“Here handsome, I got you a drink,” she says, with her face tilted all the way back so she can look me in the eyes. She smiles and I can see that she’s already wasted. I grab the drink and without looking to see what it is, I put the cup to my lips and swallow the contents inside. Shit, this is terrible. It’s a mixture of liquor that someone tried to disguise with Coke, but it’s still f**king awful. With my mouth closed, I cough down the burn. This crap is poison, but the spacey, warm feeling that follows entices me to grab another. And another.

Soon after, I grab the blonde’s hand and drag her out to the bonfire near the lake. Hunter has his truck parked down by the dock with all of his doors open and the music blasting. She leads me into the middle of the crowd of dancing couples and I spin her around so her back is against my chest.

I’m impressed by how fast the alcohol reaches my system, and I guess this would be the one time in my life when I’m considered a lightweight. Mentally, I’m scanning through my textbooks, trying to determine my blood alcohol concentration level, but it’s all a jumble. All I know is that I want to go one way, but my body starts shifting another. This blonde chick is grinding against me and it feels f**king great. Right before I grab her to spin her around, I send out a silent ‘thank you’ for the fact that Jax left and Cole is out for the night.

She turns on her boot heel and looks up into my eyes. I cup her face haphazardly and can practically taste her arousal on my tongue already. She wants me. She continues dancing in front of my h*ps with her hands on my chest, while I scan the area for a place we can hide together. This is going to be quick.

Looking over Blondie’s shoulder, I suddenly catch the stare of big, brown eyes. I try to make myself focus on anything but those long, tan legs under her short, red sundress. It’s too late though. She notices that I’ve spotted her, and she reaches out to snatch a beer from some guy’s hand. Without removing eye contact, she places the glass bottle against the sides of her face, as if she’s trying to cool off from being overheated. She can’t turn away and neither can I. We both want each other. We always have, and I just might be drunk enough to finally let myself indulge.

I finally notice that the guy next to her is the ripped-up dude she was walking through town with earlier today. When he clutches her chin in one hand, turns her to face him, and shakes his head while mouthing the word ‘no’ at her, I start shoving my way through the dancing bodies. If she wants me, even if it’s only for tonight, then he’s going to f**king step aside.

I continue walking until I’m standing with my toes touching hers. I hope she doesn’t have any personal boundaries because I don’t plan on recognizing them tonight. I can see the cold condensation on the beer bottle that she now has smashed against her chest. She rolls it across, leaving a wet trail in its wake. I can’t stop myself from reaching out and touching the chilled skin. When my fingertips graze across the area underneath her collarbone, her lungs swiftly fill with air.

Her boyfriend smoothly pushes me aside to stand directly in front of her. My body is intoxicated enough to stumble away, otherwise that shouldn’t have been so easy for him. He’s a shitty-ass boyfriend, if you ask me. I damn sure wouldn’t allow some guy to put his hands on her if she were mine.

“Doll, this is not a good idea,” he says to her in a warning tone.

“Lane, I’m a big girl,” she replies back to him kindly.

I’m already done with this little get-together of theirs. Thankfully, Lane shrugs and steps away. I’m finally looking down at her beautiful face again. She’s just as stunning as she was three years ago on the sidewalk outside of the bookstore. Her hair is a little longer and I’ve never seen her dressed up all sexy, but she’s still my same girl from that day. Except she never was my girl… don’t forget that, Jace.

She cocks her head and studies me with curiosity. She’s thinking hard about something and looks so damn cute doing it.

“Why are you drinking?” she questions. I start to wonder how drunk I actually am if she can tell even though I’m no longer holding a cup.

I smirk at her query and reply, “I thought I’d try something new tonight.” She catches my double entendre and I love watching her surprised mouth open and shut. I know another way I would love to see those lips move like that. She starts to grimace, but before I can ask what’s bothering her, I feel warm hands come up from behind and glide across my abs. Shit, the blonde.

