If we didn't arrive at my mother's house within the next few minutes, I was positive that I was going to fall asleep from boredom. Even Rachel would've been better to be stuck in such a confined space with. This guy had the personality of a brick wall. Actually, that seemed more interesting than the man who was Dash Owens.
Okay, so maybe that was a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it was quite obvious by my exasperated sighs that I wasn't in the mood to talk, especially to someone who was that tempting and making me close to ready to violate girl code. It was not going to happen. Nah uh, I was not going to fall for his charms and caring nature about whether or not I had a nice flight or if I was warm enough in his car since the night had gotten chilly. Truthfully, I was snug in his leather seat, inhaling the delicious scent of it mixed with his; a crisp, and what I could describe as a cool, wintery scent, and it had been the most comfortable drive I'd ever experienced, but he was not going to know that. The only problem was how often the questions came and how often a dark, intense gaze was trained on the side of my face instead of the road ahead.
To me, there was nothing wrong with silence, but every few minutes, questions were thrown my way, followed by silence once they'd been answered. Maybe when the car came to a halt at the next stop sign, I'd finally get the chance to throw myself from it. Eh, who was I kidding? It was a free ride and a lot quicker than waiting for a stranger to come pick me up and charge for it.
From the few minutes we'd spent side by side, it became clear that Dash was a selfless person, even more so than Stephan, and I desperately tried not to think too much about it. I was failing. Miserably.
That quality was rare in the men I'd come across in my short life, but his concern for my well-being made me strangely irritated, making me want to just yell at him to close his mouth and stop being so compassionate. I wanted him to snort and roll his eyes at whatever I said and only talk about himself instead of me. It wasn't that I was attracted to assholes, but it was how I wanted him to act toward me. It would be better for the two of us and my cousin, and I would go back home to the city without any guilt or regret.
An a.m. news station quietly droned through the speakers of his BMW SUV, and it made me wonder if it was really necessary - the expensive car, not the news. This isn't him, I thought, knowing that he would rather have something less flashy that didn't cost nearly as much money.
Rachel. Her name flashed in my head, a scowl forming on my face as I thought about how needy and spoiled she was when we were younger. There was no doubt in my mind that she was the one influencing his choices, and I knew damn sure Delilah did not raise him to worship materialistic things.
This poor, poor man.
Dash expertly drove to the outskirts of Fairfax to my mother's house, not once asking for directions. Again that irritation boiled within me, and scenarios of him coming to change a light bulb or mow her grass flashed in my mind. As much as I wanted to stupidly be upset at the type of man he was, I knew he was a good one, thankful that he'd been watching over my family when there wasn't anyone else to. Maybe Peter had, but, well, we all know what happened to him.
The two-story Colonial my mother had built after my parents divorced came into view, and a wave of animosity settled over me. I hated the house and everything about it. It was my mother's 'fresh start', but to me, it was a reminder of her dismissing her problems. We could've stayed in the house with all our happy memories up until the end of my parents' marriage, but she wanted no reminders of that 'lying bastard'. My father was neither of those things. She was just too stubborn and set on an idea that her single, lonely friends drilled in her head. She'd thrown away something good, and now, she was just like those miserable women, gossiping and looking down at everyone over their pointy noses.
We'd been sitting in front of the property for a good minute, and I knew the man beside me could tell I needed time to brace myself for what I was about to face. If there were any hotels in the area, there was no doubt that's where I would've stayed for the rest of the week, but they didn't exist and neither did any extra cash in my pockets.
A low voice sounded and snapped me from my bitter thoughts, bringing me back to the present, filling the inside of the car with it. "Stay put. I'll be around to get your door once I get your bags from the back."
A knight in shining armor? No thanks, I don't need one.
Dash cut the engine and slid out the car before I could verbally reply, leaving me to show him I was capable of pushing a handle open myself. He didn't need to coddle me. I wasn't the one engaged to him, and he would damn sure know that before our little 'relationship' became complicated.
The trunk of the car was lifted in the air when I met him at it, and a light in the house flicked on when it was slammed shut. If my mother was smart, she'd know not to bother me when I stepped foot through that door. A tired Lee was not a pleasant Lee, and after twenty-five years, you'd think she would know that, but this was Dianne Bennett we were talking about.
