15. Raleigh

CHAPTER 15

Raleigh

I can’t sleep after. For hours I lie perfectly still as the light fades outside and Derrick sleeps beside me.

There’s a tired ache between my legs and a buzzing satisfaction in my brain, both of which are totally alien to me. I’m being rewritten every time Derrick and I come together, convinced through chemical reactions to want him. Every sensation he worked out of me is playing on a loop through my mind.

The sight of him naked and the feeling between my legs when he was inside me.

Every orgasm . I thought I would come apart at the seams, but the weight of his body kept me together.

The blue of his eyes when he held my gaze and touched me, making up for how he’d left me hanging last time and then some.

It’s totally possible that if we have sex again, I’ll just blurt out that I’m obsessed and beg him to keep me in his house like some kind of pleasure slave.

I suck in a hungry gasp, then freeze. Beside me, Derrick’s breathing remains steady. I’ve been listening to him in the dark for a whole eternity, but I’m finally sure he’s asleep.

Good, because I need to leave. Because there can’t be a next time. Now that it’s happened, I’m certain that there shouldn’t have even been a this time. What Derrick did to me, what he made me feel, it was… it was…

I slip carefully out of the bed and feel around the floor for my clothes. I dress quickly, wincing every time the fabric of my shorts and shirt whispers against itself. Derrick doesn’t stir- not that I’m staring hard at the outline of his naked body in his bed. The door of the bedroom opens silently under my careful hand- and Derrick’s two huge dogs are right on the other side.

I clap my hand over my mouth to keep from shouting. The dogs’ collars jingle. Their wet noses rub against my legs as they sniff at me. I tip-toe around them, and they fucking follow me. Thank god they don’t bark like Derrick said.

Instinctively, I head for the front door, but freeze before I make it there.

“ Fuck ,” I hiss, remembering something extremely inconvenient.

My adorable red Bentley is still at Cooper’s. Derrick fucking kidnapped me and drove me here.

I reroute to the garage, happy to shut the door between myself and the two dogs. Derrick’s car, a silver Cadillac, is parked inside.

And so is the vintage sky-blue Corvette.

A horrible, incredible idea kindles in my mind.

Dare I? Oh yes.

I have to get back to Cooper’s somehow. And stealing the police cruiser wouldn’t be satisfying enough. Of course Derrick might get in trouble for losing it, but it’s still fairly replaceable, and also it doesn’t belong to him personally. The Corvette, on the other hand…

I test the Corvette’s door, relieved to find it unlocked. I’ve picked up a lot of little useful, albeit questionable, skills online, and breaking into a locked car isn’t one of them. Yet.

What I do know is how to hotwire a car once I’m inside.

I get back out of the car and hunt around the garage for a flathead and some wire cutters, then pry open the steering column. It takes a bit of trial and error to remember which wires to cut, but after I accidentally set off the windshield wipers, I find the ones I really need.

Before I touch the starter wire to the ignition and battery, though, I realize I should probably have the garage door open so I’m ready to go. Fuck, I hope Derrick’s a heavy sleeper. Bracing myself for this whole plan to go up in smoke, I push the garage button near the inner door and rush back to the Corvette as the garage roars open. I strike the right wires together, and the car engine revs. I pump the gas, bringing it to life.

God, this car sounds beautiful. I almost feel bad for what I’m about to do to it.

Almost.

Cranking the gear shift and hitting the gas, I fly backward down the driveway, spin the car, and take off down the street.

It’s almost anticlimactic that no one comes after me. The neighborhood and houses are still and dark, totally ignorant of the crime I’ve just giddily committed. I want to crank up the radio, but I really am trying to get away with stealing this car, so I wait in silent impatience for the exit gate of Derrick’s community to open, then speed out onto the main road.

Then I turn on the music and whoop as the wind tears at my hair. When the song slows down, I switch stations. I won’t let it get too quiet. I won’t let myself or my thoughts turn back. Derrick rattled me, sure, but I won’t let it last.

All I did was have crazy good sex tonight. A total normal, human thing. It doesn’t have to be a big fucking deal.

For almost an hour, I don’t bother to keep track of where I’m driving. I turn when I feel like it, I don’t when I don’t. I know where I need to end up, but I have all night to get there. Night has fallen and the roads are emptying out, so I sing along to the radio as loud as I can, wandering the downtown streets aimlessly in my gorgeous stolen car.

When I finally do turn myself back toward Cooper’s, my throat is raw, my eyes are streaming from the wind, and I’m pretty sure my hair is tangled to all hell. Time to get back in my precious Bentley, and then home for some much-needed rest.

Rest.

Unwillingly, my brain turns to Thomas and Clara. They’re probably getting none of that… obviously. And then I think of what I could be doing instead of going home, and then to what Derrick and I have already done-

Nope. No, no, no. I won’t think about it.

A traitorous pulse goes between my legs, and my breasts perk up.

