Sprung Read online

  I nod silently as I press my lips to her hair, her fingertips slipping under my t-shirt oddly soothing.

  “Gotcha,” I say low. “So, which is it?”

  “Which is what?” she asks, making my lips quirk up on one side.

  “Focus, Cheech,” I tease as I playfully pinch her side, pulling her heavy eyes back to mine, her lips spreading into a smile. “Why are you smoking today? Stress or a project?”

  “Stress,” she admits with a sigh as her eyes leave mine again.

  “About what?” I ask, tugging on her hair until she tilts her eyes back up toward mine. “Your brother?”

  She studies me for a moment, unsure. I’m not sure if that’s due to me or her, before she finally answers me with a slight nod.

  “Yep,” she admits. “Among other things.”

  “What other things?” I ask, watching her slowly shake her head before her eyes flutter shut and she releases a sigh.

  “I don’t really want to talk about it right now. It’s gonna harsh my buzz.”

  I watch her replace her cheek to my chest, her arms squeezing my midsection tighter. I continue to brush her skin with my palm, hating the unusual uncertainty radiating from her small frame.

  There’s a part of me that hates to see Evie struggling with anything, she’s usually so well put together that it’s completely out of character for her to not just know what she wants and run with it.

  However, there’s another part of me that finds comfort in the fact that she’s willing to show me a side to her so few have ever seen. It’s never easy to be vulnerable, but I get the feeling it’s even harder for a girl like Evie. The fact that she’s letting me witness it firsthand tells me she’s finally given me something she never has before now.

  Her trust.

  I get more than anyone how terrifying that can be.

  Shaking myself free of the thought that’s threatening to put a lump in my throat, I glance down at her again and tug on her hair again.

  “Come here, ya train wreck,” I say low, the feel of her arms moving to wrap around my neck as she pulls me to her lips sending a jolt through me as I cage her in, propping myself up on the edges of the sink. My thumbs brush against her thighs as she teases my lips with her tongue and despite the fact that the smoke has cleared the room, as I pull away, I find myself feeling hazy from her lips alone. “So, you’ve finally hatched your evil plan, huh?”

  “What evil plan?”

  “Don’t try denying it now, ya damned hippie,” I tease, meeting her eyes. “I might not be as smart as you, but I finally figured it all out.”

  “Did ya?” she narrows her eyes. “And what exactly have you figured out?”

  “Your plan to seduce me with your drugs and lacy lingerie,” I husk, glancing down at her skin, teasing the charm dangling from her belly button before I flatten my palm against her waist and move slowly up to her bra. “With a rack like this, you’ve probably got a whole army of idiots ready to run product across the border for your hot little ass and you’ve just been buttering me up to join the ranks.”

  “Uh oh…” she whispers, batting her eyelashes as I meet her gaze before smirking slightly as she whispers up toward the air conditioning vent directly above her in the ceiling. “He’s onto us.”

  Her words make me chuckle, her heavy, bloodshot eyes dancing in amusement as they meet mine and with a quick glance at the time on her phone, I kiss her forehead and stand upright.

  “Alright, fuck it,” I shrug, taking the pipe from her perfectly manicured fingers. “Gimme a light.”

  “Are you serious?” she asks, her eyes going slightly wide as I begin tamping it down.

  “Looks like it,” I say, meeting her eyes. “You better never tell anyone I smoked out of this fuckin’ thing, though.”

  “What’s wrong with my bowl?” she asks, her head tilted slightly in offense and we both glance down at it and then back at each other.

  “It’s about one rhinestone away from ovulating.”

  “You’re about one rhinestone away from ovulating!” she blurts defensively, my expression making her grip her stomach in laughter as she leans against the mirror behind her.

  “Jesus,” I snort. “How much did you smoke before I got here?”

  “Hmm,” she sighs, still recovering from her fit of giggles. “So much…”

  “You’re like the crazy hot, evil spawn of Willie Nelson,” I shake my head in amusement. “Alright, baby. Let’s get lit in the bathroom.”

  chapter seven

  dash

  “Don’t move,” she whispers, her voice coming out in a playful whine when I shift below her. “You’re going to ruin everything in my life.”