"It's okay. I've got it." My backpack was snatched out of my reach from the ground and hid behind a broad back. Frozen midair, my fist clenched, slowly lowering back down to the side of my body. "May I please have what you just snatched away from me?"
Surely asking nicely would work, right? Well, that's what I thought, but I'd been dealing with someone who apparently thought I was a damsel in distress.
"No," he simply replied, his face void of any emotion.
"No?" Dash nodded, answering the word I repeated back to him in a question, and I quirked a brow at his suddenly odd behavior. Though he talked to me from time to time during the drive, he was a relatively quiet person, and I had no idea what in the hell was running through that head of his. "Okay, let's try this again." Muttering more to myself than him, a smile formed on my lips as I peered up at him. "Thank you for helping me, but it's really not a bother if I carry that inside. You've already done more than I could ask for, and if you'd like, the other bag is all yours."
For a moment, Dash stared down at me with a hard expression, searching my face, but he still didn't let go of that damned bag. What was the big deal?!
His dark depths roamed over my eyes, nose and mouth, reading me as if he didn't believe what I'd told him about not needed his help. He must've not known what to do with himself without the supervision of Rachel, and I matched his inquiring stare, folding my arms over my chest.
The first to break contact, Dash bent to grab the handles of the bag on the ground, pushing the smaller one toward my hands. I grinned as I accepted it, slipping my arms through the straps while he brushed past me and up the porch steps. I followed and climbed up the few stairs, reaching into my pocket for the key that had been unused and hidden far back in my nightstand, and then moved to unlock the door I knew my mother was behind.
Just to raise her blood pressure, I didn't push the knob open, instead turning around to smile at the man who safely brought me to the Wicked Witch of the South's house, but not before seeing a shadow block the other side of the peephole in the door. Of course she would be watching. She had nothing else better to do than meddle in lives that weren't hers.
The distance between our bodies was closed as my feet stopped just inches from his. Dash stiffened when his biceps were gripped in my hands and I lifted myself on my toes to stop my mouth next to his ear, whispering, "Goodnight, Dash Owens."
Followed by a kiss on the cheek, I slowly took my travel bag from his frozen fingers, not meeting his eyes. I couldn't. If I did, those lips of his were going to be what I went for next. Inhaling his faint scent was enough to send my pulse thrumming and the fine hairs to stand on the back of my neck and arms. It was an addicting smell, and one that I wanted to have wrapped around me, assaulting my senses.
Slipping through to the other side of the door and not checking to see if Dash made it without a problem to his car, my body slumped against the wood as I stared straight ahead, not focusing on anything in particular. A line had been crossed, and based off both of our reactions, there was no way we'd be able to step back from it.
Why... Why did I have to do that? Oh, that's right, to spite my mother. Besides verbal, there should not have been any contact between the two of us. Coming back to destroy relationships wasn't what I was there for, though those two did need to slow things down. From what I'd learned, they'd been dating for less than a year and were already planning a wedding. Well, Rachel was planning a wedding while Dash followed her like a lost puppy. And those were the words of his mother. Not me.
"How dare you?"
My vision had blurred as my mind reeled, coming back into focus while a small, plump figure blocked it. The voice was seething, laced with judgment and making me feel a pang of guilt, just like how it used to be when I still lived there. The feeling was pushed behind as I thought about how things hadn't changed and most likely never would.
"What, no welcome home kiss? That hurts, mom."
That wasn't completely a lie, but she wasn't the type to care. It was like a switch had been flipped after she and my father separated almost ten years ago, and you'd think the bitter phase in her life would've passed. It didn't, and I was on the receiving end of it. My mother had always been hard on me, but the older I became, the more she felt the need to throw in her input concerning my life decisions.
"Have you been drinking?" Her eyes widened, hands clutching the collar of her long satin robe as she shifted away from me like I had some contagious disease. Sometimes I wondered if Rachel was really her daughter. The two acted just alike, turning everything into dramatics.
"I had a drink, yes, and now I'm off to bed because I'm exhausted."
"You smell like you've been bathing in alcohol," she jutted out her chin, raking the rest of my body with her tired, hazel eyes. My own did the same, taking in how much she'd aged in the last few years. "You need to shower before you get in one of my beds."
