“Jesus Christ,” Cerys mouthed, bringing the car to a screeching halt as Jase slammed his hands on the front of the car.
She threw open the door. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
Jase rubbed his knee. “Seeing you’re the one who just nearly ran me over, shouldn’t you be more apologetic?”
“Jase. You just ran out of a building straight into the road. That’s like primary school road safety.” She placed her hand on his back. “Is anything broken?”
Jase winced. “Can you just get me the fuck out of here?”
Cerys sucked in a breath. “Seriously, let’s just get you somewhere where—”
“Cerys. Sweetheart. Can you just get me out of here? Please.”
He hobbled to the passenger side, and she helped him as best she could, given he weighed almost twice as much as she did. Then she hurried to her side of the car. “Do you need some ice or something to stop any swelling?”
Cerys leaned across him to reach for the seatbelt. “Let me get that for you.” He tried to ignore the way her breasts pressed up against his chest, a minor feat, given it felt so good. As she clicked the buckle into the slot, he softly inhaled, his nose brushing against her hair.
“Just drive,” he said gruffly, moving away from her to look towards the door. “Any minute now, Alex is going to burst through it. And they always send Alex because they know I won’t hit him.”
“Really. You fight that often?”
“Yes, we do. And I really don’t want to do that here.”
“Urgh. Fine. I’ll take you to your hotel?”
She turned left out of the parking lot, and he winced at the car horn that beeped behind them. “Shit.”
“Fucking hell, Cerys. Isn’t it enough you almost killed me in the parking lot? That guy nearly ran straight into the side of us.”
“I know, I know. Drive on the other side of the road, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Nothing fun about it at all. I can’t get used to looking the opposite way in traffic.”
“Well, let me fix that.” Jase pulled a Sharpie from his pocket and drew a large arrow on her right hand. “Look that fucking way next time.”
Cerys studied the arrow then burst out laughing. “What happens when I’m turning right and not left?”
Jase thought about it for a second. “Fuck me, just drive. I’ll look when you need to turn.”
They’d only been beeped at once more when she pulled into the hotel parking lot.
“Do you need a hand getting up to your room?” she asked, turning the engine off.
Jase looked over his shoulder to the backseat of the car. “I don’t want to be here. Where are you going?”
“I’m going to my dad’s cottage up on the lake. He left some papers up there last weekend, so I’m going to grab them.”
“Sounds perfect. Let’s go.”
She shook her head. “You can’t just invite yourself.”
“Just did. Let’s go.”
“Jase. Please. Look, I’ll help you to your room and then I’m leaving.”
He turned in his seat and reached for her, rubbing the back of her hands. “I need some air, Cerys. I need . . . fuck, I need something.”
She studied him as her fingers relaxed and slipped between his. “Fine. You can come with me. But you are going to need clothes.”
Jase handed her his room key. “Room 632. It’ll take me an age to walk up there. Can you just shove some shit in the black backpack on the chair? I unpacked. Should be easy enough. And grab my laptop and all the chargers on the desk.”
“You want me to go pack for you?”
“As penance for nearly running me over.”
Cerys looked at him and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Don’t move. And I’m taking my keys so you can’t drive off. It’ll get cold fast.”
“Better hurry up then, eh?”
Cerys growled as she got out of the car, and he watched her as she hurried across the lot.
Goddamn, he was fed up with feeling like this. Like someone had just slammed their hands on a piano, creating a jarring sound that reverberated through him. With too much reverb that would never end. Would it be too much to get a fucking minute’s peace?
When she returned to the car, she threw his backpack into the backseat, and he noticed what she’d added to the side pocket.
“You grabbed the vodka. Girl after my own heart.”
“I need to stop at the grocery store on the way up,” she said, looking up at the sky. “And I want to get there as soon as I can. I’m not very good at driving at night.”
“Let’s be honest, you’re not very good by day, either.”
A flicker of a smile touched her lips. Her very plump and rose-coloured lips. “Do you ever pause to think about whether a thought should stay in your head?”
Jase shrugged. “Too many thoughts rattle around in there. If I didn’t let them out, my head would explode. Plus, so many people want honesty, but they’re not willing to be truthful. Me, I’d rather just say it as I see it. If it pisses someone off, so be it.”
“Is that why you’re in my car heading up past East Tawas? Too much honesty?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
She placed her hand on his leg. It was warm through his denim. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not particularly. In fact. I’d like to totally forget about it for forty-eight hours.”
Cerys glanced in the rearview mirror. “You should tell them where you are.”
“And you should concentrate on driving.”
“Fair enough.”
After a brief stop at a grocery store to pick up supplies, where she shopped and Jase insisted on paying, they arrived at her father’s second home.
“When you said cottage, I had something a little more rustic in mind.”
Cerys looked up at the chrome and glass structure tucked in behind a large fence. “Yeah, it’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
Jase opened the door and leveraged himself out of the car using the doorframe. He rotated his shoulder that ached slowly. He must have wrenched it trying to get out of the way of her car.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as she came to stand next to him.
“Fucking cold and very stiff.”
Cerys looked away quickly, but he caught her smirk.
“Did you seriously just giggle at me saying very stiff?”
She composed herself and then looked him dead straight in the eye. “Nope. Not at all.”
He held her gaze and saw the corner of her mouth twitch again. “I’m very stiff. But I think a bit of action will help loosen me up. I’ll grab the bags.”
Cerys pursed her lips. “Stop saying very stiff.”
Now, he did smile, and ran his teeth over his lip. He bent closer to her. “Very. Stiff.” His voice a whisper.
She shoved playfully at his chest. “Stop it.”
“Keep putting your hands on me and it will become a reality.”
Cerys pulled her hands away. “They aren’t on you.”
“I wasn’t complaining.” And he checked out her arse as she stomped in the direction of the front door.