Don't Look / No Promises

FIVE

Bella

She agreed.

It was crazy. She was crazy. This whole situation was crazy. And this guy was fucking nuts. He buried his nose near her crotch and ripped holes in her tights and now he wanted to go for a ride. She was nodding before she even really thought about it.

Crazy.

“No way, doll. You’re up front.” He patted the seat in front of him, between his legs, and grinned at her.

“What? No.” She shook her head, so nervous she could throw up right now.

“C’mon. It’s my favorite way.” He held his hand out and waited until she took it, pulling her close and settling her before him. The engine block was hot between her thighs and she was hot between his, his chest flush up against her back as he gripped the handlebars on either side of her.

“Hold on,” he said over her shoulder. “This is gonna be fast.”

Twenty five minutes later, Bella completely understood why boys were so enamored of motorcycles. It was exhilarating, really, hurtling along just open and free and exposed to all the light and sound and sky. Everything about it made her skin sing, her nerves hum, and she might never get over this feeling for as long as she lived. It was like flying. Like falling. The wind in her face and the shift of his arms around her when they took a turn. The brush of his scratchy chin against her neck and she could have sworn the soft flesh of his lips traced a line from her shoulder to her ear when they hit a straightaway canyon chopped through a towering wall of trees. The way his thighs tightened around her when he shifted gears, how he could set one steady foot down and hold up the entire enormous weight of him and her and that giant bike all on one leg.

They stopped thirty miles down the coast. Half an hour of wind had Bella’s hair in knots and her legs vibrating. He helped her off the bike and held onto her hand for a minute until she could feel her feet again before he turned the bike off and rested it on its kickstand. The sudden silence made her ears ring and she couldn’t look at him, she just couldn’t, so she walked down to the water again and plopped down right at the edge.

“You’re gonna get wet down there,” he called, settling in the sand ten yards up the beach from her, a safe distance from the tide. Bella turned away from the water and sat on her feet, water lapping at her toes, looking up at him with the mountains behind and the dark black sky above and him lit up silver like he’d fallen off the face of the moon. She wanted to crawl up the beach and kiss his face right off, but she dug her fingers into the wet sand between her knees and stayed put.

“You might be a total slime ball,” she said.

“I might?”

Bella nodded. “What if you are?”

“Wanna get slimed?” he asked. Even in the dark, she could see that cocky grin, glowing white. The ocean was rushing in behind her and the sky was pressing down on her and this boy was pinning her to the sand even though he wasn’t even touching her at all.

She shook her head. “Too messy.”

“Ok, well . . .” He leaned forward, elbows to his knees. “What if I’m not a slime ball?”

“Prove it.”

He scowled. “Where’d you get off stealing cars anyway? Good girl like you . . .”

“It was Rose’s idea.” Bella shrugged. “Plus, it’s fun.”

“Well, I hope you had fun destroying the Bird,” he grumbled. “Was it worth it? How was she?”

“So good,” Bella sighed. “Rode like a dream.”

He licked his lips. “I’ll bet.”

---

Edward

They played twenty six rounds of Truth or Lie to get her up the beach. Twenty six rounds of questions answered by movement, a foot forward at a time for each correct stab he made at figuring this girl out. Twenty six rounds to move her a mere dozen feet.

Which meant that he knew a lot about what she wasn’t.

She wasn’t a sister and she wasn’t a natural blonde. She didn’t like licorice and she wasn’t born in December. She didn’t like pink and she didn’t like to draw. She didn’t eat chicken and she wasn’t ever gonna get a tattoo, at least not as far as she was concerned. By the time she was nestled beside him in the sand, he was certain that this girl wasn’t at all what he’d expected either.

“You ever smoke a doob before?” he asked, digging a joint from his pack of smokes.

“Of course,” she said, snatching it away. “I’m not a total prude.”

“Glad to hear that.” He grinned at her, watching her light the joint and puff deeply twice before handing it back, waving smoke away from her face. He took a drag as she exhaled and grabbed her by the chin, popping her mouth open and sealing his own right over it. She gasped, grabbed his wrists, but inhaled, eyes wide and on him the whole time and good god, her mouth tasted like sweet and ripe and full-on summer. He freed her lips and licked the taste of her off himself as she let his cloud of smoke drift around them, her mouth glistening.

“You just kissed me.” She sounded shocked.

“That wasn’t no kiss.” He shook his head at her.

“Sure it was. You didn’t even ask.”

“I gotta ask?”

“It’s not nice to take things without asking.”

“I watched you steal my car, you know? Let you, actually, ‘cause it was something to watch . . .  you on your knees like that.” He winked at her, eyes still on her mouth. “Tell me your name.”

“My name?”

He nodded. “I been calling you indecent things in my head all day. You better give me the real thing.”

“Like what? What have you been calling me?”

“I ain’t sayin’. Give it to me. The real thing.”

“Ask nice,” she said and he kissed her again. Harder this time. Softer. Everything in between. Lips and tongues and breath all tied up together and he knew he was good at this. Knew just how to angle his head and dig his tongue in deep. Knew just how to hold her face close and suck on her lip like she was really candy and he was just searching for that hot melting center of her.

“Nice enough for you?” he asked, lips brushing hers.

“Bella,” she whispered, out of breath.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.”

“No.” She shook her head. “That’s the truth.”

“Well that’s gonna work out just fine, doll. I been calling you beautiful in my head this whole time anyway.”

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Author's Note - Hadley Hemingway is my rock star. I'm her groupie. Follow her everywhere.