Well, that wasn't any fun. I'd been planning on jumping in my old one, clothes on and everything.
"I will. Goodnight." Nodding stiffly, I moved around her, managing a tight-lipped smile, and really wanting to elbow her in the face as I passed.
Just when I thought it was safe to walk up the stairs, a hand caught my arm, forcing me to turn around. Cold eyes stared back at me, not once removing their hold on my face. Maybe if I was younger and still intimidated by the woman, I would've diverted my eyes and cowered away, but she did not get that reaction like I knew she'd been expecting. There were plenty of people where I lived now who were bigger and scarier than she was, so I held my ground and arched an eyebrow. Her grip loosened, eventually retracting itself from my wrist.
"You will stay away from that Owens boy. I will not have a... a whore living in my home. I don't know how you do things up in that fancy New York City, but we do not throw ourselves at men who belong to other women around here. You'd do well to remember that."
Oh, so Dash was property now. He would love to hear that.
Shocking both my mother and myself, a loud laugh bubbled deep within my throat, and my head fell back to let it escape. If only she knew when the last time I'd had sex was, and while Dash was nice to look at, I didn't want him. He needed a backbone if we were going to be together. Which, we weren't, just to be clear. And I had my own business to run, not sit around and wait for a guy to call or come see me, or even gossip, like the hobby that made the woman before me fill with power.
"Sure thing," I winked. There was no need to get offended, so I brushed her off. Three more days was what separated me from being able to get out of that awful area. The minute after the funeral was over on Saturday, I'd be running back to the airport. And just to rile her up even more, I said, "And in case you didn't know, I'm not interested in someone with something that dangles between their legs."
So I lied, but my mother's reaction had been worth it. Her eyes bulged and face turned redder than a baboon's ass, and I grinned as I bounded up the stairs to my old bedroom. While I would be getting a good night's sleep, she would be wide awake, thinking about how I'd been 'corrupted', and facing her the next day would probably be the highlight of the whole trip. If that didn't make her back off and keep her distance, there were plenty of methods I had planned that would. Maybe my stay wouldn't be so bad after all.
+ + + +
There was a man whose facial features were blurred, but the only thing that wasn't were his pale, pink lips. Whenever he spoke, the rich deepness of his voice would jolt tiny shocks throughout my body, but whenever I'd try to touch his skin, my fingertips would burn like they'd been lit by a flame, so I stopped trying.
But I didn't want to stop. I wanted to trace his lips and feel the softness of them against my own, and for some reason, I knew I couldn't. It would ruin everything.
We walked side by side through the dusty open land, his posture holding a certain determination in the strides he took. Mile after mile if felt we trudged, and the summer sun beat down on our backs, but finally, two figures approached us in the distance.
My heart picked up speed in my chest as their slender bodies came to a stop just as we had, and all those insecurities I had buried away, came rushing back full force. The one before me was taller than the other, but they were both wrapped in long, white silk dresses that covered their feet, giving the illusion that they had been floating before coming to a halt.
Thick, flowing brown hair whipped in the faint wind around their heads, and seductive blue eyes observed the man beside me with interest, turning icy when they landed on me.
Show him, it said in a whisper.
The other three seemed oblivious to the voice, and I wondered what I was supposed to show, having the urge to scream out for help. There wasn't anything I had, and nothing we couldn't see about the women in front of us. They were beautiful with their fair skin and sharp features, and I knew that whatever needed to be shown, needed to be done quickly before the man next to me was taken into their grasps.
My fist closed around something cold and hard, and I looked down, lifting my hand to see the handle of a silver mirror in it, designed with intricate vines entwined on the back. I winced at my reflection, using my other hand to comb through my sweaty and matted hair from the long walk, and the dirt streaks on my face made me look ratty compared to the angelic faces a yard away. From the corner of my eye, the man angled his head down in my direction, and though I couldn't see his eyes, I knew he'd been staring at my own through the mirror.
Show. Him.
The voice was firmer now, pronouncing the second word in a soft growl. My appearance had been seen and he hadn't been bothered by it, and a nudge in my back pushed me to the people opposite us. Ignoring the fiery blaze under my skin, I grabbed the man's hand and pulled him to the women, tilting the mirror in front of their faces so we could see from where we stood.
