Wishes At First Light

She didn’t want to run into people like that in the dark.

“Where are we?” she asked, hating the nervous jitter in her voice. It was important to remain in control in situations like this. Remind the guy you were a force to be reckoned with and not some twit who had been staring out the window like this could just be a normal date.

“Almost home.” He waved in a general direction. “The main road is just up there. We’re, like, ten minutes from your place.” He slid over toward her, his knee brushing hers. “I figured it’d be a good spot to say good-night.”

Mia hated this moment. Hated the vulnerability of it. Hated suspecting any guy she ever dated of turning into a creep at the slightest physical contact.

It didn’t help that she had the genetic disadvantage of sporting the breasts of a stripper by the time she was thirteen. As her mother so eloquently put it with a wink, “Them tatas turn men into animals, honey.”

Unfortunately, her mama’s moment of wisdom hadn’t been accompanied by any advice on how to tame the male beast. Draw a bitchy line in the sand now? Or hold out and see what happened? If all Davis Reed did was kiss her good-night, Mia would call this a good date.

“I had fun.” She was still trapped by her seat belt. But she wasn’t unbuckling now. She gave him a warm smile but she finally uncrossed her fingers in case she needed her hands. “Thank you, Davis.”

“You’re so pretty, Mia.” He said it reverently, as if it was something to be proud of.

Why didn’t guys ever say, “You blew me away with the way you defended your position on the Crimean War in debate today”? Or, “Mia, you make the best chocolate chip cookies ever”?

Which was true. Her former foster sister, Nicole, had told her so, and little kids didn’t lie the way the rest of the world did.

“Pretty is as pretty does,” she drawled, one of her mother’s favorite sayings to be sure Mia never thought too much of herself.

She hated having her mother’s voice in her head right now. The mother who never lifted a finger to help Mia when she’d really needed her. But she was too busy calculating her next move to think up a more original answer to a supremely unoriginal remark.

Poor Davis.

He went in for a kiss with all the finesse of a fullback, more or less ramming her into the seat with the force of his lips. But that might just be youthful enthusiasm. Davis Reed had no game.

Carefully she pressed the button to free her seat belt, knowing the time had come to ensure she had full mobility if she needed it. Except that was when things went horribly wrong. Because when she tried to grapple with the buckle, her fingers brushed his thigh. And possibly...something more.

“Oh yeah,” he breathed against her mouth, grabbing her hand in his and pressing it to a handful of the something more in his pants.

Turning her blood to ice.

“Let go,” she told him clearly. Loudly. She tensed her hand into a claw and she would have scratched him if he’d been naked, but through the khakis, he probably didn’t even notice.

“I heard you liked this.” Oblivious to her words, Davis all but fell on her, his chest hitting hers while he kept her hand on his crotch. “I was afraid to believe it, but oh, man—”

She kneed him. Hard.

Watched as his expression turned from ecstatic to pained. And then, furious.

But she was already slipping out from under him, her heartbeat thundering so loud she couldn’t hear much else.

“I said, let go.” She levered open the door handle poking into her spine. “I said it clearly. And loudly.”

She enunciated the words carefully because it was hard to talk when you were scared. She’d learned that way too young. But she wasn’t thirteen anymore. Shoving open the door to the truck, she slid out, half falling before she awkwardly got her feet underneath her. Even through the rubber soles of her tennis shoes, she could feel the crunch of dead, stiff brush. The branches of a sapling clawed at her hoodie.

Ready to run, she spared one last glance at Davis Reed. Illuminated by the dome light, he was hunched over—writhing, really—in obvious pain. Curled in a ball on the front seat, he clutched his groin.

Crap.

She was torn between the voice in her head that said, Don’t be a sucker—suckers end up raped. And the quieter one that said, What if I overreacted?

Considering she was on her feet and ready to flee while he appeared incapacitated, Mia decided she wouldn’t be a total sucker to at least make sure he was going to live through his injury.

“Davis?” Her legs trembled beneath her.

“You...grabbed...me.” He took shallow breaths between each word as he turned accusing eyes her way, his cheek mushed against the leather truck seat. “I was only going in for a kiss. It was you who took things to DEFCON 2.”

“I didn’t mean to. I was trying to get to my seat belt buckle so I could unfasten it. I couldn’t feel where it was.” She shivered as a cold gust blew over her. She was going to freeze with only a hoodie on if she had to walk home. “And besides, I told you to let me go.”

Her heart still pounded fiercely, but some of the fear had leaked away. And not just because Davis looked like he couldn’t make a grab for her if he tried. They were talking. And he could very well be telling the truth.

“At the time—” he paused to clear his throat, his voice still tight with pain and his words careful “—the combination of disbelief and euphoria were making the blood pound in my ears too hard for me to hear anything.”

Mia covered her mouth to smother a sound that was half laugh and half cry of regret. He must have heard, though, because his eyes narrowed.

“It’s not funny.”

“No.” She shook her head. Just a misunderstanding that would embarrass them both forever. “I know. But I was really scared.”

“I’ll say.” Shoving upright on the seat, he scrubbed a hand over his pale face. His skin looked clammy. “I’ll be lucky if I can still have kids after that.”

She bit her lip. “Sorry. I’ve had...bad experiences with guys.”

She tried to gauge his expression as he stared back at her, but what she saw was wariness. Not anger.

But then he heaved out a long breath and swiped a hand across his forehead.

“You think you can drive a stick?” He nodded toward the driver’s seat. “I could use a few more minutes to recover, but I know you need to get home.”

“You want me to drive?” She hopped from foot to foot to warm up.

“I think we’ll both be glad for whatever gets us home fastest.” He fell back against the passenger seat and stared out the front windshield, not even looking at her.

“Can I ask you a question first?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “When things started to get ugly a minute ago, you said, ‘I heard you liked this.’ What the hell was that supposed to mean?”

“Mia. You’re a smart, smart girl. I thought that before I asked you out. And I know now it’s true after getting to know you more tonight.” He slanted a glance her way, peering down at her. His freckles stood out all the more against his too-pale skin. “So I’m going to guess you know exactly what I meant because you have to be aware of your reputation at school, right? You’re a favorite topic of discussion among the male population of Crestwood.”

His words hit her like a pile of books falling off the top shelf of her closet. She fumed even though a small part of her was glad he thought she was smart.

“And the consensus is that I like grabbing guys’ crotches?”

He didn’t even pick his head up where it lolled back against the headrest, but she could see him roll his eyes.

“Not in so many words. But—whether it’s true or not—guys want to believe the hottest girl in school is also...attainable. I never paid much attention to it, honestly. But when I thought you grabbed me—like, well, like you wanted me—libido took over. So sue me.” He gave a bark of laughter. “On second thought, don’t. You already had your revenge. Now can you drive a stick, or not?”

Cold and eager to put this night behind her, Mia nodded. Padding around to the driver’s side of the truck, she tugged open the door and dropped into the seat behind the wheel. The keys were still in the ignition.

“I don’t know the way,” she reminded him, slamming the door behind her while she fired the engine to life.

“Back out to the gravel road, and left when you hit the main county route.” He tugged on his seat belt, his legs sprawled to take up the whole passenger side. She noticed he’d taken the to-go cup of soda from the movie theater and wedged it between his thighs.

The ice must help.

“Can I ask another question?” She nearly stalled the truck shifting it into gear, but got it under way, the headlights spilling out over empty hayfields in either direction. “What made you think I was smart before tonight?”

She’d heard the whole “hottest girl in school” bit before and didn’t ever care to hear it again. Those words were like a teenage ode to the high, firm 34DDs on a frame too small to carry them. They didn’t have anything to do with the girl inside.

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