1,478Chapter Twenty
The drive to the school was awkward and tense for Megan. She swore she could feel her stomach alternately tying itself into knots and then dancing as if filled with butterflies. She was so nervous that she could barely create responses to Corbin's conversation. It was a good thing that he didn't seem to expect her to speak back to him.
"I was always better at soccer than David. When we were kids, we used to compete against each other, and I beat him every time." Megan turned away from him to look out the window. The snow was coming down in blankets.
"Is it really safe to be out in this?" she asked, gesturing to the white around them.
"Oh it's perfectly safe. Don't worry your pretty head about getting to the school, Corbin's right here." He reached over and squeezed her hand.
"I'm not worried about getting to the school, I'm worried about when we leave it." The snow was drifting down so thickly that she couldn't see twenty feet in front of them. "Don't you think the visibility is bad enough that we should go back?"
"I thought you wanted to see the Music Room Passage with me?" His hand still held hers in its grip. She closed her eyes, trying to remember why she had wanted to go with Corbin. A taste of casual dating, she reminded herself.
"We don't have to go to the school," she suddenly offered. "We could just stop here." Where the boldness came from, she wasn't sure. Corbin's gaze snagged hers as he pulled over to the side of the road.
"No wonder David is so attracted to you," he murmured, unbuckling his seatbelt. "You're not only sexy, but demanding." He captured her head with one hand and held her still.
Megan felt her heart thud to a stop and begin again with a rapid pace. He was going to kiss her, and he was doing it because she had demanded it. His thumb traced gently over her lower lip as her eyes darted from his to his lips. He was very well formed, from his high forehead to his straight jaw covered in a dusting of five o'clock shadow. The brandy eyes meeting hers melted with desire. She allowed her eyes to drift closed as his lips touched hers.
The kiss was hesitant at first. Then as if he sensed she wasn't going to retreat, he pressed harder and slid his tongue along her lower lip. As far as kisses went, it was pretty good in her book, but she waited for the melting of her limbs, for the heat to spread across her body and envelop her. It didn't come.
"I could take you right here," he murmured against her lips. She flinched away from him.
"Corbin," she whispered, pushing him away with her palms. "I don't think this is working." She looked into his dark eyes and heard him sigh.
"I don't think it was ever going to work," he replied, falling back into his chair.
"Then why drag me out into the snow?" She turned to gaze at this man who she knew was related to her nemesis. He looked pained.
"My sister begged me to lure you away from David." He held up his hands in supplication when she glared at him. "Granted I don't know the situation, and you came with me easily enough."
There was the crux of the problem. She had chosen to go with him. He hadn't needed to coerce her, or beg her. She had leapt at the thought of proving to David that she could be as unattached as him.
"David doesn't talk about his mother normally, except to explain how domineering she is." Megan closed her eyes, trying to figure out how to explain this without revealing all. Corbin was, after all, an Adams. "He feels that he was pushed into a relationship with your sister, a relationship he eventually didn't want. He feels somewhat the same with me."
"He brought you hundreds of miles to meet his family, which speaks of a certain level of happiness to me," Corbin fiddled with his seatbelt.
"He brought me as a distraction for his mother. I am everything that she wants for him, but she doesn't see it because she wants Amanda." Megan buckled her seatbelt when Corbin restarted the car.
"And what do you want?" The question caught her off-guard. She let it tumble through her mind and then decided to just admit the truth.
"I want him to want me. I want him to want me like I want him. And I want him, forever, not just for a few months of bliss. The trouble is that he doesn't think he can do long term. He thinks he's not cut out for it."
"So if you want him, what are you doing with me?" Corbin turned the car back onto the street. Megan watched the snow drift down.
"I thought it would make a point to him if he saw me with someone else." She shrugged. "I don't think it worked."
"No, maybe not, but we could make it work." Megan whipped her head to look at him.
"Why should you want to help me? You're Amanda's brother."
"Believe it or not, but I don't always support the machinations of my little sister. She's trying to get him back, for some reason. He doesn't really want her, and he will never treat her right because of that. She can't see it." His mouth tilted up in a sad smile. "So here is what I have in mind, my dear."
David wished that Megan would come back. He watched the snow come down outside the window and hoped that she wouldn't be stuck in the car with Corbin. God only knew what game that player would take part in with her. She was much more innocent than she assumed, and the last thing he wanted to see was her getting hurt. Besides, she was his to hurt, if anyone had to crush her heart.
