blackmailing a faculty member? Right, excuse me for thinking it was something sordid.” Hael puts his hands on my hips, and I don't stop him, even though I know we're sliding into dangerous territory here. Me plus Hael plus an empty car hood … Gah. I wanna see how well those shocks really work. Can the Ferrari handle our particular brand of speed bumps and potholes?
Mm.
We cannot push the envelope and find out.
Victor has to come to this decision on his own; he has to know that he made the final choice. He has to choose Havoc.
Otherwise, this will never work.
“Any other burning questions I can answer to soothe your weary soul?” he asks, digging his thumbs into my pelvic bones and making me bite my lip to hold back a groan. My eyelids snap shut, and I have to really work at not throwing myself at him. When I feel Hael's breath against my bare belly, I almost lose my shit.
“Did you really try to kill Neil for me?” I ask, and he pauses. The energy in the room shifts, and I open my eyes just in time to see Hael pull back, his expression morphing into something completely different. I touch my hands to either side of his face, loving that he's clean-shaven again and smelling like coconuts. Come to find out the asshole likes to shower with a very specific shampoo and conditioner. Gotta keep the hawk fresh, he'd said, pointing at his hair. He's such an asshole. “I'm not a mind reader, Hael. I don't know what any of you are thinking, what you've done, where you've been.”
Hael stands up suddenly, and I gasp. There's a look on his face that just tears me into pieces.
“Come on,” he says, grabbing my hand and moving over to the passenger side door. He opens it, despite my constant bitching about chivalry, and I slide in. With that dark expression riding his handsome features, how could I refuse? Besides, I've never sat in a car this nice before; it's disconcerting.
“Where are we going?” I ask, but Hael just slams the door behind me and then jogs over to the door that leads into the house. He yanks it open, shouts something inside, and then hits the button to open the garage door. The sea greets us, glittering blue under a surprisingly cheerful sky. It's still cold as fuck, but at least it looks pretty. “What did you just say?” I add as Hael climbs in and starts the engine. At the sound of its admittedly satisfying growl, he puts his forearm on the steering wheel and leans his forehead against his tattoos.
“I'm gonna come in my jeans, Bernadette. Did you hear that? Not as pretty as that signature shriek the models from a few years back had, but I'll take it. Not bad for a turbocharged engine, am I right?”
“You may as well be speaking French to me again,” I say, wishing with all my heart that he would.
“Pourquoi est-ce que tu me poses des questions qui me poussent à me dévoiler, Blackbird?” Hael murmurs, lifting his head up and smiling at me. His right arm is closest to me, and I can't help but smile at the checkered flag tattoo, the racetrack, the colorful cars and pretty girls lounging atop them. “I told Victor that I was going to teach you to drive. Sorry, cher, but I'm not putting all that work into the Eldorado so you can park it in Aaron's driveway.”
Hael sits up and then pauses a moment to connect his phone to the Bluetooth sound system. He surprises me by choosing Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas. He puts the top down and then slips his sunglasses from his pocket, sliding them over his beautiful face.
“Ready?” he asks, but my throat is suddenly tight, so all I can do is nod. “Then let's fucking go!”
Hael slams his booted foot down on the gas, and I let out a small scream of delight as we peel out of the garage and take off down the curving driveway. It ends in a road that hugs the sand for a while, and I throw my arms up, letting my head fall back as sunshine streams across my skin.
That flickering firefly inside of me goes nuts. There isn't a soul on this earth who doesn't love a sun-drenched convertible ride along the beach. Add in the adrenaline from knowing we stole the Ferrari and the beauty of Hael motherfucking