“It’s fine…” she said, bringing her eyes back to me.
It was easy to read the surprise in her expression when she realized that I was so close. It made me smile inside. Unlike every other girl I had slept with, Lexie didn’t have two personalities, one when guys were in the vicinity and another when she was alone. I appreciated her transparency, and how easy it was to talk to her, even after our rocky beginning. It stood to reason though because every woman before her had been all about sex, release and usually the only talk was dirty sex crap to make her horny. Once again I was reminded about how I had been thrown into an utterly foreign world, where you could sleep with a woman and only sleep, and you could talk about things that didn’t include what made you orgasm.
“Yeah, the rental will help, especially since Trinity is now without a car because of me.”
A reticent expression marred her face and she chewed her lip.
“What do you mean it was because of you?” I piped in since it was my fault that we’d had the accident.
She shook her head quickly.
“Forget it. Speaking of Trinity I have to say I completely dropped the ball there, I didn’t even call her to see how Aiden was…”
Shame darkened her face.
“They’re fine. I saw Aiden get into the ambulance, and he was talking and playing kissy-face with Trinity.”
“Leave it to those two lovebirds to find romance in every situation,” she said with a quiet smile. Her eyes glazed over, as if imagining what it would feel like to have what her best friend had. All I could think was that Lexie deserved that kind of love, the kind where you didn’t notice anyone else because your heart knew that it had found its match. I laughed out loud at my sappy thoughts. I had no idea where all that lovey-dovey shit had come from, only that I didn’t want anymore of it.
“And besides, it was my fault that we got in the accident, though by all accounts they’re going to pin it on the old lady that hit us, since she’d had one too many Manhattans at the Bridge club…” I hadn’t wanted to admit that my freak out over the phone call had been the catalyst for the accident, but somehow I felt like I owed it to Lexie to be honest.
“How could it be your fault?” Lexie said, reaching into the bar-sized fridge, a few feet in front of her. She pulled out two cans of Pepsi, passed one to me then popped the other one open for herself. I opened mine, taking a long drink of the sugary cold. It tasted like the nectar of the gods after all the salty snacks.
“I flipped out after I was talking to Sanford and went ballistic, I smashed the phone on the back of Aiden’s seat. It flew out of my hand and clocked him in the head. He reacted by slamming on the brakes… and you know what happened next.”
“Really?” Lexie’s eyes popped wide, it was a cute look on her.
I gave a one shoulder shrug.
“As you might have noticed after the whole remote control thing, I have anger issues.” I grimaced, not really thrilled that I’d had to admit that about myself.
“Yeah, I guess you do,” Lexie said, nodding.
“You don’t have to agree so quickly,” I said with mock indignation. We both broke into laughter. It felt more than good.
“Anyway we should get some sleep,” Lexie said with a huge yawn. “Seems like we have a lot to do in the morning.”
“It is the morning,” I said, glancing at my watch. It was 3:00 a.m.
“Yeah, well I need to sleep,” she said, downing the last bit of Pepsi.
She stood up and walked up the length of the bed, then tugged down the sheets. I watched her as she started to take her jeans off, but stopped, seeming to remember that I was there. She twirled her finger, indicating that I should turn around. I grudgingly did as I was told. I had always loved to watch girls undress. Even though I had made it my mission to bury any sexual feelings for Lexie, the thoughts still managed to bypass my defenses and show up at the most inopportune moments. I swallowed a few times as I felt myself go hard. As much as I chastised myself and said that she wasn’t really a woman, just a friend, my body couldn’t forget the feel of her naked body against mine, and how wet and ready she had been.
“Damn,” I groaned, willing my erection to dissipate, so I could make it to the other bed without Lexie knowing what a horny asshole I was.
“Are you okay?” Lexie’s voice came from behind me. I swiveled my head her way. She was already tucked into bed, buried in the covers and sheets with just her head visible.
“Just tired.”
“Then go to bed,” she said.
“Yeah I will, you can turn off the lights.”
My eyes caught sight of her t-shirt and jeans, folded neatly on the bedside table. It only made me more excited, knowing she was wearing only her bra and panties under the mounds of covers.
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until you’re in bed before I shut off the lights?” Lexie reasoned.
“I’m sure,” I snapped, sounding much harsher than I had planned.
“Fine, good night.”
She reached for the light switch and the place went inky black. I was never so relieved as I was then. I leapt out of the chair, moving as fast as I could in the direction of the opposite bed. I stripped off all my clothes since there was no way that I could sleep in a Sponge Bob t-shirt, and without underwear the jeans were pushing uncomfortably against my dick. The image of me in the dumb-ass t-shirt was enough to dampen my lusty feelings. The quiet breaths that were coming from the other bed said that Lexie had already crashed. Hearing her so close made me feel impossibly relaxed and reminded me of the way Gabriel sounded at night, when life had been normal.
Sleep found me soon after.
“It’s already noon, are you ever getting up. I’ve asked for a late check out, but this is ridiculous.”
