3
MANIC
I glancedin the rearview mirror, then over at Addie.
She’d passed out in my truck last night and I’d taken the opportunity that had been handed to me. I’d covered her with a blanket, swung by her place, grabbed some clothes and some shit from her bathroom, and left town, and she hadn’t woken once.
We’d been driving for close to six hours.
I’d also called Riff and told him Addie was with me when we left so her friends didn’t freak out, and I’d asked him what he knew about her. Because all the times we’d talked, Addison usually avoided talking about herself. I did know her parents were both dead, but that’s all I knew about her family.
Riff didn’t know anything more, but Lila had shared with him, without going into details, that her friend had been through some serious shit.
I glanced at her again, her thick lashes resting against beautiful, smooth mahogany skin.What happened to you, baby?
“You gave up on me.”Those words she’d fired at me had been bouncing around my fucking head for hours.
She’d said she was scared. I wasn’t sure why, and I fucking hated that.
Well, I had the next few nights to find out.
I’d had a choice to make last night. I could’ve taken her home and dropped her off and worked at slowly chipping away her walls to get us where I wanted us to be—or I could take a more direct route and lie through my fucking teeth to get what I wanted now.
The former would take time, and usually, I was Mr. Patient, but I’d had her, I’d heard her come, and I’d held her in my arms afterward—and then I’d been without her for over a fucking month. I wasn’t willing to wait to get close to her again.
Then an idea had popped into my head that was utterly fucked, but again, I was willing to do whatever was necessary to make this thing happen between us.
Addie sighed and wriggled, finally starting to wake.
Perfect timing. There was a diner up ahead. She’d be hungry, and Addie got grumpy as fuck when she hadn’t eaten in a while.
She blinked a few times, then looked around, eyes dazed, mouth all soft and puffy. The urge to kiss her hit me in the gut. Then she jolted, straightening her seat, and spun to me, blinked, then blinked again.
“Morning, cupcake,” I said and grinned.
Confusion covered her face. “Morning? What are you…Where? Manic?”
“You been asleep for hours.”
She blinked at me several more times, looked out the window, then her gaze sliced back to me. “What the hell is going on? Where are we?”
“Halfway to Colorado,” I said and made the turn into the diner’s parking lot.
“What?” she said again, well, shrieked this time, then looked around wildly. “What the hell do you mean halfway to Colorado?”
“We’re going to the mountains, remember? My family thing.”
She stared at me like I’d lost every last one of my brain cells, and she was probably right, but I didn’t give a fuck. This was happening. “Why the hell amIhere, Manic?”
“Levi,” I corrected as I parked and turned off the truck. “Because you said you’d come.”
“No, I didn’t. I did not say that.”
I shifted in my seat. “Yeah, babe, you did. Last night, right here in my truck.” I wasn’t playing fair, but again, I didn’t fucking care. I wanted her, and I’d do whatever it took to have her.
Her brow scrunched, looking utterly confused. “What did I say?”
She didn’t remember any of it? “We talked. You don’t remember that?”