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they smelled like him . His detergent, his house, his air. And she had
just remembered that she had a math test today. It was only 10am,
not late enough to have missed class, which was in the afternoon.
Fuck.
    “ I don’t have my backpack,” she
grumbled.
    “ You’ll be fine,” he replied.
“Remember your story?”
    “ Yeah.” She didn’t understand all the
reasons why she couldn’t bring Gareth into the situation, but she
figured it made sense; it would just mean more questioning for him,
and he had done nothing but help her so far. She would get to
school, go to class, probably get sent to the principal the moment
a teacher saw her….
    But on the bright side, at least she could
get on with her life. There really was no other choice, no matter
how tempting it might be to play dead.
    He opened the car door for her. A small
gesture, but one she couldn’t help but notice. For all his
stoicism, he treated her with kindness, and it made her heart
flutter. Then there was that business with the kissing… she
couldn’t figure it out, but ever since that nip on the lips, her
body had begun acting strangely. She couldn’t keep her eyes off
him. He moved, and she felt a tug deep in her gut, a warmth and
wetness that soaked the area between her legs. She couldn’t help
it, and she certainly didn’t know how to stop it. She just hoped he
would wash those old sweatpants before inspecting them too
closely.
    She slid into the cracked leather seats of
the Camaro and he climbed in on the other side, slamming the door
and revving up the engine. It roared to life, louder than she had
expected, but other than that it ran fine. He pulled out of his
overgrown front drive and into the narrow street, and she watched
him drive, watched his tan arms and the muscles on his chest. He
was wearing sunglasses. It made her nervous – she didn’t know if he
was looking at her or not.
    “ So uh… I’ll just go home after this,”
she started talking. This might be the last time she saw him, and
she couldn’t imagine going back to her cabin alone, nor did she
know where else she could go. Those men might be dead, killed by
some lucky animal attack, but that didn’t mean her house was safe.
And her father hadn’t tried to contact her. Either he thought she
was dead and selling off all of her stuff, or he wasn’t back yet,
which probably meant he was still hiding from the same bastards
that had tried to abduct her. A shiver went through her body, and
she felt abruptly sick.
    She glanced at Gareth, taking in his perfect
profile, and she rubbed her thighs together, trying to ignore the
responding sliver of heat. She absentmindedly licked her lips,
tasting the cut.
    “ Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, I
guess I owe you my life… probably more than once,” she laughed
weakly, unsure of what else to say. She wanted to ask him why he
did these things for her, but that seemed to be an awkward question
given the circumstances. She opened her mouth. “So I guess I’ll
just see you around town and all that, you know, stop in at the
store if you need anything, I’ll see if I can get you a discount on
whatever, you know, supplies you need…” she laughed nervously. Wow,
that wasn't obvious. Her words started to flow faster. “I guess you
work at a garage around here? I saw the oil on your shirt this
morning – uh – yeah, cuz I don’t have a car, and so I wouldn’t know
much about the garages around here. I know there’s one
downtown….”
    He wasn’t taking the bait. She knew she was
rambling, her mouth running off with her, but this was probably
going to be her only chance to talk to him. She wanted to say as
much as possible, even if it stopped making sense after a while.
She wondered if she was being obvious. Probably.
    They stopped at a red light. Only three
blocks to her school. Her heart began to race. “Well I might get a
car at some point, you know, I think I might get promoted soon to
like assistant manager or