Tryst (Take It Off #8)(13)
Author: Cambria Hebert

I snatched the keys out of the ignition and swung down to stab the fleshy part of the back of his hand. Seconds before I made him bleed, he jerked away.

“I’m not going to murder you!” he shouted.

“Don’t you yell at me!” I retorted.

“You tried to stab me!”

“You tried to kill me!”

“I stopped to see if you needed help. You know, because your junker car here stopped working.”

“How dare you call it a junker?” I fumed. My car definitely was a junker, but I wasn’t about to let him insult me. I’d had enough of men to last me a lifetime.

“Sweetheart, I call it like I see it,” he drawled.

Damn if I didn’t get goose bumps. His voice was like the velvet sky I was admiring only moments ago. “Well, okay, it’s a piece of crap.” I allowed. Obviously, his southern accent was making me stupid.

“I’m just going to take a look,” he said. Before I could tell him no, he was walking around the front of my car. The glow of his headlights gave me a glimpse of the way his hips rotated when he walked.

He had long legs, the kind that owned the ground whenever he took a step. He was tall… at least six two. Other than that, I couldn’t make out anything else about him. He was wearing a baseball hat and it was pulled down low, shading all of his face from the little light out here.

A light clicked on up front (he must have had the same app as me), and I saw him reaching down into the engine. The sound of something being pulled out of the car had me leaping out of my seat and rushing around the front.

“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, horrified, as he pulled out this long, black thing. “Is that a snake?” I shrieked. Had I somehow run over that giant thing and it got caught in my engine?

He paused and looked up at me. “A snake?” he asked like he couldn’t understand what I was saying. Then he shook his head. “It’s the drive belt,” he muttered, going back to pulling it out.

“Well, if it’s supposed to be in there, why are you pulling it out?”

“This way when I go to kill you, I know you won’t be able to get away.”

I ran for my phone, which I left lying in the front seat. Forget AAA. I was calling the police!

His laugh stopped me in my tracks. “Are you always this gullible?”

“Only when people tell me they’re gonna kill me,” I snapped.

“The drive belt snapped. Half of it is shredded. The car isn’t going to start until it’s fixed.”

“Oh,” was all I could manage.

“And judging from what else I can see, I think there are some other issues in there too.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not surprised.”

“Where are you headed?” he asked, dropping the ruined belt on the ground.

“Topsail Island.”

He made a sound that seemed to rumble out of his chest. “You have a house here?”

“I’m not telling you that!”

“You got someone you can call?” he asked, not seeming offended by my refusal to tell him a thing.

“Yeah.” I turned away and dialed AAA and gave them my location. They said the tow truck could be forty-five minutes to an hour.

Wonderful.

Once I was done, I disconnected and threw the phone onto my front seat. “Thanks for stopping, but I have this under control.”

“Just doing my gentlemanly duty,” he said, tipping his hat. Beneath it was a mess of thick blond hair.

Something told me he was anything but a gentleman.

Without another word, he walked back to his car. That lazy, long-legged walk of his snagged my stare more times than I cared to admit.

After settling in my car, I leaned my head against the seat, thinking about calling Claire to tell her my latest disaster. After a few minutes, I realized I never heard the man drive away.

I glanced back and sure enough, his car was still sitting there. The interior of the car was too dark to make out if he was in there.

Pricks of fear lifted the hairs on my arms. Why was he still here? What was he doing back there in the dark?

Maybe he really was going to kill me after all.

8

Talie

Twenty minutes. That’s how long I sat in my car, looking into the mirrors and wondering what the hell that man was doing.

Twenty minutes of torture was quite enough. So I positioned my keys between two fingers, with the pointy end sticking out, and called up 9-1-1 on my phone just in case I needed to place an emergency call for help. Even though it was summer, the air felt slightly chilly as I climbed out of the car. The breeze off the water made it feel cooler than it really was.

There was no point in tiptoeing. We were out in the wide open. He would see me coming. Besides, I wasn’t trying to hide. I wanted to know what the hell he was doing. I walked closer to his car, gripping the key in my hand just a little bit tighter. As I drew closer, I saw a dark shape shift in the driver’s seat.

He was sitting in his car. Why the hell was he sitting in his car?

The window rolled down with ease (his window actually worked) and his voice drifted toward me. “Need something?”

“Yeah, I need to know why you’re sitting back here like a creepy stalker.”

“Are you this suspicious of everybody?” he asked.

“Just of men who sit around on empty streets, watching women,” I remarked. Maybe if I had been suspicious of the men in my past, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.

He sighed and then from somewhere in the car, he produced what looked like a Blow Pop. I watched as he unwrapped the candy to reveal a red sucker, which I knew was filled with gum. He slid the candy between his parted lips and rolled it from one side of his mouth to the other. When it settled, the side of his cheek puffed out, creating a lump.

It was the first time I’d ever seen a grown man eat a sucker.

It seemed completely wrong the way he made something created for a child to appear sinful and inappropriate. I watched as he twirled the stick in his oversized hand and drew it out through his lips.

Something in my stomach hollowed out as I watched, and the center of my palms grew sticky.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he said, his voice low.

I believed him.

‘Course, we already established I wasn’t the best judge of character.

“I’m just gonna sit here until the tow truck comes. You know…” He leaned out the window and tipped his head back a bit. I caught a better glimpse of his face.

Strong jaw. Unshaven. Angular cheekbones.