Thief (A Bad Boy Romance)(54)

She must notice the look on my face, because she smiles slowly and shakes her head.

“Not what you think.”

“I don’t think anything.” I shrug as casually as I can.

“He just,” she scowls, glaring down at her feet. “The whole thing is just so stupid. I mean he cheated on me, and he left me for this other girl. And now he’s fucking at my parents’ house lying through his teeth about the whole thing being a misunderstanding, and bribing them with fucking skis!”

She’s shouting now, her face red and her eyes furious as she looks up at me wildly. “My dad doesn’t even like skiing! He just went last year because he wanted Blaine to feel like he was fucking family, and- and-”

She trails off, her shoulders heaving and her chest rising and falling as she sucks in air.

She looks up at me after a second, a crooked smile on her face.

“Can we…” She looks down at her feet before dragging those big green eyes up to my face. “Can we go somewhere?”

I fold my arms over my chest, a grin on my lips. God, she sounds just like the girl I knew right now, sitting there like that in torn cut-offs and an old t-shirt.

“Got somewhere in mind?”

She shakes her head. “Just out of this fucking town.”

I chuckle as I step onto the boat. “Gorgeous, you came to the right place.” She smiles when I offer her my hands to help her down.

“Yeah, we can definitely do that.”



The light fades over the town as we drive into the sunset, literally.

The old red and white Ford 150 bumps and creaks as we take the back roads out of town, and I know she remembers this thing. This was our escape - our ticket to do what we wanted the second I got my license.

We climb up past the promenade on Turner Hill, with the whole harbor and the port disappearing behind us. We don’t speak, but we don’t have to. We’re comfortable in this silence. At one point I see her phone light up on her lap, and I grin when I watch her ignore it.

This is just us up here.

She doesn’t ask where we’re going, but I know she knows. And I haven’t been there myself in eight years, but it’s basically on autopilot in my head. Ivy turns and smiles at me in the dim light of the cab as she sees where I’m turning off the main, knowing where we’re going.

The overlook by the falls.

Yeah, this place. This was a place of firsts. And I love that I know that even being here with me again has her flushed. I also know she’s hurt, and wounded from this Blaine asshole, and I know that means I should keep my distance.

But I’m fairly certain I’m not going to be able to. Not ever again, and certainly not now.

I grab the blanket tucked behind the driver’s seat as we step out of the cab. The trickling rushing sound of the waterfall - quieter in the summer - filling the silence across the glacial pool from where I’ve parked.

I hop into the back of the truck and kick the tailgate down, putting the blanket down before I reach out with my hand, grinning as I help her up.

It’s like second nature, being here and doing this. Hell, we did this before we were a thing, too. When I first got my license, I drove her up here so we could watch for falling stars.

It was later when we came up here for other reasons.

Other reasons like the night she gave herself to me for the first time. It was furtive and stuttered, but damn was it perfect - like a dream now, wrapped in gauze.

She blushes as we lay back, the night going dark as the sun goes down over the cliffs of the falls.

“Been a while, huh?”

She rolls her eyes in the semi-darkness. “You brought me here jut to make me blush, didn’t you.”

I laugh. “No, but I can keep going with that if you want.”

“Okay.”

I freeze, turning to look at her as she does the same. We’re face to face, breath to breath lying there in the back of my pickup. Her eyes glimmer in the light of the rising moon.

Fuck it.

I know I should keep my distance. I know she’s got a mountain of other things going on in her life right now, and I know historically, I’m the worst thing that’s ever happened to her.

And absolutely none of that stops me from kissing her, right there and then.

It’s small at first, just lip to lip. But she opens them and it grows hungrier. Her lips press hotly into mine, her tongue moving to meet mine. My hand slides to her cheek, cupping her jaw and drawing her even tighter to me before sliding into her hair.

We’re moving closer together, writhing against the other. I roll on top of her, never breaking that kiss until I can feel her hands tugging at my shirt.

Our clothes come off in a blur, her hands pulling at mine as I slip hers away. She wraps her legs around my waist and rolls us over, her mouth dropping to my chest. She kisses my skin, lingering over every tattooed line and every raised scar. I groan as she moves lower, and when those perfect wet lips of hers wrap around my cock, I’m fucking putty for her. Her mouth is warm, so insistent as she moves it up and down, stroking me with one hand while the other cups my balls.