before wanted. Emboldened, she arched into him with a moan.
Warrick groaned against her lips and slid a hand between them to cup one sensitive breast, kneaded her flesh. She cried out from the unfamiliar, incredible sensation. But then, before she could even imagine the pleasures of what would come next, he jerked his hand away again. He let out a ragged groan against her mouth, before his head lifted a second later.
“I can’t do this.”
Sienna’s eyes fluttered open and she stared up at him, her mind scrambling to figure out what had happened.
“Why?” she whispered. “I want you.”
He shook his head, turning away from her to thrust a hand through his hair. “You’re just a kid, Sienna. You don’t know what you want.”
“I turned eighteen last month.”
“You’re still a virgin.”
She bit her lip, mortification sweeping through her at his bitter statement. She couldn’t deny what had almost been an accusation, but what did that have to do with anything?
“Maybe I want you to be my first.” And my only.
“Enough, Sienna. What just happened was a mistake. I shouldn’t have touched you.”
Her heart sank. “A mistake?”
Warrick was quiet for a moment, avoiding her questioning gaze. Finally he turned and she bit her lip, hoping he’d realize what had happened between them wasn’t a bad thing.
But his hard gaze was unreadable when he looked at her. “Yes, a mistake, Sienna. And to be honest, you’re not…my type. Though if you were anyone besides Daniel’s little sister, I might’ve taken you up on what you’re so quick to offer.”