  “I gotta go to work, babe,” I sigh, kissing her hair and moving out from under her, smirking at her annoyed expression.

  I’d managed to calm her nerves enough to get her back to my place. We talked a little more, but what she needed more than anything was a distraction from everything.

  I’m always more than happy to be her distraction.

  “Work sounds awful,” she says, pulling my attention back to her as she begins stretching out. The sight of her bare on my couch, her hair still crazy from our midday romp, has me seriously considering calling in sick. “Good luck with that.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk,” I chuckle as I make my way into the kitchen for a bottle of water before returning to her and take a seat beside her on the edge of the couch. “Are you going to hang out here before we meet up with Mason or do you want to ride with me?”

  “Can I stay here for a little while?” she asks, taking the bottle I’m holding out for her. “I promise I’ll be there before he shows up, but right now, I kinda don’t want to move.”

  “Okay,” I shrug, bending to give her a kiss.

  “Are you sure? I don’t have a key to lock the door when I leave. I’d ask if you have a spare, but I don’t want to send you into another panic attack.”

  “You’re an ass,” I chuckle against her lips. “You can borrow mine.”

  “So generous,” she shakes her head, making me laugh as I head toward the bedroom. “Are you sure you’re ready for that? I don’t want you to over-extend yourself.”

  “Nothing but the best for you, little monster,” I call out with a smirk.

  I don’t have to see her to know she’s flipping me off.

  I dress quickly, moving toward the bathroom and groaning when I see how bloodshot my heavy eyes still look.

  “Fuck, I hope I’ve got Visine,” I whisper, pulling the medicine cabinet open, knocking a couple of things into the sink, freezing in place when I see her pink toothbrush sitting beside mine in the glass.

  Shaking my head clear, I push away the childish thoughts.

  “It’s just a toothbrush, dude. It doesn’t mean anything,” I remind myself as I replace the fallen items onto the shelf and crouch low to look for the eye drops in the cabinet below. “It just means you’re fucking a girl with nice breath. That’s all it… shit,” I blurt, cutting myself off as I catch a glimpse of the box of tampons she’d stashed under the sink. “Why? Why would…”

  “Are you okay?” she asks from behind me, her voice making me jump.

  “Jesus!” I shout, gripping my chest before I twist around to face her, my face likely frozen in horror. “Why the hell would you sneak up on me like that?”

  “I heard a crash, so I came to check on you, freak,” she says, balking at me as I stand and arching her eyebrow as she takes in my dramatic behavior. “What’s with you?”

  “Nothing,” I say, shaking my head clear. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Yeah, I just…” I start, releasing a deep breath. “I gotta get out of here,” I manage, shaking my head clear and twisting passed her in the doorway, the sound of her footsteps behind me making mine move faster. “Baby, are you sure you don’t want to le
ave?”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” I say anxiously as I continue my quick steps, nervously tugging at the collar of the work shirt that’s beginning to asphyxiate me. “I just mean, are you sure you don’t want to, ya know… get out?” Chill, dude. It’s a box of tampons and a toothbrush. “Er… I meant, are you sure you don’t want to get out of the apartment for a while? Clear your head?”

  “No, I’m good,” she shrugs, smirking from her place against the doorframe when she sees my expression. “Do you want me to leave?” she asks, her eyebrows raised once more. “I mean, if it’s weird for me to be here while you’re not, you can just say that, Dash. You don’t have to be all… whatever you’re being right now.”

  “What?” I manage, releasing a nervous laugh before reaching for my keys, finding she’s already taken my apartment key and attached it to her keyring, which is now hanging on the hook over mine. Oh, my God. “I mean, where would you even go? All your stuff is in my apartment…” I mumble, pulling my boots on quickly, not bothering to tie the laces in my hurry. “Shit, I have to leave. I have to um… I gotta go to work.”