I grit my teeth and breathe out slowly through my nose. My face feels hot, even in the night air. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t.

I owe you better than what I gave you last time.

I want to watch the next time you cum.

Good girl. Keep asking so sweetly. I’ll take good care of you -

I slam on the brakes and yank the car over to the side of the road. I’m breathing like I’ve run a mile, and to my horror, I’m wet. I’m wet just at the thought of all those sweet nothings Derrick said to me. And the way he touched me after he said them. And the way those touches made me feel-

The tears running down my face are from the wind. I’m not crying. I am absolutely not crying and horny in this gorgeous car on the side of the road in the middle of the night.

I take a moment to not cry, then scrub my hands over my face and collect myself. I’m close to Cooper’s, which means I’m close to my ultimate goal.

Focus, Raleigh .

On the right hand side of the road, the sidewalk gives way to a steep dirt ditch which runs the length of the block. Some construction project or other that lost its funding before it could be finished. I don’t care. But I’d remembered it, for no particular reason at all, when my eyes first settled on the Corvette sitting in Derrick’s garage.

I drive the car up over the sidewalk, and edge it toward the slope. Now that I’m looking, it’s only about six or seven feet down, but that’ll do me. I open the door of the car, sticking one leg out, ready to jump free. Then I pump the gas until I feel the car start to tip forward.

At the very last second, I floor the gas and then leap out of the car. I lose my balance, trip, and fall hard on the asphalt, but not as hard as the car as it slips nose first into the ditch. It crunches loudly at the bottom. I climb shakily to my feet, my palms stinging, and stare at the bumper of the car sticking up out of the ditch. Well, that’s a little more conspicuous than I’d hoped. Time to go before someone comes along and spots the poor Corvette- or me.

I’m only a few blocks away from Cooper’s, and while last night I was worried about walking alone through a similar neighborhood, tonight I feel fucking invincible. My steps are light, my heart pounding. I just did something insane , and I’ve never felt so alive.

Who needs wild sex when you can crash a priceless car into a ditch?

Then I turn onto Hackney Street. Cooper’s, barely lit by dingy streetlights, finally comes into view.

My Bentley is gone.

My heart stutters and drops. My eyes have to be playing tricks on me. No longer feeling my legs, I trudge over to where my precious car was parked just hours before, as if it’s still there but somehow invisible. I turn in a circle, but I don’t run into any invisible Bentley.

Someone stole my beautiful car. Was it Silver, getting a second last laugh after our disastrous meeting? Or did some random asshole just see it and decide it would be his now.

My eyes blur with furious tears. And now… now the fear is starting to creep back in on me. Because now I’m stranded in the parking lot of the shittiest bar in the city. And it’s very, very dark.

For a few minutes I wander aimlessly around the parking lot. The bar is still open, of course, but I wouldn’t step inside it at this hour of the night for any amount of money. I reach into the pocket of my shorts for my phone, thinking that now would be a good time to give up the game and call Iris- but it must’ve slipped out when Derrick stripped me, because my pocket is empty. Or maybe Derrick removed it when he first put me in handcuffs, and I was too upset to notice. Whatever happened, my car is gone, I just crashed my other ride back home, and I can’t even call for Iris to come pick me up like I’m some child who’s tried to run away and given up.

I’ll have to hitchhike my way home. I can claim I drove here with some work acquaintances, and wasn’t comfortable driving back with them when our designated driver started having her own shots. I couldn’t call a rideshare because I’d forgotten my phone in their car, and I didn’t feel comfortable going back inside the bar alone. Any self-respecting woman will sympathize.

I wait at the corner of Cock Lane and Hackney like I’m planning to cross the street. I also won’t flag down any car unless it’s being driven by a woman. That seems like a good way to avoid most gruesome deaths, at least. Unfortunately, aside from patrons of Coopers, there aren’t many people driving around this part of town, and even fewer women.

My feet are starting to ache in my heels from standing on the uneven sidewalk. I’m hungry- no, now that I’ve remembered food, I’m fucking starving . And my head hurts because I’ve avoided coffee all day.

The light has turned red above me, and a semi is the only vehicle sitting at it. Another car is pulling up beside him in the lane closer to me, and I turn to it- only to realize it’s a fucking police cruiser.

No, not any police cruiser. Derrick Lindman is in the driver’s seat.

Our eyes meet, and I make a snap decision.

I start crossing the street as he’s still coming to a stop, making quick steps toward the semi. Out of the corner of my eye. Derrick is putting the cruiser in park and jumping out. I run for the semi’s driver side door.

“Please sir!” I cry out, waving an arm so he looks down at me standing beside his massive truck. “Hey! Can I catch a ride with you?”

I glance at the driver long enough to determine it’s a very tired scarecrow of a man. He looks me up and down a little too thoroughly. There’s a sudden energy to his previously tired face that I don’t like. Nope, no thank you, I’m not that desperate. I take a step back, and see Derrick coming at me. Fuck, what now?!

I panic, and I run.