"Are you even paying attention to me, because I am being amazing over here?" Amanda asked sweetly. David turned his head and met her blue eyes. She should have his full attention. She was here, and beautiful, and willing. He kicked up the corners of his mouth in a grin and settled against the wall.
"Well, I'm paying attention to parts of you," he drawled, reaching forward to take the pool stick from her slack hands. She pushed the stick away from him and it clattered to the floor. Her eyes had darkened to deep sapphire.
"Which parts?" Her hands dragged across his chest to his shoulders and she thrust him against the wall. "This part?" she nipped his lower lip and then soothed it with a swipe of her tongue. "This part?" her hand raised his to the top of her unbuttoned shirt and slid his fingers beneath the material. "Because I've been watching this part," she cupped him and rubbed him vigorously. The hand under her shirt slipped to the buttons.
"I've been watching all of that," he managed to say as her hand slipped up to the waistband of his jeans.
"Which part did you like best?" she murmured against his cheek.
"All of them," he groaned, pushing her shirt off her shoulders. He leaned down to trace her neck with his lips. She moaned deep in her throat.
The sound of a car door slamming was barely registered in his mind. The small scream that followed caught him off guard. He pulled away from Amanda and glanced toward the window.
"What the hell?" He strode to the window and looked down at the driveway. Corbin's car was parked in the fresh snow. Corbin was rushing around the side of the car to Megan, who was on the ground. She grasped her ankle, and her face was screwed up with pain. David turned and bolted from the room.
He was on the stairs when Corbin came in, cradling an injured Megan in his arms. She was turned into his chest and her shoulders trembled. David jumped the last few steps and skidded to a halt at her side.
"What happened? How did you fall?" She turned to look at him and he was arrested for a moment by the sheer beauty of her. Snow dappled her hair, and drops of water glistened on her eyelashes. She bit her lip and glanced up at Corbin.
"I slipped when I got out of the car," she said simply. "You can put me down now, Corbin." Her smile was aimed in the wrong direction, at the wrong man.
"Yes, Corbin, put her down." David reached out to steady her as Corbin gently set her on her feet. Megan gasped and fell forward, gripping David's upper arms. "Are you alright?" he asked anxiously.
"No, I don't think so." She whimpered softly and stumbled closer to him. "It's my ankle, I think I twisted it." She gingerly attempted to step on the offending limb and winced. "I don't think I can walk on it." Without hesitation, David swung her into his arms and made for the kitchen.
"I told you that you needed better shoes," he grumbled, backing through the swinging door.
"There's nothing wrong with my shoes!" He set her on the island in the center of the kitchen and moved to her foot. She was surprised with how gentle his hands were as he removed her boot and sock.
"It doesn't look too bad, perhaps sprained, but not broken. Let's put an ice pack on it, and then get it wrapped up." He moved to the freezer and began to rummage through it, giving Megan time to look him over.
He didn't appear to have been ravished, but that meant little. He could have replaced his clothes before she arrived. His concern was not unexpected, and didn't proclaim anything special. He was her best friend, and as such he had to take care of her when she was in need. He was agitated, and frustrated, but she didn't know the cause. Was it due to her injury, or her stopping his time with Amanda?
"Well, my parents' house is officially terrible. There isn't an ice pack to be found."
"Maybe I'll be ok without it," she suggested, starting to move her legs off the island.
"Don't move and inch! Not a centimeter Megan Murray!" David came over holding a bag of frozen vegetables.
"You don't have an ice pack, and yet you have frozen veggies?"
"It's not my house," he shrugged. "Now don't move, I'm going to send out Adams friends on their way. I want you to keep that right there." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and left the room. Megan had only a few seconds to process before Corbin slipped into the kitchen.
"That was a smashing success," he commented, filling a glass from the cabinet with water from the refrigerator.
"I would say so," she beamed.
"Although, I did tell you that you should fake hurting yourself, not actually do it." He lifted the bag of frozen green beans up and prodded her ankle. She flinched.
"It was completely accidental," she confessed. "I was trying to fall down as if I had slipped and suddenly I was slipping."
"Well, either way, good luck." Corbin lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. "If that buffoon doesn't realize the prize he has, look me up and I will." He grinned and walked out.
We don't hate Corbin as much anymore, huh!
I do have to apologize for my long absence. I won't make any promises about the next chapter, but this one was particularly hard for me to write, so hopefully it will be faster from here on out!
Thanks to everyone for reading! I really appreciate it!