Chapter 32: : Chapter 32

“Shotgun!” Serenity yells over her shoulder as she runs past Ezra and places her hands on the front passenger door handle of my car, her eyes brimming with victory. Fucking adorable.

“You don’t need the front seat,” Ezra tells her, lifting her up and moving her out of the way. “Your legs aren’t long enough to need the space.”

She pushes him and switches places with him. “And we both know you’re just going to sleep through most of the drive, so you may as well sit in the back.”

Serenity looks at me for support, but I just shake my head and get behind the wheel of the new Windsor Motors car Zane gave me. He told me he gifted it to me so I could test it for his brother, but I know him well enough to realize he was just looking for an excuse to give me something he wanted me to have.

“Ezra!” I hear Serenity shout, but I know better than to get involved in sibling fights, so I simply start the car and turn on the seat heating before selecting a playlist. Sure enough, three minutes later, the doors open, and Serenity gets in next to me, while Ezra takes the back seat.

“I don’t know why you even bother,” I tell Ezra. “You have never, in your entire life, not given in to your sister.”

He throws me an irritated look and yanks on the seat belt, putting it on angrily. Meanwhile, Serenity is beaming. “Oooh, seat heaters,” she says, sighing happily.

My heart skips a beat at the sight of her smile, and I look away as I back out of my parking spot.

I try my hardest not to sneak looks at Serenity as I get on the highway, but I can’t help myself. I’ve barely seen her since Ezra has been home all week, and I’ve missed her.

“I can’t believe him,” Serenity whispers, looking over her shoulder when Ezra begins to snore lightly not even thirty minutes into our journey to their parents’ house. “I knew he was going to fall asleep straightaway.”

I chuckle, amused by the level of her outrage when they’ve had this exact argument at least a hundred times. “You got the front seat, like you wanted,” I remind her.

She huffs and reaches for my phone. “Can I change the music?”

I nod, only to hesitate when she points my phone my way. “The code is 0105.” Her expression falls when she recognizes Tyra’s birthday, and a new kind of guilt hits me. “I need to change it,” I murmur, my stomach turning when she looks away.

“No,” she says, her voice soft. “It’s perfect. I never want her to be forgotten, Arch. I never wanted to take her place, and I know I never could. It’s why we work so well together, right? Because I respect the fact that your heart will always be hers. You’re just mine for a moment.”

I tighten my grip on the steering wheel, wishing I could refute her words without starting an argument. I want more than either of us signed up for, and hell, I’m not sure if that’s even an option.

“Let me know if you want me to take over,” she tells me eventually, her voice soft and sweet. “I can drive if you’d like.”

I smile at her and shake my head. “And make you give up your hard-earned passenger princess privileges? I wouldn’t dare.”

She chuckles, her head falling back just slightly, and fuck if it isn’t a gorgeous sight. “I appreciate that more than you realize.”

“Then show me your appreciation,” I murmur, my tone flirtatious. Fuck it. If she’ll only give me a few moments, I’ll make them last.

Her eyes widen, and she looks over her shoulder at Ezra, who’s still snoring. “Show you how?”

I reach for her and entwine our fingers before lifting our joined hands to my lips to kiss her knuckles. “I’m sure you can come up with something. We’ll be at your parents’ house all weekend. We’ll find some time to sneak away.”

“Archer,” she says, her tone admonishing.

I smirk and place our joined hands in my lap. It’s odd, because I’ve never enjoyed holding hands with anyone, but I like touching Serenity in any way I can. “Don’t pretend you don’t want to.”

She throws me a shy look and pulls her hand out of mine to mess with my phone, skipping through songs endlessly, unable to make up her mind. If Ezra were awake, he’d already have snapped at her. He hates it when she does that, but personally I couldn’t care less. Eventually, she settles on an album she likes, and I grin when she lip-syncs one song after another, making sure not to wake Ezra.

“You never actually told me how your ice cream date with Theo went,” I say as I take the exit that leads to her hometown, the journey having flown by thanks to the mostly empty roads. We drive past The Ballerina, but this time, I see it in a new light. It’s a gorgeous work of art and a true testament to The Muse’s skills, but it doesn’t evoke the same emotions it used to.

She throws me a glare. “It wasn’t a date, and you know it.”

“Sure,” I murmur, unable to keep from being petty.

“If you must know, we didn’t even get any ice cream. Every store we went to was closed, so we just ended up walking around for a bit before heading home.”

I smirk, entirely too fucking pleased with myself for buying every single ice cream parlor in a five-mile radius so I could close them all for the day and shut that tradition of theirs down. It’s clear having ice cream with him was going to mess with her emotions, and it wasn’t going to happen on my watch. “Should’ve come home to me,” I murmur. “I’d have given you all the ice cream you could’ve possibly wanted.”

“I thought about it,” she whispers, her gaze heated.

“Then why didn’t you come over? I was waiting for you.”

She glances at Ezra again. “You know why.”

I grumble in dissatisfaction, and she sighs as she places her hand on my thigh. My cock hardens instantly, and her breath hitches when she notices. “Do you have any idea how many times I looked at that photo you sent me?” she whispers.

My gaze cuts to hers, and my mind instantly runs wild with thoughts of her in her bed, her phone in her hand. “Yeah?” I murmur, straightening as I refocus on the road, even as her hand begins to wander.

“Yeah,” she says, her index finger caressing my cock over my slacks. “I missed you, Archer. Missed the way you kiss me, the way you refuse to let me go at night, and the way you hold me in your sleep.”

I pause at the stoplight and turn to look at her, drinking her in. I know I shouldn’t, not with Ezra sitting in the back seat, but fuck, I can’t help myself.

Her gaze darkens when I lean in and place my index finger underneath her chin before leaning in to steal a kiss. She makes the softest, sexiest sound in the back of her throat, and it takes all of me to pull away.

“I want you in my bed tonight,” I whisper, my heart racing as I follow the familiar road to her house. “I’m losing my mind, Serenity. I’m fucking desperate for you.”

She nods as I pull up in front of her house, her breathing erratic. “I’ll try,” she promises.

We both startle when Ezra yawns just as I’ve parked the car, and she shoots me a panicked look. I turn to look at Ezra, and he looks back at me, seemingly disoriented. “We’re here?”

My shoulders sag in relief, and I nod as I get out of the car, my heart beating wildly. Serenity is worth it, but fuck, I’m not made for sneaking around.