“Come on, sweetheart. Trust me, you don’t want in the middle of that crazy,” Lane says, while grabbing Blondie’s hand. When she gets a good look at him, her eyes light up and she follows after him like a damn cat in heat. Fuck, I don’t know whether to fist bump him for being the best damn wingman ever, or slug him for being the shittiest boyfriend known to mankind.

I stalk forward, causing Audrey to reverse slowly. After fifteen steps or so, she backs into a large tree trunk. My hands hit the tree on either side of her face.

“It’s not fair that every time I see you, you look even more delicious than the last,” I whisper into her neck.

“I don’t think you realize what you’re doing right now.” She shivers under my lips.

“Why did things have to get so screwed up?” I ask, dragging my lips across hers. “Do you think we would be together if you hadn’t run into Jax?” I know I’ll regret this tomorrow, but I really don’t care right now.

“I can’t let myself think about things like that, Jace.” Her words are said like a prayer.

“Do you still think about me?” I whisper, while running a finger up the inside of her bare leg.

I feel her tremble before she admits, “Every single day.”

“Well, at least I’m not alone.”

My lips graze across her soft, plump ones. Her eyelashes flutter and she relaxes into me with closed eyes. I run my tongue across her bottom lip lazily before giving the same treatment to the top one. Her breath hitches when I lean back a fraction, and then ever so slowly I move in. I want to drag this out. I never got my moment with her so tonight I want to take my time.

Our lips finally touch and she moans with pleasure. My fingers drag upwards from the back of her neck into her loose curls and I pull her in tighter. Her hands brace themselves on my chest. Gradually, the slow, lazy kiss becomes heated and needy.

When her hands glide down and skim across my waist, I pull back instantly. Grabbing her hand, I quickly start dragging her off toward the driveway. We both need to get out of here before any other thoughts enter my head. When we finally reach Jax’s black ‘67 Camaro, I realize she’s tugging on my hand.

“Jace, where are we going?”

“I need you without an audience.” I try to unlock the passenger door for her, but I can’t seem to get this tiny ass key into an even smaller lock. “Fuck! I can’t work this thing.”

She reaches out and wraps her little hand around mine, taking the key from me. “You’re drunk.”

With what I hope is a smug grin, I reply, “Yup, and you are beautiful.” I emphasize this statement with a tap on the tip of her f**king adorable nose, while catching a whiff of something that smells like coconut.

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like that you’re beautiful? Well guess what babe? I don’t like it either.”

“No, I don’t like you when you’re drunk.”

“I’ll never do it again.” I lean down to kiss her perfect lips. Emotions that I can’t comprehend are buzzing through me, so I reach out and squeeze her upper arm three short times.

She pulls back, but I stay there with my lips puckered out, hoping she’ll return. “Promise?”

“I cross my heart, baby. I just wanted to forget about seeing you with your boyfriend. Shit… I didn’t mean to say that part out loud.” I try to lean back down to kiss her again, but she swiftly unlocks the door and pushes me inside. When she comes around to the driver’s seat and hops in, I realize she’s about to f**king try and drive this car. “Whoa… whoa… Audrey, only three people have ever driven this before. My dad, me, and Jax.”

“Guess there’s about to be four.” She smiles confidently and lifts her hand to show me four fingers, although I’m seeing about twelve at the moment. I hear her push in the clutch to start the engine. Damn, every time I hear this baby start up, I’m turned on. Add Audrey and I’m seconds away from coming in my pants. I have to have her and it needs to be soon.

She backs out of the drive, and when she shifts into first gear, I can tell that she feels the power under the hood. She may not understand what it means, but that little smirk tells me she likes controlling it.

At this point, I’m completely turned toward her, staring as she shifts into second. “Stop making that face,” I say to her, while groaning and readjusting myself.

Her adorable nose scrunches up in confusion. “What face?”

Third gear and I’m having a hard time staying in my seat. I can’t distract her from driving, but I’m dying to touch her. In the moonlight and soft glow of the dashboard lights, her skin looks like porcelain.

