Change of Heart (Fostering Love 2)

We were both breathing heavy when we hit the cool night air, and I shivered as he asked me where I was parked.

“Around the corner,” I rasped, making him shudder as my lips rubbed against his skin.

He strode down the pavement, never letting me down until we’d rounded the corner and were shadowed by the tall building.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked as he dropped me to my feet.

“What the hell was that?” I snapped back, stumbling a little as I lost my balance.

“If I wanted you here, I would have fucking invited you.” He ignored my question, scowling as he gripped my arm to make sure I didn’t fall over.

“I didn’t know you could sing like that.”

“Who do you think taught Katie?” My foster sister Kate was incredible on the guitar, and she’d had a kick-ass voice for as long as I’d known her. I’d never wondered how she’d learned; it had always just been true.

“Oh,” I said, sidestepping him.

“Did you follow me?” he asked incredulously, stepping back in front of me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“With me? Yeah, I’m the one who fucked up tonight. Right,” I said back sarcastically. “You just kissed me!”

“That’s the way you want to play it?” he murmured, shaking his head as he scratched at his beard. “Sure. I was getting the barflies off my back and used you to do it, but the rest of that shit was you.”

“Me?” I screeched, making the homeless guy down the street start yelling about waking him up.

“Shut the fuck up,” Bram yelled back at the guy, making him go silent.

“I didn’t do shit!” I hissed, my hands fisting at my sides.

“That wasn’t you, grabbing me and pulling me into you—giving me fuck-me eyes?”

“Fuck-me eyes?” I screeched again.

“You’re still fucking doing it!” Bram yelled back, leaning down.

We both went silent for a long moment, glaring at each other.

I’m not sure which one of us moved first, but all of a sudden, Bram’s mouth was back on mine, and he was pushing me against the brick wall of the building behind me.

“When the fuck did you get a tongue ring?” he gasped into my mouth as he slid his thigh between mine, lifting my body slightly as he pressed up.

“A couple years ago.” I moaned and rocked against him.

“I’ve never seen it.” His hands moved over my torso, reaching up to grip my breasts over my cami.

“I know.” I slid my hands under his T-shirt and dug my fingers into the warm skin at his sides.

A familiar wolf whistle came from down the street, making us pause.

“Keys,” he whispered before pressing his mouth to mine again. “Keys. Now.”

I fumbled with the purse hanging over my shoulder and pulled out the keys to my SUV.

The second Bram heard them jingle, he was stepping back and grabbing them from my hand. Without a word, he gripped my fingers and walked me over to my car. When we reached it, he paused and turned his head to look at me.

I held my breath as he clicked the remote, unlocking the driver’s-side door.

Then he clicked it again, unlocking the rest, and opened up the door to the backseat. He stood there, not moving, letting me make the decision. I could have snatched the keys out of his hand and moved around the front of my SUV. That would have been smarter.

Instead, I slid past him and climbed into the backseat.

I was making a really bad decision. I knew that. I think we both knew that. Nothing good could come of messing around with Bram. At best, things would be even more awkward between us later. At worst, we’d actually hate each other instead of the halfhearted bickering we’d been doing before.

But I didn’t care.

This wasn’t real life. I knew that, once Bram climbed back out of my Toyota, whatever was happening would be over. But in three days, I was going to have to deal with more real life than I wanted to, so I pushed back all the doubts in my mind.

The backseats in my car were pushed down because I’d been hauling shit for my house that week. So when we got inside the dark car, we had a wide expanse of room to move. That didn’t mean it was easy though. Bram hit his head and cursed as he climbed in behind me, locking the doors with a loud honk. I got a rug burn on my elbow as I rolled to my back and scooted across the rough carpeting.

Then, finally, there we were.

I was on my back, my knees spread wide around Bram’s hips, and he was coming down on top of me, bracing himself on his elbows.

“I can’t see shit,” he said as our eyes adjusted to the dark.

“You know what I look like,” I whispered back, my nerves making my voice a little shaky.