  “Dash?” she starts, giving me a crazy look as she takes in my odd behavior. “You okay, baby? Your voice is really high right now.”

  “I’m great!” I say, much louder than needed, making both of us jump. “Everything’s just uh… it’s all coming together, ya know?”

  I clear my throat, wiping the sweat from my brow.

  What the fuck?

  “I uh… I’m so glad you’re here,” I choke out, running my palm over my beard again. “God, it’s really fuckin’ warm in here, isn’t it?”

  I never should have smoked that weed with her.

  “I feel fine,” she shrugs, eyes narrowing. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”

  I knew she was up to something, that sneaky little shit.

  “Uh huh,” I nod quickly, rubbing my eyes clear. “Yep, I’m good.”

  “Okay…” she says, dragging the word out as her eyes dart to the maniacal grin before she glances back up at me. “I’ll see you at the bar in a couple of hours, okay?”

  Tampons. So many tampons.

  “Mhmm,” I hum, grabbing my phone and cramming my wallet into my back pocket.

  I could go to Mexico…

  “Okay,” she shrugs, leaning up to stroke my beard before pressing her lips to mine. “I love you.”

  “Okay… you,” I manage, the feel of sweat beading on my brow pulling me away from her as I ignore the way she tilts her head as she takes in my odd behavior. “You… uh… take care there, pretty lady.”

  Oh, sweet infant baby Jesus.

  I gotta get the fuck outta here.

  “Did you just…?”

  “Alright, I’ll see ya!” I call back, pulling the door shut and taking the stairs two at a time.

  When I make it to my truck, I finally release the breath I hadn’t known I was holding, resting my forehead against the warm steering wheel. As I drive to the bar, I replay the last few minutes in my mind and I can’t help but release a long, low groan.

  She’s never going to let me hear the end of this shit.

  ***

  “Hey, you,” I hear across the bar two hours later, pulling my eyes from the onslaught of orders to the blue eyes dancing in annoyed amusement across from me.

  I knew she’d come for me.

  I glance over my shoulder, making sure we’re still alone before I turn to face her again.

  “Hey, babe,” I say, my head more level than it had been when I left.

  “Tsk tsk,” she shakes her head. “That’s pretty lady to you.”

  “Evie…”

  “Would you please just make me a drink?” she cuts me off. “I swear to God and I’m not even kidding when I tell you that I’m about two seconds away from puking,” she announces as she hoists herself onto the seat across from me, pulling out a mirror and examining her red lips. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this stupid bullshit.”

  “Ahh, there she is,” I smirk as she lowers the compact and shifts her unamused gaze to mine. “My darling little ray of sunshine.”

  “Ugh,” she groans, returning her attention to her makeup and reapplying the crimson kryptonite to her mouth, making my dick swell. That fuckin’ lipstick is gonna be the death of me. “Why don’t you eat me?”

  “Oh, I intend to,” I husk, doing my best to distract her from the ass chewing I know she practiced the whole way here. I can’t help the smirk of victory on my lips when I see her cheeks flush to match her lips. “The second I get your cranky little ass out of here, I’m gonna fix you up real nice. Don’t you worry about that, baby.”

  “You’re such a jerk,” she narrows her eyes, grinning. “Don’t do that.”

  “Do what?” I feign ignorance.

  “Get me all worked up right before we’re marched to our deaths,” she blushes, making me smirk.

  “Hey, you started it. It ain’t my fault if you can’t have a two second conversation without thinking about mounting the man of steel,” I shrug indifferently, grinning wide when she flips me off.

  “Oh, shut up,” she shakes her head as she drops her mirror and lipstick back into her bag and faces me, her smirk vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Dammit. “And don’t think for a second that I don’t know what you’re doing. You’re trying to distract me, but it isn’t going to work.”

  Can’t blame a guy for trying.

  “Babe…”

  “You’re a real piece of work, do you know that?” she cuts me off again, making me bite the inside of my cheek and right my expression, facing her once more.

  “So I’ve heard.”