“The face with that little smile that says you’re enjoying my car way too f**king much.” Technically it’s not my car, but I’ve put enough sweat and blood into this beast to call her mine. Just then, she turns down a familiar drive. “You’re taking me home?”

“Yeah, you’re drunk, remember? You need to go sleep it off.” There’s no way in hell I’m going to sleep right now. I direct her to pull over behind some trees. “No, Jace, I remember there being huge bushes over there.” She does it anyway, and just then I hear a loud, scratching sound. She instantly stops, pushes in the e-brake, and turns off the ignition. “Damn it, Jace! See!?”

I should be angry but I’m not. Hearing that little dirty word come out of her pretty little mouth makes me want to pull her into the backseat. So after I unclick her seatbelt, that’s exactly what I do.

“You’ll be pissed about that in the morning,” she says. I position her underneath me on the black leather seat, and the way she’s lying over the hump caused by the driveshaft makes her arch up into me. She’s gorgeous, so damn gorgeous.

“I’ll be more pissed if I didn’t take advantage of this situation.”

“What exactly is this situation?” she asks breathlessly.

“Your lips needing mine,” I respond and press my mouth to hers before she can question my words.

I start slow, wanting to test the waters and needing to know if I still feel that spark that I’ve been craving for the past three years. The second her fingers thread through my hair, I feel it. That undeniable charge that only Audrey has been able to cause.

It’s like a trigger has gone off and I can’t slow down. I pull her shirt up over her head and she’s already got her hands on the hem of mine. I try to help her out by pulling it over the back of my head, but I’m so wasted that it gets stuck. Her patience wears out so she jerks it all the way off and tosses it aside.

My hands are everywhere and I still can’t touch enough of her skin. Her hands are like a fire that I can feel through my jeans as she’s unbuttoning them. This is happening. This is finally f**king happening and I can’t get all this damn fabric between us away any faster.

“Jace…” she moans, and my mouth is instantly back on hers. I plunge my tongue inside and can’t hold in my own groan. I hate that she had to do most of the work because of my fumbling fingers, but I love that there is finally nothing between us. I dip my fingers inside of her and against all odds, I’m even more turned on to find that she’s so ready. I can’t wait to feel all of her. As I stroke in and out, I remember to grab a condom from inside of my wallet. Before I can botch it up, she grabs it from me impatiently and…hot damn, her little hands are rolling it on me. This could get embarrassing if I don’t take back control.

“Put your hands above your head, babe,” I say in a raspy voice. She immediately complies without question. “Grab the seatbelt.”

With her big, brown eyes looking up at me, I reach out and loosely wrap the nylon strap twice around each of her petite wrists. “You okay?” I ask, hoping beyond hope that she’s fine with this. Her body language says that she loves it, but I need her confirmation. “You realize that I would never hurt you, right?”

I suddenly recall that I uttered a similar phrase to her the day we first met, and I groan when I see the gleam in her eye, telling me that she remembers too. “Jace, I trust you.”

Without missing a beat, I slide into her and pause, needing this moment to grasp a hold of my sanity. Having her body underneath mine is so overwhelming that I can’t seem to remember to breathe. She whimpers below me and tries to move against me. Ah… my girl needs a release already. I pull her legs up over my shoulders, while trying to keep my knee from slipping off the edge. With one leg bent up on the leather seat and the other foot braced on the floorboard, I finally gain the correct leverage.

Looking down, I’m captivated by the space where we’re connected. Holy Shit. I can’t believe how good she feels and how good we look together.

“Gorgeous… you’re f**king gorgeous, Audrey,” I ground out like a prayer.

“Jace, please…” she begs. Before I start moving, I lean down to kiss her again. I can’t stop kissing her.

“How are your hands, babe?”

“Jace, please… just please…” she says, almost incoherently. I can’t wait any longer either so I begin to quickly thrust in and out. The backseat of the Camaro provides very little room for my six-foot frame to navigate her body, but I learn to work with what I’ve got. Because what I’ve got under me right now is incredible.