As I burst out of the doors, thunder cracked and the first fat drops of rain began to fall. Making the last bus went from important to a full-scale emergency. Walking home in the rain at night wasn't high on my list of favorite things.
As I rounded the corner toward the stop, great sheets started to fall sideways, drenching me from head to toe in less than ten seconds.
"Shit!" I looked up to see the blinking lights of the number seven as it pulled away from the curb. I rebalanced my bag on my shoulder and shouted and waved as I ran toward it. "Wait! Fuck!"
A wave of water splashed up my leg and reached as far as my chest as I stepped in a large puddle. I called out at the top of my lungs but knew it was no use. Iris wasn't driving tonight and no one else would give me special treatment and wait. That bus was long gone, and I was well and truly fucked. I plopped down on the bench under the bus stop awning. It did little to keep me dry as the rain blew sideways and straight at my face.
Fuck. I hated to do it, but couldn't see that I had any choice. I pulled my cell phone out of my bag and tried to dial Kendra's number. She had her car and offered to take me home on a daily basis. I always said no. She was my friend and I'd been honest about where I lived. Still, hearing about my living arrangements and seeing them firsthand were two different things. Oakwood Mobile Home Park fit every stereotype there was about trailer trash, located literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Plus, chances were good if Kendra did drop me off, she'd get treated to the Lori Winslow show. This generally involved my mother, drunk off her ass, wearing nothing but her bra and hot pants, screaming at me about how I was getting too big for my britches. Twenty-four and a half more months. Then, I could leave it behind for good.
It was a good plan and probably would have worked. Except the battery symbol on my phone blinked twice, then the screen went black.
Yes. I was well and truly fucked. I wanted a few minutes, hoping the rain might let up, but if anything it got worse. So, it was three miles and one foot in front of the other tonight. Already soaked to the bone, I supposed it made no difference now. I pulled my hood over my head, heaved my bag across my shoulder, and started toward home.
A little more than twenty-four hours ago, I'd stood in Bas's glass-walled office. Now, I trudged through the rain and sleet toward the closest thing I had to home, freezing to the bone. I let thoughts of Bas warm me. What was he doing now? I shivered against the cold and tried to conjure the feel of his hands on me, warm and urgent. Pulling the ends of my fleece hoodie closer around me, I tried to stave off the frosty air.
I made it halfway around the block when the sound of my name stabbed through my frigid skin and warmed me from the inside out in spite of the pelting rain.
He pulled alongside me in a slick, shiny black pickup truck as if my thoughts had conjured him into existence. I blinked hard, thinking maybe I'd imagined the whole thing. How could he be right here? Maybe I'd actually fallen down and knocked myself out and this was all just some sort of head trauma-induced hallucination. But, it wasn't. My eyes might betray me, but the sound of his voice sent a tremor through me. I don't know what I was expecting. A limo? No. He might be a millionaire, a billionaire for all I knew, but Bas Lanier probably wouldn't be caught dead in one. He rolled the window down and those flashing blue-silver eyes raised gooseflesh between my shoulder blades.
"Get in," he said. It was a command, not an offer. I looked behind me, but there was no one in the street but the two of us. A million thoughts ran through my head, but they boiled down to a simple phrase that lit his eyes like wildfire when I uttered it.
"Why, Mr. Lanier, what big teeth you have."
His grin was wide and devilish as he reached across the cab and opened the door to let me in.
Chapter Seven
I was frozen. Shivering. Soaked to the bone. I tried to keep my teeth from rattling as Bas pulled away from the curb, leaving the bus stop far behind. He kept one hand on the wheel and reached behind him, grabbing a wool plaid stadium blanket out of the back and tossing it toward me. His fingers brushed my cheek when he did it and his brows knit together with concern.
"Jesus, you're freezing. What the hell were you doing out there like that?"
Any ability I had to come up with a sassy retort skittered right out of my head as I shivered. I peeled off my drenched hoodie and pulled the ends of the blanket around me. As I cast my hoodie aside, I realized it was a Wild Lake Outfitters brand. Bas's eyebrow raised just a fraction of an inch as he saw it too.
"Th-thanks." I thought about what to say to answer his question about where I was going. Car trouble? Was there some other white lie I could use to cover up the truth? I was pretty sure the likes of Bas Lanier had never set foot in a mobile home park. The thing is, I wasn't ashamed. I couldn't help my mother's choices, only my own. And I was doing everything I could to get up and out of the hellhole she'd raised me in. But, I didn't like the looks of disgust or pity that settled on the faces of people who didn't understand the world the way I did. Those who hadn't had to claw their way out of something.
I squared my shoulders as best I could, considering how they trembled, and turned to face him. "What were you doing out there like that?"
Bas kept his eyes on the road but his mouth curved into a smile. Again, the memory of how it felt against mine flashed through me, warming me more than the heat blasting out of the dashboard vents.
"I was just in the neighborhood."
"Right." It seemed he wanted to keep his own secrets as well. "Well, I was just getting out of class." My body convulsed and I let out an undignified sneeze, hitting my forehead on the glove box.
Bas's smile dropped and he reached over to touch my forehead. "Okay, this isn't funny anymore. Your skin's like ice. You're going to end up with pneumonia if you don't get warm and dry."
"I don't think that's how pneumonia works. You sound like my grandmother."
"Well, be that as it may, Red Riding Hood, I'm taking you home."
The ice coursing through my veins wasn't from the wet clothes. No way in hell would I let Bas drive into Oakwood. No. Fucking. Way.
"I'm not comfortable with that." It was the best I could come up with to say.
Bas let out an obstinate growl and pulled the car into a nearby carpool lot. This time of night, there was no one else around and the woods fanned out on the other side of it. He jammed the truck in park, unhooked his seatbelt and turned to face me.
"Are you trying to drive me crazy?"
"Am I what?"
"You. Look at you. What the hell were you thinking being out there like that? Never mind pneumonia. Were you planning on walking three miles through that neighborhood alone? This is the shittiest part of town. It's not safe for you out here alone. Do you have any idea the thousand things that could have happened to you if I hadn't come along?"
"Wait. What?" The ice in my veins turned to molten lava. "Were you following me?"
Bas blinked hard once, but the stern expression on his face didn't alter. "Answer me."
I turned and fumbled with the latch on the door, but Bas had locked it. "Abby," he said, his voice a touch softer, but still full of command. "I mean it. You could have really gotten hurt. Why didn't you call someone if you needed a ride?"
I opened my mouth to say a dozen things, then clamped it shut again. His eyes gutted me. They flashed silver and blue, staring hard at me. "My phone died."
He raised a brow and gave an unconvincing nod. "So with all that rotten luck you had going on, you just thought it would change if you took a stroll through the worst part of town?"
"Why is this any of your business? You don't even know me. I'm grateful you came along. I mean, I guess. But at what point in our non-relationship did you think it was okay to tell me what to do?"
He shook his head and scratched his chin, considering my question. Again, I had the sensation the world had just slowed to a freeze frame. Every sense seemed tuned to him. It was as if things had grown so silent, I could hear his heartbeat thundering in my own ears. He closed his eyes slowly and his nostrils flared. I didn't know him. Didn't understand his moods. But, in that fraction of a second I knew as he opened his eyes again and looked at me, he'd made a decision that would change everything.