I sat up straight in sleepy confusion. Lexie was standing at the side of the bed, her hands at her hips. She was fully dress in a tomato red tee, black skinny jeans and a matching black hoody. Her makeup was light and gave her a healthy glow. I was amazed at how, even dressed in simple clothes, she looked breathtaking. I shook my head hard.
“Shut it down Ransom,” I said in a low tone that was impossible to hear.
“What?” Lexie asked, cocking her head to the side.
Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, but a few stray locks managed to tumble out and curl around her face and slender neck.
“I’m up,” I groaned, stretching my arms up over my head.
A wave of remembrance washed over me, and my stomach bunched into knots as I wondered how both Dave and Gab were doing. Sanford had told me not to call him using my phone anymore, that didn’t mean I had to obey him. I couldn’t wait until I bought a disposable phone to check on two of the most important people in my life.
“I’ve called around a few places while you were sleeping, and there’s a rental car place about fifteen minutes away from here. I also called Trin, Aiden’s fine, he’s going to be released this morning. They’re going to rent a car too, to go back home and…”
Lexie’s words jolted me back. “What do you mean they’re going to rent a car too, aren’t we all going together?” I said, confused.
Lexie shook her head, her ponytail bounced with the move.
“The cottage isn’t on the way. Besides, the less people that know where we’re going the better.”
I scratched my head. “Boy, you really have this planned out don’t you? Have you ever been a fugitive from the law before?”
I had only just agreed to go to the cottage with her, and she already had it all arranged.
“If we leave within the next hour we can swing by the car rental place then check in on Trin and Aiden, and all things being equal, we should be there some time tonight,” she said, ignoring my comment.
My head spun just trying to keep up with her.
“Okay, I’ll grab a quick shower to wake up, then we can go.”
The whole scene seemed surreal, since Lexie was talking as if she and I had known
each other for much longer than just a couple of days. But if I was being honest, even in that short period of time, we’d been through more than most people who had known each other for a much longer period of time.
Lexie went to settle the bill of which I threw in half. While she was gone I tried to call Dave but got no answer, I didn’t chance on texting him in case it made it look bad for him. I proceeded to text my bank details to Sanford and also asked him about Gab and Dave. He texted that Gabriel was continuing to improve and that there was more than a good chance that Dave was going to be out by the end of the day.
Apparently a few of Dave’s relatives had come to his rescue, and were going to post bail, just as soon as the bail hearing was set. I was relieved that he was getting out, but also depressed that he was having to deal with so much shit because of me. With my conscience slightly eased, I prepared to leave, though I still wasn’t one-hundred percent sure I was doing the right thing.
The next few hours passed in a flurry. Lexie was a driving force who seemed to have planned every detail of the day, something that I normally might not have liked, but that seemed fitting beings she was doing me a solid.
She did all the rental stuff while I milled around outside the place, feeling a bit useless. Lexie seemed to be in her element, as if organizing getaways was in her blood. It made it that much easier for me. We swung by the hospital so Lexie could say goodbye to Aiden and Trinity. I felt horrible seeing her struggle to maneuver their luggage into the hospital since we both agreed that it was better for me to keep a low profile and not go inside.
I had no idea how the conversation between she, Trinity, and Aiden had gone, only that she looked partly pissed off and also a little upset, when she had come back to the rental car. I was sure they hadn’t been exactly thrilled to know that Lexie wasn’t going home with them. I was interested to know how much she had actually told them about me, if anything at all.
“You okay?” I asked.
Lexie gave me a curt nod that said don’t asked me anything. She turned the ignition of the car. Before we left town I picked up a disposable phone. I kept my old one with me just in case, but shut it down so it couldn’t be traced. A trip to the bank machine revealed that Sanford had gone good on his promise and my paltry balance of just a few hundred dollars, had shot up to a couple thousand. I took it all out in case the police ended up freezing my account. I hoped the money would last longer than I needed it to.
The eight hour drive was a stream of gas stations, and long stretches of scenery. Lexie and I talked practically the whole way. She probed me about what it was like to be on tour and was especially interested in every detail about Gabriel that she could glean. It felt weird talking about him so much. I had always steered away from fans and groupies, allowing security to deal with it all. I didn’t know if Lexie’s keen interest was standard, or if she was a card-carrying Gabriel Sanders fan, though she had mentioned that she had never been to any of his shows before.
From Gabriel, the conversation drifted to how she had delayed attending college, and other stuff about what she had planned to take when she finally did go. She fed me mostly superficial information. When the conversation became more personal, she deflected.
“What did you mean when you said that you didn’t sleep with people like me,” Lexie said out of the blue. It threw me enough that I was tongue-tied for a few minutes.
She glanced sideways at me then brought her vision to the highway we were traveling on.
“Did you hear what I said?” she asked. Her knuckles were white bumps as she gripped the steering wheel.
I pulled a hand through my hair, uncomfortable with the new line of questions. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get into the sordid details about my sex life, about who I liked to sleep with, and why. Though having slept with her already made her question a valid one. She deserved an answer, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to answer it without coming off like an asshole, who liked my girls hot and horny, with zero between the ears.