Bile rose in my throat and I turned my head from the sight, lowing my hand. Before us weren't people. They were creatures with small horns lining the tops of their heads, covered in black scales with dark, yellow sockets for eyes. The taller one smiled when the mirror was taken away from its face, and while I'd expected to see gleaming white teeth, they were cracked and decaying, and their appearances were slowly morphing into what we'd seen only seconds before.
The man sensed our danger, grabbing my hand and shielding my body with his. When we'd touched that time around, my skin tingled instead of burned, and he moved us around the reptile-like creatures, picking up speed and not once looking back. The further we got from them, the more his features revealed who he was, but I'd known all along.
It was the strangest dream I'd ever had, and my eyes snapped open before I could fully see Dash's face. I sat in bed, frowning at the floor while trying to figure out what it meant. Though I already knew what it was telling me, I wanted nothing to do with it, and dressed myself to ready for the day ahead.
After I'd eaten a quick breakfast and left my mother in the kitchen with an ashen face, I stood in the checkout line, watching neon pink fingernails slowly drum against the conveyor belt of one of the four lines in the small grocery store. Fulton's had been where we'd shopped for as long as I could remember and the employees had always been nice and welcoming, but the teenager glaring at me had been working my last nerve.
I'd borrowed my mother's car and was on my way to my aunt's house, picking up some pastries from the bakery in the back before heading over to pay my respects. With the wrapped goodies were a box of tampons because of the lovely gift that showed up in the morning, and now there was just one small problem.
I couldn't find my wallet.
If the day was going to get worse, I prayed that whatever would cause me any more bad luck would take a numbered ticket and kindly wait in line.
Driving without a license and being pulled over by a cop hadn't even been my main concern. That would be easy to get out of if I just explained the situation and where I was going, but the sly, pity glances thrown my way from people in the other lines was what was getting under my skin. It was like I had never left.
"Instead of holding up the line, you can move to the side." The girl with too much eyeliner gave me an obviously fake smile while pointing to the side of her register. What did I need to move for? There was no one behind me!
"Just give me a minute, okay?"
She was a child and I hadn't meant to snap, but her last eye roll was making my blood boil. Beads of sweat dotted my forehead from embarrassment as I continued digging at the bottom of my backpack. My mother had even told me to get rid of it because it wasn't feminine, and I'd explained that it had the same use as those big purses she loved so much, but maybe it was time to get one of those in a smaller size, especially for times when I was holding up imaginary lines.
"Ring this up with her stuff. This should cover it."
A familiar voice from behind said, and my back teeth ground down as I got a whiff of his intoxicating scent. I didn't see what he'd given her, but the girl obeyed, stammering out a 'yes, sir'. Oh, now she was shy.
It was rude, and I instantly regretted it when I was out the sliding doors, but I grabbed the plastic bag with my two items and made my way out to the parking lot. Dash was quick to follow, and I felt him on my heels, but I didn't dare turn around. I was too worried about what he would say if I faced him, so I quickened the pace of my legs, practically running from the store.
"You know, most people say thank you when someone does something nice for them."
We'd stopped at my mother's car, and I still didn't turn to look at him, but his body moved closer to mine, making my hands tremble as I felt his warm breath blow over my ear. After that dream, I didn't know how to act around him. It was like having my first crush all over again.
"Yeah, well, I'm not like most people." I shrugged, pressing the unlock button on the key in my hand, opening the door to prepare to sit once it beeped. With one leg inside, Dash once again interrupted my getaway.
"I've noticed," he chuckled, and that time, I did lift my eyes as the sound that emanated from him startled me. A stony expression was set on my face, but the longer we held eye contact, the more it began to fade, so I ducked into the car and sat to hide my face, feeling it heat as Dash stepped beside the door. Before he gently closed it, he said, "See you soon, Lee."
And he was right, because when I finally calmed myself enough to drive to my aunt's house, the same midnight blue SUV from last night was already parked in her driveway. From that point on, I knew what I had to do concerning Dash Owens. I mean, how hard could it be to ignore someone?