Choosing Fate (Love in Eden 1.70)

I opened the door for the back seat and grabbed my leather jacket. When I went to settle it over Jolene's shoulders, she said, "It's okay, I'm fine."

"These say different," I said as I trailed my finger over some goosebumps on her shoulder. I heard her draw in a breath and cursed myself for my stupidity. My cock went on high alert. I'd already sensed her attraction to me, but her silent confirmation of it was like permission for my wayward body to take what it wanted. I was standing just behind her, close enough that I could smell her perfume or shampoo or whatever it was that drifted off her skin and teased my senses.

She didn't protest when I draped the jacket over her. My hands somehow ended up on her upper arms. The rumble of my car’s engine did nothing to drown out her little gasp when I gave her arms a gentle squeeze and stepped into her at the same time that I pulled her backward.

What the hell am I doing?

My body was on autopilot, completely ignoring all the warning bells going off in my head. I dropped my mouth to where her shoulder met her neck, but thankfully some kernel of sanity returned and instead of tasting her skin, I pulled in a deep breath so I could take in more of her sweet scent. She actually tipped her head to the side, exposing the long column of her throat to me. Her long hair fell off her shoulder and brushed my right hand. Between the silky strands and her thrumming pulse, I was quickly losing what little hold I had on that last shred of self-control.

"Better?" I asked her softly as my lips ghosted along the shell of her ear. I couldn't even be sure whether the move was deliberate or not. All I needed from her was some sign and I'd give in to my body's demands.

She didn't verbally answer me, but my eager dick declared victory when she leaned back against me so our bodies were perfectly aligned. She undoubtedly could feel my erection pressed against her backside. I found myself winding my fingers in her hair with the intention of holding her in place for my kiss when an explosion of sound hit us like a freight train.

Jolene practically jumped out of my arms and fortunately, I managed to release my hold on her hair so I didn't end up snagging it in the process. I did, however, hold on to her hand as I quickly said, "It's okay, it was my car backfiring."

Jolene looked between me and the car and I couldn't tell which horrified her more, what had nearly just happened between us or the sound of my car backfiring.

"It's all right," I repeated as I rubbed my thumb back and forth over her fingers. "It's one of the things I'm working on," I said as I motioned between the car and the garage. "It's probably a bad plug or wire."

She stared at me for the longest time and then pulled her hand free of mine. "Is it all right if we go now?" she finally asked. I didn't like how nervous she sounded.

"Yeah," I said with a nod and then I reached out to grab her door for her. She jumped back, clearly thinking my intent had been to reach for her. I felt sick to my stomach. Obviously, I had misread her response to me earlier. The idea that she was now lumping me in the same category as her dick-of-a-date made me want to hit something. Preferably him.

We didn't speak again until I’d pulled out of the gas station lot and onto the road. And that was only long enough for her to tell me which direction to go. She sat stiffly in the seat next to me, my jacket looking big on her slim frame. I found myself missing the sound of her laughter. She had one of those all-in laughs, but my gut was telling me it wasn't something she indulged in too often.

"I've had that condom there for years," she suddenly blurted out of the blue. I was so caught off guard by the fact that she'd spoken that I didn't process the words at first. I’d completely forgotten about the damn thing, but obviously she hadn't.

"It's—" I began to say, but she cut me off.

"After my divorce, my friend, Doreen, told me I always needed to be prepared because you never knew when you were going to meet a guy you wanted to… you know. I told her I couldn't imagine ever meeting some guy I just wanted to you know with… but she stuck it in my purse anyway and I forgot about it."

She stopped talking as abruptly as she started, but when I opened my mouth to respond, she began rambling again. "Doreen moved to New Mexico last year, so I couldn't ask her for a ride tonight. And Jackson works at Broken Tree, so it would take him a while to get here and he'd want to know what happened and if I told him he'd go all crazy like you did and he’d probably kill Ted and end up in jail and I’d have to tell my little boy why his daddy wasn’t around to take him fishing anymore and so that's why I'm here with you, okay? It's not because I want to… you know… even if I kind of did want to… you know a few minutes ago."