“I meant I don’t usually go out with college girls and…”
“Go out? Don’t you mean have mindless sex, because I sure as hell know what happened between us bypassed every bit of what comes before sex,” Lexie said. There was tension in her jaw that I hadn’t seen before.
It felt strange to be analyzing what had happened between us. I understood that I had probably worded it wrong, but Lexie seemed to need too much information. All the girls I had been with before had been well satisfied. They never asked me why I wanted them or even who I was, because we both got exactly what we wanted. But I had never slept with a virgin before either, maybe when it was your first time you looked at things differently.
“I know it was your first time, and I’m sorry about that. If I had known I never would have…”
“Stop right there,” Lexie said, throwing her hand up. “Are you saying that you would have stopped if you had known?”
I nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m not into taking things that are…” I paused, thinking about the words I wanted to use without coming off as being a pussy, though I knew whatever I said would come off as being all sensitive and shit. With no choice but to say what I had to, I jumped off the cliff.
“There’s something beautiful and untouched about a woman who hasn’t been with a man before, like they’re still innocent, you know. It’s like the way you feel when you still believe in Santa and all that magic stuff. I figure when a woman loses it, it should be special and make them feel like it was worthwhile waiting for the perfect guy, someone they really cared about, maybe even someone they loved.”
I shook my head, knowing that I’d sounded as sappy as I had expected, maybe even worse. But as crushed as my ego might have been, I couldn’t do it to Lexie. I wouldn’t allow her to believe for one minute that I didn’t think that taking her virginity was something I took lightly.
“Yeah well, that was never going to happen for me. It happened just like it should have,” she said. There was bitterness in her tone, and it made me feel like what I had said had pissed her off instead of what I had planned.
“So don’t feel bad. You did me a favor, there’s way too much build up about it being your first time and…”
She shrugged like it didn’t matter. Her broken expression said she hadn’t believed a word she had said.
I touched her shoulder. “No matter what happened, the fact that I was an asshole to you before I left the hotel room is unforgivable. I was just shocked is all. I mean I thought I was having a hot dream and when you told me that you’d never been with another guy, well…”
I broke off again not sure what else I could say to fix things between us. Lexie stared at me. Our eyes locked for a moment, long enough for me to see that she was lying when she had said that she didn’t care, she did. Her eyes widened as if she was just beginning to understand something.
“A dream? What’s that supposed to mean?” Her gaze had returned to the road ahead.
I drew in a breath and exhaled forcefully. “I was dreaming of a blonde and…” I shook my head. Anything I told her about fucking a girl in my dreams would come out all wrong, even thinking it sounded cheap, and nothing like Lexie. There was a small piece of me that wanted to have another chance with her. To know that it was her that I was with, not an illusion conjured in my dreams.
“So you’re like one of those sexsomniacs?” she said with a stiff smile.
“A what?”
“A person who has sex in their sleep and never knows they did,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the road.
I shook my head. “No way. I was there, I felt it all. What the hell’s the point if you can’t remember how fucking awesome it felt…” I said, before I could gauge what I was saying.
“Awesome,” she repeated in a low voice. The next smile that passed over her face was a lot more genuine and maybe even a little proud. I looked out the side window, grinning.
“It’s a seasonal town, about three-qu
arters of the place shuts down in the fall and reopens in the spring,” Lexie said a few minutes later, bringing an end to our previous conversation. I was glad she had moved on.
I glanced at the built-in clock on the dashboard. It was edging close to 10:00 p.m. Lexie exited onto a ramp with a sign that said Blue Cove. We had shared the driving for the most part, but Lexie had taken the wheel for the final leg of the journey since she knew exactly where she was going. The further in we drove the more desolate the place seemed, as if we were traveling into the wilderness. I guessed if a person needed to disappear this was the best place to do it.
“Does anyone stick around?” I asked.
I couldn’t help but feel creeped out by the absolute quiet and inky darkness that was only occasionally broken by street lights, separated by half-mile lengths of black.
“Not many,” Lexie acknowledged. “That’s why it’s the perfect place to hide out.”
Even though I knew where we were going, hearing her say that we were hiding out, made my stomach turn. It brought all the shit that I was trying to forget back to my mind.
“Yeah, okay,” I said.
We were both quiet for the rest of the drive as Lexie tried to find her way in the dark. In just under twenty minutes we had pulled onto a dirt road filled with potholes that jostled us like puppets, as we drove over it. Thick forest lined the track. The further in we went the more closed off I felt. I was relieved when the road finally opened into a wider area. The moon was full and shone white light on the cluster of twenty or so cottages that lay in front of us.
“This is it,” Lexie said.
I nodded without comment. After a full day of driving and the prickly conversation we’d had a half hour before, I was thankful that it was over. I hadn’t remembered ever being so exhausted after a long drive. I had never been very far away from Gabriel other than when I went clubbing, so being seven or eight hours away from him felt all wrong, especially with him hospitalized. I couldn’t wait to have a shower, then sleep. Beyond that was a mystery, but I allowed myself the luxury of shelving all my worries for the night. It was either that or go crazy.
Ransom (Holding Ransom # 1) Page 26