Page 55 of Downfall

This is when I catch a glimpse of the old Declan, the boy who would make me confront my fears instead of hiding behind them. Tough love, although now I suppose it’s just tough. I take a deep breath and walk toward the bike. This isn’t about letting him win. It’s about facing my fears. He’s right. I can’t avoid that car forever.

“It’s at my dad’s house,” I tell him as I climb onto the back of his motorcycle.

By the time we get to the house where I spent my teen years, regret hangs heavy in my gut. The ride wasn’t so bad. It was my first time on a motorcycle, but I’m pretty sure Declan took it easy on me. He stayed on the back roads and made me hold on to his waist the whole time. If my hand even slipped for a moment, he would reach back and put it where he wanted it. While I could have done without the butterflies battling in my belly every time it happened, that’s not what has me itching to tell him to take me home.

Between the shock of seeing Declan outside my office and his determination to get me over my fear, it never dawned on me that we would end up here. This is where it all happened. I can see my window as we glide down the gravel driveway. There’s still no screen—a fact I noticed when I moved back in with my dad before finding my cottage in town.

Declan kills the engine, hopping off the bike before gripping my waist to lift me off, despite my protests that I can do it myself. Then he pulls off his gloves and helps me remove my helmet before taking off his own.

My car is right where I left it on the far side of the driveway.

“Thanks,” I say and head over to it.

“That’s it?”

“What did you expect? You wanted me to get my car so I’m getting my car.”

“Do you have the keys?”

I produce the set from my pocket. It has all my keys. Work, my house, Declan’s house, and the fob for my car.

“Maybe we should give it a minute?”

“Why? It’s not like I’m going to be magically unafraid in the next sixty seconds, and besides, we need to get back to your house for…dinner.”

I look away from him when I say that last part, so I don’t see it, but I feel the smug grin turning up his lips. “Oh.”

“What do you mean ‘oh’?”

He runs his hand through his hair. “I have a theory.”

“What theory?”

He inches closer, forcing me to walk backward until my ass hits the car door. I don’t mean to let the little gasp float past my lips, but it does.

“I think…” He slaps his hand on the window next to my head. “You want to get home…” His thumb finds my lip, unhooking it from my teeth. “So you can get this needy little pussy licked.”

Fuck.

I’m no stranger to Declan’s dirty talk, especially after this last week, but out here in the open, where I’m so vulnerable, it feels like he’s unraveling me from the inside out.

“Theories should be tested, don’t you think?” His voice is gravel, silk, danger, the sound of the moon filtering into my bedroom at night—all wrapped into one. A beautiful contradiction. He leans in, the scent of citrus and leather making me dizzy, but something is missing. I notice he hasn’t smelled like cigarettes in a while. Did he stop smoking? For me? I shake the thought away.

“Should I test my theory, Skylar?”

My eyes snap to his, and I nod once.

“Uh-uh, Firefly. Say it.”

“Yes,” I whisper.

“If you insist.” His hand travels down to my hip, sliding over to pop open the button of my jeans. His hand slides under my panties, his rough fingers grazing the top of my pubic bone. Without warning, he dips his middle finger into me, and I suck in a sharp breath.

An ominous laugh rumbles in his throat. “Looks like I was right. You’re fucking soaked, Skylar.”

I look away, not out of shame, but because I feel like I might explode from his words alone.

He tilts my chin up. “You want me to make you come?”