seat. When he gets in on his side and starts up the truck, I stare at his profile.
He finally looks over at me, and I raise my eyebrow questioningly, waiting for him to just admit it. My silence and the way I’m looking at him finally gets to him, and he lets out a huge sigh of defeat.
“Okay, fine! I’m jealous as fuck. God dammit, I can’t believe I just said that,” he complains.
I laugh and shake my head in wonder at the fact that he’s actually had these thoughts in his head.
“I swear to you there has never been nor will there ever be something between Finn and me. He’s just a friend. You have nothing to worry about.”
Brady seems satisfied with my answer, and I lean over the center console to kiss his cheek. He quickly turns his face though and my lips press against his. I bring my hand up and place it against the day old stubble on his face, liking the way it feels against the palm of my hand. He nibbles teasingly at my lips before gently sliding his tongue past them and tangling it with my own.
I could kiss this man forever and never grow tired of it. His lips are soft but firm, and his tongue sweeps through my mouth slowly and gently as if he’s trying to taste every single inch of it. He sucks lightly on my tongue and a whimper escapes my lips. Brady slows down the kiss and gives me one last chaste peck before pulling away and shifting the truck into gear.
“You know, now that I think about it, Finn and I did go on a few dates back in high school to test the waters,” I tell him teasingly, trying to pay him back for getting me worked up with that kiss and then pulling away before I was ready.
“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” Brady asks with a laugh.
I snicker to myself as I look away from his sparkling green eyes, the laughter dying on my lips as I see something stuck to the front of the windshield right in front of me.
“Stop the truck,” I tell Brady softly as he begins backing out of the parking space.
“Stop the truck!” I shout in a panic as he slams on the breaks and looks over at me in confusion at my outburst.
I fumble with the handle and fling open the door, standing up on the running board of the truck to lean out and around the windshield to pull what I saw out from under the wiper.
Getting back into the truck and slamming the door closed, I stare in horror at the photo I hold in my hand. It’s a picture of Brady and me in this very truck from the night we were at June’s. My heart thumps wildly in my chest as I take my eyes off of the intimate moment someone caught on camera to read the words penned in black marker right at the top.
I read them four times before Brady finally snatches the photo out of my hand and growls in anger when he sees what someone has done—what they’ve said and what it means.
“All that beautiful, blonde hair will be spilling over my thighs soon. I can’t wait to wrap my hands around all those silky strands and force your mouth where I want it to go,” Brady reads aloud, practically spitting each word from his mouth with the force of his fury.
My stomach clenches in revulsion and fear. My chin quivers as I watch Brady’s fists clutch tightly to the photo until he’s crumpled it so hard that it’s unreadable and his knuckles are stark white.
He reaches across my body and pops open the glove box, shoving the ruined photo inside and slamming it closed before putting the truck back into reverse and peeling out of the parking lot. He doesn’t say a word to me as we drive through town. I have my arms wrapped protectively around my body as I hunch against the door of the truck, staring out at the passing landscape and swiping angrily at the tears that have now started to fall.
This disgusting human being took something amazing between Brady and me and turned it dirty; a moment in time where I felt free and alive is now tainted by some faceless person. All this time I’ve been fooling myself thinking that I wouldn’t let this person get to me. Even after he attacked