  “Really?” she asks, leaning forward to watch me, smirking when I glance up beneath raised eyebrows. “I mean, you’ve always had a gift for showing your ass, but I think you’ve really outdone yourself this time.”

  “Fuck my life…” I whisper, moving toward the glass rack to start her victory drink, the sensation of my face flushing with humiliation a unique feeling I couldn’t hate more.

  “What happened to this Mr. Adrenaline I’ve heard so much about, Dash?” she continues mockingly, shrugging as she makes a show of looking around in deep search before her eyes eventually come back to mine. “I mean, you keep telling me how you’ve jumped from cliffs, a glorified rubber band the only thing keeping you from plunging to your untimely demise. I’ve watched you fight men twice your size in this very establishment…” she continues, gesturing dramatically toward my two regulars on the other side of the bar. “Hell, just a couple days ago, I had to listen to you go on and on about how invigorating it was to jump out of a freaking airplane,” she says, facing me as she leans forward onto the bar. “Yet, a single box of tampons was all I needed to take you down.”

  “Wait a second… you planted them?” I stare back at her, my face stuck somewhere between judgement and horror until she rolls her eyes and narrows them back at me.

  “No, I didn’t plant them, you moron! I’m an art student, not a freaking secret agent with a grudge,” she shakes her head. “I put them down there because all this stress has my period going all batshit and-”

  “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” I say too loud as I spin around, facing her. “You back the fuck up. What do you mean your period is going batshit, Evie? What the fuck does that mean? Are you fucking kidding-?”

  “Calm down!” she cuts me off this time. “I just thought I might need a fucking tampon, you spaz. Jesus!”

  “Oh, my God. I think my whole life just flashed before my eyes,” I pant, leaning down to rest my hands on my knees to catch my breath. “Jesus Christ, Evie. Don’t fuckin’ scare me like that.”

  “Anyway,” she rolls her eyes dramatically. “Had I known you were going to freak and pull some kind of cracked-out disappearing act on me, I might have brought it up, but I had no idea I was sleeping with The Great Houdini!”

  “Okay, Evie, I get it,” I admit, trying my be
st to keep my voice low as I slide the drink over the bar toward her. “I completely overreacted, but in my defense…”

  “You think you actually have a defense right now?” she balks, her voice just above a whisper as her eyes grow wide in disbelief. “Even if we completely ignore your performance here,” she gestures dramatically once more. “The fact remains that I told you I loved you…”

  “Evie…”

  “And your response was, ‘take care there, pretty lady?’” she replies, ignoring me.

  “I know you’re upset…”

  “Tip. Of the fucking. Iceberg. Dash,” she grounds out, glaring at me over her drink.

  “Fine,” I sigh. “But your brother is going to walk in here any fucking second. Is this really how you want to make our big reveal?” I counter. “By showing your ass in the middle of the bar because you decided to stash a box of tampons under my sink without warning me?”

  “Oh no,” she shakes her head, her voice not as quiet as it had been, her ass rising slightly from the seat in her frustration. “You’re not turning this around on-!”

  “Do we really have to do this here? Right now?” I insist, cutting her off. “Right this very fucking instant, Evie?”

  “Yes!” she demands. “Yes, we’re doing this right here, right now, right this very fucking instant, Dash!”

  “Fine!” I shake my head with a low grumble of annoyance.

  “Where the hell are you going?”

  “I’m taking your crazy ass into the hallway,” I explain, taking a quick second to lock the register before I gesture for her to follow me. “Now, come on.”

  She tosses the straw away, tipping the dark liquid back as she holds my eyes and sets it down roughly onto the bar.

  “Are you actually going to talk to me this time?” she grates. “Or can I look forward to another of your disappearing acts?”

  “Get your ass in the hall, you nutcase,” I roll my eyes, clenching my jaw in annoyance.

  “Wonderful,” she sneers, shooting daggers at me before sliding down from the stool, stomping into the darkness behind me.

  Fuck, this is getting exhausting.

  I make my way around the corner, raking my palm over my beard as I turn to face her. She’s already pacing the width of the hallway, ready to let me have it.